Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves is hosting the Thursday Movie Picks. It's a cool, blogathon-esque activity which calls for bloggers to submit three picks each Thursday based on the theme she has chosen. She's got some great ones lined up. You can read all about it, here.
This week's theme is "Movies based on a Stephen King book/short story." There are lots to choose from, and a few different ways I could approach this, but I settled on going with my three favorite such movies. Without further adieu, here they are...
Misery
Misery is the first King novel that I read before seeing the movie. Needless to say, I was apprehensive about watching it. I figured they would butcher it. Well, other than a few small changes (to make it less gory, believe it or not), it survived intact. Kathy Bates gives a jaw-dropping performance and provides us with one of the best movie villains of all time. What makes this my favorite of all the horror movies adapted from King's work is that you can feel the writer's own paranoia bleeding through. Where most of his horror stuff seems to come from a twisted imagination, Misery seems to be the manifestation of his own worst fears. Why wouldn't he be afraid of a crazed fan holding him hostage, he's only the most recognizable American fiction writer of all-time.
The Shawshank Redemption
This is just an amazing piece of story-telling. There is never an unsure step taken and each one draws you a little deeper into the lives of the men on the screen. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman deliver masterful performances and help create the greatest bromance of all time. Now, it's not the best movie ever made like the users at imdb.com would have you believe. Still, it's a truly outstanding picture. (Click here for my full review)
Stand by Me
Every time I watch Stand by Me, I'm instantly a twelve year old boy again scared out of my mind, but compelled by the prospect of seeing a dead body. Everything about this movie works for me. It's dripping with tension, it's got lots of humor, and the camaraderie on display is amazing. As the boys make their journey across occasionally treacherous terrain, I'm right with them. Whenever there are run-ins with the older boys, I'm quaking in my boots. And please don't mention the train. I could go on, but suffice it to say this movie is magical to me.Those are just my faves. The great thing about Stephen King is that so much of his work has been adapted, there are lots more that I really like and just didn't include today. What are your favorites?