The indie horror film will be released on Digital in the US on April 21 and in the UK on April 20 via Trinity Content Partners and Seven Tales.

A horrific outbreak known as “the itch” spreads like wildfire, turning its victims into frenzied, self-destructive shells of their former selves. Grieving widower Jay seeks refuge in a seemingly safe department store alongside his estranged young daughter, Olivia. The sanctuary they believed would protect them becomes a nightmarish trap, revealing that the true danger lurks among them.

With the infection closing in and paranoia escalating within the group, Jay and Olivia are forced into a harrowing battle — not just against the outbreak outside, but against the darkness within human hearts when faced with survival. With every decision bearing the weight of life and death, they must confront their fractured bond and make brutal choices to stay alive.

Writer-director Bari Kang stars alongside his real-life daughter, Olivia Kang, as well as Patrick Michael Valley, Ximena Uribe, Mia Ventura Lucas, and Douglas Stirling.

“Itch! was inspired by a bizarre real-life incident I witnessed at my family’s discount store,” Kang tells Bloody Disgusting. “What stayed with me was how strange and unsettling it felt, especially because it happened in such an ordinary place. I wanted to build a horror film around a very primal sensation we all know: the urge to scratch, and how terrifying it becomes when it won’t stop.”

He adds, “As a father, the story also became personal for me, because at its core it’s about the fear of not being able to protect the people you love when everything starts to fall apart.”

Itch! premiered at Dances With Films: New York in 2024 and went on to play at Grimmfest, Chattanooga Film Festival, Popcorn Frights, Another Hole in the Head, and Days of the Dead, among others.

The post ‘Itch!’ Trailer – ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Meets ‘The Mist’ in Indie Horror Film [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Topics include: Other Worlds Than These, Mike Flanagan‘s The Mist, The Dark Tower, and Carrie, the forthcoming John Mellencamp book with a foreword by King, the definitive answer on Daylight Savings Time, a viral tweet about “archaic” slices of life, the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and much, much more.

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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The post Stephen King News Roundup: On ‘Other Worlds Than These’, John Mellencamp, ‘The Mist’, and More [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

What does Mike Flanagan plan on bringing to the table with his own version of The Mist? In a series of posts on BlueSky, he promises that his adaptation will very much be its own thing.

Flanagan promises to a fan, “The Mist is going to be great. If there wasn’t an excellent answer to why, I wouldn’t do it.” He continues in a follow-up post, “I love Darabont’s film, and there’s zero point in remaking it. Which is why I’m going in a different direction.”

He doubles down, “This isn’t a retread. The differences start page 1.”

“And FWIW, I got the same ‘but why’ comments for Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, House of Usher, Carrie, The Exorcist, even Ouija: Origin of Evil,” Flanagan notes. “Also got it for Life of Chuck. I’ve been lucky so far in my career to only take on projects I’m really excited about.”

Flanagan will be writing and directing the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, which was first published as part of the 1980 anthology Dark Forces before being included in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew – also home to The Raft, Survivor Type, and The Monkey.

The story is set in a Maine town that is consumed by a mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside.

Flanagan’s The Mist is one of many new Stephen King adaptations in the works, including Flanagan’s own Prime Video series “Carrie” and a series adaptation of the novel Fairy Tale.

The post Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Mist’ Movie Will Not Remake the Darabont Film; Expect a “Different Direction” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Last year brought not one but six genre series and films based on the works of King, along with a plethora of announcements and an even busier 2026 and beyond.

Constant Readers can look forward to a second season of “The Institute” and Mike Flanagan’s “Carrie“ sometime this year, and there’s no shortage of new adaptations currently in development.

This list highlights new projects that were announced or received updates within the last 18 months, which won’t touch on previously announced titles like The Regulators, Billy Summers, Elevation, Sleeping Beauties, or Later, adaptations that haven’t received a recent update. Or adaptations that may be in limbo, like The Talisman, after recent reports.

Here are all the recently announced Stephen King adaptations currently in development:

Carrie

Frequent King collaborator Mike Flanagan serves as showrunner and writer of an eight-episode series adaptation of Carrie for Amazon MGM Studios, giving a modern update on the classic.

The story follows misfit high-schooler Carrie White, who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother. After her father’s sudden and untimely death, Carrie finds herself contending with the alien landscape of public high school, a bullying scandal that shatters her community, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.

Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie White, with Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Josie Toah as Tina Blake, Arthur Conti as Billy Nolan, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, and Amber Midthunder as Rita Desjardian.

Recurring guest stars include Heather Graham, Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, Crystal Balint, Danielle Klaudt, Tim Bagley, Tahmoh Penikett, Mapuana Makia, Naika Toussaint, Delainey Hayles, Cassandra Naud, and Rowan Danielle.

Expect this series adaptation to arrive in 2026.

Autopsy Room Four

A feature film adaptation of the short story from King’s Six Stories in 1997 was announced in December 2024, with British director Ranjeet S. Marwa and veteran Hollywood exec Jon Levin (In the Tall Grass) attached.

Autopsy Room Four will “delve into the mind of a man who, after a life-threatening accident, wakes up to find himself trapped in an autopsy room. As he confronts his own mortality, the story navigates themes of fear, survival, and the unknown.”

Marwa will write and direct, with King giving his blessing on the project.

Cujo

As of March last year, Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Mother!, The Whale) was announced to be in talks to direct Stephen King’s Cujo for Netflix.

While there’s been no update since, it does seem to be a fast-track priority for the streamer.

The novel’s synopsis: “Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.”

Roy Lee (IT) is producing the new adaptation of Cujo for Netflix.

The Dark Tower

The second Mike Flanagan/King project on this list was first announced in 2022, when Flanagan’s Intrepid Pictures acquired the rights to The Dark Tower.

The sprawling saga that follows a gunslinger’s obsessive search for the elusive Dark Towe spans multiple novels. As such, the filmmaker previously suggested plans for a multiple season arc with potential feature films, too.

Scope is definitely a concern for Flanagan, who revealed in an update last year, “We’ve been moving it forward this whole time. It’s just, that’s how big it is. It’s constantly in the works, and you better believe as often as you guys may want to ask about it, Stephen King is asking me about it more, and I’m not gonna let him down.” With multiple projects announced since, it’s safe to say that it’ll be a while yet before we see The Dark Tower.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Lionsgate and The Long Walk scribe JT Mollner (Strange Darling are reteaming on an adaptation of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, first announced in July 2025.

The novel follows the harrowing survival story of a nine-year-old girl named Trisha as she struggles to stay alive after getting lost in the woods alone. With only her Walkman radio playing baseball games to keep her company, the girl’s love of pitcher Tom Gordon begins to manifest in hallucinations that may save her life.

Strange Darling producer Roy Lee will also reteam with Mollner for Tom Gordon.

Fairy Tale

A24 is taking on King with a 10-episode series first announced in October 2024.

Stephen King’s Fairy Tale novel is “an epic tale that follows a 17-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a terrifying world where good and evil are at war. The stakes could not be higher, for that world and ours, as he journeys into the mythic roots of human storytelling.”

J.H. Wyman (“Fringe”) will serve as the showrunner. Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, Jason Bourne), who wrote the script for the planned feature, will write with Wyman.

The Mist

Flanagan is sticking with King for the long haul; yesterday brought the announcement that the filmmaker is writing and directing a new adaptation of King’s acclaimed novella The Mist.

The story is set in a small Maine town that is consumed by a thick, mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack the townsfolk. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside.

The filmmaker will also produce the feature through Red Room alongside Tyler Thompson and Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Chris Stone. Alexandra Magistro will executive produce for Red Room.

Up first from Flanagan, of course, will be Carrie and his take on The Exorcist.

Mister Yummy

Mister Yummy is the first short story to be adapted from King’s 2015 collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, announced this past November.

Set at Lakeview Assisted Living Center, the story details the last days in the life of elderly homosexual Ollie Franklin, who is certain that he will die soon due to frequent visits by a beautiful man called Mister Yummy. The haunting tale follows a man confronting mortality, where death waits around every corner.

Troy Blake wrote the screenplay. Intrinsic Value’s Aimee Schoof, Isen Robbins, and Megan Freels Johnston are producing with Thomas Mahoney.

Rat

The third adaptation from King’s If It Bleeds was announced in September of last year.

The story follows writer Drew Lawson, who is “cursed by his own ambition. Each attempt at a novel has ended in disaster—illness, misfortune, or worse. Determined to break the cycle, he retreats to a desolate cabin in the Maine woods, convinced this time will be different. But as a violent storm traps him in isolation, Drew’s body falters and his mind begins to unravel. In the grip of fever and madness, a stranger appears—an uncanny visitor who promises salvation and success…for a price Drew can barely comprehend.”

Screenwriter Jeff Howard (The Haunting of Hill House) will adapt the novella for screen; Parvulos director Isaac Ezban is set to helm.

Previous novellas Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and The Life of Chuck were also recently adapted from If It Bleeds.

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Deadline broke the news that Flanagan is writing and directing a new adaptation of King’s acclaimed novella The Mist.

Flanagan will also produce the feature through Red Room alongside Tyler Thompson and Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Chris Stone. Alexandra Magistro will executive produce for Red Room.

The story is set in a small Maine town that is consumed by a thick, mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack the townsfolk. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside.

The Mist was first published as part of the 1980 anthology Dark Forces before being included in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. The novella spawned a 2007 film directed by Frank Darabont and a 2017 TV series on Spike.

The Mist will mark Flanagan’s fifth King adaptation, following Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck, and the forthcoming “Carrie” series.

The post Mike Flanagan to Adapt Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ for Warner Bros. appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After seven thrilling episodes, It: Welcome to Derry concludes its inaugural season with “Winter Fire,” a powerhouse finale that effectively wraps up the town’s 1962 cycle of death and destruction while peppering in shrewd connections to Stephen King’s larger body of work.

With Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) unbound by the protective Pillars previously used to confine him to Derry, the monster has emerged from his subterranean lair, seemingly ready to skip his traditional 27-year hibernation and continue to feast on children’s fear. This shift coincides with a mysterious fog that spreads through town, bringing out-of-season ice and snow while providing cover for the clown’s sinister deeds. Constant Readers will undoubtedly be reminded of another tiny Maine town overtaken by a deadly haze. 

King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew opens with “The Mist,” a novella in which a heavy summer storm is followed by dense clouds spreading through Bridgton, Maine, sparking chaos among the frightened survivors while cloaking a variety of massive beasts.  Co-creator Jason Fuchs has stated that the mist permeating Derry is not the same phenomenon that decimates Bridgton, but comparisons are nonetheless eerie. The Bridgton disaster is reportedly caused by a dangerous experiment at a nearby military base and the mysterious Project Arrowhead, reminiscent of General Shaw (James Remar) and his reckless Project Precept. Anyone familiar with King’s harrowing “The Mist” — not to mention Frank Darabont‘s devastating 2007 adaptation — will no doubt see this mist rolling through town and worry that Derry may be headed for a similar fate. 

After watching the weather turn from their lofty clubhouse, Marge (Matilda Lawler), Lilly (Clara Stack), and Ronnie (Amanda Christine) descend the stairs to find the walls of the Standpipe covered with Missing posters emblazoned with the images of Derry’s kids. Most upsetting is a flyer featuring Will (Blake Cameron James), who was pulled into Pennywise’s Deadlights in the final moments of episode 7. These bulletins nod to one of co-creator Andy Muschietti‘s more sinister visual frights in his 2017 adaptation It. After entering the house on Neibolt Street, Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard) is confronted with a Missing poster featuring his own smiling face. Determined to save their friend and still reeling from the deadly Black Spot fire, Marge insists, “I wanna kill that fucking clown,” paraphrasing Richie’s explicit call to arms in Muschietti’s It and It: Chapter Two. 

Disoriented by the freezing mist, the girls follow a trail of blood into the woods. But with just one bike between them, they’re unable to move fast enough. Fortunately, Marge commandeers an abandoned delivery truck after spying a milkman lying dead nearby, cleverly nodding to two of King’s most bizarre short stories. Skeleton Crew also features a pair of entries reworked from snippets of an abandoned novel. “Morning Deliveries (Milkman No. 1)” and “Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman No. 2)” are unsettling vignettes following Spike, a milkman and suspected serial killer who delights in delivering deadly ingredients like poisoned gas and venomous spiders hidden inside his bottles of milk. When Marge mentions learning to drive a truck by watching her uncle, Constant Readers may also remember another story collected in Skeleton Crew. “Uncle Otto’s Truck” is an eerie Castle Rock tale following a man plagued by guilt that takes the form of an abandoned truck creeping immeasurably closer to his bedroom window. 

Among those still left to battle the clown, none has been terrorized quite like Dick Hallorran (Chris Chalk). While using his telepathic powers to locate the Entity, Pennywise was able to infiltrate Dick’s mind and release a host of ominous spirits previously trapped in a mental lockbox. Terrorized by visions of the dead, Dick accepts a potent tea from Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), who promises it will help silence their voices.

This concoction is made from Maturin root, used as a hallucinogenic in Muschietti’s It: Chapter Two. Both inclusions of this mysterious plant reference an interdimensional turtle named Maturin who serves as a benevolent counterweight to the relentless evil of Pennywise. (For more information on Maturin, see our recap of episode 1). Rose explains that ingesting this root will connect Hallorann “to all things in the realm this evil came from.” Though she does not use the explicit term, Rose is referencing Todash Space, a liminal void between other worlds from which Pennywise – along with the aforementioned Bridgton monsters — likely originates. This tea not only allows Dick to quiet the dead and locate the Entity, but he’s also able to hijack Pennywise’s own consciousness and create a mental distraction while the kids attempt to rebury the Pillar. This metaphysical ruse sets up a similar tactic that Hallorann’s protege, Danny Torrance, will use to battle the True Knot in King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep. 

While this reference is admittedly thematic in nature, Muschietti wraps up Dick’s time in Derry with an overt nod to his origin story. Once Pennywise has been subdued, Hallorann plans to leave the military and try his hand at a new career. While saying goodbye, he mentions accepting an opportunity to cook at a friend’s hotel, foreshadowing his time as Head Chef at the sinister Overlook Hotel, first introduced in King’s 1977 novel, The Shining. Inside, he will be confronted with more visions of the dead, which seem to feed on his strange abilities. Hallorann quips, “How much trouble could a hotel be?” an ominous precursor to the horrors he will face in another of King’s most terrifying tales. 

In the midst of this episode’s jaw-dropping climax, Marge also gets a window into her own future. Having cornered the frightened girl away from her friends, Pennywise refers to her as Margaret Tozier, before noting that this is not her name … yet. After weeks of fan theories and speculation — sparked by the character’s thick glasses and affinity for impressions which heavily mirror Richie’s own persona — this name drop confirms that Marge is the future mother of Losers’ Club member Richie Tozier, forming a direct link between her survival and It’s demise. We don’t yet know who Richie’s father will be, but considering the events of episode 7, we can now assume that Marge will name her son after Rich Santos (Arian S. Cartaya), the brave boy who died to save her life. 

Marge turns this encounter over in her mind, wondering about the limits of the Entity’s power. Revealing that her child will one day cause It’s death, the trickster clown also alludes to the cyclical nature of time itself and warns that this end will also serve as a birth. Marge worries that It has the power to target her ancestors in previous cycles, potentially wiping out the Losers’ Club and their hard-won victory before it begins. Lilly calms her fears, noting that this will be “someone else’s fight,” simultaneously referring to the events of King’s novel and the remaining two seasons of It: Welcome to Derry, which promise to chronicle earlier Interludes. As the final credits roll, eagle-eyed viewers will note a subtle addition to the script. “Chapter One” not only mirrors the conclusion of Muschietti’s It, but promises a return to this troubled town. 

Also wary of the monster’s resurgence, Rose believes she’s found a new generation of guardians. Devastated by her nephew’s death, she offers to sell her farm to the Hanlons and, along with it, the task of monitoring Derry to make sure the Pillars stay in place. Though the Hanlons initially balk at this invitation, Charlotte (Taylour Paige) convinces her husband Leroy (Jovan Adepo) to stay, mirroring her grandson’s role in future cycles. After battling the shapeshifting nightmare as kids, members of the Losers’ Club scatter to the winds, growing wildly successful in their respective fields. But Mike Hanlon stays behind, dedicating his life to keeping the watch. While waiting for the monster to arise, he begins researching the town’s history, compiling his findings into four literary Interludes which will become the basis of It: Welcome to Derry. 

Despite this heartwarming conclusion, Muschietti is not yet done with the terror. A post-credits scene takes us inside Juniper Hill, a hospital for the mentally ill, where we see a disturbed Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) ranting about the murderous clown. Muschietti then fast forwards to 1988, the year before the Losers’ Club forms. Joan Gregson reprises her role as the elderly Mrs. Kersh, nodding to her unsettling appearance in It: Chapter Two (see our recap of the Mrs. Kersh lore). 

The unnervingly cheerful woman hears sobbing from an open room and patters down the hall to take a peek. Inside, another patient named Elfrida Marsh has finally succeeded in dying by suicide. Standing in the doorway, Ingrid ignores the woman’s dangling body to focus on her grieving daughter. Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) attempts to console her abusive father before turning to lock eyes with Mrs. Kersh, who promises that “no one who dies in Derry ever really dies.” She will later echo this ominous phrase as a warning to an adult Beverly (Jessica Chastain) as she returns to Derry, intent on killing Pennywise once and for all.

This connection also brings the episode’s title full circle. “Winter Fire” not only describes the icy fog overtaking the town, but references a line from a romantic poem sent to Beverly from a secret admirer, revealed to be fellow Loser Ben Hanscomb. This connection draws a direct line between Mrs. Kersh and her future victim while reminding us that both evil and good exist side by side within the borders of King’s infamous town.

For more on It:Welcome to Derry, check out episode by episode coverage from Bloody FM’s The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

The post ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: The Stephen King Connections & References in Season One’s Finale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For some, it was Michael J. Fox holding a copy of Skeleton Crew for his 1988 READ campaign poster that first inspired a read of the Stephen King short story collection. For others, the killer, record-breaking trailer for Neon’s new film The Monkey, written and directed by Osgood Perkins, instigated fingers to flip through pages. Whatever the inciting incident that introduced one to Skeleton Crew, the fact remains that it is a certified Constant Reader classic and a treasure trove of cinematic, eerie, and unsettling tales.

Since the initial release of Skeleton Crew in 1985, several stories have found their way to the screen, with varying degrees of success. Now, with the hype running hot, the latest Skeleton Crew adaptation promises to breathe new life into one of King’s most chilling short stories. As we await the release of Perkins’ latest this Friday, let’s take a look back at the other adaptations from Skeleton Crew—the hits, the misses, and the hidden gems stuffed away in the back closet that have brought King’s words to the big and small screen.

“The Mist”

For good reason, “The Mist” is perhaps the best-known story in the entire Skeleton Crew collection. Haunting, evocative, and downright scary, “The Mist” perfectly encapsulates everything Stephen King does best. It is, therefore, not surprising that this novella has spawned multiple adaptations—including one of the best to ever do it.

But long before Thomas Jane stole hearts only to break them in Frank Darabont’s silver screen adaptation, it was the monitor screens of 1985 computers that “The Mist” first set out to conquer. Developed by Angelsoft, Inc., The Mist DOS game was an interactive narrative fiction adventure game released on a good old floppy disk. Officially licensed by Sai King, the game failed to live up to the source material in both execution and story. However, it stands as one of the early examples of King’s continued willingness to explore new and uncharted territory with his stories and how they are released.

To this day, Darabont’s aforementioned 2007 feature film adaptation remains one of the best King adaptations ever. Featuring a killer cast of familiar faces like Toby Jones, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, and fan-fave Thomas Jane, Darabont’s film beautifully translates King’s words to a visual medium. Even more remarkable, the movie’s shocking new ending still sticks the landing and has become a treasured deviation by Constant Readers and King himself.

Then, in 2017, a new television series version of “The Mist” was released, where else, but Spike TV. Why Spike, you may ask? Great question. And it’s one many Constant Readers are still baffled by. In fact, everything about this one-season, 10-episode series remains baffling. Not even a cast that included Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Alyssa Sutherland (Evil Dead Rise), and Dan Butler (Frasier) could save this series from boring itself.

“Here There Be Tygers”

Originally published in the 1968 issue of Ubris magazine, it would take over 50 years for “Here There Be Tygers” to receive the adaptation treatment. Kate Siegel (The Life of Chuck) ended this long-running waiting game on October 31, 2024. Retitled Lily, this new animated short is directed and narrated by Siegel and features new music from TFU (The Flanagan Universe) regulars, The Newton Brothers.

“The Raft”

Despite paling in comparison to its predecessor, 1987’s Creepshow 2 made several very smart decisions. For one, it reunited the dynamic horror duo that was George A. Romero and Stephen King. Like another classic sequel, Lethal Weapon 2, the magic was back. Even if it was in a slightly diminished capacity.

The following wise move Creepshow 2 made was to snatch up “The Raft” and give it a prime slot in the anthology film’s runtime. Perfectly balancing classic creature feature trademarks with the camp-slasher vibes of the 80s, “The Raft” burned itself into many formative young horror fan minds. Though delivering an alternate ending to King’s original story, both sendoffs succeed in leaving nothing but chills in their wake. Do you love? Let us know in the comments.

“Word Processor of the Gods”

Originally published in the January 1983 issue of Playboy, “Word Processor of the Gods” is a heady exploration of the limitations of technology, the poisonous power of regret, and the corrosive nature of power. Dark and unsettling, this potent cocktail of ideas made the story a prime candidate for a visual adaptation. Not surprisingly, George A. Romero recognized the story’s potential and brought the idea to life on November 25, 1984, in Season 1, Episode 8 of Tales from the Darkside. Featuring Bruce Davison (Willard) in the lead role, “Word Processor of the Gods” remains an adaptation worth chasing down and paying heed to.

“Survivor Type”

When Shudder rebooted Creepshow in 2019, and adopted a more traditional television series format, there was no question the series would include some stories pulled from the Stephen King vaults. One such tale the series dug up is the downright gnarly “Survivor Type”.

Featured in A Creepshow Animated Special, the decision to execute this particular story in a fully animated comic book style was brilliant. Featuring voicework by Kiefer Sutherland and Fayna Sanchez, the segment recounts the harrowing tale of a surgeon who winds up shipwrecked with nothing but a dead woman’s body for companionship. As his limited supplies quickly dwindle, the surgeon takes measures so drastic that even King has said they go “a little bit too far.” Unsettling, to say the least, the animated format definitely helps keep a healthy distance between the more unsavory parts of the story a healthy distance away from reality.

