Popular podcast Screen Drafts invited the Kingcast boys onto their show to rank the top 13 Stephen King Adaptations, so it only seemed right that they journey over to The Kingcast and bring their ranking expertise for a wild curveball episode.
Dolan's Cadillac is about a man seeking revenge against a mobster after said mobster bumped her off. It's not a straight line to his revenge, though, and the man ultimately concocts an elaborate scheme to bury the mobster in his own Caddy with the help of a deserted stretch of highway and some borrowed construction equipment. This is King tackling Poe and... well, it works on the page. The movie... not so much.
Carrie is Stephen King's debut novel expertly adapted by the great Brian De Palma in an era when studio filmmaking could experiment in ways most modern studios will not allow. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie turn in Oscar-worthy (and nominated) performances in this film that still has the power to capture the attention of even iPad-addicted Gen Zers.
Cujo has become synonymous with big, scary dog, thanks to King's iconic novel and its popular 1983 film adaptation starring Dee Wallace. A mother and son get stuck in a crappy Ford Pinto and are tormented by a rabid St. Bernard. Will they escape or become a quick meal for the crazed animal?
Misery follows a popular writer who is rescued by a fan after a terrible car accident only to find himself in an even worse position: captured by an unbalanced lady who has a lot of notes about his recent work. Rob Reiner directed his second perfect Stephen King adaptation with 1990's Misery and lead star Kathy Bates to an Oscar win, the first and only Oscar won for any King adaptation.
The Stand, if you don't know, is Stephen King's epic story of the a deadly viral outbreak and the battle for humanity's future that happens after 99.9% of the world's population is wiped out. Good versus evil, light versus dark, this is a top to bottom banger from the master of horror.
The Life of Chuck is a novella that was published in the recent story collection If It Bleeds. It's a story told in reverse that begins with the end of every single life in the universe and only gets sadder from there. More heady drama than supernatural spook-a-blast, this material opens the door for some surprisingly deep responses from those who have read it.
True Detective Season 4 debuts on HBO and Max January 14th and takes place in a small Alaskan town where weird shit has a habit of going down, especially when the month-long night settles in. The chat about this upcoming season is very light on spoilers, so don't worry about diving in before you start watching the new season.
1922 was a novella originally published in Stephen King's story collection Full Dark, No Stars. It's all about a rural farmer who kills his wife for her family's land and talks his teen son into helping. Both men can't grapple with the enormity of what they've done and soon begin to spiral into guilt-driven madness despite getting away with the crime free and clear. It was adapted by Netflix into a feature film released in 2017.
Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy find themselves recruited to help a small town fight ferocious bad guys that look like humanoid wolves on horseback. They are after the town's children and our ka-tet must stop them or die trying.
Carla Gugino is a national treasure, having made numerous appearances in stuff like Brian DePalma's Snake Eyes, Sin City, Watchmen, The Haunting of Hill House, and, of course, one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made: Gerald's Game.
It is Stephen King's giant novel about a group of tween kids confronting their fears and persevering through the power of friendship all while facing down an eternal killer clown who calls himself Pennywise. It is one of King's most enduring novels and only seems to be getting more popular as each generation passes.
Ur was controversial upon release. It's King's short story all about a very special Amazon Kindle initially only available to read on Amazon Kindles! There was some outcry at the time of release about the story being nothing more than a thinly veiled commercial for Amazon, but a closer look shows something with a lot more meat on its bones. A Kindle that has access to all stories and authors across all known multiverses? Sign us up!
Rose Red is Stephen King's take on Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, made exclusively for a TV mini-series in the early 2000s. Ghosts, psychics, greedy professors desperate to prove the existence of ghosts and the afterlife, Jimmi Simpson being a creepy weirdo, prune-faced entities, Melanie Lynskey being awesome, this series has it all!
In his sequel to The Shining, Stephen King focuses on a grown up Danny Torrance who is tempted to make the same mistakes his father did, but ultimately overcomes the challenges his father could not. Mike Flanagan's adaptation marries the Stanley Kubrick film and the Stephen King text in a way that miraculously honors both.
