Many of those young readers grew up to be storytellers themselves: A generation of today’s top filmmakers and novelists were inspired by King’s pet burial grounds, killer clowns, world-decimating plagues, haunted cars and hotels, and twisted dimensions beyond our own. It’s one of the reasons behind a recent renaissance in high-end-TV and movie adaptations of King’s books. The writers and directors shepherding these projects no longer look at the source material as penny dreadfuls. They’re beloved classics.
“Time continues to prove that his books are far more than pop-cultural phenomena—he is increasingly and deservedly respected as one of the greatest authors this country will ever produce,” says J.J. Abrams, who executive-produced the Hulu miniseries 11.22.63 (King’s time-traveling JFK-assassination epic) as well as the continuing anthology Castle Rock (a series that threads together tales from the eponymous town). A third collaboration, Lisey’s Story, is in the works—and King will be screenwriting.
Other recent and upcoming adaptations include the Audience network’s 2017 version of the serial-killer-manhunt novel Mr. Mercedes; Warner Bros.’ two-part big-screen take on Pennywise, It; a Netflix film based on the survival story Gerald’s Game; a Dark Tower adaptation; and Mike Flanagan’s forthcoming feature Doctor Sleep. And this past spring a resurrected Pet Sematary hit movie theaters. In each case the people working on these projects are avowed King acolytes.
“The first time I read King was in seventh grade,” Abrams says. “It was revelatory—the literary equivalent of watching The Twilight Zone or seeing Star Wars or Close Encounters. My jaw hit the floor at the realization that stories like The Shining or The Dead Zone or those from Night Shift could actually exist. Characters from and of our world faced with horrors and challenges from somewhere else.”
King’s ability to draw the otherworldly into our time and place—rather than send the reader on a trip to a Gothic castle or long-ago era—makes the ordinary seem exponentially more bizarre and terrifying: brightly lit grocery stores enshrouded in fog; a summer cold that just won’t quit—and seems to be getting worse; fathers who drink too much and start throwing their fists. The threats are variations on those in the real world, gilded with a bit of supernatural to make it interesting, and the heroes are people we know, who might triumph over evil (or maybe not) but always pay a price for that victory.
King never sugarcoats things. Somehow that always made the stories sweeter—more dangerous. But he also isn’t afraid to show a softer, more intimate side. He taught young storytellers that love is as important an emotion as fear.
“I cared so deeply for the people in his stories and learned early on that that was why the horror landed so well,” says Flanagan, a horror veteran known for the films Oculus and Hush and the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. He wrote and directed the 2017 Gerald’s Game adaptation, about a woman (Carla Gugino) who is trapped in a remote cabin, handcuffed to a bed, after her husband dies.
“The horrific elements of his stories are born of the characters, and he always took the time to build a real, relatable world before the horror elements took hold,” Flanagan says. “The characters felt real, the world felt like our own, and there was no safety net—you weren’t safe in the daylight, your family could turn on you, and children weren’t safe from the monster. In fact, sometimes they were its favorite food.”
There were legitimately great films made from King’s novels in the early days. Brian De Palma’s sleek and stylish 1976 adaptation of King’s first novel, Carrie, helped boost the author’s profile; David Cronenberg blended his brand of psychological dread with King’s in 1983’s The Dead Zone; and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is arguably one of the finest horror films in history. (Arguing against that claim is King himself, who strongly dislikes the movie.)
Kubrick was dismissive of King, telling an interviewer shortly after the movie debuted that he found the novel’s ending “a bit hackneyed,” although earlier in the same conversation he had called the book “one of the most ingenious and exciting stories of the genre.”
This seemed to be the attitude of most sophisticated filmmakers toward King’s early works. There was a stiff-armed approach, an acknowledgment that something meaningful was there but a crippling condescension toward the horror or supernatural elements, as if the directors were slumming it with material undeserving of serious thought. King literally scared good directors away. Those who fully embraced his horror tales, like the makers of TV movies and some schlockier pictures, often responded to King’s visceral properties but missed the cerebral.
