Stephen King's Movie Blacklist: 15 Films He Doesn’t Like
Stephen King is an iconic horror novelist whose work has been frequently adapted for film, making him one of the most popular authors in the history of cinema alongside Charles Dickens, the Brothers Grimm, and William Shakespeare. Despite his novels being highly sought after by filmmakers, not all adaptations have been successful in the eyes of the famous author. In fact, there are a number of films based on his works that King himself has openly expressed dislike for. In this blog post, we'll take a look at the movies that Stephen King has never enjoyed watching.
1. Transformers (2007)
In an ancient struggle between heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons, two Cybertronian races arrive on Earth with a hint of the ultimate power possessed by a teenager. On Twitter, King asked his followers which movies they left in the middle of the screening. His own response was, 'As an adult, I've only left one movie: 'Transformers'.'
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel
2. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
A former assassin wakes up from a four-year coma and takes revenge on the team of assassins who betrayed him. Stephen King obviously hated 'Kill Bill'. The horror writer disliked it so much that in Entertainment Weekly in February 2007 he described the film as 'still' and 'a movie that doesn't matter'.
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah
3. Mars Attacks! (1996)
Earth is occupied by Martians with invincible weapons and a ruthless sense of humor. Stephen King considers Tim Burton's film to be technically beyond terrible in the history of cinema.
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker
4. Mommie Dearest (1981)
The film depicts the molestation of Christina Crawford by her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, and the traumatic adoption. Another of King's terrible criteria is the movie 'Mommie Dearest'. According to him, the film is unquestionably a terrible drama.
Director: Frank Perry
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest
5. The Godfather Part III (1990)
In this film, Michael Corleone, who is in his 60s, is seen trying to save his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. 'Mars Attacks!'and 'Mommie Dearest' may be touchstones for King's mediocre filmmaking, but in the aforementioned 'Kill Bill' analysis, 'The Godfather: Part III' drew most of King's ire. King said of this film, 'The movie is rich, inconsistent and boring.' he said.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia
6. The Dark Tower (2017)
A boy from a parallel reality works with the frustrated guardian of the tower to stop an evil wizard known as the Man in Black, who plans to use the boy to destroy the tower and open the gates of hell. Kate Erbland has described the first adaptation attempt for King's eight-book masterpiece as 'a disaster of a movie'. 'I thought to myself, people are going to be really surprised by this,' King said of the script, which starts roughly halfway through the books.
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor
7. The Shining (1980)
A family goes to a deserted hotel to spend the winter, and the psychic son sees terrible visions from both the past and the future, causing a sinister presence to lead the father to violence. The movie 'The Shining' is the disappointment among King's most famous adapted books. The author complained about everything from Jack Nicholson's performance to the misogynistic tweaks made to the Wendy Torrance character.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
8. Firestarter (1984)
A couple participating in a powerful medical experiment acquires telepathic abilities, and then have a child who is pyrokinetic. 'Even though it's very close to the original in terms of the story, it's one of the worst of the bunch,' King said of the film. “But it's tasteless; it's like cafeteria mashed potatoes. There are things happening in that movie that don't make any sense to me in terms of special effects. Why this child's hair flies every time he lights a fire is completely beyond my understanding.'
Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Freddie Jones
9. The Twilight Saga (2008-2012)
Speaking to The Guardian in 2013, King criticised Stephenie Meyer's desire to create a fantasy world rooted in human emotions. 'I read 'Twilight' and I didn't feel the desire to continue reading,' King said about the horizon-opening works of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The author also argued that the love story should be deeper before describing the film as 'puberty porn'.
Directors: Catherine Hardwicke (1), Chris Weitz (2), David Slade (3), Bill Condon (4-5)
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
10. The Hunger Games (2012)
Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in The Hunger Games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve districts of Panem are randomly selected to fight to the death. In the same 2013 interview, King shared his discomfort with Suzanne Collins' dystopian series. The author pointed out the similarities of the film with the 1982 film 'The Running Man', saying 'It's not unlike 'The Running Man', which is about a game where people are actually killed and people are watching'.
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
11. Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
Literature student Anastasia Steele's life changes forever when she meets billionaire Christian Grey, who is handsome but has strange kinks. King said, 'I read Fifty Shades of Grey and had no desire to continue. They say 'mom porn' but it's not really 'mom porn'. It is a highly charged, sexually explicit fiction only for women between the ages of 18 and 25.'
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle
12. The Tommyknockers (1993)
The small town of Haven becomes a hotbed of inventions, all of which are managed by a strange green power device. The whole town is digging something up in the forest, and only an alcoholic poet can discover the secret of the Tommyknockers. King has been sharing which books he has been uncomfortable with over the years, and expressed that although there is a mini-series for this film, it is on the list of annoying adaptations.
Director: John Power
Starring: Jimmy Smits, Marg Helgenberger, John Ashton
13. Dreamcatcher (2003)
Friends on a camping trip discover that the town where they are vacationing is being disturbed in an unusual way by parasitic aliens from outer space. Another disappointment for King is 'Dreamcatcher': it was the novel he wrote in 1999 after a devastating accident that almost caused the author to lose his leg, and he didn't like it very much, and of course, the movie.
Directed by: Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee
14. The Lawnmower Man (1992)
A simple man turns into a genius with the application of computer science. Does Brett Leonard's 'The Lawnmower Man' count as a King adaptation? The author didn't think so, and neither did the judge, who paid him $2.5 million in damages as part of a 1993 settlement related to the marketing of the film.
Directed by: Brett Leonard
Starring: Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan, Jenny Wright
15. The Running Man (1987)
In a dystopian America, a wrongfully convicted police officer gets his freedom when he is forced to participate in a TV competition show where convicts, fugitives, have to fight murderers for their freedom. The film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is another pseudo-adaptation, which is crazy, judging by King's words.
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto
Do you think Stephen King is right to not like these movies? Let’s meet in the comments!
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