First published in 1984 in Weirdbook magazine, “Gramma” boasts some of the more stealthy adaptations spawned from Skeleton Crew. First came an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1986, which featured Barret Oliver (D.A.R.Y.L.) as young Georgie, and Piper Laurie (Carrie) as his mysterious and witchy grandmother.

Next came a full-feature film adaptation in 2014. Directed by Peter Cornwell (The Haunting in Connecticut) and produced by Blumhouse and McG, this Universal Pictures film flew under the radar by being released direct-to-video under the title Mercy. Starring Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead), Frances O’Connor (The Conjuring 2), Mark Duplass (Creep), and Dylan McDermott (The Clovehitch Killer), there are definitely worse King adaptations that one could watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Honorable Mention: The Dollar Babies

A special shoutout is needed for the dozens and dozens of Dollar Baby films that Skeleton Crew has produced and the crews that made them. There have been so many that it was, frankly, impossible to cover them all here. This incredible program created by King allowed filmmakers to adapt one of his short stories for one whole dollar. A true gift to many aspiring or new filmmakers, the Dollar Baby program came to an end in December 2023, but the plethora of films it produced will live on forever in our hearts, in our minds, and on YouTube.

“The Monkey”

Director, writer, and actor Perkins has seemingly always been professionally attracted to the darkly offbeat. With previous works that include films like Gretel & Hansel, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, and the 2024 marketing marvel Longlegs, the thread of black humor and left-of-center approach consistently runs through his projects. Therefore, when it was announced that he would bring “The Monkey” to life in collaboration with James Wan under his Atomic Monster banner, the union just felt right. Easily one of the best recent King adaptations out there, Neon’s 2025 adaptation of The Monkey proves there is still fertile King material to mine if done well.

The Monkey drums into theaters this Friday. Get tickets now and enter to win an exclusive 1/50 resin sculpt made from the original Monkey. 

The post From ‘The Mist’ to ‘The Monkey’: A Guide to Stephen King’s ‘Skeleton Crew’ Adaptations appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Many of our favorite scary stories borrow from this same mythological source, which is why there are countless horror movies about small groups of survivors attempting to defend an isolated location from evil invaders. And in honor of what we’ve now come to know as “Siege Films,” we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the most terrifying Siege movies out there. After all, what’s scarier than realizing that there’s nowhere left to run?

As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own siege horror favorites if you think we missed a particularly scary one.

Now, onto the list…

6. Dog Soldiers (2002)

Neil Marshall may be mostly known for his claustrophobic masterpiece The Descent, but my personal favorite example of his genre output will forever be 2002’s Dog Soldiers. An insanely fun combination of action, horror and even comedy, this werewolf flick sees a group of ill-equipped soldiers take refuge in an isolated cottage once they’re attacked by man-eating monsters.

A labor of love that took 6 years to go from script to screen, Dog Soldiers also boasts one of the all-time best werewolf designs ever put on film. However, if you decide to check this one out, I’d recommend turning on subtitles due to the copious amounts of Scottish slang.

5. Demons (1985)

I’ve always felt that there aren’t enough horror films set inside movie theaters. Sure, there’s 1991’s Popcorn and the final act of The Final Destination (where the protagonist races to save moviegoers from a fire in a meta twist), but only a handful of filmmakers have dared to explore what I believe is an obvious location for a scary story.

Thankfully, one of these rare filmmakers is Lamberto Bava, son of legendary director Mario Bava. In 1985, Lamberto partnered with Dario Argento to produce a surprisingly meta horror flick about university students who become trapped in an old movie theater under siege by the titular Demons. A fun mix of self-aware writing and gruesome practical effects, I’d recommend both this film and its entertaining sequel to any genre fan willing to explore Italian horror.

4. Green Room (2015)

One of the less speculative entries on this list, Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room (the second installment in his as-yet-unfinished color trilogy) is only really a horror picture because of the director’s decision to highlight the extreme and ultimately nonsensical violence perpetrated by the Nazi antagonists.

And while characters from other films have plenty of chances to find helpful resources, the ill-fated punk band in this film is initially trapped in the titular green room itself, having almost no weapons with which to defend themselves from their hateful pursuers. And in case you haven’t seen this one before, the excellent cast alone (featuring the talents of thespians like the late Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat and even Patrick Stewart) is already worth the price of admission.

3. The Void (2016)

A John-Carpenter-inspired creature-feature with crowd-funded practical effects and plenty of Lovecraftian terror, Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie’s The Void is a miracle of an independent horror flick. And though the film boasts enough otherworldly shenanigans to suggest a cosmic mythology, most of the action is actually contained within a small-town hospital.

The film actually plays out like skillfully-crafted Call of Cthulhu one-shot as survivors are forced to fight back against an invasion of maddened cultists as well as the incomprehensible forces that they serve. Just be prepared for some cringe-inducing body-horror if you decide to watch this one!

2. The Mist (2007)

As a lifelong introvert, I’ve always thought that the real horror of this Stephen King adaptation was in creating a situation where I’d be forced to interact with my neighbors for a prolonged period of time. That being said, I’ll admit that the mysterious mist containing eldritch horrors might just be a little worse than having to borrow a cup of sugar from the crazy cat lady next door.

And while most of the other movies on this list see folks rallying together in order to defend their claustrophobic safe room, The Mist stands out by showing us the worst-case scenario when paranoid strangers give in to the darker side of human nature. I mean, we all agree that Ms. Carmody is much scarier than demon spiders and tentacles, right?

1. Dawn of the Dead (1979)

You could easily replace this entry with Romero’s own Night of the Living Dead, but I’d argue that the easily recognizable urban location makes the undead siege hit that much harder in this iconic follow-up. In fact, the setup of strangers working together to defend a shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse is so iconic that it has since inspired countless remakes, knock-offs, parodies and even video games.

It’s likely that you already know all the beats to this story even if you’ve never seen Dawn of the Dead before, though that shouldn’t keep you from checking this film out. After all, while I’ll admit that the Zack Snyder remake is one hell of a gnarly siege flick as well, at the end of the day, there’s no beating the original.

The post Nowhere Left to Run: 6 Terrifying Siege Movies appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Batty Zabella

Developer Ice Cold Blood’s mix of horror and comedy a la Elvira in Game Boy form, Batty Zabella puts you as the eponymous heroine as she tries to save her family and rid her home of phantoms. The game plays out much like the classic Shadowgate on the NES, where you use the D-pad to move a cursor around the screen. Moving the cursor over objects will generate a response from Zabella, indicating what you should do next. In addition to a ROM, you can also purchase the game as a cartridge from Retro Room Games.

Deadeus

For those of the Lovecraft persuasion, -IZMA-‘s Deadeus is for you. This open-world Lovecraftian adventure game centers around a small boy who has a prophetic nightmare that reveals to him that everyone will die in 3 days. The boy now has to investigate his village to see how he can save them, if at all. The game has 11 endings and no direct path, leaving it up to the player to decide the best course of action. Much like Batty Zabella, you can also snag this in a nice physical version at incube8 Games.

Silent Hill Play Novel

Play Novel: Silent Hill is a Japan-only adaptation of the original Silent Hill that was released in 2001 for the Game Boy Advance. So naturally, you have to do a demake for the Game Boy, which is what Diega did. While it’s still in development (you can only play Harry’s scenario at the moment), Silent Hill Play Novel is still very functional, and includes a pretty good translation. The next version of the game will include Cybil’s scenario.

Bitterroot

Described by developer Horatiu.nyc as an exercise to see how far the limitations of the Game Boy can be pushed to create a true atmospheric game, Bitterroot is the story of the cursed Bitterroot Mansion, and the secrets it holds. You take on the role of a stranded stranger, who ends up trapped in the mansion. The game requires you to search for key items in order to escape mansion. All the while, you’ll fight off its otherworldly inhabitants, and try to piece together the origins of the curse.

Cryohazard

burst_error’s Cryohazard is a concoction that’s inspired by classic point and click games, Choose Your Own Adventure books, and B-movie horror. The story has you waking up from a cryogenic sleep in a dilapidated research facility. Said facility is also full of monstrous mutants. As you might expect from it’s inspirations, there are multiple endings for this game, along with numerous gruesome deaths.

Cargo

Another title from Horatiu.nyc, Cargo has you playing as Moira, a scavenger who receives a tip about an abandoned ship with mysterious cargo on it that “a lot of very important people want.” So, you head on over to check it out. In order to claim the cargo, you’ll have to make your way to the main deck, but you’ll also have to manage your oxygen and ammo in order to get there. What you find should have stayed lost.

Soul Void

Developed by Kadabura, this 1-3 experience is one for fans of body horror. You play as someone who has found themselves in an underground realm between life and death known as the Soul Void. Unlike others who are also in the Soul Void, you aren’t dead. Nor are you wanting to stick around. As such, you have to figure out why you’re in this place, and how to get back home. Along the way, you’ll encounter individuals whose bodies are in various forms of, shall we say, distress.

The Melting Apartment

A giallo on the Game Boy? Mixed with Junji Ito? flower studio’s title starts out simple enough: you play as an investigator assigned to find a young woman who has disappeared after moving into an old building at the edge of town. Remembering your gun this time, you’ve got to find her, and ultimately escape with your lives. Gameplay has you moving around the building to examine points of interest. You also meet several of the other residents in the building, who add to the disturbing atmosphere.

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We all miss the “What if?” of P.T.. Jonshaw01 certainly did, so they remade P.T. for the Game Boy. Don’t be fooled by the Pokémon-esque overhead view, as you’ll be creeped out pretty quickly while wandering the hallways. There’s also a hint menu that you can call up in case you get stuck.

The Dead in My Living Room

Don’t you hate it when you wake up to find something weird happened? MeteorArts’ eerie atmospheric title has a man named Jack waking up after an uneasy sleep to find the dead body of an unknown person in his living room. That’s on top of a few other things going on, including Jack’s wife being dead, a rather large spider roaming around your house, and Jack’s odd fascination with a plant that he’s been growing. The developer even has a short film that dives deeper into Jack’s story.

Opossum Country

Another short bit of horror, Opossum Country sees you as a delivery driver who while on a delivery finds himself in an isolated trailer park. Naturally, something isn’t quite right. Then again, you probably could’ve gathered that from the first resident, who warns you to move on quickly. However, your concern for one resident leads you to stumble into a situation that was best left alone.

Neighbor

Yet another title by Horatiu.nyc, Neighbor has you playing as a young woman who has just found a spacious apartment for a great deal. A dream apartment, for sure. But as you might expect, there’s a reason why the place was such a bargain. Comprised of three chapters, Neighbor has two separate endings in the first two chapters, as well as several hidden secrets that expand the game’s world.

Feed IT Souls

A Metroidvania, you are the offspring of IT. What’s IT? IT is a bio-technological monstrosity that requires delicious souls for sustenance. It’s your job to find said souls to feed IT. As you feed IT, his power grows, as does your own. Every soul retrieved will enhance your mobility as you explore your surroundings. Feed IT Souls features two difficulty modes, including a “butt clenching precision platforming” Hard Mode. There are also 25 lost eggs located throughout the map. Find all of them to unlock a Bonus Mode.

Days Without

Elvies’ Days Without focuses on the bleakness that comes with the zombie apocalypse. A narrative-driven survival horror game with the expected gunplay, you play as Job an orphaned boy who finds himself in the midst of the end of the world. Depending on your choices, you can encounter one of five different endings.

The Mist

Not related to the Stephen King classic, Yliader’s game still has some Lovecraftian tinge to it. The story goes that you’ve been sent to work for a few months at a lighthouse after the previous keeper mysteriously went missing. Your tasks involve lighting the lighthouse’s lamp each night. However, with an approaching storm, you’re haunted by strange dreams at night. That, and it seems as if there’s something calling to you from below the lighthouse itself.

The post On Its Anniversary, Check Out These Fresh Horror Games You Can Play on the Nintendo Game Boy appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Suitable Flesh Blu-ray from RLJE Films

Suitable Flesh will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 9 via RLJE Films. The horror film is based on H. P. Lovecraft’s 1937 short story “The Thing on the Doorstep.”

Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Mayhem) directs from a script by Dennis Paoli (Re-Animator, From Beyond). Heather Graham, Judah Lewis, Bruce Davison, Johnathon Schaech, and Barbara Crampton (who also produces) star.

Special features include: a commentary by Lynch, Crampton, and producer Bob Portal; Behind the Scene of Suitable Flesh; an interview with composer Steve Moore, a blooper reel, and a storyboard-to-screen comparison.

Terrifier Coloring Book from Chris Butler

I hope you have a lot of red crayons handy, because Art the Clown has an official coloring book.

Illustrated by Chris Butler, Color the Terrifier features 34 pages of gruesome coloring and activities for $15.

Subspecies Bloodstone Replica from Full Moon

Full Moon has released a full-scale replica of the bloodstone from the Subspecies franchise for $299.95. Limited to 300, it was cast from the screen-used prop.

The light-up statue measures 8.5″ tall, 7″ long, and 5″ wide. A certificate of authenticity signed by director Ted Nicolaou and producer Charles Band is included.

The Mist Poster from Daniel Danger

Daniel Danger has launched pre-orders for The Mist 19×36 posters. The 10-color screen print is available as an art print sans text for $100 or with an additional transparent layer featuring the title and credits for $110. They’re expected to ship by February.

The Raid: Redemption 4K UHD from Sony

The Raid: Redemption blasts onto unrated 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray and Digital) on January 16 via Sony. Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Ray Sahetapy, and Yayan Ruhian star in the 2011 Indonesian action-thriller.

The film is presented in 4K with a new color grade, supervised by writer-director Gareth Evans (V/H/S/2), and Dolby Vision. It features Indonesian Atmos and English 5.1 sound, along with the original and international scores.

Special features include: a commentary by Evans; behind-the-scenes video blogs; multiple featurettes delving into the score with composers Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park) and Joseph Trapanese (The Witcher, Oblivion); and more.

For more merch madness, peruse the Killer Collectibles archives. You can also visit Broke Horror Fan.

The post 5 of This Week’s Coolest Horror Collectibles Including an Epic New Poster for ‘The Mist’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

His thus-far final King adaptation came in 2007 with The Mist, which finds a group of locals trapped in a grocery store while an ominous fog shrouding mysterious secrets envelopes their quaint Maine town. A microcosm of any community, the supermarket is a canny setting for a contained thriller. The divisive mob mentality and pigheaded self-righteousness that manifests under pressure is even more poignant in a post-Trump world.

Sensible artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane, The Punisher) becomes the de facto leader, but The Mist‘s strength — like much of King’s body of work — lies in its rich characters. Darabont assembled an adept cast to bring them from the page to the screen: Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River) as a dangerous religious fanatic, Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as David’s tightly-wound neighbor, Laurie Holden (The Walking Dead) as a new teacher in town, and Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger) as the store’s assistant manager.

Other notable patrons and workers include William Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption), Jeffrey DeMunn (The Walking Dead), Frances Sternhagen (Misery), Sam Witwer (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Alexa Davalos (The Man in the High Castle), Chris Owen (American Pie), Buck Taylor (Cowboys & Aliens), Melissa McBride (The Walking Dead), and Nathan Gamble (Dolphin Tale) as David’s 8-year-old son.

Darabont agreed to make The Mist on a smaller budget of $18 million in order to retain his controversial ending. While some consider it needlessly bleak, King himself has praised it as wishing he wrote it for the original story. Eschewing the carefully calculated aesthetic of his earlier work, Darabont worked with cinematographer Rohn Schmidt (The Walking Dead, The Shield) to adopt aggressive, handheld visuals. Evoking cinema verite-style documentary footage, the immediacy of the camerawork reinforces the on-screen tension.

From Lovecraftian tentacle monsters to hordes of giant insects and beyond, the film’s creatures are the cumulative efforts of three luminaries in their respective fields. Swamp Thing co-creator Bernie Wrightson served as the concept artist, working closely with special effects legend Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead, Kill Bill) to design the practical monsters. Cafe FX, who were sought out based on their work on Pan’s Labyrinth, was employed to handle the visual effects.

The Mist has received a new four-disc set from Lionsgate that includes both the theatrical and black-and-white presentations of the movie on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. Darabont himself prefers the greyscale version, which evokes 1950s monster movies and helps conceal some spotty visual effects, although the frenzied camerawork feels anachronistic in black and white. Both 4K discs feature Dolby Vision/HDR and Dolby Atmos sound.

Darabont’s insightful audio commentary alongside co-producer Denise Huth touches on blending on-location and soundstage filming, working with major digital effects for the first time, embracing a different visual style, and adapting King. The filmmaker also points out nods to The Thing, Monsters Inc., The Twilight Zone, The Manchurian Candidate, and more. In “A Conversation with Stephen King and Frank Darabont,” the two masters of their crafts engage in a delightful, 12-minute chat about the nonnegotiable ending, a jump scare that got King, and their past collaborations.

“When Darkness Came: The Making of The Mist” is a 37-minute featurette that pairs insight from Darabont, King, cast, and crew with behind-the-scenes footage. Focal points include the unconventional shooting style and the bold ending (which was withheld from cast members who were not involved). “Taming the Beast: The Making of Scene 35” chronicles the six-day shoot of the most complicated scene of the movie: an elaborate sequence with practical and visual effects, action, and fire stunts. “Monsters Among Us: A Look at the Creature FX” and “The Horror of It All: The Visual FX of The Mist” are complementary featurettes looking at the collaborative relationship from Wrightson’s concept designs and Nicotero’s practical work to Cafe FX’s visual effects.

“Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of an Artist” finds Darabont and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro paying tribute to Struzan, the humble artist behind some of cinema’s most iconic posters of all-time (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, et al.) who contributed art for The Mist and inspired the character of David Drayton. Other special features include: eight deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary by Darabont, who explains why each moment was excised, from tightening pacing to streamlining storytelling; a trio of brief webisodes each highlighting a different set piece (“Earthquakes,” “Burn Man,” “Franny, the Flamethrower”); and three trailers for the film.

The Mist‘s audacious ending often dominates conversations about the film — and understandably so, as it still packs a gut-punch 16 years later — but it wouldn’t be as powerful without the potency of the journey that precedes it: captivating source material, bold direction, frenetic camerawork, a stellar ensemble, inventive creature work. Darabont has yet to helm another feature, and while The Mist would make for a felicitous swan song, the new 4K serves as a stark reminder of how much his prowess is missed.

The Mist is available now on 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital.

The post ‘The Mist’ 4K Ultra HD Review – There’s a Reason We’re Still Talking About This Movie 16 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Most people go out of their way to avoid the eight-legged creatures, whether due to full-blown arachnophobia or just a mild unease. This week’s streaming picks capture the primal terror that spiders evoke; if you’re not arachnophobic now, these five movies might instill a new fear.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Arachnophobia – Tubi

The pinnacle of arachnophobia-based horror revolves around an arachnophobe protagonist forced to confront his fears in the worst possible way when the small town he’s just moved his family to is invaded by a new species of spider. A species that happens to be extremely aggressive and venomous. There’s no shortage of horrifying moments as the spider offspring quietly sneak into homes and attack oblivious humans doing innocuous things like putting on shoes or turning off lamps. But the showdown in the wine cellar is a spine-tingling, suspenseful battle for the ages.

The Believers – freevee, Roku Channel

After his wife dies in a freak accident in Minneapolis, Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) moves him and his son Chris to New York City, where he attains a job as a police psychologist for the New York City Police Department. Finally, Cal feels that his family is safe, but unbeknownst to him, a series of brutal and inexplicable murders are about to begin sweeping through the town, putting his son in danger. For a movie that’s centered around a psychiatrist trying to keep his son safe from a Brujería practicing cult with a penchant for brutal child sacrifices, no one would expect the intense spider body horror that comes out of nowhere.

The Mist – Peacock

Frank Darabont’s bleak 2007 horror film traps survivors inside a supermarket when a mysterious fog rolls through town, unleashing deadly creatures with it. Faced with unknowable horrors lurking in the mist, some supermarket inhabitants turn to religious fanaticism. Some are driven insane. Many of them die in grotesque ways. Above all, The Mist offers a grim feeling of hopelessness that’ll leave you needing something uplifting to watch afterward. And yet, it’s the monstrous depiction of spiders and their harrowing method of feeding that offers the most terror here.

Most Beautiful Island – freevee, Kanopy

Most Beautiful Island isn’t a spider horror movie, but it will induce a healthy fear of spiders all the same. Ana Asensio wrote, directed, and starred in this dramatic horror-thriller about an undocumented woman struggling to survive in New York City. It’s the film’s third act that induces arachnid chills with a prolonged sequence that sees multiple characters subjected to arachnid terror as spectators watch. It’s such a simple concept, stretched out for maximum tension as you watch spiders skitter across naked flesh.

The Beyond – AMC+, Fandor, Kanopy, Peacock, Redbox, Plex, SCREAMBOX, Shudder

One of Lucio Fulci’s most beloved horror films and the second entry in his unofficial “Gates of Hell” trilogy, The Beyond is also the director’s most influential. Set in Louisiana, a young woman inherits a hotel and discovers it was built over one of the gates to Hell. Bleak, surreal, and dreamlike in its storytelling, The Beyond toes the line between beauty and horror. With Lucio Fulci at the helm, that means whatever does happen, it’s going to hurt a lot. Case in point? A vicious spider attack for one poor soul frozen in place and helpless against his arachnid threat.

The post Five Arachnophobia Inducing Horror Movies to Stream This Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In addition, Best Buy is getting an exclusive SteelBook version of the brand new 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray+ Digital release, which will feature alternate artwork and a slip case.

Both releases include the color version and the black & white version of the film.

SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

• ALTERNATE BLACK & WHITE VERSION
• AUDIO COMMENTARY WITH WRITER-DIRECTOR FRANK DARABONT AND PRODUCER DENISE HUTH

BLU-RAY ONLY:

• DELETED SCENES WITH OPTIONAL COMMENTARY BY FRANK DARABONT
• A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHEN KING AND FRANK DARABONT
• OVER 2 HOURS OF TOTAL BONUS MATERIAL

When a mysterious mist, and the supernatural creatures within, falls across their town in the wake of a violent storm, a group of local citizens must fend for themselves while trapped inside a local supermarket. They soon begin to realize that the real danger may not be from the monsters outside, but from tension and mistrust within.

[Related] Losing Hope: Re-Evaluating the Shocking Ending of ‘The Mist’ 15 Years Later

Written, directed, and produced by Frank Darabont, and starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, and William Sadler, The Mist will be available nationally for the suggested retail price of $34.99 and a Best Buy exclusive of $37.99.

Below, you can revisit the 2007 stunner with our weekly Stephen King podcast, The Losers’ Club, who went deep into the Darabont classic last November for its 10th anniversary.

