10 Stephen King Stories That Deserve Film Adaptations

1995's Rose Madder touched on themes of domestic abuse and female empowerment, with an intriguing dose of Greek mythology tying it all together. King retrospectively criticised the story, but it remains a highly popular work and one of his more mysterious and unpredictable tales.

The story follows a woman named Rose who, after more than a decade of abuse and suffering at the hands of her horrific husband Norman, decides to flee her home and start a new life. She also becomes inexplicably attracted to a painting in a pawn shop, which later turns out to be supernatural in nature. The story flicks back and forth between Rose, who investigates the painting and makes new friends, and Norman, whose murderous rage drives him to track her down.

Rose Madder is well-suited to a film adaptation, but the real challenge in bringing it to the big screen would be in successfully portraying the mythological and supernatural aspects of the novel. Some of the passages are a little surreal, but it would be fascinating to see how a director might choose to interpret and portray those sequences in a live action movie.