Stephen King may be the undisputed master of horror, but there's no denying that more than a few of his books include moments that are simply too silly to survive the translation to the screen. Adaptations of Stephen King's works have been popular movie subjects for decades, with entire careers like that of horror visionary Mike Flanagan being made more or less solely from the success of bringing his stories to life on the big screen. However, a large part of his stories are simply unsuitable for a visual medium due to how stupid they are.
Try as many Stephen King movies as you can. They weren't able to cram the entirety of his massive tomes into a sub-three-hour runtime. Sometimes, the budgets of his adaptations simply can't keep up with King's ideas, leading to some unintentionally goofy moments. In other cases, what might work in a novel is simply too funny when actually carried out in a film, meaning certain scenes from King's books are destined to end up on the cutting room floor.
10
The cat monster transformation
sleep walker
Many Stephen King stories get incredibly funny, but the premise of sleep walker Let's just take the cake. The film revolves around an incestuous mother-son pair of energy vampires who roam the country in search of victims. The duo is capable of transforming into strange human-cat hybrid forms, and in the movie adaptation, the transformations are not exactly gracefully adapted.
The movie demonstrates this in a hilarious scene in which one of them spots a cat, which causes his face to dramatically morph into a variety of half-human, half-cat shapes, including that of a frightened little boy.
Even stranger than the film's premise is the fact that the sleep walker's monsters are afraid of cats, despite being feline creatures themselves. The movie demonstrates this in a hilarious scene in which one of them spots a cat, which causes his face to dramatically morph into a variety of half-human, half-cat shapes, including that of a frightened little boy. Aside from the perplexing narrative implications, the moment's special effects didn't age gracefully, Resulting in a truly nonsensical scene from the already unbelievable premise.
9
Pennywise melting
It chapter two
Although the first it Remake movie made Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise one of the most influential movie villains of the decade, there is no denying that many of his scenes are more silly than scary. This is especially true in the second film, which was not so kind, focusing on the mature part of the original story. Here, Pennywise is finally defeated by the Old Losers Club, who make good on their promise to come back to slay the creation-shifting beast on his next return.
When the gang are finally able to overpower the clown through the sheer power of belief, he is left as a frightened puddle of his former self, whimpering and helpless. TLike these It chapter two Maybe, it simply can't shake the stupidity of both the way Pennywise is finally defeated and the pathetic final form it takes. What's even sillier is the way Pennywise seems almost proud of the losers for defeating him, shedding a tear while stating that they are now "All grown up."
8
Soda machine murder
Maximum overdrive
There are bad Stephen King movie adaptations, and then there are Maximum overdriveThe only one of King's films that the author himself directed. Clearly, filmmaking is not the strong suit of the literary giant, as evidenced by Maximum overdriveIt's ironically comedic "scary" moments. Based on King's short story TracksThe story follows a group of survivors in the wake of a comet that passes close to Earth, causing all machines to become sentient with murderous intent.
Of all the malfunctioning objects that pose as threats in the film, by far the silliest is a malfunctioning soda machine, which fires its carbonated ammunition at a hapless team of kids playing Little League baseball. Despite being stationary and with such a narrow field of fire, the machine is able to take out half of the team, which makes for an extremely goofy sequence of supposedly scary deaths. It's no wonder that Stephen King's directorial debut has gone down in infamy as one of his worst movies, even if it's ironically enjoyable.
7
The Langoliers Attack
The Langoliers
A two-part made-for-television mini-series that joins together to become one continuous film, The Langoliers is an expected cheap production of Stephen King. That doesn't do it any favors, as the original story's ambitious narrative revolves around a group of strangers on a commercial flight who find that everyone else on their plane has suddenly disappeared, forcing them to land at an abandoned airport where the laws Of physics seem strange warmed.
This prompts a response from the titular Langoliers, strange interdimensional beings who show up to devour everything in sight in the realm of stopped time. The original novel's description of the creatures may have been terrifying, but in practice with The Langoliers Limited budget, they look like lumpy CGI meatballs whizzing through the sky. Perhaps director Tom Holland would have been better off adapting a less production-value-heavy story from King.
6
Richie is terrified of balloons
it (1990)
Pennywise is better known from the late 2010s horror movies today, but long before those films were conceived, the only game in town for it Adaptations was the 90s miniseries starring Tim Carrey as the infamous killer clown. like the longwailers, The original 1990s it Suffering from a lean budget that forced the series to get creative in imagining the book's many horrific scenes on film. In an effort to do this, the mini-series began to over-rely on Pennywise's love of balloons, trying to extract every ounce of tension from them.
