10 Stephen King Movie Adaptations That Deserve A Remake

9. Sometimes They Come Back

The Running Man
Doubleday

Sometimes They Come Back was an eerie ghost story written by Stephen King in 1974, and appeared as part of his first significant published collection of short stories Night Shift (1978). It tells a disturbing tale of Jim Norman who returns as an adult with his young family to the small home town he grew up in. There, he has to face the demons of his past after the gang of thugs who had murdered his brother and then perished in a car fire return from the dead to haunt and terrorise him.

Originally there were plans to film Sometimes They Come Back as part of the anthology movie Cat’s Eye, but it would eventually first appear as a straight to TV film in 1991, directed by Tom McLoughlin (Friday The 13th VI: Jason Lives) and starring Tim Matheson (A Kiss to Die For) in the lead role, along with eighties teen heartthrob Robert Rusler (A Nightmare on Elm Street/Weird Science) as one of the demonic gang members.

The movie is perhaps one of the most underrated in all of the King screen adaptations, with a story that is one of the most frightening he has written, while also featuring a truly heart-warming finale. But despite spawning two further long forgotten sequels, Sometimes They Come Back is certainly a film that a modern remake could do justice to with a superb new cast.

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Connoisseur of Alternative Music & Cult Movies. Freelance writer covering the Rock & Metal music scenes, and the Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film & Tv genres.