Every Stephen King ’80s Movie, Ranked

In the 1980s, author Stephen King was at the peak of his craft. Not only was that the decade he began his magnum opus, The Dark Tower, but he also released seminal works like Pet Sematary, It, and Misery. As his name grew in recognition, hungry Hollywood studios optioned King’s stories, looking for their next big horror success. As a result, Stephen King’s name appeared in nearly a dozen films over the decade.

The incredible achievement of Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, opened the floodgates for further adaptations of his work, and all things considered, the overall quality of those films released in the 80s has yet to be matched by any other decade.

14 Maximum Overdrive Proved King Was Better with a Pen Than a Camera

One of two Stephen King films released in 1986, Maximum Overdrive has the distinct pleasure of being the only film Stephen King attempted to direct himself. Unfortunately, that was the only pleasurable thing about it. This legendary misfire was adapted from King’s short story “Trucks.” As great a writer as King is, that skill set did not carry over to standing behind a camera. Simply put, King had no idea where to point the thing.

Campy and painful to watch, Maximum Overdrive stars Emilio Estevez and Pat Hingle as two men leading a small group of people trying to survive in a gas station whose machines and vehicles have all sprung to life and are causing havoc. At that time in his life, King was battling substance abuse issues, which complicated the film’s production and compromised what was already a risky creative endeavor. King doesn’t miss often, but this is one film worth avoiding.

13 Creepshow 2 Was More of the Same

Like the original, Creepshow 2 was based on a series of short stories written by Stephen King. However, the sequel went forward without his involvement. Moreover, the series’ original director, George A. Romero, only returned for the screenplay, which left this anthology a pale imitation of the original.

If there’s one story worth watching this movie for, it’s “The Raft,” in which four students find themselves trapped on a floating platform in the middle of a lake by a disgusting blob-like creature that subsumes everything it comes into contact with. The OG Creepshow felt special, like a living tribute to King’s beloved horror comics of the 1950s, but this sequel misses the mark and lacks the necessary energy.

12 Cat’s Eye Was a Bit Too Precious

Many of Stephen King’s films from the ’80s were bankrolled by Italian super-producer Dino de Laurentiis, who was so far ahead of the game that he was already hoarding every IP he could get his hands on. That includes Cat’s Eye, an anthology film that collects three of King’s short stories loosely tied together by two things: a cat and Drew Barrymore.

Sitting down to watch Cat’s Eye will probably surprise most audiences because it’s pretty charming. Two of the film’s stories, “Quitters, Inc.” and “The Ledge,” are yanked from the pages of King’s fantastic Night Shift collection, and the third is one he wrote specifically for this film. Ultimately, the film is empty calories, but there have been far worse King adaptations.

11 Silver Bullet Nearly Misfired

Based upon a short novella called Cycle of the Werewolf, Silver Bullet is set in the fictional town of Tarker’s Mills, Maine, where a series of grizzly murders has taken place every full moon. Enter the film’s lead character, Marty Coslaw, a ten-year-old paraplegic who believes his town is dealing with a bloodthirsty werewolf. Since this is a Stephen King story, Marty is right.

Featuring a fun performance from Corey Haim as Marty and the nearly mad-as-an-actual-werewolf, Gary Busey, in an out-of-character turn as Marty’s warmhearted Uncle Red, Silver Bullet has a few surprisingly effective moments. The problem is that this creature feature’s effects are decidedly low-budget and largely unconvincing. On top of that, King’s story is slow and predictable.

10 Firestarter Burned Brightly Before Fading Out

In the early ’80s, King was set to team up with director John Carpenter for an adaptation of his novel Firestarter. Unfortunately, Carpenter more or less had the film taken away from him by Universal Studios once his film The Thing failed to make an impression at the box office. Afterward, director Mark L. Lester was brought in to shepherd the adaptation. The results were decidedly less impressive than the film Carpenter eventually made alongside King, an adaptation of Christine.

This version of Firestarter was incredibly faithful to King’s book, in which a secret government agency hunts down a pyrokinetic little girl named Charlie, played by Drew Barrymore. Unfortunately, all the book’s emotions are mistranslated on the screen. Charlie comes across as shrill and exhausting to watch. At the same time, the film’s antagonist, a psychopathic Native American assassin named John Rainbird, was severely miscast with actor George C. Scott stepping into the role.

9 Cujo Offered a Convincing Mix of Bark and Bite

Stephen King’s Cujo doesn’t get talked about much these days, which is surprising considering the film was a fairly modest hit at the box office upon release in 1983. Featuring one of King’s most straightforward plots, Cujo revolves around a massive and formerly gentle St. Bernard coming down with rabies and killing a series of people before setting his blood-red eyes on a woman and her toddler son trapped in their car on a hot summer day.

Dee Wallace is fantastic as Donna, and Cujo is chockful of suspense. While King’s original novel treated Cujo more like a metaphor for the auspices of fate and featured one of the bleakest endings he ever wrote, this adaptation does away with much of the book’s existentialism. Instead, it focuses squarely on Wallace trying to out-think and survive the monstrous dog.

8 Creepshow Offered Five Fun Tales

As good as Creepshow is, its overall quality left fans feeling a little disappointed. After all, this movie brought together two of entertainment’s greatest horror storytellers: Stephen King and director George A. Romero of Night of the Living Dead fame. A pairing like that should have been the scariest movie of all time. Instead, Creepshow was a fun and loving homage to the EC horror comics both men grew up reading.

