The Best Stephen King Horror Movies To Watch During Halloween

Spooky season is upon us and, for a great many movie lovers out there, that means it's time to binge some horror. In the age of streaming, there are countless rabbit holes one could fall down in the quest to find the perfect horror movie to watch. From the endless sea of stuff on Netflix to the surprisingly robust offerings from free streaming sites like Tubi, it can all be a bit overwhelming. We're here to help by narrowing things down a bit by offering up some suggestions based on the works of Stephen King, one of history's all-time great horror virtuosos.

Dating back to 1976's "Carrie," there have been dozens of movies based on King's work over the years. Some of them have been great, some of them have been not-so-great, and more than a few of them have been outright terrible. There are, of course, masterworks such as "The Shining" which are in regular rotation. What we're here to do today, however, is offer up some suggested viewing beyond the super-obvious to help enhance your Halloween season. So, here are some of the best Stephen King movies to watch this year, and why they're worth your time.

John Carpenter didn't earn the nickname "The Horror Master" for nothing. We're talking about the man who made "Halloween" and "The Thing," among many other classics. Only good things can happen when that man gets his hands on some Stephen King source material. Two masters of the genre married as one. The result is 1983's "Christine," which Carpenter only directed because he needed a job. Even so, the man did his job and did it well. The tale of a killer car could have come off as ridiculously silly but because Carpenter knows how to walk a fine line, the film still works incredibly well. Is a movie about a car that kills people going to be un-serious at times? You bet. But Carpenter knew how to get the most out of the material.

"Christine" is a movie that feels right at home in the early '80s and serves as a nice little time capsule of non-slasher horror films from that era. Slashers were so dominant at that time that it's easy to forget lots of other stuff was going on in the genre as well. This isn't one of the most talked about King adaptations, nor is it one of Carpenter's most talked about movies, but maybe it should be a little higher up on both of those lists.

For whatever reason, we just don't get all that many great (or even good) werewolf movies all that often anymore. Hollywood is more content to pursue the likes of ghosts, vampires, and masked killers. There are classics such as "The Wolf Man" and "An American Werewolf in London" to go back to, but one that often gets left out of the conversation is 1985's "Silver Bullet." Directed by Paul Naschy and based on King's "Cycle of the Werewolf," one could make the argument it's one of the more underrated werewolf movies ever made.

The film sees a werewolf stalking a small town, with only a young, wheelchair-using kid (Corey Haim) willing to see the truth. With the help of his black sheep uncle (Gary Busey), they set out to identify and destroy the monster. While it wouldn't be right to argue that "Silver Bullet" is an out-and-out masterpiece, it's also fair to say it's better than its reputation suggests. As both a King adaptation and as part of the werewolf movie canon, it's worth a second — or perhaps a first — look.

If this were a ranking of Stephen King movies (which it's not), it would be an absolute crime to leave out 1990s "Misery." There are times when adaptations of King's work have differed greatly from the source material, with varying degrees of effectiveness. King famously hates Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," even though it's widely considered a stone-cold classic. But director Rob Reiner's take on King's 1987 novel of the same name is both incredibly faithful to what's on the page while making seemingly every right decision to ensure that story sings on the silver screen. The resulting film is a terse, tight, nerve-racking thriller for the ages.

The story centers on Paul Sheldon (James Caan), a novelist who gets into a terrible car accident and is rescued by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who happens to be his biggest fan. The former nurse cares for him in her remote house but things take a turn when she finds out that the author plans to kill off his signature character, Misery Chastain, in his latest book.

It's a movie without a slack moment in it, and one that makes the viewer tense up with fear during every viewing. There's a reason that "Misery" is the only movie based on King's work to win an Oscar, with Bates taking home the Best Actress prize for it. Right alongside movies like "The Shawshank Redemption" and another movie we'll be talking about in a moment, this is one of the greatest adaptations of King's work ever put to screen.

When one says the name Stephen King, there's a damn good chance that the first thing that comes to mind for a large number of people is Pennywise the clown. That's because the author's 1986 novel "It" remains, nearly 40 years later, arguably his most cherished work. In 2017, director Andy Muschietti translated that work to screen in a way that resonated with audiences like no horror movie had ever before. That's not hyperbole either, as "It" remains the highest-grossing horror film in history. Not just a movie that came along at the right place and right time, "It" is deserving of the praise.

Muschietti decided to divide King's hulking novel into two parts, with the first entry focusing on the Losers Club in their younger years contending with Pennywise, played brilliantly by Bill Skarsgard. The resulting film is dripping with '80s nostalgia that isn't just there for nostalgia's sake, but actually serves the story at hand. It's a film that looks great, has some incredible scares, amazing production values, and is perfectly cast from top to bottom. It's as close to perfect as genre filmmaking of this scale can afford.

For what it's worth, even though "It Chapter Two" didn't match the same heights as its predecessor, I would go to bat for a double feature here to get the full story. The second "It" film is better than its reputation suggests, in this writer's humble opinion. Viewed together, the two movies are a damn impressive take on King's classic.

Though not as overtly horrific in the way a killer clown eating kids is, for example, director David Cronenberg's "The Dead Zone" is perhaps the most unfairly overlooked Stephen King adaptation in history. Hailing from a true master of the genre with one of Chistiopher Walken's best performances, there has never been a better excuse to watch this harrowing tale of a man's whose life is torn to shreds by a tragic car accident, emerging five years later with a power he doesn't want — one that provides him with a responsibility he can't ignore.

The film centers on Johnny Smith (Walken), a teacher who discovers that he can see people's futures after waking from a coma. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after he shakes the hand of an ambitious and amoral politician, he is forced to decide if he should take drastic action to change the future. It's a slow burn, twisted tale featuring serial killers, more quandaries, tragic love, and nightmarish political overtones. "The Kingcast" co-host Eric Vespe called "The Dead Zone" an "overlooked masterpiece" while writing for /Film in 2021. That has to count for something.

Having recently rewatched this film for the first time since I was a teenager, I was enamored with it. While "The Dead Zone" is available on streaming, for physical media collectors out there, I can't recommend the Scream Factory 4K enough, which you can grab on Amazon. It truly looks like a new movie and is loaded with special features. Regardless of how one chooses to watch it, this is a must-see for King fans and fans of horror in general.