Movies
7 Stephen King Adaptations That Deserve a Remake
While there are plenty of uninspired retreads that we’ve seen done better the first time around, many remakes exist in their own separate sphere, living as fascinating and sometimes very fun reinterpretations of their source material. It’s safe to say we’ve all had at least one craving to see some of our favorite directors tackle a remake; either out of a sense that a story deserved better, or just to see where the artistic process takes them.
And for many horror fans who enjoy Stephen King’s works, those remakes we crave have been just about that. I find myself daydreaming pretty often about stories whose adaptations deserve a second (or third, or fourth) go around, so, I figured it was time to compile those daydreams into a proper article. Today we’ll delve into those, along with an idea of which horror filmmakers should direct them and why.
If there are two things that get a nasty rap, its horror remakes and Stephen King adaptations.
While there are plenty of uninspired retreads that we’ve seen done better the first time around, many remakes exist in their own separate sphere, living as fascinating and sometimes very fun reinterpretations of their source material. It’s safe to say we’ve all had at least one craving to see some of our favorite directors tackle a remake; either out of a sense that a story deserved better, or just to see where the artistic process takes them.
And for many horror fans who enjoy Stephen King’s works, those remakes we crave have been just about that. I find myself daydreaming pretty often about stories whose adaptations deserve a second (or third, or fourth) go around, so, I figured it was time to compile those daydreams into a proper article. Today we’ll delve into those, along with an idea of which horror filmmakers should direct them and why.
7 Stephen King Adaptations That Deserve a Remake
7. THE TOMMYKNOCKERS – Jason Eisener
A change of tone is one of the best reasons for a remake. Undoubtedly one of Stephen King’s silliest adaptations, the original Tommyknocker’s miniseries really betrays the disturbing source material. Imagine if you will, a found footage film about a town slowly becoming a collective of genius technopaths who can build anything they dream of—at the cost of slowly having their life forces drained by mysterious alien entities.
Eisener’s work on the V/H/S/2 segment “Slumber Party Alien Abduction”, shows he could make something horrifying out of the Tommyknocker’s Twilight Zone-esque premise without falling headfirst into the bottomless pit of cheese that plagued the miniseries.
6. MISERY – Rose Glass
With Glass’s latest venture being out this month, crime drama Love Lies Bleeding, I was spurred to revisit her debut feature Saint Maud. Five years later, the film has some of the best acting I’ve seen out of a psychological horror ever, and if there’s anyone who should be trusted in depicting one of Stephen King’s most misunderstood villains, it’s Rose Glass.
I would be lying if I didn’t say this choice was driven at least in part by a desire to see Lizzy Caplan reprise the role of Annie Wilkes, given how criminally underrated Castle Rock’s second season was; Caplan’s performance there deserved a big screen focus. Glass’s direction of actress Morfydd Clark in Saint Maud leaves no doubts in my mind she would make a stunning venture deeper into the quiet and disturbing tragedy of Annie Wilkes and Paul Sheldon’s months in the cabin, regardless of who is put in the role.
That being said, it should absolutely be Lizzy Caplan who plays her, and I won’t be taking feedback on this.
5. SILVER BULLET – Brian Duffield
Another adaptation of King’s novella Cycle of the Werewolf is, in my opinion, long overdue. While in recent years truly great werewolf movies like Josh Ruben’s Werewolves Within and Larry Fessenden’s Blackout have supplemented the genre, there’s just not enough.
Cycle of the Werewolf’s first adaptation, the 1985 Gary Busey film Silver Bullet, is fine. It’s entertaining enough as a midnight movie, but only holds up in its special effects and lacks a whole lot of the truly horrifying moments that the book has (as well as its most violent deaths).
A remake helmed by one of the most underrated monster movie directors out there, Brian Duffield, would make an excellent addition to the subgenre, and one that would give Cycle its due. Duffield’s work on the smash hit No One Will Save You brought some of the most frightening grey aliens to ever grace the small screen, and his eye for playing with the darkness to elicit fear is already off the charts, as seen with his excellent 2020 feature Underwater. The woody town of Tarker’s Mill, plagued by its lycanthrope serial killer throughout the seasons, feels like the exact right place to exercise his aesthetic strengths.
