After missing out on Zootopia 2 during its massive box office run late last year, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice when the 2025 animated film hit VOD. About a week ago, my family and I sat down to watch what I heard was a great kids movie with some top-notch references, and I wasn’t let down one bit. However, there was something that caught me by surprise…

Near the end, there was a great callback to one of the best horror movies of all time, The Shining. Before I could point out the reference, my 9-year-old daughter beat me to it. Wait a minute… how does my daughter know enough about this Stephen King adaptation to point out a reference in a kids movie? What’s going on here? Should I be concerned?

I’ve Never Shown Her The Shining, And I Had To Know What Was Going On

Here’s the thing: I’ve never shown my daughter The Shining before, and she can’t access it with the restrictions on her HBO Max subscription, so I need to know what’s going on here. I’m not going to lie, I was a little torn over the parenting dilemma that this brought up. The protective parent in me wanted to figure out the how and why of her knowledge of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic thriller, while the movie fan in me was jumping with joy (just where she couldn’t see me).

I was thrown back by the quickness of her response to the music cue, and even more so when she started talking about the Stanley Hotel (the inspiration for the Overlook). That said, I put two and two together and came to the conclusion that she heard about the movie and the supposedly haunted hotel while watching some video on the Roku Channel.

This brings me to my next point…

At What Age Should I Watch The Shining With Her?

I don’t remember how old I was when I first watched The Shining, but I want to say I was in middle school by the time I got around to it. That said, I’m trying to figure out now if I should show it to my daughter. She’ll be 10 soon, and I want to say she could handle some of the film’s more intense and scarier moments. There are a handful of scenes where covering her eyes might be necessary, but those are few and far between.

There are some other things that might go over her head, but maybe that’d be for the best and something she could pick up on repeated viewings as she gets older. Considering she already knew the movie, some of the backstory that inspired the iconic horror film, and seemed excited, I think this could work.

All of this being said, I’m not going to rush things with The Shining, or any other horror movie for that matter, but my daughter picking up on the reference did make me excited knowing what awaits us down the road.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1. If you have not yet watched the run, take advantage of your HBO Max subscription to do so and then head back here!

As things presently stand, we don’t know what the future holds for IT: Welcome To Derry. While there has been a lot of talk from the show’s creators about a three-season plan, we don’t yet know if they will get a chance to execute it, as HBO has not yet announced whether or not the show will be renewed. Needless to say, the fingers of Stephen King fans around the world are tightly crossed hoping for good news… but while we’re all putting out positive vibes into the universe, I’m also going to hope that co-showrunner Jason Fuchs gets the opportunity to tell a story that would make an excellent spinoff from the hit show: the continued adventures of Dick Hallorann.

Brilliantly played by Chris Chalk, Dick has one of the best arcs of any character in IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1, and while developments in the finale suggest that he won’t be a presence in Season 2 (in addition to the fact that events will principally take place in 1935), Fuchs doesn’t feel ready to say goodbye to him just yet. When I spoke with the filmmaker earlier this month, he told me not only about the special approach that was taken to the character on the show but also about his interest in continuing to follow him on his path to the Overlook Hotel.

The Journey Of Dick Hallorann On IT: Welcome To Derry

When we first meet Dick Hallorann in The Shining, he is a genial man who is quick to take young Danny Torrance under his wing when he discovers that the kid has psychic abilities – but that’s definitely not the guy who is introduced in the early episodes of IT: Welcome To Derry. He is introverted, somewhat selfish, and while he possesses a powerful and special gift, he is more tortured by it and fearful of it than anything else.

Over the course of eight episodes, what Dick witnesses in Derry changes him as a person, and that was a vital goal for Jason Fuchs and the Derry writers in the crafting of Season 1. He still has a road to travel before he becomes the man who helps welcome the Torrance family to the Overlook hotel, but he has taken his first step on that path, first helping save lives at the burning of the Black Spot and then helping to stop Pennywise from escaping. Fuchs told me,

This is actually a detail I really love: it would have been so, so easy for the writers to just send Dick Hallorann to Colorado at the end of the show, but he certainly isn’t ready for head cook job at the Overlook yet. Instead, he is going to need to hone some skills in the world of hospitality and add to his resume.

But what awaits Dick in London? That’s not answer that Jason Fuchs currently has, but he is certainly intrigued by the “gap” that is now wide open for creative exploration:

Perhaps excited enough to create a whole new show?

After IT: Welcome To Derry, A Dick Hallorann Spinoff Would Be Super Cool

If the idea of a project specifically about Dick Hallorann sounds familiar, it’s because it is an idea that has been pitched before. When Mike Flanagan was making Doctor Sleep – which features Carl Lumbly as Dick’s ghost – there were conversations had about developing a prequel titled Hallorann that would have explored the man’s pre-Shining years. That idea went away when Doctor Sleep underperformed at the box office, but in a post-IT: Welcome To Derry world, it makes a lot of sense and would be amazing to see.

During my conversation with Jason Fuchs, I asked if there were any other Stephen King-related stories that he would be interested in telling, and the first title he suggested was a Welcome To Derry spinoff that would follow the psychic airman to his hotel gig in London. He told me,

In a perfect world, Jason Fuchs would get together with Mike Flanagan and they could collaborate on making a Dick Hallorann series together with Chris Chalk starring… but knowing that Flanagan is quite busy with his Carrie limited series, the new Exorcist movie, and all of the work going into making the Dark Tower adaptation, I would also be totally fine if it were just Fuchs and Chalk working on the show.

Will it happen? We’ll have to wait and see, and if it does, you can be sure that you’ll find plenty of reporting on it here on CinemaBlend.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched IT; Welcome to Derry’s latest episode on HBO or via HBO Max subscription.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to one of the most haunted fictional towns in American horror…wait, why would anyone think it’s safe to return to Derry? For TV audiences, it was all for the experience of watching IT: Welcome to Derry’s humdinger of a fourth episode, which boasts the wacky title “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function.”

Not quite as jam-packed with easter eggs as past episodes, which is normal once a series finds its own legs a few episodes in, this installment does dig into arguably the most important and most mysterious element of this interconnected narrative universe: the full story behind IT’s arrival on Earth and how its reign of death and evil began. (Granted, it’s all anecdotal, but I’d still like to believe it’s mostly aligned with reality.) So first duck, then cover, then join me in pointing out all the fun references and nods in Episode 4.

IT Compared To Dracula

Following the still magical title sequence, the kids are in the gym talking about their harrowing experience in the cemetery, with Clara Stack's Lilly questioning how similiar IT is to Dracula, at least in the art of forming mirrored reflections.

In Stephen King's novel, Bram Stoker's seminal bloodsucker (by way of Bela Lugosi's portrayal) is indeed one of the forms that the evil entity takes on as a way of scaring Derry's youths. Way more fangs in IT's mouth, though.

Hanlons As Historians

During the same scene, Will notes that the first thing he would do would be to look back and see if other incidents of a similar nature had previously taken place in Derry. Will already knows that history is bound to repeat itself if nothing is changed, but he doesn't yet know just how impossible it will be to change anything about this cursed location. Importantly, though, nothing that happened to him in this context swayed his son from following in those same historian footsteps. Or else the Losers Club might never have been brought back together.

Charlotte’s Derry Herald Has A Standout Edition Number

Shining fans with keen eyesight (or pausing-and-zooming capabilities) may have noticed that the newspaper Charlotte reads through boasts "237" as its edition number. Hope there weren't any stories about women in bathtubs in that one.

The Black Spot’s Location Is Set, And There Is Definitely Darkness Ahead

One of the key incidents that sparked the creation of IT: Welcome to Derry is the horrific tragedy that IT set in motion at the Black Spot, which was ostensibly a safe haven where Black soldiers could go to listen to live music, chow down and take a load off. Its emblazoned fate, at the hands of racists townspeople in the novel, goes on to haunt both Will and Mike throughout their lives.

Interestingly enough, Chris Chalk's Dick Hallorann seems to have an inkling that something isn't quite right about the storage building, but I can't help but think that his overall enthusiasm for getting the location itself is hindering his protective instincts. They probably should have heeded the Keep Out sign.

“You’ll Burn, Too”

Will gets his first up-close-and-personal experience with IT while fly-fishing, tapping into a one of his overarching fears involving his dad's plane getting shot down in Korea. The IT-infused vision twists up one of Pennywise's most repeated quotes from any verison of IT — "You'll float, too" — by having Evil Leroy tell Will that he'll burn. A strange threat to deliver while submerged underwater, but no less freaky.

What's more, Evil Leroy's arrival was prefaced by a clownfish swimming up to Will, and I don't think that was a FInding Nemo nod or its Pixar sequel. After Leroy sees the scratches on Will's arms, throwing his own sense of normalcy into doubt, an ominous red balloon is seen floating over the water.

The Kids Figure Out IT’s Motives

Similar to the way Episode 3 provided some exposition for how memories of Derry fade the more former residents stay outside the town, the fourth episode digs into what actually makes IT tick, and why the creature doesn't seem to have the singular goal of killing all the children off. Granted, fans already know the deal, but it's still an important detail to nail down within the reality of the HBO show, because now they'll have a defense mechanism.

The kids realize that in the same way farmer will overfeed animals before slaughtering them, IT purposefully targets and toys with children in order to stoke and increase their innate levels of fear to the maximum. And that's when he swoops in and takes his big chomp, presumably finding the taste of fear to be downright delectable.

“Mommy's Little Helper”

An interesting and enjoyably controversial detail added into the show is Lilly's idea that her mom's Valium prescription can be utilized to lower each teen's ability to feel fear and nervousness. I can't imagine that'll work superbly, but it's something.

The nickname that Lilly uses was popularized by the 1966 Rollings Stones track "Mother's Little Helpers," but existed in the lexicon before then. King himself has spoken about Valiums being in the mix during the height of his various addictions. The sedative also played a sizable role in one of the author's bestsellers written during that addiction-addled era, The Tommyknockers, when Bobbi attempted to take down Gard by forcing him at gunpoint to choke down a lethal dose.

A Possible Connection To From A Buick 8's Troop D?

The big chalkboads inside Derry PD feature lots of names that are likely meaningless, but one not-so-hugely common surname is Pasternak, which is also the last name of Troop D member Shirley Pasternak within the novel From a Buick 8. That tale took place in Western Pennsylvania, so connecting those dots would take some miles, so it's a good thing we have a dependable non-supernatural vehicle to use.

Tim Flanagan

In Stephen King’s novel, the same surname comes up in a letter from Stan’s mother-in-law Ruth to his wife Patty, in reference to “Stella Flanagan” getting betrothed again. It’d be impossible to connect those characters with just the info we have, though.

Instead, this seems morely likely to be a nod to another famed Stephen King-loving filmmaker, Mike Flanagan, who’s helmed adaptations of Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck and the upcoming Carrie TV series. Or maybe one of the showrunners knows a guy named Tim Flanagan.

A Carrie-esque Prank Was Planned For Lilly

Speaking of both Tim Flanagan and Carrie, that character was meant to be hunky bait for Lilly to throw herself at, as part of a mean-spirited prank that Matilda Lawler's Marge was tasked to help facilitate by the Pattycakes. According to Marge, the goal was for Lilly to be humiliated in front of the entire school. I didn't see any buckets of blood hanging from the rafters, but it's the thought that counts, and we all know what happened to those who fucked with Carrie...

Another Clown And Balloon Sighting Outside The Hanlon Home

While I don't share in others' complaints about IT: Welcome to Derry's lack of Pennywise in early episodes, since that was a purposeful decision, I do think Bill Skarsgärd's full-on arrival is imminent, given all of the visual teases sprinkled throughout. (Although I kind of question why, narratively speaking, since no one thus far has shared any underlying fears of clowns for IT to be latching onto.)

In any case, Will's post-nightmare telescoping sesh was disrupted by the sight of Pennywise's shadowed silhouette, similar to what was seen on the photo taken in the crypt. Though Leroy didn't see any such circus folk when he angrily ran outside looking for a confrontation, he did catch site of another red balloon caught in the tree branches. I'm really hoping he connects the dots between that and the fly-fishing incident.

So Many Doors!

Both of Andy Muschietti's IT films featured scenes involving a trio of doors of varying scariness, but the circle of doors that Dick Hallorann pops into while invading Taniel's mind are of a completely different nature. There's no sand on the ground in there, but this location feels comparable to the beach in The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three where Roland encounters the three doors that take him into Eddie Dean, Odetta Holmes and Jack Mort. Not exactly the same, but doors as a pathway to consciousness is the name of the game here.

IT’s Extraterrestrial Backstory

To be sure, Hallorann's Shine-centric exploration of Taniel's memories is less of an easter egg and more of a full extension of the (heavily altered) origin story laid out in IT: Chapter 2's psychedelic scene, in which Bill learned about the Ritual of Chüd. But it's obviously important connective tissue for this universe, so here we are.

Within this reality, IT is also alien in nature, and arrived on earth within a falling star that broke open upon colliding with the ground. The evil spirit was free, but without anything to really feed off of, at least until the first settlers. Once people were prevalent, IT was able to get stronger, and IT's influence inspired fearful natives to contain it within the forest the star crashed into. That plan of course went to shit as soon as greedy white people showed up and strengthened the monster even more.

Eventually, after a young Indigenous girl and her friends shattered the star's remnants into 13 sacred shards, those shards were buried in a giant circle surrounding the forest, with their locations kept secret so that no one would curiously attempt to dig them back up in the future. Of course, Dick Hallorann's talents go beyond such intentions, and now it's clear that the military aims to track down these buried shards for their own purposes. So...good riddance, I guess?

A Special Case For One Star Shard

The 13 shards were said to be "buried deep within the earth," but seemingly only one of the pieces was encased in something before being put into the dirt. Fittingly enough, the shard in question was placed between two turtle shells, which is another direct reference to the Macroverse's most compassionate Guardian of the Beam, Maturin. It's been unclear whether or not IT: Welcome to Derry will tap into that otherworldly realm from Stephen King's novel, but I can't imagine we'd get turtle references in every episode without some kind of payoff.

Did you catch any Episode 4 references that I missed? Let us know, and don't forget new episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry air Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Do you devour the book before the movie or show? You’re in the right place. Sure, the 2025 movie schedule and 2026 TV premiere dates are stacked with glossy book-to-screen hits—think Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10 (which made a notable change from the book), Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary finally getting a trailer, and the first Emily Henry adaptation already staking a spot on the 2026 movie release calendar. But today we’re pulling a different volume off the shelf: the book-to-screen adaptations that baffled audiences at first glance and aged into brilliance—films like Annihilation, Under the Skin, The Shining, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and The Thing. Open your TBR list if you like, but keep an open mind—these are the stories that don’t just translate; they transform.

The films below were tagged as “divisive,” “unfaithful,” or “too weird for their own good” when they landed. Look again. Their boldest choices — the very ones that sparked arguments — are what make them last.

Annihilation (2018)

Alex Garland didn’t try to mount Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation on screen line by line, maybe to the author's dismay. But instead, the filmmaker made an echo of the novel, working as an atmospheric translation that keeps the book’s nerve endings and grows a new body around them. That decision threw some viewers. Where were the exact plot beats? Why the changes to character backstories, or the final act’s wordless, alien choreography?

Because that’s the point. Annihilation isn’t a puzzle to be solved, but a mood to be absorbed. “Area X” becomes a cinematic petri dish where grief and self-destruction refract into something uncanny. The shimmer doesn’t just mutate flora and fauna; it mutates genre. One minute you’re inside a great survival thriller, the next you’re in a body-horror tone poem, and then you’re staring into a mirror that moves like a thought you can’t shake. The film’s “departure” from the source isn’t a bug, but a feature. There is no flaw in its adaptation, because what we are treated to is Garland's experiment working.

Under The Skin (2013)

Michel Faber’s novel is sharp, satirical, and explicit about its alien’s purpose. Jonathan Glazer’s film erases the instruction manual, leaving you with atmosphere and a lot of silence. For some, that minimalism seemed empty. Where’s the exposition? Why so many unanswered questions?

Because explanation would kill the spell, Scarlett Johansson, in one of her best performances in my book, prowls Glasgow like an animal. She is a black void that lures men into her trap, and the movie is both literal and metaphorical. The film turns Faber’s ethical inquiry into a sensory trance, where sound design hums under your skin and images feel like trespass. Viewers expecting your standard sci-fi movie scaffolding sometimes found it jarring. But as a piece of experiential cinema — a study of gaze, consent, and otherness — Under the Skin is a masterpiece hiding in plain sight.

The Shining (1980)

Famously, Stephen King hates Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining. And I get it. It is almost nothing like the book, except that it, too, is about a family trapped together in a snowy hotel. Whereas Stephen King’s novel is about a good man losing a fair fight with an evil place. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is about a man who was already halfway gone, wandering a maze that wants him because he wants to be lost. That shift, and Kubrick’s allergy to King’s moral clarity, infuriated faithful readers. For years, the film wore “unfaithful” like a scarlet letter.

And yet, the film has become the Overlook Hotel in pop culture: you can check out, but you never really leave. Kubrick replaces plot propulsion with spatial dread. The geometry is wrong; the Steadicam stalks; the carpet fights your eyes. Jack isn’t possessed so much as revealed. Brilliant adaptations don’t just carry over the story; they translate the theme into form. Here, the hotel’s hunger becomes architecture and rhythm. The distaste some had for Kubrick’s coldness is the very thing that lets the movie chew on you decades later.

I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (2020)

Iain Reid’s novel is a nesting doll of unease. Charlie Kaufman takes the book’s troubling intimacy and opens it, giving us a road movie that keeps turning back on itself, that curdles into dream logic, a school that swallows time. Viewers who wanted concrete answers often felt exasperated by the time credits rolled. Why the dance sequence? What’s with the pig? The Oklahoma musical?

Because Kaufman understands the assignment, the “solution” is the style. Identity, regret, and self-mythologizing aren’t footnotes; they are the editing, the casting (Toni Collette and David Thewlis vibrating at unsettling frequencies), the abrupt genre pivots. The movie externalizes an interior monologue without telling you it’s doing it. That can feel like obfuscation if you’re waiting for the twist to be handed over. For me, it was the perfect way to adapt this unsettling book.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)

At this point, every generation has its take on Frankenstein. Most recently, Guillermo del Toro brought us a beautiful adaptation starring Jacob Elrodi as the Creature. But when I was growing up, I had the 1994 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Some dismissed Kenneth Branagh’s take on Mary Shelley’s novel as overheated — too much muscle, too much romance, too much everything. It didn’t help that Robert De Niro’s Creature arrived after a century of pop-culture telephone, where bolts and grunts had replaced Shelley’s eloquent outcast. To many, this wasn’t their Frankenstein.

But excess isn’t the problem here. Shelley’s book is a storm of passion all turned up to eleven. Branagh films those emotions at body temperature. The camera whips, the score swells, and De Niro’s Creature speaks with tragic, angry intelligence. Does it go big? Absolutely. So does the novel. The film reclaims Shelley’s philosophical heartbreak — about responsibility and the monstrousness of neglect — and refuses to play it as the quiet, sepia tragedy we’ve turned it into. That's why I love it.

The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s The Thing was panned on release as nihilistic and gross, especially in the long shadow of E.T. arriving the same year to hug the world. Critics called it heartless. Audiences shrugged. The novella, John W. Campbell Jr.’s “Who Goes There?," had already been adapted in 1951’s The Thing from Another World, and many expected a similar monster-on-the-loose ride.

Carpenter, instead, delivers a paranoia-drenched body-horror movie. The creature is as much a social idea as a biological one: a perfect imitation that weaponizes trust. That’s not just faithful to Campbell; it’s an evolution of his premise into film language, with practical effects that feel wet and wrong, compositions that isolate men in wide frames, a score (Morricone, sparer than you remember) that thumps like a bad prognosis. The misunderstanding stemmed from most people mistaking bleakness for emptiness. In reality, The Thing is full of dread, of craft, of questions about who we become under pressure.

Why “Misunderstood” Often Means “Ahead of Its Time”

A lot of book-to-screen adaptation discourse gets stuck on a single axis of faithful vs. unfaithful. It’s tidy, but completely misses the point. Faithfulness to the plot is one option, but faithfulness to feeling is another. The films above choose the latter, as they adapt psychology, theme, and tone. That decision invites friction. Viewers arrive with the book in their heads; the movie has a different heartbeat. The first watch can feel like whiplash. The second and third watches, the ones without the expectation hangover, are where these films click into place.

When these movies were dinged, it was often for the very muscles they built to do their jobs. So, take it from me, and give these misunderstood flicks another shot.

One of the most awe inspiring things that I find about Stephen King (and I’ll admit it’s a long list) is the way in which he has permanently changed how we look at certain aspects of our everyday world. Every disastrous prom is compared to Carrie, and every thought of a rabid dog has the name “Cujo” spring to mind. The existence of Misery colors every claim of being a “#1 fan,” and the mere mention of a prison break brings to mind “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” And, of course, King receives a significant amount of blame for making multiple generations fear clowns thanks to IT.

It’s a special, and impactful legacy – and one that the cast of IT: Welcome To Derry is intimately aware of. When I spoke with the stars of the new Stephen King TV series last month during the show’s virtual press day, one question I asked everybody was about their personal relationships with the author, and it’s their answers that make up the core of this week’s special edition of The King Beat.

The IT: Welcome To Derry Cast Is Full Of Performers With Plenty Of Love For Stephen King’s Work

Going into the making of IT: Welcome To Derry, there was only one actor with previous experience in a Stephen King adaptation: Jovan Adepo, who played Larry Underwood in the 2020 limited series remake of The Stand. Nobody else, including Chris Chalk, Stephen Rider, Taylour Paige, James Remar, and Kimberly Guerrero, had been a part of a King-related project. That lack of past affiliation, however, belies a strong awareness of both King’s impact on our world and what it is about his storytelling that has made him such a powerful voice in the last half-century.

Speaking with Chalk and Rider as a pair, the former explained how his awe of Stephen King doesn’t just come from his work (and he has read multiple novels), but from being amazed by the man himself. From the beloved author being raised in poverty by a single mother in New England, to his practically miraculous recovery following his near-fatal accident in the summer of 1999, King’s personal story is as remarkable as any of his fiction, and the actor who plays Dick Hallorann on IT: Welcome To Derry said that he was brought to tears multiple times reading the stunning non-fiction book On Writing. Said Chalk,

It speaks to the great magic of Stephen King’s work: his passionate understanding of the human experience. He develops wild and intense circumstances, but the reason why they are so compelling is because of how well-drawn and real the characters are. Not only does their vividity create stakes, but the stories unfold specifically because of who they are: story takes precedence over plot

As for Stephen Rider, who portrays the wrongly accused Hank Grogan on the IT prequel series, he explained that his awareness of Stephen King principally comes from adaptations – and simply the sheer volume of them inspires awe. The fact that the list of iconic titles seems endless is staggering by itself (recalling the terrifying power of Pet Sematary mid-conversation), and recognizing the scale drops one’s jaw:

This has been a year that has proven that more than most, with IT: Welcome To Derry being the fifth of six King adaptations released in 2025 (following The Monkey, The Life Of Chuck, MGM+’s The Institute, and The Long Walk, and preceding the arrival of The Running Man).

Stephen King’s ubiquity and impact on pop culture are inarguable – but when I spoke with James Remar (who plays General Francis Shaw on IT: Welcome To Derry), he expressed that only acknowledging his pop culture impact is minimalizing. Critics have spent decades belittling King’s work because of its popularity, but Remar doesn’t hesitate listing his name among the most talented American authors of all time:

As captured in the video above, he noted that the power of King really came into focus when he saw Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining and then read the source material. While King has famously criticized the movie for what it leaves out from the book, Remar was left amazed. In his words: “That Kubrick did such a great job with it, and yet left out 30 percent of the book just shows you how much depth there is to it.”

The eponymous owner of the thrift shop Second Hand Rose on IT: Welcome To Derry, Kimberly Guerrero added to Remar’s comments by highlighting the universal power of Stephen King’s books. To be perfectly frank, diversity and racial representation cannot be described as one of the author’s strongest assets, but the understanding of the human condition that her co-star mentioned means that his stories can transcend. As such, even though she grew up as a Native American girl in rural Oklahoma, she still saw herself and her own experiences in the adventure that boys of Castle Rock, Maine go on in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me:

Jovan Adepo is actually an interesting part of the representation conversation. In The Stand, the Larry Underwood character is a white man, but it was felt in the development of the limited series that he could be portrayed as being Black, and Adepo was cast in the role. The actor expressed an admiration for the way in which King is able to write about the world and modernity, and he expressed humbleness in now getting the opportunity to also be a key part of the IT canon:

Sitting beside Adepo – playing the Charlotte Hanlon to his Leroy Hanlon on IT: Welcome To Derry – Taylour Paige added to her co-stars sentiments with pure appreciation for Stephen King’s creativity. After all, it takes a powerful mind to render something that is meant to be perceived as silly as being a total nightmare. She said,

More clown-centric terror is soon on the way. The first two episodes of IT: Welcome To Derry have aired and are now available to stream with a HBO Max subscription, and the next chapter is set to premiere this coming Sunday, November 9 at 10pm ET/PT. And as for The King Beat, I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with a fresh new column covering the latest happenings in the world of Stephen King.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of IT: Welcome To Derry. If you have not yet watched, you should take advantage of your HBO Max subscription to do so – or otherwise, proceed at your own risk!

When it comes to long-running franchises, one of my biggest pet peeves regards character stagnation. If it’s felt by studios/filmmakers that audiences have a very specific vision of who a hero or villain is, there will be an effort to resist any significant change (even if decades pass between appearances). Nobody is the exact same person they were after 20 years of being molded by life experience – which is why I am very happy about the approach that IT: Welcome To Derry is taking with Dick Hallorann, played by Chris Chalk.

Hallorann is best known to Stephen King fans from The Shining and Doctor Sleep – books and movies that feature the character as the head chef at the Overlook Hotel and a mentor figure to young Danny Torrance. But The Shining is set in the late 1970s, while IT: Welcome To Derry is very specifically set in 1962, and showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane made a point of presenting him differently than expected. When I spoke with the filmmakers last month during a virtual press day, Fuchs explained that Hallorann was an ‘organic fit for the series because of his cameo in Stephen King’s IT, but they had to also establish room for growth:

Hallorann gets a proper introduction in IT: Welcome To Derry’s second episode, and we learn that he is a part of a very special operation on the Air Force base. More than just being an asset leading teams in the search of something powerful in the titular Maine town, he is guiding them with the use of his psychic abilities, a.k.a. his Shine.

Continuing, Fuchs added that the man is definitely the same character with which audiences are familiar, but it’s a prequel that puts him on a path. The filmmaker added,

Adding his thoughts to the subject, Brad Caleb Kane clarified what we can expect from Dick Hallorann in at least the early episodes of the new Stephen King series. As previously portrayed by Scatman Crothers and Carl Lumbly, he is a genial man who acts with genuine compassion. But that’s not who he is in 1962.

Before he makes his way west and gets a job at the most haunted hotel in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Hallorann is a much more selfish individual who has a dedicated interest in his own fate alone. Kane explained,

The next stage of his journey is now just days away. Titled "Now You See It," the third episode of IT: Welcome To Derry is set to premiere this Sunday, November 9 at 10pm on HBO, and it will be made available to stream simultaneously on HBO Max. It will be tough to beat the extreme terror that was featured in Episode 2, but an effort will be made, and you can expect plenty more coverage and analysis here on CinemaBlend.

With October coming to a close, it’s natural that a subscriber’s streaming schedule will be filled with perfectly horrifying movies. Based on HBO Max’s top ten, many of this year’s greatest horror releases, as well as other terrifying flicks, are being watched by tons of people. However, there's one not-so-scary movie in the top ten, and I have to admit, I have my eye on this drama that has 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

HBO Max’s 9 Perfectly Horrifying Movies In The Top 10

As a horror film aficionado, I was psyched by the recent wave of films from the genre that were both well-received and kept me up at night. Those with an HBO Max subscription seem to agree this spooky October, as nine films that you could consider scary have made their way to the streamer’s Top Ten list. Take a look at what subscribers couldn’t get enough of below:

1. Weapons (2025)
2. It (2017)
3. It: Chapter 2 (2019)
4. The Substance (2024)
5. Sorry, Baby (2025)
6. Bring Her Back (2025)
7. Hunted By My Husband (2025)
8. The Shining (1980)
9. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
10. Stephen King’s It (1990)

What a list! I’ve got to say that I’ve been really impressed with the recent batch of horror releases. Weapons was easily one of the craziest movies of the year, in large part because of the villainous Aunt Gladys character. But The Substance and Bring Her Back rode an amazing body horror wave that actually made me look away at certain parts.

It also doesn’t surprise me that many of the It movies made their way to the Top Ten list. After its prequel, Welcome to Derry, was so unreal with its creature violence and shocking deaths, it’s natural that fans would want to revisit Pennywise in his many forms.

While Hunted By My Husband is not a horror film necessarily, the true crime doc still has a scary premise as it tells the story of a DC sniper who killed 10 people in the area. As his ex-wife was a survivor of the killer’s actions, I can understand people’s curiosity spiking at this true story.

What’s impressing me the most about HBO Max’s Top Ten list is not just that subscribers are running to watch new horror releases, but are revisiting the classics, too. The Shining is one of the best Stephen King movies due to Jack Nicholson’s performance and the spine-tingling tension of his character's madness. Not to mention, it’s a great gateway horror flick that delivers scares without being overly violent.

Meanwhile, Edward Scissorhands may not be a horror movie. But, Johnny Depp’s character is living his own horror story of having sharp, metal hands that make forming a basic human connection a struggle.

Now, while all that is fun, and I love the spooky energy, there's one other movie on this list that has me even more interested.

It's An Impressively Terrifying List, But I’m More Interested in the Lone Holdout

There’s no argument that every movie on the Top Ten list is worth giving a shot. However, the one that’s truly grabbing my attention is the only non-scary movie on there— Sorry, Baby.

Currently at a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, Sorry, Baby is about a woman trying to turn her life around after going through a traumatic event. It’s a storyline that really resonates with me because I know what it’s like for depression to keep you stuck in that state. The A24 flick doesn’t appear to be about watching a woman’s growing depression; she's trying to find a way out of it. That’s incredibly inspirational to me.

Based on the trailer, I love the dry humor of how people think they know the right thing to say to a person going through trauma, only to come across as completely clueless. Even more so, I love the friendship aspect of your loved ones giving you reasons to keep on going. With all being said, this 2025 movie release is totally at the top of my watchlist.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the perfectly horrifying flicks on HBO Max’s Top Ten are worth watching, but the one I’m really holding out to see is Sorry, Baby. Being an A24 fan and loving the movie’s relatable premise, I can’t walk away from this one.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers for the second episode of IT: Welcome To Derry, “The Thing In The Dark.” If you have not yet watched (it’s now available to stream with a HBO Max subscription), proceed at your own risk!

