10 Most Disappointing Stephen King Movie Adaptations, Ranked

Hollywood Movies

10 Most Disappointing Stephen King Movie Adaptations, Ranked

Rotham November 21, 2025 0 Comments

The Stephen King movies do not stop, seemingly ever. They have been constant for almost as long as King’s been a published author, because his first novel (Carrie) came out in 1974, and that one had a movie adaptation in 1976. There are more than 60 Stephen King novels, and even more stories if you want to count the short (or novella-length) ones, and many of them have been made into movies. Hell, some of them have been made into movies more than once.

There are, of course, some great Stephen King movies, and then there are also the misfires, many of them based on some of King’s more flawed stories (see Dreamcatcher and Cell, for two examples). But there are also good stories that were made into noticeably less impressive movies, and that’s what the following intends to demonstrate. Some of these are bad and disappointing, while others were sort of decent, but particularly disappointing when compared to the quality of the stories they were adaptations of. “Most disappointing” can be different from “worst overall,” though; that’s the one thing worth keeping in mind, before getting too angry at anything here.

10

‘Cujo’ (1983)

The titular dog in the 1983 adaptation of Cujo standing outside, early in the film

The big thing about Cujo’s film adaptation is the fact that it changes what was probably the most memorable and impactful part of the original story, and not for the better. There is a grimness to the entire story, since it’s pretty small-scale and focuses on one of King’s more tragic monsters, who can’t even really be called a villain, as the titular dog turns murderous because he gets rabies.

There isn’t anything supernatural to it, and that makes Cujo feel more believable, in some ways, and there is a real discomfort here that’s captured well by some parts of the movie, but not all. It’s a film that lacks confidence, by the time it wraps up, and the one big change stands in contrast to the rest of the movie, which is otherwise not all that bad, and fairly in line with the book and how it makes you feel, as a reader.

9

‘Needful Things’ (1993)

There is a lot of Needful Things in the original book, which runs as many as about 1000 pages, depending on the formatting of the edition you read. It’s one of King’s Castle Rock books, and really explores the whole town fully, showing how it – and the people living in it – change after a strange shop opens in the town, selling people highly desirable items that have strange effects on them.

The film adaptation can only go so far in capturing that whole town-wise descent into madness, and the movie lacking that makes it, unfortunately, falter.

It boils down to one guy slowly taking over the town and causing chaos, and it’s a story that’s always building in craziness, and always going somewhere, even if it’s naturally a bit of a slow burn. The film adaptation can only go so far in capturing that whole town-wise descent into madness, and the movie lacking that – or not making it as intense and scary as it needs to be – makes it, unfortunately, falter a bit, in the end.

8

‘It Chapter Two’ (2019)

Without a doubt, It is one of Stephen King’s best books, but it’s also one of his longest and most structurally daring, and so that leads to problems when it comes to making an adaptation. 2017’s It got around that by, instead of cutting between the main characters as kids and adults, just focused on their battles (including against a being of pure evil and then a bunch of bullies) as kids.

Then, It Chapter Two had all the adult stuff leftover, which isn’t as compelling when you’ve already seen the characters prove victorious once before, and when they’re all younger/more vulnerable. There is a thrill in having both halves of the story build in similar ways throughout the novel, and the two-pronged finale is immense to read, but it just all feels repetitive when one half of the story’s content is literally made the second half of the story, without all the interesting structural stuff and the juxtapositions and all.

7

‘Pet Sematary’ (2019)

The first movie version of Pet Sematary wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t quite capture the intensity and rawness of the novel. It did a slightly better job at all that than Cujo, for sure, but 30 years later, there came another adaptation of Pet Sematary, and this one had the opportunity to do things a little better, or just feel a bit more reminiscent of the undeniably unnerving qualities found in the book of the same name.

Instead, 2019’s Pet Sematary didn’t improve anything, and it just felt like a weaker version of an already flawed movie adaptation. You could call this one of the worst Stephen King movies, too, and most people probably wouldn’t consider that too offensive an opinion. As is the case with any lackluster Stephen King movie, you should just read the damn book, or listen to it, if reading really isn’t your thing.

6

‘The Running Man’ (1987)

Arnold Schwarzenegger getting shown off in 1987's The Running Man — Arnold Schwarzenegger getting shown off in 1987’s The Running Man

The Running Man is an interesting one to try and break down, because it’s not one of the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, but it’s also not one of his worst, and can be fun if you’re after a blunt and goofy ‘80s action movie. But it is easier to categorize it as a Schwarzenegger film than a Stephen King one, since the changes made to The Running Man, the novel, are rather extreme.

