Ranker

Anime Underground

Button Mash

Graveyard Shift

Total Nerd

Unspeakable Times

Weird History

Weird Nature

Weirdly Interesting

Sports

Music

Entertainment

Living

Culture

Food

Makeup

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Holidays

Watchworthy

HBO Max

Lists about the King of Horror and ranking his greatest works.

Stephen King Works

Stanley Kubrick&#39;s&nbsp;The Shining&nbsp;is regarded as a masterpiece of the horror genre, despite what Stephen King <a href="https://collider.com/the-shining-book-differences-comparison/#:~:text=Stephen%20King%20hated%20the%201980,ABC%20that%20aired%20in%201997." target="_blank">might think</a>. The art direction, the acting, the music... everything is perfectly in place to not only tell a story, but also to create a deep sense of foreboding within the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-facts-about-the-shining/anncasano" target="_blank">carefully crafted film</a>. Here are a few deep dive movie details and interesting tidbits&nbsp;from&nbsp;The Shining&nbsp;that were shared by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails" target="_blank">dedicated fans</a>. Vote up the most interesting details.

Horror

You know Stephen King as the master of horror, a writer whose work is synonymous with fear, and the brain&nbsp;behind chilling books like It, The Shining, and Pet Sematary - but what drives King to create such terrifying tales? Any <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stephen-king-trivia-facts/coy-jandreau" target="_blank">Stephen King trivia</a> buff will tell you the key to his craft can be found by looking to his childhood. King&nbsp;grew up with his mother and brother -&nbsp;his father split shortly after his&nbsp;birth -&nbsp;and&nbsp;his life didn&rsquo;t get more peachy as he matured.&nbsp;

Aside from the normal hardships many single-parent families endure, King&rsquo;s young life was full of horrific events that informed many of his stories. He witnessed the passing of one of his friends&nbsp;and lived through several other harrowing events. King has said he doesn&rsquo;t believe the grim facts about his upbringing have anything to with his stories, but it&rsquo;s arguable&nbsp;his childhood formed the basis for much of his work.&nbsp;

Easter Eggs

The ghosts of the Overlook didn&#39;t die in&nbsp;The Shining,&nbsp;as Mike Flanagan&#39;s&nbsp;Doctor Sleep&nbsp;is quick to point out. And thanks to a recent revival of the film on HBO, including a new director&#39;s cut, fans of the film&nbsp;are getting a better look at the empty devils that wander the haunted hallways. Thanks to this revived interest, fans are discovering small details and subtle callbacks to Stanley Kubrick&#39;s original masterpiece, as well as the book it&#39;s based on, hidden deep within Doctor Sleep. Here are a few callbacks made from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/doctor-sleep-easter-eggs/jacob-bryant" target="_blank">Doctor Sleep</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;The Shining, as discovered by Reddit sleuths.&nbsp;

Adaptations

From Stephen King&#39;s Children of the Corn&nbsp;to the kids from&nbsp;It, there is no shortage of eerie youngsters in the pages of King&#39;s oeuvre - nor in the myriad films that have been adapted from his work. In fact, when you start to break down the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-creepiest-kids-in-horror-movies/ron-mexico" target="_blank">creepiest kids in horror movies</a>, you&#39;ll find that a disproportionate number of them come from King&#39;s cinematic universe - ranging from Carrie White, in the very first film adapted from one of his novels, to the latest takes on It,&nbsp;Pet Sematary, and&nbsp;Doctor Sleep.

Here are the creepiest Stephen King movie kids; they&#39;re&nbsp;too young to vote but not too young to scare your socks off - or worse. Where the movie differed from the book, we went with the movie version here.