If you’re a Stephen King fan, there is nothing airing on television right now that encourages rewatches and pause moments like HBO’s IT: Welcome To Derry. While the series is technically adapting a specific storyline from IT, the filmmakers have filled episodes to the brim with various easter eggs and references that tie the show both with the hit IT movies and the larger King canon. The pilot was chock full of them, and now that they second episode has premiered, we can analyze all of the fun stuff in the latest chapter.

From special characters making appearances to fun details in production design, there is a lot to pay attention to in the episode “The Thing In The Dark,” and I’ve detailed everything I’ve caught in the sections below:

The Welcome To Derry Intro Nods To The Neibolt House, The Bradley Gang Massacre, And More

Like a lot of pilots, the premiere of IT: Welcome To Derry doesn’t feature the show’s opening credits sequence… but it was most definitely worth the wait to see it debut in “The Thing In The Dark.” In addition to a genuinely perfect song choice in "A Smile And A Ribbon" by Patience and Prudence, the animated sequence it accompanies is delightful, and it is loaded up with easter eggs. The illustrations include depictions of some of the most horrific events in the history of Derry, Maine – including the Bradley Gang massacre and the explosion at the Kitchner Ironworks – but my favorite bit is the house on Neibolt Street (in pristine condition) being in the shadow of a giant mushroom cloud.

Mention Of A Thrift Shop Reveals Second Hand Rose In Operation

When writing about all of the fun details in the premiere, I made note of many familiar storefronts in downtown Derry, including the Jade Orient restaurant, Keene’s Pharmacy, and Nan’s Luncheonette. Early in episode two, another business is added to the list. When Leroy Hanlon reunites with his wife Charlotte and son Will in their new home, he presents the latter with a telescope as a present – mentioning that he found it for sale at a local thrift shop. It just so happens that this shop is Second Hand Rose, which is the same place that adult Bill Denbrough visits in IT: Chapter Two when he sees his old bike Silver in the window.

The Derry Curfew Is In Effect

It used to be a thing in 20th century America that kids would go out in the neighborhood and play, and they would know that it’s time to go home when the streetlights come on. That was a kind of general practice, but things don’t work like normal in the town of Derry, Maine: it’s a place with a notable history of being dangerous for children, and thus, a strict curfew is enforced. It’s one of the little charms of the nightmare hamlet, and it’s a local policy that gets a callout in “The Thing In The Dark” via big, bold letters on the bulletin sign outside of the high school.

Young Norbert Keene Smoking A Cigarette

There’s perhaps no better way to get familiar with a new town than by taking a stroll around the downtown area, and that’s precisely what Charlotte Hanlon gets up to during her first day in Derry. And as she goes about running some errands, she ends up seeing some familiar faces and visiting some familiar places. In the former category, there is Nobert Keene, who Charlotte gives a polite nod to while he is standing outside the local pharmacy smoking a cigarette. IT fans will remember the character from IT: Chapter One, as Beverly Marsh makes an effort to distract him while Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kasbrack, Stan Uris, and Richie Tozier steal medical supplies to help the cut-up Ben Hanscom. And speaking of that incident…

A Familiar Alley In Downtown Derry

As Charlotte makes her way through downtown Derry, there is a standout shot that sees her walking past an alley – and it’s not a coincidence that director Andy Muschietti would highlight this particular location. After all, it’s the location in IT: Chapter One where the Losers Club really starts to take shape (not including Mike Hanlon, whom the protagonists befriend a little bit later). The alley is where six of the seven members of the group all come together for the first time, the young friends helping Ben bandage deep cuts on his stomach following a violent encounter with bully Henry Bowers.

The Paul Bunyan Statue Is Erected

Derry is a town with a whole lot of unaddressed issues, but in the sense of “Mussolini kept the trains running on time,” I suppose it can at least be said that the local government’s public works department operates with extreme efficiency. In the IT: Welcome To Derry pilot, a newspaper being read by Leroy Hanlon features an article announcing that the plans to erect a Paul Bunyan statue is moving forward, and in the second episode, Charlotte witnesses the art piece being constructed during her downtown stroll. The new landmark is the source of some controversy, as evidenced by protests and complaints, but we as an audience know that their criticism is going to be for naught, as Paul Bunyan will continue to stand in Derry for the next 50-plus years.

Meet Stan Kersh

During Charlotte’s errands, the first person we see her interact with is the local butcher, who is a kind enough local who sells her a roast to cook up for dinner. And if your ears perked up when he introduced himself as Stan “Stanley Cleaver” Kersh, that’s probably because that last name is one that you’ve heard before. In IT: Chapter Two, adult Beverly takes a trip to the home that she lived in with her father, and she finds that the place has a new resident: a Mrs. Kersh (first name not given). For now, this is a pretty vague connection, as we have no idea how the two characters are related, but that will hopefully be a question that’s answered later in the season.

The Derry Effect Exemplified

A significant part of what makes Derry such a rotten place is a terrible mix of cruelty and aloofness: there is a lot of hate and anger swirling around, and residents are more than happy to look the other way when those ingredients escalate into violence. It’s a consequence of IT’s presence, and we see it in full effect while Charlotte is at the butcher shop. When a group of boys start chasing and beating up a kid in the middle of the street, nobody acts to anything – that is, until Charlotte steps in, as she is new in town and hasn’t been exposed to the town’s poison yet.

Clint Bowers Arrives On The Scene

In my easter egg hunt for the pilot, I noted that there is a newspaper clipping that features the name Clint Bowers (a relative of Henry Bowers and his father, Butch Bowers) but it’s in episode two that we actually get to meet the man – and he turns out to be the Chief of Police in Derry. Susceptible to pressure being applied to him by some racist members of his constituency, Clint is leading the investigation into the deaths of Teddy, Phil and Suzie from the pilot, and he has a target directly set on Hank Grogan (even though the audience knows that IT is responsible).

A Cameo From The Shopkeeper In His Youth On The Hunt For A Bea-vah

As noted, there is mention of the thrift shop Second Hand Rose early in “The Thing In The Dark,” but Charlotte also ends up stopping by the store in the episode, and it’s there that she happens upon another individual who should be familiar to fans: the character played by Stephen King himself in IT: Chapter Two. Just looking at the guy in the scene, you might not think he is anyone special, but it becomes obvious who he is as soon as the word “beaver” comes out of his mouth with a thick Maine accent.

Calumet Baking Powder May Be Familiar To Shining Fans

The expanded presence of Dick Hallorann in the second episode of IT: Welcome To Derry isn’t the only fun connection that is present linking the show to The Shining. When Lilly Bainbridge is doing some grocery shopping, one item that keeps appearing on the shifting aisle shelves is a product called Calumet Baking Powder. If you’re unaware of why this detail might be an easter egg, you may just dismiss it as a standard bit of period-accurate production design, but it’s actually more than that. The cans of baking powder are identical to ones that can be spotted in the pantry where Jack Torrance is locked away by Wendy after he starts to lose his mind.

What other easter eggs and references await fans in the future? Because IT: Welcome To Derry Episode 2 got an early premiere to celebrate Halloween, we’ll have to wait a little longer for the next installment, but Episode 3 is set to premiere on November 9, and after it does, be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend for our next full rundown of all the most special details.

Dick Hallorann Is Using His Shine For A Secret Military Operation

It’s cool on a general level that Dick Hallorann is a part of the story in IT: Welcome To Derry, as he is featured in Stephen King’s book and directly links the canon of the show/movies to The Shining and Doctor Sleep – but not to be forgotten is that he is a man with a special power. His psychic abilities aren’t as strong as those possessed by Danny Torrance, but he does have them, and they are being put to use by the military in the series. While Dick didn’t get much of a spotlight thrown on him in the pilot, episode two reveals that he is operating as an enhanced asset for the Air Force and helping General Francis Shaw find the evil entity that is living in Derry.

Mike Flanagan is the best friend of every Constant Reader. His passion for Stephen King has been present since the very beginning of his filmmaking career (he’s admitted that his debut short film is an extremely loose take on “1408”), and the link between him and the author is only growing stronger. Having already made Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life Of Chuck – three of the best King movies of all time – Flanagan is now working on a Carrie limited series for Amazon Prime Video in addition to developing his dream adaptation of The Dark Tower. And as though that weren’t enough, he’s also now contributing to a new literary project that will expand the canon of The Shining.

News about that newly announced book is the lead story for this week’s edition of The King Beat, but also waiting for you in this column is an update about the alternate ending of Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk that fans will definitely want to know about. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!

Views From The Overlook Will Reveal Stories From The Dark Past Of The Overlook Hotel

As I’ve frequently repeated in this column since the start of the year, 2025 has been heaven for Stephen King fans. There have been multiple movies and TV shows (The Monkey, The Life Of Chuck, The Institute, The Long Walk, IT: Welcome To Derry and The Running Man) and two new books from the author himself (Never Flinch and Hansel & Gretel) – but the most surprising treat of all has arguably been the anthology The End Of The World As We Know It. The hefty collection is a spectacular expansion of the canon from The Stand, with some of the best writers of today contributing stories set in the world ravaged by the deadly virus known as Captain Trips.

Now, a similar project is in the works, but the focus will be on a different Stephen King novel this time around – namely The Shining.

This week, Publishers Marketplace posted a deal report revealing the development of Views From The Overlook, which is being assembled by Jamie Flanagan – who is the sibling of Mike Flanagan and is best known for their work as a writer and producer on streaming shows including The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall Of The House Of Usher. The full list of creatives contributing to the anthology is not revealed, but some of the authors who will have work featured are Mike Flanagan, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Golden and Brian Keene (Golden and Keene, I should note, spearheaded and edited The End Of The World As We Know It).

While the anthology expanding the world of The Stand includes tales that are set before, during, and after the events that take place in Stephen King’s book, Views From The Overlook will function differently, as it will only include prequel stories (though that shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone who has read The Shining, given that the building burns down at the end of the novel). The Overlook Hotel has a very dark history – as Jack Torrance starts to discover shortly before he loses his mind – and this new work will explore some of those nightmares.

Of course, this will be Mike Flanagan’s second time visiting the haunted hotel in the remote/fictional mountain town of Sidewinder, Colorado – but no matter what story he decides to tell, it will be significantly different from the epic effort that went into the making of Doctor Sleep. In the making of the brilliant 2019 film, Flanagan had the extreme challenge of taking Stephen King’s sequel novel and figuring out a way to marry it to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (which the author famously dislikes).

With Views From The Overlook, he’ll have vastly more creative freedom, even if he opts to write about one of the ghosts that we already know about. Obviously we don’t know any of the “rules” for the project just yet, but it will be fascinating to see if he ends up writing a totally original tale or fills in some of the gaps with a story that King only teased in his book (my hope is for the former, but you certainly wouldn’t hear any complaints from me if he were to let us know a bit more about the lives of the Grady family).

When will we actually get to pick up a copy and read Views From The Overlook? That’s unfortunately a question that doesn’t seem to have an answer yet, and the truth is that it may be a minute. The End Of The World As We Know It was first announced in October 2023 (at which time it got the public stamp of approval from Stephen King), and while we got occasional updates about its progress as it developed, the hardcover didn’t arrive in stores until this past August. A matching timeline would suggest that we won’t be devouring Jamie Flanagan’s book until the summer of 2027… but it could move faster, and it could move slower.

It should go without saying that I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground for news about its forward progress and information about who else will have stories featured. I would personally love to see more overlap with the talents behind The Stand anthology, including names like Paul Tremblay, Josh Malerman, Joe R. Lansdale, Bev Vincent, and Catriona Ward.

In the meantime, those of you who haven’t picked up a copy of The End Of The World As We Know It are missing out, as there are not only a number of excellent, freaky tales in between the covers, but there is also a whole lot of love for the storytelling magic of Stephen King.

Want To See The Long Walk’s Alternate Ending? You’ll Need To Purchase The 4K UHD Steelbook

A month ago, I included a section in The King Beat highlighting pre-orders being made available for The Long Walk on home video – with a specific focus on the 4K UHD Steelbook (which is the format/packaging that I would argue is the best available in the modern market). I noted that in addition to including the Francis Lawrence-directed Stephen King adaptation, there are also going to be a number of special features, with the most intriguing being an alternate ending.

What I didn’t know then but learned this week is this: if you want to see that alternate ending and a pair of other extras, the 4K UHD Steelbook is going to be your only option.

Lionsgate sent out an official press release on Tuesday with dates for The Long Walk’s home video rollout, and among the intriguing details is the news that the distribution of special features won’t be universal. Standard 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases will include theatrical trailers and a multi-part documentary titled Ever Onward: Making The Long Walk, but those of you who purchase the Steelbook (which is only available via Amazon) will get three exclusives:

• Alternate Ending
• Stephen King: An Appreciation
• Cooper & David Scene Read

There isn’t any additional information currently available regarding content details or runtimes, but for me, the alternate ending alone makes it worth the price, as I am immensely curious to find out how it is different than what audiences got to see in The Long Walk’s theatrical cut. Considering that the movie as we know it deviates significantly from Stephen King’s book, part of me wonders if the cut conclusion is a more faithful adaptation of the source material… but it also could be something completely different, or something similar to what we’ve seen but with certain choices changed.

For those of you who missed the movie in theaters and/or don’t want to wait for the physical media release, The Long Walk will be made available for digital rental/purchase starting next Tuesday, October 21. Both the 4K UHD Steelbook and the Blu-ray will be available on November 25 (albeit it’s not exactly a Thanksgiving movie), and the standard 4K UHD will be out a little less than a month later on December 23 (it’s DEFINITELY not a Christmas movie). As previously noted, you can place pre-orders now.

You can be sure that this won’t be the last time I report about The Long Walk alternate ending here on CinemaBlend; be on the lookout in coming weeks for more details and analysis when I finally get to see it for myself and can compare it to both the book’s ending and what’s currently playing in theaters everywhere.

And speaking of the near future, while you’ve now reached the end of this week’s edition of The King Beat, I’ll be back here next Thursday with a brand new column full of goodies and updates from the world of Stephen King. In recent days, I’ve been conducting a number of interviews with both the stars of and filmmakers behind the new HBO series IT: Welcome To Derry, so be on the lookout for stories from those conversations and much more.

Can you hear the sounds of laughing children as your nose perks up at the smells of popcorn and funnel cakes fill the air? That means Pennywise must be near, and he is indeed present and accounted for in the tension-soaked new trailer for the Stephen King-inspired prequel IT: Welcome to Derry, even if the dancing clown’s actual visage is still yet to be revealed. No matter, as there are plenty of other highlights to get excited about, especially after those rumors about a huge The Shining crossover were confirmed at SDCC.

That’s right, fans’ suspicions about Chris Chalk’s Derry character were revealed to be right on the money, as the Gotham vet will be taking on the iconic role of Dick Halloran, whose ability to shine made him both a hero and a victim in King’s classic The Shining. (The character was famously portrayed by Scatman Cruthers in Stanley Kubrick’s film, and by Carl Lumbly in Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep.) Anyone who hasn’t yet watched the latest full-length preview for the upcoming horror series should hit play now. Just watch out for the pickle jar.

Without a whole lot of context for what to expect from this new group of youngsters hoping to take town the ancient evil that resurfaces in Derry, let's instead hone in on what we know about Dick Halloran's encounters with dark forces located thousands of miles from the Overlook Hotel.

Why Is The Shining's Dick Halloran In IT: Welcome To Pennywise?

Simply put: because Halloran was also in Stephen King's IT novel, which first gave readers crossover delights many years ago. But that only explains the precedence, and not the context of the story making its way to the 2025 TV schedule this fall.

Within the novel, Dick Halloran is one of the founders of The Black Spot, a bar & grill catering to Black soldiers where Halloran also worked as a short-order cook along with Will Hanlon, the father of Loser's Club member Mike Hanlon. (Portraying Will in the HBO series is Javon Adepo.) The establishment was infamously burned down by local racists, possibly guided by Pennywise, and becames a dark stain within both local history and in the memories of those who survived it.

All that said, it's not as if Halloran is a huge character within IT, so the fact that Chris Chalk pops up multiple times in the trailer suggests that his role won't just be limited to the Black Spot's inferno. We even see him discovering one of Pennywise's traveling stage wagon, though its contents are not shown.

I can't wait to see how Dick Halloran's arc is handled in IT: Welcome to Derry, and also to see if that will be the only major crossover character who pops up in the TV series. There's a shot of the Derry Herald newspaper around the :39 second mark that refers to an "Officer Gillespie," which may or may not be a reference to Constable Parkins Gillespie, a minor character in 'Salem's Lot. I'm guessing "not," but it's still a joy to look for details like that.

Speaking of, the image above gives audiences a brief look at Dick Halloran's uniform nametag, which does indeed feature a hastily scribbled surname. So even if the news hadn't been fully confirmed at SDCC, that shot might have been enough to convince everyone.

I Already Believe That Pickle Jar Will Gross Me Out More Than Anything Else In IT: Welcome To Derry

So much footage in the trailer helps set up the general story of this town's evil occurrences and the youths caught up in the middle of it. But then, out of nowhere, along comes this nasty-ass shot of an old and greyed-out hand inside a jar of pickles. It's icky enough in still form, but it's not at all still in the split-second we see it.

No, it somehow starts moving around in there, despite seemingly not being attached to a wrist or forearm or anything else in the realm of organic biology. Show me a bunch of people getting massacred by a clown, and I might not bat an eyelash, but the thought of someone reaching for a pickle and grabbing onto a pair of brined knuckles is apparently where my brain draws the line.

Sure, this is probably just someone's hallucination caused by Pennywise, but if that's the case, then I doubt it'll be the only nightmarish example of gnarled body parts inside sealed food containers. I really don't want to see a big toe poking out of a can of Vienna sausages.

HBO Max somehow still hasn't locked down a specific premiere date yet for IT: Welcome to Derry, but it'll arrive at some point in October, presumably not too long before Halloween.

If Stephen King fans need even one more reason to appreciate the existence of Mike Flanagan, it should be known that he and his wife Kate Siegel have wonderfully deep ties to The Stanley – the hotel in Estes Park, Colorado that inspired King to write The Shining. There is an obvious connection between the filmmakers and the establishment simply through the making of 2019’s Doctor Sleep, but years prior to that, Flanagan and Siegel actually finished the script for their breakout movie Hush while staying in the notorious Room 217.

And while they’ve never seen a ghost at the famously haunted hotel, it’s not for a lack of trying.

Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel’s latest collaboration is the new Stephen King adaptation The Life Of Chuck, and when I had the chance to speak with the actress late last week during the film’s press day, I made a point of bringing up her time at The Stanley. I asked if she had been back at the hotel since the release of Doctor Sleep, and if she has ever seen a ghost there. It turns out that she has been back a few times, but despite her desire, she has not yet made contact with the spirit world. Said Siegel,

It’s a curiosity that her husband definitely shares (if that wasn’t already obvious from the fact that so much of his work involves contact with the dead – including The Haunting Of Hill House, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, and Ouija: Origin of Evil). Kate Siegel recalls one special night when she woke up to find Mike Flanagan trying to attract the attention of any ghost children who might be in the vicinity. Said Siegel,

For their latest collaboration as writer/director and actor, Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel have stepped away from the world of ghosts and have instead made a film about the opposite of death: life. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Karen Gillan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Jacob Tremblay and Annalise Basso, The Life Of Chuck is based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King, and it’s an absolutely stunning and beautiful examination of existence and the multitudes that exist within all of us.

Last fall, the movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to overwhelming acclaim, winning the much-coveted People's Choice Award, and now it is set to arrive in theaters this Friday, May 6.

Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director, and a long time ago, I ranked all of his movies. And, spoiler alert, I put 2001: A Space Odyssey at the top of the list.

Honestly, how could I not? Not only is it often considered the greatest sci-fi movie of all time, but it’s often considered one of the greatest movies of all time, period. That said, one thing that I often hear people say online is that “Stanley Kubrick is boring.” When I ask them why they say that, they’ll usually bring up 2001, since that’s the first movie they watch of his, because again, it’s considered his masterpiece.

However, I would never recommend that any burgeoning film fan start with 2001 if they want to get into Kubrick. Honestly, it is boring, but that slow pace is intentional. It represents how the concept of time doesn’t really apply to the endlessness of space (My interpretation). Anyway, interpretations aside, here’s how I would direct people to start if they want to get into Kubrick. First, you should…

Start With The Shining

Undoubtedly Kubrick’s most accessible film, a lot of cinephiles might have already seen The Shining and not even realize that it was a Kubrick movie. Often considered one of the best horror movies of all time, The Shining is quintessential viewing if you’re into the horror medium.

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name (even though there are several big differences between the book and the film), the story concerns an author, Jack, played by Jack Nicholson, who becomes a caretaker of an empty hotel during the winter, and he brings his wife and child with him.

Things go south when Jack starts seeing ghosts, and they tell him to kill his family. Luckily, his son has the ability to communicate telepathically with other people who also have what’s called the "shining."

Classic stuff, and The Shining has it all when it comes to Kubrick’s style.

You have his distinct way of framing shots, the coldness present in most of his films, the great performances, and of course, the Kubrick stare. The Shining has it all, but it’s actually enjoyable to watch. So, start with that.

Then, Watch The Documentary Room 237

Okay, so I know it’s weird to direct somebody to watch a movie that wasn’t directed by Kubrick next, but the documentary, Room 237, truly gets into the overall mythos that surrounds the director.

You see, one of the things that makes Kubrick so compelling is that he was kind of mysterious.

He wasn’t like Hitchcock, who would often show up in his own movies, or like Scorsese, who openly talks about filmmaking.

Nope. It’s cliche to say this, but Kubrick was a bit of an enigma, which only means that fans have come up with their own theories about him and his work. The most extreme fan theories appear in the documentary Room 237, where fans argue that The Shining hides several clues about a myriad of things about the director.

The most insane (but also compelling) argument is that Kubrick actually staged the moon landing and provided hints of this in The Shining. Again, it’s crazy, but if you want to fully understand why some people obsess over Kubrick, then this is a great film to watch next.

Move On To Full Metal Jacket To Get A Sense Of Kubrick's Coldness And Sense Of Humor

Considered one of the best war movies of all time, Full Metal Jacket is yet another movie that film fans might have already seen without knowing it was Kubrick.

Like The Shining, Full Metal Jacket is highly accessible. Some might say that the first half in boot camp is better than the second half in the actual war, but I consider them two sides of the same coin.

Private Leonard (“Gomer Pyle”), played by Daredevil’s Vincent D’Onofrio, is one of the best characters in any Kubrick film, and his story perfectly portrays Kubrick’s coldness as a filmmaker. We feel bad for Private Pyle, but we’re also captivated by his abuse. We know things will end badly, and we’re just waiting for it to happen, and it does. Shockingly so.

The war section is also fascinating. We really get in the heads of these soldiers, and by the end, we’re left wondering who really were the people that America sent over to foreign lands.

It’s an anti-war film, and one that is both hard to watch, but also humorous. It’s definitely one of his best.

Then, Jump Backward To Paths Of Glory

The other major Kubrick war film, Paths of Glory, jumps all the way back to the First World War and stars Kirk Douglas. The plot is about a commanding officer who forces a suicide mission, and when it goes awry, he tries to court-martial three soldiers, but Kirk Douglas isn’t having it.

I think this is an excellent film to watch next because it shows that Kubrick never really changed his stance on war being pointless for 30 years, as Paths came out in 1957, and Full Metal Jacket came out in 1987.

Now, here’s the thing. It’s black and white. In fact, a lot of Kubrick’s best films are. That said, I know some young movie fans aren’t into classic black and white films. And look, I get it. Black and white=old, right? Well, you’re not wrong, but any true film fan will be cool with older films because some of the best ones come from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

Paths of Glory is one of those films. It’s a war movie, but it’s more about the consequences of war and the people leading men to their deaths. It’s a masterpiece and a great place to start in Kubrick’s older catalogue.

Dr. Strangelove Should Come Next

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Yes, that’s the full title) is undoubtedly Kubrick’s funniest movie.

It’s a satire about a nuclear apocalypse. If that doesn’t sound like Kubrick in a nutshell, then I don’t know what does. A bunch of men gather in a war room, and argue over everything. It’s a story about what if the wrong people are in charge of starting a war, and, yeah…I’m just going to leave it there.

This is another black and white movie, but I think people should go from Paths of Glory to this to see that Kubrick really wasn’t just “the serious director.

It’s also technically a “war” movie, but one that is more concerned with the politics of war, kind of like Paths.

Now we’re cooking when it comes to Kubrick. What’s next?

Follow It Up With A Clockwork Orange

My older sister warned me never to watch A Clockwork Orange, but I’m glad I did since it made me into a lifelong fan.

Based on the Anthony Burgess novel of the same name, A Clockwork Orange is about a group of delinquents called droogs who do all manner of terrible things and end up having to pay for it…or at least, one of them does.

You see, A Clockwork Orange is quite different from the book. In the novel, the characters are much younger, so the heinous acts are more of a reflection on dumb youth. Kubrick aged up the characters, so it really became a criticism of society itself for allowing these people to walk free.

It’s a tough watch, but it’s a huge tonal shift from Dr. Strangelove, while still maintaining a sort of wit that often gets overlooked since it’s such a hard film to sit through.

But, if you’ve made it this far…

THEN Move Onto 2001: A Space Odyssey

I think now is a good time to finally check out 2001. Now that you’ve seen that Kubrick could do multiple styles, the slower-paced 2001 seems like a nice place to go next.

2001 is interesting because it might be Kubrick’s coldest film. It has such a bombastic opening with the apes, but then it slows down considerably, and then it goes to strange, dark places.

Today, it might seem quite dated, and it is (I mean, this saw 2001 as the future, and we’re already 24 years past that). That said, it still feels bold and audacious.

The story goes from the cusp of humankind to us exploring the vastness of space, and it still feels relevant, what with how we’re still considering the prospect of going to distant planets.

It’s not my personal favorite film of Kubrick’s, but it’s essential viewing for any movie fan. Even if it is kinda boring.

Now, you can watch any Kubrick film you want. Enjoy!

We have seen many a cinematic masterpiece, and even a Best Picture Oscar winner, based on the work of authors such as William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and more legendary writers. Of course, not all classic literature and the films they inspire have to be, speaking frankly, so ancient. Just take a look at these acclaimed and popular movies that were bred from books published as early as 1950.

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

In 1961, Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for her debut novel (and her only novel until 2015's Go Set a Watchmen), To Kill a Mockingbird, which depicts a trial against a Black man accused of assault in the 1930s South from the point of a view of young Scout Finch. Soon after, the powerful anti-prejudice statement was adapted into a feature by director Robert Mulligan and starring Gregory Peck in an Oscar-winning portrayal of selfless attorney Atticus Finch.

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

All three volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s influential trilogy of fantasy novels – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King – were published between 1954 and 1955. Director Peter Jackson would bring Middle Earth to life in his live-action Lord of the Rings movies, which were a worldwide critical and commercial smash, spawning a prequel trilogy based on The Hobbit, an Amazon Prime series (The Rings of Power), and an animated spin-off (The War of the Rohirrim).

Forrest Gump (1994)

Six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, went to director Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks in the title role of a simple man who, unwittingly, lives a truly historic life. A year after the film’s release, Winston Groom, author of the original 1986 novel, would publish a sequel, Gump & Co., that chronicles the shrimp company owner’s life in the 1980s.

The Shining (1980)

Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall lead Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 novel, The Shining, in which an author is mysteriously driven mad while serving as the caretaker for a Colorado ski resort with his wife and psychic son. While now revered as one of the best King adaptations, let alone one of the best horror movies ever made, the author famously hated the thriller which was not a critical or commercial success upon release either.

Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

Writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak earned the Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are, in which the ill-behaved Max dreams he is the king of a place where otherwordly creatures roam. The beloved 1963 children’s book was adapted into a bizarre, beautifully puppeteered, and significantly darker live-action feature film by director Spike Jonze and starring Max Records with the voice talents of James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara.

The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

The Oscar-winning film that made cannibalistic criminal psychologist Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) one of the horror genre’s most feared villains is actually based on the second book to feature the character. Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of 1988’s The Silence of the Lambs is also predated by Manhunter – Michael Mann’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ first Lecter novel, Red Dragon.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Director Miloš Forman's Best Picture Oscar winner, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, stars Jack Nicholson as a criminal who pleads insanity to get out of jail and ends up leading a revolt against the sinister Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). While revered as a film that takes mental health seriously, some would say it does not quite do Ken Kesey's 1962 novel justice, rendering the narrator, Chief Bromden (portrayed by Will Sampson), into more of a side character.

No Country For Old Men (2007)

Joel and Ethan Coen were quite faithful to Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel when adapting No Country for Old Men, which follows a disillusioned sheriff (played by Tommy Lee Jones) and his search for a hunter (played by Josh Brolin) who is on the run from a sadistic hitman (played by Javier Bardem). In fact, for its breathtakingly grounded craftsmanship, Bardem's chilling Oscar-winning performance, and provocative commentary on violence, some might say it is the best Western movie of all time.

The Harry Potter Movies (2001-2011)

J.K. Rowling’s seven-part series of young adult fantasy novels following an orphaned wizard’s education in the mystic arts at Hogwarts was published between 1997 and 2007. The bestselling series inspired eight Harry Potter movies (including two based on the final novel, Deathly Hallows) which starred Daniel Radcliffe and became an enduring worldwide phenomenon.

The Godfather And The Godfather Part II (1972-1974)

Mario Puzo’s 1969 post-World War II crime epic, The Godfather, inspired two Best Picture Oscar winners following the rise of reluctant mafia boss Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). Director Francis Ford Coppola would collaborate with Puzo on the screenplay for a third installment that was released in 1990 and is not held in such high regard today.

Dune And Dune: Part Two (2021-2024)

Director Denis Villeneuve adapted Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi epic Dune, which largely influenced George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, into two widely acclaimed big-screen adventures that brought the eponymous planet to life with wondrous visual effects. The first live-action adaptation by David Lynch from 1984 was, unfortunately, far less appreciated.

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for director Mel Stuart’s adaptation of his 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – the title of which replaced the original eponymous character, Charlie Bucket, with Gene Wilder’s eccentric chocolatier. While Tim Burton’s 2005 adaptation, with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie, is not quite the beloved children's movie the original is, it at least made the poor Golden Ticket holder the title hero again.

The Color Purple (1985)

Alice Walker’s influential tale of a Black, Southern woman’s life of abuse and neglect inspired one of director Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in Oscar-nominated roles. Winfrey would later produce a stage musical based on the novel that was also adapted into a film starring Fantasia Barrino in 2023.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

One of the most controversial X-rated classics in cinematic history is Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ 1962 dystopian novel, A Clockwork Orange. It stars Malcolm McDowell as one of the most fearsome 1970s movie villains, Alex DeLarge – a gang leader subjected to an experimental, government-issued cure for his violent tendencies.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (2005)

Douglas Adams condensed his absurdist, science-fiction radio play, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, into a 1979 novel that was first adapted as a British miniseries in 1981. Decades later, Disney released a feature adaptation starring Martin Freeman, Mos Def, and Alan Rickman as the voice of a clinically depressed but still friendly robot named Marvin, who was portrayed on screen by Warwick Davis.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)

Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson chronicled his experiences in the Sin City with attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta in a fictionalized memoir called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, published in 1971. Director Terry Gilliam adapted the book into a wild, psychedelic trip starring Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke (Thompson's alter ego) and Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo.

