10 Stephen King Movie Adaptations That Stephen King Hated

The King does not hail these movies.

By Padraig Cotter /

Stephen King has always maintained a healthy “The book is the book, the film is the film” attitude when it comes to adaptations of his work. If a movie turns out great like The Shawshank Redemption, The Dead Zone, Misery or Stand By Me, that’s great. If they turn out awful – hi there, Sleepwalkers and Cell – that’s not going to affect his books any.

Advertisement

Despite being one of the most adapted authors ever he’s been lucky with the amount of quality movies based on his work, and being a gentleman he rarely comments on the crappy ones. That said he’s also quite honest and if a weak movie based on his works rubs him the wrong way, he won’t be expressing his opinion.

Listed here are some of the King movies that don’t have his personal stamp of approval, and some he’s outright disowned; in most cases, it’s hard to disagree.

10. The Children Of The Corn Sequels (All Of Them)

Children Of The Corn was a King short story from the 1970s, a creepy tale about a cult of children who murder any grown-ups who wander into their town. The original movie is far from great, but it’s an effective horror movie that even King enjoyed.

Advertisement

How the hell it managed to spawn another nine movies (and counting!) is a mystery. They’re all pretty bad and feature variations on the same plot; a cast of bland teens come into town and the murderous kids sacrifice them to “He Who Walks Between The Rows." The only notable thing about these sequels is the number of future name actresses to emerge from them; Charlize Theron made her debut in part three, Naomi Watts took the lead in four and Eva Mendes appears in part five.

They’re basically shelf fillers trading on King’s good name, and he told Deadline "I could do without all the Children Of The Corn sequels." The director of a TV movie remake of the original tried to get him involved again, only to receive a letter from King’s lawyer stating he’d wanted nothing to do with it.

Advertisement