Stephen King's Favorite TV Project Inspired An Acclaimed Netflix Horror Series

There have been many Stephen King movies on the big screen, but if you ask the master of horror himself, he thinks TV is a better medium for his work — specifically the TV miniseries. "I think my novels are much better suited for miniseries presentations," he says in the book "Hollywood's Stephen King." There have been a handful of King miniseries over the years — before "It" became two blockbuster movies, it was a beloved (and scary) miniseries starring Tim Curry. There was also "The Tommyknockers," "The Langoliers," and of course, Tobe Hooper's "Salem's Lot." These miniseries are all adaptations of King's pre-existing work, but in 1999, King tried something different: an original miniseries he wrote from scratch. 

In 1997, King finally got a chance to adapt "The Shining" his way. The author spent decades complaining about Stanley Kubrick's acclaimed adaptation of his haunted hotel novel, and then ABC came along to help King realize his dream of a "Shining" adaptation that stuck to the book. King penned the script for a new "Shining" miniseries that clocked in at 273 minutes across three episodes. Directed by Mick Garris, this take on "The Shining" is very literal, and it's also nowhere near as good as Kubrick's movie (sorry, Mr. King). No matter: it ended up being a big hit for ABC. And King was now hooked on the miniseries idea. "It's been fun, the minseries thing, to learn how to write that way," King is quoted as saying in the book "Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide," adding: "I'd like to take the skills I've learned and put them to work not as an adapter of my own work, but working directly in this form, making it all up for the first time." 

ABC was thrilled at the prospect of more Stephen King, so they gave the author the greenlight to pen his own original miniseries. The result was "Storm of the Century."

"Storm of the Century" is set on Little Tall Island, a fictional spot off the coast of Maine which is also the setting of King's novel "Dolores Claiborne." As the miniseries begins, the residents of the island are preparing to batten down the hatches as a blizzard is forecasted to sweep into town. Sure enough, the storm arrives — and with it comes a mysterious stranger named Andre Linoge, played with suitable menace by Colm Feore. After Linoge senselessly murders an old woman, he gets locked up in the town's very tiny town jail (which is also located in a convenience store) by local lawman Mike Anderson (Tim Daly). 

Linoge is fond of repeating a mysterious mantra: "Give me what I want and I'll go away." He also appears to have supernatural abilities, because he knows the deep dark secrets of seemingly everyone in town. Eventually, the townsfolk huddle in the town hall as the storm rages on. Linoge escapes from the jail and tells everyone that what he wants is one of the town's children to raise as his own. If the island residents give him a child (they have to do it of their own free will; he can't just kidnap a kid by force — he may be a supernatural demon, but hey, he plays by the rules!), he'll take the youngster and leave everyone else alone. If they don't give in to his demands, they'll all die a horrible death. It's a morality play: will the islanders stand up to this evil man, or will they sacrifice an innocent child to save their own bacon? 

If you've avoided seeing "Storm of the Century," I won't spoil how things turn out. But as for the miniseries itself, King was pretty pleased with the results. "My favorite made-for-television production is 'Storm of the Century,'" he says in "Hollywood's Stephen King." "I love that as a piece of work, and I am still very proud of it. In my mind, it is as good as the best of the novels. Everything worked the way it was supposed to: The setting of the harbor town, the convincing sense of snow piling up, and Colm Feore was terrific in the role of Andre Linoge." 

"Storm of the Century" aired across three nights. The first installment arrived on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1999. The second part dropped on February 15, 1999. And part three was released on February 18, 1999. It seems somewhat strange that there was gap between episodes 2 and 3 — why not air them all back-to-back? On top of that, "Storm of the Century" was not as big of a ratings hit as ABC had hoped for.

The network poured a lot of advertising money into the miniseries, but according to the book "Creepshows," the "numbers were lower than for any previous King adaptation on television." It probably didn't help that the third and final installment aired the same exact night as George Clooney's final episode of "ER," which was broadcast on rival network NBC. Most people decided to tune in for Clooney rather than King. 

Despite all this, "Storm of the Century" has plenty of fans. And not only does King count it as his favorite TV production, but modern horror master Mike Flanagan has sung the praises of the miniseries. In fact, he even cites it as a direct influence on one of his acclaimed Netflix series. 

Mike Flanagan knows a thing or two about Stephen King. To date, Flanagan has adapted multiple King works to the screen: "Gerald's Game," "Doctor Sleep," and the upcoming "The Life of Chuck." He's also attached to adapt King's "Dark Tower" series at some point. Flanagan has plenty of original, non-adapted projects to his name, too. And in my humble opinion, the very best (with "The Haunting of Hill House" being a very close second) is "Midnight Mass." This Netflix series deals with issues of faith, death, and remorse. It's also about vampires. With that in mind, you might think that the King work "Midnight Mass" is drawing inspiration from is "Salem's Lot," King's novel about a small town overrun with bloodsuckers. And sure, there's some "Salem's Lot" to be found in "Midnight Mass."

But as it turns out, Flanagan also took some cues from "Storm of the Century," too. On his Tumblr page, the filmmaker confirmed the "Storm of the Century" inspiration, witing: 

I adore STORM OF THE CENTURY. Absolutely nodded toward it a few times, including (and especially) the Sheriff's office in the convenience store. The town meeting sequence of STORM is the finest scene of its kind I've ever seen, and I definitely had that in mind a few times while writing MASS.

It also makes sense: both "Storm of the Century" and "Midnight Mass" are set in small communities nestled on islands, and both deal with the residents of the respective islands grappling with their own innermost dark impulses. "Midnight Mass" is a modern horror masterpiece (a mass-terpiece?), and it's fun to know that Flanagan drew some inspiration from one of King's favorite TV projects.