10 Stephen King Movie Adaptations That Stephen King Hated
4. Graveyard Shift
Graveyard Shift was an early short story King sold to a magazine, and while it’s gruesome fun it's hardly his best work. The plot finds a group of textile plant workers trying to clear out the army of rats underneath the building, only to discover there are giant mutant rats waiting for them underneath.
The movie version came around in 1990 when studios would have paid top dollar for anything with King’s name on it. The film is a cheerless, mean-spirited affair with unlikable characters and a slack pace, though it does pick up a tad in the last act. Plus b movie favourite Brad Dourif’s turn as an unhinged exterminator is also good fun.
Don’t expect King to sign your DVD copy, though, since he’s not fond of it. He remarked in an interview with Deadline it was "Just kind of a quick exploitation picture." Since it’s about killer rats, that’s not much of a surprise though.