The Road (2008)

Just two years after it was published, one of Cormac McCarthy’s most acclaimed novels, The Road, was adapted into a film starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as an unnamed father and son searching for sanctuary in a ruined future. Director John Hillcoat’s thriller is regarded as one of the best post-apocalyptic movies of its time.

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

François Truffaut adapted Ray Bradbury’s prophetic, dystopian 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451, into a film starring Oskar Werner as a fireman tasked with destroying any and all literature who has a sudden change of heart. Michael B. Jordan would portray the hero, Guy Montag, in a later feature made exclusively for HBO in 2018.

Blade Runner (1982)

Ridley Scott’s seminal, Harrison Ford-led sci-fi thriller, Blade Runner, takes inspiration from Philip K. Dick’s 1986 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The author’s vision of a world in which artificial beings known as Replicants live among humans was also expanded upon in director Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049.

The Hunger Games Movies (2012-2015)

Jennifer Lawrence received wide acclaim for portraying teenage rebel Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and its three sequels, based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling dystopian trilogy published between 2008 and 2010. Cinema would return to Panem once more with 2023’s The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which takes place during one of the earliest holdings of the eponymous challenge that pits children against each other in an annual fight to the death.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)

Holly Golightly – the central character of Truman Capote’s 1958 novella, Breakfast at Tiffany’s – essentially remains the same in Blake Edwards’ Audrey Hepburn-led adaptation. However, the story changes dramatically, making it more of a sweeping romance between the callgirl and the previously unnamed narrator, Paul (played by George Peppard in the film).

American Psycho (2000)

Before he took on the mantle of a live-action Batman actor, Christian Bale gave a star-making performance as a more menacing urban yuppie with a violent double life named Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. His portrayal of the character in director Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ provocative 1991 novel has since been recognized as one of the most disturbing killers in cinematic history.

The Haunting (1963)

A psychologist invites a group of patients to stay in a house supposedly inhabited by ghosts in director Robert Wise’s classic haunted house movie, The Haunting, which is based on Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. The chilling 1959 novel inspired another film bearing the shortened title from 1999 and, in 2018, a more loosely connected but widely acclaimed Netflix miniseries from creator Mike Flanagan.

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (2005)

The first volume of C.S. Lewis’s seven-part fantasy novel series, published in 1950, was adapted into a critically and commercially successful adventure set in a wondrous land. The next two books in the series, collectively known as The Chronicles of Narnia, also received feature-length adaptations from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023)

Abby Ryder Fortson makes her film debut in the first feature based on Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., which also stars Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams as the title character's supportive mother. Author Judy Blume shared with Today that she believes writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation surpassed her own novel, which offered a groundbreaking inside look at the pains of female adolescence in 1970.

Catch-22 (1970)

Director Mike Nichols and writer Buck Henry adapted Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel into the star-studded WWII-era satire Catch-22, starring Alan Arkin and Bob Newhart. The book also inspired a Hulu original miniseries released in 2019 starring Christopher Abbott and George Clooney, who also executive produced.

Watchmen (2009)

Many credit the long-awaited acceptance of comic book fiction as earnest literature with writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons and their groundbreaking graphic novel, Watchmen, which was originally published by DC in 12 parts between 1986 and 1987. Director Zack Snyder first adapted the story of costumed crimefighters coming out of retirement years after vigilanteism is banned into a live-action film 15 years before Warner Bros. released a two-part animated feature in 2024.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Amy Tan's influential 1989 novel, The Joy Luck Club, depicts the eye-opening experiences of four different women from a Chinese family. The author made a cameo in the film adaptation from director Wayne Wang.

Lord Of The Flies (1963)

William Golding’s seminal coming-of-age survival novel, Lord of the Flies, was first adapted for cinema nine years after it was published. Writer and director Peter Brook’s adaptation is considered to be more a faithful take on the story of adolescent boys stranded on a desert island than the American version released in 1990 by director Harry Hook.

Lolita (1962)

Vladimir Nabokov’s provocative 1955 novel, Lolita – the story of a middle-aged college professor obsessed with his teenage stepdaughter – was first adapted for cinema by director Stanley Kubrick in the early 1960s, starring James Mason and Sue Lyon in the title role. Director Adrian Lyne would later remake the drama in 1997 with Jeremy Irons and Dominique Swain.

Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)

Denzel Washington portrays one of the most iconic Black detectives in pop culture, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, in Devil in a Blue Dress. Based on Walter Mosley's 1990 novel, and the first to feature the character, the gritty period piece follows the World War II veteran as he becomes embroiled in the search for a mysterious woman.

The Twilight Movies (2008-2013)

Stephanie Meyer became one of the most popular authors of her time with 2008's Twilight and its three sequels, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. The saga, chronicling a teenage girl’s complicated romance with a vampire, was adapted into five box-office hits that made A-listers out of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

For every heartfelt, sweeping, inspirational storybook romance story, you can find plenty of violent and traumatizing nightmare couplings, too. In both fiction and reality alike, too many innocent victims wanting nothing more than to receive a person's love and support end up suffering a life of abuse and neglect from the person they, unfortunately, chose to spend it with. The following are some of the most essential examples of movie and TV characters you should never get into a relationship with.

Caledon Hockley (Titanic)

Some might call Rose (Kate Winslet) a bad girlfriend, let alone the worst character from the movie Titanic for some of her own childish behaviors and, especially, her affair with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). However, nothing she does in James Cameron's Best Picture Oscar winner justifies the way her arrogant, elitist, industrialist fiancé, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), treats her, ranging from his possessive dominance to his nearly murderous reaction to Rose's relationship with Jack.

Sarah Marshall (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

In the uproarious, 2008 romantic-comedy movie favorite, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Peter Bretter (writer Jason Segel) fails to realize how little support his eponymous girlfriend (played by Kristen Bell) shows him until after she dumps him for rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), whom we discover she was cheating with. The cop TV show actor may even be a worse ex-girlfriend from how she enviously sabotages Peter's newfound happiness with Rachel (Mila Kunis) by making a move on him when they accidentally book a vacation on the same Hawaiian island.

Ross Gellar (Friends)

For every reason a Friends fan may have had to root for Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer) and Rachel Green's (Jennifer Aniston) on-and-off romance, there are even more reasons why Ross is just the worst. He reveals himself to be extremely possessive when Rachel meets a handsome coworker at Bloomingdale's, refuses to take responsibility for cheating on her ("We were on a break" is still no excuse), and even continues to obsess over her while in relationships with other women.

Rose Armitage (Get Out)

In 2017, Get Out introduced one of modern cinema's scariest female horror movie villains in the form of Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), whose relationship with Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) was a ruse to coerce him into falling prey to her family's racist procedure that would cause him to lose control of his body to a white host. He was only one of several Black people she pulled this horrific con on, as we discover in Jordan Peele's terrifying, Oscar-winning directorial debut.

Billy Loomis (Scream)

While easily one of the most iconic examples of the classic slasher movie trope of the killer boyfriend, Skeet Ulrich's Billy Loomis is an undeserving partner even before the big reveal in 1996's Scream. He constantly pressures Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) into having relations, flirts with other women behind her back, and even belittles her for not fully recovering from her mother's murder only a year afterward.

Melissa (The Hangover)

Rachael Harris' character in 2009's The Hangover belittles and manipulates Stu (Ed Harris) to the point that he becomes helplessly defensive of her controlling nature and, even worse, her adultery. Luckily, after meeting and marrying an exotic dancer named Jade (Heather Graham) in a stupor during Doug's disastrous Las Vegas bachelor party, he gains the courage to stand up to Melissa and call her out as a "bad person all the way through to [her] core."

Michael Kelso (That '70s Show)

To be fair, Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis) is certainly not without her shortcomings, showing extreme evidence of vanity and narcissism especially in the earlier seasons of That '70s Show. However, she ultimately deserved better than her on-and-off boyfriend, Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher, who went on to marry Kunis in real life), who shares those same toxic traits in addition to being a helplessly absent-minded serial womanizer.

Judith Fessbeggler (Saving Silverman)

Dr. Judith Fessbeggler (Amanda Peet) is a psychiatrist in great need of psychotherapy, as evidenced by the way she treats Darren (Jason Biggs), the title character of the 2001 comedy, Saving Silverman. She ruthlessly controls everything in his life, from his wardrobe to the music he listens to, even forcing him to receive cosmetic surgery on his behind, which prompts his lifelong friends, Wayne (Steve Zahn) and J.D. (Jack Black), to stop their impending nuptials.

Martin Burney (Sleeping With The Enemy)

In director Joseph Ruben's 1991 adaptation of Nancy Price's novel, Sleeping with the Enemy, a constant pattern of abuse from her husband, Martin (Patrick Bergin), leads Laura Burney (Academy Award winner Julia Roberts) to fake her death and escape the marriage. Unfortunately, after donning a new identity and settling down in Iowa, where she strikes up a romance with a local named Ben (Kevin Anderson), she discovers that Martin has managed to track her down, not willing to let her go.

Amy Dunne (Gone Girl)

Early on in Gone Girl, director David Fincher's 2014 adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestselling mystery, it seems obvious to suspect the adulterous and emotionally distant Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) of foul play when his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), suddenly goes missing. The truth is, however, that the woman left on her own accord and strategically planted evidence to incriminate her husband, which is in no way a healthy method for dealing with marital woes.

Jack Torrance (The Shining)

In Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining, Jack (Jack Nicholson) and Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) do not seem to have a particularly perfect marriage before they become caretakers at the Overlook Hotel. Things grow infinitely worse when the malevolent spirits of the Colorado resort drive Jack to become a vicious, deranged monster.

Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

Some Gilmore Girls fans believe that the show was ruined by the "will they, won't they" dynamic between Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) and Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), and not just because it killed her relationship with Dean (Jared Padalecki). The ill-fated romance was merely the first of many selfish mistakes that Rory would make against her significant others that would ultimately cause some fans of the dramedy to completely turn on the character.

Christian (Midsommar)

Ari Aster told Birth.Movies.Death that he wanted to make his sophomore feature, 2019's Midsommar, a break-up movie based on a previous relationship of his, which makes a lot of sense when you consider the volatility of the relationship at the center of the folk horror story. You almost cannot help but feel happy for Dani (Florence Pugh) as she watches the selfish, emotionally stunted, and gaslighting Christian (Jack Reynor) burn to death before her very eyes at the end of the shocking A24 horror movie classic.

Ginger McKenna (Casino)

Sharon Stone's character from the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie, Casino, has just about all the most essential criteria for an unfavorable wife, from her hustling schemes, her greedy motivations, and her adulterous habits. Of course, in addition to being a bad spouse, Ginger is an even worse mother, having tied her daughter to a bed so she could have a night out clubbing on her own.

David McCall (Fear)

While there are quite a few romance movies that try to discredit the fatherly character's disapproval of his daughter's suitor, 1996's Fear is the movie that would teach audiences dad might know what he is talking about. Steven Walker (William Peterson) is the first to suspect that something is off about his daughter, Nicole's (Reese Witherspoon), new boyfriend, David (Mark Wahlberg) and, boy, do his instincts prove correct when he leaves a bloody trail that culminates in a terrifying attack on Nicole's family all for the sake of having her to himself.

Jan Levinson (The Office)

One of the best episodes of NBC's The Office, "Dinner Party," offers an inside look at the torrid relationship between Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin), who invite their Dunder Mifflin coworkers into their condo for a memorable night. The couple's heated dispute over Michael's multiple vasectomies, Jan's obsession with her assistant (an aspiring musician), and more discords ultimately get the cops involved.

Nate Cooper (The Devil Wears Prada)

A good partner supports their significant other's professional career – a concept lost on Nate Cooper (Adrian Grenier) from 2006's The Devil Wears Prada. Grenier would even agree, in a 2021 oral history by Entertainment Weekly, that his character was a "fragile, wounded boy" who was not as grown-up as Andy (Anne Hathaway) and, thus, selfishly criticized her career decisions. Not to mention, reacting to her getting hired at a fashion magazine by asking if it was a phone interview is unforgivably rude.

Asami Yamazaki (Audition)

The premise of Takashi Miike's acclaimed Japanese horror movie, 1999's Audition – in which a widower holds a fake movie casting session to find a new wife – seems to paint Ryo Ishibashi's character as the villain. However, one might agree that his actions, which did come from a place of sincerity, are not worthy of the sadistic, demented punishment that his new lover, Asami (Eihi Shiina), performs on him.

Josh (Companion)

Including Jack Quaid's character from the 2025 sci-fi movie, Companion, might be a bit of a stretch, considering Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is not really Josh's girlfriend but a highly advanced machine he purchased – er, rented. Discovering this helps her realize that the man she thought she loved is a pathetic, selfish, controlling, and violent loser, making this friendly robot the hero of the story.

Lisa (The Room)

In 2003's The Room, Lisa (Juliette Danielle) decides, completely out of the blue, that she no longer loves her "future husband," Johnny (writer, producer, and director Tommy Wiseau), and engages in an affair with his best friend, Mark (Greg Sestero), which ultimately drives Johnny to take his own life. Regardless of the cult favorite's reputation for its thoroughly nonsensical storyline, if there is one earnest analysis we can make about this awesomely cheesy movie, it is that Lisa was wrong to tear Johnny apart like that.

Nate Jacobs (Euphoria)

One of the strongest aspects of HBO's acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Euphoria, is the grounded ways it depicts certain archetypes that are commonly found in the modern high school environment. For instance, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) – the former boyfriend of Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) and Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney) – is, practically, the teenage poster child for toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia.

Lila West (Dexter)

Sometimes it is crazy to think that one of the worst major villains on Dexter was, at one time, a love interest of Michael C. Hall's titular homicidal vigilante. When his relationship with Rita hits a rough patch in Season 2, Dexter indulges in a relationship with his rehab sponsor, Lila West (Jaime Murray), who proves to be a worse sociopath than he is.

Alex Le Domas (Ready Or Not)

In 2019's Ready or Not, instant classic horror movie final girl Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers she is the target of her in-laws' deadly game of Hide-and-Seek, which her husband, Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien), initially tries to help her escape. However, when she rejects him as a result of the trauma his murderous, Satanic family caused (and which he failed to properly warn her about before tying the knot), he betrays her and submits to the ritual to sacrifice her which, thankfully, gloriously backfires on them.

Stacey (American History X)

Derek Vinyard's (Edward Fulong) relationship with his girlfriend, Stacey (Fairuza Balk), in 1998's American History X, seemed to be at its best before his three-year stint in prison when they both were on the same page about white supremacy. After he returns and tries to convince her to leave the neo-Nazi movement with him, she thinks he is nuts to abandon that kind of life, which is an automatic dealbreaker. Good on him.

Jeffrey Fecalman (Family Guy)

In a rare dramatic moment from Family Guy, the animated series addressed the topic of domestic abuse by introducing Quagmire's (creator Seth MacFarlane) sister, Brenda (Kaitlin Olson), and her vile, deadbeat boyfriend, Jeff (Ralph Garman). After suffering to see her submit to Jeff's verbally and physically cruel treatment, Quagmire conspires with Peter (MacFarlane) and Joe (Patrick Warburton) to actually murder him.

Mrs. Griffith (Easy A)

Not only does high school guidance counselor Mrs. Griffith (Friends cast member Lisa Kudrow) cheat on her dear husband and coworker (played by Thomas Haden Church) but she does so with a student. This makes her one of the least likable characters in 2010's Easy A by a landslide.

Jason "J.D." Dean (Heathers)

In 1988's darkly comic high school movie favorite, Heathers, Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) falls for J.D. (Christian Slater). Of course, their relationship is ruined when she discovers he is a homicidal sociopath.

Meredith Blake (The Parent Trap)

In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, Elaine Hendrix plays the elitist, materialistic, and, ultimately, evil potential stepmother to Lindsay Lohan's dual roles as estranged twin sisters, Annie and Hallie, who torture her with a series of increasingly brutal pranks. This drives Meredith to force Nick (Dennis Quaid) to choose between her or the siblings and, much to his credit, he promptly ends the relationship by choosing his daughters.

Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl)

There is a case to be made that Ed Westwick's Chuck Bass was one of the more charming characters in the Gossip Girl cast. Of course, this was a façade to downplay his unbelievably toxic and misogynistic behavior, especially at the expense of his girlfriend-turned-wife, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester).

Jenny “G-Girl” Johnson (My Super Ex-Girlfriend)

In almost any other case, finding out that your significant other is a superhero would be pretty cool. However, in the case of Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) from director Ivan Reitman's My Super Ex-Girlfriend, it's a nightmare because Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), who fights crime as G-Girl, is a needy, jealous, manipulative woman who uses her powers as revenge on Matt after he dumps her.

Adrian Griffin (The Invisible Man)

Writer and director Leigh Whannell brilliantly reimagined H.G. Wells' seminal story, The Invisible Man, into something of a sci-fi version of Sleeping with the Enemy with his 2020 hit. It follows Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) who, after escaping her marriage to abusive optics engineer Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), becomes convinced that he has found a way to continue stalking her and controlling her every move without being seen.

Lori (Total Recall)

Imagine finding out everything you thought you knew about your life was a lie, including your marriage. That is what happens to Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the 1992 sci-fi thriller, Total Recall, who eventually shoots and kills the secret agent he thought was his wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), before quipping, "Consider that a divorce."

As far as genre traditions go, gore has never been a focal point in the works of Stephen King. The terror he conjures in his stories tend to have empathetic origins. Instead of overly dwelling on carnage, the fear comes from caring about the well-drawn characters who find themselves in circumstances of heightened peril (be they grounded or supernatural). All that being said, he has also never made any kind of effort to hide his appreciation for splatter – and it’s that part of King’s expansive legacy that is at the heart of this week’s main King Beat story.

Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey is arriving in theaters in a little over a month, and with a special little teaser dropping this week teasing the movie’s extreme content, I figured this would be a fun opportunity to look back at some of the goriest movies and moments in the history of King in film. Along with news of an amazing screening opportunity coming up later this year, there’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!

The Monkey Has Me Reflecting On The Goriest Stephen King Movie Moments

“Bowling ball smashing child’s face.” “Bloody entrails.” “Excessive blood spraying onto man.” “Blood streaming out of woman’s eyes and blood on her head.” These are just some of the descriptions used by the Motion Picture Association in their rating review for the latest trailer for The Monkey (which was supposed to arrive online yesterday but didn’t for an unknown reason). Taking all of this in while also reflecting on King’s history in cinema, I came to an interesting thought: while I’ve been considering for months that the upcoming Stephen King movie could ultimately be considered the funniest King adaptation, there’s a chance it will also earn the title of “goriest.”

Everything that we have seen from The Monkey suggests that it will be delightfully gross (for those who aren’t aware of the high concept plot, the titular simian is a wind-up toy that instigates violent death every time its key is given a full turn), and if it can consistently provide that wildness for a fair percentage of its runtime, that superlative will be won. That in mind, I figured I’d use this week’s column to look back at some of the most insane, blood-and-guts moments in Stephen King movie history.

Creepshow 2 (1987)

There is serious gnarliness to be found in both “Old Chief Wood’nhead” and “The Hitch-hiker,” but it’s the middle section of the 1987 anthology Creepshow 2 that I wish to highlight. In “The Raft,” a group of college students head out to a desolate lake and find themselves fighting for their lives when they get onto a wooden raft and are set upon by an aggressive creature that looks like a living oil slick. If it even touches skin or hair, it begins to suck and digest, and the results of its attacks are nightmare worthy.

Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (1990)

To immediately highlight another anthology film, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie only features one Stephen King-crafted segment, but it has a bonkers conclusion that makes it an easy inclusion for this bit of fun reflection. “The Cat From Hell” centers on a hitman who is hired by a decrepit pharmaceutical executive to assassinate a cat that is believed to be responsible for a series of revenge murders. In a jaw-dropping sequence, the feline gets the upper hand on the professional killer by leaping up and invading his body via his mouth – and he later ends up killing the pharma exec by violently emerging from the hired gun’s maw and inducing a heart attack.

Graveyard Shift (1990)

In terms of horror sources, Graveyard Shift is more about taking advantage of movie-goers suffering from musophobia, as the film features hundreds upon hundreds of rats and other vermin crawling around a dilapidated mill (the main setting of the feature). The movie does unleash plenty of bloody mayhem as well, however. The main culprit of this messy violence is a giant mutant bat – but the film’s signature gore moment comes when said giant mutant bat is killed by getting stuck in a cotton picker. It creates quite a disgusting mess that elevates what is otherwise a pretty bad movie.

The Dark Half (1993)

Stephen King famously provided an outlet for the darker, more cynical part of his creative mind writing books under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, but when that surreptitious practice was exposed in the mid-1980s, he channeled that special duality into the writing of The Dark Half, and it inspired the creation of one of his most vicious characters. In George A. Romero’s 1993 adaptation of the novel, manifested alter ego George Stark performs some horrible acts with his trusty razor blade (slicing faces and throats) and his pointed leather cowboy boots (which he uses to put a guy’s head across a hallway).

The Mangler (1995)

Is The Mangler a good movie? No, no it isn’t. But does it feature some ridiculous carnage and over-the-top special effects? You’re damn right it does. What else would you expect from a film called The Mangler? Based on the short story of the same name, a lot is changed from the story in the adaptation process, but what remains is the nasty business that unfolds when a human gets pulled into an industrial laundry mangle (pun entirely intended).

The Night Flier (1997)

I’ve previously stated in this column that I will take any and every opportunity to highlight the great and underrated The Night Flier, and this is a perfect one. This noir mystery about a tabloid journalist hunting down a serial killer with vampire-like tendencies has plenty of blood-letting throughout the film, but it primarily deserves attention on this list because of its bold finale. After making a series of stops at dinky airports to feed, the titular antagonist lands at Wilmington International Airport and slaughters a terminal full of people. Adding a gory cherry on top, the monster hypnotizes the journalist into thinking that the victims are all coming back to life, leading him to take to the bodies with an axe.

Gerald’s Game (2017)

For the vast majority of its runtime, Gerald’s Game is a totally bloodless terror, its heroine protagonist Jessie Burlingame trying to figure out how to survive when she is handcuffed to a bed and her husband drops dead of a heart-attack… but when the blood does start flowing, it is shocking enough to make you feel lightheaded. At her most desperate, Jessie figures out how to give herself a degloving injury that will allow her to slip her wrist free of the cuffs, and between the incredibly realistic special effects and Mike Flanagan’s brilliant direction, it’s a cinematic horror that is forever tattooed on your brain.

Will The Monkey be able to top all of that gory goodness? Fans will be able to find out when the film arrives in theaters on February 21.

Fans Of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining Will Be Able To Celebrate The Film’s 45th Anniversary At One Of The Key Inspirations For The Overlook Hotel

The Timberline Lodge is a location that should be familiar to anyone well-versed in the history of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and the iconic fictional Overlook Hotel. While it was The Stanley in Estes Park, Colorado that inspired Stephen King to write the book on which the film is based, and The Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park, California that was heavily referenced by the movie’s production designers, it was footage of the Timberline Lodge that was used to represent the exterior of the Overlook in the beloved film. Last spring, the place experienced a bit of a scare when a fire damaged an attic and the roof, but the business has since fully recovered, and now it is set to host a very special screening later this year.

The Shining will be celebrating its 45^th anniversary in 2025, and the birthday is being celebrated by the screening series On Set Cinema (via Fangoria) with a showing of the film at the Timberline Lodge. The event will be held on Sunday October 5, and tickets cost $75. In addition to seeing the movie, guests will have access to the hotel and a private event space, and there will be “photo ops, [and] horror swag giveaways.” You will also get a discount code to stay overnight at the hotel.

I’ve long had a goal of traveling up to visit the Timberline Lodge, and perhaps this could be the event that ultimately motivates me to go. Tickets are on sale now.

That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but as always, I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with another new feature analyzing all of the biggest developments going on in the world of Stephen King. And if you’re looking for something to read in the meantime, you can learn about the history of King’s work in film and television with my series Adapting Stephen King.

Are you looking for a show to watch? This time of year can be tricky, as a number of on-going series are going on winter hiatus, meaning that viewers have to do a bit of searching for their entertainment. Thankfully, Stephen King has a sterling reputation as a font of great media recommendations, and while he has recently change up his social media platform usage, he continues to doll out suggestions of titles for his Constant Readers to check out.

But that’s not all! In this week’s edition of The King Beat, the author’s latest streaming recommendation comes paired with two other fun stories – one being a delightful MPA rating for the first of many upcoming Stephen King adaptations coming in 2025, and the other being the heads up about a special new home video release of The Shining that you can pre-order right now. There’s a lot of fun stuff to discuss, so let’s dig in!

Need A New Show To Stream? Stephen King Recommends Giving The Midwich Cuckoos On Amazon Prime Video A Shot

Stephen King made the decision a few weeks ago to abandon Twitter due to increased toxicity, but the good news is that he has not ceased his social media habits. Instead, he has simply started using new venues – including both Bluesky and Threads. This is great for fans in part because it means that he has continued his habit of sharing new book, film, and television recommendations, and his latest suggestion is the 2022 series The Midwich Cuckoos, which is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video with an AMC+ add-on subscription.

The show, which stars Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley and originally aired on Sky Max in the United Kingdom, is a couple of years old now, but apparently nobody told Stephen King about it, so he only recently discovered it. The author took to his personal Threads account a couple days ago to post about it, writing,

If the title sounds familiar but you can’t immediately place why, you’re probably a fan of the Village Of The Damned movies, which are based on John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos. The story is set in a small town that experiences a bizarre phenomenon when everybody is mysteriously knocked unconscious. The populace wakes up a day later seemingly unaffected, but after a few months, it’s discovered that every woman of child-bearing age is pregnant. When the kids are born, they not only creep everybody out by having familiar features, but it’s also revealed that they have dangerous psychic abilities.

The 2022 adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos was created by David Farr (whose prior writing credits include the 2011 Joe Wright film Hanna), and the series consists of seven hour-long episodes. If you already have a Prime Video subscription, you can get a free week-long AMC+ trial, and you may want to use it to take advantage of Stephen King’s recommendation.

The Monkey Rating Will Put A Smile On All Constant Readers Excited For A Gory Good Time

Next year is set to be absolutely massive for Stephen King adaptations. As I’ve previously noted in this column, 2025 is set to see as many as six brand new King-related film and television projects arrive for our viewing pleasure, and while not all of the projects currently have firmly set release dates, we do know which one is arriving first. Writer/director Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey is scheduled to arrive in theaters everywhere in February, and based on the Motion Picture Association rating that was just revealed, Constant Readers may feel inclined to wear a poncho or some other liquid-shielding garment when checking it out on the big screen.

FilmRatings.com (via JoBlo) now features an official listing for The Monkey, and the content warning for the upcoming Stephen King movie makes it sound delightfully gross and very adult oriented – despite previous comments from the writer/director suggesting that it’s a movie that “kids and their parents wanna go see together.” Per the MPA, the new film is overflowing with material only suited for mature audiences, and it has been labeled with a hard R rating. Per the website, it’s,

The Monkey is based on the short story of the same name from Stephen King’s 1985 omnibus Skeleton Crew (first published within a booklet included with the November 1980 issue of Gallery magazine, and the adaptation was first announced in May 2023. Production on the movie began in secret around this time last year after the film quietly put together a stellar cast that includes Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy in the supporting ensemble.

Theo James, best known for his role in The White Lotus Season 2, and Netflix’s The Gentlemen, stars in the film as a pair of estranged twin brothers who are forced to reunite in adulthood when a supernatural toy from their childhood – a drum-banging monkey – resurfaces and initiates a plague of deadly mayhem. Whenever the little animal percussionist activates, people die, and the siblings have to find some way to destroy it.

The Monkey is Osgood Perkins’ follow-up to Longlegs, one of the best horror movies of 2024, but while that film was super effective in freaking audiences out, the filmmaker’s newest feature is looking to have a different kind of impact. The new genre title may feature a whole lot of blood and gore (as the rating confirms), but the trailer that was released back in October suggests that it may end up being the first Stephen King movie made with comedy at front of mind.

Neon, the distributor that helped turn Longlegs into one of the biggest hits of summer 2024, has picked up The Monkey for release (the company’s first Stephen King adaptation), and it will be arriving in theaters across the country on February 21, 2025 (one of the year’s earliest must-see big screen features). You can be sure that I’ll be writing about the film a lot more in the coming weeks, so stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more previews, behind-the-scenes stories, and more.

A New Limited Edition Steelbook For The Shining Is Now Available For Pre-Order

If you’re an avid physical media collector like I am, you also may have a healthy appreciation for Steelbooks. They regularly feature cool, unique artwork, and they typically look a hell of a lot better on a shelf than the black/blue plastic cases of standard 4K UHDs and Blu-rays. The big drawback, of course, is that when a Steelbook goes out of print, they tend to become expensive collector’s items, so there is consistently a dose of FOMO that arrives with new releases.

With that in mind, allow me to give you the heads up that a brand new Steelbook edition of The Shining is on the way in early 2025, and it’s available for pre-order right now.

Multiple Steelbooks for The Shining have been made in the past, but while older editions now can go for about $400 on the secondary market, you can purchase another version right now and it will be shipped to you in February of next year. Walmart has put up a listing for an exclusive, special edition version of the beloved Stanley Kubrick horror film that not only includes 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions of the movie along with a digital code, but features some pretty rad artwork.

As you can see in the image above, the case is mostly a bold red (a shade reminiscent of the bathroom in The Gold Room of The Overlook Hotel where Jack Torrance has a conversation with Delbert Grady), and the front features an embedded fireman’s axe designed to look like the one that Jack wields in the film’s third act. The inside includes the terrified visage of Shelley Duvall’s Wendy Torrance, who is horrified to see that her husband is breaking down a door in the hopes of chopping her and her young son to bits.

The size of the Steelbook run is not specified on Walmart’s website, but once the exclusive is gone, it will be gone for good… so if you really want to add this special version of The Shining to your ultimate Stephen King collection, you should do yourself a favor in acting fast to order a copy.

That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I am not yet done for 2024! The year might be coming to an end very soon, but I will have a brand new edition of this column waiting for you here on CinemaBlend next Thursday, collecting all of the biggest headlines from the world of Stephen King. In the meantime, if you’re looking for more related reading, you can do a deep dive into the long history of King’s stories in film and television with my series Adapting Stephen King.

The holidays can be a stressful time due to all the decorating, gift-buying, schedule-shifting and more, so it’s a good thing there are so many Black Friday entertainment deals to take advantage of, so that overspending doesn’t need to be one of those stress factors.