Horror Books

Warning: Spoilers ahead.&nbsp;There have been many books made into films, but few authors can boast a number&nbsp;equal to Stephen King.&nbsp;Nearly all the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-movies-based-on-stephen-king-books/lons" target="_blank">movies based on Stephen King novels</a>&nbsp;try to bring most of the horror in the literature to the silver screen, yet the&nbsp;It&nbsp;(2017) film&nbsp;actually circumvents some of <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/scary-things-seen-heard/amandasedlakhevener?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the most terrifying</a> events that occur in the book.&nbsp;For example, there's a huge sex scene that is completely omitted in&nbsp;Andr&eacute;s Muschietti's cinematic interpretation of King's written story.&nbsp;Stephen King's It&nbsp;was&nbsp;made into a two-part miniseries&nbsp;in the 1990s, which was criticized for being comical and not scary enough.&nbsp;Nearly two decades later,&nbsp;Muschietti&nbsp;decided to bring&nbsp;It&nbsp;to the big screen in an ambitious film adaption with a wealth of horrifying scenes. Yet amongst all the frightening hubbub, book readers of&nbsp;It&nbsp;have been quick to point out that lots of scary things were left out in the movie. Just what exactly didn't make the cut for the movie,&nbsp;It? Here is a list of differences between the novel and the film adaptation of King's creepy clown masterpiece. Vote up the most surprising deviations from the book version of&nbsp;It.&nbsp;

<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stand-by-me-behind-the-scenes-stories/anncasano?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Stand By Me</a>&nbsp;is such an emotional, coming of age movie, that it&#39;s no surprise fans love to discuss certain poignant details. Since it&#39;s based on Stephen King&#39;s short story &quot;The Body,&quot; there are also fun King Easter eggs, such as the use of the very ominous number&nbsp;237. Scroll on for more memorable details, as well as fun facts and behind-the-scenes stories from members of the cast.

Then, vote up the poignant moments that made you emotional.&nbsp;

The film adaptation of Stephen King&#39;s immensely popular The Dark Tower book series was met with plenty of ire from both fans and critics. It was accused of not being faithful to the source material and&nbsp;wildly oversimplifying important plot points. But while&nbsp;it seemed to lack&nbsp;comprehensibility or quality, it overflowed in another department: Easter eggs. These small details&nbsp;are&nbsp;scattered like confetti over the project: objects, words, and moments that serve as references to&nbsp;other Stephen King movies, books, and worlds.

Whether the Easter eggs and small details&nbsp;are there as a deeper reference to the interconnectedness of everything King writes,&nbsp;or simply as a way to pique fan interest, here is every reference to another Stephen King work present in the movie The Dark Tower.

Stephen King is a horror staple in both film and literary circles. More <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/true-stephen-king-stories/juliet-bennett-rylah" target="_blank">Stephen King books</a> have been adapted into movies than the works of nearly any other author.&nbsp;King is known to weigh in periodically on what he thinks of these adaptations, and he is brutally honest. Although he appreciates what Frank Darabont&nbsp;did to the end of&nbsp;The Mist,&nbsp;what he has to say about&nbsp;The Shining will be hard&nbsp;for Stanley Kubrick fans to hear.&nbsp;If you thought&nbsp;Brian De Palma&#39;s artsy adaptation of&nbsp;Carrie&nbsp;was better than the book, cried at the end of&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stand-by-me-behind-the-scenes-stories/anncasano?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Stand by Me</a>, or are still waiting for Cujo&nbsp;to receive its Academy Award, you might be glad to hear King&#39;s opinion.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/scary-stephen-king-facts/shanell-mouland" target="_blank">King</a> has been writing successfully for decades, and shows no signs of slowing down on the printed page or the silver screen. Whether it&#39;s&nbsp;his praise for&nbsp;movies that successfully adapted his work in natural and creative ways, or a few choice words for projects he probably wishes he could remove his name from altogether, what Stephen King has to say about his movies might be of interest&nbsp;to both film and literary fans.&nbsp;

Needful Things

<a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-horror-novelists?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Horror writer</a> Stephen King ranks among the most prolific of contemporary American authors. This is a complete list of feature films and miniseries based on his writings, including work written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and the sequels to films based on <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-very-best-of-stephen-king">Stephen King books</a>. The rankings are determined by the votes of Ranker users.