The post ‘The Mist’ Creeps Onto 4K Ultra HD with Black & White Version Included appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Stephen King has always been a self-referential writer. In addition to his poignant memoir On Writing and a multitude of forwards and afterwards in his Uncle Steve voice, the Master of Horror tends to inject his fiction with characters that bear a striking resemblance to his own persona. Equating writing with therapy, he often seems to be working through issues that underlie his novels and one can often pick out themes and seasons of life peeking through the windows of his work.

Before hitting the bestseller list, King was a young husband and father struggling to make ends meet and the weight of supporting a family frequently appears in his early writing. The newest King adaptation to hit the big screen, Rob Savage’s The Boogeyman, reimagines a story from the author’s first collection Night Shift in which a surly father mourns the deaths of his three young children. The bulk of these paternal characters appear in early phases of King’s career, but the prolific writer has continued to create complex and conflicted fathers for the past five decades.

As Father’s Day approaches, let’s celebrate the good, the bad, and the dastardly dads that weave their way through Stephen King’s body of work. 

Worst: Lester Billings – The Boogeyman

The Lester Billings we meet in Rob Savage’s adaptation of The Boogeyman is a far cry from the despicable father haunting the pages of Night Shift. Both versions of the character visit a psychiatrist hoping to share the tragic story of their children’s deaths and both versions insist that the child killer is a shadowy monster lurking in darkened closets. While Savage’s version is understandably despondent, King’s original Lester is much more unpleasant. An abusive bigot, he casually mentions assaulting his wife and hints that he would rather his son die than turn out to be what he calls “a sissy.” His story is horrifying, but it’s difficult to feel too much sympathy for the grieving father when he describes sending his young son back to his crib alone to divert the Boogeyman’s attention away from himself. Even worse, an alternative reading of King’s story implies that the Boogeyman is merely a manifestation of Lester’s own rage. He is the true monster and has created the Boogeyman to hide from the reality that he has killed his own children.  

Best: Andy McGee – Firestarter

When most Constant Readers think about King’s 1980 novel, their minds naturally turn to Charlie McGee. However, the story is actually a two-hander following the titular pyrokinetic child and her father as they run from a clandestine government agency known as the Shop. Andy McGee met his late wife Vicky during a college experiment in which they were both injected with a serum designed to enhance psychic abilities. Their daughter Charlie was subsequently born with the power to start fires with her mind along with a bevy of other abilities that continue to grow stronger as she ages. Despite Andy’s tendency to use his own psy talents, all he wants for his daughter is a normal life. He’s taught her to suppress her enormous gifts in fear that the Shop will hold her captive and subject her to cruel experiments. Andy is not a perfect father. His lessons have caused Charlie to live in fear of her own body, but this parental control stems from an all-consuming desire to shield his daughter from harm. He sacrifices his own life to save her from a sinister father figure working on behalf of the Shop. Most of the fathers in King’s early work fall victim to their own inadequacies, but Andy stands out as a dedicated dad determined to protect his child. 

Worst: Billy Halleck – Thinner

IMAGE – Robert John Burke as Billy Halleck in Thinner

Billy Halleck is arguably a better father than he is a husband. A highly connected lawyer, Halleck pulls strings to avoid jail time when he kills a Romany woman with his car while receiving a hand job from his wife. The deceased woman’s husband curses the obese Halleck with a single word: thinner, and dooms him to rapidly lose weight until he wastes away to practically nothing. Though never exactly pleasant, Halleck begins to lose his grip on reality as the pounds melt away. He resents his wife, Heidi, and believes that she should be the one to pay the price for the old woman’s death. Halleck seems to genuinely care for his daughter, Linda, though his insistence that his wife has caused all his problems suggests a mean streak that might eventually land on his daughter’s shoulders. Halleck eventually finds a way to escape the curse by passing it to someone else with a pie poisoned with blood. He leaves the treat for his wife to eat and falls asleep believing that all of his problems have been solved. Unfortunately, Linda also consumes a slice and Billy wakes up to learn that he’s now doomed his own daughter to a horrendous fate. Written under King’s dark pseudonym, Thinner is a mean story about a careless and selfish man who destroys his family because he cannot accept responsibility for his own actions. 

Best: Clay Riddell – Cell

The main protagonist of King’s tech apocalypse nightmare is a bit of an anomaly. Instead of an author, he’s a graphic novelist hoping for a lucrative contract that will allow him to reconcile with his estranged wife, Sharon, and young son, Johnny. Clay has just emerged from a meeting in Boston when a phenomenon called the Pulse uses cell phones to transmit a deadly signal turning anyone who hears it into feral murderers. Clay joins a rag tag group of survivors and becomes a father figure of sorts to 12-year-old Jordan and 15-year-old Alice who have both become orphaned in the world-wide massacre. However, Clay never gives up on Johnny and ventures through the post-apocalyptic hellscape determined to find (or find out the fate of) his own son. The novel ends with a bittersweet reunion and the vague promise that Clay might be able to save Johnny from the horrific mind virus. Cell may not be King’s most beloved novel, but by refusing to give up on the chance of saving his son, Clay becomes one of the author’s most inspirational fathers. 

Worst: Joe St. George – Dolores Claiborne

On the opposite end of the paternal spectrum is Joe St. George. The disgusting husband of Dolores Claiborne, Joe’s single good quality seems to be a smooth forehead the island woman fell in love with in high school. Now married with three children, Joe spends his days picking up odd jobs around the tiny community of Little Tall Island and his evenings drinking and gambling away the money Dolores has been saving for her children’s college funds. When Dolores learns that Joe has also been molesting his oldest daughter Selena, she decides to take matters into her own hands and create an “accident” that will rid her home of this predatory monster. Under cover of a full eclipse, Dolores lures Joe out into the blackberry brambles behind their ramshackle house and leads him straight to the rotted cover of an old well. Joe falls through the wood and eventually dies at the bottom of the dried up pit screaming for his wife to either pull him out or join him in the deadly darkness. A caricature of abusive evil, Joe is one of King’s worst fathers and deserves to rot away in a hole deep under the ground. 

Best: Mike Anderson – Storm of the Century

Another resident of Little Tall Island, Mike Anderson proves that the tiny New England community does have fathers who love their children. When a brutal Nor’easter cuts the town off from the larger world, a mysterious stranger named Andre Linoge begins to pick off the island residents in a string of grisly murders and suicides. Despite being jailed by Anderson, serving as a part-time constable, Linoge exerts mental control over the town’s residents and repeats the simple phrase “give me what I want and I’ll go away.” Unfortunately, what this centuries-old sorcerer desires is a child to raise as his own evil successor. Faced with certain death, the adults of Little Tall Island decide to give the monster one of their children and devise a lottery system to choose the unfortunate sacrifice. The lone dissenter, Mike is devastated when his own son Ralphie is chosen to become Linoge’s progeny. Mike does his best to save his son, but tragically finds himself outmatched by a dark wizard and a town full of frightened people desperate to save themselves. 

Worst: “Big Jim” Rennie – Under the Dome

Arguably King’s worst villain, “Big Jim” Rennie is a slick politician and Second Selectman of the small Maine town of Chester’s Mill. This used car salesman and secret drug lord pulls the town’s strings from behind the scenes while maintaining the façade of a god-fearing father. When the whole of Chester’s Mill becomes encased in an indestructible dome, Big Jim seizes the opportunity to murder his enemies and increase his control over the terrified town. He’s so busy orchestrating riots and vilifying his political rivals that he fails to notice his son committing murders of his own. Due to an undiagnosed brain tumor, Junior Rennie careens through town assaulting and killing anyone who angers him or threatens his authority as the town’s most powerful son. Big Jim appoints Junior and his friends to the office of Special Deputy and essentially gives them free reign to terrorize the town under the guise of martial law. Two of King’s most evil characters, Big Jim and his son Junior are terrifying simply because they seem so plausible in a divided political landscape that feeds on fear mongering and deception.

Debatable: David Drayton – The Mist

Thomas Jane may just want his kids back, but his most famous Stephen King character, David Drayton, has been struggling to care for his young son Billy in the wake of a mysterious catastrophe. When a vicious storm ushers in a dense fog that essentially swallows the town of Bridgton, Maine, several of the town’s residents find themselves trapped together in the local grocery store. As otherworldly monsters emerge from the mist and begin to snatch survivors, David must find a way to protect Billy while convincing his stubborn neighbors that the monsters he’s seen lurking outside the store are real. Even worse, a local zealot named Mrs. Carmody decides that this plague is a punishment from a vengeful God. She amasses a group of terrified followers and demands to take Billy as a sacrifice. David eventually flees the store with his son and a small group of likeminded residents. King’s original David merely keeps driving through an endless sea of mist, dodging monsters and continuing to care for his son while Frank Darabont’s adaptation takes a much darker turn. Hearing the approach of a gigantic creature, David and his unofficial ka-tet decide that a quick death is more appealing than a slow and agonizing demise at the hands (claws) of these Lovecraftian beasts. He shoots Billy and everyone else in the car before running out of bullets and stepping outside to face what he believes will be certain death. Only then does he realize that the sound they heard was the arrival of salvation; army tanks approaching to sweep them away to safety. King’s ending is haunting, but Darabont’s grim conclusion dramatically changes the tone of this bleak horror film and catapults David to the upper echelons of the author’s worst fathers. 

Worst: Wilfred James – 1922 

In Zak Hilditch’s adaptation of King’s novella 1922, Thomas Jane brings to life another of King’s flawed fathers. Nebraska farmer Wilfred James claims to want to protect his son Henry’s inheritance, but his desire to murder his wife Arlette stems from petty jealousy that the parcel of land she owns is larger than his own. When the headstrong woman begins making plans to sell off her portion of the property and move to Omaha, Wilfred convinces his teenage son Henry to help him carry out a gruesome murder. The reluctant son joins his father in a plan to slash Arlette’s throat and send her tumbling down a well that subsequently becomes infested with rats. Perhaps predictably, Henry struggles with the weight of this crime and his promising life quickly falls apart. He impregnates his girlfriend and the young lovers set out on a Bonnie and Clyde style crime spree that eventually leads to their own tragic deaths. Wilfred ends up depressed and alone, forced to sell the land he once killed for and move to the city he hates. Haunted by the rats who seem to embody Arlette’s vengeful spirit, Wilfred succumbs to his own guilt while trying to tell the story of a life shattered by his own selfishness.  

Worst: Bob Anderson – A Good Marriage

No relation to Little Tall’s Mike, Bob Anderson proves to be one of King’s most devious fathers. The central villain of the novella A Good Marriage, Bob seems to have the perfect life: a loving wife named Darcy, two happy adult children, and a small yet successful business selling rare coins to dedicated collectors. While Bob is away on a business trip, Darcy stumbles upon her husband’s dark secret. Searching for batteries in the garage, she finds evidence of her his taste for sadomasochistic torture and confirmation that he is a notorious serial killer known as Beadie. Darcy tries to hide her shock, but Bob confronts her with the truth and convinces his wife to keep his horrific secret to protect their children. She agrees, but secretly begins to plan a way out of her disintegrating marriage. Though Bob is ostensibly a family man and loving parent, he’s spent the past few decades murdering the daughters of other fathers. He claims to be thinking only of his children, but anyone can see that his insistence that Darcy keep his secret stems from a selfish desire to avoid prison or death. King based this character on the horrifying true story of Dennis Rader, a Kansas serial killer who operated under the noses of his picture perfect family for decades. Rader’s small community was devastated by the discovery of his crimes, leaving little doubt of the dark fate awaiting Darcy and her children should Bb’s secret ever come out. 

Best: Edgar Freemantle – Duma Key

One of King’s most unusual protagonists, Edgar Freemantle moves to a quiet Florida island known as Duma Key in order to recover from a near-fatal accident. After a collision with a massive crane, Edgar discovers that he now has the ability to create reality with his drawings and see far away scenes by envisioning them in his mind and translating them to canvas. Unfortunately his curious power seems to come from a terrifying female force known as Perse lurking just off the coast. Having divorced his wife in the aftermath of the accident, Edgar remains close to his younger daughter Ilse whom he invites to stay with him on Duma Key. With this innocent visit, Edgar inadvertently introduces Isle to the island’s sinister presence and Edgar scrambles to keep her from falling under Perse’s deadly spell. The novel concludes with a father’s desperate quest for revenge. Guided by memories of his beloved Ilse, he ventures to the island’s dark edges to battle the centuries-old sea-witch once and for all. King’s bittersweet ending proves that though time heals all wounds, some losses are forever. 

Worst: Frank Dunning – 11/22/63

Arguably one of King’s best novels and most romantic stories, 11/22/63 also contains one of the most horrific scenes in his entire body of work. Frank Dunning is a popular butcher who constantly flirts with the ladies of Derry, Maine. Unfortunately, he’s also an angry and controlling drunk and frequently abuses his wife and children. On Halloween night of 1958, Frank tries to force a reunion with his estranged wife and winds up attacking his family with a sledgehammer, gruesomely killing all but young Harry who emerges from the chaos with a mental disability and debilitating limp. Decades later, Harry tells this tragic story to a young teacher named Jake Epping who finds a way to travel back through time and save the family from this horrific fate, giving the audience a ring-side seat to this harrowing massacre. Frank’s fate is a minor part of King’s epic novel, but this Halloween night and the raging father who turns out to be worse than any monster is one few Constant Readers will ever forget. 

Best: Alan Pangborn – Needful Things

When Sheriff George Bannerman falls victim to a rabid St. Bernard, Castle Rock’s next Chief of Police will undoubtedly have big shoes to fill. Fortunately, the job falls to one of King’s most beloved characters, Alan Pangborn. This husband and father of two first emerges in the pages of The Dark Half when he attempts to help another father, Thad Beaumont, defend his own family against the murderous manifestation of his sinister pseudonym. Pangborn returns in the black comedy Needful Things to square off against devilish salesman Leland Gaunt for the souls of the small New England town. Between the timelines of these two Castle Rock stories, Alan’s wife Annie dies in a car accident along with the couple’s younger son Todd. The grieving father not only struggles with depression, but guilt at failing to recognize the symptoms of a brain tumor that may have caused Annie to crash the car. Alan may protect the town from annihilation, but his true paternal strength lies in a more quiet kind of courage. Devastated by the loss of his wife and son, Alan bravely confronts his own grief and finds a way to heal his broken heart in order to love and support the son he still has left.  

Worst: Jack Torrance – The Shining

King’s most famous father will always be associated with Jack Nicholson’s incredible performance as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, though King’s own version of the character enjoys a bit more humanity. As the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Jack drags his family to an isolated resort hidden deep in the Colorado mountains after losing his teaching job due to a violent temper and struggles with sobriety. Jack intends to spend the quiet months finishing a play, but begins to feel resentment for his wife, Wendy, and young son, Danny. When the sinister ghosts haunting the hotel begin to prey on Jack’s weakened psyche, they convince him to kill Wendy and the psychically gifted Danny as the bloody price of admission to the Overlook’s system of power. Having struggled with addiction himself, King has since written that Jack may have been an unconscious manifestation of his own inner demons. He offers Jack a final moment of redemption not found in Kubrick’s adaptation and this near-perfect novel becomes a poignant reminder that hope never dies. Even the worst parents have the power to find their way out of darkness and remember to selflessly love their children. 

Most Tragic: Louis Creed – Pet Sematary

Louis Creed’s life seems practically perfect when he moves to the sleepy town of Ludlow, Maine. Having taken a job as a doctor at the local university, the husband and father of two moves his family into a country home that just happens to lie next to a two-lane road frequented by large trucks. When his neighbor Jud introduces him to a charming, but eerie Pet Sematary in the woods behind his house, a sinister force awakens in the forest’s deeper darkness. This innocent hike begins a deadly chain reaction that claims the life of the family’s pet cat and toddler son Gage. Louis tries to harness this dark power to resurrect the happy family now lying shattered at his feet, but winds up plunging his wife and daughter into an inescapable nightmare. King was inspired to write this terrifying novel after watching his own young son run into the road and famously put the finished manuscript in a drawer convinced it was too dark for publication. Pet Sematary is indeed devastating, and may be King’s most terrifying tale, but it’s also one of his best. Watching Louis try to reject the inevitability of loss allows us all to confront the terror of loving children in a world that doesn’t promise to protect them. His descent into hell reminds us to hold our loved ones a little closer and treasure their presence in our lives while we still can. 

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It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude, and The Losers’ Club are attempting to fight it as they revisit Frank Darabont‘s The Mist. Starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Laurie Holden, this chilling 2007 Stephen King adaptation celebrates its 15th anniversary this month.

Join Losers Michael Roffman, Rachel Reeves, Ashley Casseday, and Justin Gerber at the Food House in Bridgton, Maine as they hey take inventory of the film’s inspired ensemble cast, debate the themes within, marvel at Darabont’s handiwork, and sort through all the macabre monsters that still terrify us all these years later.

Then, stay tuned as star Thomas Jane returns to the show to not only revisit The Mist, but discuss his latest film Slayers. He also weighs in on how we’ve totally fucked up the Internet, his favorite Hollywood leading men over the years, why he gravitates toward King’s work, his favorite roles in King’s Dominion, and so much more.

So, what are you waiting for?

Stream both episodes below and return next week when the Losers continue their journey toward The Dark Tower as they reach the sixth and penultimate installment Song of Susannah. For further adventures, join the Losers’ Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

You can also unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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The post Frank Darabont’s ‘The Mist’ at 15 and Checking In with Thomas Jane [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It may not be one of Stephen King’s most popular stories, but The Mist is still a surprisingly influential piece of genre fiction. From Half-Life to Silent Hill, several horror properties have openly drawn inspiration from this eerie novella. That’s why it’s surprising that it took so long for the story see an adaptation, with frequent King collaborator Frank Darabont championing the project for nearly three decades before finally releasing his take on The Mist in 2007.

Starring genre favorite Thomas Jane as artist David Drayton alongside a talented ensemble featuring names like Marcia Gay Harden and Andre Braugher (as well as several actors who would later become popular in Darabont’s The Walking Dead series), the film is a decidedly faithful adaptation of King’s original tale, right down to the disturbing creature descriptions and multiverse references. Taking place in central Maine, the plot follows a group of people who become trapped in a supermarket after a mysterious mist rolls into town, bringing with it otherworldly horrors. Isolated and besieged by primitive monsters, some of the survivors slowly begin to devolve into religious fanaticism, leading to an unsettling single-location thriller.

Despite the film keeping most of its source material intact, with King even citing the first screening of the flick as one of the happiest moments of his career, Darabont’s take on the story ends on a much more sinister note. In fact, the film’s final moments were the subject of major controversy among horror fans upon release, with audiences accusing the uncomfortable climax of ruining everything that preceded it and being an example of shock for shock’s sake.

While I agree that the ending of The Mist might be a bit too mean-spirited for some viewers, I’d argue that the downer finale is a perfect counterpoint to the film’s overarching themes. That’s why I’d like to discuss how it was a perfect ending back in the day, and even more impactful a decade and a half later, making the movie a memorable classic by ending it on a dramatic gut-punch. And just in case you’ve yet to witness this tragic masterpiece: there are major spoilers ahead, as we’ll be discussing the ending of both the movie and the novella…

Overall, the original narrative played out in pretty much the same way as the film, with slight variations in character deaths and a few extra subplots like David having a stress-induced affair with Amanda. Once the group finally escapes the madness of the supermarket, the story concludes with David noting that death would be preferable to becoming lost in the mist and realizing that there aren’t enough bullets for suicide. The group then rides off towards an uncertain fate, though a faint radio signal ends the tale with a glimmer of hope.

However, the final act of the movie is where Darabont took some serious creative liberties, seeing our traumatized protagonists escape the supermarket only to find themselves stranded in the middle of the mist once their jeep runs out of gas. After a moment of resigned silence, the group agrees to mass suicide despite not having enough bullets, with David being forced to shoot his own son and then face the extra-dimensional horrors on his own. Moments later, the lone survivor witnesses a military operation clearing out the mist as trucks transport people to safety, realizing that his friends and only child died for nothing.

Not quite a “happily ever after”.

Naturally, this ending is incredibly dark even for a Stephen King story, especially when the author is known for coming up with some of horror’s most absurd deus ex machinas in order to provide his readers a reasonably satisfying conclusion (though fans of Pet Sematary and Revival know that this isn’t always the case). While the movie had some pretty disturbing stuff up to that point, like the sacrifice of Private Jessup and that entire pharmacy sequence, there was nothing this downright mean. That’s why it makes sense that some viewers thought the scene came out of nowhere, though I don’t think that’s the case.

If you keep in mind the film’s meditations on hope and faith and how that influences people’s reactions during a crisis, it becomes clear that these misguided deaths were more than just a gratuitous expression of nihilism. While it makes sense that our lead characters would reject the notion of hope after everything they’ve seen (which is what makes the story a great example of cosmic horror), I believe that this tragic ending to The Mist is meant to criticize the complete rejection of faith in the same way that the supermarket’s religious insanity is meant to criticize the fanatical embrace of faith.

As we’ve seen throughout history, while an excess of faith can make dire situations worse and even lead to man-made atrocities, a complete lack of it can often result in the same kind of well-intentioned destruction – with faith not necessarily meaning “religion”. While it wasn’t quite as apocalyptic as the Arrowhead disaster, the Covid-19 pandemic serves as a grim example of this. Since 2020, several groups devolved into political fanaticism after becoming trapped in confined spaces due to a worldwide threat. Meanwhile, mental illness took its toll on the population as folks began to lose faith in each other, often motivated by awful stories in sensationalist media. It’s this kind of decidedly human horror that makes The Mist such a timeless experience (especially when some political groups were so keen on “sacrificing” certain demographics to the virus in real life).

With that in mind, it’s clear that Darabont’s version of The Mist ends in a more nuanced manner than King’s original story, functioning even better as a cautionary tale. In fact, Darabont only agreed to direct the film for Dimension if they promised not to make him change his script’s horrific ending, with the studio even offering double the budget if he changed that simple detail. The director obviously refused, having planned this passion project for decades and knowing that the story needed this added balance.

Like all good art, the exact intention behind Darabont’s ending to The Mist is still up for interpretation, though the director has gone on record stating that he sees the film as a thematic companion piece to The Shawshank Redemption. This makes sense, as that story was about hope and this one is about hopelessness. That being said, I particularly enjoy the grisly theory that Mrs. Carmody was right about everything, as salvation only comes after a malevolent God has received a bloody sacrifice.

Personally, I appreciate the finale as a poignant parable about not despairing during dark times, as this tragedy wasn’t inevitable. That’s why I think The Mist‘s ending isn’t quite as bleak as it initially appears, and is part of the reason why this brilliant little monster movie continues to age like a fine wine.

