The Second Batch: 18 Stephen King Horror Movies As Rated By Critics, Films 13-30

George Romero's Creepshow comes in at 65%, and it's a great collaboration between one of the greatest horror auteurs in history and one of the best writers of horror fiction. It is an anthology of five stories that are homages of E.C. Comics. The horror comedy is dear to the hearts of horror fans and is a bit of a family affair. Not only did King write the film, but he also starred as the lead character in one of the sequences, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, and his son Joe, now known as novelist Joe Hill, as the son in the wraparound segment.

Andy Muschietti's sequel to his adaptation of It in 2017 comes in at 62% on the list. This is the second half of the story, with the adult members of The Losers Club coming back to Derry to face Pennywise again, except the one member, Stan Uris, who refuses to face the terror again. While this film wasn't praised as highly as the first by critics, it was still a financial success. Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Bill Hader star as some adult Losers. Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, and Stephen King has a cameo as a pawn shop owner. Read more: Shapeshifters And Witches With Satanic Hispanics Gigi Saul Guerrero And Raynor Shima.

One of the most recent adaptations of King's work is director Rob Savage's movie The Boogeyman. It was released this year and stars Sophie Thatcher, Marin Ireland, and David Dastmalchian. It sits at 61% approval by critics and is one of the last films on this list to be considered "fresh" by critics. The movie is based on King's short story of the same name, which tells the story of a family plagued by The Boogeyman or the real version of that old tale used to scare children into behaving.

Cujo is the first of the King adaptations to be listed as "rotten" at 59%. It's barely in that category, which seems like a shame because Cujo, starring Dee Wallace and directed by Lewis Teague, is a taut and frightening movie. Perhaps the problem is that, as a horror film, there's nothing supernatural about it. It's the story of a situation that could happen given the correct circumstances, and maybe that is a little too frightening for some people to accept. Read more: Chuck Wendig's Latest Horror Novel Black River Orchard Bears Irresistible Fruit.

This is the second feature film with King and fellow master of horror George Romero. Romero wrote this screenplay this time, based on King's book of the same name. In the book and the movie, an author, Thad Beaumont, with a pseudonym who writes much more popular pulpy novels, wants to kill off his alter ego and be a serious writer full-time. After he does, the pen name "George Stark" comes to life and starts murdering people in his life., putting him and his family in danger. The film has a great cast, with Timothy Hutton in the dual role of Thad Beaumont and George Stark, Amy Madigan, Julie Harris, and Michael Rooker. Perhaps the film's rating with critics has more to do with the non-supernatural nature of the tale and having certain expectations of King (and Romero) films.

There have been two adaptations of Pet Sematary, one of Stephen King's most terrifying books. The second adaptation, by the directing team of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, is the highest-rated. This film significantly changed the narrative and had a particularly great cat to play the role of Church. It stars Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and John Lithgow. Lithgow takes over the role of Judd Crandall in the film. Read more: Santa Has A Chainsaw In R.L. Stine's Upcoming Comic Stuff of Nightmares: Slay Ride.

Apt Pupil is another of Stephen King's more realistic horror stories. Adapted from a novella by writer Brandon Boyce, the film shows a young high school student who discovers that one of his neighbors is a Nazi war criminal and blackmails the man into forcing him to tell him what it was like to participate in the Holocaust. It stars Brad Renfro, Ian McKellan, Bruce Davison, Elias Koteas, and David Schwimmer. The film was praised for the leads' scary performances but criticized for lack of seriousness about the film's subject, the evil of the Holocaust.

The first adaptation of King's Pet Semetary, directed by Mary Lambert, is not far behind the 2019 adaptation. While certain things didn't about the film didn't fully gel, it doesn't deserve all the hate it gets. Lambert did an excellent job adapting the film; it has the memorable casting of Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall, who made the role his own and is still remembered fondly by fans. The character of Zelda, played by Andrew Hubatsek, still terrifies audience members. It is rated at 51%.

Kimberly Peirce's remake of Carrie has a 50% rating and was praised for the performances of the lead actors Chloë Grace Moretz, Judy Greer, and Julianne Moore. If anything, the film was criticized for not having enough horror, and critics called it more of a tragedy than a horror movie. This film had less of an emphasis on the fanatical religious views of Margaret White than the first film did.

