10 Stephen King Movie Adaptations That Deserve A Remake

3. The Tommyknockers

The Running Man
American Broadcasting Company

In the early nineties Stephen was the king of the TV mini-series. Most notably with It (1990) which scared the hell out of everybody with Tim Curry’s infamous performance as Pennywise the demonic clown, and with his post-apocalyptic tale, The Stand. Both adaptations have since received remakes with the glossy Andy Muschietti directed It Chapters One (2017) and Two (2019), and a second TV Mini-Series of The Stand starring Alexander Skarsgard.

But another classic tale written by King in the eighties at the height of his of drug and alcohol use, to the point where he has famously admitted to having very little recognition of the creative process, is The Tommyknockers. The largely forgotten story was filmed as a two-part TV series in 1993, and stars Jimmy Smits, Marg Helgenberger and renowned Adult-Movie actress Traci Lords. Its twist on an ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ style Sci-Fi story - of a small town slowly becoming overcome by a nearby extra-terrestrial presence - has just enough originality to be ripe for a modern take.

The story has a darkly humorous undertone running throughout, as it blends an interesting narrative around a number of well written characters, with subtle goofy horror and sci-fi fantasy. With some serious modernising in the SFX department, a new movie could easily take the The Tommyknockers to the next level.

Contributor
Contributor

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