4. CUJO – Demián Rugna
I don’t want to reduce the horrors of When Evil Lurks and the skill of its incredibly talented writer-director Demián Rugna to a single scene or a single scare. But the fact is, the film’s most horrifying and dread-inducing moment is perfect evidence of why Rugna could make a new iteration of Cujo just as, if not more bloodcurdling. And the rest of the film just elaborates on that.
The story of a good dog driven to madness by sickness, and the families around him that suffer for it, Cujo is a bleak tale and one that’s every bit as horrifying of a story as it is depressing. The first film changed the ending in a major way, and mostly ignored the oppressive atmosphere for more of a thrilling story that startles, rather than one that’s as emotionally draining. Rugna knows how to craft and direct a story that will leave you feeling as empty as Cujo does. He has an eye for executing nauseatingly scary scenes, and directing chaotic violent moments that shock you completely, so he’s the only man I have in mind that could do the book justice.
3. SLEEPWALKERS – Brandon Cronenberg
If you want weird body horror, mind games, and psychosexual freakshows, you hire a Cronenberg. And who better than Infinity Pool and Possessor’s very own visionary creator to redo one of King’s strangest films yet?
One of the few works on this list that wasn’t originally a book or short story, the script King penned for Sleepwalkers is a head trip and a half: immortal psychic werecats that feed off the life force of virgin girls are feuding with actual cats. Despite its strange plot and many shortcomings dialogue-wise, Sleepwalkers is a cult classic, and nothing can take that away.
That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to modernize Sleepwalkers and get into the demented lore of the weird mother-son duo that is Charles and Mary Brady. Alice Krige and Brian Krause’s great acting and creepy dynamic in the 1992 film drive much of the plot’s intrigue. A modern character study of these two immortals, predatory beings once worshipped as gods and now reduced to simple murderers, would make for an intriguing story without sacrificing its odd and over-the-top ideas.
2. CARRIE – Gigi Saul Guerrero
One of my personal favorite King stories, it always bothered me that we haven’t gotten a Carrie adaptation accurate to the formatting of the story. Not the characterization or emotion of Carrie White, since Brian DePalma’s 1976 and Bryan Fuller’s 2002 adaptations knock that out of the park, but rather how we get to learn about the destruction of Chamberlain and the young girl responsible.
The legendary Stephen King novel is a series of firsthand accounts and witnesses to Carrie White’s rampage, scattered through journal entries, autobiographies, court testimony, and plain old narration. Carrie feels much more like a walking natural disaster that decimates the town. I believe a movie depicting the small town’s destruction as a sort of horrific mystery that has to be pieced together and understood would make for a thrilling adaptation.
Enter Gigi Saul Guerrero, who would knock this out of the park. Guerrero’s work on one of the best V/H/S segments of all time, “God of Death”, shows she more than has the chops to depict the living wildfire that is Carrie White and her town-leveling psychic abilities. Her work in such a brief amount of time shows she could easily craft some incredibly horrifying depictions of being subject to the wrath of a young scorned woman.
1. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE – Damien Leone
Imagine it. Absolute car-nage.
Alright, now that I got that pun out of my system, the heart of the matter is that Damien Leone is an artisan when it comes to gore maximalism; we have two Terrifier films to prove that already. And while some might not appreciate his lack of subtlety, the man has what it takes to do over the top and grotesque insanely well.
On the same note, King’s original short story Trucks is fairly over the top; it’s effectively a robot apocalypse where the Terminators have been replaced with Ford F-150s and U-Haul vans that only want to tow your corpse around as a trophy. The two movie adaptations, one of the same name and the other being the infamous Maximum Overdrive are funny, but they lack much of the oomph to make the cars feel like threats. They just haven’t depicted the concept of getting horribly murdered by living cars brutally enough, and all the disgusting special effects that could come out of that.
So I say we give Damien Leone whatever he wants budget wise, and let him deliver on an exploitation movie with gruesome, aggressive killer cars absolutely decimating humans in the worst ways possible. Think Death Proof, but with kills that would make Tarantino blush.
Let he who doesn’t want to see a Honda Accord rip someone apart cast the first stone.
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Do you have any thoughts on adaptations that should be made, or just the ones that didn’t stick the landing the first time? Let us know on Twitter or Instagram! As always, stay tuned for more articles on all things horror in movies, television, and more!
