Summary:
This article is about the best 15 movies ever made from Stephen King short stories, novels, or any other work by King. Each movie has a brief description explaining why it´s on the list and worth watching.

Details or Sample:
There are literally dozens and dozens of movies based on Stephen King short stories, novellas, and novels. Among these many films there are some major league clunkers, but there are also some absolute gems. If you include sequels and TV movies, the list goes well over fifty, and that´s not even including many limited release short films. Out of all those choices, here is my list of the fifteen best movies based on Stephen King works.

15) "Pet Sematary:" This work was also one of Stephen King´s finest horror novels. There is a haunted pet cemetery, spelled cutely with an ´S,´ where everything buried comes back from the dead, but comes back twisted and evil. This is a great film where the tragic loss of a child proves too much temptation, and what comes back is terrifying and evil beyond belief. The ending of this film is absolutely fantastic, and one of the best endings of a King movie.

14) "Storm of the Century:" Storm of the century started as a two part mini-series and has since been released to DVD. This is an excellent story, which Stephen King wrote the script to, about a stranger appearing just as the worst winter storm in history hits a small isolated Maine island. This stranger has the power to force others to do as he wants, and he demands a child to raise as his own or else. This is a chilling and incredible story.

13) "1408." This movie with actors John Cusak and Samuel L. Jackson, is based around a Stephen King short story about a haunted hotel room that has an incredibly long and tragic history. This evil room draws so much energy that it is only mildly cleaned once a week, and briefly, and is never rented out. An author who doesn´t believe in the supernatural checks in, only to find himself in an amazing repeating hell that is bent on devouring his very soul, and refuses to let him go.

12) "Children of the Corn." Children of the Corn was based on a short story by Stephen King (and all six of the terrible sequels were based on movie studios trying to stretch it for a cheap buck). "Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman!" This classic line and scene helps define the movie, where a child prophet has convinced every child to murder all the adults in town, as they worship "He who walks behind the rows." Talk about the wrong town to break down in! This is a very solid horror flick, with some really genuinely creepy moments.

11) "It." This three hour and change movie is a two part movie, with Pennywise the Clown perhaps one of the most disturbing horror villains in movie history. I personally point to him (and watching this movie at the age of ten) as explaining my life long fear/hatred of clowns. This movie is often judged as the first half being excellent and the second half mediocre, in part because of a changed ending. In fairness, the book´s ending would be next to impossible to fully convert into a movie format, but all in all, this movie is still a great view, and the first half is excellent. You might want to skip this one if you have a phobia of clowns.

10) "Rose Red." A four part mini-series turned into DVD, "Rose Red" is a little over four hours and is a great modern version of the classic haunted mansion ghost story. A professor who has been fired for her paranormal studies takes a bunch of psychics into a haunted manor, secretly hoping that their powers will "jump start" the manor like a jump to a dead car battery and give her the evidence she needs to make her career…or she could be going insane and hoping for immortality. It´s not completely clear on this point, which makes the movie all the more interesting. This movie has good characters, some really scary scenes, and ties together very well at the end. Even better, it´s usually in the cheap DVD rack, so this movie is definitely a steal at a $10 or less buy.

9) "Secret Window." This is based off a Stephen King novella and stars Johnny Depp and John Turturro. This is one of my personal favorite King movies, and if you´re a writer or a would be writer, this movie will have an added bonus. Johnny Depp´s character, Mort Rainey, is a successful writer struggling with a divorce, when a sociopathic stranger, John Shooter, shows up claiming that Rainey stole his story. Shooter demands credit, and has no issue killing anyone in his way until he gets everything he wants. This story has a fantastic surprise ending, great acting, and a creepiness that is hard to match.

8) "Hearts in Atlantis." One of the seemingly great secrets about Stephen King is he´s not just a horror author. Some of the best literary fiction of the past 50 years has been penned by King, and the movie "Hearts in Atlantis" is based on one of those novellas, down playing the supernatural and playing up the amazing story line and lives of the characters involved. The book "Hearts" has four novellas, and this film is only based on one of them, but it is a faithful and quality adaptation with great acting, great direction, and a film that individuals who don´t like King will even enjoy. This movie is a modern classic, in the same vein as "Stand by Me."

7) "The Green Mile." Some will argue this movie should be rated higher, and they may have a point, but the fact that there are enough great movies based on Stephen King works that a film this good (rated on the top 250 movies ever on IMDB) could arguably not be in the top five just shows that there are some gems out there. Not only is Tom Hanks great in this film, but this touching movie (a not heavily hidden allegory of the Jesus story) follows the film and is a fantastic watch that generally follows the books very carefully.

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