The post Losing Hope: Re-Evaluating the Shocking Ending of ‘The Mist’ 15 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

One of the best shows your not watching, “Solar Opposites” often taps into horror, taking the sci-fi chaos into ultra-violent and extremely gory territory.

This season isn’t as crazy as the previous two, but there are still several horror homages, including the season finale , which is a full-blown parody of Stephen King’s The Mist, which was adapted for the big screen in 2077 by Frank Darabont.

In the episode, the Solars struggle to tame an out-of-control Pupa that has exploded into a mist that’s bringing out the monster inside teenagers.

In other news, expect a “Solar Opposites” Halloween Special this fall.

Here are a few photos. Watch the episode right now on Hulu.

The post Hulu’s “Solar Opposites” Parodied Stephen King’s “The Mist”! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here are ten must-see horror titles available for streaming this month – June 2022 – on some of the most popular streaming services, along with when/where you can watch them.

Alligator – Shudder

The plot, borrowing from a popular urban legend, follows a baby alligator flushed down the toilet. It winds up in the sewer, the precise spot used as a dumping ground for growth hormones and waste by a local laboratory. That cute baby alligator grows into a monstrous beast and wreaks havoc on the town. Only Robert Forster’s Officer David can stop it. From director Lewis Teague (Cujo, Cat’s Eye), Alligator is legitimately good. It also earns major points for having the gall to kill a child in a memorably suspenseful scene. 

Annabelle Comes Home – Tubi

The Annabelle trilogy began as a rough spin-off movie and transformed into a perfect companion series to the heart and scares of The Conjuring. The third entry in the Annabelle series feels like a spooky trip in a carnival haunted house in the best possible way. Or perhaps more like a haunted toybox sprung to life. Mckenna Grace carries the torch well as Judith Warren, and the treasure trove of spooky new entities offers up a ghostly buffet. It’s an entertaining romp.

Colossal – HBO Max

Nacho Vigalondo’s genre-bender stars Anne Hathaway as Gloria, a mess of a party girl forced to move back home when her boyfriend (Dan Stevens) kicks her to the curb. As she slowly gets back on her feet, a giant monster attacks Seoul. Gloria realizes she might be connected to this weird phenomenon. Vigalondo applies the kaiju format to an engaging character study. What begins as more of a life crises dramedy slowly becomes more unsettling and genre forward as Gloria’s tenuous relationship with childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) becomes dark. This is a solid bet if you’re looking for something outside the norm.

Good Manners – AMC+, Kanopy, Shudder

Written and directed by Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas, Good Manners is a horror meets fable story about lonely nurse Clara and the unexpected bond she forms with her wealthy employer Ana. Ana hires Clara to be the nanny for her unborn child, and despite coming from very different backgrounds, the pair form a strong bond that’s forever altered on one fateful night of terror. Playing out in two distinct narrative halves connected by that fateful night, the less you know about Good Manners going in, the better. This dark fairy tale is a beautiful and often bloody entry in a beloved sub-genre and offers many heartfelt and heart-wrenching surprises.

In the Mouth of Madness – AMC+, Shudder

Do you read Sutter Cane? Of course, you do. Written by Michael De Luca and directed by John Carpenter, this descent into madness isn’t directly lifted from Lovecraft’s works but feels like it could be. Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator hired to look for a missing bestselling author whose books affect his fans in brutal ways. The further into the investigation that John gets, the more surreal and dangerous things become. Hobb’s End is an insidious little town full of insanity, creatures, and death. In the Mouth of Madness closes out Carpenter’s apocalypse trilogy, this time adding Lovecraftian horror to the doom.

The Thing – Peacock

John Carpenter’s paranoia-laden masterpiece is a pinnacle of practical effects. Its snowy Antarctic setting plays a pivotal role in isolation, paranoia, and the fight for survival. Fleeing from the shape-shifting alien that’s infiltrated the ranks of a research team isn’t easy, thanks to its ability to assimilate the humans as well as the storm raging outside. This classic keeps getting better and better with every rewatch. If you need another excuse to revisit, The Thing turns 40 this month.

The Northman – Peacock (June 3)

Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth, the son of War-Raven King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke). As a child, Amleth barely escapes with his life and flees into the sea after witnessing his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) murder his father and claim his mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), as his wife. Years later, Amleth’s assimilation into a marauding clan directs his deep-seated fury into pillaging and combat until a Seeress (Björk) hauntingly reminds him of his vows. Now of an age to fulfill them, Amleth sets off on a blood-drenched quest to fulfill his destiny. Director Robert Eggers, who co-wrote The Northman with Sjón (Lamb), again displays a meticulously researched vision that ambiguously blurs the lines between realism and the supernatural.

Offseason – Shudder (June 10)

This Southern Gothic tale uses dream logic and atmosphere, creating a beguiling cosmic horror story led by Jocelin Donahue. She travels to her hometown and becomes trapped in an increasingly nightmarish scenario. That dream logic bears a striking resemblance to Messiah of Evil in an eerie tone, but writer/director Mickey Keating draws from David Lynch and Robert Altman. A lot of Keating’s frequent collaborators appear, including the stalwart Larry Fessenden. All of it makes for a very Lovecraftian tale.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – Disney+ (June 22)

Multiverse of Madness employs two powerful assets for Doctor Strange’s latest outing: Sam Raimi and Elizabeth Olsen. Raimi easily slips back into his horror filmmaking roots and manages to infuse this sequel with as much horror as the MCU allows him. The script by Loki writer Michael Waldron lets demons and zombies run amok, but Raimi takes it a step further with his physical horror and horror-comedy sensibilities. Eyeballs get gouged, deaths hurt, characters literally wrestle with their inner demons, and the trademark demonic POV tracking shot makes an appearance. Callbacks to earlier works sneak in for the eagle-eyed fan, and Raimi even injects a few effective jump scares in his bid to make the antagonist an imposing and intimidating figure. It may follow the same MCU formula, but Raimi makes it fun.

The Mist – Netflix (June 22)

Frank Darabont’s bleak 2007 horror film may have been an adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, but both channeled Lovecraft for this gnarly tale. A severe storm triggers a strange, thick mist that crosses over a lake and town and envelops it. And that fog brings all sorts of bloodthirsty and deadly creatures, trapping survivors inside a supermarket to fight for their lives. The monsters themselves, especially the massive ones, feel right out of a Lovecraft story; but so do the characters. Faced with unknowable horrors lurking in the mist, some supermarket inhabitants turn to religious fanaticism. Some are driven insane. Many of them die in grotesque ways. Above all, The Mist offers a grim feeling of hopelessness that’ll leave you needing something uplifting to watch afterwards.

The post Ten Must Watch Genre Movies You Can Stream at Home in June! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We’ve learned that Andy Muschietti’s IT (2017) will bring Pennywise to Netflix on June 19, 2022, followed by Frank Darabont’s The Mist arriving on Netflix on June 22, 2022.

Those two movies will join other Stephen King horror adaptations currently on Netflix including Pet Sematary (1989), Christine, Gerald’s Game, In the Tall Grass, and 1922.

On the horizon, a feature film adaptation of one of the stories featured in Stephen King‘s collection If It Bleeds, titled Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, is currently in the works at Netflix. That project is being developed by “American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse, with John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) writing and directing the adaptation.

Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell (IT) will star. Sutherland will star in the title role of “Mr. Harrigan,” we had learned late last year, with Martell in the role of “Craig.”

Expect Mr. Harrigan’s Phone sometime in 2022.

“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is from the latest collection of novellas “If It Bleeds” from Stephen King, about a young boy named Craig, living in a small town, who befriends an older, reclusive billionaire, Mr. Harrigan. The two form a bond over books and an iPhone, but when the man passes away, the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone, and finds himself able to communicate with his friend from the grave through the iPhone that was buried with him.”

Below, you can listen to our own weekly Stephen King podcast, The Losers’ Club, review both 2017’s It and 2007’s The Mist. The former includes an interview with Andy and Barbara Muschietti.

The post Stephen King Summer: ‘The Mist’ and ‘It’ 2017 Coming to Netflix in June appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This month we revisit the short-lived small screen adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Mist.”

• Aired in 2017
• Aired on Spike TV

In the age of modern television where every network has sought their own hit genre series in the vein of “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story,” tapping into Stephen King’s massive oeuvre for content is just common sense. King has no shortage of short stories, novellas, and massive epics to keep his own streaming service afloat. Sadly, while tapping his writing for content is a good idea in theory, it doesn’t always translate into a surefire hit. 

2017 was a tumultuous year for Stephen King content and his fans. On the one hand we got brilliant adaptations like It: Chapter One. On the other hand we got… Spike TV’s “The Mist.” Premiering on the now defunct Spike TV in the summer of 2017, “The Mist” TV series seemed like a great idea at the time. The premise for “The Mist” felt episodic anyway; we’re shown in the finale of the story that the carnage has spread almost worldwide, so we could have had something equally cold and relentless like “The Road” meets H.P. Lovecraft. 

In early 2017, the series adaptation landed onto the network with a flurry of viral marketing and exclusive peeks at what promised to be a chaotic extension of the Frank Darabont-directed movie, but its own entity. Spike TV did a bang up job of hyping the series, providing cryptic television ads of the show for the first half of the year. They even allowed viewers to watch the first two episodes on Spike TV’s website, uncut, and with limited commercial breaks. I took advantage, of course. 

Set in Bridgeton, Maine, we meet Kevin (Morgan Spector) a somewhat passive man who’s married to Eve (Alyssa Sutherland), his wife who is hiding some kind of mysterious past. They have a daughter named Alex (Gus Birney) who is suffering from her mother’s overbearing behavior. Things take a turn for the worse when during a party Alex is drugged, raped, and blamed. All of this occurs before a mysterious gargantuan mist makes its way into town. When it does quickly consume every crevice of civilization, they’re all split apart, forced to hide in various locales with the mist blocking any and all access between them. 

To say “The Mist” was a botched television effort is an understatement. “The Mist” is not just terrible, but it almost seemed to set out to make the viewer miserable. The movie had very solid implications toward the mist being more about the blackness of humanity, and how religion may have been a part in Mrs. Carmody’s survival. But the titular mist presented in the series, we learn gradually over every episode, may not be some kind of portal from another dimension. Instead in the series it’s some kind of otherworldly fog that can judge people based on their sins past and present, and their ideas of morality. The producers work hard to make it abundantly clear that this isn’t the movie. That becomes a fact when Mrs. Carmody herself appears in the very first episode for two minutes and quickly suffers a horrendous death by the mist lurking outside.

The mist almost becomes a non-entity in some episodes where it literally has nothing to do in the show except become a flimsy catalyst for characters to act monstrously moronic. Other times it can literally do anything, including tack on clunky religious symbolism. In one scene a survivor has a bug crawl under his skin only for it to morph out of his back, wings fully spread, presenting a weird angelic image. There’s also the town’s shady priest Father Romanov who, in an attempt to flee, sees the four horsemen of the apocalypse appear in the mist. 

The mist does whatever the current episode needs it to, and never has any real rules or limitations to it. And forget all of the vicious wildlife we saw in the movie. The Gray Widowers, the Arachni-Lobsters and the Behemoth are nowhere to be found. Instead now the mist can inexplicably dig into the minds and psyches of its victims and can conjure up scenarios involving their sins, regrets, and horrible secrets. The various characters within the throes of the mist have to either confront these beings, or else suffer its wrath. To what end the mist is conjuring these visions, is anyone’s guess, as it just seems to enjoy messing with these townies. 

Is the mist sentient? Is it the product of a portal accidentally opened, or is it the end of humanity and the beginning of judgment day? Kevin struggles to make it to his wife and daughter, and along the way meets up with the unnamed soldier, and a criminal attempting to overcome her past drug abuse. All the while Alex and her mom are stuck in a large mall with other town folks, including the man that might have raped her. It only takes a little over a week for the survivors inside to begin fighting for space and food. Along the way we get to know so much more about the characters than we need to, while their season arcs are played out with ridiculous twists and lingering questions. 

Who raped Alex? Who is this soldier? Why should we care? By the fourth episode I was sick of hearing about Alex, her evil best friend, as well as mom Eve’s shady past, and wanted some kind (any kind!) of interesting turn of events. The series jumps back and forth from glacially-paced storytelling to downright absurd plot holes and leaps of logic. 

“The Mist” opened with strong ratings initially, and as it dragged on, the viewership dropped more and more. Spike inevitably just axed the whole series after ten episodes and almost no backlash. With the big brand change from Spike TV to the Paramount Network and the complete format reboot, the network cut out a lot of the former series from Spike TV, including “The Mist.”

At least we’ll always have Frank Darabont’s vicious monster movie classic.

Is It On DVD/Blu-Ray/Streaming? Although Spike TV is long gone (including the show’s website), you can still stream full, uncut episodes online through various services like Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Netflix, and Google Play.

The post Spike TV’s Failed Attempt to Bring Stephen King’s “The Mist” to the Small Screen [TV Terrors] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Sure, the genre aims to scare, shock, and repulse you, but it also often leaves you utterly devastated. These ten movies present horror’s bleakest and most depressing endings.

Burnt Offerings

Beware bargain-priced housing or vacation rentals; there’s often a grim string attached. For the Rolf family, they’re afforded a rare opportunity to spend their summer in a mansion thanks to its obscenely low rental fee. The only catch is that they’ll have to provide the owner’s mother, an attic recluse, meals during their stay. It’s an easy trade-off, or so the Rolf’s assume. The longer they stay, the more tragedy befalls them. More bizarrely, the mansion seems to repair and refresh itself. When young Davey Rolf (Lee H. Montgomery) nearly drowns, parents Marion (Karen Black) and Ben (Oliver Reed) agree it’s finally time to bid their summer home goodbye. Only it’s far too late. Marion is transformed into the attic woman while her husband and son meet grisly ends- the house rejuvenates to its former glory after claiming its latest victims. There’s no fleeing this haunted house, even though the Rolf family was so close.

Race with the Devil

Two couples embark on a road trip from Texas to Colorado in their RV. They don’t get very far when the men unwittingly stumble upon a Satanic sacrifice in the woods late one night. The Satanists are determined to cover their tracks, and Race with the Devil becomes an intense chase thriller with the couples desperate to escape the enclosing cultists. With Peter Fonda and Warren Oates as the lead protagonists, playing the heroes with a take-charge attitude, you’d expect them to best the Satanists. Especially when the couples seek aid from the authorities, and a harrowing encounter results in the heroes victorious over a Satanic attack. Their victory celebration turns into a gut-punch loss when they hear Satanic chanting outside their RV. The cult members, including their ally the Sheriff, found them and closed in. It ends the film with a grim realization that this foursome is destined for sacrifice after all.

Night of the Living Dead

George A. Romero set the blueprint for the modern zombie film. That includes the inescapable dread of death’s inevitability. For the eclectic bunch that found themselves fighting for their lives in a nearby farmhouse against the undead, none seem more suited for survival than Ben (Duane Jones). His leadership amidst the chaos instilled confidence that those with level-heads could prevail. That proved true for a period until infighting and panic caused the living to perish one by one until only Ben remained. Like the resourceful guy that he was, Ben hid in the basement, only roused from safety by the welcome sounds of sirens. Elation evaporated with a single gunshot; Ben’s potential rescuers mistake him for the undead and shoot him. Cue the depression.

Witchfinder General

Vincent Price plays his most ruthless villain of all as the witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins. While the English Civil War rages on, Hopkins takes advantage of the war-torn country. He travels village to village, inflicting brutal torture upon villagers to obtain confessions of witchcraft. The witchfinder general revels in his abuse of power, leaving shocking devastation in his wake. When Hopkins targets the fiancée of a young soldier, it sparks a vicious quest for revenge. Revenge, as horror teaches, comes with an extensive toll on the soul. While the soldier does eventually achieve his vengeance, it completely breaks him. Hopkins’s reign of terror comes to a close by the film’s end, but there’s no happy ending for the young lovers that began the movie full of hope for their future. It’s their mental break and anguished cries that cue the end credits, with the soldier’s court-martial and subsequent death sentence a foregone conclusion.

Wolf Creek

Greg McLean’s feature debut is a sobering one. Set in 1999, backpackers Liz Hunter (Cassandra Macgrath), Kristy Earl (Kestie Morassi), and Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips) travel together in Western Australia. McLean bides his time, letting viewers get deeply acquainted with the trio as they bond, flirt, and possibly fall in love. Then he has them cross paths with Mick Taylor (John Jarratt), a helpful local that promises to help with their car troubles. Except Mick doesn’t. He drugs them, separates them, then begins sadistic torture with the intent to murder. Liz and Kristy manage to break free, only to meet grisly ends at Mick’s hands. Ben, left to die slowly in a mine shaft, escapes to a nearby road, where a kind soul takes him to the hospital. Still, it’s a melancholy finale as Ben’s lady love and travel companions are never found, and it takes months for the authorities to clear him of suspicion. Meanwhile, Mick Taylor remains undetected.

I Saw the Devil

If Witchfinder General taught us that revenge might not be worth the emotional price to pay, I Saw the Devil smashes you over the head with it in the best possible way. National Intelligence Officer Kim Soo-hyun embarks on a quest for vengeance when serial rapist and murderer Jang Kyung-chul kills his pregnant fiancée. Soo-hyun wants to stretch out his revenge, ensuring he can inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. So he catches the serial killer, tortures him, then releases to repeat the process all over again. With every visceral encounter, more of Soo-hyun’s humanity slips away until the line between good and evil no longer exists. The emotional, harrowing journey concludes when Kyung-chul finally meets a deserving end, and Soo-hyun breaks down in the middle of the street. It’s soul-crushing.

The Fly

David Cronenberg’s operatic masterpiece follows the romantic journey between quirky scientist and tough reporter from its meet-cute until its gruesome, bitter end. Boy, is it a doozy. Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) meets Ronnie Quaife (Geena Davis) at a press event, where Brundle lures the curious reporter back to his loft to show off the teleportation device he’s been inventing. They quickly fall in love, but the honeymoon phase gets cut short when Brundle’s DNA splices with a housefly’s, kickstarting a long, tortuous transformation into an inhuman fly creature. Ronnie is forced to watch scared and helpless as the man she fell for slowly loses himself, like a slow decay from a grotesque disease. Cronenberg ends their tragic tale on the most somber note, with Ronnie left sobbing over the unrecognizable corpse of Seth, having just put him out of his misery.

Lake Mungo

This documentary-style horror film follows a family still in the throes of grief, looking for answers in the drowning of sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer. Her teen brother sets up cameras around the house, convinced Alice is haunting them. His eerie findings lead them to enlist the aid of a psychic. Their search for answers leads to multiple painful discoveries, both of Alice’s secret past and her brother’s faked camera footage. The Palmers eventually find closure over Alice’s death and decide to move away to start anew. It’s the film’s final shot and the subsequent photos over the end credits that deliver the emotional damage. Alice was indeed haunting the home, lurking nearby in hopes her family would see her. The realization that her family, unaware, left her behind to haunt their former home forever alone is a gut punch.

The Mist

Frank Darabont rewrote the ending of Stephen King’s novella to deliver a far bleaker conclusion that leaves your jaw and your heart on the floor. For David Drayton (Thomas Jane), nothing means more to him than his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble). They’re trapped in a grocery store, thanks to a mysterious mist harboring no shortage of Lovecraftian beasts; David’s sole purpose is to keep Billy safe. Between the creatures and the growing evils of man within the store, that’s no small feat. He finally mounts an escape, along with a handful of allies, and eventually drives away from the damned place in search of safety. All hope diminishes when the car runs out of gas, leaving the protagonists stranded with no way out. All resigned to their fate, David uses the remaining bullets to shoot the survivors, his precious son included, before exiting the car to let the creatures take him. That’s precisely when the mist dissipates, and the Army arrives with a rescue caravan. Nothing hits as hard as David’s realization that he killed his son for nothing.

Eden Lake

Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) plan a romantic camping trip away in the countryside. Relaxation and passion quickly give way to violence instead, when a group of vicious teens encroaches. Mean spirited pranks escalate, spurning a deadly game in which Jenny and Steve must fight for their lives. It’s a non-stop barrage of stomach-churning dread and tension. After multiple rounds with the teens that result in mortal injuries for Steve, Jenny discovers an engagement ring, prompting Steve to propose while dying. That alone would earn Eden Lake a spot on this list, but writer/director James Watkins is far from done creating wrath-inducing trauma for Jenny. She finally escapes and finds a backyard party where she seeks aid. The group comforts her until one of the teens comes home and convinces them she’s responsible for one of their children’s deaths. Men drag her into a bathroom, where her screams are heard while the teen deletes video evidence of his wrongdoings. No other ending in horror draws as much ire or desolation as this one.

The post The 10 Most Depressing Endings in Horror Movie History appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

An ending leaves its audience with a lasting impression of the overall film; a good ending can forgive preceding flaws, and a lousy ending will leave a sour taste in your mouth. That’s a large part of why we love a good twist ending. When it comes to horror, not much is better than the lingering feeling of complete shock once the end credits roll. The best leave their viewers buzzing long after, and the twists become part of pop culture memory. An example: show of hands if you’ve heard the line “Soylent Green is people!” but have never seen 1973’s Soylent Green. 

Not all twist endings work, though. The best drop subtle clues throughout the movie, paving the way for a conclusion that fits thematically and narratively. Moreover, the hints can’t be too heavy-handed, to keep the twist from becoming too obvious well in advance of the reveal. We’re celebrating horror’s best twist endings today. The conclusions that pulled the rug out from under us and stick with us even today. These 10 nailed the twist ending.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari offers one of the earliest, if not the first, examples of the twist ending in horror. Relayed mostly through flashbacks, lead character Francis (Friedrich Feher) tells a stranger on a bench of his encounters with the mysterious Dr. Caligari, Cesare the somnambulist, and the murders they commit. Lauded for its German Expressionist style, this silent film is more remembered for its strange surrealism. But its ending packs a punch, too; in the epilogue, Francis is revealed to be a madly insane patient spinning made up stories from the courtyard of the asylum in which he’s incarcerated. 

Les Diaboliques

This twisty psychological thriller is set at a boarding school run by the ruthless and cruel Michel Delassalle, though it’s owned by his frail, meek wife, Christina. Christina’s closest friend happens to be Michel’s mistress, Nicole Horner, another school teacher. They bond over Michel’s emotionally abusive ways and devise the perfect murder to rid themselves of him permanently. Only, once the act is done, his body goes missing, and signs of him haunting the school escalate the women’s feelings of fear and paranoia. The twist reveal is that Michel and Nicole were in cahoots from the beginning, faking a haunting to scare Christina to death thanks to her weak heart. They succeed, but they’re caught when a witness overhears their celebrations. The film ends with one final twist; the implication that Christina is indeed still alive and beat her husband at his own game.