But many contemporary storytellers reared on King from their earliest years approached the material with more open-mindedness, allowing them to see meaning beyond the gore. “I do believe that people who grew up reading him approach his adaptations differently than some of the filmmakers who adapted his early work,” Flanagan says. “The themes are sharper, the characters more familiar, and I think there’s more of an instinct to protect his intentions than would be there otherwise. When you grow up reading King, you want to protect the experience you had with his work. To fail the material is to dishonor that experience, and for a lot of us that isn’t an option.” Flanagan’s sequel Doctor Sleep, starring Ewan McGregor as the son of The Shining’s tortured writer, debuts Nov. 8.
King is still connecting with young readers. Any Goodreads page for his books has scores of teenagers discovering his stories for the first time. His 1999 memoir On Writing is almost as sacred a text among aspiring scribes as Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.
“I love to hear authors rave about On Writing,” says Caroline Kepnes, author of the stalker-thriller novels You and Hidden Bodies, one of countless novelists inspired by King. “I think that book has helped so many of us stick to our guns and keep at it. That’s a book that was so empowering. He was so eloquent and incisive in that book. Here he is, larger-than-life Stephen King, and yet there he is across from you, telling you to chill out and work.”
Twenty years from now his influence on new novelists and filmmakers will still be profound, but right now he has hit a sweet spot of respect that is also fueled by nostalgia. Even some films and TV shows that aren’t direct adaptations of his work owe a heavy debt to him. Consider the Duffer brothers, Matt and Ross, whose Stranger Things on Netflix feels like Stephen King by way of Steven Spielberg (with a dash of John Carpenter). It was a colossal influence on them—and they’ve said they came up with their show after being denied a chance at remaking It.
Although steeped in Americana, King’s books travel well. Both the creator of the TV series The Mist, Christian Torpe, and the director of The Dark Tower, Nikolaj Arcel, are from Denmark, and they agree that even if he doesn’t speak Danish, King still speaks their language. “The Danes are notorious dark people,” Torpe says. “We have to be to survive those winters.”
Arcel said that without King he wouldn’t have become a writer and director. “What he created shaped us,” he said. With The Dark Tower he got the rights to use many little Easter eggs. It was payback of sorts. “I’m a huge Stephen King fan since I was a kid, so this is my chance to bring all these worlds from several of his books and all these through lines together in one film.”
But there really is no unifying Stephen King theory. Being a Constant Reader of his means embracing paradox: His stories contain both B-movie excitement and art-house erudition. He has received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation and, from President Obama, the National Medal of Arts . . . but deep down, he’s still sinister Uncle Steve, making book and movie recommendations on Twitter and picking fights with Donald Trump. His bibliography is more distinguished now, but he’s still punk-rock.
“I’ve always had trouble with the notion of ‘respectable’ work. I understand the human need to categorize, but I love the reality that he’s in his own stratosphere,” Kepnes says. She praises both the low and the high, marveling that the same mind typing out the gruesom
e Cujo is the one behind the sublime The Body.
Best of all, his crazy train is not finished. “The magical thing about Stephen King is he just keeps writing,” Kepnes says. “We are lucky.”
King (with a dog named Cujo) promoting his latest novel.
Abrams, King and James Franco on-set of Hulu’s 11.22.63.
The stars of Abrams’s Castle Rock: Sissy Spacek and André Holland.
