It’s been a good year for Stephen King.
We’re used to the prolific horror author releasing multiple books per year, and 2025 was no different, with Never Flinch and Hansel and Gretel, a collaboration with the late illustrator Maurice Sendak, both hitting Bestseller lists. But we’re not usually treated to so many different titles from King’s massive body of work reimagined and visualized for the screen.
While the shocking death of beloved director Rob Reiner has Constant Readers revisiting his masterful Misery and Stand by Me, the year has seen a record number of adaptations hit theaters and streaming services, including films based on a pair of novellas written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
From murderous monkeys and killer clowns to dystopian game shows and adolescent heroes — not to mention the return of Stranger Things, which continually references the author’s earlier work — 2025 has been a cinematic Stephen King renaissance the likes of which we’ve never seen.
*Keep up with our ongoing end of the year coverage here*
The Monkey
Beginning in July of 2024, genre auteur Osgood Perkins brought a trio of nerve-shattering horror films to the screen. Nestled between Longlegs and Keeper is The Monkey, a gruesome horror comedy based on one of King’s earlier short stories.
First published in 1980, then collected in 1985’s Skeleton Crew, “The Monkey” centers on a wind-up toy possessing the power to kill with the clap of its jangling cymbals. Perkins slightly modifies the animal, presenting a sinister simian who raises a seemingly innocuous drumstick with the ominous tension of cocking a gun. Its paw descends in a deadly drumroll, unleashing random carnage on those within its mysterious range of influence.
Theo James stars in a dual role as the lonely Hal and his estranged twin Bill, who both live in fear of the Monkey’s destruction. Flashbacks follow Christian Convery as the younger twins, who must contend with a series of appalling deaths that turn their lives upside down. More of a conceptual adaptation, Perkins’ film has little in common with King’s original tale. But the writer/director draws on his own painful history to present a nihilistic story about finding connection in the midst of tragedy. Both hilarious and touching, The Monkey is a grim reminder that “everybody dies,” so we might as well dance while we’re still alive.
The Institute
Stephen King has a knack for creating powerful kids. From Danny Torrance (The Shining, 1977) and Charlie McGee (Firestarter, 1980) to the quasi-telepathic Ellie Creed (Pet Sematary, 1983) and members of the Losers’ Club (It, 1986), many of King’s earlier novels follow kids overcoming insurmountable odds. Yet as his own children have aged and the author’s work has evolved with time, King’s child protagonists have grown fewer and farther between.
The 2019 novel The Institute signaled a return to form with a circle of kids adept at wielding psychic powers. Director Jack Bender brings Benjamin Cavell’s adapted teleplay to the small screen in a crowd-pleasing series for MGM+.
We follow a young genius named Luke (Joe Freeman) who awakens in a bedroom nearly identical to his own. But outside the door, he finds himself trapped in an industrial facility run by the deceptive Mrs. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), who insists he’s been tapped to help save the world. Luke and his similarly imprisoned friends are tortured with medical experiments designed to kickstart their psychogenic powers before “graduating” to the building’s dreaded Back Half, where they’re transformed into mindless remote assassins.
Freeman leads a cast of likeable young protagonists while Parker brings a complex villain to life, managing to make us feel for a woman who torments kids after systematically murdering their parents. Bender and Cavell alter the novel’s ending to open the door for season 2, set to premiere in 2026.
Life of Chuck
Constant Readers know that while Stephen King is known as the Master of Horror, he’s well-versed in other genres as well. Published in the 2020 collection If It Bleeds, “The Life of Chuck” is a prime example of the author’s power to tug at our collective heartstrings.
The story begins in a world slowly falling apart. Frightened citizens of a nondescript town are bombarded with farewell messages to someone named Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) before the story takes a surprising turn. As the preeminent adaptor of King’s fiction, Mike Flanagan pens a faithful script, demonstrating his skill in capturing the author’s emotional undercurrent. The film premiered in 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of a nationwide release in 2025.
Hiddleston stars as the adult Chuck Kranz while Nick Offerman narrates reflections on a happy life, told in three distinct chapters. An all-star cast of Flanagan regulars brings each element of the story to life, including Mark Hamill, David Dastmalchian, Mia Sara, and Matthew Lillard. Flanagan’s poignant script asks audiences to reflect on the fleeting beauty of life, mirroring King’s coming-of-age drama “The Body,” later adapted in Reiner’s powerful Stand by Me. A pair of dance sequences also form a striking parallel to Perkins’ The Monkey, reminding us that our existence will someday come to an end, so we should enjoy each moment while we can.