You may think you know what this episode has to offer, but trust us when we say that you're not prepared for the insanity that is about to be unleashed on your eardrums.
Carrie is a pivotal moment in Stephen King's career. It was the book that launched him and Brian De Palma's adaptation set King up to be a dominant figure in the movie theater as well as the book store.
Holly Gibney is at it again, this time chasing down a pair of elderly cannibals. Can she find them before they devour another innocent? That's the question in Stephen King's latest book.
On Writing is Stephen King's memoir/how-I-write-good tome that is both inspirational and revealing about how one of our greatest living authors navigates his craft. Personal stories lead into grammar lessons that somehow diverge into editorial and then back to King's childhood where he suffered various traumas, like getting fart on by his babysitter and maybe even seeing his closest friend obliterated by a passing train.
Jessie Burlingame finds herself in one hell of a predicament when a romantic night with her husband goes south and she finds herself handcuffed to a bed with no chance of rescue. It's up to her to fight through the panic and figure out a way out of this impossible situation using only her wits and a secret buried deep with her memories of childhood trauma.
Expect to hear from campers Kate Siegel, Mike Flanagan, Wynter Mitchell, David Lowery, Akela Cooper, Steve Agee, Devon Sawa, Josh Ruben, Flula Borg, Michael Kennedy, James Austin Johnson, Chuck Tingle, Laura Lux, Matt Fraction, Daniel Danger, Trae Crowder, Patton Oswalt, David Dastmalchian, David Farrier, Stephen Graham Jones, Dave Schilling, Josh Gondelman, Mallory O'Meara and Josh Robert Thompson as they recount their favorite short stories from Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes.
2006's Lisey's Story is King's self-proclaimed favorite novel, but it is one that has proven to be divisive among his constant readers and flies well under the radar of his casual fans. The story follows Lisey, the wife of a famous author, who is trying to cope with the loss of her husband after his untimely death, be there for her sister whose sanity is seemingly slipping away, and all the while having to defend herself against a particularly psychotic fan of her husband's.
Pet Sematary is the one story Stephen King was reluctant to publish and he ultimately did so in order to fulfill his contract with his then publisher. It's the story that examines what a parent would do in the face the most excruciating series of events any mother or father could experience. Sometimes dead is better.
What is one to do when you find an alien spaceship buried on your property? Well, dig it up and start building weird-ass machines that can zap your little brother to a distant planet or sort mail real good. The Tommyknockers isn't one of King's most beloved books, but it does spawn a great discussion when you try to pick it apart.
What is concealed in the mist? Tentacle monsters? Massive behemoths that will squash you without even knowing you exist? Crazy white people? All of the above, it turns out, and every single one of those things are touched on in this episode.
George A. Romero and Stephen King produced 1982's Creepshow and forever changed the landscape of anthology horror. That movie had a massive impact on a whole generation of horror nerds, including today's guest, and now it's time to dig into what still holds up today and what maybe doesn't so much.
Dreamcatcher is Stephen King's return to fiction writing after the accident that almost took his life. It's a novel about a bunch of friends who gather together in the woods as a really weird alien invasion is taking place, and while it does have its fans even King himself dismisses the book as a whiff, written mostly while the author was high on pain killers while his body was mending itself back together. As not great as the book is, the movie is even worse, despite the incredible A-list talen...
King's first foray into straight Fantasy was this 1984 story, The Eyes of the Dragon, which is a Dark Tower adjacent tale about two young princes in a fairy tale kingdom who are pitted against each other by the king's secretly evil magician, who regular Stephen King fans will recognize as the very same Flagg from The Stand. Part palace intrigue, part YA fantasy, The Eyes of the Dragon is an early departure from the horror realm for the author and is still a gripping read to this day.
Stephen King doesn't have much presence in the video game world, but the notable exceptions to this provide some absolutely bizarre King/Video Game tie-ins. The focus of this episode is on four of these weirdos: The Lawnmower Man, The Running Man, The Dark Half, and the CD-ROM collection of oddities known as F13.
Dolores Claiborne has been dealt a crap hand from life and in her later years she's dealt another blow when she finds herself the main suspect in the suspicious death of her tyrannical boss.