Since there are few better ways to achieve escapism than through movies, what better way to balance the holiday rush than by kicking back with a lineup of Hollywood’s golden age goodies, modern favorites, cult classics, and more. (For those who enjoy putting things together while the TV’s on, these LEGO Black Friday deals are winners.) The following list of steep Blu-ray and DVD discounts is a perfect fit for movie buffs like myself who trust in permanent physical media more than the temporary nature of streaming services.

[Counterpoint: there are plenty of excellent Black Friday streaming deals and Black Friday VPN deals for those who prefer that route.]

For anyone who enjoys watching high-octance action sequences, criminal operations, and guys who quite enjoy zipping around the city in a customized batsuit, check out these A+ action and drama movie discounts. (And be sure to check out our curated list of Black Friday TV deals for the best way to watch all the movies you end up buying.)

Action And Drama Movie Fans' Black Friday Blu-Ray Deals

• The Batman [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital]:
• Jurassic Park [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital]: $10.99 (Was $29.98)
• King Kong [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD]: $10.98 (Was $22.98)
• Godzilla [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $10.99 (Was $34.98)
• Godzilla x King: The New Empire [DVD]: $7.99 (Was $24.98)
• Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 [Blu-ray + Digital]: $9.99 (Was $24.95)
• A Clockwork Orange [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $10.99 (Was $33.99)
• No Time to Die [4K UHD + Blu-ray]: $10.99 (Was $22.98)
• The Matrix Resurrections [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $10.99 (Was $33.99)
• The Northman [Collector's Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital]: $11.99 (Was $24.98)
• The Green Knight [Blu-ray]: $11.49 (Was $22.99)
• Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Collection [Blu-ray]: $54.99 (Was $99.98)
• Blade [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $14.99 (Was $34.98)
• The Equalizer 3 [UHD/BD Combo + Digital]: $16.49 (Was $49.99)
• Scarface [Gold Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital]: $10.99 (Was $29.98)

If heists, drug running and taking down vampire gangs is still too much havoc to contend with alongside all the post-Thanksgiving festivities, then why not hop into a fun coming-of-age adventure, take a few classes in magic spells or get schooled by Mr. Miyagi? Those experiences and more can be found among the various comedies and family film deals below!

Comedy And Family Movie Fans' Black Friday Blu-Ray Deals

• Harry Potter: 8-Film Collection [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $55.99 (Was $88.72)
• The Goonies [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $10.99 (Was $34.98]
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray]: $10.99 (Was $34.98)
• $16.99 (Was $38.99)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)
• Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital]: $29.99 (Was $42.08)
• Beetlejuice [4K UHD]: $12.99 (Was $34.98)
• Shrek [6-Movie Collection Blu-ray + Digital]: $33.99 (Was $69.99)
• Puss in Boots [2-Movie Collection Blu-ray + Digital]: $16.99 (Was $39.99)
• Some Like It Hot [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)
• The Three Stooges [Blu-ray Collection]: $128.21 (Was $230.99)
• The Breakfast Club [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)
• The Graduate [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)
• Broadcast News [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)

We all know Black Friday is more or less the official starting point for the Christmas season to begin, just under a month beyond spooky season's conclusion with Halloween. But true blue horror fans definitely don't just wait for the fall to embrace being frightened and disturbed. Thankfully, there's nothing scary in the slightest about all of the horror and sci-fi blu-ray discounts seen below, which include a few of the best scary movies of all time.

Horror And Sci-Fi Movie Fans' Black Friday Blu-Ray Deals

• Thanksgiving [Blu-ray + Digital]: $14.99 (Was $38.99)
• Universal Classic Monsters [Limited Edition Collection 4K Ultra HD + Digital]: $96.98 (Was $129.99)
• Abigail [Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD + Digital]: $9.99 (Was $29.98)
• Saw 1-8 Film Collection [DVD]: $9.49 (Was $19.98]
• The Watchers [Blu-ray + Digital]: $9.99 (Was $22.95)
• Eyes Without a Face [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.99 (Was $39.99)
• The Devil's Backbone [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)
• Videodrome [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.99 (Was 39.95)
• Don’t Look Now [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was 39.95)
• Star Trek [10-Movie Stardate Collection Blu-ray + Digital]: $39.49 (Was $55.99)
• Terminator [6-Film Collection Blu-ray]: $24.49 (Was $44.99)
• Akira [Blu-ray/DVD Combo]: $11.99 (Was $34.98)
• The Night of the Hunter [Blu-ray]: $24.98 (Was $49.95)
• Häxan [The Criterion Collection Blu-ray]: $19.98 (Was $39.95)

Just because Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales necessarily have to end, that doesn't mean other new deals and offers won't be there to take their places, so be sure to keep checking back in with CinemaBlend for maximum entertainment that doesn't result in empty wallets.

Anyone who just can't justify buying up more Blu-rays or DVDs should definitely check out the latest Roku Black Friday deal, as well as Amazon's best Fire Stick deal.

This list is all about the most spectacular ways that some of favorite characters - the ones we love and the ones we love to hate - have been killed off on screen. Movies and TV have both produced some pretty incredible moments like this. So whether it's the hero or the villain, here are some of the most insane deaths ever seen in movies and on TV.

Marion Crane - Psycho

Almost more than any director in film history, Alfred Hitchcock wrote his own rules. One of the most interesting things he ever did was to kill off who was seemingly the main character in Psycho, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in the first act of the movie. Of course, her murder in the shower has become one of the most iconic scenes in film history.

Radio Raheem - Do The Right Thing

The tension in Do The Right Thing slowly simmers just under the surface until it boils over when Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) burst into Sal's Pizzeria and demand changes. After Sal smashes Raheem's boombox, the cops arrive and in the struggle, Raheem is choked out by the police, leading to the destruction of Sal's. It's amazing that the movie is more than 35 years old and we're still talking about the same issues.

Robb Stark - Game Of Thrones

Is there any death on this list more dramatic and shocking than Robb Stark's on Game of Thrones? The Red Wedding is a legendary TV moment, among the best ever broadcasted. It shocked anyone who had not read the books and remains one of the most spectacular deaths, along with his wife, his unborn baby, and his mother, ever filmed.

John Coffey - The Green Mile

It's one of the most heartbreaking moments in film history when John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) meets his inevitable end in The Green Mile. Still, he goes out spectacularly with sparks flying and tears flowing.

Charlie Pace - Lost

ABC's Lost had some pretty memorable deaths, but none more so than Charlie Pace's last moments as he warned about the incoming boat and sacrificed himself in one of the most heartbreaking moments in TV history.

Hans Gruber - Die Hard

It's hard to believe that Hans Gruber in Die Hard was Alan Rickman's first movie role. His death, as he falls from Nakatomi Tower, looking up at the camera as he goes, is iconic. It's become one of the most meme'd scenes in movie history and is easily one of the most spectacular deaths in film history.

Gus Fring - Breaking Bad

For years, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) was one of the most despised characters on TV. His death was worthy of such an amazing villain as he is not only blown up but survives long enough to walk out of the room where it happened and button his jacket before collapsing to the floor.

Thelma And Louise - Thelma And Louise

When Thelma And Louise was first released, the ending completely shocked people. No one expected the movie's heroes to go out like they did, by driving their car off the cliff. Still, it was on their own terms and they did it together, making it all that much more spectacular.

Adriana La Cerva - The Sopranos

There were quite a few deaths over the seasons in The Sopranos, but the episode when Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo) is rubbed out is maybe the most incredible. The tension in the episode is impressive even by The Sopranos standards as no one wanted to see Adriana go, even though everyone knew why it was happening.

The Wicked Witch of the West - The Wizard Of Oz

"I'm melting" is one of the most iconic lines in Hollywood history as the Wicked Witch of the West is dying in The Wizard of Oz. There really isn't much more that needs to be said about this spectacular death.

Maximus Decimus Meridius - Gladiator

For years, Maximus (Russell Crowe) in Gladiator obsessed over avenging his family's death and taking down Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Despite Commodus playing dirty in their final showdown, Maximus finally prevails, killing Commodus before he collapses and dies.

Tony Stark - Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame is the 22nd movie in MCU history and so it was only appropriate that Tony Stark - the character that started it all - would be the one to finally take Thanos out by snapping his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet on. It led to his spectacular death, of course, but it was worth it.

Col. Kurtz - Apocalypse Now

After building for two hours, the climactic death of Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) at the end of Apocalypse Now is one of the most dramatic and violent moments in film history. The scene, juxtaposed with the sacrifice of a cow, is terrifying and amazing.

Glenn - The Walking Dead

The death of Glenn (and Abraham) was one of the most controversial moments of The Walking Dead. That was partly due to the extreme violence that turned a lot of people off, but it was mostly because Glenn was such a beloved character. Still, it was a death that was totally unforgettable.

Kong - Dr. Strangelove

Peter Sellers may be the most celebrated member of the Dr. Strangelove cast (and for good reason), but Kong, played by Slim Pickens steals the show at the end with his death by riding a nuke down as it drops towards it's target.

Kenny McCormick - South Park

We couldn't make this list without including poor Kenny McCormick, the hapless member of the South Park crew. Kenny has been killed over 100 times over the show's incredible run and in some of the most ridiculous and fantastic ways, like getting crushed by a tree, getting hit by a volcanic boulder, and dozens of other ways.

Rosalind Shays - LA Law

Rosiland Shays' death by falling down an elevator on LA Law was one of the most shocking moments in television history. It came completely out of nowhere in a time in television when a death like that wasn't common at all. It actually changed TV storytelling.

Mark Greene - ER

Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) was one of the most beloved characters on ER and his death, while a different kind of spectacular than most of the others on this list. It wasn't a shocking moment, as it was a tragic slow death by cancer. It was still among the most heartbreaking moments ever.

Zoe Barnes - House Of Cards

For the first season of House Of Cards, Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) was one of the most important characters. The journalist was both investigating and getting a little too involved with Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey). Her surprising death shocked audiences as Frank threw her in front of a subway train. It came completely out of nowhere, and yet made total sense in the context of the show.

Roy Batty - Blade Runner

The death of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) at the end of Blade Runner has become one of the most legendary deaths of all time. It is not at all what anyone in the audience expected when the main villain of the movie turns into a hero at the very end, saving Deckard (Harrison Ford) before smiling as he dies. Time to die.

Alec Trevelyan - GoldenEye

You knew there was no way this list was going to be complete without including at least one death by a Sean Bean character, right? There have been so many spectacular deaths over the actor's incredible career, but for our money, you can't beat the death of his character Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond movie GoldenEye when Bond drops him to his death and he is crushed to make sure it's final.

Lane Pryce - Mad Men

Mad Men was unlike any other show on TV at the time and Lane Pryce's death by suicide is the perfect example of why. The character, played by Jared Harris was a fan favorite and while story-wise his death made perfect sense, it was still shocking.

William Wallace - Braveheart

Braveheart might be one of the most historically inaccurate films ever made, but William Wallace's death at the end is still pretty spectacular ( and not all that different from what really happened to the Scottish hero). We can't go into all the violent details here, but if you know, you know.

Nick Chevotarevich - The Deer Hunter

One of the most tragic characters in '70s cinema has to be Nick Chevotarevich, played by Christopher Walken. Even after the Vietnam War draws to a close and his best friend makes it back home after escaping a POW camp, Nick gets stuck in Saigon, playing dangerous games of Russian Roulette for months. When Mike (Robert De Niro) finds him, Nick is completely checked out, and that makes his horrible death all the more sad.

Quint - Jaws

Quint (Robert Shaw) is the grizzled fisherman who promises to catch "the fish" in Jaws, but in the end, it's the fish that catches him. As has often been pointed out, one of the most effective things about the classic movie is that the shark is rarely seen, so when Quint is eaten it's one of the scariest and most exciting moments of the movie.

Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom - Con Air

Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich) in Con Air is one of the most over-the-top movie villains of the '90s, so of course he had to get killed in an over-the-top spectacular way. First, he is knocked out and handcuffed to a firetruck that crashes into a bridge, tossing Cyrus into some powerlines, and electrocuting him, but that's not all. He then falls into the path of a pile driver doing road work, which comes down on his head.

Private Pyle - Full Metal Jacket

Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) is, at the beginning of Full Metal Jacket a hopeless Marine recruit who can't do anything right. As the first act of the movie plays out, he gets more competent but also starts to lose his marbles. It all culminates in an incredibly tense scene when he shoots and kills his drill sergeant before turning the gun on himself.

Marissa Cooper - The O.C.

Say what you want about about The O.C., but the creative decision to kill off one of the main characters and star of the show, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) in Season 3 was a bold one. The way she died, in the arms of Ryan (Ben McKenzie) after a car wreck is just as dramatic as the decision to have the character die.

Jack Torrance - The Shining

That final image of a frozen Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in The Shining is one of the most enduring snapshots of a movie filled with incredible visual moments. A spectacular villain like Jack deserves a death as memorable as it is.

Sgt. Elias - Platoon

Platoon, as is said in the movie, is a battle for the soul of Chris (Charlie Sheen) between Elias (Willem Dafoe) and Barnes (Tom Berenger). Barnes wins the battle between himself and Elias when he shoots Elias towards the end, but Elias wins Chris' soul with his spectacular death as the helicopters lift away and Elias is left with arms outstretched as the Vietnamese soldiers gun him down for good.

Gennaro - Jurassic Park

We just had to include this one. Donald Gennaro isn't the main character of Jurassic Park, in fact, he's not even one of the main supporting characters. But him getting eaten by the T-Rex while hiding on the toilet is one of the silliest, and most insane deaths, of any movie, ever.

John Doe - Se7en

The ending of Se7en is one of the most talked about and debated, moments in film history. John Doe (Kevin Spacey) completely manipulates David Mills (Brad Pitt) into doing exactly what wants, completely the complete over-the-top murder spree ever seen on the big screen.

You've heard the saying, "The book's always better than the movie." Well, it turns out that's not always true. Sometimes films are able to streamline through a novel's tedious exposition or confusing jargon. Other times they're able to bring fantastical worlds to life in a more spectacular way than you might have imagined. Either way, here are some book-to-screen adaptations that are at least as good as — and sometimes better than — their source material.

Jaws

Never bet against Steven Spielberg, especially with John Williams providing what turned out to be an Oscar-winning score! The 1975 thriller Jaws is widely considered to be one movie that's at least as good as its source material. Spielberg cut out a lot of side plots from Peter Benchley's 1974 novel, and the actors really elevated the book's largely unlikeable characters, particularly Robert Shaw as Quint, turning the film into a classic you can watch over and over.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

There are some pretty big differences between Roald Dahl's 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the 1971 classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder (not to mention the 2005 remake and 2023 prequel). That means it's probably a matter of personal preference regarding which is "better," but it's hard to argue with Mel Stuart's musical fantasy.

The Thing

While John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella Who Goes There? is considered a classic for its deeply developed characters and an alien that's smarter — and therefore possibly scarier — than its movie's equivalent, John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982 is considered one of the best horror movies of all time. Its truly repulsive monster and effective special effects hold up even decades later.

Stand By Me

Lots of Stephen King novels have been adapted for the screen, and not all of those projects have been great. Stand By Me, however, which was adapted from "The Body," from the Different Seasons collection, is considered one of the best movies from the '80s. Some people prefer the movie, if only for the nostalgia kick provided by its phenomenal casting of Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell.

The Ring

Both the Americanized 2002 horror The Ring and Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel are highly acclaimed, but the book simply can't match the movie in terms of the creepy imagery from the cursed video.

Fight Club

Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are simply incomparable as a dynamic duo in 1999's Fight Club. Not only is the movie considered one of the best of the '90s, and Chuck Palahniuk — author of the 1996 book of the same name — has spoken positively about David Ficher's film.

The Lord Of The Rings

I don't think anyone's arguing the talents of J. R. R. Tolkien here, and indeed many do prefer the world-building and lore of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings saga. However, other fans argue that the films are more inviting, bringing emotion to the characters and cutting through all of the author's descriptive text.

The Hunger Games

There's no question that Suzanne Collins' The Hunter Games books could stand on their own, but it was thrilling to see those terrifying games portrayed on the big screen. From the worlds built for the youngsters' trials to The Hunger Games' ridiculous outfits, it's no wonder many hold Jennifer Lawrence's movie trilogy in such high regard. To me, it was worth it all to see Katniss' red carpet-worthy "Girl on Fire" dress.

The Shining

The Shining is one of Stephen King's best books, and — thanks in large part to Jack Nicholson's unforgettable turn as Jack Torrance — the horror movie of the same name also remains a time-honored classic. Both will scare the daylights out of you, and there are enough differences between Stanley Kubrick's film and the book that The Shining is totally still worth reading after you've seen the movie.

Requiem For A Dream

Hubert Selby Jr.'s 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream is a good read, but you just can't beat the performances turned in by the cast of Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film. Whether it's the heartbreaking tailspin of Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans' characters into addiction, Ellen Burstyn's obsession with being on television or Christopher McDonald's haunting Tappy Tibbons leading a chant about JUICE, this movie elevates the already-harrowing text into something that you won't be able to shake.

Room

Emma Donoghue's 2010 novel Room is told from the perspective of 5-year-old Jack, which gives a different POV to the story of a mother and her son escaping after years of captivity than the 2015 film adaptation. The book is undoubtedly gripping, but the movie holds its own, earning four Academy Award nominations, including a win for Brie Larson for Best Actress.

The Silence Of The Lambs

It doesn't matter how good Thomas Harris' 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs was — and it was definitely good — the 1991 film adaptation won the Academy Awards' "Big Five," which includes the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actress (Jodie Foster), Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Talley). Since its release there have been three more movies and two TV series based on these characters, so I'd say that paints both the film and the novel in a phenomenally successful light.

Mean Girls

It's not really fair to compare 2004's Mean Girls to the source material that inspired it. That's because Tina Fey adapted one of the best high school movies of all time from Rosalind Wiseman's self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes, which is a guide for parents to help their teenage daughters survive in a world of cliques, gossip and boyfriends. While moms of teens (myself included) could probably use all the help we can get, there's no way Queen Bees and Wannabees could stand up to Mean Girls' most quotable lines and pop culture references.

To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird has been a staple in schools since it came out in 1960 for its exploration of themes like race and stereotypes. It wouldn't be fair or correct to say that the 1962 film was better, but Gregory Peck and Mary Badham gave performances that earned them Oscar nominations as Atticus and Scout Finch, respectively. Overall the movie won three of the eight awards it was up for (including Best Actor for Peck), which should make it worthy of being considered as good as Lee's novel.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

While many still prefer Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the 1975 movie made Randle Patrick McMurphy's crimes more palatable for the moviegoing audience and ultimately won five of the nine Academy Awards it was nominated for, including Best Actor for Jack Nicholson and Best Actress for Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched).

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, but the movie proved why Hitchcock was the master of suspense, with that infamous shower scene likely inspiring audience members to start double-checking the locks on their bathroom doors. While the 1960 film may be as good (or better than) the book, the same can't be said for 1998's Psycho, which is considered one of the worst remakes in Hollywood history.

The Shawshank Redemption

Adapted from Stephen King's novella from Different Seasons, The Shawshank Redemption was turned into a classic movie that many think surpasses its source material. Frank Darabont's 1994 film adds a lot to the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman) and their decades together in prison. The film garnered seven Oscar nominations but did not win any.

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton set the stage with his 1990 novel Jurassic Park for how dinosaurs could come to exist in the modern era and Steven Spielberg got hold of the idea and ran with it, creating a world for the big screen that we'd only ever dreamed about. As good as the book is, there was just something about seeing the prehistoric beasts walking amongst the humans with our own eyes, and that idea has since inspired two trilogies and several TV series.

Forrest Gump

A lot was changed in the story of Forrest Gump between the 1986 novel by Winston Groom and the 1994 Robert Zemeckis film, but for many, it was Tom Hanks' heartbreaking portrayal that got us, along with plenty of quotes still being repeated today. The six Academy Awards from 13 nominations also speak to it being a pretty good movie adaptation.

The Hunt For Red October

The 1990 spy thriller The Hunt for Red October cut out quite a few subplots and a lot of technical language from Tom Clancy's best-selling debut novel, making it more approachable for a wider audience. Without the popularity of this movie, would we still live in a world with three dozen Jack Ryan novels, a handful of films and a TV series? Thankfully we don't have to consider the alternative.

The Notebook

Nobody tells an epically sad love story quite like Nicholas Sparks, and that includes his 1996 novel The Notebook. However, seeing Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams' chemistry as they brought Noah and Allie's story to life in the 2004 drama was what really stuck with fans over the years.

The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is one of the funniest and most quotable movies of the 1980s, and it's considered just as good as its source material, though the two are very different. William Goldman's 1973 novel is highly praised amongst those who have read it, with many fans suggesting that people who have only seen the movie would still enjoy the book.

A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick's 1971 adaptation of A Clockwork Orange is a fairly loyal interpretation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel, save for a few changes to make Malcolm McDowell's Alex more palatable. Many prefer the film's darker ending, as well, to the more optimistic conclusion Burgess wrote.

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women has been adapted twice in recent decades — the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder as Jo March and Greta Gerwig's 2019 film. Because each iteration alters the March sisters' stories to better reflect the societal roles and priorities of a woman in that day, it only makes sense that audiences connect more with the updated material.

The Wizard Of Oz

No matter how classic L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is — and there are plenty who are staunch defenders of the book — there's nothing quite like seeing Dorothy step from her sepia-toned Kansas farmhouse into the fantastic Technicolor world of Oz in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. The film adaptation remains a beloved children's movie all these decades later.

Shutter Island

Both the 2003 psychological thriller by Dennis Lehane and Martin Scorsese's 2010 adaptation of Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio are highly regarded by fans, with many choosing to experience both, despite knowing how it ends. The movie stays loyal to the novel and can be considered at least as good, if not better.

The Devil Wears Prada

In Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada, her fictionalized account of working for Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is undoubtedly fascinating, but Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly on top of the performances of Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and the rest of the cast elevate the story.

The Godfather

Mario Puzo's 1969 bestseller The Godfather was arguably made even better by Francis Ford Coppola by focusing his film on Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone and his relationship with son Michael (Al Pacino), thereby streamlining the novel's grand story.

A Simple Favor

In the movie adaptation of A Simple Favor, many find Anna Kendrick's Stephanie more likable than the blogger in Darcey Bell's 2017 novel of the same name. To that point, Blake Lively makes her own character Emily feel even more dangerous.

Blade Runner

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is considered one of the best sci-fi movies of all time and many think it's even better than its literary counterpart, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? From Harrison Ford's portrayal of android hunter Rick to the book's bleaker ending, this is the rare film that surpasses its source material in many fans' eyes.

City Of God

Fernando Meirelles' celebrated 2002 crime drama City of God expands on the 1997 novel by Paulo Lins in its performances and how it illustrates gang life in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Respect and homage are paid to the people of the region, and the cinematography shows the beauty that exists amidst the tragedy.

Drive

Many fans seem to prefer Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 movie Drive to the 2005 book by James Sallis, crediting the director and Ryan Gosling with further developing the Driver and other themes in Sallis' work.

The best uses of music in movies and TV shows have typically changed the way we perceive the songs in question forever, especially if the normally jovial tune is heard during or relates to a particularly intense or disturbing scene. Because of the way the following titles used some of the happiest radio hits of all time, we can never hear them again without our hearts skipping a beat.

Zodiac ("Hurdy Gurdy Man" - Donovan)

The opening scene of Zodiac depicts a horrifying crime by the eponymous killer, accompanied by an otherwise relaxing folk ballad from 1968 called "Hurdy Gurdy Man." Coincidentally, Ione Skye, the daughter of the song's writer and performer, Donovan, makes an uncredited appearance in David Fincher's great true crime movie from 2007 as Zodiac Killer witness Kathleen Johns.

Black Mirror ("Anyone Who Knows What Love Is Will Understand" - Irma Thomas)

In one of the best episodes of Black Mirror (Season 1's "Fifteen Million Merits), Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) auditions for Hot Shot by singing "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is Will Understand." Following this memorable scene from the sci-fi anthology series, the 1964 Irma Thomas hit would be featured in some capacity in every season since, offering plenty more reasons to feel unsettled by the feel-good romance tune.

The Silence Of The Lambs (“Goodbye Horses” - Q Lazzarus)

According to the original writer of "Goodbye Horses," William Garvey, the 1988 one-hit-wonder performed by Q Lazzarus is about “the ability to lift one’s perception above [their] physical limitations." In that case, its inclusion in the terrifying Best Picture Oscar winner, The Silence of the Lambs, as serial killer Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb (Ted Levine) embraces his femininity through dance is a perfect match.

Halloween ("(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Öyster Cult)

To be fair, the lyrics to Blue Öyster Cult’s signature 1976 hit “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” are not the happiest, referencing a romance destined to end similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. However, the world might have been less receptive to its creepier themes if not for its inclusion in one of the best horror movies of all time, 1978's Halloween, as Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes) are unwittingly being tiled Haddonfield’s own “reaper,” Michael Myers.

Watchmen ("The Times They Are A-Changin'" - Bob Dylan)

There is a dark thematic tone to most of Bob Dylan's earlier work, especially his 1962 breakthrough hit, "The Times They Are A-Changin'." The folk ballad's message of a society experiencing a revolution comes through effectively while playing over the opening titles of 2009's Watchmen, which traces the ups and downs of superheroes' contributions to history in the world Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel.

American Psycho (“Hip To Be Square” - Huey Lewis And The News)

Pop culture's most famous Huey Lewis and the News fan would have to be Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), who provides an impassioned analysis of 1986's "Hip to Be Square," and the Fore! album in general, as he prepares to murder his colleague, Paul Allen (Jared Leto) in his apartment. Lewis himself would pay tribute to the memorable moment from American Psycho in a Funny or Die bit in which he exuberantly analyzes the 2000 psychological thriller as he prepares to murder “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Insidious ("Tiptoe Through The Tulips" - Tiny Tim)

For years, the only creepy aspect of Tiny Tim's version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" was that the high-pitched vocalist was actually a lanky, 6'1" man. These days, since its prominent use in the first Insidious movie from 2011, audiences cannot help but picture the demonic "Man with Fire on His Face" when the romantic ukulele ballad plays.

American Horror Story ("Tonight You Belong To Me" - Patience & Prudence)

The best-known version of writers Billy Rose and Lee David's "Tonight You Belong to Me" is by young sisterly duo Patience & Prudence, which became even more famous in 2011, thanks to American Horror Story. The playful 1956 tune about making the most of your time with a loved one appeared in four episodes of the horror anthology TV show's premiere season from 2011, taking place in a haunted house with an extensive history of murders.

Beetlejuice ("Banana Boat (Day-O)” - Harry Belafonte)

In 1988's Beetlejuice, the ghostly Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) attempt to scare off the Deetzes (Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O’Hara) by possessing them and their party guests into dancing and lip-synching to Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat (Day-O).” While the scene did not necessarily make the 1956 Calypso hit creepy, it would be forever entwined with the classic horror-comedy movie – a fact that Belafonte told Pitchfork he enjoyed.

Reservoir Dogs ("Stuck In The Middle With You" - Stealers Wheel)

The first of many iconic musical moments in Quentin Tarantino's movies occurs in 1992's Reservoir Dogs, when Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) puts on K-Billy's Super Sounds of the '70s (which starts playing "Stuck In The Middle With You") and proceeds to torture Officer Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz). We doubt there is a single person who can listen to Stealers Wheel's upbeat, 1973 rock single without imagining the criminal slicing the cop's ear off, even though that moment is thankfully kept off camera.

A Clockwork Orange (“Singin' In The Rain”)

If there is one cinematic use of 1929's "Singin' in the Rain" as, if not more, iconic as Gene Kelly's performance in the eponymous 1952 musical, it would be the rendition heard in A Clockwork Orange. As Alex DeLarge, Malcolm McDowell belts out the song about happiness that even weather cannot deter during one of the most unspeakably brutal moments from the 1971 Stanley Kubrick movie.

Stranger Things ("Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" - Kate Bush)

There have been many memorable musical moments from Stranger Things but none as impactful as its uses of "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" in Season 4, which made Kate Bush's definitive track more popular than ever. The English art pop queen’s 1985 ballad first helps rescue Max (Sadie Sink) from Vecna's trance before a remixed reprise accompanies the disparate gang's multi-faceted defeat of the villain in the action-packed finale.

10 Cloverfield Lane ("I Think We're Alone Now" - Tommy James & The Shondells)

While it experienced a new life in the 1980s with Tiffany's cover, the original version of "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James & The Shondells was reintroduced to modern audiences via 10 Cloverfield Lane. The cute pop tune about a couple enjoying their time on their own took on a whole new meaning when it appeared in the 2016 thriller, which takes place in an underground bunker inhabited by survivors of an unknown disaster.

Supernatural ("Carry On, Wayward Son" - Kansas)

"Carry On, Wayward Son" by Kansas would become the de facto theme for Supernatural after it was used in the season finale following the first one. In fact, the series finale of the hit series, following the adventures of paranormal hunters Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki), was named "Carry On," after the 1976 rock epic.

Get Out (“Run Rabbit Run” - Flanagan And Allen)

Originally released in the late 1930s and a hit during World War II, "Run Rabbit Run" became iconic to modern horror movie audiences as the first song featured in Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning 2017 thriller Get Out. The song is heard coming from the car that sneaks up on Andre Hayworth (LaKeith Stanfield), who tries to walk in the opposite direction before getting abducted.

Halloween II (“Mr. Sandman” - Chordettes)

The second installment of the Halloween franchise from 1981 opens in an unexpected manner. Instead of John Carpenter's unmistakable score, we hear the Chordettes' endearing doo-wop hit, "Mr. Sandman," which might have had a more endurable reputation as a retroactively creepy song if not for its use in the time travel movie classic, Back to the Future, four years later.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 ("Woo Hoo" - The 5.6.7.8's)

Before blood hits the screen at the House of Blue Leaves in 2003's Kill Bill Vol. 1, things are peaceful at the Japanese eatery. One major reason why is because the guests are treated to the head-knocking rock 'n roll song, "Woo Hoo," by The 5.6.7.8's, whom Quentin Tarantino discovered while shopping in Japan and wound up casting in the violent revenge movie.

Jeepers Creepers ("Jeepers Creepers" - Paul Whiteman and His Swing Wing)

The lyric "Jeepers creepers, where'd you get those eyes?" takes on a more frighteningly literal meaning in Jeepers Creepers. The eponymous love song by Paul Whiteman and His Swing Wing plays during the final moment of the 2001 horror flick as the grotesque, villainous "Creeper" (Jonathan Breck) shows off his new "peepers," which he stole from Darry (Justin Long).

Shaun Of The Dead ("Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen)

Like most Edgar Wright films, there are many moments from Shaun of the Dead in which music plays a large role but the best takes place at the Winchester. Nearly every move Shaun (Simon Pegg) and the gang make when battling the bar's undead owner is in near-perfect sync with Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now," which randomly starts playing from the jukebox as they are desperate to stay undetected from the horde outside.

