The year has just begun, and we’ve already seen a horror hit in the dark, blood-soaked horror-comedy of The Monkey, a film based on a short story by Stephen King. It’s far from his only work getting the movie treatment, a remake of Cujo will soon follow, along with Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man and new adaptations of The Long Walk and Billy Summers.
In some ways, I can’t think of another author whose work has become as much a staple of cinema as Stephen King’s. Adaptations of his stories have become classics of cinema, horror, and awards seasons—but what makes King’s work so well suited for adaptation?
The first and most obvious answer is the sheer volume of source material. Stephen Edwin King began writing in 1967 while studying at the University of Maine, and over half a century later, he never really stopped. He has published a new book almost every year since Carrie in 1974—some years even multiple books—including novels, short stories, non-fiction, and teleplays. This means he has an assortment of stories to put on the silver screen and even more on the way.
This leads to King’s second strength: he is an extremely versatile writer. The horror genre is vast, ranging from lighthearted slasher and monster movies to deeper psychological horror that uses fear to comment on society and the world around us. Regardless of what kind of horror you enjoy, King has written something for you. He’s written vampire stories, werewolf tales, and multiple ghost stories. If you want wacky horror about killer lawnmowers, King has written it. If you want a dark coming-of-age story about grief and accepting the death of loved ones, he has that too.
That being said, there’s more to a story than just a cool concept. King is also an expert at maximising the potential of each premise, primarily by delving deeply into the human aspects of his stories. Just as common as ghouls and ghosts in King’s works are alcoholic fathers, merciless bullies, and small-town American families and communities being torn apart.
Like the best horror writers, King understands how to use the horror in each story to explore the darker sides of human nature. Christine may be about a literal killer car, but it also examines materialism and status, showing how owning a flashy new car turns an awkward teenage nerd into an egotistical sociopath. Misery, on the surface, is a story about a crazed fangirl kidnapping her favourite author, but King uses it to explore the struggles of creativity—the feeling of being forced to write what’s popular rather than what you’re passionate about.
This balance between terrifying monsters and relatable, down-to-earth characters gives filmmakers plenty of room to put their own creative spin on his stories.
King’s work even allows directors and producers to build upon his ideas in a cinematic context. For example, King’s original text for The Shawshank Redemption was a simple novella about the friendship between two convicts plotting their escape, harkening back to classic prison-break stories. Frank Darabont, however, transformed it into an emotionally driven character study about hope and perseverance in the face of corruption, often considered one of the greatest films ever made.
Of course, there are more cynical reasons to adapt Stephen King. He’s a household name, and putting his name on a poster reliably draws audiences. Many of his earlier works are now decades old, making them prime candidates for remakes and reboots.
However, fame alone cannot explain the enduring success of King’s film adaptations. Ultimately, his stories and characters resonate with people, exposing the fear lurking in our everyday lives through his twisted horror narratives—and showing us how to overcome them. Many directors and writers have been inspired by his work, using his stories as a springboard to delve deeper into the horror genre and cinema as a whole. Several new Stephen King adaptations are already in the works, and I do not doubt that many more will follow in the near future.
Words by Alex Briggs
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