Daily Archives: October 22, 2025

Top Tens – Film: Top 10 King Horror Films

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“Here’s Johnny!” – the iconic scene from The Shining

 

King horror – Stephen King horror, that is, for the cinematic adaptations from one of the most iconic and prolific horror writers of our time. Images, lines and scenes from his work reverberate throughout popular culture, particularly driven by their cinematic or screen adaptations.

There’s something of a trope that goes around that his work makes for bad cinematic adaptations. This trope seems wrong to me – the more correct statement would be that the cinematic adaptations are mixed. A number of films from his work are good or well regarded – hence this special mention – “while many others are not”.

Of course much depends on the director but one rule of thumb I have is that the better movies are based on his shorter or tighter works. Like most screen adaptations of literary works, the longer the book, the messier the adaptation gets. Not too short though – short stories can have too little substance to them for a feature length film.

And for the worst Stephen King cinematic adaptation ever – The Lawnmower Man – they didn’t even use what little substance they had from the titular story for a feature film, choosing instead to go off on their own weird jaunt based on a single (misplaced) line. The film became notorious for King suing it to remove his name from it.

Anyway, here’s my King horror cinematic top ten on the spot.

 

1 – THE SHINING (1980)

 

“Here’s Johnny!”

Probably THE King horror film adaptation that everyone loves – ironically as King himself is not a fan given the different direction (heh) in which Stanley Kubrick took the film from the book. I like both.

 

2 – CARRIE (1976)

 

It’s not nice to make fun of Carrie…it’s not safe either.

That’s the tagline I recall for the film. With a strong cast including Sissy Spacek in the titular role and taut direction by Brian De Palma, the film is consistently ranked a high place among King adaptations – even more so because it was the adaptation that allowed King to become a full time writer.

 

3 – CUJO (1983)

 

Who’s a good boy? Well, he was until…

 

4 – CHRISTINE (1983)

 

Probably the most famous possessed car in popular culture.

Well hello again, Mr Carpenter – although King himself wasn’t a fan of the film.

 

5 – CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)

 

He Who Walks Behind The Rows.

The first film was a cracker, based on the short story by King. The sequels or franchise? Not so much.

 

6 – PET SEMATARY (1989)

 

“No fair”

A monkey’s paw of a movie – in that sometimes getting what you wish for is the worst thing you can get.

They came back wrong. Classic pulp horror but that line and scene gets me each time – because evil Gage is telling the truth. Everything about his death, resurrection and, ah, re-death wasn’t fair.

 

7 – MISERY (1990)

 

“I’m your number one fan!”

Arguably the best and tightest of King’s cinematic adaptations, due to the dynamite duo performance of Kathy Bates and James Caan – Bates got an Oscar for her performance, making the film the only King adaptation to win one.

 

8 – THE MIST (2007)

 

One of the biggest wham endings of any horror film – which Stephen King liked so much he preferred it to his own ending.

 

9 – IT (2017-2019)

 

Ah – Pennywise!

One of the best known of King’s cinematic adaptations, due to the visually iconic depiction of the titular antagonist and all its creepy extensions of itself. I might rank it higher but Part 2 didn’t quite stick the landing from Part 1.

 

10 – IN THE TALL GRASS (2019)

 

Where’s a mower when you need one?

 

HONORABLE MENTION

 

(1994 – 1999) THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION & THE GREEN MILE

 

Honorable mention because neither are horror, although there’s something of a dark fantasy element in The Green Mile. The Shawshank Redemption doesn’t even have any fantasy (or SF) elements – it’s just straight up real world drama. I mention it here because it’s just such a damn good film, often listed by people as one of their favorites, presumably unaware that it was based on a Stephen King short story because of the lack of horror or dark fantasy. It also has my favorite use of the word obtuse in any film.

 

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Fantasy Books (Special Mention: Classic) (10) Robert E. Howard – Conan

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O yes – he’ll be showing her his savage sword! Classic Conan pose (or leg cling) in The Savage Sword of Conan cover art by Earl Norem for “The Treasure of Tranicos”, issue 47, 1 December 1979, Marvel Comics (fair use)

 

 

(10) ROBERT E. HOWARD –

CONAN (1932-1936)

 

“As Dracula is to vampires, Sherlock Holmes is to private detectives, and Superman is to superheroes, so Conan is to barbarian heroes”.

The Lord of the Rings may have defined modern literary fantasy – fantasy could well be classified as pre-Tolkien and post-Tolkien. And yet…there were of course other writers of fantasy before (and apart from) Tolkien, most notably Robert E. Howard and his Conan stories from 1932 to 1936. I understand that Tolkien read and enjoyed the Conan stories – and I can’t resist quoting George R. R. Martin, who came to The Lord of The Rings from those very different Conan stories:

“Robert E. Howard’s stories usually opened with a giant serpent slithering by or an axe cleaving someone’s head in two. Tolkien opened his with a birthday party…Conan would hack a bloody path right through the Shire, end to end, I remembered thinking…Yet I kept on reading. I almost gave up at Tom Bombadil, when people started going “Hey! Come derry do! Tom Bombadillo!”. Things got more interesting in the barrow downs, though, and even more so in Bree, where Strider strode onto the scene. By the time we got to Weathertop, Tolkien had me…A chill went through me, such as Conan and Kull have never evoked.”

