There are more movies based on Stephen King books and stories than almost any other author in history. However, he is also an author with more adaptations disappointing his fans than most other authors, with filmmakers drastically changing many of his stories. This often occurs in his novels’ endings. For one era of his career, King released several stories with very dark and downer endings, and when those movies arrived in theaters or on TV, the filmmakers had to change things to make them more audience-friendly.

However, there is also one very notable thing about the work of Stephen King. His characters internalize more than they have dialogue in his books, which means his work is often hard to adapt faithfully. With that said, there have been many cases where a director has to improvise and make changes to the story to make it more visual, which also often results in changes to the ending. At the same time, not all changes are bad. In some cases, the new movie endings improved the story, at least on the big screen.

10

The Shining (1980)

Jack Torrance Sacrificed Himself In The Novel

One of the most divisive Stephen King movies ever made is The Shining. This film is widely considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time, but many hardcore King fans seem to hate it. The main reason is that Stephen King hated the adaptation because of how many changes Stanley Kubrick made to his story. The biggest complaints from King were changes to the main themes, including making Jack Torrance the villain instead of the Overlook H๏τel.

The film also drastically changed the story’s ending because Jack was the killer, and the H๏τel might not actually be haunted. In the novel, Jack gained lucidity long enough to save his family and blow up the Overlook H๏τel, destroying the evil by sacrificing his own life. However, the movie made Jack the sole villain, and he never saved his family; instead he tried to kill his son and froze to death in the maze. It explains why fans of the novel disliked Kubrick’s movie as much as they did.

9

Stephen King’s IT (2019)

The Final Form Of Pennywise Changed

There have been two different adaptations of Stephen King’s It. The first came in 1990 as a television miniseries, which was highlighted by a fan-favorite performance by Tim Curry of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. However, the more prestigious adaptation came as a two-part movie by director Andy Muschietti. The new version had the childhood years in the first movie and the adult years in the second. Stephen King’s It also changed the ending of the story in that second installment.

The book had Pennywise turn into a giant spider, and the Losers’ Club had to fight this creature in a brutal physical battle. In this final fight, Bill rips out the spider’s heart while Ben destroys the creature’s eggs, ending the threat once and for all. That didn’t happen in the movie, which saw the Loser’s Club in a more psychological battle, as they had to overcome their fears, which stripped Pennywise of his powers, shirking him down and allowing them to crush him. It was an interesting change, but a polarizing ending for the novel’s fans.

8

The Mist (2007)

David Makes A Very Different Decision In The Movie

The Mist is a Stephen King novella in the short story collection Skeleton Crew. King tells the story of a group of people trapped in a supermarket when a fog rolls into town, and creatures similar to dinosaurs emerge from it, killing anyone in their path. While the monsters create the most significant danger, the story also introduces a group of religious fanatics who become a threat of their own, especially when one woman decides they need to sacrifice someone to appease God’s wrath.

In the story, the father (David) and son (Billy) leave the supermarket and begin driving, with them hearing a voice on the radio that gives them hope as the story ends. That isn’t what Frank Darabont offers in the movie. Instead, David decides there is no hope and mercy kills the remaining survivors and his son. However, before he takes his own life, the fog lifts and the U.S. Army shows up on a rescue mission. It remains one of the most hated and praised endings in Stephen King movie history.

7

The Dark Tower (2017)

The Movie Changed The Entire Story

There are a select few Stephen King adaptations that his fans have mostly dismissed because they are nothing like the books they are based on. One of these is the sci-fi release Lawnmower Man, which has nothing to do with the short story it was based on. A second was even more disappointing when Nikolaj Arcel directed The Dark Tower. The film had a great cast, with Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black and Idris Elba as Roland Deschain. However, the movie was not the story the book told.

The changes were made with a purpose. When The Dark Tower novel series ended, the story showed many different alternate worlds where things went very differently. This movie was supposed to be one of those alternate stories, but fans instantly rejected it, many wanting a straight adaptation. The film has Roland killing Walter Padick (The Man in Black) and saving the Dark Tower, which is nothing like what happened in the book’s ending. The good news is that a new Dark Tower adaptation is coming from Mike Flanagan.

6

Cujo (1983)

The Book Shows The Death Of A Child

Stephen King published Cujo as a novel in 1981, a period of the author’s life that saw him at a low point. In On Writing, King says that he wrote Cujo while he was struggling with substance addiction, and he has few memories of writing any of his novels during this time. These books were all dark, with Pet Semetary and Cujo both ending with depressing final moments. Deaths hit the readers hard and left many of them emotionally shattered.

In the book Cujo, a mother named Donna is trapped outside a mechanic’s shop with her son Tad when her car is broken down. A Saint Bernard has gone rabid, killed his owner, and is targeting Donna and Tad. In both the movie and novel, Donna survives the attack but with significant trauma. However, the difference between the movie and the book remains huge. In King’s novel, four-year-old Tad dies in the car from heatstroke. The movie smartly has Tad survive, refusing to let the audience’s final moment be seeing a child die.