The holiday season is upon us, and I have a hard time feeling merry. After all, most of the Christmas horror movies are a little exclusionary outside of ignoring other cultural December festivities. Most of our go-to watches for this stretch of time have no room for POC, and especially Black women, in their picturesque settings. Which is why I took notice a few years ago when two genre movies gave me exactly what I wanted – a Black Girl Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Black Christmas (1974), Krampus (2015), and The Lodge as much as the next broken millennial. However, like most movies in this subgenre, we’re rarely seen unless it’s for a trope. We can be sidekicks or day players, but we cannot be involved in the central conflict. We cannot lead, but we can serve. Part of my deal as an intersectional horror lady is asking and looking for movies that do better. So, imagine my surprise when Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night and Jenn Wexler’s The Sacrifice Game not only remembered Black people exist, but specifically thought Black girls deserve some Christmas magic too.
Black Girls Deserve Christmas Magic Too
The Sacrifice Game is set in a 1970s boarding school where a handful of students are staying over Christmas break. The movie opens with a ritualistic massacre that pulls you in before introducing you to the core group at the school, though. Once in the halls of academia, which will obviously serve as the location for an impending blood bath, we meet Samantha (Madison Baines). Unlike most movies, this Black girl isn’t here for stereotypes and to be pushed to the fringes of the story. As she continues to survive this hellish night, we realize she might be the final girl. This hope is rewarded in the end when we watch her walk off to travel the world with her supernatural friend Clara (Georgia Acken). Because we have so few Christmas horror movies with Black girls getting to do anything, the movie heals something in me every year.
Violent Night is a completely different vibe than The Sacrifice Game. It’s more of an action-comedy with some cool kills and a supernatural thread. The movie is set on Christmas Eve, present day, as a group of mercenaries interrupts a wealthy family’s celebration. The team of naughty killers has the misfortune of starting their plot when Santa (David Harbour) is dropping off gifts. Santa also has a past and opens a can of whoop-ass to save the family as he bonds with the adorable Trudy (Leah Brady) over walkie-talkies. No matter how many mercenaries tell her Santa Claus isn’t real, Trudy knows that he is coming to save her because she’s on the nice list and has a direct line to him this Christmas. She gets to keep a children’s sense of wonder as her family’s infighting and the trained assassins try to ruin her Christmas.
Representation Really Matters
Samantha and Trudy might be in different subgenres and might be a few years apart, but they have plenty in common. Both are surrounded by white characters, although Trudy’s is her family. They are also both a little down in the dumps, as are most characters in holiday films. Samantha has just been told she will not be coming home for the holidays and is feeling discarded. Trudy’s parents are heading for a divorce, and her extended family is too focused on money to be supportive. So, both feel utterly alone during the most depressing time of year and need a win. When things get violently bad for both, it’s nice to see supernatural entities whisk in for some problem-solving and to save them.
That’s not to say that both of these resourceful girls don’t take out some of the intruders on their own. They just don’t have to do it all alone, and are not expected to save the day for everyone else. That’s right! We have two Black girls who get to be kids. I love the few movies where people actually help Black girls and women for a change. I want to live in world where that wasn’t such a rarity. It’s one of the reasons I loved A Quiet Place: Day One. I wish more films that did this were greenlit. Instead we get ones that continually waste talent like Alfre Woodard in Annabelle. Sadly, this is the world I have to live in.
Watch Both ASAP
It is also not wasted on me that both movies take a standard holiday setting and make it inclusive. We have so many all-girls boarding school set movies that have exclusively all white casts. Seeing Samantha not only exist in this creepy school where The Sacrifice Game is set, but survive it felt like a Christmas gift itself. Watching Trudy light up from excitement as she navigates this huge house in Violent Night made me think of Home Alone and all of the other Christmas movies I grew up with. Movies that refused to acknowledge that Black people exist and blended families might also celebrate the holidays. Again, both of these movies heal something every year.
Again, these movies have very little in common aside from the same holiday and understanding that Black girls deserve some holiday cheer, too. However, they are two of the very few movies that do this. Which is why both make it into my yearly rotation. Most other movies are soaking in white feminism. They may have a Black sidekick and creative teams who need to research colorism and anti-Blackness. However, they are somehow usually more offensive than being ignored entirely.
