52. Trucks
51. The Mangler
50. Sleepwalkers
49. Desperation
48. Grey Matter
47. Ghosts
46. Thinner
45. The Mist
44. Dolan’s Cadillac
43. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
42. Riding the Bullet
41. 1408
40. The Night Flier
39. Secret Window
38. Quicksilver Highway
37. Maximum Overdrive
36. Silver Bullet
35. Dreamcatcher
34. Sometimes They Come Back
33. It
32. Nightmares & Dreamscapes
31. The Langoliers
30. Haven
29. The Lawnmower Man
28. Creepshow
27. Salem’s Lot
26. The Tommyknockers
25. Cujo
24. Kingdom Hospital
23. The Dark Half
22. Rose Red
21. The Running Man
20. Graveyard Shift
19. Children of the Corn
18. Bag of Bones
17. Storm of the Century
16. Hearts in Atlantis
15. The Stand
14. Cat’s Eye
13. Christine
12. The Green Mile
11. Dolores Claiborne
10. Firestarter
9. Pet Sematary
8. Apt Pupil
7. The Dead Zone
6. Needful Things
5. Stand by Me
4. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Carrie
2. Misery
1. The Shining
Related: Classic Trash: Pet Sematary
Valerie Temple, former Cooking the Books auteur, programs the movies at an arthouse movie theater in PA. She also dabbles in comedy and likes to dress up like Paula Poundstone in her free time. She's on Twitter!
Friday, March 2, 2012
77
Netflix once recommended Misery to me under the category "Strong Female Protagonists."
@deepomega "Netflix Categories, In Order" would be a great LWC.
#1 will always be "Watch It Again."
This is all wrong.
In order of what?
Hey guys, I'm already running late for cheerleading practice so can someone else take care of stuffing Daniel in the trashcan?
@jolie Daniel what? Be specific!
"Dead Zone" is at #1 for me. And "Bag of Bones" was just heinous.
@GailPink Dead Zone is straight up a good movie.
Why does everyone love The Shawshank Redemption?
@laurel Because it's fucking awesome.
@GailPink Bizarro Jed Bartlett FTW.
@laurel Guys like it because it's okay for them to cry a little while they're watching it.
Well this has been a fun jaunt through the terrors of my childhood! (Children of the Corn *shoves fist in mouth to stop the screaming*)
@jolie I still think the vampire kid from Salem's Lot is floating at my window.
@laurel I mean, I'm not even one of those terrified-of-clowns people and It fucked me up for years. And DO NOT get me started on Pet Cemetery. *hides under blankies*
@jolie I've never seen It but I occasionally watch the Tim Curry parts on youtube when I need some hiding-under-the-blankies time.
Maximum Overdrive should be higher, for the soundtrack alone.
@Clarence Rosario Definitely in the top ten if not top five.
LOL
Top ten Monstervision With Joe Bob Briggs episodes, perhaps.
@Clarence Rosario Certainly the #1 reason I always make others unclog the garbage disposal.
I need clarification. Is number one referencing the boring Kubrick version, or the 1997 Steven Weber version? Because: Steven Weber.
@melis "Steven Weber Vehicles, In Order" would be a great LWC.
@melis I was about to write "Wait, you need to break 'the Shining' down by TV miniseries vs. Kubrick version so I can yell at everyone who claims the miniseries is better," so thanks for that. Anyway, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME.
@melis LOL
@jfruh To be fair the miniseries is longer.
UUUUGHHH the Kubrick version was the CAPTAIN OF BORING. Admittedly the miniseries wasn't good, strictly, in any sense of the word, but it had 100% more Steven Weber.
@melis If Steven Weber is ever wrong I don't want to be right. It's a far more thorough exploration of the source material too.
@saythatscool That is a very diplomatic way of putting it.
stand by me should be higher than shawshank,
IT should be in the top ten
maximum overdrive and creep show should also be about ten places higher than listed
I would have thought Tim Curry could have "floated" It a little higher on the list.
Came in here to complain about Creepshow not being #1, realized I was confusing it with the far superior Tom Atkins vehicle Night of the Creeps, left this comment anyway.
Misery is not a good movie. And it has absolutely nothing to do with what is actually Stephen King's best book.
Are adaptations that have almost nothing to do with the original stories (e.g., Lawnmowerman, Cat's Eye) rated higher or lower because of it?
I've seen neither Christine nor the Green Mile yet I'm still offended by their relative placement on this list.
I have not seen "Green Mile" either. But I have seen the trailer, and just based on that, I'm pretty sure it needs to be at the very bottom of this list.
Switch Misery with The Dead Zone and your top 10 is perfect.
@Mr. B Also, not that the It miniseries was great or anything, but probably was the best possible adaptation of that book?
One of these days I'd like to see Evil Fictional Clowns, in Order, please.