The Shining ("Midnight, The Stars And You" - Ray Noble And His Orchestra)

The final moment of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining slowly zooms into a photo taken at the Overlook in 1921 with a man resembling Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) shown front and center. The chilling shot is accompanied by 1934's "Midnight, the Stars and You" –performed by Ray Noble and his Orchestra with vocals by Al Bowlly – which is most notable today for its inclusion in the 1980 horror classic.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe ("Open Up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine In)" - The McGuire Sisters)

In The Autopsy of Jane Doe, the titular corpse (actually a witch capable of nearly anything but moving a muscle) likes to taunt the father-son coroners examining her by playing the McGuire Sisters' version of "Open Up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine In)" on the radio. The otherwise "shiny" tune makes a devasting reprise near the end when Austin (Emile Hirsch) believes he is being rescued by Sheriff Burke (Michael McElhatton) who repeatedly tells him to "open up" the stuck cellar doors until he hears him belt the song's chorus, indicating his nightmare is not yet over.

The Strangers ("My First Lover" - Gillian Welch)

Sometimes turning a happy song into nightmare fuel takes a little manipulation, such as how Gillian Welch's "My First Lover" appears in The Strangers. At one point in the 2008 home invasion thriller, a record scratch causes the romantic folk ballad to repeatedly loop on the lyric, "Quicksilver girl," which is enough to create relentless tension.

Us ("Les Fleurs" - Minnie Riperton)

Sung from the perspective of a flower, Minnie Riperton's 1969 hit "Les Fleurs" is a beautiful song about spiritual renewal. However, when it begins playing as the twist from the ending of Us is revealed and reaches its invigorating crescendo during the apocalyptic final shot, it creates a chilling juxtaposition for Jordan Peele's sophomore hit.

A Quiet Place Part II ("Beyond The Sea" - Bobby Darin)

In A Quiet Place Part II, Emmett (Cillian Murphy) tells Regan (Millicent Simmonds) that he has heard a radio station playing Bobby Darin's scintillating swing hit "Beyond the Sea" on repeat. She correctly deciphers this as a code sent from an island safe haven, which she and Emmett eventually find and, unwittingly, lead a sound-hunting alien to.

Candyman ("The Candy Man" - Sammy Davis Jr.)

Some might argue that 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has its creepy moments, but Aubrey Woods' performance of "The Candy Man" is not one of them. However, by playing Sammy Davis Jr.'s rendition of the song and slowly fading it out with the sound of buzzing bees during the production logos serves as a perfect way to set the tone for the 2021 Candyman requel.

Annabelle: Creation ("You Are My Sunshine" - Charles McDonald)

The end of Annabelle: Creation from 2017 leaves off where the rising action of its 2014 predecessor begins, revealing how Malthus entered the creepy doll. Playing over the closing credits is Charle McDonald's rendition of "You Are My Sunshine," making it the ironic defacto theme of the Conjuring Universe movie.

The House Of The Devil ("One Thing Leads To Another" - The Fixx)

Ti West's 2009 breakthrough feature, The House of the Devil, is a slow-burn horror film that waits to reveal its visceral frights with masterful pacing. During that time, he finds ways to catch you off guard with moments of levity, such as when Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) tries to distract herself from her creepy "babysitting" gig by dancing around her clients' house to The Fixx's "One Thing Lead to Another" on her tape player.

Dawn Of The Dead ("The Man Comes Around" - Johnny Cash)

Upon deeper examination, Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" is a song about Jesus Christ's return to Earth on Judgment Day. Its foreboding apocalyptic message is greatly emphasized by its inclusion over the opening credits of Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

The Handmaid's Tale ("Cloudbusting" - Kate Bush)

Despite boasting one of Kate Bush's most cheerful melodies, "Cloudbusting" is actually one of her darkest hits, inspired by the true story of a boy whose father was taken away from him when he was abruptly arrested. However, that tale is far lighter than the story of The Handmaid's Tale, which uses the song in a scene from Season 3 in which evidence of a character's brutal murder is removed.

You're Next ("Looking For Magic" - Dwight Twilley Band)

Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett are known for using comedy in their horror movies, including their otherwise brutal 2013 home invasion thriller, You're Next. Much of the humor comes from the ironic use of the Dwight Tilley Band's "Looking for Magic" in two scenes, due to one victim of the masked assassins putting the 1977 pop tune on repeat accidentally before his death.

Final Destination ("Rocky Mountain High" - John Denver)

The uplifting music of John Denver has been used for ironically dark purposes in several movies and the most iconic example comes from the first installment of the Final Destination movies. Any time "Rocky Mountain High" is heard in the 2000 teen thriller is a signal that Death is near.

Nope ("Fingertips" - Stevie Wonder)

To be fair, Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips" never actually appears in Jordan Peele's third feature, 2022's Nope. However, a remixed version of it provides an ominous aura for the alien invasion movie's trailer.

One of the many joys that come with being a Constant Reader of Stephen King is picking up on the various details, locations and characters that reveal a shared universe in the author’s stories. Some are more overtly tied together (like the various tales set in Castle Rock, Maine) but other ties are a bit more sly (like the cameo of the Overlook Hotel in 2021’s Billy Summers). And that doesn’t even include the wide web of The Dark Tower. Sadly, and for a variety of reasons, these connections don’t often survive the adaptation process – but with new details revealed in the past week about the upcoming series IT: Welcome To Derry, I’m holding out hope that the show is planning something that would be very special for King fans: a link to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep.

That’s the main subject of this week’s new edition of The King Beat, but with the 40^th anniversary of The Talisman approaching soon, I’ve also carved out space to question what is going on with the long-developing adaptations. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!

With Certain Details About IT: Welcome To Derry Confirmed, I’m Keeping Fingers Crossed For A Dick Halloran Appearance

In celebration of Halloween last week, IT: Welcome To Derry was the subject of a special preview in Entertainment Weekly, and while there are many notable things that we still don’t know about the 2025 HBO series, some important details have been confirmed. The primary setting will be in 1962 (27 years before the emergence of Pennywise in 1989, as featured in IT: Chapter One); Jovan Adepo will be playing a member of the Hanlon family (presumably William Hanlon, the father of Losers Club member Mike Hanlon); and the show will prominently feature the horrific story of the Black Spot from Stephen King’s novel.

Filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti described the prequel series in an email to the magazine, writing,

If you’ve read Stephen King’s IT, mention of the Black Spot stands out for two main reasons: 1) it’s a terrifying and horrific chapter in the history of Derry, Maine that sees dozens of people burned to death as part of a hate crime, and 2) one of the key characters in the incident is none other than Dick Halloran, who is best known in King lore for being the head chef at The Overlook Hotel in The Shining when Jack Torrance is employed as winter caretaker (he’s memorably played by Scatman Crothers in the Stanley Kubrick film and Carl Lumbly in Doctor Sleep).

In IT, the story of the Black Spot is featured as an excerpt from the journals of Mike Hanlon, who recounts hearing his father talk about it in his hospital room shortly before he died of cancer. While he was in the military stationed in Derry, William Hanlon and his fellow black soldiers had to find their own place to drink and relax while off duty (the result of racial segregation in the community), and that conflict led to the creation of the Black Spot: a speakeasy that started as a shed and was eventually expanded to be a full-on club with live music and a kitchen.

The Black Spot became a popular hangout… but its popularity incensed white locals. William Hanlon and Dick Halloran – then a private and a mess cook – were friends and among the 200-plus people at the club the night that the local Legion of White Decency rode up in white robes and hoods to set the place on fire. Dick ends up saving the lives of both William and pal Trevor Dawson when instinct (likely an example of his “shining”) convinces him to steer them away from what turns out to be a jammed door as the flames grow and panic rises.

In the aftermath of the incident, William witnesses a man get plucked up by a giant bird held up by balloons – a revelation of the influence of Pennywise on the hate crime.

Given his prominent role in the book, Dick Halloran would be a natural inclusion in IT: Welcome To Derry – and I’ll further point out that using him to create a specific link between IT and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining/Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep wouldn’t be hampered by rights issues given that all of the King adaptations in question here are produced by Warner Bros. There is nothing obvious standing in the way of this happening.

To further add to the speculation, I’m already wondering if Dick is going to be the character portrayed by Gotham/Perry Mason’s Chris Chalk (whose role has not yet been revealed). Looking at the official still of him from the show that has been released (embedded below), I can’t help but notice that the nametape on his uniform is blank. Perhaps it’s an effort by the marketing team to save the reveal of the special connection closer to the series’ premiere next year? For what it’s worth, the actor would be a rough match age-wise, as Dick is in his late 60s/early 70s in the 1980-set The Shining/Doctor Sleep (based on the ages of Scatman Crothers and Carl Lumbly), and Chalk is currently 46.

In addition to the aforementioned Jovan Adepo and Chris Chalk, IT: Welcome To Derry also stars James Remar, Taylour Page, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Bill Skarsgård, who is reprising his role as Pennywise The Dancing Clown. Along with The Penguin and the upcoming Dune: Prophecy, the show is part of an initiative that sees worlds introduced on the big screen expanded on the small screen, and it will premiere for HBO and Max subscribers on a thus-far unspecified date in 2025.

The Talisman Is About To Turn 40. Where The Hell Is The Netflix Series?!

I recognize that now is not a particularly appropriate time to be bemoaning a lack of Stephen King adaptations. After all, a brand new one just premiered in October, and there is a possibility that as many as six new King projects will be released/debut in 2025. That being said, this month marks the 40^th anniversary of The Talisman – co-written by Stephen King and Peter Straub and originally published in November 1984 – and the milestone is inspiring me to wonder what is going on with the streaming series Constant Readers were promised two-and-a-half years ago.

For those who don’t recall, it was announced in March 2021 that Netflix was making a series adaptation of The Talisman with major Stranger Things talent on-board: namely creators Matt and Ross Duffer as producers and writer/executive producer Curtis Gwinn as showrunner. Since then, however, development has taken on molasses-like qualities. This can be at least somewhat attributed to the exceptionally slow process making Stranger Things Season 5 (now scheduled to premiere in 2025), but the total lack of new info has been frustrating nonetheless.

Part of the frustration does stem from the fact that Constant Readers have been waiting literal decades for Hollywood to do something with The Talisman. The novel is one of the few Stephen King books that has not yet inspired an adaptation, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment acquired the forever rights to the tome back when it was first published and while multiple different versions have been attempted (both for film and television), none have ever managed to get to the point where cameras started rolling.

The Talisman tells the story of Jack Sawyer – a young boy who discovers the existence of a fantastical parallel world call The Territories and goes on a perilous journey to try and acquire a powerful talisman that has the ability to cure his mother of a deadly cancer that is killing her. In 2001, Stephen King and Peter Straub reunited to write a sequel, Black House, and while sadly passed away at the age of 79 in 2022, King has recently teased a potential completion of the series as a trilogy. (Perhaps that book being published will end up being the pop culture kick in the pants that finally gets The Talisman adaptation made, with the goal of the Netflix show being to ultimately adapt all three novels).

That brings an end to this week’s edition of King Beat, but as always, I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with a brand new rundown of all the biggest headlines out of the world of Stephen King. While you wait for my next column, you can explore my series Adapting Stephen King – which does a deep dive into the full history of King books in film and television.

You may have heard of the term "twin movies," in which two films with similar plots come out around the same time coincidentally. However, we would like to focus on actual movies about twins, which follow the lives and adventures of two siblings born at the same time and, in most cases, bear a striking resemblance to one another. If you love these kinds of stories, you are in luck because Hollywood has made more than enough twin movies to watch for hours on end until you begin to see double.

Twins (1988)

Despite being one of the most famous twin movies, the stars of the classic Ivan Reitman movie Twins look nothing alike. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in the comedy as the hulking Julius, the product of an experiment to create the perfect male specimen, who gets to meet his long-lost brother, the 4' 10" Vincent (Danny DeVito), who was the unintended second embryo.

Adaptation (2002)

Inspired by his struggles to turn Susan Orlean's 1998 non-fiction book, The Orchid Thief, into a screenplay, Charlie Kaufman concocted Adaptation. Nicolas Cage stars in the Oscar-winning comedy from director Spike Jonze as both the esteemed writer and his fictional, freeloading twin brother, Donald Kaufman, who helps him with the script.

Double Impact (1991)

The only thing better than an action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme is an action movie with two Jean-Claude Van Dammes. The Belgian martial artist stars in the fun '90s action movie, Double Impact, as long-lost twin brothers Chad and Alex, who team up to avenge their parents' murder.

Stuck On You (2003)

In Stuck on You, Greg Kinnear plays Walt Tenor, who convinces his conjoined twin brother, Bob (Matt Damon), to move to Los Angeles so Walt can pursue an acting career. Brotherly writing and directing duo Peter and Bobby Farrelly claim they did not realize when they were crafting the comedy, which also stars Cher as herself, that it resembles their own origin story but with the caveat that the main siblings are, literally, connected at the hip.

Legend (2015)

Director Brian Helgeland's Legend is a twin movie in more than one way. Not only does it tell the true story of the rise and fall of notorious, identical gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray in 1960s London, but it also shares its title with an entirely different movie: Ridley Scott's 1985 fantasy epic starring Tom Cruise.

The Social Network (2010)

In addition to its exploration of the rise of Facebook and legal gray areas in the tech industry, one of the most widely discussed topics surrounding David Fincher's The Social Network was the technology used to allow Armie Hammer to portray both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Instead of old-fashioned split-screen photography, the actor's face was digitally inserted onto the similarly-built body of Josh Pence for scenes in which the twin brothers, and partners-turned-rivals of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), are seen together.

New York Minute (2004)

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's first theatrically released movie, 1995's It Takes Two, curiously, does not star the world-famous twins as sisters but as inexplicable lookalikes. Nine years later, the siblings would share the screen as siblings this time in their second (and final) theatrically released movie New York Minute – a box office flop in which their trip to the Big Apple is ruined by a series of mishaps.

The Skeleton Twins (2014)

Despite featuring two hilarious Saturday Night Live veterans, The Skeleton Twins is a movie that gets honest about mental illness, albeit with a few laughs here and there. The twin movie stars Bill Hader as Milo, who reunites with his sister, Maggie (Kristen Wiig), and the estranged siblings work together to help each other through their emotional issues.

Dead Ringers (1988)

One of director David Cronenberg's best movies, Dead Ringers, stars Jeremy Irons as twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle, who often indulge in taking advantage of their identical appearance. The psychological thriller later inspired an even darker miniseries reimagining starring Rachel Weisz in dual roles.

The Parent Trap (1998)

Lindsay Lohan made her feature film debut in the twin movie favorite, director Nancy Meyers' The Parent Trap, pulling double duty as both Hallie Parker and Annie James. After meeting at summer camp, the previously unwitting twins hatch a plan to reunite their parents (played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson) by switching lives.

The Shining (1980)

Director Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining – in which a family falls prey to a hotel's manipulative spirits while serving as caretakers – is not a twin movie by definition. However, the shot of two ghostly, young sisters calling out to young Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) from the end of a hallway is one of the horror movie classic's most iconic images.

Big Business (1988)

In Big Business, Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin star as two sets of identical twins who were accidentally switched at birth and raised as fraternal twin sisters. Years later, both duos – one with a wealthy upbringing and the other from a working-class family – find themselves at the same hotel in New York and discover each other, leading to some wild shenanigans.

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

The third installment of Illumination's Despicable Me movies follows the tradition of most trilogies by revealing something previously unknown about the protagonist. In this case, the twist is that reformed supervillain Felonius Gru has a long-lost twin brother named Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell).

The Man In The Iron Mask (1998)

Based on Alexandre Dumas' novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, The Man in the Iron Mask stars Leonardo DiCaprio as King Louis XIV and his twin brother, Philippe Bourbon, whom he keeps locked away and hidden behind a very uncomfortable mask. Coming to Philippe's aid with intent to overthrow the corrupt king are the four Musketeers (played by Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, and Gérard Depardieu).

Goodnight Mommy (2015)

One of the most unsettling twin movies is Goodnight Mommy, which stars Elias and Lukas Schwarz as siblings of the same name, who suspect their mother (Susanne Wuest), who has returned home from a cosmetic operation, is not what she claims to be. The acclaimed Austrian thriller was remade for American audiences in 2022 and ended in a slightly different manner from the shocking conclusion of the original.

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

The main protagonist of The Spiderwick Chronicles – Mark Waters' feature adaptation of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's series of fantasy novels – is young Jared Grace. However, the English former child star who still acts today also plays Jared's twin brother, Simon, who becomes more begrudgingly embroiled in the otherworldly adventure they have.

Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002)

Writer and star Mike Myers' spy movie spoof franchise is anchored by the rivalry between hip secret agent Austin Powers and eccentric terrorist Dr. Evil, who are both played by Myers. However, everything changes at the conclusion of the third installment, Austin Powers in Goldmember, in which it is revealed that Powers and Evil are long-lost twin brothers, which explains their resemblance.

The Boondock Saints (1999)

We actually forgot that The Boondock Saints was a twin movie until recently since the fact that the main brotherly duo are fraternal twins is a minimal detail. The cult favorite crime thriller stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as Connor and Murphy MacManus, who believe they have been chosen by God to violently punish Boston's criminal underworld.

Twitches (2005)

Tia and Tamara Mowry became household names as the stars of the sitcom, Sister, Sister, in which they play twin siblings separated at birth who randomly meet each other later in life. That is also the plot of their Disney Channel original movie, Twitches, but with the caveat that their characters, Alex and Camryn, also discover they come from a mystical alternate dimension and possess magical abilities.

Basket Case (1982)

Perhaps the horror genre's most iconic and definitive twin movie is director Frank Henenlotter's awesomely cheesy feature debut, Basket Case. The thriller stars Kevin Van Hentenryck as Duane, who travels to New York City with his formerly conjoined brother, Belial – essentially a nonverbal blob with a face and one hand – to exact revenge on the doctor who separated them.

Leaves Of Grass (2009)

Not to be confused with the acclaimed collection of poems by Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass is a dark comedy from writer and star Tim Blake Nelson, who has a role in the film. The lead actor, however, is Academy Award nominee Edward Norton, who portrays Ivy League college professor Bill Kincaid and his twin brother, Brady, who enlists his help to take down an Oklahoma drug lord. buy posing as him.

House of Wax (2005)

Having shared the screen with Jared Padalecki and Paris Hilton in the film, it is easy to see why Brian Van Holt would become the most overlooked House of Wax cast member. However, he should be celebrated for pulling double duty in the underrated 2000s-era slasher movie as both murderous mechanic Bo and his artistic, formerly conjoined twin brother, Vincent, who makes realistic museum figures by covering his still-living victims in wax.

The Suite Life Movie (2011)

After years of sharing characters (most notably Big Daddy's Julian), Cole and Dylan Sprouse each got their own lead roles in Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off The Suite Life on Deck. In 2011, the franchise gained a feature-length installment called The Suite Life Movie, in which Zack and Cody become involved in a unique experiment involving twins that proves to have a strange effect on the siblings.

Jack's Back (1988)

James Spader has been known to play a great villain but he gets to be the hero (and a victim) of the late '80s serial killer movie, Jack's Back. The Emmy winner plays a man who becomes involved in the investigation of a murderer whose crimes seem to resemble that of Jack the Ripper after the elusive culprit claims the life of his twin brother.

Twin Dragons (1992)

While known for his impressive martial arts skills, Jackie Chan is lesser known for his musical talents but would get to demonstrate both in the same movie. In Twin Dragons, the actor plays two twin brothers – one an esteemed classical concert conductor and the other a mechanic who moonlights as a bodyguard – who find each other years after being separated at birth.

Start The Revolution Without Me (1970)

Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland make a great comedic duo in the period parody film, Start the Revolution Without Me, in dual roles. They each play a set of identical twins who were accidentally separated at birth, with one of each twin becoming a wealthy aristocrat while the others grow up to be lowly peasants who become mistaken for the infamous Corsican Brothers.

Twin Falls Idaho (1999)

Director Michael Polish co-writes Twin Falls Idaho with his twin brother, Mark Polish, who both also lead the cast of the late '90s independent drama. The film follows the relationship between conjoined twins Francis and Blake Falls, who are hoping to find and reunite with their estranged mother when one of them falls for a woman named Penny (Michele Hicks).

The Twin (2017)

The good twin, evil twin trope is the main draw of a thriller called The Twin, which premiered on the Lifetime network in 2017. It also incorporates a dark, quas-twist on the plot of The Parent Trap, following Tyler Wells (Timothy Granaderos), who becomes trapped in a psychiatric hospital when his unstable twin brother, Derek (also played by Granaderos), assumes his identity.

Seconds Apart (2011)

Instead of the good twin, evil twin trope, Seconds Apart makes its central siblings up to no good. Edmund and Gary Entin star as Jonah and Seth Trimble, whose sociopathic behavior places them under the suspicion of Detective Lampkin (former MADtv cast member Orlando Jones).

The Identical (2014)

A tragic, lesser-known fact about Elvis Presley is that the music legend had a twin brother who passed away in the womb. The Identical is a film that asks what might have happened if he lived, as told from the perspective of fictional rock sensation Drexel Hemsley and his working-class, unwitting twin brother, Ryan Wade (both played by Blake Rayne).

The Parent Trap (1961)

Disney's original adaptation of Erich Kästner's 1943 novel, Das doppelte Lottchen (published as The Parent Trap in English-speaking countries), starred Hayley Mills as Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick. The classic family film spawned three made-for-TV sequels, all of which saw Mills reprise the twins as grown-ups.

Jack And Jill (2011)

Jack and Jill stars Adam Sandler as both titular roles. The comedy follows a family man whose twin sister comes in for a Thanksgiving visit and then refuses to leave.

Film fans often flock to see the locations where their favorite movies were made, like the ones on this list. Whether it's a place crucial to the plot of a movie, like the prison in The Shawshank Redemption, or a seemingly minor spot like the burger place in Dazed & Confused, these 32 locations have become iconic for their use on film. 

Hook & Ladder Company 8 - Ghostbusters

The coolest thing about Hook & Ladder Company 8, located on North Moore Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City is that the firehouse, which is still an active station, has incorporated the Ghostbuster's logo into its crest. The building is not run down at all, as seen in the movie, and at almost any time of day, you'll see fans of the movie taking selfies. 

Quick Stop Groceries - Clerks

Kevin Smith famously made Clerks on a minuscule budget. One way he cut costs was to film overnight in his actual place of employment, the Quick Stop Groceries convenience store in Leonardo, NJ. The store is still in business, all these years later and you can be sure they play up the fact that the movie was filmed there. 

King's Cross Station - The Harry Potter Series

King's Cross Station is one of a few train stations in London, and while it's always been a well-known station, its fame leaped to another level with the Harry Potter series. You see, it's there, on platform 9 3/4, that Harry and the rest of the Hogwarts students catch their train to school. Of course, there isn't really a platform 9 3/4, but there is a photo op for fans at the real station now.  

West 167th Street Stairs - Joker

In the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx is an unassuming staircase connecting Shakespeare Ave. and Anderson Ave. There are similar stairs in New York City, but none are as famous as the West 167th Street Stairs, where Joaquin Phoenix famously danced as the titular character in Joker. 

Haystack Rock - The Goonies

The Haystack Rock formation off the coast of Cannon Beach in Oregon has been a famous geological spot for decades. For movie fans, it's immediately recognizable from The Goonies as the beach where the kids emerge after finding One-Eyed Willie's pirate ship. It's been used in other movies as well, like Twilight and Point Break. 

Top Notch Burgers - Dazed & Confused

Dazed & Confused does such an incredible job putting the audience right in the middle of the '70s, it's become one of the most beloved cult classics of all time. One major reason it just oozes 1970s teen car culture is the Top Notch Burgers that the characters cruise through. It's a real restaurant in Austin, Texas, where the movie was set and filmed. 

Fox Plaza - Die Hard

2121 Avenue of the Stars, which is most well known by its former name, Fox Plaza, is most famous for being the building where Hans Gruber and his band of merry men commit their robbery in Die Hard. The building, in Los Angeles, was brand new when it was used for the movie in 1988. Eagle-eyed viewers might also recognize it as one of the collapsing buildings at the end of Fight Club. 

South Seas Apartment Complex - The Karate Kid

The South Seas Apartment Complex in The Karate Kid is a pretty typical apartment building in the LA area. It is a real place, with that name, just like in the movie. It's located in Reseda, but it's actually pretty nice, nothing like it looks in the classic '80s movie.

The Philadelphia Museum Of Art - Rocky

There are a lot of really famous sites to see in Philadelphia. Constitution Hall, The Liberty Bell, Pat's and Geno's cheesesteak stands, and, of course, the steps that lead up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They were made most famous by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky when the titular character runs up them and celebrates at the top as "Gonna Fly Now" plays triumphantly. 

Georgetown Stairs - The Exorcist

The Exorcist is one of the scariest movies ever made and one of the eeriest things about it are the steep steps just outside the MacNeil household. They are used a few times in the movie, and it's good when they appear. The real stairs are located in the same neighborhood of Washington DC, Georgetown, where the movie is set, at Prospect St and 36th St NW. 

Seaside, FL - The Truman Show

The fictional town where The Truman Show takes place is both fictional for the movie, and fictional in the movie, as it's really just a soundstage where the TV show is filmed, unbeknownst to Truman (Jim Carrey). It was filmed in a real town, however. Seaside, FL looks pretty much exactly as it does in the movie and the house where Truman lives in the movie is where Congressman Matt Gaetz grew up. How's that for an odd coincidence? 

Katz's Deli - When Harry Met Sally

Katz's Deli, on Houston St. in Manhattan, has long been one of the most famous delis in New York City, but it reached new heights of fame after the legendary scene in When Harry Met Sally after Sally (Meg Ryan) does her famous performance of her faking it in bed. 

Chippewa Square Bus Stop - Forrest Gump

The Baby Boomer fever-dream hit movie Forrest Gump takes place over decades, but it's all told by Forrest (Tom Hanks) from one location, a bench at the Chippewa Square bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. It's where the character sits chatting with different people as he tells them his life story, which for some reason is like a box of chocolates. 

Fox Theatre, St. Louis - Escape From New York

If you ever wondered what city could stand in for a dystopian New York City that has been turned into an island prison, it was late '70s St. Louis, MO. The movie was filmed all over the city, including the Fox Theater, located on Grand Ave. The theater at the time was in disrepair and in desperate need of a renovation. Thankfully it got one and today is in much better shape than it was in the movie. 

Timberline Lodge - The Shining

It may be one of the most famous locations on this list - Timberline Lodge, which is the hotel that stands in for The Overlook Hotel in The Shining. The lodge, Mt. Hood, WA, is still open today and draws not only skiers and outdoor enthusiasts, but fans of the horror classic. 

Hôtel Sidi Driss - Star Wars

The Hôtel Sidi Driss in Matmata, Tunisia is one of the most unique hotels in the world, and so it's fitting it would serve as a home on a planet way out of this world. Movie audiences will immediately recognize it as the home of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle at the beginning of the first Star Wars movie. If you're a fan, and you're in the neighborhood, the hotel is still open and taking reservations. 

7B Horseshoe Bar- The Godfather Part II

It goes by many different names. 7B and Horseshoe Bar are the two most people call it. It's still open, right at the corner of 7th Street and Ave. B in Manhattan. It's been there for years and has been used in a few film productions, but none more famous than in The Godfather Part II. It's where the botched assassination of Frank Pentangeli took place. 

Ohio State Reformatory - The Shawshank Redemption

One of the best movies of the '90s has to be The Shawshank Redemption. While the film is set in Maine, the home state of the book's author Stephen King, it was filmed in the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. It had closed as a prison just a few years before they filmed it, so that certainly helps bring some authenticity to the movie. 

Bosse Field - A League Of Their Own

With some of the best moments in a baseball movie ever, A League Of Their Own has endured for years. So has the minor league baseball field where it was filmed, Bosse Field in Evansville, IN. Though it's a minor league park, it's still the third oldest baseball stadium in the country, behind Wrigley Field and Fenway Park and it retains all the charm it has in the movie. 

Mountain Lake Lodge - Dirty Dancing

In the 1960s, when Dirty Dancing was set, inclusive vacation spots like the Mountain Lake Lodge in Virginia dotted the American countryside. Most have long closed, but the Mountain Lake Lodge has survived and you can still visit and stay there, just like Baby and her family did in the movie. The actual cabin where the Housemans stayed is even available for rent. 

1 Wall Street Court - John Wick

Most of New York City - Manhattan at least - is a grid. But there are a few spots where the grid breaks down and creates odd-shaped blocks, leading to oddly shaped buildings. 1 Wall Street Court is one of those buildings, which makes it the perfect exterior for the mysterious Continental Hotel in the John Wick series where hitmen and criminals can enjoy a drink and a good night's sleep without one eye open looking for enemies. 

The Best Little Chapel - The Hangover

Las Vegas is famous for a lot of reasons, including all the tiny wedding chapels all over town. One famous chapel isn't actually a chapel, though. There are a lot of famous locations in The Hangover, most notably Caesar's Palace (Caesar didn't actually live there). One place you'll have a hard time finding unless you know where to look is The Best Wedding Chapel, as it's really just a youth hostel on Las Vegas Blvd. that was dressed up to look like a wedding chapel. Still, you can see the parking lot and all the hilarious signs behind the location as you quote all your favorite lines from The Hangover.

Matamata, New Zealand - Lord Of The Rings

This is a unique entry on this list as it's now famous for what the Lord of the Rings series did for the town. It's where The Shire was built and much of the set remains today as a tourist attraction for the millions of fans of the movies. It really does feel like you're stepping into the movies. 

Christmas Story House - A Christmas Story

"Ah, there it is. My house, and good old Cleveland Street," is how A Christmas Story begins. The house is almost a character all itself, with the sketchy furnace and the leg lamp, etc... The real house is in the City of Cleveland, but it's at 3159 W 11th St, not on Cleveland St. It's also worth noting that while most of it was filmed in Cleveland, it's set in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana.

The Dakota Building - Rosemary's Baby

The Dakota, at 72nd and Central Park West in New York, is one of the most famous apartment buildings in the world, and one reason for that is that it's the setting for the terrifying Roman Polanski film, Rosemary's Baby. It's the perfect building to set the film, with his is dark neo-gothic architecture and large, lavish apartments. The Dakota is also infamous for being where John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980, while he lived there. 

Forks, WA - Twilight

For fans of the Twilight series, the town of Forks, Washington is the homeland. Both the books and the movies are set in a small town in a remote part of the state west of Seattle. It's now a tourist hot spot, though most of the movie was filmed in locations other than Forks. 

El Coyote - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

El Coyote is a legendary Mexican restaurant in LA that dates back to the 1930s. It's also where Sharon Tate and her friends ate their final meal on August 9th, 1969 before they were murdered by the Manson Family. For his movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino filmed the scene of the friends eating not only in the same restaurant but in the very same booth where they sat all those decades ago. 

