Stephen King is the most adapted living author in cinema history. This definitive chronologically ordered list covers every theatrical feature film and notable made-for-TV/streaming feature film adapted directly from his novels, novellas, and short stories.

1970s – 1980s

Carrie (1976)

Director: Brian De Palma

Key Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, John Travolta

A bullied, telekinetic teenage girl pushed to her breaking point unleashes supernatural revenge on her high school prom.

The Shining (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Key Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers

An isolated winter caretaker descends into murderous insanity at a haunted hotel while his telepathic son sees terrifying visions.

Creepshow (1982)

Director: George A. Romero

Key Cast: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen, Stephen King

An EC Comics-inspired horror anthology featuring original King scripts and adaptations of short stories “Weeds” and “The Crate.”

Cujo (1983)

Director: Lewis Teague

Key Cast: Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro

A mother and young son are trapped inside a stalled car by a rabid St. Bernard under the scorching sun.

The Dead Zone (1983)

Director: David Cronenberg

Key Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen

A schoolteacher wakes from a five-year coma with psychic abilities and discovers a rising politician threatens nuclear war.

Christine (1983)

Director: John Carpenter

Key Cast: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton

A nerdish high schooler becomes dangerously obsessed with a sentient, self-repairing 1958 Plymouth Fury with a bloodthirsty mind of its own.

Children of the Corn (1984)

Director: Fritz Kiersch

Key Cast: Linda Hamilton, Peter Horton

A young couple stumbles upon a remote Nebraska town where a religious cult of children slaughters every adult to appease a corn-dwelling entity.

Firestarter (1984)

Director: Mark L. Lester

Key Cast: Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Martin Sheen, George C. Scott

A young girl with pyrokinesis flees a secret government agency seeking to weaponize her powers.

Cat’s Eye (1985)

Director: Lewis Teague

Key Cast: Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Robert Hays

A stray cat links three horror anthology tales adapted from “Quitters, Inc.” and “The Ledge,” plus an original story.

Silver Bullet (1985)

Director: Daniel Attias

Key Cast: Gary Busey, Corey Haim, Everett McGill

A paraplegic boy and his alcoholic uncle hunt down a werewolf terrorizing their small Maine town.

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Director: Stephen King

Key Cast: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington

In King’s sole directorial feature, a rogue comet causes world machinery and big-rig trucks to turn homicidal against humans.

Stand by Me (1986)

Director: Rob Reiner

Key Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland

Four young boys hike through 1950s rural Maine in search of a missing teenager’s dead body. (Based on “The Body”).

The Running Man (1987)

Director: Paul Michael Glaser

Key Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson

A falsely convicted man fights for survival in a dystopian television game show where armed mercenaries hunt human prey.

A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)

Director: Larry Cohen

Key Cast: Michael Moriarty, Samuel Fuller

A loose satirical sequel to the 1979 TV miniseries following an anthropologist discovering a Maine town inhabited by vampires.

Pet Sematary (1989)

Director: Mary Lambert

Key Cast: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby

A grieving father buries his deceased son in an ancient burial ground that resurrects the dead with demonic consequences.

1990s

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)

Director: John Harrison

Key Cast: Christian Slater, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi

Anthology feature including an adaptation of King’s short story “The Cat from Hell.”

Misery (1990)

Director: Rob Reiner

Key Cast: Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth

A famous novelist is rescued from a car crash by his self-proclaimed number-one fan, who holds him captive when she dislikes his latest book.

The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Director: Brett Leonard

Key Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Fahey

A scientist uses virtual reality and experimental drugs on a simple lawnmower man, triggering telepathy (retains only King’s title).

Sleepwalkers (1992)

Director: Mick Garris

Key Cast: Brian Krause, Alice Krige, Mädchen Amick

Original screenplay written by King about shape-shifting vampire-like creatures feeding on the virgin energy of young women.

The Dark Half (1993)

Director: George A. Romero

Key Cast: Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, Michael Rooker

A writer kills off his gore-novel pseudonym, only for the alter ego to physically manifest and commit murders.

Needful Things (1993)

Director: Fraser C. Heston

Key Cast: Ed Harris, Max von Sydow, Bonnie Bedelia

A mysterious antique shop owner moves to Castle Rock, selling items that exact dark psychological debts from townspeople.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Director: Frank Darabont

Key Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton

A wrongfully convicted banker forms a deep friendship over two decades in prison while maintaining hope and planning escape. (Based on “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”).

The Mangler (1995)

Director: Tobe Hooper

Key Cast: Robert Englund, Ted Levine

A police detective investigates a commercial laundry press possessed by a demon that consumes factory workers.

Dolores Claiborne (1995)

Director: Taylor Hackford

Key Cast: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer

A housemaid accused of murdering her elderly employer re-examines her traumatic past and her daughter’s abuse.

Thinner (1996)

Director: Tom Holland

Key Cast: Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney

An overweight, corrupt lawyer receives an ancient curse from a Romani elder causing him to lose weight uncontrollably.

The Night Flier (1997)

Director: Mark Pavia

Key Cast: Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle

A cynical tabloid reporter tracks a serial killer traveling between rural airfields in a Cessna who may be a real vampire.

