The revered horror author’s books have produced some of the greatest movies of all time, but which adaptation is Stephen King’s favorite? Stephen King became notable as the “King of Horror” back in the 1970s after his horror/supernatural fiction novel Carrie and later The Shining became best-selling sensations. Since then, Stephen King has published 63 novels, over 200 short stories, and sold over 350 million copies — many of which were turned into memorable television and movie adaptations.
While Stephen King is typically known for his horror work like The Shining, It, Misery, and Carrie, he’s also known for supernatural, dramatic, and adventure stories that hold equal sway in pop culture. His fantasy and drama novels/novellas like The Stand, Under the Dome, The Green Mile, and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption are almost forgotten to be written by King because of their less terrifying themes. While many of Stephen King’s movie adaptations have become highly revered in pop culture as some of the greatest films of all time, King is notable for disliking many directors’ takes on his work, especially Stanley Kubrick’s version of his The Shining novel.
King has often changed which adaptations are his favorites, but one has stuck around as his top pick longer than others. Surprisingly, the answer isn’t The Shawshank Redemption, which is listed as one of the most inspirational films of all time, was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and holds the top rating of all movies on IMDb. Stephen King’s favorite adaptation of his work is Rob Reiner’s 1986 movie Stand by Me, a story about four boys who go on a journey to find the dead body of a missing kid, which comes from King’s 1982 novella The Body.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, King had an almost immediate answer to what his favorite movie adaptation was: Stand By Me. He said that Stand by Me was true to the book by maintaining its emotional crux, which the author finds to be an issue with many other Stephen King movie and TV show adaptations of his work. In the same interview, King recalled the emotional moment when Rob Reiner privately screened the movie for him. After first believing he intimidated Reiner, King said that once Stand by Me finished playing, he recollected himself and hugged Reiner while moved to tears, citing how beautiful and autobiographical the film was. King said that Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were close contenders, with Misery being the standout among his horror film adaptations.
Since 1986, Stephen King hasn’t been shy about sharing his affection for Rob Reiner’s version of The Body. After King’s screening of Stand by Me, he told Rob Reiner himself that it was the best adaptation of his work that he had ever seen. Much of Stand by Me reflects Stephen King’s own upbringing in the 1950s, so getting it right was a tough task, and it just goes to show how well Reiner implemented the emotional coming-of-age aspect of King’s story. In the Stand by Me DVD extras, King even relates that the leeches scene from the movie and book actually happened to him when he was a child. Reiner himself thought of Stand by Me as an homage to Stephen King’s gift as a writer, envisioning Gordie, like many of King’s writer characters, as a young version of the author.