A few of Creepshow’s five stories were based on King’s pre-existing shorts, while the others were penned specifically for this film. Standouts include “The Crate,” in which a man, played by Hal Holbrook, uses a monster locked in a box to dispose of his abusive wife, played by Adrienne Barbeau. Even Stephen King himself pops up in “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” as a less-than-intelligent local whose home and body are invaded by alien moss. Like most anthology films, Creepshow’s quality is uneven, but it’s a lot of fun for most of its runtime.

7 The Running Man Almost Crossed the Finish Line

Speaking of running, in 1987, director Paul Michael Glaser spearheaded an adaptation of one of King’s novels written under his pen name, Richard Bachman. The Running Man is set in a set in a dystopian future where the world’s most popular form of entertainment is a reality series in which professional killers hunt condemned criminals through city streets. King’s original novel was dark and harrowing, featuring one of his tried and true everyman protagonists in way over his head.

Instead of going that route, The Running Man’s producers cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role, resulting in a decidedly different feel. This version of The Running Man is played for laughs and satire. While it’s still unquestionably violent, the film is more of an entertaining thrill ride than a compelling commentary on society.

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6 Children of the Corn Birthed King’s Largest Film Franchise

Children of the Corn might have had one of the lowest budgets of any film on this list, but it made up for what it lacked in money with genuine chills. Based on King’s short story of the same name, Children of the Corn puts Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton up against a series of demented kids, which has them running around an abandoned town as the followers of He Who Walks Behind the Rows give chase.

At only 90 minutes, Children of the Corn is a tight thriller, even if it almost ran out of story before that short runtime was up. The film became such a surprise hit that it spawned numerous sequels, most of which were released directly to the home video market. The franchise is still going strong, with eleven entries and the most recent adaptation of the story released in 2020.

5 Pet Sematary Breathed New Life into King’s Filmography

Famously regarded as the one novel Stephen King believes is the scariest of his many works, Pet Sematary is submerged in pain, grief, and the mystery behind death. All of these elements are present in director Mary Lambert’s film adaptation of the story, which is one of the reasons why this film was so successful. Perhaps that’s because King wrote the screenplay, which was a rarity for him outside of his anthology work.

Pet Sematary revolves around Louis Creed, a young doctor who discovers an ancient burial ground capable of bringing the dead back to life. Through Lambert’s direction and King’s script, the audience comes to care for every member of the Creed family, which is why it’s so difficult to watch when they all start dropping like flies. Pet Sematary is so nightmarish and heartbreaking at times that it makes up for those rare moments when the plot slows to a crawl.

4 Christine Was Vintage Stephen King

Released just eight months after the book was published, Christine saw Stephen King and John Carpenter finally team up after their original plans to shoot Firestarter fell apart. This story about a supernaturally possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury and the teenage outcast who owns it might sound absurd, but Carpenter makes it work.

Christine is at its best when Carpenter’s set pieces, such as when a nearly totaled Christine rebuilds herself, are accompanied by the director’s incredible score. Combined, the two create a gripping film that’s only let down by some haphazard pacing. Unappreciated upon its initial release, Christine has become recognized as a cult classic and shows what entertainment can be capable of when two of the best genre storytellers combine forces.

3 The Dead Zone Offered a Glimpse of King’s Future Cinematic Success

As hard as it is to remember now, The Dead Zone was largely ignored by critics when it first opened in theaters in 1983. Since then, the film has become well regarded as a classic in which Christopher Walken gives one of his all-time best performances as Johnny Smith, a man capable of seeing someone’s past and future simply by touching them. When Johnny meets presidential elect Greg Stillson, he becomes horrified by what the man has in store for America.

Directed by David Cronenberg, The Dead Zone is surprisingly more compassionate than horrifying, an outlier coming from the guy who created films like Scanners and Videodrome. Of course, the film’s aesthetic, from its winter setting to its overall tone, is pure Cronenberg, and the film perfectly captures the melancholy King was looking to create.

2 Stand By Me Proved King Was More Than Just Scares

As bad as Maximum Overdrive was when it was released in 1986, Stephen King’s other film that year was the opposite. Stand By Me is so utterly unlike most other stories King has penned that, to this day, when someone unfamiliar with his work finds out he wrote it, they’re generally pretty shocked, probably because the story is a gentle coming-of-age tale about four young boys going on an extended hike to find a dead body. (That last part is, admittedly, very Stephen King-ish.)

Directed by Rob Reiner, Stand By Me captures the essence of being an innocent young adolescent faced with the worrisome onset of becoming an adult and the horrifying knowledge that death comes for us all. Moreover, the film’s cast, including Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connell, and Corey Feldman, was impeccably sourced. Funny, moving, and heartwarming, Stand By Me is one of King’s absolute best.

1 The Shining Isn’t Just Peak King, It’s Peak Horror

The 1980s started for Stephen King in the right way with the film that has largely gone on to be regarded as one his absolute best adaptations, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. This expensive production was a massive hit upon release, and surprisingly enough, the only person who has never seemed satisfied with what others consider to be one of the most influential horror movies ever made has been Stephen King himself.

King’s problem with The Shining stems from the fact that he believes Kubrick removed the humanity and empathy from the story by casting Jack Nicholson in the lead role of Jack Torrance, a man who is clearly not well from the moment audiences meet him. While that point is well taken, everything else in this film fires on all cylinders. Kubrick fashions an oppressive atmosphere throughout the movie that has never been matched in quality by any other horror picture, ensuring that The Shining will forever be a hallmark of the horror genre and, quite possibly, the best Stephen King adaptation of all time.