Big Driver is a movie based on a Stephen King novella from his book Full Dark, No Stars. It starred Maria Bello, Olympia Dukakis, Ann Dowd, and Joan Jett and was directed by Danish director Mikael Salomon and written by Richard Christian Matheson. A crime author, Tess Thorne, who fears flying, is invited to speak at an event and drives to the event rather than flying as is her custom. On her way back, her car is disabled by a studded piece of wood left in the road, and she is raped and left for dead by "Big Driver." After she finds the corpses of three other women in the culvert where she was abandoned, she refuses to report the rape believing that she will be held responsible, and instead goes back for revenge.

The anthology film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie only has one segment based on a Stephen King story, The Cat From Hell, which stars William Hickey as Drogan, David Johansen as Halston, and Mark Margolis as Gage. Drogan hires a hitman, Halston, in it for a particular reason. He wants him to kill a cat that he insists is pure evil and has killed everyone else in his home. After this and Pet Semetary, I'm starting to feel like Stephen King isn't fond of cats. But wait, he did write Cat's Eye and Sleepwalkers, which have cats as heroes.

Secret Window is another Stephen King film about a writer, and given his calling, can you blame him for mining the territory more than once? Written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Door, the movie tells the story of a mystery writer, Mort Rainey, who finds out his wife is having an affair and separates from her. While living in his cabin, he is confronted by a writer named John Shooter, who insists Rainey plagiarized his work. Like The Dark Half, Shooter is a double of Rainey, who does the things that Rainey cannot, including murdering people who anger him. It stars Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, John Turturro, and Johnny Depp.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone is a somewhat sentimental horror story based on the King novella of the same name from the collection If It Bleeds... Donald Sutherland stars as Mr. Harrigan, and Jaeden Martell stars as Craig, his young friend. The story is about the friendship between Harrigan and Craig that ends with Harrigan's death. Or does it? An iPhone figures into the narrative, with the idea of someone dead sending messages from the grave and taking revenge on behalf of Craig. It has a rating of 45%.

Silver Bullet is a rare werewolf story from King's work, adapted from The Cycle of the Werewolf. In a small town, a young boy, Marty Coslaw, who has a wheelchair called Silver Bullet, begins to suspect that a werewolf might be loose. After he injures the werewolf in the eye, he realizes that the monster will come for him and his family and has a real silver bullet made to defend them. It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim, and Terry O'Quinn. The movie scored 41% from critics, but it's not as dire as the critical rating would lead you to believe.

Ah, yes. Children of the Corn, the mid-80s shocker that wasn't well received but still has spawned a franchise that shows no real sign of stopping. There are now ten sequels, reboots, or remakes in the series, with the latest film, the reboot, released in 2020. The first film did not do well critically; the average approval rating was 39%, but it was a hit, guaranteeing that there would be a sequel. In its favor, the film has a happier ending than the story, and actors John Franklin (Isaac) and Courtney Gains (Malachi) in star-making performances. Gains and Franklin are the film's stars and are much scarier than the special effects used to embody "He Who Walks Behind the Rows."

Firestarter is an idea with such promise, but it's unclear why it is so difficult to adapt. The first adaptation has a critical rating of 38% even though it stars Drew Barrymore, Louise Fletcher, George C. Scott, Art Carney, and Martin Sheen. Mark Lester directed the film, and maybe the decision to cast Scott as a character, John Rainbird, who is supposed to be Native American, might have had something to do with it. King didn't like it and, for once, did not try to hide his disdain with his usual diplomacy. The tragedy is that this project was meant for John Carpenter to direct, but the box office underperformance of The Thing meant that Universal replaced Carpenter as director. We all mourn that version of Firestarter that will never be.

The Lawnmower Man is based on a Stephen King short story and an unproduced screenplay called Cyber God. King was unhappy with the direction Brett Leonard, the director and co-writer, and the studio took with the movie. It stars Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Larry Angelo. The idea is that the doctor experiments on Smith, an intellectually challenged gardener, and enhances his intelligence with virtual reality and psychoactive drugs. The film was initially titled Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, and King, who was displeased with the movie's direction, sued to remove his name from the title. The film has an average of 37% critical approval.

The Night Flier is a vampire horror film based on the Stephen King story. It was directed by Mark Pavia and stars Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle, Dan Monahan, and Michael H. Moss. Although the film is rated at 33% by critics, it's pretty creepy. The character of Richard Dees, played by Ferrer, a great actor, is strong and reminds me of an even more cynical version of Carl Kolchak. The vampire effects are done by KNB EFX Group, which should get your attention and make them quite good. KNB stands for Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger, and the effects group is known for their work on Misery, From Dusk Till Dawn, and The Walking Dead.