So, Trudy and Samantha getting a slice of the Christmastime magic so close together stood out to me. They both warm my cold little black heart. As I hope kids are sneaking in watches of these movies behind their parents’ backs. I know they both would have been in heavy rotation when I was a kid. If these kinds of movies were getting made back then, anyway. Ideally, we’ll see more movies like these someday.
Shudder could not care less if you have been naughty or nice. They are here to share their Season of Screams Holiday Programming with all the little ghouls. This year’s list of festive frights includes Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors, and Santa’s Slay. However, that is not all of the merriment and dismemberment the streamer is leaving under the tree for horror fans this December. Check out these five titles that I hope you all shove into your stockings this holiday season.
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
A Christmas Tale (2005)
A group of kids discovers an injured thief while spending Christmas at a summer resort village. So, they obviously decide to torture the location of some stolen money out of her. I have been meaning to check this out just because it sounds wicked. However, it has also shot up my list because it is made by Paco Plaza (V/H/S/Halloween and Rec). If Plaza’s other works are any indication, this movie is going to be chaotic. I truly feel like if he cannot put us in the holiday spirit, then no one can. I am ready to have my peace disturbed this holiday season, and I am beyond grateful that Shudder thought of me. I recommend you buckle up and brace yourself if you also plan to take this ride this month. It’s going to be a ride!
You can watch A Christmas Tale on December 1st.
You Are Not Me (2024)
A woman returns home after three years and discovers her parents have replaced her with a stranger. I have questions, comments, and concerns after reading the premise. So, You Are Not Me has my full attention. I need answers to this puzzle that Shudder is gifting us, and I need them now. I plan to have a boozy festive beverage and get to the bottom of this bloody mystery as soon as possible. To make things even better, it is a Spanish supernatural horror movie. We all know nothing quite hits like an international movie, which is another reason why I expect good things from this one.
You can watch You Are Not Me on December 1st.
Wolf (2023)
A rich family becomes captives in an isolated country home where a psychopath forces them to play terrifying games. ‘Tis the season for home invasion movies after all! Shudder is dropping this exciting 6-part thriller from the UK, and I am already sat. I also discovered the series stars Sacha Dhawan from Doctor Who. This means I need to tune in every Tuesday until the finale, and I am welcome. I cannot wait to see how gory this gets, and I am so glad I can finally see it for myself. I am not saying this is the true meaning of Christmas. But I’m not not saying it is.
You can watch Wolf on December 2nd.
The Creep Tapes Christmas Episode (2025)
I am not writing about The Creep Tapes again just because I am obsessed with the show. I am drawing attention to the fact that they are giving us a Christmas episode this December. Can you imagine Josef/Peachfuzz during the most wonderful time of the year? Because I can and I need this episode in my eyeballs posthaste. The episode description lets us know that our favorite sociopath is pretending to be a therapist, and I am screaming. If you are also looking for some merry mayhem, I know this will be one of the highlights of Shudder’s December programming. I’m excited to see what Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass do to us with a holiday special. It’s literally all I want for Christmas.
You can watch The Creep Tapes Christmas Episode on December 12th.
Queens of the Dead (2025)
Drag queens, club kids, and bitter acquaintances come together when a zombie apocalypse breaks out in Brooklyn. George A. Romero’s legacy is undead and well in New York. I saw this movie twice, and I am obsessed with how Tina Romero expanded her dad’s world. While it nods at his seminal zombie franchise, it’s also distinctly its own glittery thing slinking down Bushwick. This movie is funny, glittery, queer, and heartwarming. It also has a ridiculously stacked cast that includes Katy O’Brian, Nina West, Dominique Jackson, and Margaret Cho. It also introduced me to Jaquel Spivey, who is an actor I need to see more of immediately. Come for the zombies, but stay for the drag queens.
You can watch Queens of the Dead on December 19th.
So, there you have it. Shudder is closing out the year with some pretty cool stuff, as usual. Make sure you unwrap all of your grisly gifts and let us know which movies you loved the most. In the meantime, we hope your holidays are a scream! Hopefully, next year, the nightmares will stay on screen where we prefer them.
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