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal classic offered not one but two significant twists. Of course, the first is the shocking early demise of what seemed to be the film’s protagonist, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). That now iconic shower scene against the piercing strings of Bernard Herrmann’s score is forever embedded in the pop culture pantheon. Psycho wasn’t done with the surprises, either. The film presents Norman Bates’ mother as the deranged murderer throughout, proving not to be true. Marion’s sister Lila (Vera Miles) finds Mrs. Bates’ mummified corpse in the cellar during the climax, just before Norman appears in his mother’s clothes. Sweet, shy Norman Bates was the killer all along; or at least, his mother’s persona is, anyway.

The Wicker Man

Police Sergeant Neil Howie, a devout Christian, receives an anonymous letter about a missing girl and travels to the remote island of Summerisle to investigate. He’s immediately put off by the residents’ open reverence of Pagan gods, and his unease only mounts the further he’s drawn into the search for the girl, Rowan. Time is of the essence when he discovers that Rowan is to be sacrificed as part of the May Day celebrations for a better harvest. To Sergeant Howie’s horror, the twist reveal is that Rowan wasn’t missing at all. She was bait to lure Howie to his demise. Howie was the intended sacrifice all along, and the film ends with the imagery of Howie being stuffed inside a giant wicker man and set ablaze. Folk horror has never been the same since. 

Angel Heart

The perfect marriage of psychological horror and noir, Angel Heart follows Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), a private investigator hired by Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to track down missing musician Johnny Favorite. His search leads him to New Orleans, where he finds voodoo, murder, love, and a deal with the devil. He learns that Johnny Favorite sold his soul for fame, then backed out on the deal by murdering and assuming a soldier’s identity. The soldier was then drafted into war, where he suffered injuries and amnesia. With dawning anguish and fear, Angel realizes that he is Johnny Favorite and that Louis Cyphre is a homophone for Lucifer, who’s come to collect the soul he’s owed. What makes this reveal so memorable is its layers of impact. The realization that Angel is Favorite reframes everything, casting it in an even more disturbing light than before. Including the icky fact that Angel slept with his own daughter then discards her most grotesquely. It’s the type of twist that keeps on giving. 

Jacob’s Ladder

After a harrowing stint in the Vietnam War, where many of Jacob Singer’s comrades are killed or injured, the vet finds himself struggling to adjust back to normal in New York City. As disturbing visions and hallucinations increasingly plague him, Jacob’s world is further upended by a conspiracy that results in his surviving platoon members dying in strangely coincidental ways. The end reveals that the film’s events never happened, at least not in the way they’re presented. Jacob (Tim Robbins) and his platoon members were secretly dosed by a drug called the Ladder, which prompted many of them to turn on each other in a hallucinogenic homicidal frenzy. Jacob was caught between life and death, and he finally succumbs and finds peace in death. Jacob’s Ladder, in biblical terms, is the dream meeting place between Earth and Heaven, which essentially spells out the twist upfront; the entire movie is Jacob stuck in limbo. It’s the surreal, haunting imagery and Robbins’ stellar performance that sells it all so well.

The Sixth Sense

“I see dead people.” Those four little words packed a punch, knocking viewers on their butts and kickstarting M. Night Shymalan’s reputation for the art of twist endings. All along, it’d been clear that little Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) sees dead people; they terrorize him. Those four words, however, work as a one-two punch that opens the floodgates of emotion. It’s the moment Cole finally lets Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) in, so he can begin to cope with his abilities and heal. It’s also the necessary seed planted for Malcolm to come to terms with his truth; he never survived the opening scene’s startling gun violence. It’s the type of twist that rewards upon repeat viewings if only to catch Shyamalan’s strict adherence of ghost rules- in any ghost scenes, the air is noticeably colder, red is prominent, and only Cole interacts with them. 

Saw

James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s breakout hit saw two strangers awaken in a room with no idea of how they got there. Between them is a corpse holding clues. From there, Saw spins a winding mystery involving a serial killer known as Jigsaw, who tests his victims through deadly games and traps. Eventually revealing how the two men, Lawrence (Carey Elwes) and Adam (Whannell), are tied to the Jigsaw Killer and became his latest targets. The climactic showdown between them and Zep, the man they believe to be the killer, ends with Zep’s death and Gordon crawling out of the room for help after sawing off his foot. Alone with two corpses, Adam discovers that Zep wasn’t the Jigsaw killer at all, but another victim. Cue the bombshell moment; the corpse gets up off the floor, leaving Adam to die with a simple, “Game over.” The Jigsaw Killer was with the men all along, with a front-row seat to their trauma. 

Frailty

In Bill Paxton’s feature debut, a family is torn apart by the dad’s claims that he’s been tasked by God and angels to slay demons. Dad (Paxton) waits for visions of wrongdoings from angels on the next target, then ax-murders the target before burying them in the rose garden. His older son Fenton doesn’t believe and is morally opposed to dad’s murderous ways. Young son Adam, however, is far too eager to take up the new family business. Frailty reveals the family history through now adult Fenton (Matthew McConaughey), via confession at the FBI office. After recounting his family’s history of murder, Fenton confesses one last truth; he’s not Fenton at all, but Adam, and he’s carrying on Dad’s work. He’s come to kill the FBI Agent for matricide. It turns out that maybe Dad and Adam weren’t crazy, either. Any traces of Adam’s presence in the FBI office are wiped. His image is obscured in surveillance cameras, and no one seems to have any memory of him at all. Paxton turns his intense psychological thriller into a supernatural one, with one effective ending.

The Mist

An adaptation of any story comes with expectations from fans familiar with the source material, especially if the author happens to be Stephen King. In the Skeleton Crew collection, King’s novella ends on an ambiguous moment of hope with David’s group driving off into the mist toward Hartford. Writer/director Frank Darabont already helmed two King adaptations with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, setting up the preconceived notion that he’d continue that streak of hope and heart with The Mist. Instead, viewers were in for one doozy of a surprise in The Mist’s final moments. David (Thomas Jane) does escape the grocery store and drive off into the mist with his beloved son and a few other survivors. Their escape vehicle runs out of gas, though, stranding them without a means of a safe escape. Resigned, the group opts for what they think will be a less brutal death, and David uses his gun’s remaining bullets to shoot his friends and son. He exits the car to let the creatures slay him, but the mist suddenly clears and reveals the arrival of the Army, who’ve come to restore order. The film ends on a sobering note with David screaming in agony; had he waited just a few minutes more, they would’ve all been saved.

Darabont delivered one of horror’s all-time most nihilistic twists.

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H.P. Lovecraft‘s works tapped into the fear of the unknowable, of horrors vast and incomprehensible. His brand of cosmic horror made humans look so frail and obsolete by comparison. In a present where the future seems so unknowable and dangerous, it makes perfect sense that filmmakers would tap into those fears, now more than ever.

Still, Lovecraft’s influence on the genre has long been seen and felt. These ten movies movies draw from the author’s work, either directly or indirectly, using it as inspiration to deliver memorable tales of terror…

Re-Animator

When you think of Lovecraftian horror, it’s near impossible for Stuart Gordon’s seminal horror comedy not to pop in mind. In a loose adaptation of “Herbert West-Reanimator,” Jeffrey Combs steals the entire film as the eccentric medical student with a reanimating reagent that unleashes complete chaos at Miskatonic University. Gordon adds his voice to the Lovecraft story, turning Herbert West’s tale into a full-on splatstick horror-comedy that paints the walls red.

Castle Freak

Drawing from the short story “The Outsider,” Castle Freak marks the third Lovecraftian partnership between director Stuart Gordon and actors Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. The second being From Beyond. Castle Freak is arguably the most mature of the three. Combs plays John Reilly, a man looking to make amends with his wife Susan (Crampton) after a devastating accident left their son dead and teen daughter blind. After inheriting a castle, they travel there to stay until the estate can be liquidated. Of course, they’re unaware a deranged, disfigured beast inhabits it. Castle Freak is dark and disturbing, but with heartfelt themes of love and redemption.

The Resurrected

From The Return of the Living Dead and Alien’s Dan O’Bannon comes an adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Charles Dexter Ward (Chris Sarandon) has been behaving so strangely, holed up in his carriage house performing chemical experiments, that his wife hires a private investigator to uncover what he’s up to and why he abandoned her. The more they discover about Charles’s family history and his experiments, the more disturbing things get. The Resurrected is a fairly faithful adaptation of its source material, just set in a modern period. That means it can be a little slow to build, but it explodes in a delightful creature heavy final act.

Necronomicon

Jeffrey Combs, resembling Bruce Campbell with his prosthetic chin, plays H.P. Lovecraft in this anthology’s wraparound story that sees the prolific horror writer copying stories from the Necronomicon in the middle of an old library guarded by monks. He lets loose a trio of Lovecraftian tales of horror and gore, each progressively weirder than the preceding segment. The segments are based on “The Rats in the Walls,” “Cool Air,” and the novella The Whisperer in the Darkness. With Brian Yuzna as the producer and director for half of the film, expect things to get goopy and gory.

Annihilation

Annihilation might be based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, but there’s a whole lot of “The Colour Out of Space” in its DNA. It follows an expedition into a mysterious zone where the rules of nature no longer apply, told by the expedition’s sole survivor. That zone is dubbed “the Shimmer” for its iridescent color. As the group gets further into the site and encounters disturbing sights, they realize the Shimmer is changing flora and fauna. Its origins of the extraterrestrial variety crash-landed on Earth. Just like the Lovecraft story. Of course, the narrative diverges from there, but it’s still a tense slice of sci-fi cinema. 

Banshee Chapter

After her friend’s sudden disappearance, journalist Anne Roland (Katia Winter) discovers the strange and horrifying links between her friend, a government conspiracy involving a research drug, and an eerie radio broadcast of otherworldly origin. Drawing inspiration from actual government hallucinogenic drug experiments and H.P. Lovecraft’s “From Beyond,” Blair Erickson’s feature debut is as creepy as mysterious and engaging. Look for The Silence of the Lambs‘s Ted Levine to steal every scene he’s in, but more than that, be ready for some great scares. Where From Beyond went for practical effects-driven spectacle, Banshee Chapter opts for a quiet, menacing atmosphere. It’s effectively creepy.

Dark Waters

After her father’s death, Elizabeth travels to a remote island to discover why her father funded the convent there. She finds it inhabited exclusively by nuns who perform bizarre rituals in the catacombs underneath the convent. The nuns harbor many dark secrets, including something inhuman lurking below. Directed by Mariano Baino, Dark Waters favors mood and style over a fully coherent narrative, making it feel like an Italian horror by way of Lovecraft. It’s ambiguous, atmospheric, and gorgeous. 

The Beyond

One of Lucio Fulci’s most beloved horror films, and the second entry in his unofficial “Gates of Hell” trilogy, The Beyond is also the director’s most influential. Set in Louisiana, a young woman inherits a hotel and discovers it was built over one of the gates to Hell. Bleak, surreal, and dreamlike in its storytelling, The Beyond toes the line between beauty and horror. Essentially, The Beyond is what happens when you cross Fulci with H.P. Lovecraft. The hotel is a gateway, essentially a portal to another world full of horrors. The Book of Eibon could easily be a stand-in for the Necronomicon. The foreboding tone of it all is Fulci channeling one of his favorite authors.

The Mist

Frank Darabont’s bleak 2007 horror film may have been an adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, but both channeled Lovecraft for this gnarly tale. A severe storm seems to trigger a strange, thick mist that crosses over a lake and town and envelopes it. And that fog brings all sorts of bloodthirsty and deadly creatures, trapping survivors inside a supermarket to fight for their lives. The monsters themselves, especially the massive ones, feel right out of a Lovecraft story; but so do the characters. Faced with unknowable horrors lurking in the mist, some of the supermarket inhabitants turn to religious fanaticism. Some are driven insane. Many of them die in grotesque ways. Above all, The Mist offers a grim feeling of hopelessness.

In the Mouth of Madness

Do you read Sutter Cane? Of course you do. Written by Michael De Luca and directed by John Carpenter, this descent into madness isn’t directly lifted from any of Lovecraft’s works. Its influences are plain as day, though, with references and themes woven into every fiber of the film. Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator hired to look for a missing bestselling author whose books affect his fans in brutal ways. Of course, the further into the investigation John gets, the more surreal and dangerous things become. Hobb’s End is an insidious little town full of insanity, creatures, and death. In the Mouth of Madness closes out Carpenter’s apocalypse trilogy, each film equipped with a bit of Lovecraft.

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“Life is so fragile.”

The Beach House is an apocalyptic fever dream brought to life. It’s an ode to the lofty science fiction films of the ’50s and gives the era the proper respect that it deserves within the horror genre. The Beach House pulls its inspirations from the ’50s, but it very much operates with modern sensibilities. Director Jeffrey A. Brown crafts something special here. He knows where to update its source material and get more aggressive with these older archetypes. Just like the best science fiction/horror hybrids, The Beach House finds a human story and tells it through a supernatural parable. The result is a film that feels familiar, but repeatedly takes surprising turns. You’ll never see another film like The Beach House this year.

The Beach House will inevitably be referred to as a low budget version of The Mist meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This is far from a bad thing, but it’s also trying to tell a deep story behind all of the monsters, special effects, and abstract visuals. The Beach House excels in this area and delivers plenty of great practical effects and frighteningly unique monsters that oddly feel real in their own right. The Beach House does a lot with its creepy premise and director Jeffrey A. Brown has a clear voice here. He does a great job at bringing his moody, cosmic vision to life. The Beach House immediately creates an eerie atmosphere. Right from the opening frame and credits there’s already darkness creeping in. It’s very atmospheric and it turns simple things like the ocean into sacred hellscapes. It feels like the birth of evil and it’s a very strong way to start the film.

When The Beach House begins, it looks like it will deal with horror that stems from the unexpected surprise that Randall (Noah Le Gros) and Emily (Liana Liberato) face when they reach the beach house. There’s already an elderly couple who are staying at the house. This alone could be the premise for a great horror film, but instead an unusual alliance forms here as these two couples discover that the entire world is on fire. The following day brings world-ending terrors as the environment itself appears to rebel against the living. A threat of an unfathomable size is suddenly upon these unprepared people in the cramped beach house. The film takes this strong setup and only goes to more challenging and impressive places with it all.

All of the supernatural elements in this movie are a lot of fun, but The Beach House is just as rewarding when it comes to its cast. Both Liana Liberato and Noah Le Gros are exceptional in their roles as Emily and Randall. They both exhibit a ton of range through this unusual experience and Liberato in particular looks like an upcoming talent to keep an eye on. She’s so good here and the film slowly turns into more of a solo effort for her character. This virus infects everyone, but it’s really Emily’s story.

The Beach House is careful to illustrate how Emily and Randall aren’t totally dysfunctional when the film begins. They at least want to get better. Things are far from perfect, but they still have a deep connection. However, subtle touches like the camera lingering on a shot hint at problems beneath the surface. There’s a passion there, but a fundamental lack of understanding between them.

The Beach House takes its time and it properly allows the audience to get to know Emily and Randall on their own before it adds other elements and people into the mix. It’s a smart approach for this variety of internal, isolated story. The whole thing is a gradual descent into hell. Another smart decision that the film makes is to not turn Mitch (Jake Weber) and Jane (Maryanne Nagel) into antagonists or negative forces. They’re polite and cordial, which makes the mess that they all get tied up in work even better. Furthermore, there’s a very affable chemistry between these two couples. It’s a lot of fun to just watch them all hang out. You almost hope that nothing will go wrong and this will just be a low-key weekend at a beach house.

The film exhibits confidence in how it doesn’t hide the virus that begins to infect the coast. The scenes that explore this are some of the film’s most mind-bending moments. They’re beautiful to take in and they’re like being inside a living lava lamp. The film is full of equally evocative and abstract visuals. Even just the trippy visuals that stem from the drug use in the film really add a lot to the bad experience. The Beach House becomes genuinely scary when this infection intensifies and this “unstable, boiling chaos” eventually lets loose. Every development and new creature that shows up only pushes things further out of control.

The film delves into some gruesome body horror that is all sorts of upsetting and difficult to watch. This is all made worse by the fact that Emily is actually smart enough to understand what’s happening during the infection process (although The Beach House is very careful to not over-explain itself or get lost in exposition). There’s a moment that involves a parasitic worm and a pair of forceps that is just bonkers. The evolution of the virus is also super disturbing and keeps this threat feeling unique and unpredictable. To add to this, there’s a very powerful score that blasts the audience with abrasive sound. It’s a jarring experience and it helps The Beach House properly feel like the assault that it should be. Everything properly comes together here to create the overwhelming feeling that the world is falling apart.

Behind all of the pain and the cosmic assaults that The Beach House throws at its audience, there’s also a dark sense of humor that courses through the movie. It provides a nice grounded balance to all of the apocalyptic dread. A much more serious film wouldn’t have been an improvement.

To be fair, The Beach House does suffer from particular conveniences and plot contrivances. However, it’s a lot easier to look past these faults due to the effectiveness of the rest of the film. There’s still plenty of originality on display here. It’s also a little surprising to see just how much the film embraces the dour “doom and gloom” angle for its story. It doesn’t hold back.

The Beach House is an atmospheric triumph from newcomer director Jeffrey A. Brown. He crafts a slick tale of invasion and destruction that’s both intimate and cosmically grand. The Beach House is both a loving throwback to monster pictures from yesteryear, but at the same time, it helps the genre evolve to new places. It’s the perfect cocktail where the strange unknown mixes with raw emotions.

Now go out and try to enjoy some nature.

The Beach House is now streaming on Shudder.

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published on October 18, 2019.

The post [Review] ‘The Beach House’ is a Cosmic, Trippy Triumph That Will Bury You In Its Tide appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Between the upcoming Itsy Bitsy, or even that unnerving spider hatching sequence in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, horror proves time and time again that audiences have visceral responses to arachnids. The scariest spiders horror has to offer, you ask? Let’s dig in.

Arachnophobes, beware…

Possum

Sean Harris plays Philip in last year’s surreal psychological horror movie, Possum. He’s an unstable children’s puppeteer still reeling from trauma he suffered in childhood at the hands of his uncle. His coveted puppet of choice? The extremely terrifying marionette named Possum, a spider-like thing with a human head. While this isn’t a real spider, that doesn’t make this any less disconcerting. Possum is a whole new level of creepy.

The Beyond

When you inherit a hotel that was built over one of the gates to hell, anything can happen. With Lucio Fulci at the helm, that means whatever does happen, it’s going to hurt a lot. Cue Martin Avery discovering the hotel’s blueprints at a library. Followed by an evil force that doesn’t want that knowledge to spread. Martin is knocked from a ladder and left paralyzed on the floor, where tarantulas suddenly swarm him to tear at his flesh. It’s an unpleasant way to go, especially if tarantulas make your skin crawl.

Most Beautiful Island

Ana Asensio wrote, directed, and starred in this dramatic horror-thriller about an undocumented woman struggling to survive in New York City. It’s the film’s third act that induces arachnid chills; in a scene where her character has to lie still in a glass box, completely naked, as a venomous spider is let loose upon her body. A Chilean Recluse, the most dangerous of the recluse spiders. It’s tense and disturbing.

The Incredible Shrinking Man

When Robert Scott Carey is on vacation with his wife aboard his brother’s boat, it passes through a strange cloud that gets on Scott’s skin and causes him to start shrinking. And he doesn’t stop shrinking. Becoming so small he has to live in a dollhouse, he eventually finds himself stuck in his former home’s basement where he’s locked in a battle with a spider that thinks he’s prey. It’s an average sized spider for anyone else, but to Scott it’s a gigantic beast. Production used real spiders, too. Something that director Jack Arnold had experience with, having previously helmed Tarantula.

Kingdom of the Spiders

William Shatner plays Rack Hansen, the town veterinarian in rural Arizona determined to thwart the onslaught of migrating killer tarantulas that are devouring every living thing in their path. There’s plenty of camp to be found here, but that still doesn’t stop the movie from being an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare. It probably doesn’t help that many of the spiders are real. Or that resisting the spiders seems absolutely futile as they leave cocooned victims in their wake. Spoiler: it ends on a sobering note.

The Mist

In a creature filled movie of all shapes and sizes, leave it to the spiders to prove the most vicious. When a group of volunteers leave the safety of the grocery store to check out the pharmacy next door, they find deadly spider mutants lying in wait. Their webbing also happens to be acidic, as if they needed any extra assistance in the “scary” department. The lucky ones die quick, and the not so lucky ones get deaths befitting of Aliens.

Arachnophobia

The pinnacle of arachnophobia-based horror, this one revolves an arachnophobe protagonist forced to confront his fears in the worst possible way when the small town he’s just moved his family to is invaded by a new species of spider. A species that happens to be extremely aggressive and venomous. There’s no shortage of horrifying moments as the spider offspring quietly sneak into homes and attack oblvious humans doing innocuous things like putting on shoes or turning off lamps. But the showdown in the wine cellar is a spine-tingling battle for the ages.

The Believers

For a movie that’s centered around a psychiatrist trying to keep his son safe from a Brujería practicing cult with a penchant for brutal child sacrifices, this late scene is an unexpected blindside. The protagonist’s girlfriend, Jessica (Helen Shaver) is alone, putting makeup over a monstrous boil on her cheek. Then she notices the lump is moving. The music kicks into overdrive as Jessica understandably panics, ramping up the tension until it erupts. Literally. Baby spiders crawl out of the now open wound on Jessica’s face. Ick.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Based on Ray Bradbury’s novel of the same name, this kid-friendly horror/dark fantasy didn’t shy away from getting pretty harrowing. It certainly had zero qualms about introducing young audiences to arachnophobia, either. Poor Will and Jim learn that not even their bedroom is safe from the terror of Mr. Dark when a crack in the ceiling bulges and splits open, releasing hundreds of tarantulas into the room. They’re everywhere. The floors, crawling up pajama pant legs, and squirming beneath bed sheets- the normal respite for night time terrors. It’s an absolute nightmare.

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Previous iterations of cinematic cosmic horror rely heavily on the gore and the monstrous, creating a spectacle around the destruction of the human body at the hands of creatures or otherworldly beings. Take Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1997 film, Event Horizon for example. Perhaps not the most well made movie, but it is a shining example of certain aspects of cosmic horror, especially because it takes place on a spaceship that opens a literal portal to another dimension (which ends up being hell). When the portal is opened and Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) looks inside, he literally gouges out his eyes, unable to stand the sight of this interdimensional truth. Other examples of the Lovecraftian cosmic horror include In the Mouth of Madness, The Thing, The Void, and The Mist.

