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Post by punksnotdead on Oct 8, 2019 16:14:26 GMT -5
A few weeks ago I decided to binge through Castle Rock Season 1 and it really just put me in a Stephen King mood. Since then I've watched The Shining (80), Misery, The Stand, 11.22.63, Carrie (76), It 1 & 2, Pet Sematary (19), The Mist (07), Salem's Lot (79), 1922, and last night I just watched In the Tall Grass. I imagine I'll keep this going until Season 2 of Castle Rock hits and probably right into Doctor Sleep, honestly. I have 1408, The Dead Zone, and Mr. Mercedes in the hopper.
Since it's October, I was curious if any of his adaptions are in your yearly Halloween rotation? Or maybe you're just a fan and have your favorites in general? You can use this as an open forum to complain about adaptions you don't like, as well.
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Post by Rated [R] NinJa on Oct 8, 2019 18:32:15 GMT -5
I actually didn’t realise how many of his adaptations I’ve seen until I just wikipedia’d it but here’s what I’ve seen over the years:
Carrie (1976) Salem’s Lot (1979) The Shining (1980) Cujo (1983) The Running Man (1987) Pet Sematary (1989) IT (1990) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) The Green Mile (1999) The Mist (2007) Carrie (2013) A Good Marriage (2014) The Dark Tower (2017) IT (2017) Gerald’s Game (2017) 1922 (2017) Pet Sematary (2019) IT Chapter Two (2019) In The Tall Grass (2019)
The IT films are my all time favourites from his work. I’ll definitely be watching Doctor Sleep in cinemas too.
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Post by Grumpyoldman on Oct 8, 2019 18:35:34 GMT -5
Between the scratching on Mark's window, Geoffrey Lewis as a glowing-eyed vampire & the extreme close up of Mr. Barlow, Salem's Lot literally scared the piss out of me as a kid.
Word of warning: do NOT watch The Langoliers or Dreamcatcher. Both were awful.
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mrassbillygunn
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Post by mrassbillygunn on Oct 8, 2019 18:40:02 GMT -5
I didnt know about Castle Rock. Is it set in a sleepy town, with lots of mist? If so, Ill have to check it out. My two faves are Salems Lot (1979), which is my fave horror movie ever and Misery which is another classic. Also enjoyed Sleepwalkers from the early 90s. Theres going to be so many of his adaptations gettng done again, hes going to be worth a fortune.
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mrassbillygunn
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Post by mrassbillygunn on Oct 8, 2019 18:41:10 GMT -5
Between the scratching on Mark's window, Geoffrey Lewis as a glowing-eyed vampire & the extreme close up of Mr. Barlow, Salem's Lot literally scared the piss out of me as a kid. Word of warning: do NOT watch The Langoliers or Dreamcatcher. Both were awful. Salems Lot is a classic mate. Seriously, that is how you make a horror movie.
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Post by k5 on Oct 9, 2019 8:50:21 GMT -5
the shining stands alone as a masterpiece, imo.
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Post by punksnotdead on Oct 9, 2019 9:35:39 GMT -5
I didnt know about Castle Rock. Is it set in a sleepy town, with lots of mist? If so, Ill have to check it out. My two faves are Salems Lot (1979), which is my fave horror movie ever and Misery which is another classic. Also enjoyed Sleepwalkers from the early 90s. Theres going to be so many of his adaptations gettng done again, hes going to be worth a fortune. It's the same Castle Rock from Dead Zone/Needful Things/Elevation. A big chunk of the season takes place around Shawshank Prison. There are also ties to previous King events and stories, as well as actors. Season 2 is a new story and it's, at least from what I understand, a prequel to Misery since it's a younger Annie Wilkes story. I thought Season 1 was excellent. People complained about the ending but I thought they kind of nailed exactly what King does with his book endings. I'm really looking forward to Season 2 though because I love Misery, as well. Word of warning: do NOT watch The Langoliers or Dreamcatcher. Both were awful. I actually ended up watching Dreamcatcher last night because it was on Amazon Prime haha. I know I watched it around the time it was first released on DVD, but it was worth the laugh. The cast is great, and the film kind of has glimpses of the Stand By Me/IT character bond that works, but the alien premise is just really something that works better on pages than on-screen imo.
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Post by MacReady on Oct 9, 2019 12:53:14 GMT -5
Huge King fan, for the most part, I can find something to enjoy in NEARLY* all of his adaptations.
Absolutely love the 1990 It, more so for nostalgia rather than adaptation faithfulness (though it's pretty close, closer than the new version in a lot of aspects.)
Pet Semetary 89 The Stand Stand by Me Shawshank Misery The Shining
*You want to talk BAD adaptations though, Under the Dome.... what a turd that show was (though to be fair, the book is pretty weak too.)!
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taker
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Post by taker on Oct 9, 2019 13:13:50 GMT -5
Didn't have my bedroom window open for over a year when i was a kid even in the summer because of Danny Glick.
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Post by punksnotdead on Oct 9, 2019 13:34:43 GMT -5
Huge King fan, for the most part, I can find something to enjoy in NEARLY* all of his adaptations. Absolutely love the 1990 It, more so for nostalgia rather than adaptation faithfulness (though it's pretty close, closer than the new version in a lot of aspects.) Pet Semetary 89 The Stand Stand by Me Shawshank Misery The Shining *You want to talk BAD adaptations though, Under the Dome.... what a turd that show was (though to be fair, the book is pretty weak too.)! I never checked out Under the Dome because my dad said he liked the first season and then thought the next one got kind of unwatchable. I think I have the book but I've never read it. I just reread the Shining to get geared up for Doctor Sleep and then I watched the movie right after. That was kind of a mistake. The characterizations are just way off in the Kubrick film. They're just two different animals. Kubrick trades visuals for story and it definitely works but not by comparison, at least for me. I'm really curious to see how Flanagan molds those two worlds together in Doctor Sleep. You can say what you want about Kubrick as a story adaptor but everything from the blood coming out of the elevator to Jack frozen in the snow is iconic film. I appreciate the Salem's Lot comments. That was my favorite, and first, King book until I read 11.22.63. I think the film holds up surprisingly well. It creates a lot of that mystery early on that makes the novel so compelling.