On the other hand, Conan would have made quick work of the Quest, while making off with an elf girl or two…

Conan embodies heroic fantasy in his setting of the Hyborian Age – an age of our own world after “the oceans drank Atlantis” that conveniently predates all surviving historical records. Translation: a setting for which Howard didn’t have to do any of that pesky research for his quick pulp fantasy stories but which could still invoke or have historical vibes as the precursors of civilizations in recorded history.

“Know, o prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars — Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian; black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”

That pretty much sums up Howard’s stories of his best known hero Conan which often invoke for me Conan as a Hyborian Bond – or is that barbarian Bond? – with similar vibes as James Bond with the different Bond girls for each story, as well as the different monstrous or sorcerous antagonists.

Due to his friendship with H.P. Lovecraft, “the original Conan stories are actually a peripheral part of the Cthulhu Mythos” – and perhaps that friendship also accounts for the huge “loathsome serpents” that recur throughout the stories. They are also canon to the Marvel Universe, thanks to their adaptation to comics by Marvel.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies (Twilight of the Gods Rankings)

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Netflix official promotional art for their TV series Twilight of the Gods

 

 

No, not a repetition of ranking mythologies by their apocalypses but more metaphorically in terms of their decline in actual or active belief in them.

These essentially fall on a sliding cultural-religious scale – from those that have declined to cultural impact or influence with diminished, if any, belief in them, to those that remain as the subject of religious belief.

By happy chance, half my top ten mythologies (or five entries) rank in the cultural end of the scale, while the other half rank in the religious end.

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CULTURAL

 

 

(1) MIDDLE EASTERN (BABYLO-SUMERIAN)

 

My top ten mythology ranked highest for twilight of the gods at the cultural end of the scale, due to the lack of name recognition for all but a few of its deities or figures limiting even its cultural impact or influence – which is mostly filtered through other mythologies in any event.

The epic of Gilgamesh is probably its most enduring cultural impact or influence but even that is limited compared to other mythic epics.

If we expand it to the full extent of Middle Eastern mythology such as Persian Zoroastrianism, then it jumps up the scale to rank just into the religious end of the scale, with a tiny residual population of active religious belief.

 

(2) EGYPTIAN

 

One of the mythologies where divine figures have faded away in the twilight of the gods, apart from their small reconstruction or revival within neo-paganism – and one for which I feel that loss more acutely than most. They remain far more within cultural impact and influence as compared to other ancient Middle Eastern mythologies, mainly due to the enduring fascination with ancient Egypt in popular imagination.

 

(3) CELTIC (ARTHURIAN)

 

The once and future king!

The figures of Arthurian legend rank at the cultural end of the scale for twilight of the gods, since they were not figures of religious belief as such and have waned even in historical belief. However, they remain as vivid presences in Western culture.

 

(4) NORSE

 

Having the days of the week named for its deities (in English) has to count for cultural impact!

The trope namer – since that is what Gotterdammerung literally translates as – but ironically not in the way I’m using it here for ranking mythologies by their decline in belief.

As such, Norse mythology ranks at the cultural end of the scale, as the Norse deities have faded from active religious belief by all but the tiny slither of population that is neo-pagan or “heathen” (and even then I query how much of that is genuine religious belief). However, they continue to loom large in culture and popular imagination, second to none but one other mythology in this top ten list when it comes to European pantheons.

 

(5) CLASSICAL

 

“What ailed us, gods, to desert you?”

Desert yes, but preserve in cultural impact and influence.

Alas, I can’t deny the twilight of the gods of classical mythology – or that it is the one where I feel the loss of its deities most acutely.

Like Norse mythology, the gods of classical mythology have faded from religious belief and ritual by all but a tiny neo-pagan following. However, they loom even larger than those of Norse mythology in cultural impact and influence.

 

 

RELIGIOUS

 

 

(6) NATIVE AMERICAN (LAKOTA)

 

A mythology in my top ten that persists in religious belief among Native Americans, albeit at the smallest scale among those top ten mythologies. Huston Smith included a chapter on the primal religions among major religions in his book The World’s Religions – with the Lakota religion featuring prominently.

 

(7) MESO-AMERICAN (AZTEC)

 

I’ve ranked Meso-American mythology just above Native American mythology at the religious end of the scale for persistence in religious belief.

This is based on my understanding that Meso-American religious belief has persisted whether absorbed into Catholicism (in the style of classical or Roman paganism absorbed by the early Church), disguised or hidden within it (in the style of the Afro-American religions), or just existing parallel or juxtaposed to it – although I also understand this may be more apposite to the Maya than the Aztecs.

 

(8) AFRO-AMERICAN (VOODOO)

 

Afro-American mythology or voodoo may seem ranked oddly high – third out of my top ten mythologies – for persistence of religious belief, since Afro-American religions are usually omitted from studies of world religion. However, the African diaspora religions may well rank among the major world religions in number of adherents, but it is difficult to tell since those adherents are often disguised or hidden within Christianity.

 

(9) HINDU

 

Now we get to the big guns of my top mythologies going strongest against the twilight of their gods, for persistence in religious belief – with Hinduism as a major world religion by any metric, indeed as the worlds’ third largest religion.

 

(10) BIBLICAL

 

What can I say? The biggest gun of my top ten mythologies for sheer persistence as well as scale for endurance in active religious belief – outranking all others in my top ten, indeed, probably all of them combined in terms of scale.