Yeah, I should have added it to the poll. Oversight on my part. Oh well, that’s what the ‘write-in’ vote is for.
Very underrated book among the King oeuvre as well, I think. Creepy as hell.
A couple early observations: ‘Shawshank’ and ‘Stand By Me’ are in the lead, as expected, but with ‘Misery’ rounding the corner in an unexpectedly strong dark horse 3rd place spot. I had expected ‘The Shining (1980 Movie)’ to easily take 3rd place, but I’m a little gratified to see it’s down to 5th place. I wouldn’t mind seeing ‘Carrie’ pull ahead of ‘Shining’, though. As I’ve mentioned before, I hated ‘The Shining’ when it first came out because of all the liberties Kubrick took with the source material. And, though I’ve come to appreciate the Kubrick version, somewhat, as its own Kubrickian thing, I still don’t think it should rate highly as a King adaptation. Dare I say, even, that sometimes I think Kubrick, in general, is a wee tad bit overrated?
Though it’s a little early to do so, it’s a slow day at work, so I put together the list of write-in candidates so far:
- The Dead Zone (1983 Movie): 3 votes
- Needful Things (1993 Movie): 2 votes
- Salem’s Lot (1979 Miniseries): 1 vote
- Maximum Overdrive (1986 Movie): 1 vote
- The Dark Tower (2017 Movie): 1 vote
- Doctor Sleep (2019 Movie): 1 vote
- The Outsider (2020 Miniseries): 1 vote
- The Life of Chuck (2024 Movie): 1 vote
I love the Maximum Overdrive movie! But I never read the book so I can’t compare.
My controversial opinion is that the movie Delores Claiborne is vastly superior to the book. I saw the movie first so maybe it’s not a fair contest. But I loved the movie and found the book flat and disappointing.
Adding another “Doctor Sleep” write-in vote.
What bothered me the most was the hedge maze instead of topiary animals attacking. I think they could have done a cool job of that, even with 1980 technology.
I did not hit “write in” because reading is a skill that I sometimes ignore. I actually like Maximum Overdrive, and also would have written in Storm of the Century
Not an adaptation, actually; it was written as an original miniseries by King.
Interesting(?) bit o’ trivia, though: it stars Tiim Daly, half of the two co-leads of the show ‘Wings’. Since the other Wings co-lead, Stever Webber, was in the miniseries adaptation of ‘The Shining’, both Wings leads have starred in Stephen King miniseries. When’s Tony Shalhoub going to get a crack at a King joint?
Oh, wait…
Tony Shalhoub co-starred in the 2007 psychological horror film 1408, which is based on Stephen King’s 1999 short story. He played Sam Farrell, the literary agent of the main character, cynical paranormal debunker Mike Enslin (played by John Cusack).
Good short story and underrated movie, IMO.
Adam Savage made a replica of the maze from the movie that became part of the traveling Kubrick exhibition.
A few random comments. For some inexplicable reason, Stand By Me is one of the few highly rated movies that I haven’t seen, a situation that I intend to remedy very soon.
I note that The Shawshank Redemption is currently at the top of the list, and rightfully so. I didn’t vote for it and have no desire to see it again just because it’s so damn depressing. I suppose the same can be said for The Green Mile – maybe even more so – but it has intriguing elements of the supernatural.
I’m surprised there isn’t more love for The Shining. The novel was a Stephen King masterpiece – one of his best – and the Stanley Kubrick film was a masterpiece in itself.
Kubrick chose to film it in a clunky 4:3 aspect ratio so it would look good on the televison sets of the time, which is how it was first released to DVD. In theaters, it was cropped to 16:9 widescreen with the “open matte” concept. It was years before it was cropped to widescreen for DVD and Blu-ray release. Kubrick was apparently careful not to let any important details get lost in the cropping.
I’m not sure I’d say I like Maximum Overdrive but I appreciate it for what it is.
I’m pretty sure Alan Moore wrote a very similar short story in his Future Shocks series but I couldn’t say whose came first.
I didn’t vote for The Shining at all. It’s a great book, and a great movie. However, they don’t have a lot in common with each other.
It’s currently on HBO Max, if you happen to have a subscription.
I’m one of the votes for the Kubrick “The Shining.” Despite lack of fidelity to the novel, it is, in my view, an actual work of art. From the weirdness of the “impossible architecture” to the flawless casting, it has not one dull second.
But I have seen all the others in the poll and do think very highly of them. I’m honestly not sure what my second-ranked choice would be.
I can understand that perspective, but I really think it takes away from the books in the sense that it has detracted from the books’ potential audience. As just a movie, it was boring and formulaic. As an adaption, it was unfaithful and tone deaf.
I will agree that fans want the impossible. Flannigan is working on putting something together with Amazon, but even with an unlimited budget I don’t know if it’ll work.
It was just a short story called “Trucks” (1973) in a collection called Night Shift. It was the first Stephen King book I ever read.
Another one of my favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned is Hearts in Atlantis.
Mr. Meredes isn’t mentioned, either. It was a decent series but easy to leave off, considering the competition. The same is true of Pet Sematary.
Perhaps movies and tv series should be separated. I only voted for movies in the poll. Looking at tv shows. I’d probably put Mr. Mercedes and 11.22.63 at the top.
I only picked three, Carrie, Shawshank Redemption, and Stand by Me. I only chose those which I had read the original story and watched the movie. I loved the movie The Shining, but I never read the book. As I understand it, the movie deviates very far from what Stephen wrote.
Also, I loved The Green Mile, the movie. I never read the book.
And conversely, I read The Long Walk, but never saw the movie.
Add another write-in vote for Life of Chuck. It was surprisingly good.
I rather enjoyed that show. Mostly because of Brendan Gleeson.
That counts as my other, after the big 2.
I was really fond of 1408 with John Cusack.
(Incidentally my wife was an extra in The Mist, but even with that taken into consideration the ending absolutely ruined it, also the CG is like sharknado bad.)