Apt Pupil (1998)

Director: Bryan Singer

Key Cast: Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, David Schwimmer

A high school student blackmailing an aging Nazi war criminal hiding in suburban America sparks a mutual psychological descent.

The Green Mile (1999)

Director: Frank Darabont

Key Cast: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse

Death Row guards during the Great Depression discover a towering inmate possesses supernatural healing powers.

2000s

Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

Director: Scott Hicks

Key Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis

An enigmatic older man with psychic abilities moves into a boarding house and mentors a young boy. (Based on “Low Men in Yellow Coats”).

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Director: Lawrence Kasdan

Key Cast: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant

Four lifelong friends with shared psychic bonds encounter a parasitic alien invasion during a hunting trip in Maine.

Secret Window (2004)

Director: David Koepp

Key Cast: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello

A troubled writer staying at an isolated cabin is stalked by a mysterious psychopathic farmer claiming story plagiarism.

Riding the Bullet (2004)

Director: Mick Garris

Key Cast: Jonathan Jackson, David Arquette, Barbara Hershey

A suicidal artist hitchhiking to see his dying mother is picked up by a sinister driver forcing a deadly choice.

1408 (2007)

Director: Mikael Håfström

Key Cast: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson

A skeptical paranormal investigator checks into an notoriously haunted Manhattan hotel room that physically bends reality.

The Mist (2007)

Director: Frank Darabont

Key Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden

Townspeople trapped in a supermarket by a otherworldly mist face terrifying monsters outside and religious fanatical hysteria inside.

Dolan’s Cadillacs (2009)

Director: Jeff Beesley

Key Cast: Wes Bentley, Christian Slater

A schoolteacher executes an intricate revenge plot against the mob boss who murdered his wife in the desert.

2010s

A Good Marriage (2014)

Director: Peter Askin

Key Cast: Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Stephen Lang

A woman married 25 years discovers evidence in her garage revealing her husband is a notorious serial killer.

Mercy (2014)

Director: Peter Cornwell

Key Cast: Chandler Riggs, Dylan McDermott, Frances O’Connor

Two brothers care for their dying grandmother, uncovering her dark history with black magic and demonic pacts. (Based on “Gramma”).

Cell (2016)

Director: Tod Williams

Key Cast: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman

A mysterious global cellular signal transforms phone users into hive-minded violent zombies.

The Dark Tower (2017)

Director: Nikolaj Arcel

Key Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor

A young boy and the last Gunslinger cross parallel dimensions to prevent a sorcerer from destroying the central spine of the universe.

IT Chapter One (2017)

Director: Andy Muschietti

Key Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis

Seven outcast kids in Derry, Maine, band together to fight a shape-shifting entity posing as a sinister clown named Pennywise.

Gerald’s Game (2017)

Director: Mike Flanagan

Key Cast: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood

A woman left handcuffed to a bed after her husband drops dead from a heart attack struggles to survive hallucinated and real horrors.

1922 (2017)

Director: Zak Hilditch

Key Cast: Thomas Jane, Molly Parker, Dylan Schmid

A proud Nebraska farmer conspires to murder his wife for her land, plunging his life into a guilt-ridden spiral with rats and ghosts.

Pet Sematary (2019)

Director: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer

Key Cast: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow

A modern reimagining of the classic novel about an ancient graveyard that returns buried loved ones to life with terrifying alterations.

In the Tall Grass (2019)

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Key Cast: Laysla De Oliveira, Patrick Wilson, Harrison Gilbertson

Siblings enter a vast field of tall grass to rescue a crying boy, getting trapped in a labyrinth where time and space twist. (Co-written with Joe Hill).

IT Chapter Two (2019)

Director: Andy Muschietti

Key Cast: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Bill Skarsgård

27 years after their first ordeal, the adult Losers’ Club returns to Derry to destroy Pennywise once and for all.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Director: Mike Flanagan

Key Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran

An adult Dan Torrance uses his psychic shine to protect a young girl hunted by an immortal cult feeding on gifted children.

2020s – Present

Firestarter (2022)

Director: Keith Thomas

Key Cast: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon

A contemporary reboot following a young girl with lethal pyrokinesis on the run from covert federal agents.

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)

Director: John Lee Hancock

Key Cast: Jaeden Martell, Donald Sutherland

A teenager communicates via text message with a deceased billionaire buried with his smartphone, with vengeful results.

The Boogeyman (2023)

Director: Rob Savage

Key Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair

A grieving family is targeted by a terrifying, closet-dwelling shadow creature that feeds on suffering and fear.

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023)

Director: Lindsey Anderson Beer

Key Cast: Jackson White, Forrest Goodluck, David Duchovny

A prequel exploring young Jud Crandall discovering the dark history of Ludlow, Maine, in 1969.

The Life of Chuck (2024)

Director: Mike Flanagan

Key Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Told in reverse chronological order, three interconnected chapters chronicle the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz against the backdrop of a crumbling world.

Salem’s Lot (2024)

Director: Gary Dauberman

Key Cast: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp

A writer returning to his childhood hometown discovers a ancient vampire has turned the residents into bloodsuckers.