With the second installment of King&#39;s classic&nbsp;It&nbsp;hitting screens soon, what better time to look back on the man&#39;s long and storied list of adaptations? (NOTE: King&#39;s short stories, novellas, and other work have also inspired numerous <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-tv-shows-of-recent-memory?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">TV shows</a>, and you can check out the full <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/decent-stephen-king-movie-adaptations/justin-andress" target="_blank">ranking of all Stephen King adaptations</a> to see where those fall.)

Stanley Kubrick&#39;s The Shining&nbsp;is considered to be one of the scariest movies in horror history. It also&nbsp;routinely appears on lists of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-movies-of-all-time" target="_blank">best films of all time</a>.&nbsp;Everyone loves the film,&nbsp;except for the one person whose opinion really&nbsp;matters:&nbsp;the author of the original book, Stephen King. From the moment Kubrick&#39;s film was released in 1980, King began voicing his disapproval, and in 1997, he finally did something about it.&nbsp;

King convinced ABC to air a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-characters-shining-miniseries-cast/ranker-entertainment" target="_blank">remake of The Shining</a>, written by King himself&nbsp;and directed by Mick Garris, who also&nbsp;directed&nbsp;the miniseries adaptation of King&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-stand-mini-series-cheesy/jacob-shelton?ref=search" target="_blank">The Stand</a>. When The Shining TV series was released in &#39;97, horror fans were perplexed. The three-episode miniseries definitely infused&nbsp;the story with King&rsquo;s voice, but perhaps not for the better.

Stephen King&rsquo;s It took the movie world by surprise in 2017 when it became a sleeper box office smash and earned a whopping $700 million globally. Following the success of the 1990 TV mini-series and the 2017 movie, there just had to be a sequel. The It cast for the 2019 follow-up was announced in July of 2018. Find out which major Hollywood stars will play the grown up versions of the Losers&rsquo; Club. Then vote up your favorite It movie characters.

The It film cast features a mostly unknown group of actors. The horror story takes place in the small town of Derry, Maine in 1989. A banded force of underdogs make up the Losers&rsquo; Club, who team up together to fight both the local school bullies called the Bowers Gang and the shape-shifting monster, Pennywise, who feeds on children.

In order to get ready for It: Chapter Two, which is scheduled to hit the big screen on September 2019, vote up which character from It 2017 is your favorite. Is it Eddie or Henry or the Losers&rsquo; faithful leader Bill?

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

What happens when a wannabe first-time director writes an almost perfect screenplay? Look no further than&nbsp;The Shawshank Redemption, the making of which was a laborious process filled with 18-hour days and&nbsp;six-day weeks. Take a look at what really happened behind the scenes of the movie that sits atop the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/" target="_blank">No. 1 spot on IMDb&#39;s list</a> of the Top 250 Movies.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-the-shawshank-redemption-quotes/movie-and-tv-quotes" target="_blank">The Shawshank Redemption</a> is one of those movies that makes people not just cry but full-on weep. It&#39;s a prison movie&nbsp;but also a tale of enduring male friendship. It&#39;s a story of hope and about never giving up. That same mentality was needed for Frank Darabont to bring what Tim Robbins called &quot;the best script he&#39;s ever read&quot;&nbsp;to the big screen.

Hollywood insiders knew&nbsp;Darabont&#39;s adaptation of Stephen King&#39;s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption&nbsp;was pure gold. What they didn&#39;t know was that Darabont would refuse to let someone else direct it -&nbsp;or&nbsp;that the still-green director would ask for so many repeated takes&nbsp;that it would cause a major rift with one of his veteran actors.

