The best Stephen King movies to watch before Salem’s Lot

Check under your bed and sleep with the lights on because Salem’s Lot is heading to cinemas. The Nun director Gary Dauberman will bring an old Stephen King novel to the bring screen, with a Top Gun: Maverick’s Lewis Pullman leading the cast. But there are plenty of other, equally terrifying King classics to enjoy from the author’s much-adapted back catalogue.

However, with so much on offer, it can be tricky separating your Carries from your Christines, your Shinings from your Shawshanks or even knowing where to start. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the ten best-reviewed Stephen King movie adaptations (as per Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB) to keep you going until Salem’s Lot hits the big screen. Brave enough to read on, Constant Reader?

Carrie

Carrie takes us back to where it all started for King. Not only was it the very first movie adaptation of his work but it was also based on his very first published novel. Released in 1974, King originally binned Carrie after thinking it was no good. Thankfully, his wife Tabitha rescued it from the trash and convinced him to finish it and as a result, the world’s leading horror author got his star. This fortuitous turn of events also gave us Brian De Palma’s blood-soaked adaptation in 1976, featuring Sissy Spacek as its titular telekinetic teen who’s pushed too far by high school bullies and wreaks her vengeance on prom night.

Stand By Me

Originally based on a short story named The Body, Stand By Me has emerged as not only one of the best (and best reviewed) King movie adaptations of all time but also one of the most memorable and resonant coming-of-age movies ever. Director Rob Reiner carefully directs his young cast Teddy (Corey Feldman), Vern (Jerry O’Connell), Geordie (Wil Wheaton) and Chris (River Phoenix) as they embark on a trip through rural Maine to find a dead body, leaving as boys and returning as forever changed young adults. Phoenix’s heartbreaking performance as Castle Rock’s misunderstood ne’er-do-well is one of the late actor’s finest, with King’s fictional town becoming the name of Reiner’s own production company.

The Shawshank Redemption

King often recalls an encounter with a disgruntled reader who disapproved of his horror fascination and asked him why he can’t write nice things like the Shawshank Redemption. King’s short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption got the big-screen treatment in 1994 via filmmaker Frank Darabont, who later went on to bring King’s The Mist to screens in 2007. While the latter proved how harrowing his work he can be, the former somewhat surprised viewers with its life-affirming message. When Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sent to Shawshank prison for a crime he didn’t commit, we follow him through some dark times as he slowly plans his escape. Featuring perhaps Morgan Freeman’s definite role as hardened con Red, The Shawshank Redemption has the ability to stop channel-hopping in its tracks.

Misery

Considering the career King has had and the die-hard fans he’s gathered along the way, it’s hard not to imagine that he’s worried about suffering the same fate as his protagonist in Misery at some point. Here, we meet Paul Sheldon (James Caan), author of the popular Misery novel series. When he finally decides to kill off his fan-favourite character once and for all, creative freedom is almost in his grasp… until he totals his car and is taken in by sadistic nurse and Misery-megafan Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). Unable to walk, he’s kept bedbound and forced to un-write Misery’s fate in order to avoid the dark temperament (and hobbling hammer) of his ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ captor. Another Reiner-directed King adaptation that’s hard to forget.

The Dead Zone

Mixing King’s work with the visceral output of a filmmaker like David Cronenberg feels like a no-brainer — which is probably why these two talents wasted no time crossing paths. Released in 1973, The Dead Zone stars Christopher Walken as a man who emerges from a years-long coma to find that he’s suddenly able to read people’s thoughts, glimpse their past and, in some cases, predict the future. After coming to terms with his newfound abilities, former schoolteacher Johnny Smith (Walken) soon puts his new skills to use in solving crimes but when he stumbles upon some future intelligence that has world-changing consequences he's forced to act. The film was so successful, it inspired a small-screen series starring Anthony Michael Hall a few years later.

IT (2017)

Originally brought to screens as a mini-series in the 90s with Tim Curry stepping into the red wig of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, 2017’s It brought King’s killer clown story to new audiences riding a wave of Stranger Things’ adoration. As such, director Andy Muschietti shifts the original plot from the 1950s to the 1980s but keeps the rest of the story largely the same, following a group of misfit kids who are forced to do battle with an ancient alien being that takes on the form of a circus clown to devour fear-ridden children. The film was successful enough to warrant a renewed interest in King adaptations, something that has ultimately led to the release of Salem’s Lot.

The Shining

King is infamously not a fan of director Stanley Kubrick’s take on his 1977 novel The Shining but that hasn’t stopped audiences from considering it one of the best and most iconic horror movies ever made. Plot-wise, it stays relatively close to King’s original text, with young mindreader Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) forced to accompany his father Jack (Jack Nicholson) and mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall) as they safeguard the haunted Overlook Hotel during a particularly dark winter. Kubrick packs the film with enough bizarre imagery that it inspired its own documentary, Room 237, dedicated to unpicking their meaning. He may have lost King with his murderous and reworked ending but fans still clearly still love The Shining.

Dolores Claiborne

Five years after cementing herself as an actor with an uncanny ability to bring King’s characters to life in Misery, Bates returns to the author’s world for grounded drama Dolores Claiborne. In this story, she plays the film’s titular role as a care worker for the elderly who is accused of murdering the very person she’s supposed to be helping. When her estranged daughter Seleena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) comes to visit her mother on her remote island home in Maine, the pair are forced to navigate a strained relationship plagued with lies, pain and abuse. Proving King can do sincerity just as easily as scares, the film earned award nominations for its stars and still holds an 85% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Green Mile

Director Frank Darabont returns to King’s work — and to a prison setting — for his adaptation of The Green Mile, the first of the author’s novels to be released bit-by-bit online before being gathered together and published in novel form. Set during the American Depression, Tom Hanks plays Paul Edgecombe, a death-row police officer who encounters a strange prisoner with the ability to heal people. While the seemingly unearthly John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) awaits his turn to walk the ‘green mile’ to the electric chair for a crime he didn’t commit, we see him touch the lives of prisoners and inmates alike. Realised with the same steady pace, attention to detail and heart as Darabont’s take on The Shawshank Redemption a few years earlier, it’s one of cinema’s best adaptations of King’s work.

1408

A cynical writer who spends his life debunking paranormal encounters has his wits and sanity put to the test during a visit to a haunted hotel room. According to its owners, no one has managed to last more than an hour inside room 1408 but that doesn’t deter Mike Enslin (John Cusack) who books a stay and goes on to immediately regret his life choices. Co-starring Samuel L. Jackson, the movie was a success with fans and currently holds an 80% critics’ rating on movie aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Praised for its smart scares and psychological frights, the film proved so popular, it earned back five times its production budget.

Salem’s Lot will be released in cinemas on Friday, 11 October.