The love affair between Hollywood and the work of Stephen King has existed for more than 40 years now. In 1976 Brian De Palma introduced the world to his version of Carrie, and since then filmmakers have been working constantly to bring King's special vision into live action. As you would expect from any author, it's a mixed bag of results, with some films being incredible cinematic achievements and others being sincere disappointments -- but one thing that many of them happen to have in common is that you find a way to stream and watch them online.
Literally hundreds of Stephen King adaptations exist -- the bulk being short films, straight-to-video features and built for television -- but we are here to talk specifically about the movies. There are 39 big screen takes on King's work currently available to stream across Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and HBO, and you can find our full breakdown of the market below and across the next few pages. Read on, and happy watching!
Carrie (1976)
It's only fitting that it was Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, that was his first adapted work. In this classic horror film, nominated for two Academy Awards, we follow the story of the titular young girl -- a shy and constantly abused high school student whose pain winds up spawning dangerous telekinetic gifts.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is one of the more controversial Stephen King adaptations, as pretty much everyone in the world loves the film except for the author himself. In the movie, Jack Nicholson stars as Jack Torrance, a writer who moves his family to a secluded hotel in the mountains only to find himself driven mad by the isolation and demons that reside there.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Creepshow (1982)
George A. Romero's Creepshow is a slightly different entry than most on this list, in that it's not a Stephen King adaptation. Instead, it's the first screenplay that King ever wrote -- structured as an anthology film that tells five different creepy horror stories. Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen and more star.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Cujo (1983)
Cujo, directed by Lewis Teague, centers on the titular friendly, innocent St. Bernard... who stops being so friendly and innocent. After contracting rabies, the giant dog becomes crazy and lethal, and as a result begins to terrorize a small town. Horror icon Dee Wallace stars in the film.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
The Dead Zone (1983)
In 1983 it was David Cronenberg's turn to try out some Stephen King material, and wound up with the job adapting the 1977 novel The Dead Zone. Starring Christopher Walken, the movie follows an ordinary schoolteacher who awakens from a five year coma to discover that he has psychic abilities that spark any time he comes into contact with another person.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Christine (1983)
A teen getting their first car is a rite of passage, but it's one that turns deadly in 1983's Christine. John Carpenter took on this particular adaptation, which follows Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) as his life changes following the purchase of a beaten-up 1958 Plymouth Fury. He becomes completely obsessed with restoring the vehicle, but slowly discovers that "Christine" has a dangerous influence over him.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Children of the Corn (1984)
Fritz Kiersch's Children of the Corn is one the classic "kids are creepy," based on Stephen King's short story from 1977. The main narrative begins as a young couple (Linda Hamilton, Peter Horton) is driving cross-country to Seattle and gets in an accident while driving through Nebraska. What they are disturbed to discover, however, is that every adult in the area is dead, and that the local town is controlled by a child-run cult.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Netflix and Hulu, and rent on Amazon Video
Firestarter (1984)
In the years following her breakout role in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, young Drew Barrymore doubled down on Stephen King in the mid-1980s, and the first up was Mark L. Lester's Firestarter. In it, Barrymore plays a girl born to telekinetic parents (Andy Keith, Heather Locklear) and develops pyrokinesis. Unfortunately, this makes her the target of a secret government agency, forcing her family on the run.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Cat's Eye (1985)
Lewis Teague's Cat's Eye was the second Stephen King film starring Drew Barrymore -- though this one is based on a King screenplay and is not an adaptation. Another anthology film, this movie features three separate stories linked together by the perspective of a stray cat in search of a little girl who is calling for help.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Silver Bullet (1985)
In the making of Dan Attias' Silver Bullet, Stephen King once again adapted his own work, writing the screenplay based on his novella Cycle of the Werewolf. Set in the mid-1970s and centering on a dysfunctional family, the movie chronicles the terror inflicted on a small town by a murderous werewolf, and sports an impressive cast that includes Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim, and Terry O'Quinn.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Everybody knows Stephen King for his work in the horror genre, but he decided to up the laughs when he got behind the camera to make his directorial debut in 1986 with Maximum Overdrive. Starring Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, and Yeardley Smith, the adaptation of the short story Trucks is a sci-fi comedy set in a world where machines not only become sentient, but homicidal.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on HBO Go/HBO Now, and rent on Amazon Video
Stand By Me (1986)