The Shawshank Redemption was supposed to be a Hollywood hit. But no one showed up on opening night. Find out why a movie that was nominated for seven Academy Awards failed to initially find an audience, and how the movie ultimately turned a nice profit. Which two A-List actors almost appeared in the movie? What did Stephen King really think of Darabont&#39;s script?&nbsp;

Discover all those The Shawshank Redemption behind-the-scenes facts and more.

Are you scared of clowns? If so it may have a lot to do with Stephen King's IT, a book and film that scared entire generations of children, permanently instilling a fear of all clowns. If you want to scare your entire neighborhood at Halloween, you might do well to dress as Pennywise... or really any of Stephen King's creepy characters.But the killer clown of Derry is just one of the best Stephen King costumes (especially if Tim Curry is wearing it—sorry, creepy clowns of the woods worldwide). Costumes that get Stephen King just right are a tricky venture, considering the man is the modern Master of Horror. At least volume is on the wearer's side; given the 54 novels and almost 200 short stories King has given to the world, there are bound to be a few costumes that would make Stephen King proud.You be the judge - vote up&nbsp;the best creepy&nbsp;costumes inspired by <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stephen-king-opening-sentences/jacobybancroft?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Stephen King books</a>!

Prolific horror and suspense novelist&nbsp;Stephen King creates&nbsp;stories that give birth to dozens&nbsp;of movies. Many actors are listed among his fans - and many of them love to star in the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/decent-stephen-king-movie-adaptations/justin-andress" target="_blank">film adaptations</a> of his strange, creepy books over and over again. A number of these well-known thespians have starred in at least three King adaptations on the big screen, often playing wildly disparate characters.

So what do you think? Are your favorite actors in your favorite Stephen King stories? Did any of them surprise you? Are you always waiting for the next King adaptation to hit&nbsp;the big screen?

Stephen King is one of the most successful writers of his time. His book sales are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/meet-the-elite-group-of-authors-who-sell-100-million-books-or-350-million/2016/12/20/db3c6a66-bb0f-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.2388ea54d13a">estimated at 350 million copies</a>; a number of his works, including&nbsp;Carrie, Misery, and The Shining, have been&nbsp;adapted into films; and he has <a href="http://stephenking.com/awards.html">dozens of awards</a> under his belt. But what does he think about all this? This list ranks some&nbsp;of the juiciest and funniest things Stephen King has said about his own books, characters, and his blurry state of mind under the influence of drugs and alcohol.You can see King's struggle through such characters as Jack Torrance (The Shining), Annie Wilkes (Misery), and even the good dog turned evil, Cujo - although King doesn't remember writing that one. He&nbsp;thinks The Tommyknockers&nbsp;&quot;is an awful book&quot; because it was also written under the influence. And he wasn't too happy with Dreamcatcher because that one was written on Oxy after a 1999 accident that nearly killed him. But eventually King got sober, and now his only addiction seems to be writing. He doesn't believe in retiring, because what else is he going to do? It's a good thing, too, because it's nearly impossible to imagine a literary world without King in it.King is a straight shooter and hates any kind of pretension. He&nbsp;thinks Hemingway sucks. He let his kids read his books and watch the adaptations at a young age. And he's owned every mistake and misstep throughout his colorful and prolific career.&nbsp;What's your favorite thing about Stephen King? Vote it up to the top of this list. And remember, never go into the sewer.

Many people know Stephen King&nbsp;for the horror stories he writes so well. In fact, one of his novels,&nbsp;Rage, was <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/stephen-king-rage-controversy/jodi-smith" target="_blank">so taboo and dark</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;King asked publishers to pull it from their print collection. The author doesn&#39;t just write about evil, though - he lives with it. His Corgi, Molly, may look adorable and sweet, but in truth, she balances on the precipice between plain ol&#39; evil and antichrist-level abomination.