However, there seems to be a recent shift in the genre. For the purposes of this piece, I’ll be looking at the inclusion of interdimensional alien beings that throw humans into chaos that therefore open up possibilities within themselves to navigate their emotions and relationships. Lovecraft may have said human emotions don’t have a purpose in the bigger cosmic picture, but recent horror films have inverted this model to make their narratives more focused on the purpose of human emotions rather than invalidating them.

Recent films such as Starfish and The Endless have leaned into this emotional aspect to create films that use horror as a backdrop to discussions of grief, love, and being human. They have adopted these tropes to create a new kind of cosmic horror that is more contemplative and relies less on gore and more on the emotional effects of being confronted with a maddening unknown. Sure, there are monsters, but they are vehicles for more internal contemplation rather than spectacles around the abject body.

A.T. White’s 2019 film, Starfish, is a prime example of this shift within cosmic horror. The film is centered on Aubrey (Virginia Gardner), who is mourning the recent death of her best friend. In an attempt to heal, she heads to her friend’s apartment to look through her belongings and relish in the memories. She finds a cassette tape labeled, ‘This Mixtape Will Save the World.’ Unknowingly, she unleashes a mysterious signal that opens an unknown dimension that lets a variety of monsters into our world. So now she must collect the rest of the cassette tapes to somehow close this interdimensional portal and save humanity.

But even with strange beasts of varying sizes running rampant, Starfish is not about their consumption of humans; instead, they are tangential to a more meaningful story about a woman trying to feel more connected to her dead friend. Throughout Starfish, transitional spaces are created by the strange radio signals. As she plays songs with the signal embedded within them, she is transported to another place, or dimension. These moments of transportation, while incomprehensible, are used to access a deeper part of her emotions, whether that be love for her friend or shame due to a past relationship. It is only through these spaces that she is able to begin to understand her past actions and try to decipher them. Since her friend is so linked to these events, this also allows her to become closer to her friend in a way. This cosmic event provides a way for their friendship to continue and even grow as she navigates the snowy town to find each of these tapes.

Then there is Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s 2017 film, The Endless. Benson and Moorhead are no strangers to cosmic horror as their previous film, Spring, is a love story meets cosmic body horror. However, The Endless takes a different approach to the genre, opting for the contemplation of brotherhood in the face of an unknown alien entity rather than romance and body horror. Benson and Moorhead play two brothers, Justin and Aaron, respectively, who are trying to live normal lives after escaping a UFO death cult. In trying to continuously pick up the pieces of their life post-cult, their relationship is strained, and mysteries drive a schism between them. It is only through returning to their childhood compound that they can understand their past and somehow start to fix their lives.

Again, like with Starfish, the possible interdimensional alien being is tangential to a larger story about family and reconciling past trauma. As Justin and Aaron wander through the arid cult ranch, greeting old friends, they are also able to recognize the strains in their relationship. Without the potential (and eventually confirmed) existence of some greater alien life, these two brothers wouldn’t be able to heal and understand each other’s actions. Only here can Justin confess to going public about the ranch and telling a few white lies to protect his brother. And only with this confession can Aaron understand Justin’s intentions and what he’d do to protect his brother. It is through the realization of some other form of life that Aaron can realize reconciliation is possible. Sometimes, a giant extraterrestrial being can be a gateway to connection, and not just a pathway to destruction.

These two films open up possibilities and ways to understand our own emotions, especially grief, whether it is for a friend or for a life never had. Grief has always been prevalent in horror films, with the genre playing into the many facets and terrifying aspects of what it means to grapple with grief. So it only makes sense to incorporate grief into cosmic horror, inverting its typical structure into something more human-centric than creature-centric. The unexplainable throws characters into states of chaos and confusion but also allows them to expand their minds and look at a bigger emotional picture.

This isn’t just about their own small insular worldview anymore—there’s something bigger at hand that lets them reassess and try to understand their own reality.

Art featured at the top of this article comes courtesy of Francois Baranger.

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Emphasis on the horror. King is deeply unafraid to take his characters to some dark, twisted places. And some truly grisly places as well. While we wait for the conclusion to Andy Muschietti’s adaptation this September, we look back at some of the most gruesome moments King’s characters have endured so far.

Maximum Overdrive – Soda and Steam Rolled

Adapted and directed by King himself from his short story “Trucks”, the plot sees all inanimate machines coming to life and hellbent on destroying humans after Earth passes through a comet’s tail. While Maximum Overdrive isn’t a gory film, it does go pretty bold with one particularly nasty kill early on. A Little League coach gets pummeled to death by a vending machine that fires sodas at him at close range, leaving his young team fleeing in terror. The vending machine then takes aim at the kids, and one tries to flee only to trip and immediately get squished by a steamroller. Killing kids is a cinematic taboo, and King shatters it nearly straightaway.

Pet Sematary – Poor Jud

No matter which adaptation of Pet Sematary you choose, Jud Crandall suffers greatly for telling Louis Creed about the ancient burial ground. But since it’s Mary Lambert’s 1989 adaptation from which the reboot takes its cues, we’re going with that one. After failing to prevent Louis from burying the recently deceased toddler Gage in the sour ground, Jud becomes target number one when Gage comes back. With Louis’ scalpel in hand, Jud’s Achilles heel and mouth are cut wide open before Gage tears into his jugular with his mouth. No fair.

Creepshow 2 “The Raft” – Laverne’s death

Based on a King short story, the second segment in this anthology sequel sees a foursome get more than they bargained for with a day at the lake when they discover it’s inhabited by a strange oil slick. An oil slick type sludge that painfully devours any living thing it comes in contact with. The two remaining survivors let their guards down (or more like Randy opts to fondle Laverne while she sleeps), and the sludge takes that opportunity to continue its feeding frenzy. Poor Laverne. It’s a gross way to go.

Dreamcatcher – Bowel Movement from Hell

Four friends on a camping trip discover the area is plagued with weird alien parasites that are spreading fast. They learn that the hard way when they let a sickly man rest inside their cabin, only to later find him dead and sitting bloodied on the toilet. The three-foot-long lamprey-like parasite destroyed him coming out, and is trapped in the toilet until poor Beaver’s OCD causes it to get loose. Yup. It’s Beaver versus the bowel-movement parasite. Talk about an unpleasant way to go, both for the sickly stranger and Beaver.

The Mist – Spider Massacre

Thanks to the monstrous creatures lurking in the strange mist that envelopes the small town in this King adaptation, very few deaths are tame. The things rip at flesh, bisect bodies with ease, and poison with stingers. But the most gruesome moment of all is the spider sequence, which sees a handful of volunteers venture over to the Pharmacy next door to check for supplies and possible survivors. Instead, they’re ambushed by spider-creatures that have acidic webs and flesh-ripping fangs. Spiders that like to also impregnate their human prey with eggs. It’s arguably the most gruesome way to go in the entire movie.

The Green Mile – Sabotaged Execution

One of the most gruesome moments doesn’t even come from a horror film. Inmate Eduard Delacroix is slated for execution, but The Green Mile makes it clear who the antagonists are long before his final day comes. Percy Wetmore brutally steps on his pet mouse, breaks his fingers with a baton, and takes every chance to verbally abuse him. The worst of it comes with his execution by electric chair. Wetmore deliberately avoids soaking a sponge in water to act as an electricity conduct so that Delacroix suffers a far more painful and elongated death- eventually burning alive. It’s one thing to read that aloud, but it’s another to spend an excruciatingly long three minutes watching it happen.

The Dark Half – Sparrow death

This time it’s not a character we sympathize with that gets a gruesome demise, but the evil protagonist getting his just desserts. At the end of The Dark Half, a massive flock of sparrows – agents of Hell come to collect their evil soul – swarms the Beaumont household to retrieve George Stark. They don’t carry him away; they peck, claw, and tear away his flesh to the bone until there’s nothing left. King has always been a master at taking benevolent objects and making them terrifying. In this case, it’s sparrows.

It – Georgie Floats Too

Fans of King’s novel know that little Georgie’s death is pretty graphic, but was tamed quite a bit for the 1990 made-for-TV movie. Director Andy Muschietti made sure to give quite a brutal introduction to Pennywise, with the temptation of Georgie that gives way to his harrowing attempt to crawl away once Pennywise has bitten off his arm. If you want to show audiences that you’re not messing around with a King adaptation, this is how you do it.

Misery – Hobbling

Really, this is one scene that needs no preface or introduction. Annie Wilkes is a monster, and boy does this make me cringe every single time.

Gerald’s Game – Degloving

Mike Flanagan successfully adapted a novel that was once considered unadaptable for film. Then he took it a step further by delivering a moment so gruesome that it caused people to pass out. Yup. The degloving scene. Jessie Burlingame’s final attempt to free herself from the handcuffs comes with some serious levels of self-mutilation that we never knew was physically possible until Flanagan put it on screen.

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But CGI technology has evolved over the years. The remake of The Lion King is pushing photo-realism to new heights (even if it’s not doing the actual story any favors), and the trailer for Tom Hooper’s Cats is, frankly, the scariest thing on the internet in a long time. There are, by now, quite a lot of damn good, very scary CGI monsters in movies.

So, although we’ll always have a special place in our hearts for practical effects, it’s time to give credit where credit is due, and hail the following films for scaring the crap out of us with a series of ones and zeros!

(Note: We’ve focused on films that feature scary monsters, biological in origin. Monsters are eligible whether or not the films are firmly in the horror genre, and although many of these monsters are created using a combination of practical and CG effects we are only highlighting the creatures which use a significant amount of CG throughout their presence on-screen.)

Annihilation (2018)

Alex Garland’s acclaimed sci-fi/horror thriller, about a team of scientists who venture into an extraterrestrial singularity where evolution has gone haywire, is chock full of nightmare imagery, and picking only one monster is a fool’s errand. The doppelgänger at the end of the film is an eerie creation, unlike just about anything else we’ve seen, and the bear with a skull face that screams like a person is an absolute terror.

Beowulf (2007)

Robert Zemeckis spent years trying to perfect motion-capture animation technology, and the results were decidedly mixed. One of the better films he directed in the medium, Beowulf, was a mature fantasy epic based on the classic tale, and features one of the scariest CG-creatures around. Grendel, played by Crispin Glover and brought to mutated and grotesque life by the animation team, is a tragic but violent creature who just wants his neighbors to shut up and will absolutely destroy them to get some peace and quiet.

Cats (2019)

Look, we haven’t seen Tom Hooper’s Cats yet, but the trailer is one of the most off-putting previews we’ve seen in years. Famous actors, covered in only 50% convincing CG, transformed into weird cat monsters, with physiology that makes no sense and a scale that makes them look even tinier than real cats. If you saw these things running around your house you would lose your damn mind, and no one could blame you.

Harry Potter (2001-Present)

The Harry Potter movies have featured a lot of CGI creatures, including giant spiders and centaurs and dragons and cat leviathans, and some have been more convincing than others. But although your mileage might vary across the whole series, certainly the Dementors are iconically creepy creations. These floating reaper monsters, which violently suck away your capacity to feel anything but misery, are one of the biggest “big bads” of the whole franchise, and every time they show up it’s a spooky thrill.

The Host (2006)

We’re not sure how, exactly, dumping formaldehyde into a river led to a giant fish monster, but that’s science for you. Anyway, Bong Joon-ho’s The Host tells the story of just such a creature, about the size of a van, which terrorizes Korea and looks damned scary doing it. Although not the most convincing CGI ever, Bong Joon-ho has confidence in the creature, and lets the audience get nice long looks at it in the daylight, which makes its existence all the more surreal.

Jurassic Park (1993-Present)

It’s easy to overlook the fact that, although the Jurassic Park movies are mega blockbusters for the whole family, they’re also obviously monster movies. Mad scientists on a remote island play God, create man-eating monstrosities which – what a shock! – run amok and eat man. The special effects in the original film, which also incorporated some practical effects, are still extraordinarily convincing, and the sequels have always tried to top the original with more killer dinos to make audiences shriek.

The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)

J.R.R. Tolkien’s dream of a beautiful Middle Earth was always undercut, at least a little, by how many terrifying monsters there were in it. Orcs, trolls, dragons, wargs, wraiths, you name it, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies had it, and they were all intimidating creations. And yet none of those towering creatures were quite as scary as Gollum, a Hobbit mutated into a monster by exposure to the One Ring, played with troubled inhumanity and insidious menace by Andy Serkis; and, of course, a team of talented CG animators.

Mortal Engines (2018)

Audiences slept on Christian Rivers’ Mortal Engines, and that’s their loss. Christian Rivers’ sci-fi epic may have had a formulaic plot but it was rife with visual wonders, including thrilling car chases where entire cities were the cars, chase scenes through metropolises getting demolished by giant buzzsaws, and of course Shrike, one of the most unsettling movie villains in recent memory. A cybernetic corpse, Shrike pursues the movie’s hero to prove his love for her by turning her into an undead monster just like himself. Shrike is played by Stephen Lang, and a team of animators, who infuse the character with disturbingly unnatural movements and a grim, frightening glare.

The Mist (2007)

Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s harrowing story only made The Mist more frightening. A group of people get trapped in a grocery store as a mysterious mist fills their small town, and inside there are all kinds of unbelievable monsters, ranging from killer insects to Lovecraftian behemoths that stagger the imagination. It’s their world now. We only live in it… while we can.

A Quiet Place (2018)

The acclaimed monster movie A Quiet Place features novel beasts that attack and brutally slay anyone who makes any kind of sound, forcing our heroes to live in absolute silence for fear of instant death. It’s such a scary concept that director John Krasinski probably could have gotten away with not showing them at all, but when they do appear they are unusually freaky creatures with segmented heads and razor-sharp teeth, and they absolutely live up to the movie’s hype.

The Ritual (2017)

We don’t want to go into too much detail about this one, since it’s a relatively recent film and the monster isn’t in a lot of it, but David Bruckner’s excellent horror film The Ritual – about a group of hikers who get trapped in the woods with a cult – features a grotesque image of a monster that comes back into play later on, in a most unexpected and surprising reveal that’s hard to describe and way creepier to discover on your own. It’s one of the most disturbing CGI monsters of its kind.

Shin Godzilla (2016)

The classic version of Godzilla, walking around and punching monsters like an old-fashioned bouncer, is so familiar now that he’s more beloved than scary. But the impressively smart reboot Shin Godzilla made him horrifying again. Godzilla emerges from the water half-formed, a giant fish-eyed writhing monstrosity that doesn’t move like any Godzilla you’ve ever seen before, and as it rapidly evolves into something a little more familiar, that shocking introduction sticks in your head, making him more unnatural than ever before.

Starship Troopers (1997)

Paul Verhoeven’s epic sci-fi/blockbuster satire, which uses fascist propaganda storytelling tropes to subvert our whole understanding of the action genre, features some of the most monstrous creatures imaginable: giant, killer bugs. The film’s outlandish violence makes these alien insects seem huge and dangerous, so much so that you have to look closely at the film’s subtext to realize that they’re not the oppressors, they’re the noble resistance fighters who are being dehumanized by filmmakers with an agenda. They’re scary, but only because we’re buying into the film’s disturbing meta-narrative. Impeccable VFX, in one of the most daring big budget films in history.

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Theatrical Releases:

Carrie (1976)

Based on: the novel from 1974

It’s only fitting that the first King novel to ever be published was the first to receive a feature film adaptation. And it set the bar high right out of the gate. Sissy Spacek was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her turn as the shy Carrie White, daughter to religious zealot Margaret White (Piper Laurie, also nominated for an Academy Award) and frequent target of high school bullies. That is, until her telekinetic powers are awakened and a mean prank pushes her over the edge. Directed by Brian De Palma, Carrie still remains among the best King adaptations.

The Shining (1980)

Based on: the novel from 1977

Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s novel is often considered a cinematic masterpiece, and one of the scariest of all time. Just not by King himself, who’s been vocal throughout the decades of his feelings on Kubrick’s drastic departure from the source material. Whereas Jack Torrance’s descent into madness was much more external thanks to the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel, Kubrick made Jack’s journey more rooted in psychological terror. His vision and surreal imagery haunted in a very different way.

Creepshow (1982)

Based on: two segments are based on the short stories “Weeds” from 1976 and “The Crate” from 1979, the rest King wrote for the film.

Directed by George A. Romero, this anthology is one big homage to horror comics of the ‘50s, and plays out like one. Bookended by little Billy (played by King’s son Joe) getting scolded for reading a horror comic, The Creep appears at his window for assistance. From there, five segments unfold of horror and humor. All very colorful in a comic book aesthetic, and all very King. King even appears in the segment “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” based on his short “Weeds” for his film debut. The icing on the cake is special makeup effects handled by master Tom Savini.

Cujo (1983)

Based on: the novel from 1981

A friendly St. Bernard becomes a vicious beast thanks to a bite from a rabid bat. Enter housewife Donna (Dee Wallace) and her young son Tad (Danny Pintauro), who’ve arrived on property to get the family car repaired, unaware that the rabid dog has killed its owner. It sets off an intense fight for survival, with the car the only safe haven from the unrelenting animal and no help in sight. This also means that the elements are a big issue, too. This adaptation is fairly faithful, but it drops all supernatural elements from the novel and offers a much more uplifting ending.  Book spoiler: Donna finally defeats Cujo mere moments from help arriving, but young Tad had already died from dehydration and heat exposure.

The Dead Zone (1983)

Based on: the novel from 1979

Directed by David Cronenberg, this adaptation stars Christopher Walken as John Smith, a young school teacher who slips into a coma for five years due to a car accident. When he comes to, he finds his lady love has moved on and a new psychic ability that gives him insight into anyone he touches. A genre-bender that streamlines King’s novel, The Dead Zone isn’t one of the best adaptations but one that remains timeless. The novel also inspired a TV series that ran for six seasons beginning in 2002.

Christine (1983)

Based on: the novel from 1983

King’s popularity was so immense by this point that production for this adaptation began before the novel was even published. So, naturally, there are some narrative differences between the novel and film. This wasn’t a passion project for director John Carpenter, but one he needed to make from a career standpoint following the box office failure of The Thing. It was our gain, as his vision of King’s novel brought a very stylized take on the killer Plymouth Fury story.

Children of the Corn (1984)

Based on: the short story from 1977

Young couple Burt and Vicky (Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton) find themselves trapped in a remote town full of homicidal, religious children who have previously purged the town of adults. Unlike the source novel, which sees Burt and Vicky at the end of the relationship and thus constantly bickering, the film has the leads happy and still in love. Until they get to Gatlin, anyway. The adaptation also adds in two new characters, the innocent Job and Sarah, who assist the adults in their survival. King was rumored to be unhappy with these changes, but at least the adaptation gave us memorable villains in Isaac (John Franklin) and Malachai (Courtney Gains).

Firestarter (1984)

Based on: the novel from 1980

The plot sees a couple gaining telekinetic abilities after volunteering for medical experiments, and then go on to have a child, Charlie (Drew Barrymore), who is born with pyrokinetic abilities. The facility responsible wants Charlie back. Firestarter was directed by Mark L. Lester (Commando, Class of 1984), but it very nearly would have been directed by John Carpenter. Yet again, the financial flop of The Thing altered the trajectory of his career, as he was slated to direct Firestarter but was replaced post The Thing release. Lester hired Stanley Mann to adapt King’s novel to screen, eschewing the two Carpenter commissioned scripts- one of which was written by Bill Lancaster (screenwriter of The Thing) that King had given his seal of approval.

Cat’s Eye (1985)

Based on: two segments based on the short stories “Quitters, Inc.” from 1978 and “The Ledge” from 1976, “General” was written specifically for the film

This anthology connects three segments of horror and suspense together by a traveling cat on a quest to save a little girl. Written by King, and directed by King favorite Lewis Teague (Cujo), Cat’s Eye is the first film to really play with the universe in the way King does in his novels. The ninth theatrically released film (tenth if you count made-for-TV movie ‘Salems Lot), there’s a lot of Easter eggs and overt nods to other notable characters and places that indicates just how relevant to pop culture King had become.

Silver Bullet (1985)

Based on: the novella Cycle of the Werewolf from 1983

Cycle of the Werewolf was originally intended to be a calendar, with illustrations by comic book artist Bernie Wrightson. But King wasn’t satisfied with the limited space for his monthly vignettes to accompany the art and turned it into a short novel (Wrightson’s illustrations included). So, the novella plays out like an extended calendar; each month a story of the werewolf’s latest victim. King wrote the screenplay for the adaptation, as well, dropping the monthly format in favor of one cohesive narrative that followed paraplegic hero Marty (Corey Haim), his uncle Red (Gary Busey), and his sister (Megan Follows) as they solve the mystery behind the werewolf attacks.

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Based on: the short story “Trucks” from 1973

A comet causes inanimate objects to become sentient and homicidal, resulting in a group of people banding together at a truck stop to evade the attacks and survive. Not only was the screenplay written by King, but Maximum Overdrive also marks the writer’s first and only directorial credit. It also didn’t fare well financially or critically, earning both King and lead actor Emilio Estevez Golden Raspberry nomination. As evidenced by his prolific writing, King is also an overachiever, and you can spot him in the film as a man at the ATM.

Stand by Me (1986)

Based on: the novella The Body from 1982

Some of the most critically adored adaptations of King’s works aren’t horror at all, but drama. Such was the case for Stand by Me, a coming of age story in which four friends embark on a journey to find the body of a missing boy. Directed by Rob Reiner early in his directorial career, he opted to hone in on one of the boys, Gordie, and make them a central character to give the film version more focus. The move resulted in Stand by Me winning many awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Director and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Creepshow 2 (1987)

Based on: one segment based on the short story “The Raft” from 1982, the other two were written specifically for the film

Like its predecessor, Creepshow 2 was meant to include five segments. Budgetary cuts meant that two were trimmed, though one was later used in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie – “Cat from Hell.” The best segment, “The Raft,” was based on King’s short, while the rest he wrote treatments for. From there, George A. Romero wrote the screenplay. The director’s reigns were handed off to Creepshow and Day of the Dead cinematographer Michael Gornick for this sequel.

The Running Man (1987)

Based on: the novel from 1982 under pen name Richard Bachman

This Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi action vehicle follows a wrongly convicted man, Ben Richards (Schwarzenegger), forced to play in a deadly gauntlet as a form of public execution via live reality TV game. Much lighter and different from the source novel, this adaptation has a much happier ending. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen this one, or not at all, then there’s no better time than this year to watch, since most of the narrative is set in 2019.

Pet Sematary (1989)

Based on: the novel from 1983

One of King’s most terrifying novels was originally intended to be directed by George A. Romero, who’d previously purchased rights in 1984. But due to being tied up in another project, he pulled out of the production. Later, due to a looming writer’s strike, Paramount needed screenplays already ready to go to avoid major gaps in their release schedule. Enter King’s screenplay. This, combined with director Mary Lambert’s strong vision which included her insistence on casting decisions of Miko Hughes as Gage Creed and Andrew Hubastek as Zelda, this faithful adaptation is an all-timer.

