Every Stephen King Movie and TV Show You Can Stream Right Now

There have been attempts before to adapt The Stand, considered by many to be King's most epic work, but when better to tell a story of an apocalyptic pandemic than 2020? This limited series gave an updated, big-budget look at the aftermath of a plague that kills nearly all life—and pits the survivors against one another.

Director Josh Boone was in charge, with an absolutely stacked cast, including Alexander Skarsgård, James Marsden, Jovan Adepo, and Whoopi Goldberg, among others.

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This series, based on King's Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finder's Keepers, and End of Watch) was highly-regarded and little-seen for a while; it debuted on DirecTV's Audience Network. Now, though, the show has moved all three existing seasons to NBC/Universal's free Peacock platform—so everyone can give it a shot. (The first season is streaming free with ads; the second needs a subscription, as of now).

The show has a great cast, led by Brendan Gleeson (best known from In Bruges or in his Harry Potter role of Mad Eye Moody) as retired detective Bill Hodges, on the hunt for a serial killer living in plain sight. This one is creepy in what's closer to a Silence of the Lambs kind of way than a Pet Semetary kind of way.

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Don't bully people! I mean, you shouldn't do that anyway. But the first adaptation of King's very first novel has proven generations and generations why bullying is not too nice—you never know when the object of scorn can make things...really bad. This is still the best version of one of King's most classic novels. Sissy Spacek, who plays the titular character went on to a long career, and is even still playing King roles in Castle Rock (more on that later). Plus...this was John Travolta's very first feature film role. As if you needed any more motivation.

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Two horror icons come together here, as King's 1983 novel of the same name was adapted for the big screen that very year by Halloween director John Carpenter. It's a classic King story: Boy meets car. Boy loves car. Car loves boy. Car destroys boy, and everything around him. Intensely watchable—don't miss it.

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Hearts in Atlantis, based on King's novella from the collection of the same name, is less a horror than anything else on this list and more of a drama/mystery hybrid. The story here follows a young boy (Anton Yelchin) who meets an older man (Anthony Hopkins) who possesses the ability to know anyone's innermost desires and wishes.

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Secret Window is more thriller/mystery than straight-up horror, but its a really compelling story. Johnny Depp plays a writer (which we know King loves to write) who hides himself away in a secluded lake house in the midst of a divorce to be with himself and maybe get some writing around. Things go well...until a man (John Turturro) appears to accuse the successful writer of plagiarism. This movie came at what was probably the peak of Depp's movie stardom (right around the time of the first Pirates of the Caribbean), and teaming him up with one of the very greatest character actors in Turturro let the sparks really fly. Based on the story "Secret Window, Secret Garden," from King's 1990 collection Four Past Midnight.

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In one of King's most prescient works, The Dead Zone follows a man (Christopher Walken) who gets into a terrible car accident, and wakes up with psychic powers. In this case, he finds a terrifying politician (Martin Sheen), and after seeing a future that shows what he's capable of, plots to assassinate him.

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Children of the Corn is one of the most iconic productions of King's work, and while it's a bit cheesy, it still holds up to this day. What would you do if you found a group of religious and terrifying children...living in a corn field? Based on a story from his 1978 collection Night Moves, this adaption is fairly faithful, and is a perfect movie to watch with a few beers, some pizza, and some friends.

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A Good Marriage, which is based on a novella from King's 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars, is definitely one of the campier entries on this list. The story is one that will sound familiar in the genre: a woman in a longtime marriage finds out that her husband miiiiight just be a serial killer. NBD.

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Based on King's novel of the same name, Firestarter is about two college students who get experimented 0n to make a little extra money. When those two have a kid, that kid (Drew Barrymore) turns out to have extraordinary powers, namely, the ability to start fires with her mind. This was a huge inspiration for Stranger Things, if you were wondering.

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King himself wrote this anthology film, which tells three separate stories—two from his collection Night Shift, and one original for the film. A young Drew Barrymore follows her role in Firestarter here as well.

