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When there are over 60 feature film adaptations of your works, there are bound to be winners and losers. That's the position prolific horror author Stephen King has found himself in since his first book, Carrie, was published in 1974 and adapted into a feature film in 1976. King has hundreds of published stories that have been adapted into movies and TV shows, and he has shared his opinions on many of them. He has praised several directors for capturing his work accurately.
Some directors have tackled more than one Stephen King story, and one earned the writer's high praise. This director first took on King's novella The Body and turned it into one of the best coming-of-age stories. King showered him with praise, calling the 1986 film Stand by Me the "best movie adaptation of my work." It remains a cult classic, with an 89% critics' score and a 94% audience score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The director was the late Rob Reiner, who founded Castle Rock Entertainment, named after the fictional town where events in Stand by Me take place. Four years later, Reiner directed another movie based on King's book, and it became iconic as well.
That movie is the 1990 psychological thrillerMisery, based on King's 1987 book of the same name. It stars Kathy Bates and James Caan as Anna Wilkes and Paul Sheldon. The latter is a famed novelist who encounters his "biggest fan" while preparing to launch a new book in his popular series. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning Bates Best Actress at the Academy Awards in 1991. It is also highly rated, with 86% critics' and 90% audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Starting September 1, HBO Max subscribers can watch Sheldon get acquainted with his fan when the film officially returns to the streamer.
COLLIDER
Collider · Quiz
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival QuizWhich Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT
01
Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do?First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
QUESTION 2 / 8ENVIRONMENT
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
QUESTION 3 / 8STRENGTH
03
What is your most reliable survival asset?Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?
QUESTION 4 / 8FEAR
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
QUESTION 5 / 8GROUP
05
You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role?Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't.
QUESTION 6 / 8MISTAKE
06
What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make?Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
QUESTION 7 / 8ADVANTAGE
07
What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means?Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
QUESTION 8 / 8FINAL SCENE
08
It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it?The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been CalculatedYour Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child's Play
Chucky
Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
What Other Stephen King Projects Are Available to Stream on HBO Max?
Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes looking sinister and deranged in Misery (1990).Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates and James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates and James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates and James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes looking sinister and deranged in Misery (1990).Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates and James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates and James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy Bates and James Caan in 'Misery'.Image via Columbia Pictures
Misery is one of two movies based on the author's work arriving on HBO Max in September; the other is the 1976 Carrie adaptation. However, the streaming service typically has numerous projects at any time, and these two are just part of the library expansion. After a successful theatrical run, 2025's The Long Walk has been on a winning streak on the streamer. And while 2024's Salem's Lot struggled to connect with viewers and critics, it is also available to stream. And for fans of long-form storytelling, shows like IT: Welcome to Derry and The Outsider are also available to stream.
Misery returns to HBO Max on September 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Image via Columbia Pictures
Image via Columbia Pictures
Image via Columbia Pictures
Image via Columbia Pictures
Image via Columbia Pictures
Kathy BatesAnnie Wilkes
Paul Sheldon
