7 of the best...
STEPHEN KING FILMS
1 CARRIE (1976)
THIS was the book that changed Stephen King’s life at the age of 26. He went from being a teacher to a best-selling author with this bloody tale of a bullied 16-year-old girl who uses her paranormal powers to cause devastation at her high school prom. Brian De Palma directed Sissy Spacek in the first movie and Chloe Moretz appeared in the 2013 cinematic remake.
2 THE SHINING (1980)
THE American writer has said his horror masterpiece was inspired by a stay at a grand old hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in 1974, which he felt was the “archetypical” setting for a ghost story. Actor Jack Nicholson’s performance as the increasingly demented Jack Torrance in director Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation is renowned for being truly spine-chilling.
3 STAND BY ME (1986)
THE novella The Body was the inspiration for this movie about a group of young friends in 1959 who come upon the corpse of a missing boy. The cast included River Phoenix, Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Kiefer Sutherland. Stephen King once said: “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit but taste completely different.”
4 PET SEMATARY (1989)
STEPHEN KING (right) had a cameo as a minister in the film adaptation of his novel about an ancient Native American burial ground with sinister properties. The horror begins when a family cat is killed on the busy highway outside his home and then laid to rest in a cemetery for dogs and cats. A remake was released this year.
5 MISERY (1990)
WRITTEN in 1987, the psychological thriller about novelist Paul Sheldon’s encounter with his number one fan was made into a film three years later. Kathy Bates was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Annie Wilkes who imprisons Sheldon and forces him to write a historical romance featuring her favourite heroine Misery Chastain.
6 THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
THE story of an ordinary man wrongly imprisoned for a murder he did not commit was originally published as a novella called Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption in Stephen King’s Different Season collection of stories.
It became an international box office hit with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman heading the cast.
7 THE GREEN MILE (1999)
FIRST written in six paperback volumes, the film adaptation about a friendly giant with healing powers who is wrongly sentenced to death is reportedly one of the most successful Stephen King movies. Tom Hanks (above) starred in the film which hit an impressive $136.8m in domestic ticket sales and $286.8m worldwide.