Lighthouse Café - La La Land

The Lighthouse Café is a great jazz spot that sits in Hermosa Beach, California near LA. It was the location for one of the most famous scenes that movie critics often call a "love letter to Los Angeles," La La Land. 

Drayton House - Saltburn

The English countryside is filled with amazing, ornate homes that are often used for filming, sometimes they are the location for TV shows, like Downton Abbey, and other times it's for movies like Saltburn. For the latter, the makers of the film used the stately Drayton House in Lowick, Northamptonshire.

Kualoa Ranch - Jurassic Park

Kualoa Ranch in Hawaii has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. It makes sense it would be the setting for quite a few TV shows and movies, including Lost,  Magnum P.I., Pearl Harbor, and maybe the most famous movie filmed there, 1993's Jurassic Park. 

The Tasty - Good Will Hunting

Sadly, this is a location you can no longer visit, as it closed a few years ago. For decades, however, The Tasty Diner in Harvard Square was a late-night favorite for drunk college students from all over Boston. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck made sure it found its way into their movie about Boston, Good Will Hunting. 

Görlitz Department Store - Grand Budapest Hotel

The exterior of the titular Grand Budapest Hotel might have been a model, but the interior and lobby were actually a beautiful - and vacant - department store in Görlitz, Germany. Sadly, while the building is still standing, it is still unused. 

I have a rich new edition of The King Beat to serve up this week. Among the recent Stephen King-related news, Glen Powell discussed his work on the upcoming adaptation of The Running Man, and the underappreciated anthology series Nightmares & Dreamscapes celebrated its 18th anniversary, but those are not the only events from the past few days to emerge from the world of Stephen King. 

In addition to Danny Lloyd setting the record straight regarding his experiences on the set of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, there is also news of a new documentary about the film that is set to premiere later this month. But that’s not all, as those working to build the Ultimate Stephen King collection will also be excited to learn about a new special edition of Mick Garris’ The Stand that has been announced in coordination with the miniseries’ 30th anniversary. Let’s dig in!

Danny Lloyd Explains How Protected He Was From The Horror On The Set Of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

This might be hard to believe, but not every behind-the-scenes story about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is true. For example, Robin Williams was never among the actors considered to play Jack Torrance, and it’s extremely unlikely that the film was Kubrick confessing to staging the Apollo 11 moon landing. That being said, some of the legends about the modern classic are actually factual – including that Kubrick and the production made efforts to shield child actor Danny Lloyd from any scary material on set.

Lloyd was only five years old when he traveled with his family to London so that he could play Danny Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and while his memory from that time isn’t perfect, he knows in retrospect that he was “protected” from the shocking elements of the movie. The former child actor (he’s now a biology teacher) is featured on this week’s episode of Fangoria’s The Kingcast (guest co-hosted by Doctor Sleep writer/director Mike Flanagan), and he is specifically asked by Eric Vespe about the rumor that he was kept unaware he was making a “scary movie” during production. Lloyd responded in the affirmative, saying,

Watching The Shining closely, fans will notice that Danny Lloyd isn’t featured in any shots with bloody carnage or the ghosts of The Overlook Hotel. It’s not hard to assume that was very intentional – but Lloyd also emphasized a general lack of awareness of the genre when he was a young kid:

As Eric Vespe and Mike Flanagan pointed out, being part of a scary movie did ultimately influence Danny Lloyd’s performance. After all, some of the most memorable shots of The Shining feature the young actor looking straight down the lens of the camera with a look of pure terror struck across his face. Lloyd agreed and laughed, saying,

In addition to discussing his awareness of the horror in The Shining, Danny Lloyd also tells The Kingcast about the fascinating audition process for the film, his personal relationship with the books of Stephen King, his time with Jack Nicholson on set, and more. He provides some wonderful, unique insight into the movie, and I highly recommend giving the full podcast episode a listen.

A Surprise Documentary About The Shining Will Be Release On July 26

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a fascinating film. It’s a work that has inspired a tremendous amount of study, resulting in articles, essays, books, documentaries and more, but there are seemingly endless angles on the movie, and they are all interesting. Those who love the Stephen King adaptation can already enjoy Lee Unkrich and J.W. Rinzler’s Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and director Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, but soon there will be another exploration to enjoy, as a brand new doc is set to be released later this month by the official Stanley Kubrick YouTube channel.

According to Indiewire, a documentary titled Shine On – The Forgotten ‘Shining’ Location is going to premiere on YouTube at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST next Friday, July 26 (which happens to be Stanley Kubrick’s birthday). The work features narration from actor Michael Sheen and is specifically about the location scouting and art direction that went into creating the iconic Overlook Hotel for the big screen.

In the making of the documentary, director/producer Paul King successfully discovered sets from The Shining at Elstree Studios in London, and the film explores the various influences and decisions that went into the creation of The Overlook. In a press statement, King says,

The first trailer for Shine On – The Forgotten ‘Shining’ Location will premiere Friday, July 19, to provide Shining fans with a first look at the documentary.

The Stand Miniseries’ 30th Anniversary Is Being Celebrated With A New Steelbook

As a physical media collector, I’m a big fan of Steelbooks. In addition to being durable and simply different than the standard plastic cases that most movies come in, they transcend media format changes (namely Blu-ray to 4K UHD) and often feature unique art that’s not available in any other home video release. Suffice it to say, I own the Steelbook for every Stephen King adaptation that has been produced in the format, and I’m stoked to soon add Mick Garris’ The Stand to my shelf as well.

Blu-ray.com has the news that Paramount Home Media Distribution is planning to release a special Steelbook for The Stand to celebrate the miniseries’ 30th anniversary (the four-part show aired between May 8-12, 1994). The artwork on the front of the case depicts the journey that Stu, Larry, Glen, and Ralph take to Las Vegas in the third act of the film, while the back has a crow sitting atop a skull with a lightning strike behind in. The interior art includes the tagline “The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning” on one side and a shadowy, demonic depiction of Randall Flagg on the other.

I’m personally excited to add this new collectable to my collection, as an upgrade, but those who plan on purchasing it should know that the Blu-ray disc that’s included is the same one that was released in standard packaging back in 2019. So if you already own The Stand miniseries in HD and don’t feel the need to make this new purchase for the Steelbook alone, it’s understandable. This is the third Stephen King miniseries to be released in the format, the other two being Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot and Tommy Lee Wallace’s IT.

The Stand Steelbook won’t be a wide release, as the plan instead is for it to be sold as a Walmart exclusive. Pre-orders aren’t yet possible, but it has been announced that it will be in stores on September 24.

Recommendation Of The Week: "On Slide Inn Road"

If you ever get the suspicion that you might be living in a Stephen King story, allow me to recommend never going on any kind of a road trip. From “Children Of The Corn” to Desperation to “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band,” things rarely go well for King characters who decide to travel long distances via car. It’s a part of King’s literary legacy – and he most recently added to it with “On Slide Inn Road.”

The short story was first published in Esquire back in October 2020, but it’s now included as one of the 12 tales of terror in You Like It Darker. The road trip narrative finds the Browns – a mother, father, two kids, and a grandfather – on their way to Derry, Maine to visit a dying relative. While attempting to take a shortcut via an abandoned street called Slide Inn Road, they first get forced to turn around due to a washout, and then the car gets trapped in a ditch. It’s bad enough that the family is stranded, but things get far, far worse when they encounter a pair of strangers with horrible intentions.

That brings this week’s edition of The King Beat to a close, but I’ll be back next Thursday here on CinemaBlend with another roundup of all of the news from the world of Stephen King. And instead of counting down the days, you can explore my Adapting Stephen King series, chronicling the full history of King adaptations in film and television.

Now is a perfect time to watch some of Shelley Duvall’s best movies to honor her memory. The actor — known best as Wendy in 1980’s The Shining or for her many collaborations with legendary filmmaker Robert Altman — passed away at the age of 75 in her sleep due to complications with diabetes. Celebrate the life and career of the acclaimed actor by watching some of her greatest hits, which we have compiled below, along with how to watch them.

Brewster McCloud (1970)

A young introvert (played by Bud Cort) who lives in the Houston Astrodome becomes embroiled in a bizarre murder investigation while attempting to construct a pair of functioning wings, with the help of his guardian angel (played by Sally Kellerman).

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall made her screen acting debut in the eccentric comedy, Brewster McCloud — her first collaboration with director Robert Altman (a filmmaker who is not talked about enough), in which she stars as an Astrodome tour guide name Suzanne Davis, who becomes the love interest of the reclusive title character.

Rent or buy Brewster McCloud on Amazon.
Buy Brewster McCloud on Blu-ray on Amazon.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

The thriving partnership between a charismatic expert card player (played by Warren Beatty) and a professional madam (played by Julie Christie, in an Academy Award-nominated role) is threatened by a generous offer from a larger company in a small mining village in the Old West. 

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall’s second film and second collaboration with Altman is McCabe & Mrs. Miller — an “anti-Western,” as the filmmaker called it, in which the actor plays Ida Coyle, who works as a sex worker at John McCabe and Constance Miller’s brothel.

Stream McCabe & Mrs. Miller on Tubi.
Rent or buy McCabe & Mrs. Miller on Amazon.
Buy McCabe & Mrs. Miller on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Nashville (1975)

The interconnected stories of a group of popular musicians, aspiring musicians, and other individuals on their adventures through Tennessee.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall reunited with Altman once again to join the star-studded ensemble cast of one of the best movies of the 1970s, the wonderfully satirical Nashville, as a woman named Martha, who changes her name to “L.A. Joan” and uses up all of the time she promised to spend with her dying aunt chasing after male country musicians instead.

Buy Nashville on Amazon.
Buy Nashville on Blu-ray on Amazon.

3 Women (1977)

A meek, teenage spa attendant (played by Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek), her adult colleague and new roommate (played by Duvall), and a pregnant, middle-aged bar owner and aspiring artist (played by Janice Rule) share a unique bond with one other.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall’s fourth Altman film would be an entirely different kind of tale called 3 Women — a dreamy and surreal psychological drama that analyzes the concept of identity and self-actualization in a thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling manner.

Rent or buy 3 Women on Amazon.
Buy 3 Women on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Annie Hall (1977)

A neurotic, twice divorced stand-up comic (played by Woody Allen) recalls the doomed romance he once shared with a charmingly eccentric aspiring musician (played by Diane Keaton in an Academy Award-winning performance) in New York City.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall would work with plenty more prolific filmmakers outside of Altman, such as Woody Allen in the inventively funny, charmingly romantic Best Picture Oscar winner Annie Hall in the role of Pam — a writer for Rolling Stone who has a brief, “Kafkaesque” relationship with Allen’s character, Alvy.

Stream Annie Hall on Tubi.
Rent or buy Annie Hall on Amazon.
Buy Annie Hall on Blu-ray on Amazon.

The Shining (1980)

During the winter, an author (played by Jack Nicholson) and his family act as caretakers for an empty, isolated Colorado hotel that soon proves to have a mysterious and disturbing effect on his behavior.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: With much influence from the writer and director’s questionable on-set treatment, Duvall gave one of the most iconic and striking performances of her career in one of the all-time greatest horror movies, The Shining — Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel — as Wendy Torrance.

Rent or buy The Shining on Amazon.
Buy The Shining on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Popeye (1980)

The adventures of a sailor (played by Robin Williams) with a corncob-pipe and unusually large forearms and his romance with his landlord’s daughter (played by Duvall) in the port town of Sweethaven.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall would reunite with Robert Altman to play the iconic Olive Oyl in Popeye — the filmmaker’s stunningly faithful live-action adaptation of E.C. Segar’s classic comic strip and subsequent cartoon, which was not very well received upon release, but, according to WBUR, has been revisited with more admirable eyes as an influential classic.

Stream Popeye on Pluto TV.
Rent or buy Popeye on Amazon.
Buy Popeye on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Time Bandits (1981)

A young boy embarks on an adventure with a group of thieves who venture through multiple eras of history searching for loot to snatch.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: In Time Bandits — a hilarious sci-fi movie classic that could have only been made by the gentlemen behind Monty Python — Duvall takes on two different roles from different time periods, each of which are named Pansy and are in a relationship with a man named Vincent (Michael Palin).

Stream Time Bandits on Max.
Buy Time Bandits on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Frankenweenie (1984)

An intelligent boy (played by Barrett Oliver) accidentally causes trouble in his neighborhood when he manages to bring his beloved dog, Sparky, back from the dead.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: Duvall stars as Susan Frankenstein, the mother of the young hero of Frankenweenie — the 29-minute horror-comedy movie favorite from co-writer and director Tim Burton, who would later expand it into an animated feature in 2012.

Stream Frankenweenie on Disney+.
Buy Frankenweenie on Amazon.

Roxanne (1987)

A fire chief with a large nose (played by Steve Martin) helps his handsome colleague (played by Rick Rossovich) win the heart of a beautiful woman (played by Darryl Hannah) while concealing his own feelings for her.

Why it is one of the best Shelley Duvall movies: One of the best Steve Martin movies, Roxanne — a modern retelling of Edmond Rostand’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac — also stars Duvall as a friend of C.D. Bales’ named Dixie, through whom he meets the title character.

Rent or buy Roxanne on Amazon.
Buy Roxanne on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Shelley Duvall won our hearts with her wonderful performances in these films. She will be dearly missed.

Later this month, audiences will ride the stormy summer blockbuster season through the offering that is Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters, a reimagining/reinterpretation of the classic 1996 thriller, helmed by Jan de Bont. The new Twisters already is getting positive reactions, including a vote of confidence from the unofficial King of Blockbusters, Tom Cruise. Imagine the irony, then, if Cruise were to learn the full story behind his one-time Eyes Wide Shut collaborator Stanley Kubrick supporting Jan de Bont on the original Twister, allowing him to use a clip from The Shining during a pivotal scene in the original film?

Behind-the-scenes stories like this are the best. Jan de Bont was coming off of Speed, and looking for his next high-profile adventure. He found it in Twister, a movie about professional storm chasers who increasingly encounter more dangerous tornadoes over the course of the film. De Bont, from the very beginning, knew that he wanted to associate one of the bigger twisters – visually – with Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece, The Shining. And while appearing on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, De Bont told the cool story about how the movie was included in his film.

You can see a clip of The Shining during this scene from Twister, when a massive tornado rips apart a drive-in movie theater:

Whenever a clip from an existing movie appears in a new movie, you know that permission had to be granted. So I asked Jan de Bont what it took to get The Shining in his tornado movie, and he told ReelBlend:

But Jan de Bont, as expected, met resistance from the studio. For one thing, they assumed that Stanley Kubrick would balk at his footage being used in a tornado blockbuster. Still, de Bont wanted to give it a shot. He told ReelBlend:

Just knowing that Stanley Kubrick, the legend behind so many cinematic classics, saw and loved Speed brings me such joy. But then, when you learn how important Kubrick was to Jan de Bont, the whole story collects a beautiful emotional bow. He finally tells ReelBlend:

And we are fans of Jan de Bont. You have to listen to his full conversation on the ReelBlend podcast.

And make sure that you grab the 4K release of the original Twister ahead of the new movie arriving in theaters on July 19.

Shelley Duvall, iconic star of The Shining, Annie Hall, and a handful of Robert Altman masterpieces including Popeye and Nashville, died in her sleep on Thursday at the age of 75. Duvall was in her home in Blanco, Texas. She succumbed after suffering complications due to diabetes. 

Shelley Duvall’s death was confirmed by her longtime partner and musician Dan Gilroy, who has been with the actress since 1989. In a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter, Gilroy said of Duvall and her pain:

Shelley Duvall had a distinct look and mannerisms, which she often applied to quirky and eccentric characters. The Texas native was discovered by American auteur Robert Altman, who cast her in the black comedy Brewster McCloud, and then continued working with the actress on numerous classics. My childhood memories would not be complete without Duvall’s unforgettable performance as Olive Oyl in Altman’s live-action Popeye, an incredible achievement that made tremendous use of Robin Williams in the lead role and Duvall’s musical capabilities. There’s a reason why we view Popeye as one of the best romantic comedies of all time.

No matter how many significant film roles that Shelley Duvall appeared in over the years, the conversation on her career will always circle back to the haunting turn she delivered in Stanley Kubrick’s controversial adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining… a movie that the author rips apart almost every chance that he gets. This has nothing at all to do with Duvall’s performance, and more to do with the ways that Kubrick changed the tone and intention of King’s source material. It also has become common knowledge in later years that Duvall suffered mightily on the set of The Shining, putting herself in the head space of a mother and wife trying to protect what remains of her family as her husband (Jack Nicholson) slowly loses his mind. 

Just don’t limit your knowledge of and appreciation for Shelley Duvall to The Shining. Go out of your way to see the movie that she made with Robert Altman, starting with the unconventional western McCabe & Mrs. Miller and continuing through Thieves Like Us, 3 Women, and the exquisite pastiche that is Nashville. She also helped to bring to life Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, a classic 1981 adventure that will find new audiences (we hope) thanks to a revived TV series landing later this year.   

Expect to see tributes to Shelley Duvall arriving online. Her impact on contemporary storytellers, both in the horror genre and beyond, is significant, and her loss will be felt for ages. 

A lot can happen to a movie between the time a script is written and a premiere is held, and in some cases, a whole lot of bad can happen. Over the years, Best Picture winners, some of the greatest horror movies of all time, and cult classics have experienced nightmarish productions, with some being far worse than anyone could have ever imagined.

Come with us as we go through the history of Hollywood and break down 32 movies with disastrous productions that have since become the stuff of legend. And while we will be avoiding spoilers, some details are not for the faint of heart.

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1982)

Arguably the most infamous disastrous production, Twilight Zone: The Movie is mostly remembered for the on-set deaths of Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, who were all killed in a freak accident involving a helicopter. Slate would later write extensively about the accident, what led to it, and how the segment’s director, John Landis, dealt with the ramifications.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Though known as one of the best war movies ever made, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic is more times than not remembered for being one of the most intense, grueling, and disastrous productions. An overweight and ill-prepared Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen’s heart attack, and several other issues have since been well-documented in documentaries like Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of those movies that so many people wanted to work on, but it just wasn’t in the cards. The early dismissal of original director Richard Stanley (he was replaced by John Frankenheimer less than a week into shooting), Marlon Brando’s odd behavior, and Val Kilmer stepping in when Bruce Willis left shortly before production began all contributed to the madness on set.

Rust (Unreleased)

Who knows if the world will ever get to see Rust, as Joel Souza’s Western film has been wrapped up in all kinds of investigations, criminal trials, and litigation ever since a freak accident on set claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021. According to the Los Angeles Times, star Alec Baldwin was practicing a shooting scene when his gun fired a live round, killing Hutchins and injuring Souza. Production has been suspended ever since.

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Werner Herzog’s 1982 epic Fitzcarraldo tells the story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) as he attempts to transport a steamship through rivers and over a steep hill to find his fame and fortune. Herzog, not one to take the easy way out, decided that he and his crew would drag an actual 320-ton ship up a hill, as seen in the must-watch Les Blank documentary, Burden of Dreams. 

The Shining (1980)

In addition to having some great improvised movie moments, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining also has a reputation for being a movie where the tyrannical director pushed and pushed and pushed his cast to their breaking point. Kubrick’s primary target, Shelley Duvall, had an especially hard time on set, according to The Mirror, and was left in poor health because of the intense and chaotic shoot.

Jaws (1975)

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster, Jaws, had everything you’d want in a big movie: legendary acting performances, an all-time great John Williams score, and one of the scariest monsters captured on screen. As the director remembered in Spielberg: The First Ten Years (via Vanity Fair), a boat began to sink with the actors (and sound equipment) aboard, the shark didn’t work half the time, and the whole project went over budget. Still, it’s one of the greatest of all time.

Back To The Future (1984)

Back to the Future is remembered today as one of the best ‘80s movies and an iconic sci-fi flick that helped turn Michael J. Fox into the biggest actor on the planet. But before the Family Ties star came into the picture and brought Marty McFly to life, Eric Stoltz was famously cast and then fired weeks into the production. Though all of the McFly scenes were reshot, there’s still a single shot of Stoltz in the final cut. 

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant, which earned Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar, experienced one of the most grueling and difficult productions in recent memory. Director Alejandro G. Inarritu insisted on shooting the film in order, which caused a myriad of issues along the way, including going over budget by the tune of $7 million, subjecting the cast and crew to extreme weather conditions, and having to move everything to a different continent to find cold enough weather.

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

The Wizard of Oz is a movie that should get its own biographical drama series because so much drama happened on the set of the landmark 1939 film. From the production using asbestos to make fake snow to the alleged abuse and harassment on set to recastings and new directors, a lot went wrong in the process of making one of the most influential films of all time.

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars (later retitled Episode IV – A New Hope) launched one of the biggest franchises of all time back in May 1977, but it wasn’t all peas and carrots on the set of the game-changing sci-fi epic. George Lucas and company battled all kinds of issues during the disastrous production including shooting in the deserts of Tunisia and Death Valley, budget problems, and droids that just wouldn’t work led to a series of headaches for all involved parties.

Cleopatra (1963)

Described by the A.V. Club as both an unmitigated disaster and runaway smash hit, Cleopatra is one of the most well-known movies of all time. Production of the epic starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was stalled by unexploded World War II landmines, medical emergencies, and a ballooning budget.

Waterworld (1995)

A bad movie with a great plot, Kevin Costner’s Waterworld has a reputation for being one of the worst and most expensive box office failures of the ‘90s. According to Yahoo! Entertainment, Costner’s choice to ignore Steven Spielberg’s advice about shooting on open water was largely to blame for the movie’s massive budget and a plethora of issues experienced by the cast and crew on the set.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

On top of being a wildly inaccurate biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody is also a film that was marred by on-set issues. A lot of the issues were connected to original director Bryan Singer, who was fired partway through production after numerous run-ins with the cast and outbursts on set. But the problems didn’t stop there, as the screenwriter later sued the film’s producers.

Titanic (1997)

James Cameron’s Titanic is one of the biggest movies of all time, as well as one that experienced one of the strangest incidents during production. As later covered by outlets like Variety, someone spiked the cast and crew’s clam chowder with PCP, which resulted in dozens of people flooding a local hospital suffering from all kinds of psychedelic and physical effects.

Blade Runner (1982)

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a top-tier sci-fi classic, but the director’s techno-noir film wasn’t without its fair share of incidents. From rewrites to missing deadlines to an insistence on adding narration by Harrison Ford, there was a lot that went wrong before the movie hit the big screen.

Heaven's Gate (1980)

Heaven’s Gate, the 1980 Michael Cimino movie and not the cult from the ‘90s, is often regarded as one of the worst and most disastrous movies of all time. Released a few years after Cimino’s iconic The Deer Hunter, the Western epic ended up coming in $30+ million over budget, many days late, and according to IndieWire, was so bad United Artists decided to shelve the film not long into its run.

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

The Bridge on the River Kwai, Davide Lean’s 1957 war epic is often regarded as one of the best World War II films, but it too, had its share of production issues. Among them were problems director David Lean had with the British actors and the botched filming of the iconic bridge explosion caused by a cameraman not getting out of the way in time.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Regarded as one of the best action movies of all time, Mad Max: Fury Road took the genre to new heights with its story about Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). However, as reported by Vanity Fair, the two stars hated one another, which made things difficult on set.

Tombstone (1993)

One of the best Westerns ever made, Tombstone is one of those movies you just have to watch whenever it's on TV. But we’re lucky the movie was even made, as its production was the stuff of nightmares (at least for Hollywood). Kevin Jarre, the screenwriter and original director, was fired early in production and there have long been rumors that star Kurt Russell was his replacement, not George P. Cosmatos, who’s credited as the director.

The Crow (1994)

The Crow, which would go on to become one of the biggest cult classics of the ‘90s, will forever be known as the movie in which star Brandon Lee was tragically shot and killed during production. 

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, was long believed to be a movie that would never see the light of day. Over the course of nearly 30 years, multiple attempts, and countless casting replacements, Gilliam finally released the movie in 2018

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

One of the most shocking movies of all time, Cannibal Holocaust has become a rite of passage in some circles due to its gratuitous violence and pure depravity. The found footage horror film, which features the decapitations of animals among other things, ended up getting its director, Ruggero Deodato, sent to court after people thought it was a real documentary.

Sorcerer (1977)

Riding high on the success of The French Connection and The Exorcist, William Friedkin took on one of his most ambitious projects: Sorcerer. The box office dud is mostly remembered all these years later for being the movie that sent at least 50 crew members to the hospital with ailments like gangrene and malaria, per Collider.

The Abyss (1989)

Though not the best James Cameron movie, The Abyss is still a great addition to the sci-fi genre and a wonderful alien movie. But know what wasn’t great? The film’s production. Cameron pushed things way too far for the cast, crew, and himself to the dangerous limits throughout the shoot, and, according to SyFy, he almost died on set.

Deliverance (1972)

Few movies capture a sense of dread and danger better than Deliverance, and it sounds like what happened behind the scenes was just as terrifying as anything featured in the 1972 thriller. Between Jon Voight almost dying performing a stunt, fistfights on set, and run-ins with the locals, a lot went wrong.

Alien 3 (1992)

David Fincher is one of the best directors in Hollywood, but the man behind Seven, Fight Club, and The Social Network had a bad start in the business thanks to the disastrous Alien 3. Fincher has been vocal about the production woes in the past, which could be attributed to a revolving door of creatives and a studio not knowing what it wanted.

World War Z (2013)

Have you ever watched World War Z and wondered why the final act of the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie movie feels like it has nothing in common with everything that led to that point? Well, that’s because the final third of the movie was completely rewritten and reshot.

Roar (1981)

Watch the Roar trailer and it shouldn’t take long to figure out why this 1981 cult classic is on the list. During the production of this wild creature feature, 70 crew members were injured by real-life lions, with some getting gangrene and puncture wounds.

American History X (1998)

It wasn’t so much the production of American History X that was the disaster as it was the post-production work. According to The Independent, director Tony Kaye, who was upset with New Line Cinema for making him recut and lengthen the film, ended up punching a wall and breaking his hand during the editing before going on a crusade to bad-mouth his film and having his name removed from the credits.

Tootsie (1982)

Going off an excerpt from David McGiffert’s The Best Seat in the House (via The Wrap), it sounds like Dustin Hoffman was just as difficult to work with as his character in Tootsie. In his book, the assistant director goes into great detail about the confrontations between Hoffman and director Sydney Pollack, which really adds to their characters’ scenes together.

Suicide Squad (2016)

Before all the Justice League brouhaha in the years that followed, the DCEU gave the world Suicide Squad, a movie pieced together by so many different parties it’s unnecessarily complex and hard to follow. Years later, director David Ayer still gets crap for the movie.

Some of these movies are cinematic masterpieces, while others have been largely forgotten to the sands of time. However, they all have something in common: they all had disastrous productions.

Sometimes a movie leaves us with a finale so head scratching, we need to run out and talk about it. That concern is always going to be valid, and that’s why we felt it was time to decipher 32 of the most confusing movie endings, so that you don’t have to. Brace yourselves, as some of these finales are all-time stumpers. 

Inception

Is Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) still in the dream world, or is he back home with his kids? It’s been over a decade since Inception planted that question in our minds, and as far as Christopher Nolan’s thoughts on Dom’s ending are concerned, it doesn’t matter because the character doesn’t care. Though if you ask us, Leo’s still dreaming in the end.

Looper

Because of how Looper’s time travel works in Rian Johnson’s story, one could say that it’s safe to assume that young Cid (Pierce Gagnon) doesn’t become the criminal overlord known as The Rainmaker. However, our own interpretation of the ending is that the death of both Joes (Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Bruce Willis)  probably had no effect on Cid’s future, and the kid’s still destined for darkness. 

Shutter Island

This one’s a pretty cut-and-dry affair, as the finale of director Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Shutter Island is actually clearer than the book when it comes to the final fate of Andrew Laeddis (Leonardo DiCaprio). In author Dennis Lehane’s novel, we’re not sure if Andrew or his Teddy Daniels persona is in control; but in Shutter Island’s movie ending, it’s plainly clear that Andrew wants that lobotomy, and pretends he still thinks he’s his US Marshall alter ego. 

mother!

The ending to mother! is a literally Biblical finale, with Jennifer Lawrence’s titular matron unleashing apocalyptic ruin against her lover, Him (Javier Bardem). As we saw Darren Aronofsky’s film start with a woman burning in some hellfire of her own, we’re led to believe that the cycle of creation and destruction is about to start again, thanks to Him waking up his new companion the same way he roused mother. 

Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film Birdman, Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance is a rare case where a seemingly impenetrable ending fits along with the story that came before it. While we debate whether Riggan (Michael Keaton) jumped to his death or soared with the birds, the blurred lines of reality never let up even in the finale, causing us to question everything we’ve seen come to pass. 

The Shining

Stephen King’s notorious dislike of The Shining, at least as a movie, certainly has its points. While Stanley Kubrick’s iconic adaptation is definitely a different beast from its literary source, as the film seemingly depicts the soul of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) now caught in the purgatory of The Overlook. For years the mystery of that ominous photo kept people guessing, but thanks to Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, that seems to be the best answer available. 

Fight Club

Just as Fight Club’s Operation Mayhem is about to punch a hole in the status quo, we learn that Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is a manifestation of the Narrator (Edward Norton) and his contempt for the world. Sometimes dissociating into that personality it’s our Narrator that was the mastermind this whole time. Holding hands with Darla (Helena Bonham Carter) while the world seemingly ends, there’s two comic sequels that tell the story of what happened after one of the best ‘90s movies of all time.

American Psycho

Did Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) really kill all of those people? Apparently not. While he confesses to killing rival Paul Allen (Jared Leto), and even engages in a gun-toting showdown with the NYPD, the next day sees Patrick’s crimes being laughed off by anyone he mentions them to. Mary Harron’s film is just as open-ended as Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, but at the end of the day, Patrick does do a lot of drugs, and nobody can keep anybody’s names straight. 

Memento

2000’s Memento saw would-be detective Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) seeking out his wife’s killer. Unfortunately,  Leonard’s anterograde amnesia prevents him from remembering that he actually killed his wife’s assailant a year prior to the movie. Even after learning the truth, a moment of vengeance ensures that he’ll keep hunting his wife’s killer for the foreseeable future.

No Country For Old Men

The audience for 2007’s No Country for Old Men thought that there was a chance Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) could have escaped the wrath of hitman Anton Chegur (Javier Bardem). As it turns out, that was never the case, as Moss and his wife were already dead. The true point of the story is to observe Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) and his acceptance that the past is in the past, and there’s nothing you can do about it. 

A Serious Man

In a quest for cosmic and karmic answers, Professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) sees two potential misfortunes befall him at the end of The Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man. Larry’s recent lab tests may indicate some serious health problems, and his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is seconds away from being lost in a tornado. All because Larry took a bribe to change a student’s grade. 