Both novel and 1987 movie revolve around high-stakes games that are televised in a dystopian future, but core premise aside, the way those games work, and what happens in the end, differs greatly. There was a more accurate adaptation in 2025 that, while not perfect, did lean a little more into what made the novel a good read, and that drives home the notion that the 1987 adaptation is disappointing as a filmed version of the novel (though, when judged as a sci-fi/action movie without considering what’s missing, it certainly has its moments).

5

‘Silver Bullet’ (1985)

The werewolf attacks in 'Silver Bullet' — The werewolf attacks in ‘Silver Bullet’

Silver Bullet is just a middle-of-the-road werewolf movie, and some people might reject that criticism, because it’s a minor sort of cult classic, but there just isn’t much here. You could say the same about the very slight Cycle of the Werewolf, which is the King story (sometimes called a novella, something just scraping by as a “novel”) Silver Bullet is based on, but that one is just cooler.

It comes down to structure again, even if structure was last talked about with the mammoth It, and then Cycle of the Werewolf is anything but gargantuan in page count. But there’s a neat way the story flows in its original form, and then when it became a movie here, some of that was lost. It’s just another werewolf movie, really, and that means it’s not without some scares and neat sequences, but it just doesn’t truly leave a mark, either.

4

‘The Dead Zone’ (1983)

This one should’ve been dynamite, because it had a bunch of things working for it. The novel version of The Dead Zone is prime early Stephen King, having the kind of pacing, snappiness, and approachability that most of his early books seemed to effortlessly have. Also, this film adaptation had David Cronenberg in the director’s chair, and the always interesting Christopher Walken in one of his rare leading roles.

The intensity of the original story just doesn’t shine through in this movie adaptation, though, and neither Cronenberg nor Walken are doing anything anywhere near their respective bests. The Dead Zone is a tolerable movie, if you’ve not read the book, but if you’re familiar with the story on page before you see it on screen, you’ll probably be left feeling confused and more than a bit let down by how it’s all handled.

3

‘Firestarter’ (1984)

The more recent version of Firestarter was probably worse, but the 1984 version was probably more disappointing, so it’s going here (deal with it). Firestarter is an entertaining read, and scratches a similar itch to Carrie in tone and even in premise (at least a little), and Carrie made the jump from page to screen quite well, but Firestarter didn’t fare so well.

One of the best early Stephen King novels was brought to life in a pretty flat way here, and it, alongside The Dead Zone, shows that Martin Sheen might just be a bad luck charm for King adaptations (as he had supporting roles in both movies). Firestarter does have one of the earliest Drew Barrymore performances (admittedly after E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, but she has a more prominent role here), but other than that, there isn’t too much here that makes it noteworthy.

2

‘Salem’s Lot’ (2024)

John Benjamin Hickey as Father Callahan wields a glowing cross in 'Salem's Lot' (2024). — John Benjamin Hickey as Father Callahan wields a glowing cross in ‘Salem’s Lot’ (2024).

If you’re after a good adaptation of Salem’s Lot, you’re probably better off exploring the TV miniseries from the late 1970s, which does have the kind of runtime needed to capture how sprawling the source material is. It’s a bit of a Needful Things type of situation, trying to capture a story about an entire town into just one movie, and the miniseries doesn’t do it terribly.

But the 2024 film version of Salem’s Lot is pretty dire, and it mishandles just about everything that was good in the source material. There remains no great movie version of Salem’s Lot, and maybe there never will be. You can read it, of course, and you can maybe make it work as a longer TV adaptation, but the feature-length approach here just won’t cut it (see also The Stand).

1

‘The Dark Tower’ (2017)

Idris Elba and Tom Taylor walking in a field in 'The Dark Tower' — Idris Elba and Tom Taylor walking in a field in ‘The Dark Tower’

Not only is it preferable to experience The Dark Tower as a series of books, but you can only get most of the story by reading it, since the movie of the same name hardly resembles any significant chunk of the series. It’s not an adaptation of the first book in the series, taking some elements from there and a few from a couple of later books, but not in a good way; not in a way that actually captures – or even condenses – part of the overall series.

Later books in The Dark Tower saga haven’t even been partially adapted in any way, so you’re out of luck if you want to know what the hype is about and don’t like reading. But what currently exists, as far as adaptations of The Dark Tower go, is pretty bad, and substantially different from what can be found in the series; the stuff that makes the series good. In essence, this one’s best avoided, and future attempts to get this series on the big and small screen should be done very, very carefully.