How Stephen King Is Finally Finding His Voice in Hollywood Horror

Stephen King is known for his top-shelf horror, but Hollywood hasn't always been sure how to use his work. Why are they finally figuring it out?

As we approach 2024 and the 50th anniversary of his first book, Carrie, it is strange to see that Stephen King's books are only now getting real look-ins from the film industry.

There have been a few big stand-outs, but it seems that his work has only slowly trickled into film. Let's look at the successes, failures, and latest projects based on King's enormous library of work.

Most people see this article and think about the big-time King movies: Carrie, Stand By Me, It, The Shining, Misery, and The Green Mile. Most horror fans will even point to the fact that King himself has said the ending of The Mist was better than anything he’d ever considered for the short story.

However, for an author with over seventy-five books and hundreds more short stories under his belt, this seems like an extremely low number of successful adaptations.

One of the problems is that King's first big leaps into public view were in the 1980s. It was a time of bloody horror, B-movie genius, and a lot of hack directors with too many blood packs. A great time for gore lovers but not necessarily a group ready for the long-form version of King's works. His books are notoriously long (although his short stories are surprisingly tight), and directors have taken liberties where they slice and dice the content.

Related: The Best Stephen King Movies, Ranked

King has famously come out against the way Stanley Kubrick handled The Shining. It took the barest of takes on a lengthy, psychological mindstorm and turned it into an art house slasher. Although King is not everyone's cup of tea, you cannot deny that he is a detail-oriented writer.

Directors that have used the better part of his books instead of doing a CTRL X over most of the text have found a very Tarantino rhythm (or did Tarantino find a King rhythm?) of quick, sharp, and ultimately fun dialogue. The characters are written so realistically that characters can be cast directly from his descriptions.

One of the best examples is Stand By Me. Director Rob Reiner cast young actors and gave them King's dialogue. He used King's brain to guide his own eye and hands. It won high acclaim because he didn't mess with success.

This brings up another point. Some of the best King-based movies are not based on his full-length novels. Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and The Mist are all examples of King's shorter works. It's been said that short stories make for better movie ideas because they are fully formed but allow directors to expand on them. However, as we’ve already stated, King doesn't need to leave too much to their imagination.

Hollywood is a finicky place. A director makes a few successful movies, and suddenly they are given the keys to the kingdom. But when they hand in a clunker, they may never get another chance to try. It's the same with writers. Sometimes an adaptation works, and they are touted as the best thing since Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather. But when a movie fails, their novels are mentally burned to ash as non-starters.

King has an interesting history when it comes to his relationship with Hollywood. They loved him, left him, refound him, shrugged, became frustrated, and then returned with their hats in their hands. It's a messy relationship, but like real relationships, people always whisper that they are somehow "working it out."

The issue seems to be that Hollywood has trouble consistently matching his work to the right directors or deciding on the right formats for his projects. An excellent example is the first adaptation of It. The first aired in two parts in 1990 on ABC. That might come as a surprise to some people. The same channel that aired America's Funniest Home Videos decided they were the ones to create a two-part adaptation of Stephen King's most nightmarish story about a clown that eats children.

However, Let's look at the most glaring spit-in-your-eye take on a Stephen King story; The Dark Tower. The 2017 movie, starring the inestimable Idris Elba and Mattew McConaughey, decided to take over 4,000 pages of material, strip it of most of its characters, ideas, and storyline, and turn it into an hour-and-a-half mess that sits at 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. King's "Constant Readers" bawled into their Dark Tower popcorn tubs. His life's work, a series of books encompassing literally everything he's ever written, was taken out to the woodshed.

Related: Stephen King Supports Mike Flannagan Rebooting The Dark Tower

Fans were outraged, King was a bit disappointed himself, and the world went numb for a bit. But now there is word that The Dark Tower series may yet live as a series of films or a TV show. Fans want the HBO treatment. They want the deep cut, the true King, and they want it to happen in a way that doesn't slight their love or knowledge of this cultural phenomenon. If people don't read anymore (so they say), then give the people an adaptation they will love as much as King's constant readers love the original books.

Right now, The Boogeyman is in theaters. The film, once again based on a King short story, has received mixed reviews. One of the main reasons seems to be that the writers and directors have decided to take the story in their own direction. However, whether this film works, there are plenty of other future projects already in the pipeline, including The Long Walk, 'Salem's Lot, and From a Buick 8.

We will see plenty of adaptations of King's work now that a new wave of young directors is champing at the bit for his ideas. There will always be visionary directors, but there will only ever be one Stephen King for them to draw from.