20 Recent Horror Movies WAY Better Than Expected

There's good reason that it took almost 50 years for a big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's The Long Walk to actually get made - in the eyes of many, King's dystopian horror novel was simply too challenging to adapt, some even going far enough to deem it "unfilmable."

But even when the film finally entered production in 2024, there was considerable scepticism about the end product, both because of the inherent difficulty of adapting a book centered almost exclusively around walking, and the grim nature of its content.

That is to say, many assumed that Hollywood wouldn't splash out on a properly budgeted adaptation of The Long Walk without insisting upon a neutered PG-13 rating - which for a film about young men walking to the death would've been a fatal flaw.

But ultimately The Long Walk released in fully R-rated glory, and director Francis Lawrence nailed a tricky balance between showing the grisly kills and skirting clear of exploitation territory.

Even accepting that Lawrence's film made a few divisive deviations from King's source material, it largely delivered above and beyond what just about anyone expected pre-release, aided by outstanding work from the ensemble cast - especially Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson.