Amazing Stephen King stories that need to be made into movies

published 21 September 2022

We are living in a golden age of Stephen King adaptations. On the big screen, the likes of Mike Flanagan are bringing us intelligent, faithful adaptations of his work. The director's cut of Doctor Sleep is a masterpiece of bridging the literary and movie world of King.

UPDATE: While none of those on this list have been made into movies, we are getting a new Stephen King movie on Netflix based on one of his more recent short stories. Mr Harrigan's Phone is a cracking read, about a teenager who is seemingly able to communicate with the afterlife through his phone. The movie stars Donald Sutherland and directed by John Lee Hancock and will be on Netflix 5 October. It's also been reported that Paul Greengrass is ready and waiting to adapt King's latest book, Fairy Tale.

Hell, even on the small screen, there's fun to be had. The Outsider is solid, Mr Mercedes far better than we were expecting it to be. Sure, there are some duds, including the recent Firestarter and don't get us started on The Dark Tower but we are at a point with King adaptations that's nearly up there with Stand By Me, Misery and Shawshank.

But we are still thirsty for more. There are plenty of Stephen King stories out there which are ripe for an adaptation. From pure horror to sci-ft, by the way of the supernatural here are some of our favourite King stories that we would love to see on the big screen.

Tread carefully, constant reader - there are some spoilers within.

Stephen King stories that should be movies

Like a less elaborate Hunger Games, The Long Walk sees one hundred boys participate in an event in which they must walk with a pace over 4mph, without rest or eating anything beyond basic rations. If they slow down they get a warning. If they get three warning’s they’re shot. They’ll keep walking until there is only one left, who will be given everything he wants for the rest of his life. Friendships and rivalries are formed as the walk progresses and rules are broken. Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead) owns the rights but hasn’t done anything with them.

You don’t get a lot of sporting movies based on Stephen King books. Blockade Billy tells of an unpromising young baseball player who is called up by the New Jersey Titans in a moment of desperation and who turns out to be a phenomenal player. However, Blockade Billy, as the man becomes known, is not quite what he seems. This is one of King’s less fantastical novels and the right director could pull off both a great sporting underdog story and a psychological thriller.

From the Full Dark, No Stars collection, Big Driver tells of Tess, a mystery writer who suffers a flat tyre after driving over a plank studded with nails. She’s offered help by an apparently kindly truck driver, who quickly turns on Tess and rapes her and leaves her for dead. The part that would make it a cracking thriller is Tess’s decision not to go to the police but to take matters into her own hands, exacting revenge on her attacker and getting vengeance for all the other women he’s killed.1922 has already been made into a movie from this anthology and this one is ripe for adaptation, too.

Written with King’s son Joe Hill, author of the excellent Horns, Throttle is influenced by the Richard Matheson book Duel (which became an excellent movie by Steven Spielberg), but instead of a battle between a terrified motorcar driver and an unseen truck driver it’s a stand-off between an unseen truck driver and a group of motorcycle outlaws. Duel is a superb film that’s been seen by relatively few people, so ripping it off for an update isn’t necessarily a bad thing.In The Tall Grass has been made into a Netflix movie and is from the same anthology, so here's hoping this one can see the light of day.

An kid with autism named Seth gains the power to control his hometown thanks to an entity called Tak, which has possessed him. Given Seth’s televisual obsessions, the town becomes a hybrid of old west pastiche and sci-fi monster playground. It’s a highly surreal story of a child’s strangest imaginings seeping into everyday life, but with all the opportunity for visual excess and unpredictable plotting that suggests. We would love to see an adaptation of this which takes into consideration Desperation, too, maybe with Tak skipping between the two interconnected tales

These are the best Stephen King adaptations

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As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.