Stephen King is not only immensely gifted at writing scares, but also younger characters -- and no piece of work demonstrates that better than Stand By Me. The first King adaptation from Rob Reiner, it's as classic as coming-of-age tales get, following four young boys (Will Sheton, Jerry O'Connell, River Phoenix and Corey Feldman) living in Oregon who go on a hike to find a dead body.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Creepshow 2 (1987)
As noted earlier, the first Creepshow allowed Stephen King to have his first attempt at a screenplay, but he had a bit less involvement with the sequel, Creepshow 2. The movie is once again an anthology feature, but rather than doing the script, King merely crafted the stories, and George A. Romero took care of the writing.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)
Tobe Hooper's classic adaptation of Salem's Lot back in 1979 didn't qualify for this list because it aired on television first, but funny enough its sequel, Larry Cohen's A Return To Salem's Lot, does. While hardly acclaimed, this sequel starring Michael Moriarty follows a man and his son who find themselves vacationing in King's famously vampire-infested New England town.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
The Running Man (1987)
You wouldn't normally think that "Stephen King" and "Arnold Schwarzenegger" would be two pieces part of the same puzzle, but that's what they became in Paul Michael Graser's The Running Man. The movie is a futuristic vision of the year 2019 and follows a man framed for murder who is forced to compete on a violent game show called The Running Man and fight for his life.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Pet Sematary (1989)
Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary follows a young couple (Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby) as they move to a new neighborhood, and find their lives struck by tragedy when their son (Miko Hughes) is killed. Unable to cope with the grief, they go against the warnings of their neighbor (Fred Gwynne) and bury the body in a cemetery where the dead are known to come back to life.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Hulu and Amazon Prime
Graveyard Shift (1990)
Not all Stephen King adaptations are real winners, and Graveyard Shift definitely isn't one of the better ones - telling the story of mysterious deaths during the late night shift at a textile mill. It probably isn't worth seeing under normal circumstances, but if you're aiming to watch every single Kind movie available, it's out there.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Misery (1990)
At the start of this classic horror from Rob Reiner, author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) thinks that he is the luckiest man in the world, having been rescued from a car crash by an adoring fan (Kathy Bates). This feeling quickly wears off, however, when he realizes that the woman has an extremely unhealthy attachment to his most famous protagonist, Misery Chastain, who he plans to kill off in his next book.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
*The Lawnmower Man (1992)
This one requires a bit of background -- which would explain the asterisk above. In 1975 Stephen King wrote a short story called The Lawnmower Man, and his name was originally credited on director Brett Leonard's 1992 film of the same name. Given the fact that the two narratives feature almost zero connection, King was able to successfully sue and get his name removed from the feature... but we've decided to include it here anyway.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Hulu and rent on Amazon Video
Sleepwalkers (1992)
When it comes to Stephen King adaptations, Mick Garris is perhaps better known for his small screen efforts (including 1994's The Stand and 1997's The Shining), but he got his first whack at the author's work in 1992 with the movie Sleepwalkers. Rather than being about people who shambolically move around while they are unconscious, this is a story about a pair of virgin-hungry vampire/werecats (Brian Krause, Alice Krige) who move their game to a small town in Indiana.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Children Of The Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992)
Like Return To Salem's Lot, David Price's Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice is another film that did not have Stephen King in any way involved -- but since it's based on his work and available streaming, we felt obligated to include it. The movie is a direct sequel to the original from 1984, but this time centers on a reporter who is with his young son in town writing a story about the cut.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
The Dark Half (1993)
In this Stephen King adaptation from fellow horror legend George A. Romero, Timothy Hutton stars as Thad Beaumont: an amiable man and author famous for the pitch black sensibilities in his work. What Thad doesn't realize, however, is that this darkness comes straight from his legit alter ego, George Stark, and George grows tired of playing second fiddle.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Hulu and Amazon Prime
Needful Things (1993)
Top billed by Max von Sydow and Ed Harris, Fraser C. Heston's adaptation of Needful Things is set in a small town where a strange older man opens up a new shop. While he seems to offer something that everyone in town needs and charges very little, the cost also involves each person playing a "joke" on a neighbor -- and it's this that winds up leading the burb to devolve into chaos.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Hailed by many as one of the greatest films of the late 20th century, Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption tells the epic story of an innocent man (Tim Robbins) who is sent away to prison for murdering his wife, and learns to adjust to life behind bars with the help of a fellow inmate (Morgan Freeman).