Blade Runner

The question of whether Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a replicant depends on how you view Blade Runner, right down to the cut you choose to view. While Harrison Ford believes Deckard is a replicant, both Ridley Scott and the events of Blade Runner 2049 seem to fall into the camp of uncertainty at best, and flat-out rejection in its most extreme. So yeah, Deckard’s humanity is up for grabs, with a firm lean towards confirming he’s flesh and blood.

Arrival

The ending of Arrival also happens to be the beginning, as the visions of Louise Banks (Amy Adams) losing her young daughter are not flashbacks, but flash-forwards. Since the Heptapod language allows the human consciousness to basically remember the future, Louise’s fate is all the more bittersweet, as she proceeds to live through the tragedy she could have prevented.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) finds himself experiencing one of the trippiest endings of cinematic history in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The simplest way to explain what happened is that thanks to the third, most powerful Monolith, Dr. Bowman found himself unbound from time and space. Reborn as “The Star Child,” he is now ready to transition into even crazier forms throughout the rest of Arthur C. Clarke’s source novels; as he’s basically become immortal. 

Donnie Darko

Time travel helps Donnie Darko become a confusing loop of causality, in which Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) realizes that in order to save his community from a chain of death and tragedy, he has to die. Using the strange powers he’s been developing throughout the film, he causes the jet engine that lands on his house earlier in the movie to ultimately kill his past self, rendering the events of Richard Kelly’s story null and void.

The Thing

John Carpenter’s The Thing is a horror classic for several reasons, one of which is the legendary special effects magic that remains chilling to this day. For our purposes, the other reason open for discussion is the movie’s ending, which questions whether Macready (Kurt Russell) or Childs (Keith David) could be The Thing. If you really want to fit the paranoid theme of the movie, the best assumption is that neither is The Thing, and their distrust eventually kills them both in the end.

Tenet

Sometimes it feels like Christopher Nolan is going for the Hall of Fame when it comes to confusing endings. Tenet’s wild time inversion ride is one of the best examples, as the ending is as twisty as its concept of time. For The Protagonist (John David Washington), and the rest of us in the audience, Tenet is the beginning. However, for Neil (Robert Pattinson), this journey has been an inverted arc that leads to his death saving his new old friend in the movie’s killer opening sequence. 

Annihilation

In a world of doppelgangers and uncertainty, Alex Garland’s film version of Annihilation is a double helix of a twist ending. Not only do we learn that Kane (Oscar Isaac) is actually an alien replica of his human self from the mysterious area known as “The Shimmer,” but we see that the original Lena (Natalie Portman) has been possessed by some of that Shimmer herself. 

Total Recall

Admit it: Total Recall is so pumped full of adrenaline that it’s kind of easy to overlook whether or not Arnold Schwarzenegger’s protagonist had been dreaming the whole time. Paul Verhoeven’s action-packed retelling of Philip K. Dick’s “We’ll Remember It For You Wholesale” may seem to hedge its bets by the end, but we’re willing to say that Total Recall’s ending was all a dream.

Minority Report

Legendary sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick had a knack for writing stories that lead to some of the most open-ended finales of all time. Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report is a long-standing beacon of ambiguity, as Tom Cruise’s John Anderton may or may not have dreamed his own happy ending after a certain point. 

12 Monkeys

Poor James Cole (Bruce Willis). Plagued by nightmares from his childhood, the man trusted to prevent 12 Monkeys’ viral apocalypse from occurring just happens to be the man he saw gunned down in an airport when he was young. While the apocalypse seems to be on its way to being averted, this unfortunate time traveler’s fate would appear to have always been sealed.

Jacob’s Ladder

Vietnam Vet Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) winds his way through a maze of mystery and hallucination in Jacob’s Ladder, which ultimately leads to one hell of a twist ending. By the time we see his dead son Gabe (Macaulay Culkin) welcoming him to the afterlife, we learn that Jacob actually never made it home from Vietnam. The entire movie, save for the sequences set during the war, was a hallucination on Jacob’s deathbed.

The Dark Knight Rises

Based on the overwhelming evidence left in the finale of The Dark Knight Rises, the question of whether Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is alive and well in Italy at the end seems pretty open and shut. After learning that the Caped Crusader fixed the autopilot function on The Bat, it would appear that Bruce found a way to retire from his life of crime-fighting, while leaving his arsenal to the next person he trusted with the mantle: Officer Robin John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

Joker

What do Joker’s Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and American Psycho’s Christian Bale have in common? Well, apparently, they both suffer from a state of psychosis so great they’ve imagined killing people in their waking lives. What makes Todd Phillips’ Academy Award-winning thriller all the more confusing is that thanks to Arthur’s reputation as an unreliable narrator, there may be several layers of fantasy at work throughout this chilling narrative. 

Us

Throughout Jordan Peele’s Us, we’re supposed to believe that Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) is being chased by her Untethered doppelganger Red (also Nyong’o). In actuality, what seems to have happened is that on that fateful night in 1986, Red swapped places with Adelaide. Over 30 years later, when Adelaide attempts to reclaim her life through an Untethered revolution, Red kills her - maintaining her stolen life on the surface.

Brazil

Brazil’s ending is one of the most confusing in history thanks to the fact that there are three different conclusions. Thanks to good old-fashioned studio meddling, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) either suffers a mental break, escapes with his true love (Kim Greist), or winds up in a sort of middle ground; depending on which cut you watch. But the definitive ending is the first and bleakest scenario, which explains what inspired the meddling in the theatrical and TV cuts. 

Predestination

Predestination’s ending is a confusing affair because of all the twists one has to keep in mind when defining the identity of our protagonist. The trick is to know two things: John (Sarah Snook), Jane (also Sarah Snook), and their baby are all the same person, and thanks to time travel shenanigans they eventually become the terrorist they’re hunting (Ethan Hawke). With that knowledge, it doesn’t seem like the terrorist attack in question can be changed, especially since it all hinges on several variants of the same person involved in all the crucial aspects. 

Life Of Pi

Apologies to all of you animal lovers out there, as the tiger known as Richard Parker wasn’t in the lifeboat with young Pi (Suraj Sharma). All of the animals in the tragic story on the boat are metaphors for the very real tragedy of Pi losing his mother (Tabu) and killing her murderer (Gérard Depardieu) before being lost at sea. It turns out the tiger was the metaphor for Pi’s inner strength to survive. 

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

Stanley Kubrick’s trust in Steven Spielberg to make A.I.: Artificial Intelligence into a reality has led to many people wondering where the movie should have ended. It only confused things more when there wasn’t a readily apparent explanation that the “aliens” that young David (Haley Joel Osment) encounters in the far-flung future are actually evolved Mechas trying to learn about the age of humanity. 

Contact

Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) assumes that her journey toward the end of Contact actually sends her to the outer reaches of space. In truth, while her consciousness may have encountered alien life, there’s no physical evidence to corroborate her story. For once, the scientist is on the side of faith. 

Black Swan

In the third act of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, ballerina Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) mistakenly thinks she killed her presumed rival Lily (Mila Kunis) with a large shard of class. In actuality, it was herself that she stabbed, right before a supposedly star-making performance in Swan Lake. It's presumed that Nina bleeds out as the film fades to white. 

Dune: Part Two

To be completely honest, there’s one simple yet baffling reason the ending to Dune: Part Two is on this list. Honestly, if you can walk away from Paul Atredies’ (Timotheé Challamet) journey and think he’s still a hero, you’re wrong. Try as he might, the dude’s turned into the prophecy, and he’s about to commit space genocide. Sorry, he’s about to “show his enemies to Paradise.”

We hope that your head isn’t spinning too hard after this collection of the most confusing endings of cinematic history. At least you can count on the finale of this very rundown to be a clear and concise version of events. Or can you? 

Alright, let’s have a chat. Say that you’re on a date, hanging out with friends, or maybe you’re just on your own, and the desire to watch a horror movie arises. You’re scared at first because you’ve never watched a horror movie; you don’t know how you’ll react to them. Are they all as terrifying as Midsommar and Hereditary seem to be?

Rest assured, readers, we have the solution to that. Today, I’ll review several great picks for horror movies for beginners, whether you want something with a little less horror or maybe a little more. Let’s get into it. 

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist is a classic horror movie from the 1980s that Steven Spielberg co-wrote. The film follows a family who has to find a way to save their daughter when vengeful spirits kidnap her in their own home. Out of most horror movies, this one is very light on the jumpscares and mainly builds fright through suspense – mixed in with some pretty okay-ish CGI. 

Halloween (1978)

You can’t get more of a classic horror movie villain than Michael Myers. Halloween was released back in 1978 and told the story of a young woman acting as a babysitter the night of Halloween and how she has to survive the wrath of Michael Myers, an escaped killer from a mental facility. Halloween isn’t gorey but has excellent music, suspense, and an unforgettable villain. Out of all the Halloween movies, this one is still the best. 

The Fog (1980)

The Fog is a horror movie directed by John Carpenter that makes you question what you see in the fog. It focuses on a group of strangers who all have to survive this strange fog that takes over their town, which seems to contain evil forces. The movie isn’t scary, but it is a nice entrance into a more suspenseful horror. 

The Sixth Sense (1999)

M. Night Shyamalan’s best movies often involve some horror, and The Sixth Sense follows that. The film mainly focuses on a child psychologist with a patient who can see dead people, but of course, the classic Shyamalan twist makes this movie all the better. It’s not scary, per se – just exciting. 

Psycho (1960)

I mean, yes. I have to put Psycho on here. Directed by Hollywood legend Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho is based on the novel of the same name and follows the story of an investigator looking into the strange life of Norman Bates at the Bates Motel and how one interaction with a young woman and her disappearance changes everything. It’s black and white with no gore, but it's a great horror movie to start on. Trust me. 

Friday The 13th (1980)

The Friday the 13th movies were essentially some of the films that began the subgenre of slasher within horror, but the first movie isn’t even that bad. It focuses on a group of teenage counselors trying to survive a serial killer at their summer camp after a tragedy occurred years prior. While there are some messier scenes, it’s not that bad and has some great music. 

Beetlejuice (1988)

With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice releasing, it’s the perfect time to watch the first film. Beetlejuice stars Michael Keaton as the titular character, a “bio-exorcist” contacted by two ghosts to get humans to leave their home – but he has tricks up his sleeves. Look, Beetlejuice, truthfully, is probably the best entrance into horror. This movie is way more funny than scary, but it has enough creepy moments to dip your toes in horror. 

The Black Phone (2022)

Starring Ethan Hawke, The Black Phone is an excellent horror film that follows the story of a teenager who is abducted by a child murderer and can use a rotary dial phone to speak to past victims to find a way out. This film has a few gorier moments, but they’re pretty tame. And truthfully, the plot alone is so creative you’ll be sucked in. 

Happy Death Day (2017)

There are plenty of fantastic horror comedies, and Happy Death Day is one of them. The film follows a young woman who, when she is killed, is forced to relive the day over and over again to find the murderer. Yes, this is a horror version of Groundhog Day, and it’s the best. 

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins is a comedy horror film that everyone has seen at least once. The film follows the story of a man who receives a strange creature called a mogwai. At first, it seems fine, but once they get fed past midnight, they turn into monsters that wreak havoc. The movie isn’t scary, but it has some good makeup and will make you chuckle at the monsters. 

Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead is a classic comedy zombie movie directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg. The film follows a salesman who must survive the zombie apocalypse with his friends when the entirety of London falls. The zombies can sometimes be creepy, but trust me when I say you’ll be laughing a heck of a lot more than screaming. 

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

Night of the Living Dead essentially created the zombie genre as a whole. This classic horror film from the 1960s, directed by George A. Romero, follows a group of survivors in Pennsylvania who must try to survive when they are all attacked by corpses that have come back to life. The movie features the slowest zombies ever, but they’re still pretty creepy – and powerfully told. 

Get Out (2017)

Jordan Peele’s movies are always hits; Get Out was his first big one. The movie follows a young Black man who travels to his Caucasian girlfriend’s house for the first time to meet her family, only to discover that they hold much darker secrets than ever before. There’s barely any gore in here—all the horror is in the storytelling and how evil humans can be. 

The Ring (2002)

Have you ever heard the phrase “Seven days?” Because it comes from here. Directed by Gore Verbinski and based on the Japanese horror film and novel of the same name, this movie follows the story of a journalist who discovers that when she watches a cursed tape, she will die in seven days—and now she must find a way to survive. Yes, the girl can be a little creepy, but truthfully, the movie isn’t that bad.

Insidious (2010)

When it comes to horror movies about demons, Insidious is pretty much the best you can get because it’s not “poop your pants” scary, but it’s effective in the way it scares. Directed by James Wan, the film follows a married couple who must find a way to save their son when he enters into a coma, and his body becomes host to several vengeful spirits and demons. There are a few jumpscares, but it’s nothing an average person can’t handle. 

Scream (1996)

This film isn’t scary, and I stand by it. Scream is the first in the Scream franchise, and it follows Sidney Prescott as she tries to avoid getting killed by Ghostface, a serial killer in her town. This movie is just a trope city, and there are undoubtedly bloody moments, but not enough to truly scare you. If anything, it’s a love letter to horror movies from decades before. 

Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland was one of the first zombie movies I ever watched, and I think it’s a great horror comedy for first-time viewers. It mainly follows four survivors as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse, but it’s the comedy that keeps you coming back for more. It’s so funny, and some of the ways the zombies are killed are hilarious. It’s one of Emma Stone’s best films. 

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

Starring David Naughton, An American Werewolf in London tells the story of two American backpackers who are attacked by a werewolf. One of them gets bitten, turning him into a werewolf when the moon rises. The scariest thing about this film is the realistic werewolf transformation, but other than that, it’s a great horror movie to start on. 

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

While the found-footage horror genre has only gotten bigger, I often credit The Blair Witch Project as the first to really set it off. The film focuses on a group of film students who are trying to make a documentary about a local legend, only to vanish. Their footage is found a year later—hence the name, “found footage.” The movie has a few scary movies but builds its scares on suspense. 

Jaws (1975)

Will you be scared of sharks a little after this? Sure, but Jaws is iconic for a reason. The film, directed by Steven Spielberg, follows a marine biologist and a shark hunter working together to take down a man-eating great white shark. Yes, the score is as iconic as you think it is.

Alien (1979)

To me, the original sci-fi horror movie was always Alien. The movie, directed by Ridley Scott, follows the space crew as they have to survive aliens that make their way into their vessel. Truthfully, I don’t see the aliens as too creepy—the only thing that’s truly scary is the alien popping out of someone’s chest, but it’s not that bad. 

The Shining (1980)

One of the best Stephen King adaptations is The Shining. Based on the novel of the same name, The Shining follows a family in which a writer takes on the position of off-season caretaker in a hotel, only for him to lose his mind while he’s there. The movie itself is built on suspense and doesn’t really have that many gory or scary moments—it’s just a greatly shot film.

Old (2021)

Old is an M. Night Shyamalan movie that follows a group of vacationers who realize that they are aging inexplicably quicker on a beach, to the point where they grow closer and closer to death with each passing hour. I enjoy this film a decent amount and think it’s excellent for first-time horror viewers, mainly because there’s barely any gore, and it’s an exciting concept. 

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019)

For all my PG-13 peeps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a great first-time horror movie. Based on novels of the same name, the film follows how horror stories written in an ancient book come to life, and it’s up to three teenagers to figure out how. The movie is creepy, eerie, and so much more – but it doesn’t quite cross the line of unwatchable. I love it. 

Carrie (1976)

Carrie is hands-down one of the best horror films to start watching. The film, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, follows a young woman who is bullied at school. She later finds out that she has telekinetic powers—ones she uses to exact revenge when she’s pushed too far. The film isn’t gory but expertly acted and brilliantly told. 

The Cabin In The Woods (2013)

This sci-fi comedy is everything. The Cabin in the Woods follows a group of close friends who go away to a remote cabin for a weekend. There, they all fall victim to different kinds of killers—only to find out that these killers aren’t who they thought they were. The twist is excellent; you have to watch it. It’s not scary at all. 

A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place is a great horror movie to start on. The film follows a family who are trying to live in a world where man-eating but blind monsters have taken out much of humanity. They have incredible hearing, and you're dead if you make a sound. The monsters can be a little creepy, but there’s so much more that makes this movie so good. 

Goosebumps (2015)

Goosebumps is an excellent PG-13 pick on here. Based on the R.L. Stine books of the same name, the film follows a group of kids and a fictionalized Stine as they struggle to capture all the monsters in the Goosebumps books when they come to live and terrorize their town. It stars Jack Black and is silly, goofy, and just a little scary – perfect for first-timers. 

The Birds (1963)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds follows the sudden invasion and attack of birds that look to kill in California and how it came to be. Yes, I know the premise sounds goofy, but it’s a well-shot film and a classic for a reason. 

Child’s Play (1988)

Child’s Play may sound like it’s for children, but it’s not. The film follows a widowed mother who gifts a doll to her son, unaware that a serial killer’s spirit possesses it and is looking to kill again. Look, this movie is goofy as heck. It is. It’s about a doll killing people – you’re not going to have nightmares after. Just make sure the kids don’t see it. 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Everyone needs a horror musical sometimes. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Tim Curry, is based on the musical of the same name and follows an engaged couple who take refuge in a castle when their car breaks down, only to see that it’s occupied by several interesting and enigmatic people. That’s all I’ll say. Now, let’s do the Time Warp!

Mama (2013)

Starring Jessica Chastain, Mama tells the story of two girls who are brought home by their uncle after their parents die and are haunted by a strange entity. The spirit follows them to their new house. The film certainly focuses more on the love a mother can bring than anything else, but it’s perfect for first-time horror fans. 

With all these options, now I feel like watching some of the best horror movies ever – I think it’s time for a horror movie marathon. 

Have you ever looked back at some of the most famous movie quotes and wondered how the screenwriter could have come up with that? Well, believe it or not, some of those memorable lines (and even some iconic moments in their entirety) were not part of the script and were invented on set and even on the spot while the camera rolled, either out of incident or by some instance of spontaneous creativity. The following are some of the most legendary examples of improvised moments from the movies.

"I'm Walkin' Here!" (Midnight Cowboy)

There is some debate regarding if the most oft-quoted moment from the X-rated Best Picture Oscar winner, 1969’s Midnight Cowboy, was really off the top of Ratso actor Dustin Hoffman’s head. However, the Academy Award winner claimed to The National Post that, on the first take, a cab pulled out right in front of him, to which he responded with genuine frustration, “I’m walkin’ here!” while managing to stay in character.

"Here's Johnny!" (The Shining)

Despite being one of the most iconic moments from one of the best horror movies of all time, Jack Torrance screaming “Here’s Johnny!” after axing his way through a bathroom door feels slightly out of place in 1980’s The Shining. That is because, according to The Independent, Jack Nicholson ad-libbed the line, which Stanley Kubrick initially did not realize was a reference to Ed McMahon’s catchphrase from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

"Alright Alright Alright" (Dazed And Confused)

A phrase that will forever be associated with Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey is also on the funniest lines from 1994’s Dazed and Confused: “Alright alright alright.” He explained to Kelly Ripa and guest host Christian Slater on Live! that the first words he ever spoke on film were a spur-of-the-moment way of expressing “confirmation” for the three most important things in David Wooderson’s life: his car, rock ’n roll, and illicit substances.  

Edward Closes The Jewelry Box On Vivian (Pretty Woman)

The signature moment from 1990’s Pretty Woman when Edward (Richard Gere) snaps a jewelry box lid on Vivian’s (Julia Roberts) hand was nothing more than a prank on the then 22-year-old actor in an effort to “wake her up a little. Director Garry Marshall revealed this to ET, who agree that it is the moment America “fell in love” with the future Academy Award winner and makes it thankful the blooper made the final cut.

Aragorn's Furious Cry (The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers)

In 2002’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) sounds like he is in genuine pain when he, after witnessing a pile of dead orcs, kicks a helmet and lets out a bloodcurdling yelp. That is because, as Peter Jackson revealed on a making-of featurette, when the actor’s foot hit the solid metal helmet on the fifth take, he broke two of his toes, resulting in the impassioned scream.

Ryan's Last Memory Of His Brothers (Saving Private Ryan)

In Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) learns that the titular soldier he and his crew have been tasked with rescuing is not the most noble gentleman when he recalls the last time he saw his brothers alive. According to Peter Bart’s book, The Gross, Matt Damon came up with the darkly comic story involving a young woman knocked unconscious and a barn nearly burnt to the ground the day it was shot.  

"Are You Talkin' To Me?" (Taxi Driver)

Not only was Robert De Niro’s legendary “Are you talkin’ to me?” speech from 1975’s Taxi Driver not in Paul Schrader’s script, but the entire scene almost did not happen because the film was behind schedule. Director Martin Scorsese told Stephen Colbert on Late Show that, in the moment, he had convinced his producers to let him keep shooting the ad-lib to its completed form.

"I Don't Want To Go!" (Avengers: Infinity War)

Tom Holland revealed in a video for GQ that a technique he uses to cry on command is repeating a tonally appropriate phrase in his head until the tears well up. The phrase he chose for the scene before Peter Parker turns to dust in Avengers: Infinity War was, "I don't want to go!" which he, instead, decided to say out loud to Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, perfecting the devastating moment from the 2018 Marvel flick.

Andy's Chest Wax (The 40-Year-Old Virgin)

One of the most unsettling behind-the-scenes facts of all time is that Steve Carell requested that Andy’s famous chest waxing scene in 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin be real and shot in one take, as he recalled in a BBC Radio 1 interview. While many of the things that he says were previously written — including “Kelly Clarkson!” which came courtesy of Seth Rogen — each of Carell’s painful reactions are genuine

The Most Annoying Sound In The World (Dumb and Dumber)

Many of Jim Carrey’s best quotes came right off the top of his head, including one of the funniest moments from 1994’s Dumb and Dumber. Jeff Daniels confirmed in a video for GQ that he was surprised when his co-star blurted out “the most annoying sound in the world” in the middle of a take. 

Lecter Mocks Starling's Accent (The Silence Of The Lambs)

When discussing ad-libs from 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, most people reference Hannibal Lecter's iconic hiss, but that allegedly improvised choice is not the only moment of that kind from Clarice Starling's first meeting with the psychopath. Jodie Foster revealed in her MasterClass episode that Anthony Hopkins came up with the idea to mock her character's accent off the cuff, which initially frustrated the actor, but ultimately added a fascinating layer of manipulation to the role.

Most Of Sgt. Harman's Dialogue (Full Metal Jacket)

While R. Lee Ermey did not exactly come up with his lines as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman on camera, much of his dialogue from Full Metal Jacket was created off the top of his head beforehand. The former Marine revealed in an interview with The History Channel that he would improvise lines reminiscent of his days in the service in front of a tape recorder and the "juiciest" lines were added to the Oscar-nominated script.

Peter Hugs Tony (Spider-Man: Homecoming)

What makes Tony Stark and Peter Parker some of the funniest MCU characters is the brilliant way Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. manage to play off each other in the moment, such as one memorable moment from 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Holland told Kevin McCarthy from Fox 5 in Washington DC that he thought it would be funny if the teen otherwise known as Spider-Man hugged the man otherwise known as Iron Man as he was opening a car door for him, and he turned out to be right.

Buddy's Excitement About Santa (Elf)

Elf might not have become one of the funniest Christmas movies ever if not for Will Ferrell’s commitment to the role of Buddy and his off-the-cuff comedic talent. According to a video by Rotten Tomatoes, the North Pole-raised human’s irritatingly loud reaction to learning “Santa” is visiting Gimbel’s came out of the former SNL star’s belief that his response would have to be the most “jubilant” possible.

"He Stole My Line" (Good Will Hunting)

Will’s (Matt Damon) final message to Sean (Robin Williams) in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, which mentions having to “see about a girl,” is a callback to a story his therapist told him earlier, which he points out by saying, “He stole my line.” Damon revealed in a video for Vanity Fair that the late comedian’s final quote in the movie was not in his and Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning screenplay, but he knew the moment he heard it that nothing could have ended the film better.

“Leave The Gun. Take The Cannoli” (The Godfather)

A look back on many of the most iconic lines from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather by THR reveals that one quotable moment was not originally written the way it was said in the final product. Richard Castellano, as Peter Clemenza, was only supposed to say, “Leave the gun,” but Ardell Sheridan (his real-life and onscreen wife) recommended he add, “Take the cannoli,” in reference to an earlier scene when her character asks him to bring dessert.

"I Love Lamp" (Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy)

When Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) points out that Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) is "just saying things [he's] looking at," that was, indeed, exactly what Carell was doing. According to Page Six, he did not have any lines for the scene in 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, so director Adam McKay instructed him to just say whatever came to mind.

"You Can't Handle The Truth!" (A Few Good Men)

Do you think you can handle the truth about the most celebrated line from 1992 A Few Good Men? According to Judith Humphrey’s book, Impromptu: Leading in the Moment, Col. Nathan Jessup’s (Jack Nicholson) final stinger in his courtroom face-off with Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) was originally written by Aaron Sorkin as “You already have the truth,” but the Academy Award winner changed it on the spot.

The Pecan Pie Scene (When Harry Met Sally...)

In the 1989 romantic-comedy movie classic, When Harry Met Sally…, Harry’s random decision to have him and Sally speak in a strange accent and converse about having pecan pie was really as spontaneous as it feels. As Billy Crystal shared on The View (via Business Insider), he provided no warning about the bit to Meg Ryan, whose look to the side at one point was to director Rob Reiner, who silently instructed her to go along with it. 

Joker Applauds Gordon's Promotion (The Dark Knight)

Despite what rumors have suggested, Heath Ledger’s playful reaction to the delayed hospital explosion in 2008’s The Dark Knight was not improvised. However, Christopher Nolan told BBC Radio 1 that the late Oscar winner did come up with a lot of memorable moments on set, including when Joker sarcastically claps after Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) is appointed Commissioner.

The Laugh-Filled Police Line-Up Scene (The Usual Suspects)

Have you ever wondered why 1995’s The Usual Suspects cast starts to randomly break into laughter while grouped together in a police station line-up? Kevin Pollack revealed on a DVD extra that, which you do not hear in the final cut, Benicio del Toro started breaking wind and did so enough times to send his co-stars reeling.

"My Mom And Dad Are Gonna Be So Mad At Me!" (Scream)

As he revealed in a joint EW interview with him and Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard ad-libbed several of Stu Macher’s lines from the climax of Scream. This includes his especially iconic response to learning that Sidney (Neve Campbell) called the police and him and Billy (Ulrich).

“You Hit Me In The Ear!" (Fight Club)

Apparently, the first time the Narrator throws a punch at Tyler Durden in 1999’s Fight Club was really as painful as it looks, as Edward Norton told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. Director David Fincher instructed him to hit Brad Pitt for real and he ended up hitting his co-star in the ear, leading to Pitt's genuine reaction.

Luther Taunts The Warriors (The Warriors)

For the final scene of the 1979 thriller, The Warriors, director Walter Hill wanted to add more to the scene and asked David Patrick Kelly, as Luther, to help add something to spice things up. The actor recalled to Book and Film Globe how he decided to put three glass bottles on his fingers, clink them, together, and come up with his iconic chant, “Warriors, come out to play!” on the fly.

“You Serious? I Just Told You That A Moment Ago" (Zoolander)

In a hilarious moment from Zoolander, the dim-witted title character (played by star and director Ben Stiller) has to ask disgraced hand model, J.P. Prewitt (David Duchovny) why male models are used in assassination plots twice. In an oral history about the 2001 comedy by Vanity Fair, Duchovny recalls improvising his character’s somewhat irritated response to Derek Zoolander’s repeated question.

"... Cinderella Story..." (Caddyshack)

One of the funniest quotes from Caddyshack is an extensive monologue by Bill Murray as greenskeeper Carl Speckler, narrating his own pro golf fantasy. According to Golf.com, no dialogue was actually written for the now iconic scene that was ad-libbed by the former SNL star on camera.

"I'm The King Of The World!" (Titanic)

Easily the most oft-quoted moment from Titanic is when Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) shouts “I’m the king of the world” — a line that was “made up on the spot.” Director James Cameron revealed in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that, after trying several other lines, he fed the now iconic quote to the future Oscar-winning actor through a walkie-talkie, instructing him to really sell it.

Mr. Blonde's Dance (Reservoir Dogs)

One of the things that makes the torture scene from 1992’s Reservoir Dogs so unsettling is the way Vic “Mr. Blonde” Vega (Michael Madsen) taunts Officer Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) with a dance to “Stuck in the Middle with You.” According to THR, Madsen invented his playful moves to the Stealers Wheel song in the moment.

“Molly, You In Danger, Girl" (Ghost)

In a funny scene from the 1990 romantic horror thriller, Ghost, Sam (Patrick Swayze) asks medium Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) to tell his lover, Molly (Demi Moore), what he says word-for-word, including “Molly, you’re in danger.” According to Variety, it was Goldberg’s idea for her to instead say, “Molly, you in danger, girl.”

Most Of The Dinner Scene (Mrs. Doubtfire)

Chris Columbus revealed to Yahoo! that the majority of what Robin Williams said during the climactic restaurant scene in Mrs. Doubtfire was off the cuff. The director even admitted that he would put multiple cameras on the actor just to keep up with his rapid-fire process.

"Move The Leg" (Captain America: Civil War)

As co-director Anthony Russo revealed on the commentary track for 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland forgot his blocking during a scene when Peter Parker and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) discuss his double-life as Spider-Man. This prompted the Iron Man actor to instruct Holland to give him room to sit on the bed but stay in character while doing it.

Calvin Candie's Bleeding Hand (Django Unchained)

One of the most infamous behind-the-scenes facts about Django Unchained is that Leonardo DiCaprio, as Calvin Candie, actually cut his hand during his racist monologue at the dinner table. However, Broomhilda actor Kerry Washington clarified on The Drew Barrymore Show that the blood he smears on her face was not his own, but faux blood that they decided to incorporate into the scene after the fact.

It just goes to show you that some of the most magical moments in moviemaking are not the ones you plan in advance.

We are now less than one month away from the release of You Like It Darker, the new short story collection from Stephen King… but that’s May business, and we’re still wrapping up the exciting events from April 2024. This past week, fans everywhere got to celebrate the 35th anniversary of director Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary (which first came out on April 21, 1989), and filmmaker Mike Flanagan has revealed via Letterboxd that he has completed work on The Life Of Chuck – but those are side stories compared to everything else that’s cooking for this new edition of The King Beat.

In the last seven days, Tim Robbins has addressed a plot hole in The Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King has looked back on what he’d change in Carrie, and the historic Timberline Lodge from The Shining has started bouncing back from a massive fire. It’s been a busy week in the world of Stephen King, so let’s dig in!