5

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Doctor Sleep Finally Pays Off The Shining Book ending

When Mike Flanagan signed on to adapt Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, he had a challenging task as he had to do two things with one movie. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has countless fans who consider it one of the greatest horror movies of all time. More people know the story from that movie than from King’s novel. However, many of King’s fans have always shown disappointment with the changes made in that movie, and Flanagan decided to adapt a sequel to both stories in his film.

In The Shining movie, the Overlook H๏τel remained standing. In the book, Jack Torrance destroys it to save his family. At the end of the Doctor Sleep book, Danny Torrance has his final fight with Rose the Hat on the grounds where the Overlook H๏τel once stood. In the movie, the final battle occurs in the Overlook H๏τel, and the ghosts from the H๏τel overtake Rose the Hat. The best part is that Danny blows up the H๏τel in Doctor Sleep, finally delivering The Shining’s ​​​​​​climactic moment. Flanagan took aspects of both stories and created a better movie using them.

4

Children Of The Corn (1984)

The Short Story Had No Survivors

Stephen King published Children of the Corn in his first short story collection, Night Shift, which was adapted into a film in 1984 by Fritz Kiersch. In both versions, a couple ends up stranded in a small Nebraska town, thanks to car problems but they soon find no adults in this town. Instead, it is overrun by frightening, very creepy children. Soon, the children target the couple as they seek sacrifices to appease “He Who Walks Behind The Rows” and the couple has to fight for their lives.

The short story ends on a downer. The children, led by nine-year-old Isaac and his number one man, Malachi, win. Burt finds his wife Vicky ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, tied to a cross with her eyes torn out. He ends up trapped in the corn fields and is sacrificed to He Who Walks Behind The Rows. The movie chose a more hopeful ending, with Burt and Vicky surviving, setting the cornfield ablaze, and helping free the children who didn’t want to be there anymore. This changed the story’s entire theme.

3

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Red Receives A Better Ending In The Movie

Not all changes to Stephen King’s stories are significant; some are just made to help tie things up a little bit better, offering a more open-ended happy ending. One of the most successful film adaptations of a King story is The Shawshank Redemption. This movie could have won an Oscar if it had been released in any year other than the one that included Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction. The film tells the story of a man falsely accused of killing his wife and his time in the Shawshank State Penitentiary.

The movie mostly plays straight to the novella, and both have the same basic ending. Andy Dufresne breaks out of prison and disappears while implicating the warden and prison guards in their illegal activities. However, the change in the ending comes for Red (Morgan Freeman), who is eventually paroled and has to figure out his place in the world. The novella ends with a hopeful message, but the movie shows him finding Andy in Mexico, joining him for a new life of freedom.

2

Cell (2016)

Clay Had A Devastating Ending In The Movie

Cell was not a successful book or movie. The novel had some good ideas but wasn’t one of Stephen King’s more successful fan-favorite releases. The movie was a critical and commercial failure, with bad reviews and an almost non-existent box office take. Both versions tell the same story, as society becomes full of rampaging mindless zombie-like creatures thanks to a signal sent out through cell phones. Only people who didn’t have cell phones on them at the time survived to fight for humanity.

Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack re-team for their second Stephen King movie together, but they were much better in the highly underrated ghost story 1408. The ending also didn’t help, a rare case where the movie chose to have a darker ending than even King intended. Clay finds his son in the book and defeats the evil Raggedy Man, then finishes the story trying to cure his son. However, the movie has a downbeat ending where Clay ends up infected, and the heroes lose in the climax.

1

Carrie (1976)

Carrie White Regrets Her Actions In The Book

The first novel Stephen King published was Carrie, a story about a high school girl who gains telekinetic powers and then uses them to lash out at the bullies who have tormented her throughout the years. Two years after the novel’s publication, this also ended up being the first movie made from a King story. Both the book and the film are considered classics and are highly praised. The stories are very similar, with Carrie White being bullied by her classmates and her overly religious mother.

In the stories, she exacts revenge on everyone who has hurt her. However, there was a considerable difference between the two stories’ ending moments. In the movie, Carrie murders almost all her teachers and classmates before killing her mother and herself to end the story. The novel takes it one step further, showing Carrie rampaging through the town, destroying everything, before dying at the moment she learns she has killed her friends and realizes too late they were innocent of any wrongdoing. Stephen King added a deeper layer that the movie was missing.

Stephen King

Discover the latest news and filmography for Stephen King, known for The Dark Tower series, The Stand, IT, The Shining, Carrie, Cujo, Misery, the Bill Hodges trilogy, and more.

Birthdate

September 21, 1947

Birthplace

Portland, Maine, USA

Notable Projects

The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, It, The Stand, Misery, The Dark Tower, Mr. Mercedes, Carrie

Professions

Author, Screenwriter, Producer, Director, Actor