Stephen King says these two movies are the only films to get his books right

Despite having his work adapted for the big and small screen, Stephen King revealed only two movies managed to capture their source material correctly.

There’s been no shortage of Stephen King adaptations from 1970s Carrie to the up-and-coming bloody vampire flick Salem’s Lot.

Because the author’s work has been transformed into some of the decade’s most iconic horror movies, a debate has emerged on which projects truly capture King’s essence.

Now, these arguments can be put to bed. King told Deadline the only films he felt really captured the true message of his work were Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption.

“[There’s some movies that] I can say, you know, that’s my story. Stand by Me, there’s another one, Shawshank Redemption,” King said. “I’ve had a lot of things where I felt, been able to feel really pleased about the outcome.”

Stand By Me is seen as one of Hollywood’s most iconic coming-of-age stories. It follows a group of four Oregon boys as they try to find the dead body of a stranger who was tragically killed.

The movie made over $3.8 million at the box office in 1986 and currently has a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. One critic referred to it as “a wise, nostalgic movie with a weird streak that captures both Stephen King’s voice and the trials of growing up.”

The Shawshank Redemption lands on the opposite end of King’s spectrum as it tells the harrowing story of Andy Dufresne, a man wrongly sentenced to life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover.

Despite being a box office disappointment, Shawshank quickly became a critical darling, with one review reading, “It’s a movie with dignity and surprises, and before it has finished, it has acquired a good deal of power.”

King is not the only person who has a soft spot for both of these films as the Hartford Courant’s Malcolm Johnson commented, “Next to Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption ranks as the strongest, purest film ever made from a novel or novella by Stephen King, a monster film where the horrors are frighteningly human.”

For more scares, check out our guides to the best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video and horror movies on Disney Plus. You can also take a look at all the other new movies that are coming soon.