King photographs Molly - the Thing of Evil, as her friends and minions call her -&nbsp;then shares&nbsp;her malignant deeds with the world through <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stephen-king-funny-tweets/damon-davis" target="_blank">Twitter posts</a>.&nbsp;Things get pretty dark and twisted (and adorable) at the King household.&nbsp;

In case you didn&#39;t know, Stephen King writes horror stories, and his novels contain a lot of awful events described in great detail. There&#39;s pain and suffering without a lot of joy in his books. With the abundance of nightmarish scenarios in <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-very-best-of-stephen-king?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Stephen King books</a>, fans have no shortage of literary demons.

From little kids having their arms bitten off by clowns to attempted human sacrifices in the supermarket, there&#39;s something terrifying for anyone and everyone. King&#39;s use of dark themes and scenarios&nbsp;is often sickening and enthralling at the same time. It disgusts you as a reader, but you can&#39;t look away, and that&#39;s what makes King one of the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-writers-of-all-time/ranker-books?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">best writers ever</a>.

Check out the list below to relive some of the horrible things in Stephen King novels, and maybe you&#39;ll walk away from this list feeling slightly more traumatized.

The&nbsp;first lines in Stephen King books set the stage for the stories that follow. Over his long career, King has written opening sentences that are funny, informative, scary, and downright odd. But which one is&nbsp;the&nbsp;best? Is it the simple statement about&nbsp;the&nbsp;gunslinger following the man in black through the desert in The Gunslinger, the novel that begins his epic eight-novel fantasy cycle? Is it the more in-depth breakdown of the Boston Globe reporter's surroundings in The Colorado Kid? Is it the random gurgles and moans that kick off Misery? Or is it something else entirely? There's certainly not a shortage to chose from.&nbsp;Check out the list below to view every first sentence from King's novels and vote up your favorite ones!&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Stephen King is one of the most well-known and prolific authors in the world. He redefined the horror genre with such classics as The Shining, It, and Carrie. The man knows how to write. When you look at his vast body of work, you might wonder how exactly King manages to pump out bestseller after bestseller, but look no further. Below you will find the best <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stephen-king-on-writing/anncasano" target="_blank">writing tips</a> and&nbsp;writing rules from the master of horror himself. Maybe you&#39;ll even find something in his routine that will help you write the next great classic!

&nbsp;

Re-evaluation

With the sequel to Andy Muschietti&#39;s&nbsp;It&nbsp;due out in 2019, along with a new version of&nbsp;Pet Sematary, Stephen King fever is gripping Hollywood. Thus,&nbsp;it&#39;s the perfect time to revisit some of the older King adaptations, and there are few that are weirder than 1996&#39;s&nbsp;Thinner, a mostly forgotten curses-and-body-horror flick.

Filled with Academy Award-winning makeup effects by Greg Cannom, weird plot developments, gallows humor, and plenty of behind-the-scenes weirdness,&nbsp;Thinner&nbsp;is an unpredictable&nbsp;throwback to shows like&nbsp;Tales from the Crypt, trading in King&#39;s love for old EC Comics where morally awful people get their well-deserved comeuppance. While it may not be one of the best King adaptations around, Thinner is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-90s-horror-movies/ranker-horror" target="_blank">the&nbsp;perfect midnight movie</a> for those craving&nbsp;an unusual dose of King.

The Dark World of Stephen King

pageType

Brand_Unsafe_HP

top_fb_2-3

ticker_exclude

tier_3

pushable

ranker_humor

ranker_weird_and_crime

ranker_prime

gs_team

cb_the-dark-world-of-stephen-king

Memes

&quot;All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.&quot;&nbsp;

Enjoy this small selection of memes from&nbsp;The Shining&nbsp;perfect for those who need a moment of a little insane fun.&nbsp;

21 Pretty Funny Memes From 'The Shining' That Had Us Screaming

General

Other

Best Rankings of Random Cool Facts + Stuff

other

Erin Maxwell

Region

American

Now That You Mention It...

Origin Story

Basic 

True Evil

&quot;All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.&quot;&nbsp; Enjoy this small selection of memes from&nbsp;The Shining&nbsp;perfect for those who need a ... (Page 2)