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Kathy Bates did amazing work with Stephen King material in Misery, but she has said that her turn in Taylor Hackford's Dolores Claiborne is the performance of her own that she loves most. In the movie, she plays the titular character who is a maid accused of killing her elderly employer, and while the story reveals through flashbacks the events as they unfolded, it also explores the strained relationship she has with her daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Thinner (1996)
Tom Holland, best known as the director of Fright Night and Child's Play, got his first crack at a Stephen King story with Thinner in 1996. Robert John Burke stars as an obese lawyer who finds himself cursed after hitting a gypsy woman with his car. Rapidly becoming skinnier and skinnier, he must find a way to reverse the spell before withering away into nothing.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Apt Pupil (1998)
In 1998, director Bryan Singer adapted Stephen King's novella Apt Pupil as his follow-up to the Oscar-winning The Usual Suspects. In the story, a high school student (Brad Renfro) discovers that one of his neighbors (Ian McKellen) is a Nazi war criminal who is a fugitive and has been living in hiding.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)
Arriving a full 33 years after the first Carrie, director Katt Shea's The Rage: Carrie 2 reveals that Stephen King's famed protagonist had a half-sister, Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl), who also possesses telekinetic abilities and uses them to get revenge. It should be noted that King had nothing to do with this notorious flop.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Hulu
The Green Mile (1999)
In the second Stephen King adaptation from Frank Darabont, audiences are taken to back to 1933 and the events on the Green Mile -- the nickname for Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. The story follows the guards who work there and their encounters with a prisoner named John Coffey, a giant convicted of murdering two children who they learn possesses a supernatural and beautiful gift.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
It was only in summer 2017 that The Dark Tower finally got its own adaptation, but in 2001 one of Stephen King's tie-in books did make it to the big screen. Scott Hicks' Hearts In Atlantis is about a single mother (Hope Davis) and young son (Anton Yelchin) who find their lives mysteriously begin to change with the arrival of an enigmatic man named Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins).
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Dreamcatcher (2003)
Lawrence Kasdan's Dreamcatcher is one of the more controversial Stephen King adaptations - and sadly it's not for any good reasons. All the same, the feature puts together a talented ensemble, uniting Damian Lewis, Thomas Jane, Timothy Olyphant and Jason Lee as a group of friends on a hunting trip who wind up in a terrifying showdown with a parasitic alien.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Secret Window (2004)
Stephen King sure does love having authors as protagonists, and David Koepp's Secret Window is one of many examples. In this one, Johnny Depp plays a recently-divorced author who finds himself terrorized by a man named John Shooter (John Turturro). Shooter claims that Rainey's story, "Secret Window," is plagiarized from a story of his own, and is willing to go to extreme lengths to get justice.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Riding The Bullet (2004)
In yet another Stephen King adaptation from director Mick Garris, Jonathan Jackson stars as a young man trying to hitchhike to the hospital so that he can be at his dying mother's bedside, but it leads him to serious trouble when he is picked up by an odd stranger (David Arquette) who forces him to make a terrible choice. Riding The Bullet is hardly one of the most acclaimed King movies out there, but it is out there.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
1408 (2007)
John Cusack stars in Mikael Håfström's 1408 as a professional "debunker" -- an author who investigates reported hauntings and exposes them as frauds. He begins to doubt everything he's ever believed, however, when he arrives at the Dolphin Hotel and the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) brings him to the famed and notorious room 1408.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Hulu and rent on Amazon Video
The Mist (2007)
The third Stephen King feature adaptation from Frank Darabont, The Mist is set in a sleepy town that finds itself overtaken by a mysterious fog that brings with it a variety of horrifying monsters. A group of neighbors try to survive by holing up in a local supermarket, but discover that their own natures may be just as dangerous as the creatures outside.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Carrie (2013)
With the Carrie brand somewhat tainted by the flop sequel, director Kimberly Peirce tried to bring it back to life in 2013 with a new remake of the classic story. Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore star in the roles previously made iconic by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, respectively.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
A Good Marriage (2014)
Stephen King doesn't make a regular habit of adapting his own work. In fact, he has only done it twice. The first was the aforementioned Pet Sematary, and the second is Peter Askin's A Good Marriage. In it, Joan Allen stars as a woman who discovers a terrifying secret about her husband (Anthony LaPaglia), and must do what she can to try and keep it buried.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to rent on Amazon Video
Mercy (2014)
Stephen King wrote the horror short Gramma back in 1984, but it wasn't until 30 years later that it found its way to the big screen. Starring Frances O'Connor, Chandler Riggs, Joel Courtney and Shirley Knight, Mercy follows a single mother and her two sons as they go to visit their grandmother -- who they are surprised to learn wields mystical powers.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Netflix and rent on Amazon Video
Gerald's Game (2017)
In Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's Gerald's Game, Carla Gugino stars as Jesse -- a woman who goes on a vacation to her summer house with her husband (Bruce Greenwood) in hopes of spicing up their love life. Unfortunately, her husband dies of a heart attack after handcuffing her to the bed, and she must find some way to survive without being able to move.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Netflix
In this Zac Hilditch-written and directed adaptation of the short story of the same name by Stephen King, Tom Jane stars as Wilfred James, a rancher living in the titular year, 1922. Along with his teenage son, Henry (Dylan Schmid), he hatches a plan to try and kill his wife in hopes of stopping her from selling his farm from out underneath him. The movie made its debut to critical-acclaim at Fantastic Fest in September 2017, and was the second original King adaptation to hit Netflix in October 2017 after Gerald's Game.
Where You Can Stream It: Available to stream on Netflix
