Did You Know that These are the Best-Rated Stephen King Movies & TV Shows?

Stephen King’s stories have been adapted across decades, spanning prestige dramas, grounded thrillers, and supernatural horror. Many of these screen versions have become landmarks in their own right, thanks to distinctive directors, memorable performances, and screenplays that translate King’s character-first storytelling.

This list gathers widely acclaimed films and series drawn from his novels, novellas, and short stories. You’ll find production details, key creatives and cast, awards recognition, and notes on how each adaptation approaches King’s material—handy context for planning your next watch.

‘The Outsider’ (2020)

Based on the novel of the same name, this series begins with a criminal investigation that gradually intersects with inexplicable phenomena. Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo lead an ensemble that includes Bill Camp, Mare Winningham, and Julianne Nicholson, with early episodes directed by Jason Bateman.

The adaptation shifts between procedural texture and folklore elements, using subdued color grading and location choices to ground the story. The production’s restrained effects and emphasis on evidence-handling detail support the narrative’s transition from forensic certainty to contested explanations.

‘11.22.63’ (2016)

This limited series adapts the novel about a teacher who discovers a portal to the early 1960s and undertakes a mission linked to a national tragedy. James Franco stars with Sarah Gadon, Chris Cooper, and George MacKay, and the production reconstructs period settings through location work and extensive costume design.

The series condenses subplots to fit an eight-episode structure while retaining key relationships and investigative threads. Showrunner Bridget Carpenter and the producing team balance mystery mechanics with historical reconstruction, using recurring motifs to track the ripple effects of interference across timelines.

‘Gerald’s Game’ (2017)

Mike Flanagan adapts a psychologically interior novel about a woman handcuffed to a bed after a role-play goes wrong, using memory staging and personified inner voices to externalize the protagonist’s thoughts. Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood star, with care taken to translate the book’s limited physical setting to a visual medium.

The film addresses difficult themes through careful blocking and makeup effects, including a widely noted degloving sequence executed with practical techniques. Mike Flanagan edited the film to alternate present-tense jeopardy with formative memories, sustaining momentum within the confined setting.

‘1408’ (2007)

Based on King’s short story, Mikael Håfström’s film follows a skeptical writer who investigates a notoriously haunted hotel room. John Cusack carries most of the runtime opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Mary McCormack, with sound design and visual effects calibrated to a single-location escalation.

Multiple edits exist, including alternate endings released on home video that adjust the story’s final note. The production combines in-camera tricks, moving walls, and digital augmentation to keep the room dynamic, and the score and mix continually reorient the viewer’s sense of space.

‘The Mist’ (2007)

Frank Darabont adapts the novella about townspeople trapped in a supermarket as creatures move through a mysterious fog. Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones, and Laurie Holden lead the ensemble, with a focus on group dynamics under stress.

Darabont adopted a fast, handheld, two-camera approach developed on his television work, enabling quick coverage and practical interaction with the creature effects. An alternate ending, conceived specifically for the film, became a widely discussed creative choice that differentiates it from the source.

‘Doctor Sleep’ (2019)

Mike Flanagan adapts King’s sequel to ‘The Shining’, following a man with psychic abilities who crosses paths with a nomadic group feeding on similar gifts. Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, and Kyliegh Curran star, with a narrative that bridges book continuity and iconography familiar from earlier screen interpretation.

The production features reconstructed sets that mirror the look of the earlier hotel while remaining a separate legal and creative build. Flanagan prepared both theatrical and director’s cuts, with extended character material and structural refinements, and the score by The Newton Brothers ties motifs to the story’s themes of recovery and legacy.

‘It’ (2017)

Andy Muschietti’s film covers the childhood portion of the Derry saga as a group of friends confronts an entity manifesting as a clown. Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, and Jack Dylan Grazer are among the Losers’ Club, with Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise.

Production moved the setting’s period to align with the characters’ ages in the later installment, allowing period-specific design and needle-drops. Practical makeup, digital augmentation, and set-piece direction balance character beats with horror sequences, and the release renewed large-scale studio interest in King adaptations.