“[King] is . . . one of the greatest writers this country will ever produce”
—J.J. Abrams
King with cats from 1985’s Cat’s Eye
King visiting the set of 2013’s Under the Dome and chatting with director Niels Arden Oplev and executive producer Jack Bender
—Mike Flanagan
Directors Matt and Ross Duffer, on-set of Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Visual Index
A PUBLISHING EMPIRE
Trying to figure out what to read, watch or binge next? Here are all the works the godfather of horror has written—plus notable movies and television events created from King’s short fiction. BY ALYSSA SMITH
FICTION, GRAPHIC NOVELS & NONFICTION
CARRIE (1974)
The book that started it all. M T
‘SALEM’S LOT (1975)
Vampires move into a small town; no one notices until it’s too late. It’s been optioned for a film. T M
THE SHINING (1977)
Writer’s block, alcoholism and the supernatural collide. M T
RAGE (1977)
King’s first work under his pseudonym. He later said of Rage, ”Now out of print, and a good thing.” R
THE STAND (1978)
Most of humanity dies of a supervirus, and warring survivors face off. New TV series coming soon! T
THE DEAD ZONE (1979)
The 1983 movie stars Christopher Walken; when the coma patient-psychic returned in the 2002-07 TV show, Anthony Michael Hall took over. M T
THE LONG WALK (1979)
Just keep walking. Otherwise you’re shot. Film forthcoming. M R
FIRESTARTER (1980)
Starring Drew Barrymore as a gifted kid in 1984. Followed by a 2002 TV miniseries. M T
CUJO (1981)
He was once a friendly, loving St. Bernard. M
ROADWORK (1981)
In 1985 King wrote it was “an effort to make some sense of my mother’s painful death [of cancer] the year before.” R
DANSE MACABRE (1981)
King explores the nature of the horror genre in a series of essays. N
THE DARK TOWER (1982)
A series of eight books King published out of chronological order and finished in 2012 with The Wind Through the Keyhole. Idris Elba starred in the 2017 adaptation. M T
THE RUNNING MAN (1982)
Arnold Schwarzenegger starred, and Paul Michael Glaser directed the 1987 action film. R M
PET SEMATARY (1983)
There’s been a 1989 movie, a sequel, a BBC radio series remake and, in 2019, yet another film. M
CHRISTINE (1983)
John Carpenter directed the Plymouth Fury flick. M
THINNER (1984)
Tom Holland (no, not that one) directed. R M
THE TALISMAN (1984)
This fantasy novel cowritten with Peter Straub had a 2001 sequel: Black House.
CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF (1985)
Hit the big screen as Silver Bullet, starring Gary Busey as a redneck, alcoholic werewolf hunter. M
IT (1986)
“It remains one of my most personal works,” King says. The town of Derry will never be the same. M T
THE EYES OF THE DRAGON (1987)
King experiments with writing epic fantasy.
MISERY (1987)
Kathy Bates and James Caan star in the two-hander. M
THE TOMMYKNOCKERS (1987)
The miniseries stars Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger, and a film is planned. T M
NIGHTMARES IN THE SKY (1988)
King writes for a coffee-table book featuring architectural gargoyles. N
THE DARK HALF (1989)
Inspired by his Bachman pseudonym’s discovery, King pens a gothic thriller about a parasitic twin. M
NEEDFUL THINGS (1991)
Castle Rock, a recurring town in King’s fiction, is featured in this I-barter-for-souls novel. M
GERALD’S GAME (1992)
In 2017 Mike Flanagan directed a Netflix psychological thriller starring Carla Gugino. M
DOLORES CLAIBORNE (1993)
Kathy Bates returns to King in the 1995 film. M
INSOMNIA (1994)
Set in Derry, the novel features connections to The Dark Tower.
ROSE MADDER (1995)
King’s feminist trilogy continues.
THE GREEN MILE (1996)
Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan and Frank Darabont make magic on a death-row cell block. M
DESPERATION (1996)
Ron Perlman stars in the made-for-TV film featuring mysterious abductions. T
THE REGULATORS (1996)
Readers explore the alternate reality in this sister novel to Desperation. R
BAG OF BONES (1998)
An author with writer’s block faces the supernatural to save a child. T
THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON (1999)
A pop-up version of the psychological horror book was released in 2004.
