Thursday, July 17, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks: Favorite Stephen King Adaptations


Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves is hosting the Thursday Movie Picks. It's a cool, blogathon-esque activity which calls for bloggers to submit three picks each Thursday based on the theme she has chosen. She's got some great ones lined up. You can read all about it, here.

This week's theme is "Movies based on a Stephen King book/short story." There are lots to choose from, and a few different ways I could approach this, but I settled on going with my three favorite such movies. Without further adieu, here they are...


Misery
Misery is the first King novel that I read before seeing the movie. Needless to say, I was apprehensive about watching it. I figured they would butcher it. Well, other than a few small changes (to make it less gory, believe it or not), it survived intact. Kathy Bates gives a jaw-dropping performance and provides us with one of the best movie villains of all time. What makes this my favorite of all the horror movies adapted from King's work is that you can feel the writer's own paranoia bleeding through. Where most of his horror stuff seems to come from a twisted imagination, Misery seems to be the manifestation of his own worst fears. Why wouldn't he be afraid of a crazed fan holding him hostage, he's only the most recognizable American fiction writer of all-time.


The Shawshank Redemption
This is just an amazing piece of story-telling. There is never an unsure step taken and each one draws you a little deeper into the lives of the men on the screen. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman deliver masterful performances and help create the greatest bromance of all time. Now, it's not the best movie ever made like the users at imdb.com would have you believe. Still, it's a truly outstanding picture. (Click here for my full review)


Stand by Me
Every time I watch Stand by Me, I'm instantly a twelve year old boy again scared out of my mind, but compelled by the prospect of seeing a dead body. Everything about this movie works for me. It's dripping with tension, it's got lots of humor, and the camaraderie on display is amazing. As the boys make their journey across occasionally treacherous terrain, I'm right with them. Whenever there are run-ins with the older boys, I'm quaking in my boots. And please don't mention the train. I could go on, but suffice it to say this movie is magical to me.


Those are just my faves. The great thing about Stephen King is that so much of his work has been adapted, there are lots more that I really like and just didn't include today. What are your favorites?

10 comments:

  1. You have all the classic Stephen King adaptations.
    I saw Misery when I was fairly young...and not something I would want to revisit again.
    I know right, I watched The Shawshank Redemption twice because it's always on the IMDB top list...and yeah I don't think it's the best movie ever made.
    I think I've watched Stand By Me twice too...but unfortunately I can't remember much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would urge you to give Stand by Me another shot. I find it to be a very fun film. Thanks for hosting!

      Delete
  2. At the moment I've only seen The Shawshank Redemption, which was of course an amazing movie. I've been told that Stand By Me is pretty good, though. Might be worth checking out at some point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Needless to say I'm a huge fan of Stand by Me so please give it a look. I'd be interested in your thoughts on it.

      Delete
  3. Yes to all there of those movies!!
    I am glad you didn't put The Shining here because that's the one movie I don't like (it could be put in my against the crowd). It's so different to the book, King had done great job on the book and the movie producer just decided to change it. Silly!

    I have seen and read Shawshank and Stand by me...those two are awesome as a book and movie. I haven't yeat read Misery but one day I will because I will read ALL Stephen King's book

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a big fan of The Shining, but I've never read the book. What wound up on the screen totally works for me. Misery is a great read. A quick one, too.

      Delete
  4. Carrie!!!!

    I love that you list Misery, because as a direct adaptation it is such a smart one. I loved the book, but so many moments would NOT have worked on the big screen, so the liberties taken were really smart ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carrie just barely missed the cut. I will give it some light in a few months. It's already scheduled to kick off my annual 31 Days of Horror, this October (followed by the remake, of course).

      Delete
  5. The Shining. I know it's a very different take on the book but what Kubrick did is create a horror classic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a big fan of The Shining, too. I totally agree it's a horror classic. Not a bad inclusion by any stretch and wouldn't argue with anyone for choosing it. If I, personally, can only pick three S. King movies, though, that one doesn't quite make it for me.

      Delete