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An absolute horror masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick (which King himself famously doesn't like), The Shining (based on King's novel of the same name, but with some changes) is the best movie on this list. Any horror fan should watch this one over and over and over again—it's kind of the prototypical pick for the "art horror" that has continued into our modern age with movies like Midsommar or shows like Midnight Mass.

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This series, based on King's 2018 novel of the same name, might just be the best TV adaptation of his work yet. The focus is on a man accused of murder, with DNA evidence sticking him right at the scene of the crime—except he's also on camera at a conference nearly 100 miles away.

The series makes a number of changes from the source material, but everything is always done in service of the story, adding depth and deeper characterization while maintaining the heart and tentpole moments from the book. With a cast led by Ben Mendelsohn, Cynthia Erivo, and Jason Bateman, The Outsider is a worthy binge for anyone looking for a horror/thriller mash-up.

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If Stephen King has any story that could be called his epic, it would probably be It. (OK, fine, maybe it's The Stand. Or his Dark Tower series. Don't make us choose!) It is so massive, such a huge story in scale, that there was no way to properly make it into just one movie. So the 2017 adaptation of It tells half the story, and does it damn well—and director Andy Muschietti does a marvelous job of making it scary and amazing to look at. Between the two movies, it's long, so forewarning for that—but it just adds to the overall epic stature of the whole undertaking.

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Before the new film adaptations, there was 1990's Stephen King's IT, which was either a tw0-part miniseries or one 3 hour, 7 minute film. For what it's worth, it's on HBO Max as one singular movie.

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Rob Reiner is a director who has mastered many genres, and one of those is horror. (He's also mastered fantasy with The Princess Bride, romcoms with When Harry Met Sally, and satire with This Is Spinal Tap, but those are conversations for another story)

Misery, based on King's 1987 novel of the same name, finds a novelist (James Caan) finishing his latest work in seclusion, only to get in a horrible automobile accident. When the person who seemingly saves his life also turns out to be one of his biggest fans (Kathy Bates), it seems like a miracle at first. But, as we all know, Stephen King doesn't write miracles. Misery is a wonderful exercise in tension and its two leads give performances that you won't soon forget.

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The original Creepshow, released in 1982, marked Stephen King's screenwriting debut, and one segment of the film was based on his story "Weeds" (which was originally published in Cavalier Magazine). Creepshow has since been updated into the TV format, with its first season premiering exclusively in 2019 on AMC's horror-specific streaming service Shudder. Each episode of Creepshow features two terrifying stories, and the first episode of the first season features a segment based on King's story "Grey Matter," which was published in King's book Night Shift.

There's also the newly-released Creepshow Animated Special, which featured an adaptation of King's short story "Survivor Type," which came from his collection Skeleton Crew. Bonus Creepshow points? A few of the episodes also include stories adapted from works by Joe Hill—another bestselling horror author who just happens to be King's son.

Stream Creepshow on Shudder Here

Stream A Creepshow Animated Special on Shudder Here

This 2017 Netflix original adapts King's 1992 book of the same name about a woman alone with her husband in a cabin deep in the woods—only for her husband to die of a heart attack with her handcuffed to a bed.

This adaptation stars Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood, and faithfully adapts King's work to the screen. In fact, King was so pleased with this movie that he worked with director Mike Flanagan again on Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining.

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As far as source material goes, 1922—another 2017 Netflix original—isn't exactly pulling from something as well-known as The Shining or Pet Semetary. This little movie is actually pulling from a 2010 King book called Full Dark, No Stars, which consisted of four different novellas, one of which was 1922.

That said, 1922 is a King story through and through, centering on a man who plans to kill his wife for financial gain, enlisting his son's help—at which point, as you might expect, creepy things start to happen. The movie stars Thomas Jane (The Punisher, Hung) and Molly Parker (House of Cards).

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The most recent of King's Netflix originals, In The Tall Grass, is based on a 62-page novella that King wrote with his son, Joe Hill (an acclaimed author in his own right).

Starring Patrick Wilson (FX's Fargo, Aquaman), this mystery starts with a couple pulling over to the side of the road at a rest stop, hearing cries from the titular tall grass, and the rest, well, that's up to Mr. King and Mr. Hill. You know what to expect.

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