The 13 best Stephen King movie adaptations, according to critics

Based on: King's 1996 serial novel

Critic score: 79%

What critics said: "Much of the three-hour movie takes place in the prison, but the resonant characterization, expansive plotting, and judicious use of exterior locations and flashbacks turn the walls into windows." — Chicago Reader

Based on: King's 1992 novel

Critic score: 83%

What critics said: "The role of Dolores may be rough around the edges, but it's a windfall for Ms. Bates, who does a walloping good job." — New York Times

Based on: King's 1986 novel

Critic score: 86%

What critics said: "This new It has more on its mind, and gives more body and voice to King's ideas of childhood anxieties and the corrosive power of fear." —Vulture

Based on: King's 1977 novel

Critic score: 85%

What critics said: "The Shining is a bonafide classic. By this point, almost every scene is so iconic, the experience of watching it — truly watching it — feels something like devouring a Greatest Hits collection." — Birth.Movies.Death.

Based on: King's 2010 novella

Critic score: 89%

What critics said: "There's an unshakable menace that lingers, a tale of guilt and regret that burrows its way under the skin." — Guardian

Based on: King's 1975 novel

Critic score: 88%

What critics said: "It places the emphasis on [Tobe] Hooper's fluid camerawork, creepy atmospherics, and skillful handling of the gripping climax." — Time Out

Based on: King's 1987 novel

Critic score: 90%

What critics said: "Bates turns Wilkes into the nastiest nurse to reach the screen since Louise Fletcher tormented Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." — Philadelphia Inquirer

Based on: King's 1992 novel

Critic score: 91%

What critics said: "Unsurprisingly, the film is [Mike Flanagan's] most accomplished to date, the result of the years he's spent giving a damn about his characters and their anguish. He's so good at it, he even makes it look easy." — Hollywood Reporter

Based on: King's 1979 novel

Critic score: 90%

What critics said: "Director David Cronenberg's sense of pace is acute, the editing by Ronald Sanders is seamless and suspenseful. And, if nothing else, the movie establishes that chills can be generated without explicit gore and violence." — People Magazine

Based on: King's 1982 novella, "The Body"

Critic score: 91%

What critics said: "It stands, sweet and strong, ribald, outrageous and funny, like its heroes themselves — a bit gamy around the edges, perhaps, but pure and fine clear through. It's one of those treasures absolutely not to be missed." — The Los Angeles Times

Based on: King's 1982 novella

Critic score: 90%

What critics said: "This is an engagingly simple, good-hearted film, with just enough darkness around the edges to give contrast and relief to its glowingly benign view of human nature." — New York Daily News

Based on: King's 1974 novel

Critic score: 94%

What critics said: "More superpowers from Brian De Palma, this time in high school, in a screen version of a Stephen King novel that's become a horror classic." — Wall Street Journal