‘Dolores Claiborne’ (1995)

Taylor Hackford adapts the novel about a housekeeper accused in one death while suspected in another years earlier, interlacing present-day inquiry with past events on a coastal island. Kathy Bates plays the title role opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh, with Judy Parfitt and Christopher Plummer in support.

The film uses color timing to differentiate timelines, shifting palettes between present and flashback sequences. Screenwriter Tony Gilroy structures the reveals to align with the novel’s gradual disclosures, while Nova Scotia locations supply the story’s rocky shorelines and ferry-linked isolation.

‘The Dead Zone’ (1983)

David Cronenberg distills the novel about a teacher who awakens from a coma with second-sight visions that alter the course of his life. Christopher Walken stars alongside Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, and Martin Sheen, with a structure that moves through linked episodes toward a political confrontation.

The film maintains a restrained tone consistent with Cronenberg’s early period, emphasizing moral choices over spectacle. Shooting took place in Ontario, standing in for New England, and Michael Kamen’s score complements the film’s measured pacing and cold-weather setting.

‘Carrie’ (1976)

Brian De Palma’s adaptation of King’s debut novel follows a bullied teenager who discovers destructive telekinetic power. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie earned Academy Award nominations, with Nancy Allen, John Travolta, and Amy Irving among the ensemble.

Split-screen editing, slow-motion, and Pino Donaggio’s score create a stylized build toward the prom sequence. The film’s practical effects and location work in California high schools shaped a modern template for supernatural teen drama that influenced subsequent adaptations and remakes.

‘Misery’ (1990)

Reiner’s second King collaboration adapts ‘Misery’, focusing on a novelist rescued by a fan after a car crash and then held in her remote home. Kathy Bates and James Caan drive a contained two-hander that uses practical effects and precise blocking to escalate tension.

The screenplay trims subplots to concentrate on psychological warfare and control, and Barry Sonnenfeld’s cinematography (prior to his directing career) supports the cramped, wintry setting. Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the production design emphasizes everyday items as tools within the story’s chess match.

‘Stand by Me’ (1986)

Rob Reiner adapts King’s novella ‘The Body’ into a story about four friends who set out to find a missing boy. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell form the central group, with Kiefer Sutherland and John Cusack in supporting roles and Richard Dreyfuss providing narration.

The film keeps the novella’s reflective frame while streamlining episodic incidents into a tight road narrative. Its soundtrack curates period hits to anchor time and place, and the production was shot largely in Oregon, whose railways and forests double for small-town Maine.

‘The Shining’ (1980)

Stanley Kubrick’s film translates the story of a caretaker family isolated at a mountain hotel during the off-season. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd star, with Garrett Brown’s Steadicam work enabling long, controlled tracking shots that became part of the film’s signature visual language.

The adaptation condenses and reconfigures plot elements while emphasizing psychological disintegration and haunted-space imagery. Classical cues sit alongside contributions by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, with interiors built at Elstree Studios and the hotel exterior filmed at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon.

‘The Green Mile’ (1999)

Darabont’s second King adaptation draws from the serialized novel ‘The Green Mile’, following a Death Row guard whose routine shifts after the arrival of a gentle inmate with unexplained abilities. Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, and Bonnie Hunt head the cast, with Sam Rockwell and Doug Hutchison in key supporting roles.

The production was noted for practical effects and period design that recreate a Southern penitentiary. The film earned several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Supporting Actor for Duncan, and its extended runtime allowed the screenplay to preserve major arcs from the source.

‘The Shawshank Redemption’ (1994)

Frank Darabont adapts King’s novella ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’, centering on a banker and a lifer whose friendship endures through changes inside a New England prison. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman lead an ensemble that includes Bob Gunton, William Sadler, and Clancy Brown, with on-location work at the Ohio State Reformatory shaping the film’s atmosphere.

The script retains the novella’s narration structure while expanding supporting characters and institutional detail. Thomas Newman composed the score, Roger Deakins served as cinematographer, and on-location work at the Ohio State Reformatory shaped the film’s atmosphere, with multiple Academy Award nominations boosting its long-term visibility.

Share your own picks and what you think makes a King adaptation work best in the comments!