These efforts hilariously backfire in the scene in which a grown-up Richie spots Pennywise hamming it up on a balcony in the library. Soon, his vision is flooded with balloons, which the soundtrack seems to imply should be terrifying enough on their own. One by one, the balloons pop, covering unsuspecting library patrons in blood. The lack of response from the crowd to the supposedly scary moment and the strange menacing balance it Seems to think the balloons made for some admittedly silly pictures.
5
The bathroom scene
Dreamcatcher
A strange adaptation of one of Stephen King's strange books, Dreamcatchers Famously tried to do for the toilet that Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho done for the shower, or what Jaws Done before going swimming. In an attempt to make the audience fear the porcelain throne, the film only succeeds in providing King fans with some of the most wild images. It doesn't help that the untold narrative that revolves around the foreign possessions is strikingly convoluted.
The film's silliest scene of all time is when Jonesy and Beaver encounter an alien worm, lovingly referred to as a "sh*t weasel," exiting the bowels of their late rescue, Rick. In a jaw-droppingly weird action scene, Beaver tries to trap the wading creature in the toilet by sitting on the lid, only to predictably meet his fate at the razor-sharp teeth of the faecally-fixated invader. It's safe to say that King failed to make audiences afraid of the toilet with the release of Dreamcatcher.
4
The werewolf transformation
Silver bullet
Despite Stephen King being the all-time master of literary horror, the movie adaptation of his classic tale of lycanthropy doesn't hold up as one of the best werewolf movies out there.. actually, Silver bulletStarring Gary Busey, it falls laughably short of any real scares, venturing into the realm of pure silliness. This is largely due to a limited production budget, resulting in some unbearably cheap special effects for the film's most overt werewolf transformation.
The way the werewolf's eyes dart back and forth from behind their prosthetic snarl is particularly obvious, sapping all of the scene's potential horror and leaving only unintentional comedy.
Silver bulletUnfortunately, the makeup and costume department of the job, resulting in a werewolf transformation sequence that relies on quick cuts and cheap rubber masks in place of grotesque body horror. The way the werewolf's eyes dart back and forth from behind their prosthetic snarl is particularly obvious, sapping all of the scene's potential horror and leaving only unintentional comedy. Busey's intense over-acting later on doesn't help matters much, making the entirety of Silver bullet One adaptation that did not survive the translation to cinema well.
3
The cat from hell
Tales from the Darkside
As funny as his feature-length books can get, Stephen King delivers some of his most absurd ideas in his short stories. One of the most alarming is titled The cat of helland was adapted for film in the horror anthology film based on King's work, Tales from the Darkside. In the segment of the same name, a hitman is hired to take on a critical target, only to learn that his mark is a seemingly ordinary housecat.
Soon, the assassin finds himself in a fight for his life against the thin shorthair, who hilariously pounces on him in obvious puppet form. But the true climax to the absurdity is a moment lifted directly from the original story, in which the cat finally defeats its attacker by burrowing into its throat and bursting out of its stomach as a xenomorph of the Alien Franchise. It's hard to say that this scene works in literary form, let alone on screen in a low-budget anthology film.
2
The industrial workplace accident
The Mangler
Considering how many iconic horror villains Stephen King has dreamed up over the years, it's a shame the talents of Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, were wasted on a project like The Mangler. Based on King's short story of the same name, the film revolves around, of all things, a haunted laundry press. The massive machine, possessed with a demonic mind of its own, ends up taking the lives of several victims in harrowing workplace "accidents." somehow, The Mangler managed to spawn a whole franchise.
There are some real neck-and-neck contenders for silliest moment in a film centered around such a strange antagonist, including the chase sequence in which the mangler manages to become mobile through sheer force of will. However, there is the scene in which the poor overworked woman. Frawley spills some medication in the car, only to get sucked by her arms, which really takes the cake. From Mrs. Frawley's unconvincing screams to Englund's hilarious reaction, the supposedly scary death scene is unquestionably silly.
1
Warwick fights the giant bat
Graveyard shift
Another of King's lesser-known film adaptations, The Plot To Graveyard shift is refreshingly straightforward. A group of employees in a textile mill infested with rats have to fight a massive, demonic bat (technically, a bat-like rat). Granted the rights to King's short story of the same name for Peanuts, the creators of Graveyard shift clearly had little in the way of production value, and this shines spectacularly with the worker Warwick's encounter with the leather-winged beast.
Admittedly, the giant bat looks quite impressive in certain shots, dripping with saliva and moving with murderous intent. However, when the effect meets an actual actor, all illusions of terror immediately crumble away into silliness, as Warwick ineffectually wrestles with the creature despite the seemingly loose grip of its wings. Add in some awkward editing choices and stiff movement of the bat puppet, and Graveyard shift Gives one of the most uncertain scenes of any Stephen King Movie.