The Long Walk
One of the author’s most emotional adaptations is not based on a Stephen King story at all. Concerned that he was overproducing, the author spent his young adulthood simultaneously writing under his own increasingly famous name and the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Arguably, the best of the so-called Bachman Books is The Long Walk, a dystopian novel following a group of teen boys who volunteer for a disturbing game.
The nation watches 100 contestants walk at a brisk 4 miles an hour until only one remains. Should they slow down three times within an hour, a nearby soldier will shoot them to death. The winner receives a lifetime of wealth and fulfillment of a single wish, while the other 99 become discarded corpses along the road.
Francis Lawrence adapts this famously touching novel with a powerful script from JT Mollner that wisely focuses on characterization. After all, King’s story is essentially a string of conversations as the boys traverse Maine country roads, punctuated by each walker’s brutal death.
Cooper Hoffman leads the talented cast as the everyman protagonist Ray Garraty, while David Jonsson steals each scene as the eternally optimistic Peter McVries. A handful of other young actors fill out the walkers’ ranks while Mark Hamill makes his second King appearance of the year as the stern yet bloodthirsty Major, barking dehumanizing encouragement from behind mirrored sunglasses.
Lawrence and Mollner dramatically reverse King’s cryptic ending in a shocking commentary on our current political landscape. It’s a change on par with Frank Darabont’s famously nihilistic The Mist, which elevates the source material while demanding we reconsider our understanding of right and wrong.
The Running Man
In an interesting coincidence, The Long Walk was followed two months later by another Richard Bachman adaptation that exists in the same dark universe. While Lawrence’s film is a harrowing yet contemplative study of male friendship in a brutal world, The Running Man is an action-packed satire filled with anger and aggression. The story follows another deadly game show in which a chosen contestant must “run” for 30 days from an elite band of assassins dedicated to tracking him down. The chase will end either with the contestant receiving a life-changing monetary prize or being executed on live TV.
Edgar Wright brings this story to the screen in a script co-written by Michael Bacall, hewing much closer to King’s original story than the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger spectacle. Glen Powell stars as the angry Ben Richards, who begrudgingly accepts this dangerous role, hoping to access a better life for his wife and child. But once he sees the Network’s egregious deception, Ben vows to tear the system down.
Josh Brolin co-stars as the shark-like Killian, a Network producer who will stop at nothing to increase his own power, while Lee Pace emerges in a bombastic conclusion that reframes our understanding of hero and villain. Wright’s frenetic film is both an action-adventure tinged with brutal death and an endearing story of grassroots activism. In another parallel to The Long Walk, Wright extends King’s famously bleak ending, offering catharsis, hope, and empowerment.
It: Welcome to Derry
The year concluded with a bang as the long-awaited prequel series It: Welcome to Derry premiered to record numbers on HBO. Co-created by Jason Fuchs along with Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the show reimagines one of three deadly flashbacks chronicled in King’s bestselling novel.
Set in 1962, one generation before we meet our beloved Losers’ Club, the season brings to life the harrowing fire at the Black Spot speakeasy, a devastating hate crime led by Derry’s prominent leaders. As this horrific mass murder nears, we meet a group of intrepid kids, not unlike the Losers themselves, who find themselves tasked with battling the shape-shifting monster known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård).
The eight-episode season opens with a grisly bait and switch, proving that no one is safe in this dangerous world. Skarsgård reprises his role as the sinister clown, debuting both the human source of his Pennywise persona and a blood-soaked monster in the series finale. An eerie opening sequence set to “A Smile and a Ribbon” by Patience and Prudence previews upcoming seasons in quaint illustrations of the horrific violence featured in King’s terrifying novel.
Constant Readers who thought they knew what to expect were dazzled by the show’s blend of terrifying sequences and infectious heart, not to mention exciting ties to the author’s larger connected universe. Most exciting of these is the inclusion of the fan-favorite Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), first introduced in the pages of The Shining. Shocking revelations in the powerful season finale throw our expected timeline into the wind and promise exciting developments yet to come. Though a second season has not been confirmed, the show’s massive fanbase all but ensures we will soon be returning to King’s dangerous town.
Perhaps it’s fitting that a year of real-world terror should see a record number of releases drawn from the work of the unrivaled Master of Horror. Thanks to these six adaptations, we’ve channeled our existential dread by dancing through the pain of death and combating a predatory dystopia while leaning on friends along the way. The year may be drawing to a close, but with Flanagan’s Carrie adaptation nearing release and King’s third Talisman novel on the horizon, this exciting King renaissance shows no signs of slowing down.
The post Best of 2025: Why This Year Marks a New Stephen King Renaissance appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
![“Nell’s Diner” Map Now Available in ‘Phasmophobia’ [Trailer]](https://www.otako.art/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/horror.png)