

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection In April 2023, after fellow writer Megan Abbott declared on Twitter that the 1980 flick is “still the best movie of all time,” King quote tweeted her with a blunt “Sorry, no.” Hopefully he’ll explain his reservations some other time, preferably in a knock out fight with Scorsese.

Sure, it’s a stretch to say that King has outright declared his hate for “Raging Bull.” But the author doesn’t seem to be fond of Martin Scorsese’s well-loved biopic of boxer Jake LaMotta either. Image Credit: ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection Lester’s “Firestarter” and Brett Leonard’s “The Lawnmower Man.” These include the author’s criticisms of King adaptations, from Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” to Mark L.

Listed in no particular order, here are 23 films that Stephen King has disliked or given a bad review. But does the “if you can’t say something nice” adage really apply to the guy who dreamed up “Misery”? King has brutally picked apart the merits of Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” and Michael Bay’s “Transformers,” even calling Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks!” a “benchmark of awfulness.” They’re harsh words, sure. The Maine-born writer slips in his film opinions from time to time, typically reacting to onscreen interpretations of his work but occasionally taking aim at whatever he’s seen latest. Outspoken as ever, King regularly takes to social media to share his thoughts on politics and the state of pop culture. But these days, he mainly contributes to Hollywood through carefully crafted books and snide little tweets. Romero’s “Creepshow” (1982) and Mary Lambert’s “Pet Sematary” (1989). King has found reasonable success in adapting his own work see the screenplays for George A. The pair’s “In the Tall Grass” novella became a Netflix movie in 2019, and Hill enjoyed his own success with Scott Derrickson’s 2022 “The Black Phone” adaptation.Īlmost all of King’s titles boast the imaginative nightmares for which the author is renowned: a perverse pull for audiences that for good or bad is now tried and true. King has teamed up with his son Joe Hill to produce even more cinematic fodder in recent years. Horror’s reigning titan of literary terror has written more than 60 books and 200 short stories: many of them rooted in King’s signature strangeness and the believable humanity that turned 2017’s “ It” into a global sensation. There’s no shortage of material to go around, of course. From Rob Reiner and David Cronenberg to Mike Flanagan and Andy Muschietti, genre filmmakers have clamored to take on King’s words for decades. Stephen King is among history’s most frequently adapted writers, up there with Charles Dickens, the Brothers Grimm, and William Shakespeare for inspiring the most successful page-to-picture creations.
