IT Chapter One & IT Chapter Two (2017 & 2019)
It (titled onscreen as It Chapter One) & it’s sequel It Chapter Two, is a 2017 American coming-of-age supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti. Based on my favourite novel of all time, the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, primarily covering the first half of the book. The film featuring the cast of Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough, with Bill Skarsgård starring as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, and Jackson Robert Scott are all featured in supporting roles. Set in Derry, Maine, the film tells the story of The Losers’ Club, a group of seven outcast children who are terrorized by the eponymous being which emerges from the sewer, only to face their own personal demons in the process.
It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti, returning from the first film, with a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. The second and final installment of the It film series, it is the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, primarily covering the second half of the book. It stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Set in 2016, 27 years after the events of the first film, the second film centers on the Losers Club and their relationships as they reunite to destroy It once and for all.
Carrie (1976)
King’s fourth novel, his first to be published, also became the first movie made from one of his writings. Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay written by Lawrence D. Cohen, adapted from Stephen King’s 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy 16-year-old who is consistently mocked and bullied at school. The film also features Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta in supporting roles. It is the first film in the Carrie franchise.
And what a way to start! Director Brian De Palma turns the milestone into a towering masterpiece of horror cinema, with Sissy Spacek as the tormented teen whose repressed, telekinetic rage finally comes to a boil at her prom. It’s a coming-of-age tale with a monstrous twist; Carrie is a shy, sheltered girl with high school pressures, anxieties and awkwardness to which many young viewers can certainly relate. She’s a weirdo, an oddball, an outsider.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. It tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), and becomes instrumental in a money-laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore appear in supporting roles.
Critics liked it, and word of mouth was great. But so few people paid for a ticket during its brief theatrical run; the movie didn’t earn back its production costs even after its seven Oscar nominations. Now it’s become one of the most beloved films on anyone’s list thanks to cable TV and probably one of King’s most popular adaptations ever. Its story of an innocent convict Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) and his sagacious penitentiary friend Red (Morgan Freeman) holds up for endlessly repeated viewings. And when Red finally rejoins Andy in freedom on the beach in Mexico, good luck holding down that big ol’ lump in your throat. Life is too short, and too precious, to spend it rotting away in a prison of any kind.
Pet Sematary (1989)
Pet Sematary (sometimes referred to as Stephen King’s Pet Sematary) is a 1989 American supernatural horror film and the first adaptation of Stephen King’s 1983 novel of the same name. Directed by Mary Lambert and written by King, it stars Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Blaze Berdahl, Fred Gwynne, and Miko Hughes as Gage Creed. The title is a sensational spelling of “pet cemetery”. This supernatural horror-thriller about a family that discovers something very troubling behind their new home. There was nothing but freak-out scares in this goose-bump gauntlet about the buried dead coming back to life. And King makes a cameo, as a minister presiding over a child’s funeral. The film was released on April 21, 1989, and grossed $89.5 million at the box office on a budget of $11.5 million. A sequel, Pet Sematary Two, was released in 1992 and a second film adaptation was released in 2019.
The Mist
The Mist (also known as Stephen King’s The Mist) is a 2007 American science-fiction horror film based on the 1980 novella “The Mist” by Stephen King. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. Darabont had been interested in adapting “The Mist” for the big screen since the 1980s. The film features an ensemble cast, including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Nathan Gamble, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, Frances Sternhagen, Buck Taylor, William Sadler, Sam Witwer, Alexa Davalos, Chris Owen, Andy Stahl, Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden, Melissa McBride, and Juan Gabriel Pareja. he plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine, who after a severe thunderstorm causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While they struggle to survive, an unnatural mist envelops the town and conceals vicious, Lovecraftian monsters as extreme tensions rise among the survivors.