Best Stephen King Film and TV Adaptations of the Last Decade

The best Stephen King film and TV adaptations of the last decade include Doctor Sleep, It and It Chapter Two, Gerald’s Game, 1922 and The Outsider. Newer picks worth adding are Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck (2024), The Long Walk (2025) and HBO’s prequel series It: Welcome to Derry (2025). Here is the full list, with what each one gets right.

Stephen King film and TV adaptations: quick list

The best Stephen King adaptations, ranked list

1. Carrie (2013)

Kimberly Peirce’s remake goes back to King’s first novel, published in 1974. Chloe Grace Moretz plays the bullied teenager with telekinetic powers and Julianne Moore plays her mother. The story of a shy girl who takes revenge on her tormentors still works, and the two leads make it a solid watch.

2. Mr. Mercedes (2017 to 2019)

A detective thriller rather than a horror show. Retired cop Bill Hodges hunts Brady Hartsfield, the man who drove a car into a crowd of job seekers. It ran from 2017 to 2019 on the Audience network and is one of the more grounded King adaptations on TV.

3. 1922 (2017)

This Netflix film comes from King’s 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars. A farmer pressures his son into helping him commit a murder, and the guilt slowly eats away at him. It is quiet, grim and very effective.

4. Pet Sematary (2019)

The second film version of the novel, after the 1989 original. John Lithgow plays the kindly neighbour Jud Crandall, and the film is a clear step up from the first version. It also holds on to the book’s bleak idea that sometimes dying is better.

5. In the Tall Grass (2019)

Based on the novella King wrote with his son Joe Hill and directed by Vincenzo Natali. A brother and sister are lured into a vast field of tall grass and cannot find their way out. It is strange and uneven, but the central idea is hard to shake.

6. Doctor Sleep (2019)

Mike Flanagan’s sequel to The Shining follows an adult Danny Torrance, played by Ewan McGregor, with Rebecca Ferguson as the villain. Flanagan manages to honour both King’s book and Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film of The Shining, which is not easy.

7. It and It Chapter Two (2017 and 2019)

Andy Muschietti’s two-part film is the biggest King adaptation of the decade. Both films improve on the 1990 TV miniseries, and the second part changes parts of the novel’s ending.

8. Gerald’s Game (2017)

A novel many thought could not be filmed, since it is set almost entirely in one room. A woman is left handcuffed to a bed, and the film stays with her almost the whole way. Flanagan turns it into a tense, faithful adaptation.

9. The Outsider (2020)

HBO’s limited series, based on King’s 2018 novel, starts as a murder investigation and turns supernatural. Jason Bateman stars, and the show brings in investigator Holly Gibney from King’s novels. HBO did not continue it after one season. HBO shows are available in India on JioHotstar, where HBO content returned in February 2025.

10. The Stand (2020 to 2021)

A nine-part miniseries of King’s 1978 novel, created by Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell for CBS All Access. It is an improvement on the 1994 adaptation and gives the huge book the room it needs.

Newer Stephen King adaptations worth adding

11. The Life of Chuck (2024)

Mike Flanagan’s third King film, adapted from the 2020 novella from the collection If It Bleeds. Tom Hiddleston plays Chuck Krantz, an ordinary accountant, and the story is told in reverse, starting with what looks like the end of the world. It won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. If you only know King for scares, this shows another side of his writing.

12. The Long Walk (2025)

Directed by Francis Lawrence and released by Lionsgate on 12 September 2025, this adapts King’s 1979 novel. Fifty teenage boys enter a televised contest where they must keep walking at three miles per hour or faster, and anyone who falls behind after three warnings is killed. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson lead the cast. It is bleak and simple, and that is its strength.

13. It: Welcome to Derry (2025)

This HBO series returns to Derry, the town at the centre of It, and takes the story of the films into long-form TV. It is a good next step for fans of the 2017 and 2019 films.

More adaptations are on the way. A Carrie series for Amazon Prime Video is listed as upcoming for 2026. For more horror lists, see our Hollywood section and listicles.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Wikipedia: Adaptations of works by Stephen King, Wikipedia: JioHotstar.