Mr Harrigan’s Phone is a Hollywood horror film that was released on 5 October on Netflix. It is an adaptation of a novella of legendary author Stephen King by the same name. Mr Harrigan’s Phone is one of the 4 novellas in King’s latest collection, If It Bleeds (2020). Being well known as the “King of Horror” along with being a best seller author for nearly 5 decades now, film adaptations of King’s works bring along a burden of expectations seldom seen for other adaptations.
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7 best films adapted from Stephen King’s works:
Carrie (1976): The film is based on King’s maiden novel of the same name from 1974 which made him an overnight star. It deals with the woes of a 16-year-old girl named Carrie (Sissy Spacek) with latent and developing telekinetic powers. Although remade in 2003, the 1976 version is widely acclaimed as the best adaptation of the novel.
The Shining (1980): The film is an adaptation of King’s 1977 film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in lead roles. It revolves around the lives of Jack Torrance, an aspiring novelist and a recovering alcoholic, his wife Wendy Torrance and son Danny Torrance, who is gifted with psychic skills.
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It (2007): The film is an adaptation of King’s book of the same name from 1986. The film documents the journey of 7 children from the town Derry. Having experienced different things, the children leave the place only to return much later as adults.
Shawshank Redemption (1994): It is an adaptation of the novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by King. Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in lead roles, it narrates the tale of Andy Dufresne, a prisoner convicted to a double life imprisonment for murdering his wife and her boyfriend and his relations with another convict Red.
Doctor Sleep (2019): It is an adaptation of a 2013 novel of King by the same name and is a sequel to The Shining which he wrote in 1977. It revolves around the lead Danny Torrance, the boy from Shining with psychic powers but tormented by psychic trauma.
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The Green Mile (1999): It is a film adaptation of King’s 1996 novel with the same title. It stars Tom Hanks as a death row prison guard during the Great Depression who sees supernatural events after the arrival of an enigmatic convict. The film was a commercial success, earning close to 5 times of its initial budget of 60 million USD.
Cujo (1983): It is a film based on a novel of Stephen King from 1981. The film narrates the tale of a mother and her son, trapped in a car, trying to protect themselves from a rabid St Bernard (Cujo). The film was an average grosser in the box office.