With three of his own under his belt and multiple more in the works, Mike Flanagan shares his thoughts on the four most underrated 1980's The Shining, the Oscar-winning Misery and the various Pet Sematary and IT movies.
Much like King, Flanagan is considered to be one of the best modern filmmakers in the horror genre, having garnered widespread acclaim for his work in the TV sphere, in particular, with his Haunting anthology on Netflix, as well as Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher, among others. In addition to his own original works and twists on classic literature, Flanagan has adapted multiple King projects for the screen, including the Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, the seemingly unfilmable Gerald's Game and the Life of Chuck, all three of which have garnered rave reviews from critics.
Flanagan Knows The 4 Most Underrated King Adaptations Of All Time
The Filmmaker Loves Both His Cinematic & TV Projects
While Flanagan has a variety of other adaptations on the horizon, including both his Dark Tower and the recently announced Carrie TV shows, he has now shared his four most underrated King adaptations with MovieWeb. When asked for his suggestions, Flanagan first points to 1997's The Night Flier adaptation, expressing his feeling it doesn't "get the appreciation that it deserves", while also acknowledging it's easier for him to select underrated books than movies:
You know what jumped immediately to my mind? The Night Flier with Miguel Ferrer is a really good movie that I don't think gets the appreciation that it deserves. I mean, I think with the books, it's easier to point at ones where it's like, “Oh, that book doesn't get the love.” Like, I always wonder where the swell of love is for Revival, which is one of my favorites of his books, or Hearts in Atlantis, which I think is just an incredible, incredible piece of work. But on the movies, yeah, The Night Flier, I think, is underappreciated, and I think the storytelling is great. The ending is phenomenal. Miguel Ferrer is wonderful in the role, and it just doesn't get the love it should get.
Flanagan would then go on to reflect on the various King adaptations that get the majority of the love, some of which include The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me and Misery. He did, though briefly, break this up by sharing some praise for John Carpenter's adaptation of Christine, recalling that whenever he revisits it, "I'm always glad I did":
You know, I think a lot of the others do get the love, because, of course, I can't say like Shawshank, Stand by Me, Green Mile, Misery, Carrie — they do, they get the love. Christine is one I find that, whenever I revisit it, I'm always glad I did. That's one where I'm like, "Oh yeah, that one really worked.” And that you don't hear that brought up enough.
This would then bring him to David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone, another early King adaptation, expressing his feeling that it's "a lot more impactful" in the wake of the recent U.S. Presidential election, and lamenting that it isn't often included in "the upper echelon of the movies people bring up". He even recalls having done a commentary track for its 4K home media release with The KINGSCAST duo Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler, in which they all shared their disbelief at its lack of popularity:
I think Cronenberg's The Dead Zone, this week, feels a lot more impactful than it might have last week. But that's one, whenever I revisit it, I'm like, “What a beautiful piece of work.” And yet it doesn't end up in kind of the upper echelon of the movies people bring up right away. I could talk about this all day. There's an amazing hopelessness in [The Dead Zone], there's this fated kind of sadness to it. I got to do a commentary track for that with Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler last year, and that was the last time I saw the movie. And I the three of us watching that for that commentary track, just kind of all being like, “Why isn't this more celebrated? Like, why? Why aren't we kind of trumpeting the merits of this movie from the rooftops?” There's so much in it that's so amazing. The Martin Sheen stuff really punches. I saw a great little Facebook meme of a friend who just put a current mood up, and it's the picture of Walken at the rally, you know. And it's like, yeah, I get it. So I'd say, if people are looking to dive into underappreciated King, get your hands on The Dead Zone and do The Night Flier.
After initially wrapping it up with the round-up of the aforementioned three movies, Flanagan did then also bring up 1999's Storm of the Century miniseries, lamenting that it's "impossible to track down" a physical version of the horror show that King wrote directly for the screen rather than as a novel, but that Flanagan is "evangelizing about" constantly. See the rest of Flanagan's comments below:
Oh, you know what else I'd put up on there? It's hard to find, but the limited series Storm of the Century is so good, and not nearly enough people have appreciated it and seen it, and I find myself evangelizing about it all the time. And then you can't find it anywhere. It's like impossible to track down, but Storm of the Century is, I think, my favorite of the miniseries.
Our Take On Flanagan's Underrated Stephen King Choices
They're A Nice Mix Of Well-Received Classics & Overlooked Chillers
With the sheer number of King adaptations there have been over the years, it's undeniable that there would be many to fly under fans' radars over the years. Much to Flanagan's point, The Night Flier has built something of a cult following in the 27 years since it came out, part of which comes from how difficult it is to watch the film, having yet to receive a Blu-ray or 4K updated release, and not available on any streaming platform. While Storm of the Century is similarly only available in a DVD format physically, it is at least available to stream on Hulu.
Flanagan even previously cited Storm of the City as being a major influence on 2021's Midnight Mass.
Part of why The Dead Zone and Christine have largely become underrated is simply the combined factors of the age of time and that they weren't considered the runaway financial successes many other King adaptations have been. Neither were necessarily failures, earning approximately double their reported production budgets, but finding a better following on their home releases. This makes even further sense when considering that Christine saw a much more mixed critical response than Dead Zone, and hasn't received subsequent adaptations the way the latter did with its TV remake led by Anthony Michael Hall.
10 Underrated Stephen King Adaptations Everyone Forgets About
Stephen King has seen so many TV and movie adaptations of his iconic horror novels that some gems have slipped through the cracks over the years.
As a fan of the majority of Stephen King adaptations, I love the choices Flanagan has made for his most underrated. While I think the filmmaker's own Doctor Sleep and 1408 also deserve to be in all discussions about underrated King-based projects, I do at least hope that Flanagan's increasing mainstream popularity leads to some checking out the ones he named, and other lesser-talked about movies and shows that deserve the same love.
Source: MovieWeb