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)

Based on: one segment based on the short story “Cat from Hell” from 1977

Remember how Creepshow 2 had two more segments that were cut due to budgetary constraints? This is where one of those cut stories ended up. The middle segment, “Cat From Hell,” was based on King’s story treatment and adapted by Romero, and followed a wealthy old man who hires a hit man to kill a cat. The hitman doesn’t believe the old man’s stories of how this cat is responsible for a string of murders but is willing to accept the high fee anyway. This segment has a lot of dark humor up until its grisly, gory end.

Graveyard Shift (1990)

Based on: the short story from 1970

This adaptation makes some drastic departures from the short story it’s based on. A creature feature that didn’t fare well with critics, Graveyard Shift follows new hire Hall (David Andrews) tasked by his mean boss Warwick (Stephen Macht) to assist with the insane rat infestation beneath their mill. They find something much most monstrous as the cause. Though the film was panned, it’s a fun creature feature with an always welcome appearance by Brad Dourif as the intensely eccentric exterminator. The film also opts for a happier ending, whereas (spoiler), the story sees both Hall and Warwick getting devoured by the mutated rats, the crew in the upstairs mill none the wiser.

Misery (1990)

Based on: the novel from 1987

Getting into a car crash is only the beginning of Paul Sheldon’s nightmare when he realizes his savior is an obsessed fan who refuses to let him leave at any cost. Director Rob Reiner once again proves masterful in adapting King’s works for screen, this time tapping talented novelist and screenwriter William Goldman (Magic, The Princess Bride) to adapt. Another award-winning feature, but this time the focus was on actress Kathy Bates, unknown prior to her star turn in Misery.

The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Based on: the short story from 1975 – in name only

This adaptation is a bit of a doozy. It wasn’t initially conceived as an adaptation at all; originally titled Cyber God, the story followed a simple greenskeeper rendered intelligent due to virtual reality experiments. But New Line Cinema had rights to King’s short story, and decided to combine the story with Cyber God, to be titled Stephen King’s The Lawnmower Man. King successfully sued to have his name removed; this adaptation had very little in common with his story at all. This movie isn’t even acknowledged on his official web page, but I’m including it for its brief connection and as an incentive to seek out the short story, which is much more gruesome and, well, better.

Sleepwalkers (1992)

Based on: Original screenplay based on an unpublished short story

The first of many King’s works to be directed by horror master Mick Garris, Sleepwalkers is an original screenplay written by King. A wacky twist to vampire mythos, the film centers around two incestuous shapeshifting vampires (Brian Krause and Alice Krige) who feed off virgins. Their latest victim is Tanya Robertson (Madchen Amick), a sweet girl who finds an unexpected ally in the Sheriff’s cat, Clovis. Look for many notable horror cameos; John Landis, Joe Dante, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper, and King all make appearances in this underrated creature feature.

The Dark Half (1993)

Based on: the novel from 1989

Directed and adapted for screen by George A. Romero, The Dark Half follows Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) an author attempting to bury his more successful pen name George Stark. But George doesn’t want to be buried and becomes a physical presence that terrorizes Thad’s friends and family. The novel was written after King’s own alter ego, Richard Bachman, was outed, and even dedicated the novel to “the late Richard Bachman.” If there’s one subject that King loves most, it’s tortured writers. The Dark Half may be slow in pace, but it’s far better than it was given credit for and Hutton is clearly having a ball playing dual roles.

Needful Things (1993)

Based on: the novel from 1991

The mysterious Mr. Gaunt (Max von Sydow) arrives in Castle Rock to open a shop that grants its patrons their deepest desires. But with it comes a very steep price. The 960-page novel was a lot to condense into a feature-length film, which is why there was an extended, 3-hour cut (including over an hour of footage that was trimmed from the theatrical cut) that aired on TBS three years later, in miniseries format. No home release has included this extended cut of the film. This is probably for the best, as the pacing meant the two-hour version is plenty.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Based on: the novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from 1982

As if we needed another reason to love A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, it was the first screenwriting credit that Frank Darabont received, giving him the confidence (and money) to return to King, with whom he’d worked on adapting short story “The Woman in the Room” for a short film, to purchase rights to his novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Darabont didn’t immediately adapt it, writing the screenplay five years later. He expanded the story and characters, adding in a shady warden as a primary antagonist. The screenplay was so good that Rob Reiner wanted to direct, offering to finance any other project in exchange. Darabont held strong, and the result is one of the greatest movies and beginning of Darabont’s work with King’s stories.

The Mangler (1995)

Based on: the short story from 1978

One of the wackiest of King’s adaptations, this one sees an industrial laundry press develop a taste for human flesh. Yes, you read that correctly. Directed by Tobe Hooper, The Mangler stars Robert Englund as the press owner and Ted Levine as the police officer called in to investigate the machine’s first victim. At least the adaptation doesn’t dare get as surreal as the story- which sees the mangle unhinging itself from its anchors to roam the streets in search of new victims. It spawned two sequels, none of which are connected to King’s story or other works.

Dolores Claiborne (1995)

Based on: the novel from 1993

A big city reporter heads back to her small home town in support of her mother, who’s been accused of murdering the elderly woman she works for as a maid. Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kathy Bates, in what she’s described as her best role, Dolores Claiborne is an engaging adaptation that’s been tough to nail down in terms of genre. Mostly referred to as a psychological thriller, it’s also been classified as drama, gothic romance, and straightforward horror. No matter what you define it as, it’s all around great. There are more supernatural elements in the novel, and a major connection to another King novel – Gerald’s Game.

Thinner (1996)

Based on: the novel from 1984 under pen name Richard Bachman

Directed by Tom Holland and adapted by Michael McDowell (Beetlejuice), Thinner didn’t win over critics or the box office at time of release. It had an uphill battle to climb; lead protagonist isn’t exactly an endearing character that’s easy to root for. Billy Halleck is an upper-class lawyer with a talent for defending criminals. It doesn’t take long before his misdeeds piss off the wrong gypsy, who curses him to lose weight at an unhealthily rapid weight. A mean spirited and macabre story adapted faithfully, it’s enhanced by great special effects.

The Night Flier (1997)

Based on: the short story from 1988

Ok, so this was dumped onto DVD by New Line Cinema and not released theatrically, but it wasn’t made-for-TV either. This also makes it one of the lesser seen King adaptations, which is a shame. Miguel Ferrer stars as sleazy tabloid reporter Richard Dees, eager to get the scoop on a serial killer that travels to airports to slaughter victims. Dees suspects the killer thinks of himself as a vampire, but the truth is more horrifying. The adaptation is pretty faithful, but the addition of a budding reporter character alters Dees ultimate fate.

Apt Pupil (1998)

Based on: the novella from 1982

A thriller that involves a teen boy blackmailing his neighbor after discovering that he’s a Nazi/fugitive war criminal. As all good boys do, of course. It begins an unhealthy relationship between the boy and the Nazi, and their lives spiral out of control from there. Directed by Bryan Singer, and starring Brad Renfro and Ian McKellen, the film and novella have widely different endings, though thematically both leave teen boy Todd in a dark place. A film that unnerved critics and didn’t fare well financially, it was further marred by scandal when a lawsuit was filed against Singer by a 14-year-old extra.

The Green Mile (1999)

Based on: the novel from 1996

Frank Darabont’s second King adaptation, of which he both directed and wrote the screenplay, was a major award winner. Set during the Great Depression, it’s a supernatural drama that sees the lives of the prison guards of a Death Row known as the “Green Mile” irrevocably changed upon the arrival of prisoner John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a gentle giant with a mysterious gift. This adaptation demands that you have a box of tissues handy while watching.

Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

Based on: the novella Low Men in Yellow Coats from 1999

This adaptation takes its name from the collection that included Low Men in Yellow Coats. It follows single mother Liz (Hope Davis) and her son Bobby (Anton Yelchin), who take in an elder stranger, Ted (Anthony Hopkins). As Bobby bonds with Ted, he discovers he has telekinetic and psychic powers, and the friendship changes his life. No, this isn’t horror, but the source novella was written as a tie-in to King’s popular Dark Tower series. Ted is on the run from “low men” who work for The Crimson King, a major entity of evil in the series.

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Based on: the novel from 2001

Often touted among the worst of King’s adaptations, Dreamcatcher is a puzzling head scratcher for sure. Directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark), written by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (Magic, Misery), and featuring a cast of A-list talent, there’s an unspoken expectation that the film would offer much better dialogue than lines like, “Jesus-Christ-bananas, some fuckarow this is turning into.” As for plot, the extraterrestrial invasion by way of infectious parasite that catches four friends in middle, it’s a wackier one to begin with. But the grand scope of the bizarre invasion means we never get time to get to know the characters well enough to buy into the madness.

Secret Window (2004)

Based on: the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden from 1990

Sharing some major similarities to The Dark Half, successful writer Mort (Johnny Depp) is stalked by a stranger accusing him of plagiarism amidst a painful divorce with his wife. His wife is seeing another man, played by The Dark Half’s Timothy Hutton. Of course, the stranger stalking Mort has a lot more in common with him than identical writing, or this wouldn’t be a King story. Adapted and directed by David Koepp (Stir of Echoes), the film version favors Mort, making his ex-wife an antagonist and drastically altering the fates of both characters.

Riding the Bullet (2004)

Based on: the novella from 2000

When George gets a phone call that his mother is dying, he decides to hitchhike over a hundred miles to see her. He’s picked up by an ominous stranger with a deadly secret. Directed and written by Mick Garris, this adaptation of the novella is fairly faithful, only speeding up the timeline of the character’s fates for added urgency. It stars Jonathan Jackson as George, and David Arquette as the ominous stranger, George Staub. Riding the Bullet received a very unsuccessful limited theatrical release before dropping onto DVD, making it one of the lesser-known adaptations.

1408 (2007)

Based on: the short story from 1999

John Cusack stars as Mike Enslin, a cynical author who specializes in debunking the paranormal. Despite warnings from hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samual L. Jackson), Enslin checks into the haunted room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. That skepticism changes to unbridled fear when the room preys on his grief over his lost daughter, and more. Director Mikael Håfström opts for psychological and surrealism terror over a straightforward haunted fare, and manages to make The Carpenters’ song “We’ve Only Just Begun” a menacing theme for the mean-spirited entities lurking in the room. Håfström shot four different endings for this film, attempting to recapture the ambiguity of King’s short, though none of them match the story’s ending.

The Mist (2007)

Based on: the novella from 1980

Most of King’s works tend to end on a relatively uplifting note of hope. Leave it to screenwriter/director Frank Darabont to swap out The Mist’s hopeful ending for one of soul-shattering bleakness, and boy does it work. With a talented cast lead by Thomas Jane, The Mist follows a group of citizens stranded in a grocery store when a strange storm hides a horde of deadly creatures within its mist. More than just a well-made creature feature, it’s an examination of humanity when faced with catastrophe, and possibly even the end of days. Marcia Gay Harden is chilling as the fervently religious Mrs. Carmody.

Dolan’s Cadillac (2009)

Based on: the short story from 1993

King’s crime-thriller twist to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, Tom Robinson (Wes Bentley) embarks on a quest for vengeance against crime boss Jimmy Dolan (Christian Slater) following the murder of his wife after witnessing Dolan in the act of committing a crime. Whereas King’s story is haunted tale of revenge spanning years, the film speeds it up to rev up the action. This one went direct-to-video.

Carrie (2013)

Based on: the novel from 1974

The third adaptation of King’s first published novel, this time starring Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie White, and Julianne Moore as her mother Margaret. Directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry), this version of Carrie comes with a talented cast that delivers great performances (Moore is very effective as the unhinged Margaret). The only problem is that it doesn’t really bring anything new or different to the fold, and was critically panned in large part because of that.

A Good Marriage (2014)

Based on: the novella from 2010

Adapted for screen by King from his own novella, A Good Marriage stars Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia as longtime married couple Darcy and Bob Anderson. After 25 years of an idyllic marriage, Darcy uncovers a shocking secret of Bob’s, one that drive’s her to equally shocking lengths to protect her family from that secret’s exposure. Directed by Peter Askin, and also starring Stephen Lang, this psychological thriller is surprisingly light on thrills.

Mercy (2014)

Based on: the short story “Gramma” from 1985

A Blumhouse Production film loosely based on King’s short story that appeared in Skeleton Crew, Mercy stars Frances O’Connor as a single mother with two boys who help her care for their ailing grandmother. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, grandma isn’t all there. She also has a lot of sinister secrets, and only her favored grandson George (The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs) truly gets her. Adapted for screen by Matt Greenberg (1408, Reign of Fire), this makes drastic departures from King’s original story but does retain a lot of the Lovecraftian mythology. It released on VOD and home release simultaneously, making this another lesser known adaptation.

Cell (2016)

Based on: the 2006 novel

John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson look to recapture the magic of 2007’s 1408, this time with a screenplay by King himself. Needless to say, this one didn’t fare so well. A mysterious signal emitted through cell phones renders people insane and homicidal. Cusack leads as Clay Riddell, a man joined by a group of survivors while in route to reunite with his estranged family. King rewrote the ending based on criticisms of his novel’s ending. Directed by Tod Williams (Paranormal Activity 2), but Cell was very nearly directed by Eli Roth until he walked away due to creative differences.

The Dark Tower (2017)

Based on: The Dark Tower series

One of the most highly anticipated adaptations, and one of the biggest disappointments, The Dark Tower film was a mess before it even made it to theaters. Considered a sort of continuation of the popular novel series, which contained eight novels and multiple tie-ins. Being passed around through various studios and filmmakers, including J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard, throughout the years, it finally moved forward with director Nikolaj Arcel and screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner, who reworked the existing screenplay entirely. The result is a messy film bearing little resemblance to one of King’s most beloved series.

It (2017)

Based on: the 1986 novel

The second adaptation of King’s massive novel, but first theatrically released, It: Chapter One is only the first half of the story- Chapter Two is scheduled to conclude the story this year. Revolving solely around the childhood experiences of the Loser’s Club with the evil simply dubbed It, director Andy Muschietti made a very different version of King’s novel than the 1990 made-for-TV mini-series and updated the setting to the ‘80s. The result was a critical success and a box office juggernaut. Not only did it become one of horror’s all-time most profitable films, but one of the biggest box office earners across the board for 2017. The success the frenzy for adapting King’s works into overdrive, one that hadn’t entirely gone away in the first place.

Gerald’s Game (2017)

Based on: the 1992 novel

The original novel is set mostly inside the mind of lead protagonist Jessie Burlingame, a woman handcuffed to the bed and stranded once her husband dies of a heart attack. Because of this, it was widely considered “unfilmable.” It just needed the right visionary to convey the horrors both real and imagined in Jessie’s story. Enter Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Hush). With his clever direction and updates to the story, Carla Gugino’s fantastic performance, and truly spooky moments -that degloving scene, ugh- Gerald’s Game was yet another stellar adaptation released on Netflix just a month after It.

1922 (2017)

Based on: the 2010 novella

Less than a month after dropping Gerald’s Game, Netflix also released 1922, another King adaptation; this one based on a lesser known novella. Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, 1922 is a slow burn story of the haunting consequences of a man’s decision, with his son’s assistance, to kill his wife for her money. Thomas Jane stars as Wilfred James, the stubborn farmer unwilling to give in to his wife’s (Molly Parker) desire to move to the city. That stubbornness and pride proves to be his entire family’s undoing. Mark Patton, of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle fame, composed the film’s score.

TV Movies:

Salem’s Lot (1979)

Based on: the novel from 1975

Thanks to Paul Monash’s script, which turned Kurt Barlow into a menacing cousin of Count Orlok from Nosferatu, and Tobe Hooper’s excellent direction, which gave us iconic scenes of terror, this adaptation transcends its TV mini-series status. Hooper may have drawn inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock in creating this story about a New England town inundated by vampires, but in turn, he created one of the most influential vampire films to date.

It (1990)

Based on: the novel from 1986

It took just over a decade for King’s works to return to the small screen, and what a return it was. Despite the miniseries length, much was trimmed from the source novel in this adaptation, which isn’t much of a surprise considering some of the more salacious parts of the novel would never have made it past TV censors. Writer Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie) and director Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) retained the core essence of the story and kept Pennywise front and center. It was this move that made the miniseries so memorable; Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise instilled nightmares in viewers for generations to come and instantly birthed a horror icon.

Sometimes They Come Back (1991)

Based on: the short story from 1974

This short story adaptation very nearly ended up as a segment in Cat’s Eye, but producer Dino De Laurentiis felt it was strong enough to warrant a full-length made-for-TV film instead. Directed by Tom McLoughlin (One Dark Night, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives), this adaptation stars Tim Matheson as Jim Norman, a school teacher who witnessed his older brother getting murdered by a gang of greasers during childhood. The greasers died soon after in a train accident. When he takes a new teaching gig in his hometown, he’s perturbed to discover students that resemble the greasers, and others begin dying around him. This made for TV version does give his brother’s return a much less demonic background than the story.

Golden Years (1991)

Based on: none; completely original miniseries

Considered by the author to be a novel for television, Golden Years isn’t an adaptation at all but an original seven-part miniseries written by King. It centers on an elderly janitor who ages backwards following an explosion at a secret army lab. When they send someone to cover up their secrets, i.e. kill the janitor, he goes on the run. King wrote the first five episodes, and outlined the last two. It was intended to launch a regular series, thus ended on a cliffhanger, but the network that aired the miniseries never picked it up. King’s request to complete the story in a future miniseries went unfulfilled.

The Tommyknockers (1993)

Based on: the novel from 1987

Author Bobbi Anderson (Marg Helgenberger) and her recovering alcoholic boyfriend Gard (Jimmy Smits) stumble upon a strange object protruding from the ground in the woods behind their house. The more they dig up the object, the stranger people start behaving in town, giving way to accidents and even homicides. Bobbi falls hardest under its sway, and it’s up to Gard to save them all. This adaptation has been rumored to have new updates in the works since 2013, and it’s one that could use it. While the large cast is talented, the special effects don’t hold up well at all. This adaptation also has a much happier ending than the novel, which likely doesn’t help the hokey look of the miniseries.

The Stand (1994)

Based on: the novel from 1978

King’s magnum opus was directed by Mick Garris and adapted for the small screen by the prolific author himself. It was a perfect match, as this sprawling epic with a great cast captures the lengthy novel’s larger-than-life battle between good versus evil. After a plague wipes out most of humanity, the survivors split into two factions; one lead by benevolent elderly Mother Abagail and the other lead by the evil Randall Flagg. Aside from great storytelling that spans many states, look for more fun horror cameos from the likes of Joe Bob Briggs, King, John Landis, Tom Holland, and more.

The Langoliers (1995)

Based on: the novella from 1990

Nothing shows age like the CG of the early ‘90s, and The Langoliers is a perfect example. A miniseries written and directed by Tom Holland, the plot sees a group of people surviving the sudden disappearance of most on board their flight only to find the airport they’ve landed at just as deserted. It’s a Twilight Zone-style sci-fi mind-bender with CG creatures that eat everything in sight. It’s the vfx for these creatures that shows this miniseries’ age above all, but the extended, two-part miniseries drags out the story too long, as well.

The Shining (1997)

Based on: the novel from 1977)

Mick Garris and Stephen King once again team up to adapt the author’s works for the small screen, and this time it’s to give a more faithful retelling of The Shining. Those who adore Kubrick’s unique and cinematic take on the novel will likely have their feathers ruffled upon viewing this lower budget made-for-TV take that follows the novel much more closely, including the more supernatural elements that drove Jack Torrance to madness. This adaptation gives a much happier epilogue than penned in the novel.

Trucks (1997)

Based on: the short story “Trucks” from 1973

Of all of King’s novels, short stories, novellas, and more, who would’ve thought that “Trucks” would get not one, but two adaptations? King’s original attempt, Maximum Overdrive, didn’t exactly set the bar high, so perhaps that left the door open for someone aiming higher. Unfortunately, this take on the story fared much worse. If the title is any indication, it’s only the trucks that come to life and terrorize the humans stranded at a truck stop. No crazed soda machines or lawnmowers, just trucks. It’s silly, with really goofy deaths, but at least it tries to up the gore content?

Quicksilver Highway (1997)

Based on: the short story “Chattery Teeth” from 1993 for one segment

Mick Garris wrote and directed this two-segment anthology that sees Christopher Lloyd play Aaron Quicksilver, a traveler with a penchant for telling horror stories to strangers. The first segment is based on King’s short story “Chattery Teeth,” which sees a salesman develop a bizarre kinship with an oversized pair of wind-up chattering teeth during a string of bad luck incidents. The second segment in this anthology was based on a short story written by Clive Barker.

Storm of the Century (1999)

Based on: None, it’s an original screenplay

Another miniseries that King considers to be a novel for television. The story, that sees a stranger come to town and terrorize its residents during a dangerous blizzard, had been in King’s head for a while but he wasn’t sure whether it should be formatted as a novel or screenplay. Obviously, he went with screenplay, and that screenplay was published and released just prior to the miniseries premiere. It was directed by Craig R. Baxley, selected personally by King for the job, and well received by critics upon airing.

Rose Red (2002)

Based on: None, it’s an original screenplay

King initially pitched the idea behind this story to Steven Spielberg in the mid-nineties, intending it as a loose remake of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. But then The Haunting was released in 1999, so he instead expanded it into a miniseries and combined other haunted house elements. For the team of investigators spending the night in the haunted mansion of Rose Red, they discover it has a mind of its own and tends to build upon itself. The author reteamed with director Baxley for this miniseries.

Carrie (2002)

Based on: the novel from 1974

The second of three adaptations of King’s breakout novel, this one was actually intended to be a backdoor pilot for a TV series. Written by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal TV series) and directed by David Carson, actress Angela Bettis (May) assumed the mantle of the titular character in this iteration. Fuller envisioned this as a sort of remake to De Palma’s well-regarded adaptation, trying to modernize it for the current social climate, but it was panned upon release as unnecessary. Being that it was intended to launch an ongoing series, the ending was left open and Carrie survived her harrowing prom night.

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2003)

Based on: the novel by Ridley Pearson from 2001

Based on The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red, this King adaptation is unique in that it’s based on a book not written by him. But that book is based on his screenplay, therefore it’s still a King adaptation. Once again directed by Baxley, this prequel to Rose Red follows the construction of the mansion and the tragic events that plagued the Rimbauer family, leading to its eventual haunting. This one dropped the miniseries format in favor of a leaner feature-length runtime.