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Post by The Brain on Oct 9, 2019 14:04:14 GMT -5
The Shining/Salem's Lot are my favs. They simply don't make horror movies like they used to that's for sure.
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Post by Artie Kendall on Oct 9, 2019 14:26:09 GMT -5
The Shining and Christine are usually in my rotation for October.
5 Favorites Based on His Writing: 1. The Shining (80) 2. The Running Man 3. Christine 4. The Deadzone 5. Maximum Overdrive
5 Least Favorites: 1. The Tommyknockers 2. Thinner 3. The Shawshank Redemption 4. Firestarter 5. Graveyard Shift
5 Favorite Books: 1. Christine 2. It 3. Nightshift 4. Pet Sematary 5. Bag of Bones
I will say that I actually enjoyed The Langoliers. And I love me some Steven Webber (Wings is one of my favorite shows) but I thought he was miscast in The Shining. And even if though it's nothing like the short story, I like The Lawnmower Man as well.
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Post by Grumpyoldman on Oct 9, 2019 16:42:31 GMT -5
Didn't have my bedroom window open for over a year when i was a kid even in the summer because of Danny Glick. And this was a "made for TV movie". Could you imagine how it would've been had it been a Hollywood studio production?
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mrassbillygunn
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Post by mrassbillygunn on Oct 9, 2019 17:17:58 GMT -5
The Shining/Salem's Lot are my favs. They simply don't make horror movies like they used to that's for sure. Agreed. Back then the networks made some great TV movies, I believe Salem's Lot was a TV movie.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2019 20:18:13 GMT -5
The Tommyknockers.
Just for the name alone.
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Post by CM Poor on Oct 10, 2019 9:59:14 GMT -5
HOT TAKE: I like the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Shining considerably more than the 1980 Kubrick film.
Otherwise, just off the list, my favorite adaptations of King's work are:
Children of the Corn (1984) Stand by Me (1986) The Stand (1994) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Apt Pupil (1998)
My wife insists that I need to see Dolores Claiborne and Misery. I'm a fan of Kathy Bates, so eventually I'll acquiesce to that insistence. It's probably no surprise that I'm a big fan of the Different Seasons novella collection, being that I'm probably the only person on earth who enjoyed the (admittedly weak) Apt Pupil film in addition to the other two on my list. I'm very happy that The Breathing Method is possibly getting an adaptation next year to complete the set.
Fun drinking game: watch The Stand in one shot and take a drink every time Ossie Davis or Ruby Dee says the word "stand".
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Post by sonstuds on Oct 10, 2019 10:04:54 GMT -5
HOT TAKE: I like the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Shining considerably more than the 1980 Kubrick film. There's a lot I love about Kubrick's but I dunno, I just feel like his version sort of misses the point of the book. That and despite it being an iconic shot the elevator with blood just makes me laugh.
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Post by JokerFC on Oct 10, 2019 10:07:33 GMT -5
Salems Lot is my favourite easily. I also like
Needful Things It (original & remake) Although I stand by my theory that they should NEVER have revealed what Pennywise was. Pet Semetary( original & remake) hate PS2 Apt Pupil
To this day I still find The Shining SAVAGELY overrated.
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Post by CM Poor on Oct 10, 2019 10:09:08 GMT -5
HOT TAKE: I like the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Shining considerably more than the 1980 Kubrick film. There's a lot I love about Kubrick's but I dunno, I just feel like his version sort of misses the point of the book. That and despite it being an iconic shot the elevator with blood just makes me laugh. You're not alone in that assessment. From an adaptive standpoint, Stephen King didn't care for it, either. He actually worked very closely with the producers of the '97 miniseries as a result.
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Post by RSCTom on Oct 10, 2019 12:01:42 GMT -5
An adaptation is not meant to be an exact, verbatim page-for-page on screen visual of a book. That's why it's called an adaptation. The Shining and then maybe arguably Jaws are easily the best examples of two not that great books being adapted into amazing movies by taking liberties. Especially with the '97 miniseries as a comparison there just really is no comparison.
Stephen King can bellyache all he wants (this is from someone who actually really likes him. Pet Sematary still is one of my all time favorite books) but Kubrick took his novel, which basically ends with a ridiculous explosion that's almost like Die Hard, and adapted it as best as it could possibly be done and then some. Just because he interpreted Jack Torrance differently doesn't make it some sort of weak piece. Just because there are no hedge animals doesn't make it less frightening.
I get people like seeing what they've read exactly on screen as how they remember it or whatever but the argument about The Shining is one that has always baffled me.
Other than that, I wouldn't say too many of the films that have been made from his works really hold up. I'm with everyone on Salem's Lot and It being pretty great for nostalgia. I also enjoy Silver Bullet just because it's fun.
I thought the new It was just weak as hell and the new Pet Sematary was even worse.
There are a handful of scenes here and there in King adaptations that are decent but for the most part it's really only The Shining that gets into actually frightening territory for me. But I'm also pretty critical with horror so it's tough to say.
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