THE PLANT (2000)
Originally released as a serial novel between 1982 and 1985. U
SECRET WINDOWS (2000)
A collection of essays, speeches and book excerpts published to accompany On Writing. N
ON WRITING (2000)
King’s masterful memoir-cum-advice book teaches valuable lessons on the craft. N
DREAMCATCHER (2001)
In 2003 The Empire Strikes Back’s writer Lawrence Kasdan directed Morgan Freeman. M
FROM A BUICK 8 (2002)
King’s second automobile tale has new film buzz.
THE COLORADO KID (2005)
Adapted to a television series titled Haven starring Emily Rose as an FBI agent. The drama ran from 2010 to 2015. T
FAITHFUL (2005)
Coauthored with Stewart O’Nan, the book examines the 2004 season of the Boston Red Sox. N
CELL (2006)
The 2016 movie starring Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack was released direct to video. M
LISEY’S STORY (2006)
King drew inspiration from his near-death experience and hospital stay. A TV series is forthcoming. T
BLAZE (2007)
Bachman returns; King pens a foreword. R
DUMA KEY (2008)
A man who suffers a horrific accident gains psychic abilities.
UNDER THE DOME (2009)
The show about a town mysteriously cut off from the rest of the world aired from 2013 to 2015. T
AMERICAN VAMPIRE VOL. 1 (2010)
King’s first graphic novel, cowritten with Scott Snyder for the first five issues, won an Eisner and was then written solely by Snyder.
FULL DARK, NO STARS (2010)
In 2017 Netflix released 1922 based on a novella in this collection. S M
11/22/63 (2011)
James Franco stars in J.J. Abrams’s time-traveling JFK-assassination thriller on Hulu. T
IN THE TALL GRASS (2012)
A terrifying collaboration with Joe Hill will hit theaters in 2019. S M
JOYLAND (2013)
The New York Times called this exploration of a creepy amusement park “a plump wad of cotton candy.”
DOCTOR SLEEP (2013)
The Shining sequel will hit movie theaters in 2019. M
MR. MERCEDES (2014)
David E. Kelley brought the serial-killer saga to brutal life in 2017. The book trilogy was completed by 2015’s Finders Keepers and 2016’s End of Watch. T
REVIVAL (2014)
King finds inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in a monster special.
CHARLIE THE CHOO-CHOO (2016)
&nb
sp; This children’s book is a Dark Tower tie-in.
GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX (2017)
King revisits the town of Castle Rock with coauthor Richard Chizmar.
SLEEPING BEAUTIES (2017)
Novelist Owen King writes with his father.
THE OUTSIDER (2018)
A murder investigation turns (more) horrifying. T
THE INSTITUTE (2019)
Paranormal kids unite in this forthcoming thriller.
NOTABLE FILMS & TELEVISION
CREEPSHOW (1982)
The late, great George A. Romero directed a series of black-comedy shorts. The two sequels were not as well-received. S M
CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)
A short story—originally published in Penthouse in 1977—about a strange town and its stranger residents spun off into a horror franchise powerhouse. S M T
CAT’S EYE (1985)
Yet another anthology movie, this one stars Drew Barrymore and was connected by the presence of a tabby cat. S M
‘GRAMMA’ (1986)
The script of this Twilight Zone episode was written by Harlan Ellison and based on King’s original fiction. S T
STAND BY ME (1986)
Rob Reiner’s coming-of-age masterpiece. S M
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986)
King’s directorial debut, from his short story “Trucks.” S M
‘SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER’ (1987)
The Tales from the Darkside episode was later collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes. S O T
TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE: THE MOVIE (1990)
The second tale of this three-parter features a Romero adaptation of King’s “The Cat from Hell” about an assassin hired to kill . . . guess what, a black cat. S M
GRAVEYARD SHIFT (1990)
Mill workers meet grim ends during the Bachman mill’s overnight shift. S M
GOLDEN YEARS (1991)
King’s first continuing television drama ended on a cliff-hanger when CBS declined to pick up its option on the full series. O T
EW the Ultimate Guide to Stephen King Page 6
