2017 is a good year to be a Stephen King fan. Coming this summer is a theatrical adaptation of The Dark Tower, coming in September is the first installment in a two-part It adaptation, and later this year is the 10-episode season of The Mist.
There’s no denying that King is one of the greatest all-time horror writers and Hollywood can’t help themselves when it comes to mining his stories for content. For four straight decades, King’s works have been turned into films and TV series, all with varying degrees of success.
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Considering It and The Mist have already gotten a shot at live-action adaptations, we think it’s time to give some of his previously adapted works another shot at success. This isn’t to say that the original adaptations are necessarily bad, but for one reason or another, the stories have elements that deserve an upgrade.
What are some of your favorite Stephen King adaptations that you think deserve another shot? Let us know in the comments!
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Maximum Overdrive
King’s legacy will be for his skills with the written word, but the same can’t be said of his directing skills. A story about machines coming to life is inherently hokey, which is par for the course in Stephen King stories, but he missed the mark with Maximum Overdrive, which was based on his short story “Trucks.” If someone stepped behind the camera who had more experience blending comedy with horror, perhaps someone like Edgar Wright, then this story could really connect with fans.
[H/T YouTube, Club1981Channel]
The Stand
One of King’s longest stories, The Stand needed four installments in its mini-series to tell the whole story, and even then, many elements were left out. This apocalyptic tale might be too dense for a movie, but considering the success of a show like The Leftovers, we’d love to see a 10-episode interpretation of this story.
[H/T YouTube, Eagle13Epic]
Langoliers
With many of King’s stories, one of the biggest problems is that the source material is too long to adequately be adapted into a film or mini-series. The Langoliers, however, had the opposite problem. The short story was turned into an over-long, over-stuffed two-part series on TV that was still somehow underwhelming. One of the biggest strengths of the story is the ominous idea of creatures just past the horizon making their way to the story’s protagonists, but a more concise 90-minute feature film could be more successful than the previous adaptation.
[H/T YouTube, CheesyPeteza]
Silver Bullet
The 1985 film based on Cycle of the Werewolf is highly entertaining, but the live-action adaptation hasn’t stood the test of time. More campy than scary, today’s technology could really make the werewolf effects terrifying and give us a different interpretation of the source material than what we saw in the ’80s. Gary Busey, however, should still be in the updated version.
[H/T YouTube, Laberfilm]
Children of the Corn
The Children of the Corn series has been spewing sequels ever since the first live-action adaptation, but the series doesn’t pack the punch that it once did. Possibly now, more than ever, could audiences buy into a group of people buying too heavily into religious ideals to the point of harming others, which makes it deserving of a reboot. The film’s special effects could also use an update that could create a much more satisfying final product than what we saw in 1984. The Syfy channel attempted to kickstart the franchise in 2009 with a remake, but it didn’t connect with audiences at large.
[H/T YouTube, MyEdit]
Needful Things
The ’90s were absolutely clogged with Stephen King movies and TV series, making Needful Things feel more like it should have been called “Another Stephen King Movie” than being given the attention it deserved. Despite the compelling source material, nothing about the film really worked, even though it had an impressive cast. In the right hands, Needful Things could be regarded as one of the higher quality King adaptations.
[H/T YouTube, Movieclips Trailer Vault]
Salem’s Lot
One of the more memorable vampire stories of the last few decades, Salem’s Lot has already had multiple adaptations into mini-series. The problem, however, is they’re typically stuffed with exposition and can feel bloated. If the fat was trimmed on the story, we could get a pretty compelling film, along with some solid special effects, to make an incredibly terrifying film.
