Stephen King is not only one of the most successful and prolific authors in the world, but also one of the most filmed authors. It feels like there’s hardly a Stephen King novel that hasn’t already been adapted into a movie, and since the massive success of “IT” and “IT: Chapter 2,” the next wave of film adaptations is currently in full swing. But What is actually the best Stephen King movie? A small note: it is not a horror film, but it is a title that is often considered the best film of all time:
The 10 highest rated Stephen King movies by FILMSTARTS users
- “The Condemned” – 4,673 out of 5 stars
- “The Green Mile” – 4,498 out of 5 stars
- “Shining” – 4,446 out of 5 stars
- “Stand By Me” – 4,333 out of 5 stars
- “Misery” – 4,188 out of 5 stars
- “IT“ – 4,072 out of 5 stars
- “Carrie” – 3,927 out of 5 stars
- Hearts In Atlantis – 3,758 out of 5 stars
- “Running Man” – 3,698 out of 5 stars
- “Dolores” – 3,682 out of 5 stars
Although Stephen King is often referred to as the “King of Horror,” a look at the list shows that King is doing an injustice by limiting his work to this genre. At the top is the prison drama ‘The Condemned’. also known as “The Shawshank Redemption”, based on the novella “Spring Awakening: Pin-up” and has always been number 1 among the best films of all time in the IMDb film database.
In second place is the supernatural drama “The Green Mile”, which is also set in a prison and was directed by Frank Darabont, followed by the first horror film, namely Stanley Kubrick’s “Shining” (which King himself was not happy with at all) . “IT” and “Carrie” are also classic King fare, aka horror. However, ‘Misery’ and ‘Dolores’ are more in the psychological thriller genre, ‘Stand By Me’ is an adventure film for young adults, ‘Hearts In Atlantis’ is another supernatural drama and ‘Running Man’ is even a science fiction film.
There are a few other horror films that just missed the top 10: “IT Chapter 2“receives 3,651 out of 5 stars, just behind “Dolores”, but “Room 1408”, “Dead Zone” and “Christine” and the sequel to “Shining” “Doctor Sleeps Awakening” almost made the ranking.
Finally, a few words about the list above: According to the official figures from IVW for the entire year 2022, FILMSTARTS is the German-language site with the highest reach in the field of films and series. The above list is based on the viewing figures of our community, which includes countless die-hard film fans and occasional moviegoers, and can therefore be seen as representative of the German audience.
All users can give ratings between 0.5 (poor) and 5 stars (masterpiece), as the editors of FILMSTARTS do with their reviews. The resulting average ratings are rounded up to the third decimal place.