Salem’s Lot (2004)

Based on: the novel from 1975

The second adaptation of King’s novel, a miniseries for TNT, wisely opts to not attempt to follow in the same footsteps as Hooper’s made-for-TV version. Updating the story to a modern setting, this take on the story makes its own changes to the novel and stands apart from any other version. Rutger Hauer plays Kurt Barlow, making the big bad closer to the character in the novel, and Rob Lowe plays the protagonist Ben Mears.

Desperation (2006)

Based on: the novel from 1996

Rob Perlman plays Collie Entragian, the deranged desert town sheriff that arrests numerous people passing through for nefarious means. That group must band together to survive before the sheriff kills them all. Frequent collaborator Mick Garris once again reteams with King, who wrote the teleplay for this adaptation. Also starring was Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish, Charles Durning, Matt Frewer, and Henry Thomas. Though conceived as a two-part miniseries, it aired in its entirety on one night.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes (2006)

Based on: eight short stories

This eight-episode miniseries is partially based on short stories from the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection, which includes “Umney’s Last Case”, “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band”, “The End of the Whole Mess”, “The Fifth Quarter” and “Crouch End”. The remaining stories were adaptations of “The Road Virus Heads North”, “Autopsy Room Four”, and “Battleground”. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop provided the special effects. The writers, directors, and cast featured a lot of repeat King collaborators like director Mikael Salomon (Salem’s Lot), writer Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie, It, The Tommyknockers), actors Steven Weber, Henry Thomas, and more.

Children of the Corn (2009)

Based on: the short story from 1977

Set in the ‘70s, this adaptation adheres a little more closely to the short story, though King wanted no part in this adaptation. Written, produced, and directed by Donald P. Borchers, an original producer of the 1984 film, this iteration sees couple Burt (David Anders) and Vicky (Kandyse McClure) as they were in the short story- near the end of their relationship and in a constant state of unhappy bickering. Seeing it in this context makes it easier to understand why it was changed for the original film; they’re much easier to root for when being attacked by the creepy children of Gatlin. Also updated was that the children were actually played by minors, as opposed to adults playing teens.

Bag of Bones (2011)

Based on: the novel from 1998

The reigning champ of King collaborators, Mick Garris, helmed this adaptation featuring one of King’s favorite subjects; a tortured writer. Pierce Brosnan stars as Mike Noonan, a best-selling novelist suffering from writers block after the unexpected death of his wife. His subsequent nightmares about her death and the summer home they shared prompts him to take a trip there, where he becomes inundated by a haunting presence that unravels a mystery of its own. Regular King adaptation actors Annabeth Gish and Matt Frewer also appear.

Big Driver (2014)

Based on: the 2010 novella

Based on the novella that appeared in Full Dark, No Stars, Big Driver stars Mario Bello as Tess Thorne, a crime writer who’s brutally assaulted during a short cut home from a fan event. Left for dead, she instead decides to enact her own vengeance rather than going to the police. Directed by frequent King collaborated Mikael Salomon (Salem’s Lot, Nightmares & Dreamscapes), Big Driver also stars Joan Jett, Olympia Dukakis, and Ann Dowd. This feature-length adaptation aired on Lifetime.

11.22.63 (2016)

Based on: the novel from 2011

This eight-part miniseries was executive produced by J.J. Abrams, and created for TV by producer Bridget Carpenter (Westworld, Dead Like Me). James Franco starred as Jake Epping, a school teacher given the opportunity to travel back in time. He’s tasked with the mission to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but finds himself attached to the life he builds there instead, threatening both his safety and the mission. Airing as a Hulu original miniseries, 11.22.63 was well received by critics and audiences alike.

The adaptations of King’s works aren’t slowing down any time soon, with many more already on the way. Neither is the author, who continues to churn out novels, short story collections, and more at an insane rate. Which King film and novel is your favorite?

The post The Definitive Guide to Stephen King’s Film and TV Adaptations appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The movie and television series were produced by Dimension Films, a division of the Weinstein Company. Of course, the Weinstein Co. collapsed earlier this year in the wake of Harvey Weinstein being exposed as a total creep, and it was Lantern Capital Partners who swooped in to acquire Dimension’s assets. Which would include The Mist… right?

Therein lies the dilemma. According to a filing this week, King actually regained the rights to his novella in June 2017, his attorney says, *before* the collapse of the Weinstein Co.

Since the rights to the novella weren’t actually part of the package that Lantern Capital Partners scooped up, King’s representation says, he is now the sole owner of the story.

Wall Street Journal further explains, “In Tuesday’s filing, Mr. King’s attorney said Lantern informed the author in October that it didn’t intend to assume contracts related to the movie versions of “The Mist” and “1408,” based on a short story. But Lantern said at the time that it did intend to hold onto the rights to “The Mist,” court papers say.”

The future of any Mist-related projects, needless to say, hangs in the balance.

The post There’s Currently a Legal Battle Over the Rights to ‘The Mist,’ Which Stephen King Says He Now Owns appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The auction is now LIVE and open for public bidding. You can now own any of the aforementioned works of art, not to mention dozens of other surprises you’ll find while browsing through the massive catalog. 

Fan of Army of Darkness? There’s early concept art of the “Pit Bitch”. Are you a Kevin Smith fan? There are screen-used Tusk and Yoga Hosers props, including a rare Nazi sausage suit that was made for Jason Mewes, who was originally set to star in the role (until his claustrophobia forced him to back out). Other rare items come from films including Hulk, Phantoms, The Mist, Spawn, Vampire In Brooklyn, Hisss, Hostel: Part III and more.

Hanlin’s Hollywood Memorabilia auction is LIVE with full catalog and bidding available either here or here.

The post Robert Kurtzman Movie Prop and Art Auction Live: ‘Army of Darkness’, ‘Wishmaster’, ‘Dusk till Dawn’ and More! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With over 60 novels, 200 short stories and counting, 6 non-fiction books, and no signs of slowing down at age 70, it’s not as though Stephen King needed a career boost. Yet, that didn’t stop 2017 from being the year that adaptations of the prolific author’s work exploded everywhere, from the big screen to the small, and streaming services in between.

With such a large body of work to pull from, and the massive successes of certain King adaptations, it’s no surprise that this year is only the beginning. While there’s a long list of projects in development, like new series Castle Rock for Hulu or a new adaptation of Firestarter in development, we look back at the best and worst Stephen King adaptions that 2017 had to offer.

THEATRICAL RELEASES

Worst: The Dark Tower

One of King’s most beloved works is The Dark Towers series, eight or so novels that blend dark fantasy, horror, and western genres and follows Gunslinger Roland Deschain. Critics and audiences alike were extremely disappointed to discover the film adaptation proved to be nothing at all like the book series upon its August theatrical release. Perhaps that’s not so surprising, considering the project has been in development since 2007, going through multiple studios and filmmakers before finally landing at Sony with Nikolaj Arcel at the helm. During its sluggish box office run, The Dark Tower didn’t exactly tank, but it underwhelmed expectations by a vast amount. The only one to seemingly come out unscathed was Idris Elba as Roland. Despite a lackluster showing, Sony is moving ahead with The Dark Tower series, with Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) serving as showrunner and Elba expected to reprise his role.

Best: IT

When Cary Fukunaga vacated the director’s seat in 2015 due to disagreements with New Line over the direction of the story, expectations on the pending new adaptation cooled. Enter Andy Muschietti, an upcoming director with only one feature-length directing credit to his name, Mama. Fans still weren’t convinced. Yet, that slowly began to change. First, in February, news broke that this iteration of one of King’s most popular works would be R-rated. The following month, footage of the film shown at SXSW impressed its audience. But it was the record-breaking views upon the trailer’s release at the end of March that would indicate not only Muschietti’s masterful vision, but the record-breaking box office numbers that were still to come. IT earned high praise from critics, and held strong at the box office for weeks, earning over $600 million worldwide. Bill Skarsgard successfully made Pennywise his own, terrifying theatergoers everywhere, but it was the young cast that made up the Losers Club that stole our hearts.

TELEVISION

Worst: “The Mist”

Spike’s first original scripted series, based on Stephen King’s story, seemed like a great idea. While Frank Darabont’s adaptation in 2007 was mostly confined to a grocery store, expanding the concept to a whole town, offering multiple perspectives while the eerie mist wreaked havoc, sounded great on paper. Except the reality was that the 10-episode run wound up feeling like a drag when it consisted of character inconsistencies, plot holes, and terrible VFX. The writing was clumsy and almost seemed to actively work against making any characters likable, throwing in things like date rape and incest without much purpose. Averaging a 0.14 rating in adults 18-49 at about 462,000 viewers per episode, it failed to catch on with viewers, so it’s no surprise that after a lackluster inaugural season, The Mist will not be getting a second season.

Best: “Mr. Mercedes”

Developed by David E. Kelley and executive produced by King himself, this mystery thriller TV series follows along with King’s Bill Hodges trilogy. Running for 10-episodes, and created for AT&T’s Audience network, a second season renewal was announced just ahead of the inaugural season finale in early October and will follow the second novel in the series, Finders Keepers. Harry Treadaway, fresh off of Penny Dreadful, has been great as the psychopathic Brady Hartsfield, but the best reason to tune in is Brendan Gleeson’s take on retired detective Bill Hodges. The cat-and-mouse game between killer and detective is pure King entertainment; King even got in a trademark cameo, only to be served a violent death in episode six.

NETFLIX

Draw: 1922

2017 brought not one, but two Stephen King adaptations for the popular streaming service, the second of which smartly adapted a lesser known King novella. Starring Thomas Jane and Molly Parker, with a great score by Mike Patton, this slow burn horror follows a farmer as he convinces his teenage son to assist in murdering his wife, and the subsequent consequences of guilt. Though mostly critically loved, 1922 is either a winner or loser depending on the viewer. Well shot and well-acted, this one comes down to taste preferences. There are those that will adore Jane’s Wilfred James’ slow descent into madness as guilt and consequences consume him. For others, like me, the horror elements will be too toned down to really enjoy the deliberate, crawling pace of the story. Parker’s vengeful ghost is brilliant, and sorely underutilized. That said, adapting King’s lesser-known works is worth celebrating alone.

Best: Gerald’s Game

Leave it to Mike Flanagan to finally set the record straight that there is no such thing as an unfilmable novel or story as long as the right director is at the helm, which is what Gerald’s Game was always considered due to most of the narrative taking place within protagonist Jesse’s head. Handcuffed to a bed and left for dead when her husband unexpectedly dies during a poor attempt to spice up their marriage, Jesse talks to versions of her husband and her own self in her head, working through her situation and her painful past. Wanting to adapt this novel since he was in college, Flanagan manages to make the material make sense for screen while still honoring the source novel. The Moonlight Man is as creepy as he is on the page, thanks to Carel Struycken’s presence, but boy does Carla Gugino give the performance of her life as the physically, emotionally, and mentally tortured Jesse. Though audiences were left divided by the epilogue, which remained faithful to the novel, everyone was enraptured by the events leading up to it, including that scene with the wrist. You know the one.

Which Stephen King adaptation did you love the most?

The post The Year of Stephen King: Best and Worst Adaptations of 2017 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We recently profiled a video taking a look at 10 horror movies that were “ruined” by their twist endings, but what about the ones that ended on the most perfect of high notes?

The folks over on Looper bring us “The Best Horror Movie Endings of This Century” this week, a new video that highlights the best endings from 2001 to today.

“Horror movies have to really stick the landing to last,” they write. “Whether that means coming in with a surprise twist, or an explosive event, or even a maddening cliffhanger, the final moments of any good thriller should bring together all the jump scares and eerie elements that have defined the rest of the movie.”

The site continues, “For these modern flicks, the third acts were so good that they’ll easily stand the test of time. Let’s take a look at the best horror movie endings of the century so far.”

From The Others to Get Out, watch the video below.

The post [Video] Are These the Best Horror Movie Endings of the 21st Century? appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Based on a story by Stephen King, the story centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friend, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

Morgan Spector, Frances Conroy, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Dan Butler, Luke Cosgrove, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. star.

The post The One and Only Season of “The Mist” is on Netflix appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Breaking news this Wednesday evening as Spike has canceled “The Mist” after just one season. THR reports that the news comes as the Viacom cable network will rebrand in January as Paramount Network.

Picked up straight to series in April 2016 as part of Spike’s push to re-enter the original scripted space, the drama starring Morgan Spector and Frances Conroy launched in late June to solid sampling, drawing 1.2 million viewers to the premiere with live-plus-three day Nielsen returns. However, the rest of “The Mist’s” run could barely crack 800,000 viewers — even with DVR. Among adults 18-49, it couldn’t even crack cable’s top 30 scripted series, adds the site.

For those who want to binge the entire first season, Netflix shifted the streaming release to October 24th.

Based on a story by Stephen King, the story centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friend, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

Morgan Spector, Frances Conroy, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Dan Butler, Luke Cosgrove, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. star.

The post Spike Just Canceled Stephen King’s “The Mist” Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Tickets for the live show and double feature can be purchased at https://www.salemhorror.com/schedule/2017/10/14/the-horror-show-live-podcast

Salem Horror Fest is the city’s first-ever festival of fear, presenting four weeks of screenings, parties, exhibits, concerts, panels, and celebrity appearances in the Halloween capital of the world! To overcome fear, we must first understand it.

The festival will run from September 22^nd through October 15^th and will screen seven double features at CinemaSalem that feature social themes such as racism, misogyny, gay panic, media manipulation, and xenophobia in films like Get Out, People Under the Stairs, Tragedy Girls, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, American Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Mist, They Live, Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Cruising, Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, Videodrome, Let the Right One In, and Fright Night.

The October 7th screening of Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls will be the New England premiere at Women With Guts, a celebration in partnership with Rue Morgue Magazine. The event will also screen Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood followed by a Q&A session with its stars Lar Park Lincoln and Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees) moderated by The Faculty of Horror podcast.

The post Bloody Disgusting Podcast “The Horror Show” Live at Salem Horror Fest! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In Episode 10, ‘The Tenth Meal’, “Tensions at the mall finally come to head and the group makes a discovery which could provide answers about the origins of the mist.”

Bloody Disgusting recently learned that Netflix will begin streaming the entire 10-episode first season the next day, August 25th. We loved the pilot, explaining that it “weaves a web of drama and paranoia.”

Based on a story by Stephen King, the story centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friend, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

Morgan Spector, Frances Conroy, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Dan Butler, Luke Cosgrove, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. star.

The post A Look at the Season Finale of “The Mist”! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Based on a story by Stephen King, the story centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friend, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

Morgan Spector, Frances Conroy, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Dan Butler, Luke Cosgrove, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. star.

The post The First Season of “The Mist” Rolls Onto Netflix This Month! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Nick Murphy directs the episode “The Waking Dream” that was penned by Amanda Segel.

In the episode, “Adrian arrives at the mall with somber news.   The mall survivors start to turn on Alex and Eve.”

Here’s a recap of last week’s episode to go along with images from next week’s Episode 9.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 9, ‘The Waking Dream’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Guy Ferland directs the episode “Law of Nature” that was penned by Andrew Wilder & Christian Torpe.

In the episode, “Nathalie’s influence over the remaining church parishioners continues to grow.  At the mall, Alex and Jay grow closer until Eve intervenes.  Kevin and the group make a stop at Adrian’s home where Kevin makes a shocking discovery.”

Here’s a recap of last week’s episode to go along with images from next week’s Episode 8.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 8, ‘Law of Nature’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Penn directs the episode “Over the River and Through the Woods” that was penned by Daniel Talbott.

In the episode, “Kevin and the group find unlikely sanctuary in the psych wing of the hospital.  Tensions at the mall start to escalate over the remaining food rations.  At the church Nathalie and Father Romanov face-off.”

Here’s a recap of last week’s episode to go along with images from next week’s Episode 7.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 7, ‘Over the River and Through the Woods’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

James Hawes directs the episode “The Devil You Know” that was penned by Noah Griffin & Daniel Stewart.

In the episode, “At the hospital, Kevin becomes an involuntary test subject on what is driving the mist.  Meanwhile, at the church, Nathalie Raven discusses her theories about the mist and has a violent encounter with one of the church parishioners.”

Here’s a recap of last week’s episode to go along with images from next week’s Episode 6.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 6, ‘The Devil You Know’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Richard Laxton directs the episode “The Waiting Room” that was penned by Amanda Segel and Christian Torpe.

In the episode, “Kevin and the others reach a hospital where Kevin has an unexpected and painful encounter with his brother Mike.”

Here’s a recap of last week’s episode to go along with images from next week’s Episode 5.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 5, ‘The Waiting Room’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

TJ Scott directs the episode “Pequod” that was penned by Andrew Wilder.

In the episode, “Kevin, Mia, Bryan and Adrian leave the sanctity of the church and arrive at an abandoned gas station where they try to reason with a father amid fears of the whereabouts of his own child.  At the mall, Alex comes face to face with the mist.”

The first three episodes are streaming right now online.

Here’s a recap of last week’s episode to go along with images from next week’s Episode 4.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 4, ‘Pequod’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Nick Murphy directs the episode “Show and Tell” that was penned by Peter Biegen.

“Kevin and the group find their way to a local church where several others have found sanctuary.  Upon their arrival, police chief Connor Heisel locks up Mia, Bryan and Kevin in the basement to prevent them from stirring up the people seeking refuge there.  Back at the mall, high school football superstar Jay Heisel confronts Alex about her allegations against him.”

If you can’t wait, the first three episodes are streaming right now online.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 3, ‘Show and Tell’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

David Boyd directs the episode penned by Peter MacManus.

“As the mist settles in over their small Maine town Eve and Alex Copeland find themselves stranded at the mall. The mother and daughter gather with dozens of others around mall manager Gus Bradley as he tries to bottle up the rising panic. Meanwhile, Kevin Copeland, Adrian Garf, Mia Lambert and Bryan Hunt venture out into the mist in order to get to reach Kevin’s family at the mall.”

If you can’t wait, the first three episodes are streaming right now online.

The post [Next On] Images From “The Mist” Episode 2, ‘Withdrawal’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

When the residents of Bridgeville, Maine find themselves engulfed by a foreboding mist containing a myriad of inexplicable and bizarre threats, their humanity is put to the test in “The Mist”, the new 10 episode serialized drama that premiered last night on Spike. We loved the pilot, explaining that it “weaves a web of drama and paranoia.”

Based on a story by Stephen King, the story centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friend, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

The series stars Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Frances Conroy and Gus Birney, with Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Dan Butler, Darren Pettie, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Russell Posner, and Luke Cosgrove.

What did you think of the premiere?

The post Watch the First Three Episodes of “The Mist” Right Now!! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Based on a story by Stephen King, the story centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friend, and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

This new video gives us a sneak peak at the upcoming season of the show, featuring standout performances by Frances Conroy and Gus Birney, with Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Dan Butler, Darren Pettie, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Russell Posner, and Luke Cosgrove.

The video doesn’t offer any clues as to if we’ll see any monsters but it does promise lots of insects and a shitload of drama.

What did you think of the premiere?

The post Video Sneaks What’s Ahead on “The Mist”! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“The Mist”, adapted from Stephen King‘s novel, spends the opening moments of the series intercutting between a soldier and the residents of Bridgeville. The soldier awakens with amnesia but catches a glimpse of a terrifying fog rolling into town. Meanwhile, Eve (Alyssa Sutherland) and Kevin (Morgan Spector) Copeland fight over letting their daughter, Alex (Gus Birney), attend a party.

The pilot takes its time introducing the town’s characters and setting up their series arcs. Penned by Amanda Segel and Christian Torpe, “The Mist” fights hard to wedge in social commentary, from drugs to bullying, sexual preference, and even rape. Yes, the major conflict in the first episode begins when Alex alleges that Jay (Luke Cosgrove), the town football star, raped her. A rift is formed between her parents being that Kevin allowed her to go to the party behind Eve’s back. While the social commentary is commendable, I see many having an issue with how it’s presented; not only do the locals not believe her, but the show eludes to the idea that maybe she’s lying. This, of course, isn’t socially acceptable, yet it’s impossible to know where the writers are taking this arc over the course of the season.

But I digress, the point is that the writers are working overtime to insert drama, conflict and add more than one dimension to a story that needs to be more than a horror show. That’s the difficult task at hand; how do they expand on King’s story without blowing the load too early? “The Mist” is more about people being monsters than the show’s creatures. This hearkens back to George A. Romero’s initial zombie trilogy, especially Dawn of the Dead.

Once the mist actually rolls in, the town’s people are caught in a web and unable to move. One group find themselves trapped in a mall, where they’re fighting fear and paranoia, while unseen horrors outside drive their insanity. Here, shit hits the fan, and it never slows down. Those hoping for monsters are going to have to wait being that it appears the first season will torment the town with “normal” insects. Still, these bugs are vicious as they devour anyone who crosses their path; it’s violent, bloody and absolutely bonkers. The hope is that the filmmakers are able to continually deliver the goods over the course of ten episodes, which will have to be deluded by more character work.

Speaking of, Frances Conroy‘s performance is enough to warrant a weekly return to Bridgeville. She’s being set up as one of the town’s antagonists and single-handedly elevates the quality of the pilot episode. Just wait until you see what comes next…

And while the debut does a solid job of setting up various mysteries, the one thing that bothers me is the opening sequence with the soldier and his dog; it’s a constant reminder that the military has something to do with the mist. With that said, “The Mist” is a beautiful blend of drama and horror that delivers on its immediate promise. Feeling like an episode of “Friday Night Lights” with man-eating insects, “The Mist” is as dense as it’s terrifying and promises to be one of the best new genre shows on television.

“The Mist” premieres Thursday, June 22 at 10 PM, ET/PT on Spike.

The post [Review] “The Mist” Weaves a Web of Drama and Paranoia appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Arrow in the Head had a chance to chat with showrunner Christian Torpe, and they got him to spill the beans. In short, don’t expect a full-on monster mash.

“I don’t want to reveal too much about what we see in there,” Torpe told the site. “What I can say is, it is more a show about how people react to what they see than what is actually there. It becomes boring if you know everything that’s in the show, so we were mindful of not going full-blown monster show like the movie did. I still hope we will deliver to the hardcore genre fans.”

Sounds like it’s going to be a true reimagining of the source material.

When the residents of Bridgeville, Maine find themselves engulfed by a foreboding mist containing a myriad of inexplicable and bizarre threats, their humanity is put to the test in “The Mist”, a new 10 episode serialized drama premiering Thursday, June 22 at 10 PM, ET/PT on Spike.

In the series…

A small town family is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout, an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world and, in some cases, each other. Family, friends and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.

Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Dan Butler, Darren Pettie, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Russell Posner, Luke Cosgrove and Frances Conroy star.

The post Don’t Expect Much Monster Action from “The Mist” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.