Stephen King‘s books have spawned some of the best page-to-screen adaptations of all time, but none of his movies have produced good sequels. After his debut novel, Carrie, was successfully brought to the big screen by Brian De Palma in 1976, Stephen King suddenly became one of the most sought-after authors. With his feel for character, witty writing, and uncanny ability to scare the pants off of the reader, King became the true “King of Horror” in the 1980s on the screen and page. King’s works are still popular fodder for Hollywood today, but franchises remain elusive.

Though they’re almost always popular, movies based on Stephen King’s works are decidedly hit or miss in terms of quality. It takes a deft hand to successfully adapt the writer’s style, and there’s a reason that auteurs like Brian De Palma, Stanley Kubrick, and David Cronenberg are among the few directors to truly tackle the scribe’s books. Even if the original film is strong, none of Stephen King’s movies have spawned a good sequel, excluding sequels the author himself wrote (Doctor Sleep) or continuations of an adaptation (It: Chapter 2).

There Has Never Been A Good Stephen King Movie Sequel

Many Have Tried & All Have Failed To Make A Good Sequel

Because Stephen King’s movies, and especially his horror movies, are almost guaranteed to make money, it makes sense that Hollywood would want to continue the story even after the book has been exhausted. Not only is it easy money, but some of King’s books create a fictional universe that is ripe for further exploration in sequels and spinoffs. However, despite numerous attempts, none of King’s movies have produced a sequel that’s as good as the original, or even just a decent standalone flick.

A few movies, like A Return to Salem’s Lot and Pet Sematary Two, scored points because they tried to do something with the mythology that King established in his book. However, most are just poor rehashes of the original or cheap cash-ins with almost no creative vision behind them. The countless Children of the Corn sequels have built an entire franchise around the short story, but they were bogged down in low effort, straight-to-video outings that got lazier and lazier with each new installment. Others are so wildly different that they obviously just took advantage of the recognizable name.

It’s strange that only a handful of Stephen King sequels have been major Hollywood productions, especially considering how mainstream the author has been for decades. Horror used to be a seedy genre that was relegated to grindhouses, but modern horror movies are often held in the same esteem as more conventional dramas. If a major studio actually put time and effort into crafting a sequel to a Stephen King movie, it could turn out better than the dozens of low-budget follow-ups that were so popular during the video craze of the ’80s and ’90s.

King’s Writing Style Is Impossible To Replicate

The Author Has A Signature That Can’t Be Copied

Perhaps the biggest reason that Stephen King movie sequels fail to move the needle is that the author himself isn’t involved in the crafting of the story. No one can write like Stephen King, and it’s his oddball style that helped to make him such a beloved bestselling author. Not only is his prose truly one-of-a-kind, but his use of character and situation is also one of his greatest gifts. Filmmakers too often boil his works down to the barest minimum, and that’s why many of his adaptations fail to live up to the original novels.

This problem is only exacerbated when a screenwriter has no real roadmap to work from. Adapting King’s books is tough enough as it is, but translating his ideas into an original story with new characters is downright impossible. King often ends his books and short stories conclusively, making it really hard to do a direct sequel to his horror tales. Even if the lore of the book is promising, such as in Pet Sematary, it would take a truly deft filmmaker to do something with it that King hasn’t already thought of.

The highest-rated Stephen King sequels include:

With filmmakers like Mike Flanagan putting care and effort into adaptations of Stephen King’s books, there may finally come a time when a good sequel is made. Eventually, King himself will stop producing new content, but it’s unlikely that Hollywood will want to stop cashing in on his popularity. Though remakes will likely start to become the primary source of Stephen King movies, it’s possible that a sequel could be dreamed up that might finally match the overall quality of the author’s finest books and stories.