@Mr. B - 1. John Wayne Gacy - Disqualified; Real
@Ham Snadwich The winner would obviously be Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but getting there would be half the fun.
@Ham Snadwich 2. Insane Clown Posse - Ditto
@Mr. B IT had too much 40+ year old ponytail.
0. "Among the Living"
-1. "Skeletons in the Closet"
RUNNING MAN IS EASILY TOP TEN ARE YOU KIDDING ME ARNOLD IN TIGHTS.
@Matt "He had to split."
@Matt ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER'S TOUGHEST OPPONENT YET: RICHARD DAWSON
Also, if you're going to include dreck like 1408 and Thinner and Apt Pupil you may as well give the remakes a fighting chance.
I really like The Langoliers.
http://youtu.be/sd7ALKWFEsc
"You look like that actress..."
"?"
"She was in Titanic..."
"??"
"and that Steven King movie? the one where she kidnaps her favorite author?"
"? Kathy Bates??"
"Yeah. You remind me of her."
Graveyard Shift is pretty great, particularly because of Stephen Macht's weirdo-authentic backwoods New England accent. "Yeh cann't trust a driftah!"
Also, Brad Dourif, which goes without saying.
This list seems about right, given that so many of his movies have been lame at best, and simply awful when King has any direct control over the production process. But the Langoliers was just so stupid and annoying and tedious that I can't see how it isn't at the ass end of this list.
@BadUncle Oh come on! The beer was GOOD on the plane, but HORRIBLE in the airport! What's more compelling than that?
@BadUncle Yeah, and the poorly-rendered furr balls that ate the world at the end of the day (wtf??) almost made up for Bronson Pinchot's screech fest by being so hilariously absurd.
I used to be the biggest King apologist EVER, but I will admit this: Watching The Mist sent me into such a tremendous rage I actually called in sick to work the next day. Stephen King is dead to me now.
Kind of having a rage-out at the not-in-the-top-five ranking of Dolores Claiborne here. Simply not okay with me.
@Choire Sicha DADDY'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!
please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary please no more listicles without commentary
@23abraxas please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary please more listicles without commentary
@keisertroll MORE COMMENTARY WITHOUT LISTS
MORE LISTS WITHOUT NUMBERS
MORE FISTS WITHOUT BOOKS
A-- greed?
MORE TURTLES WITH FEWER HATS
NO WIRE HANGERS
@keisertroll HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, YOU DON'T PUT A BRA IN THE DRYER - IT WARPS
@keisertroll MORE SLEEP, LESS BROOKLYN
Wait, does Kingdom Hospital even count? It was an adaptation of The Kingdom, aka 4 hours of awesome Danish weirdness, courtesy of Lars von Trier.
@brilliantmistake : I am a massive fan of The Kingdom because it manages to be both hilarious and scary as hell in equal unadulterated parts. I did not watch Kingdom Hospital because it seemed like the least essential remake ever.
On the other hand, I have an import DVD of the entire 4-episode second "season" of The Kingdom and still haven't watched it past the first episode. So, uh. Maybe I'm just lazy.
I made this whole list to talk about Needful Things, you guys. Does anyone want to talk about Needful Things?
@Valcatraz I need a picture of Elvis that gives me orgasms.
@Brunhilde How much did they pay Max von Sydow? Is that public knowledge?
Salem's Lot should be higher...Danny Glick scratching at the window? That messed me up for a loooong time. Plus David Soul AND Fred Willard? C'mon!
@SuperMargie Yeah, the Danny Glick scene was pretty good. But you have to admit, David Soul and Fred Willard pretty much mitigate scares. All in all, it was a much better book. But that's usually the way...
@SuperMargie Agreed. I've always thought this was one of the best adaptations, and it is definitely one of my favorite, if not favorite, book of his.
Storm of the Century: Good, solid entertainment. Colm Feore FTW (as always).
Memories of Stephen King:
1) Reading his books by my pool in the hothothtot SoCal sun, feeling a heightened sense of fear drape over me - scary stories experienced in the bright daylight felt more disjointed and macabre than alone in the dark.
2) However, I do recall re-reading "Salem's Lot" on a bus in the inky black night time of the French countryside. My classmates threw a waded up piece of paper at me, and the book went flying ...
3) Having recently finished "It," I was sitting on a stalled chairlift in the New Mexico mountains, with few people ahead or behind me, as it was the last run of the day. When the lift re-started, a chair on the return passed me by with a balloon attached. ::shudder::
4) Saw "The Shining" right after it opened in Westwood, CA on Thanksgiving Night on an overly full stomach. Reference #1 - something about mixing his work with sunny days, happy holidays just highlights the perversity. That was a depressing night. Oh, and the entire theatre laughed every time a time card flashed between scenes, and, sadly, when the marvelous Shelly Duvall appeared on screen the first time.
5) I will defend to my grave the hotness of Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham in the film adaptation of "Christine."