TOP TEN HORROR FILMS

[The Amstor Computer]

IMO, Cats Eye was a disaster. It was never intended to be an anthology feature, and the final result reflects this. That the two tales chosen to accompany the Drew Barrymore episode were in themselves fairly slight didn't help. Again, having King on writing duties seems to have harmed the project more than it helped - for someone with such insight into storytelling, it's amazing how blind he can be when it comes to adapting his own work for the big- or small-screen.

[Art]

Better that than trying to stretch two-dozen page stories into 2-hour movies.

Have to disagree with you there. Theres a fair argument that short storys make better movies than novels because they have a similar structure -- certainly in the case of Steven King some of the best adaptations have been from short stories.

[The Amstor Computer]

Not sure about that Art - IMO, the best - that is, both faithful and good in their own right - King adaptations have been:

The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Misery

The only one of those that really qualifies as a short story - and even then, only by a stretch - is the Shawshank Redemption, which was adapted from King's "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". King has had many of his short stories adapted ("The Night Flier", "The Langoliers", "The Ledge", "Quitting Inc." etc...) with varying degrees of success, but I can't think of one that I would put on a par with the three adaptations listed above.

I am, as always, open to a good argument otherwise... :-)

[Valhalla]

I want to give a mention to "Sleepy Hollow"

Tim burton created a kind of fairy tale with sleepy hollow. Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp portray brilliant characters and Christopher walkens horseman is the ultimate in EVIL!

[SmallBlueThing]

Now, this is more like it. If strange to find on this board after all the buttock-flurry that's been said of late.

A top ten is extremely hard, but if pressed I'd have to go for:

1. An American Werewolf In London
2. The Wicker Man
3. The Fog
4. The Blair Witch Project
5. Ghostwatch
6. Exorcist III
7. Day Of The Dead
8. The Thing (Carpenter's version)
9. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
10. Wendigo

This is based upon the movies that have affected me in the most profound ways, over the years. Bubbling under would be Halloween, Opera, Martin, Nightbreed, Texas Chainsaw 2, Evil Dead and ED2, Nosferatu, Dracula's Daughter, The Brainiac, Dog Soldiers, Deathwatch, ReAnimator, Dagon, Prince of Darkness, Hammer's Dracula, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, Asylum, Dr Terror's House of Horrors, From Beyond The Grave, Addio Ultimo Uomo, The Monster Club, Basket Case, Peeping Tom, Witchfinder General, Them! and Salem's Lot. Not necessarily all GREAT (or even good) movies/ tv, but my favourites.

Steev

[Last of the V8's]

Hey Steev a man after my own heart, classics all...nearly.
Wendigo that good then?

[Art]

Mmmm. Good point.And you avoided mentioning The Shining which I would have had discounted due to Kings awful version of it. However there a lot of quite successful King short stiry films Stand By Me, Apt Pupil, The Running Man, hell, I'd even make a sort of argument for Children of the Corn  and Maximum Overdrive. They may not hit the top 3, but I;d say theres at least an equal number of decent short story adaptations to novel adaptations, especially if you include things that might more properly called "novellas" (poncy term for SHort Stroy double-length special, if you ask me). I guess I should stop short of including Kings shorter novels like Carrie on my list.

...oh, and The Mangler . Though possibly I'm the only person who enjoyed that film quite as much as I did

[paulvonscott]

I think that with the amount of stephen king adaptations, it's just a case of probability that some of them will be any good.  I would never watch a movie because it was based on a stephen king book, in fact unless I'd heard anything good about it, I'd stay well clear.

[abraxas22]

Hard to pin it down but I'll go for
1.the Thing
2.Dawn of the Dead
3.Alien
4.Halloween
5.American Werewolf in London
6.The Howling
7.Phantasm
8.The Omen
9.Poltergeist
10.Scream

recent films bubbling under are 28 Days Later,
Wrong Turn and The Ring.
Plus anybody seen 'Versus' deeply cool and not exactly what you expect.Ghosts of Mars is ok but
the flashbacks within flashback structure grates a bit.

[SmallBlueThing]

Cap'n:

Wendigo good enough for me to order the Canadian version of the DVD (complete with upsidey downey English/ French box). Yes, well, I like it anyway. I have a hard time describing this particular movie to people because on the one hand I want to say "it's unlike anything I've ever seen". And on the other "It's like Fargo meets Deliverence with Herne the Hunter from Robin of Sherwood thrown in".

Played completely straight, with great performances, lowest-budget effects that do exactly what effects should- deceive the eye into making you think you've seen something impossible *and giving you an emotional jolt with it*, a deeply engrossing script and a Deliverence-like trepidation for the future, Wendigo is bloody fantastic.

Cue voice of dissent popping up to say "no, it's shit, and you must be a prick".

Steev

[Art]

I seem to be the only person who was utterly underwelmed by Versus, though thats posibly because I was having a mini-spree of watching Taakashi Miike films before it and it pales by comparison.

[SmallBlueThing]

Of course, merely mentioning Top Ten horror films means that certain films drop out of my brain. I am therefore ashamed not to have mentioned:

The Legend of Hell House
The Haunting (do I really have to write "orginal version" here?)
Francis Ford Coppola's Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Interview With The Vampire
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
Suspiria
Tenebrae
Inferno
Deep Red
Demons
Demons2
and the sublime 'Two Orphan Vampires'. Jean Rollin, you are criminally underrated and a true auteur.

Steev

[The Amstor Computer]

Aah - I'd forgotten "Stand By Me", another one of the "Different Seasons" shorts (this book seems to have spawned most of the classy King adaptations)

I'd argue that Running Man isn't strictly an adaptation; after all, it ditches virtually everything about the Bachman/King original but the idea of the "hunters".

Children of the Corn is pretty faithful (though it ditches "He Who Walks Amongst The Rows", one of the more striking ideas in the original short story).

As for Maximum Overdrive, I'd say it makes my point about "two-dozen page stories stretched to two hours" perfectly, as well as standing as a shining example of why King shouldn't be let near adapting his own work.

I'm leaning toward the conclusion that there've been a decent number of King short stories adapted competently, but I can only pick one - Stand By Me/The Body - as being of a kind with Misery/Shawshank/Green Mile.

...And I'm glad someone else hates the King version of The Shining - faithful to the original novel, but heartless, overlong and utterly overshadowed by Kubrick's version (whatever the merits of that film). To be honest, King's appearance as leader of The Overlook house band was one of the few points that I really enjoyed :-)

BTW - what did you think of Creepshow? I thoroughly enjoyed the King/Wrightson comic, and I've got kind of a soft spot for the movie. Too much EC horror probably ;-)

[Art]

Nah, there really isn't such a thing as "too much EC horror", at least not af far as I'm concerned, so I really liked Creepshow.

[Mangamax]

Hmmm, i'll go with:

Nosferatu
Carpenters Thing
Captain Kronos
Whale's Frankenstien
Exorcist
Howling
Near Dark
King Kong
Blair Witch Project
Alien