Stephen King Reveals 10 Favorite Movies, Still Doesn’t Love Kubrick’s The Shining

Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros.

Not all authors love every big screen adaptation of their work. Case in point: Stephen King. The celebrated horror author, known for classics like It, Misery, and Carrie, has unveiled his 10 favorite movies. And in true King fashion, he’s leaving out the adaptations of his own work from the list.

What are Stephen King’s 10 favorite movies?

In an X post sharing his 10 favorite movies, the author didn’t even bother mentioning the 1980 cult classic The Shining. He did mention his four favorite adaptations of his own work. Those include Misery and Stand by Me (both directed by Rob Reiner), as well as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption (both helmed by Frank Darabont).

Check out King’s 10 top movies of all time “in no particular order:”

Sorcerer (1977) – William Friedkin The Godfather Part II (1974) – Francis Ford Coppola The Getaway (1972) – Sam Peckinpah Groundhog Day (1993) – Harold Ramis Casablanca (1942) – Michael Curtiz The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) – John Huston Jaws (1975) – Steven Spielberg Mean Streets (1973) – Martin Scorsese Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Spielberg Double Indemnity (1944) – Billy Wilder

King has always been vocal about his opinion of Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining. That is despite the film being listed as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, with praise directed at Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall for their exceptional performances.

However, while the feature is a critical darling in addition to being a box office hit, King thinks Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack Torrance did not quite match the whole essence of the character in the book. 

“I feel the same because the character of Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie. Absolutely no arc at all. When we first see Jack Nicholson, he’s in the office of Mr. Ullman, the manager of the hotel, and you know, then, he’s crazy as a shit house rat. All he does is get crazier,” King said in a 2016 interview with Deadline. 

He added, “In the book, he’s a guy who’s struggling with his sanity and finally loses it. To me, that’s a tragedy. In the movie, there’s no tragedy because there’s no real change. The other real difference is at the end of my book the hotel blows up, and at the end of Kubrick’s movie the hotel freezes.”

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