To this day I struggle to sleep in a room that doesn't have curtains you can close For a TV mini series made in 1979 it remains genuinely creepy with several standout scary moments (kid at the window x2, kid in the coffin, the Master's first appearance, the Master waking up in his coffin, Geoffrey Lewis in the rocking chair...)
To varying degrees: Shawshank, Green Mile, Misery, Stand By Me, Christine, The Dead Zone, Pet Sematary, Hearts in Atlantis, Doctor Sleep, Dolores Claiborne, Gerald's Game, 11/22/63, The Stand (the first version), and despite it's obvious problems, the '84 Firestarter. ...and The Running Man.
Danny's mom on the autopsy table. Ben in the basement with the assorted vampires crawling towards him while his back is turned.
I love the Drew Barrymore Firestarter. The Dead Zone is also a great adaptation. The Shining is one of the scariest of King's books, IMHO, and the movie almost makes it, but is more creepy than scary. And of course the original Carrie is just fantastic.
Have you read Pet Semetary? I find that one of King’s more scary works, but there hasn’t been a good adaptation. I’m watching the Shining miniseries. It’s book accurate given that King wrote the screenplay, but the acting and production values can be better. I don’t really find it scary. It’s more about substance abuse and cabin fever than much horror. The movie version has more horror. Same. I still have it on my list to read.
Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Stand (original) and Doctor Sleep (directors cut). (I didn't realize that was an uncredited Henry Thomas in the Jack Torrance role until a YouTube video. There's some real subtle make-up to make him look like Jack Nicholson.
I really enjoyed Doctor Sleep (not actually sure which version I watched however) which is interesting given I've never been a fan of The Shining (the film).
The same. I like the novel. I think it's one of my top ten, but the movie I'm 'Meh', to; which is probably why I didn't see Doctor Sleep when it first came out in the theater. I read the stories about how the director recreated the Overlook hotel and scenes from the movie and thought, I don't want to see that. Then, one day, I was at my local library and they had a Stephen King display set up with a Doctor Sleep DVD and thought, what the hell, and I was quite surprised at how good the movie turned out to be.
Shawshank is definitely the best King adaptation. Robbins and Freeman are brilliant, and William "Sloane" Sadler manages to steal a few scenes. Misery is very good, even if it can't delve into the writer's psyche the way the book could. The book's ending would not have translated well, so they were wise to change it... but it's not nearly as good. The Dead Zone is creepy fun as a movie, though I didn't read the book. Christopher Walken rarely disappoints. The Running Man is really a non-adaptation... but it's a lot of fun for what it is. Richard Dawson is a standout... you know, that guy should host a game show in real life!
I heard to watch the directors cut. Also, the guy who did it also did the terrific Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. And he is likely to do a Dark Tower TV series.
There's an adaptation I'd like to see... as long as the writer was determined to be at least mostly faithful to the source material. Some scenes might be difficult to adapt to screen, though, such as the massacre in Tull. Mr. King is generally pretty Ok with tweaks that allow for the different medium. For instance, I saw him once defending the decision in "Cujo" to spare a character he killed off in the book.
11/22/63 is a great adaptation and the best I've seen in recent years. Obviously, some of the others mentioned here are also really good.
He’s done both Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. Last year he adapted Midnight Club, which also incorporated that author’s short stories. This year he’s adapting House of the Usher. I overall like his adaptions. His original work isn’t as good. I didn’t much care for his Midnight Mass. The closest thing on TV comparable to King is From. But Flannigan didn’t create it.
A proper Running Man adaptation would be bleak and depressing as all get out; and there's no way you could film the ending in a post 9/11 world.
Is it true they're doing a TV series about The Jaunt? Now THAT was frickin' scary. Probably the scariest King story I've ever read. Spoiler Specifically, what happens when a person Jaunts while awake. Their consciousness perceives the journey as taking possibly millions or billions of years...now just think about that for a minute. Stuck alone with your own thoughts, in an endless field of white, for that long? It would completely destroy your mind.