There are literally hundreds of adaptations of the various novels, novellas and short stories by Stephen King. Some are more obscure and less readily available than others though, so if you’ve taken it upon yourself to track down and watch all of the horror master’s work to pass your time in quarantine, then Netflix has a few available titles that may have slipped by you.
First up, and released by Netflix itself, 1922 is the escalating confession of a farmer who murdered his wife, and is subsequently driven to insanity by the guilt from his crime.
Carrie, King’s debut novel of a psychokinetic teenage girl dealing with a life of abuse and misery, was adapted into a seminal movie not long after its publication in 1974, but this take is from 2002, with May’s Angela Bettis in the eponymous role, and although somewhat overlong, it recaptures the novel’s epistolary structure.
Adaptations of the author’s work are notoriously hit and miss at the best of times, but Gerald’s Game is one of the best in recent years. The tale of a woman left handcuffed to a bed after her husband dies of a heart attack during a kinky sex game in a remote cabin, the movie rises above lesser King tales to take its place beside the accepted classics, especially impressive given the high volume of introspection and internal dialogue featured in the novel.
To be honest, Syfy TV series Haven barely counts as a King adaptation, as the novel on which it’s ostensibly based, The Colorado Kid, provides only the most superficial of inspirational setups, and is otherwise entirely its own original creation of a mystery set in a coastal town beset by a plague of hereditary supernatural curses, one that didn’t get the love it deserved while it was airing.
In the Tall Grass, meanwhile, sees a pair of siblings enter an overgrown field after a young boy calls for help, only to become separated by an unseen force that menaces them and several others who are drawn into its disorienting snare.
Finally, the 2007 movie of The Mist is most infamous for its nihilistic suckerpunch of an ending, and this TV series version, which ran for a single season a decade later, retains the theme of societal breakdown as a group of townspeople are trapped in a supermarket after the titular fog descends, along with the abominations it hides in its impenetrable grey wisps.
Adaptations of Stephen King’s work have been responsible for a fair amount of cinematic garbage over the decades, but the quality of this assortment might inspire you to go back and take a look at others you might have otherwise overlooked.