How Did Andy Dufresne Properly Cover His Tunnel In The Shawshank Redemption? Tim Robbins Refutes A ‘Mistake’ In The Stephen King Adaptation

Whether it’s Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear freezing when humans are around or the water in our atmosphere somehow not killing the aliens in Signs, there are plenty of popular movies with massive holes their plots… but is Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption one of them? If you do a casual search around the internet, you’ll find that a number of people say “yes” – with the big issue in question concerning the poster that Andy Dufresne uses to cover his secret escape tunnel. But one notable person who disagrees with this assessment of the beloved ‘90s film is Andy himself, Tim Robbins.

The Shawshank Redemption will officially celebrate its 30th anniversary later this year, but the festivities at the 2024 TCM Film Festival this past week jumped the gun a bit by hosting a special panel featuring Robbins and Morgan Freeman reflecting on their time making the movie. The conversation touched on many behind-the-scenes stories from the production, and it was toward the end that Freeman brought up the popular plot hole: how was it that Andy secured the poster that he used to cover the tunnel in his cell when he was escaping? Explaining, “So easy. This is so easy,” Robbins mimed his method to the crowd, saying that Andy pinned the top of the poster, lifted it, and then let the poster swing down behind him when he went in.

You can watch his reaction to the question around the 15:03 mark in the video below – which is particularly worth watching for the exasperated shrug that Tim Robbins delivers post-explanation:

I happen to agree with Tim Robbins that what is proposed as a plot hole here is pretty weak tea. If you rewatch the scene where Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) discovers the tunnel behind the Raquel Welch poster, you’ll note that Frank Darabont never shows the bottom corners of the poster. It doesn’t take a stretch of imagination to believe that Andy put enough adhesive on the bottom of the poster that it was weighted down and stuck to the wall when it fell into place behind him after he started making his escape. It’s true that we never see him acquire any glue or tape for this specific purpose, but the man is obviously resourceful, and audiences shouldn’t need every single little detail of a story explained to them.

To be frank, the conversation about securing the poster in The Shawshank Redemption is small potatoes; if one wants to have a real debate about the brilliant Stephen King movie, the real question that needs to be asked is about the innocence of Andy Dufresne. The guy certainly looks terribly guilty at the start of the story – established as being drunk and in possession of a gun outside the house where his wife and her lover were having an affair – and the only evidence he ultimately has in his defense is the word of another felon who says a former cellmate bragged about the crime. We as an audience like to assume that he is innocent because of his status as protagonist, but there’s hardly enough in either the novella or the movie to totally exonerate him.

Should you care to rewatch The Shawshank Redemption or reread “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption,” the former is available for digital rental or purchase from major online retailers in addition to being available on 4K UHD, and the latter is included in the 1982 Stephen King collection Different Seasons.

Stephen King Reflects On The Legacy Of Carrie And What He Would Change About The Book

You don’t have to be a Stephen King obsessive to understand the importance and powerful legacy of Carrie. First published in 1974 and subsequently adapted as a movie in 1976, the book launched King’s career and opened the door for the author to subsequently make his indelible mark on 20th/21st century pop culture. There has been a lot of reflection on the work recently thanks to the fact that the story’s 50th anniversary was earlier this month, and this past week, King both explained what he change about the tome and why it’s a novel that’s particularly important to him.

At the end of last week, The New York Times Style Magazine published a special feature on “Beginners,” and it includes a section where established artists discuss the starts of their careers. In addition to Amy Tan discussing The Joy Luck Club, Tracy Chapman remembering her self-titled debut album, and Chloë Sevigny looking back at the movie Kids, King delivers his insightful thoughts on Carrie. He notes that he doesn’t make a big habit of revisiting past work – creating an analogy to the card game Hearts by saying, “If it’s laid, it’s played” – but he does acknowledge that there are a few things that he would alter about the work in reflection:

In counterpoint, I would say that the character depth in Carrie is actually pretty remarkable, with the personalities and perspectives well-handled in the book’s special epistolary structure, but as the saying goes, we are our own worst critic.

Stephen King doesn’t look back at his debut novel as being perfect, but it does hold an extra special place in his heart for an important reason: it was the only novel he wrote that his mother had the opportunity to read. Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King died at the age of 59 in late December 1973, and it was actually because of Carrie that her son was able to afford proper care for her in her final days:

It’s a shame that Stephen King’s mother didn’t live to see the phenomenal success that her son would become, (he was in the process of writing his second book, Salem’s Lot, when she passed away), but it is lovely that she did get the chance to read his seminal novel.

Following A Roof Fire, The Timberline Lodge – One Of The Inspirations For Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – Has Reopened

If you’re a massive fan of The Shining, there are three special hotels you should mark on a map as places to visit. The first is The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado – which is where Stephen King stayed when he first got inspired to write the novel. The second is the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, California – which has interiors that specifically influenced the design of Stanley Kubrick’s genius 1980 film. The third is The Timberline Lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Oregon – which was used for exterior shots in Kubrick’s movie…and is in the news this week because it has reopened following a roof/attic fire.

Per Fox 12 in Oregon, a blaze began on late Thursday evening last week at the 87-year-old hotel, and it required almost 100 firefighters to stop it. One hundred and twenty guests had to be evacuated from the site during the incident. Unlike The Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining (which burns down at the end), the Timberline was saved as 8,000 gallons of water were used to douse the flames, and the staff of the hotel was able to get the establishment back up and running quickly. Doors reopened this past Sunday.

John Burton, the Director of Marketing and Public Affairs for the Timberline Lodge, told Fox 12 that there has been a love shared for the hotel globally since the fire – though he didn’t specifically point to the building’s cinematic history:

We can be thankful that there weren’t any reported injuries from the fire and that the damage is manageable. Per Fox 12, the nonprofit Friends of Timberline has committed to up to $100,000 for the building’s restoration.

Recommendation Of The Week: "Before The Play"

This week’s recommendation comes as a reflection on the news about the Timberline Lodge. The Overlook Hotel is mentioned in a few Stephen King stories outside of The Shining and Doctor Sleep (Misery and Billy Summers are the two titles that immediately spring to mind), but the short story “Before The Play” is special in that it brings Constant Readers into the Rocky Mountain lodging in the years prior to the disastrous arrival of the Torrance family.

Setting the stage for the horrors that transpire in The Shining, “Before The Play” has notably not been collected in any of Stephen King’s many official omnibuses, but I’ll just say that it doesn’t take expert Google skills to hunt the story down and gain a whole new perspective into the history of literature’s most notorious hotel.

That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Thursday for my latest column. Meanwhile, you can read my series Adapting Stephen King – a chronological examination of every Stephen King film and television adaptation.

The horror genre has been on a box office tear this year with what feels like a new entry hitting theaters every week. Today, we welcome back the director duo known as Radio Silence, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and Tyler Gillett, to discuss their new vampire flick “Abigail.” After two turns at the wheel of the “Scream” franchise, the two bring a unique spin to their story which follows a group of criminals who find themselves in over their heads after kidnapping a young vampire. 

The film finds inspiration from all the right places including “The Shining” and “From Dusk Till Dawn,” the two share just how important films like that are to their own and more. 

Timestamps (approx. only)

• 00:00:00 - Intro 
• 00:10:17 - ‘Abigail’ Interview | 
• 00:27:33 - ‘Civil War’ Marks A24’s Best Box Office Opening Weekend
• 00:34:51 - Scorsese And Spielberg Both Have Some Big Upcoming Pictures
• 00:43:03 - Review: ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’
• 00:51:18 - Review: ‘Abigail’
• 00:57:10 - Outro

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The person you are right now might bear very little resemblance to who you were before, either due to a life-changing event or even just by some natural progression. The same could also be said about many of your favorite characters from the big and small screen as personal evolutions often tend to serve as a major plot point or just happen to occur over time when the writers take one appealing behavioral trait and make that the crux of the role. See if you remember any of these movie and TV characters behaving a different way from how they were first introduced.

Jack Torrance (The Shining)

One of Stephen King’s biggest gripes with Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of his book, The Shining, is the casting of Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, who already boasts a somewhat unsettling disposition the moment he first enters the frame. However, fans of the horror flick find The Overlook’s murderous and maniacal influence over the husband and father to be quite effective.

Walter White (Breaking Bad)

In the first episode of Breaking Bad, high school teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) describes chemistry as the study of "transformation." The same could be said about his story, going from a mild-mannered family man diagnosed with lung cancer to a ruthless criminal over the course of five captivating seasons.

Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars Movies)

We could do a whole list of characters from the Star Wars franchise who changed dramatically overtime, but the most legendary instance of this is, without a doubt, Anakin Skywalker. Jake Lloyd portrayed the Tattooine native as a precocious, but good-natured young man with the potential to be a great Jedi Knight, but Hayden Christensen's performance revealed a latent darkness within him that would eventually lead to his destiny as Sith lord, Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones).

Elaine Benes (Seinfeld)

For the first few years of Seinfeld, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) served as the gang's default voice of reason, with only the occasional lapse of judgment or angry outburst amidst her mild-mannered persona. In the sitcom's latter years, angry outbursts and lapses in moral judgment became some of her more definitive traits.

Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare On Elm Street)

To us, what makes Robert Englund's burned boogeyman one of the all-time greatest horror movie villains is the brutal, menacing nature he exhibited in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street from 1984. The sequels, however, made Freddy Krueger’s dark sense of humor his defining character trait, resulting in deaths of increasingly ridiculous sort.

Eric Matthews (Boy Meets World)

Will Friedle landed the role in the Boy Meets World cast of the "cool" older brother to the central protagonist, Cory Matthews (Ben Savage). However, at one point, Eric seemed to completely and inexplicably lose his mind, adopting a dim-wit, but a high energy that, essentially, made him the TGIF sitcom's resident cartoon character.

Ash Williams (The Evil Dead Franchise)

Fans of the Evil Dead movies are the first to note that the Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) they know and love is not quite the same person from the 1981 classic that started it all. After suffering the Deadites’ further taunting and being forced to replace his right hand with a chainsaw in Evil Dead II, he turns into the iconic wise-cracking and bumbling, but also resourceful horror movie character from Army of the Darkness and the spin-off series, Ash vs. Evil Dead.

Sansa Stark (Game Of Thrones)

One of the most fascinating character arcs from the Game of Thrones cast is that of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). After suffering abuse at the hands of her husband, Bolton Ramsay (Iwan Rheon), the meek, young woman learns that she can only look out for herself in her kill-or-be-killed world, becoming a fierce, vengeful warrior.

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things)

The first season of Stranger Things introduced Steve Harrington (Joe Kerry) as the archetypal '80s high school bully and, in fact, the Duffer Brothers originally wrote him to be even worse. By the end of Season 2, he found friendship with the younger children he looked down on, accepted Nancy's new relationship with Jonathan Byers, and became a favorite among fans of Netflix's smash hit sci-fi series.

Shrek (Shrek)

In 2001's Oscar-winning animated classic, Shrek, Mike Myers' title character owns his reputation as an ogre with his ceaseless grumpiness and preference to be alone. That is, until he meets someone he would like to spend his life with in Fiona (Cameron Diaz), who brings the lovable man out of this monster.

Joey Tribbiani (Friends)

Joey Tribbiani is often referred to as the "dumb" one in the Friends cast but, as real fans should recall, that was not always the case. In the first few seasons, he is depicted as merely naive, only to evolve into a helplessly, but lovably, childlike dolt by the hit NBC sitcom's curtain call.

Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)

Die-hard Batman fans immediately knew that idealistic Gotham DA Harvey Dent's (Aaron Eckhart) philosophy about dying a hero or living long enough to become the villain was foreshadowing his own destiny as Two-Face in 2008's The Dark Knight. Losing the love of his life, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and half of his face drives him to the opposite side of the law, leaving his moral judgment, literally, to the flip of a coin.

Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Chris Hemsworth's Thor undergoes one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most transformative character arcs, boasting a godly eloquence and wisdom in his first few appearances. However, Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame made the God of Thunder a bit funnier, and to much acclaim, but 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder took that schtick even further, resorting him to something of a dim-witted, egotistical jock.

Ned Flanders (The Simpsons)

Voiced by Harry Shearer, Ned Flanders' arc on The Simpsons from being Homer Simpson's complete opposite — an intelligent, hard-working, devoted family man — to an absurdly conservative, religious fundamentalist is a quintessential example of extreme or merely exaggerated TV character changes. In fact, this exact phenomenon has been nicknamed "Flanderization" as a result.

Beast/Prince Adam (Beauty And The Beast)

Disney's animated 1991 favorite, Beauty and the Beast is just one version of an age-old, signature tale of drastic character growth, namely that of the titular Beast, who used to be a selfish human royal named Adam. A witch cursed him to look like a ferocious creature, only to be turned back when he could find someone (Belle) to love him, which was only possible when he learned to love someone other than himself. 

Michael Scott (The Office)

In the first season of NBC's American update of The Office, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) was, essentially, made to be a carbon copy of the uproariously rude and self-absorbed David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais in the original British version. However, Dunder-Mifflin's Scranton branch Manager was later reinvented as a kindhearted soul cursed with social awkwardness and hopeless incompetence.

Michael Corleone (The Godfather)

At the beginning of the first half of Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) reveals to his girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), his family’s mafia history, but assures her, "That’s my family... that's not me." However, a rival mob's attempt to murder his father (Marlon Brando) awakens a coldness within him and, eventually, he is put in charge of the family business.

T-800 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)

To be clear, we are not counting Arnold Schwarzenegger's role in James Cameron's sci-fi franchise for his evolution from killer in The Terminator to protector in the 1991 sequel, because he is playing a different copy of the same model in each film. However, the cyborg begins to take on some surprising human-like characteristics in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and may have even developed some capacity for emotion, evidenced by when he tells John Connor (Edward Furlong), "I know now why you cry," before saying farewell.

Jen (Revenge)

In just one night, Jen (Matilda Lutz) was no longer a naive, carefree young woman and was reborn into a fierce warrior of the desert. All it took was a horrifying assault and subsequent murder attempt by her boyfriend and his business partners, on which she deservedly exacted revenge — hence the title of Coralie Fargeat's 2018 adrenaline-pumping thriller.

Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter Movies)

Never could Harry Potter fans been able to guess that Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) would turn out to play a pivotal and courageous role in the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. During his first year at Hogwarts, the young wizard was one of the school's most helplessly clumsy students.

Cosmo Kramer (Seinfeld)

Michael Richards' role in the Seinfeld cast — Jerry's eccentric, high-energy neighbor — is not the person he was in the pilot episode, and not just because he was called "Kessler" then. At that time, the man who would be known as Kramer was a slow-witted, meandering oaf who never even left his apartment.

Marcus Brody (The Indiana Jones Movies)

Despite having a much smaller role in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is clear that Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) was intended to be a competent authority figure who may have even been more like Harrison Ford's daring archeologist in his youth. However, in 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he is portrayed as the absent-minded comic relief who "got lost in his own museum once."

Drax (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Although Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) is unable to recognize sarcasm or any non-literal language, he boasts an intimidating stoicism that, in addition to his heft and strength, makes him the most fearsome member of the Guardians of the Galaxy in their 2014 cinematic debut. In later MCU installments, however, his stoicism is thrown completely out the window in favor of comically exaggerating his social shortcomings, making him more of a lovable man-child.

Winston Bishop (New Girl)

When Lamorne Morris joined the New Girl cast as Winston, he did not seem like much more than a basic fill-in for Coach, boasting some of the same characteristics as Damon Wayans Jr.'s role. Over time, however, Winston really came into his own, proving to be one of the loft's most sincere and multi-layered residents.

Carol Peletier (The Walking Dead)

Early on, fans of The Walking Dead probably would have bet that Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) was the least likely to survive in a world overrun with the dead. However, it was clear by Season 3 that the apocalypse and other tragic circumstances — most notably the death of her daughter, Sophia — only made her a stronger person who would even go to unimaginable lengths to survive.

Cady Heron (Mean Girls)

After initially conspiring against Regina George (Rachel McAdams) by infiltrating her clique, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) begins to act more and more like the self-absorbed popular girl and even becomes the Plastics' default replacement leader. Luckily, the mathlete rediscovers her true self by the end of Mean Girls after learning some much-needed lessons about the high school social scene.

Sandy Olsson (Grease)

Grease is a coming-of-age musical classic about two people who could not be more different trying to rekindle their summertime romance by being more like the other. Ultimately, it is Australian-born Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) who sheds her "good girl" reputation for greaser Danny Zuko (John Travolta), who mostly stays the same by the end.

Topanga Lawrence (Boy Meets World)

There are quite a few notable examples of Boy Meets World characters undergoing dramatic changes, but one of the more drastic and sudden is that of Topanga Matthews (née Lawrence). Danielle Fishel's character was introduced as an eccentric flower child, but evolved into a perfectly average (but also highly motivated) student by her freshman year of high school.

Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)

On Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope's bubbly, kindhearted personality almost convinces you that there are career politicians worth trusting and even having as a friend. However, when the mockumentary series first debuted, she was more like the kind of career politician that SNL (speaking of Amy Poehler) loves to mock.

Eli Moskowitz (Cobra Kai)

On Cobra Kai, Eli Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand) is first introduced as a shy kid who is regularly bullied for his cleft lip, which is what inspires him to take martial arts lessons in the first place. As his skills begin to develop, so does the confidence of this formidable fighter, who also later goes by the nickname Hawk.

Luke Hobbs (The Fast And Furious Movies)

When Dwayne Johnson joined the Fast and Furious franchise as Luke Hobbs, he played the DSS Agent with an earnest, no-nonsense demeanor that perfectly juxtaposed the series’ increasingly absurd tone. Over time, however, the character seemed to swerve into the skid and played along with the jokes with a sense of humor that resembles most of the wrestler-turned-actor's roles since.

Derek Vinyard (American History X)

In American History X, the murder of his firefighter father (William Russ) by a Black man inspires Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) to become a murderous skinhead, eventually leading him to incarceration. When he is released, he has thankfully let go of his prejudices but then must prevent his younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), from going down the same violent, hateful path.

While some of these characters changed for the better, there are quite a few that we might say changed for the worse. Either way, for the most part, it made for some great entertainment at the movies or from your television screen.

The legacy of Stephen King is about to hit a major milestone. On April 5 of this year, Constant Readers around the world will be celebrating, as that will mark the 50th anniversary of Carrie – the first novel that King got published and the work that launched his phenomenal career. That date is still a little over a week away, but this week’s edition of The King Beat is jumping the gun a little bit with three stories and a new Recommendation Of The Week linked to the special half-century anniversary.

Between testimonials from incredible talents about King’s work, an essay about Carrie by best-selling author Margaret Atwood, and news of an event recognizing the history of The Shining later this year, there’s plenty to discuss, so let’s dig in!

With Carrie About To Turn 50, Tom Hanks, George R.R. Martin And Sissy Spacek Speak To Stephen King’s Legacy

The works of Stephen King mean a lot to a lot of people – and that includes other creatives. As I’ve come to understand from my own interviews over the years, filmmakers, actors, photographers, authors, musicians and more have recognized the remarkable impact that King has had on both their work and pop culture at large. There are a great many people who have nothing but great things to say about the legendary writer – and in celebration of Carrie’s 50th anniversary, The New York Times has collected a number of wonderful testimonials.

The article includes paragraphs from by a wide collection of individuals with an appreciation for Stephen King – including people who have very close affiliations with his work. For example, there is an entry from Tom Hanks, who doesn’t actually mention his time making Frank Darabont's The Green Mile and instead focuses on how he came to read his first King novel back in the 1970s: The Stand. Hanks writes,

George R.R. Martin, creator of Game Of Thrones and writer of the forthcoming The Winds of Winter, marvels at Stephen King’s productivity, and notes that he can only say he’s “pretty sure” that he’s read all of the author’s books because some of the great number may have slipped by him. That being said, he writes,

There is even a quick entry from Sissy Spacek, who earned her first Oscar nomination for playing Carrie White in Brian De Palma’s beloved adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel:

The whole article, which also includes testimonials from Diablo Cody, Senator Angus King, Josh Malerman, Mick Garris and Jeff VanderMeer, is terrific and worth a read.

Margaret Atwood Has Published A Magnificent Reflection On Carrie

In celebration of Carrie’s semicentennial, this week saw the publication of a new hardcover of the classic book, and one of the exciting additions included with the edition is an introduction from The Handsmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood. The book is available for purchase now, but Atwood’s essay has also been adapted for the New York Times book review section as an article titled “Stephen King’s First Book Is 50 Years Old, and Still Horrifyingly Relevant.”

In the piece, she discusses the well-known history of the book – which was thrown in the trash by Stephen King before it was rescued by his wife Tabitha – but it also provides a fascinating dissection of the work on both micro and macro levels. Atwood points to the fact that Carrie is part of a historical trend where stories about “Female figures with quasi-supernatural powers” coincide with key points in the history of women’s rights, but she also examines the different voices that are represented in the epistolary novel and analyzes the character’s names (including “Chris” Hargensen being an “anti-savoir” and Carrie’s last name being better associated with “white trash” than innocence).

It provides fascinating insight into Carrie as the work celebrates its fifth decade of existence, and should be read by anyone who celebrates the work.

Getting In On The Stephen King Anniversary Celebrations, The Stanley Hotel Has Announced Plans For An Event This Fall Centered Around The History Of The Shining

Naturally, the 50th anniversary of Carrie is the first of many half-century celebrations in the years to come for Stephen King fans… but it won’t just be the publication dates of his books that inspire festivities. For example, fans won’t be getting the opportunity to reflect on 50 years of The Shining until January 2027, but there will be revelries later this year inspired by the fortuitous hotel reservation that inspired the creation of that book.

It was 50 years ago this coming October that Stephen King and his wife Tabitha made arrangements to stay at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado – the couple staying in the infamous Room 217 as the establishment emptied out for the winter season. The experience of staying at and exploring the place was what gave him the idea to write The Shining. That’s a pretty big deal considering that the book is one of the most beloved tomes published in the 20th century, and it’s thusly appropriate that there is going to be an event this fall to celebrate that special history.

The Estes Park Trail Gazette reported this week that The Stanley is going to host a happening later this year dedicated to Stephen King and The Shining. Specific details about the revels are not included in the article (it simply notes that a “lineup of events will be announced this summer”), but Constant Readers may want to mark their calendars for September 30.

Having had the opportunity to stay at The Stanley a few years ago in the run-up to the theatrical release of Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, I can say from personal experience that the hotel is a magnificent place that wonderfully embraces its place in Stephen King’s legacy (as I wrote about a few weeks ago in The King Beat, it will soon add to its brand as a destination for horror fans by opening a genre-centric space in coordination with Blumhouse). When more details are announced about the forthcoming anniversary, you can be sure that you’ll be able to find them in an edition of this column.

Recommendation Of The Week: "I Was A Teenage Graverobber" a.k.a. "In A Half World Of Terror"

Given that this week’s King Beat has a specific focus on the very start of Stephen King’s career, it makes sense to keep that theme going with my Recommendation Of The Week. Carrie may have been the first novel that King had published, but it was far from the first time that he had successfully sold some of his writing. Nine years before Carrie arrived on bookstores, the young author’s first professionally printed work was the short story “I Was A Teenage Grave Robber,” which was later rewritten and retitled “In A Half-World Of Terror.” This quick taste of horror has never been republished in any of King’s many collections, but it’s easy enough to hunt down if you search for it online.

“I Was A Teenage Grave Robber” is a tale that centers on a destitute protagonist named Danny – an 18-year-old orphan who is forced to drop out of college after he is conned out of the last remaining money from his inheritance. He is desperate to reenlist, and an opportunity comes to him when he is approached by a stranger in a bar and offered the chance to work for a man named Steffen Weinbaum. As it turns out, Weinbaum is a mad scientist who conducts experiments using radiation on dead bodies, and what he needs Danny for is to procure him his test subjects. Needless to say, it’s not pleasant work… but the real trouble are the horrors that his employer is hoping to unleash upon the world.

That does it for this final edition of The King Beat in March 2024, but I’ll be back next Thursday with a new column. Be sure to head back to CinemaBlend then, and in the meantime, you can explore my series Adapting Stephen King, which dives into the full history of King stories adapted in film and television.

Sometimes, it can be fun to take a deeper look at the movies you love and see if you can find any details that may or may not be hiding in plain sight. You must be careful, though, because this sort of speculation could forever change how you perceive the most beloved characters from cinema in bizarre, funny, or even unsettling ways. 

Now, we are not saying we are fully convinced by any of the following wild movie character fan theories we found online, but we also can’t deny they are fun to read. Therefore, the only cautionary warning we feel is truly necessary to give you before you read on is to be wary of spoilers.

Han Solo Is Force Sensitive (Star Wars Movies)

Could Han Solo’s unparalleled piloting skills, precise blaster aim, and survival during his Carbonite slumber in the Star Wars movies be the result of him actually being one with the very Force he once doubted was real? Reddit user sumojoe actually posited this idea about Harrison Ford’s scruffy nerfherder years before it could be further backed up by the reveal in Star Wars: The Force Awakens that he and Leia (Carrie Fisher) had a Force-sensitive son (Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren).

Jack Is A Time Traveler (Titanic)

Before 1997’s Titanic, James Cameron’s biggest hits were time travel movies — namely The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day — but could his Best Picture Oscar-winning historical fiction blockbuster also be part of the same genre? Redditor MarkHarris1989 believes that historical inaccuracies to his backstory and his “anachronistic attitude and haircut” suggest Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) could actually be a man out of time who may have even been sent back from the future to save Rose (Kate Winslet).

The Toys Are Possessed By A Delusional Entity (Toy Story)

It is still a mystery why Woody, Buzz, and the others come alive when humans are not around in Toy Story movies, but a theory by Inevitable_Cut_4670 (which has since been removed from the r/FanTheories subreddit) attempts to provide an explanation that casts a dark shadow over the Pixar classic. The user imagines that Andy’s toys became possessed by an otherworldly spirit that split itself between the different characters before developing a different personality for each and, ultimately, forgetting what it was initially.

Wonka's Tour Was A Planned Sacrifice (Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory)

What happens to the four other children invited into the eponymous facility from 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has been subject to much eye-opening speculation, but what if the truth is even more horrifying? One now-deleted FanTheories subreddit post suggests that the Roald Dahl adaptation exists in the same universe as the horror-comedy favorite, The Cabin in the Woods, and the youngsters’ strange fates were all part of a sacrificial ritual the famous chocolatier (Gene Wilder) orchestrated to appease the Gods.

Tom Hardy's Max Is The Road Warrior's Feral Child (Mad Max: Fury Road)

For the fourth Mad Max movie, Tom Hardy succeeded to the role of the post-apocalyptic drifter from Mel Gibson, but the folks at Nerdist are not so sure that is the case. They theorize that the male protagonist of 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road is actually “The Feral Child” (originally played by Emil Minty in the second installment, 1981’s The Road Warrior) as a grown-up who has adopted the hero’s persona. This would explain why a lot of Hardy’s dialogue consists of grunts.

Ferris And Cameron Are The Same Person (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

Have you ever considered the possibility that John Hughes’ 1986 high school movie classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is actually a precursor to David Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club? A popular fan theory (via CBR) that echoes the twist from the 1999 cult favorite suggests Matthew Broderick’s mischievous title character is just an alternate persona the neurotic Cameron Fry (Alan Ruck) subconsciously developed to carry out his wildest fantasies.

Sandy Is Dead The Whole Time (Grease)

One of the more bizarre “they were dead the whole time” theory and one of the most bizarre examples comes from the unlikeliest of places: 1978’s Grease. A post on Imgur suggests that Danny Zuko (John Travolta) never actually saved Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) from drowning and the upbeat musical numbers we see are a symptom of her brain losing oxygen. To top it off, the famous flying car at the end is supposedly carrying her into the afterlife.

Kincade Is Sean Connery's Bond (Skyfall)

Similar to the famous theory that all James Bond actors are each portraying a different man using the same code name, a post in the James Bond subreddit questions if Kincade from 2012’s Skyfall is really Sean Connery’s iteration of 007. The theory is actually backed up by the fact that, according to The Huffington Post, Sam Mendes considered casting Connery in the role before it went to Albert Finney.

Chris' Horror Is All In Rod's Head (Get Out)

It was once suggested on Reddit that the horrifying things Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) endures at the Armitage Estate in 2017’s Get Out are actually an elaborate fantasy imagined by his best friend, Rod (Lil Rel Howery). In a video for Vanity Fair, writer and director Jordan Peele addressed and debunked this theory, but did praise its creativity.

Owen Grady Is The Kid Grant Freaks Out With His Raptor Speech (Jurassic Park)

Even before 2015’s Jurassic World came out, Redditor faceur318 had a feeling that the kid whom Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) tells to “have a little respect for raptors” in the 1993 original, Jurassic Park, would grow up to become Owen Grady. The actor who plays the raptor trainer, Chris Pratt, told Huffington Post that he does not believe it himself, but director Colin Trevorrow wouldn’t deny it.

Donkey Used To Be Human (Shrek)

One of the most convincing movie theories we have ever heard suggests Donkey (Eddie Murphy) from Shrek was once human until he visited Pleasure Island and was turned into his namesake animal — a fate many children also suffered in the classic fairytale, Pinocchio. A video by The Film Theorists provides astonishing evidence of this traumatizing idea, which tyoung000 also posted to the FanTheories subreddit with an added detail that Donkey is really Pinocchio’s talkative friend, Lampwick.

Possessing Karras Was Always Pazuzu's Intention (The Exorcist)

Redditor mysticaldensity believes that in 1973’s The Exorcist, Father Damien Karras’ (Jason Miller) bid to save Regan MacNeill (Linda Blair) by having Pazuzu possess him instead (before taking his own life) was part of the demon’s plan all along. According to the theory’s pretty solid evidence, the entity saw Karras — who had been wrestling with his faith following his mother’s death — as a perfect target with which to infiltrate the church, but would still need the priest’s permission to inhabit him, which is why it used an innocent 12-year-old as a vessel to taunt him with.

Patrick Bateman Is Really Bruce Wayne (American Psycho, The Dark Knight Trilogy)

If you ever found similarities between Christian Bale’s performances as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Bruce Wayne in the Dark Knight Trilogy, Redditor DragonfruitDisable believes that is not by coincidence and, in fact, the two are one in the same. The theory states Alfred Pennyworth put the famous young orphan through school under a different alias, which he continued to go when he started to have elaborate, homicidal fantasies. This bout of insanity would lead him down a path of self-discovery, which brings us to the start of Bateman Beg… or Batman Begins, we mean.

Django Actually Killed Sandy's Son (Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight)

It is no secret that most of Quentin Tarantino’s movies exist in the same universe, which QuantumBandit404 likely used as inspiration for a Reddit theory that states that, in The Hateful Eight, Marquis Warren’s (Samuel L. Jackson) lied about killing the son of Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern), who was really a bounty for Django Freeman. It’s an intriguing concept, especially considering Warren’s deceptive skills, but what makes it more interesting is, according to DP/30 Podcast (via ScreenCrush), Tarantino originally wrote the role as an older version of Jamie Foxx’s titular bounty hunter from Django Unchained.

Nemo Is Imaginary (Finding Nemo)

Finding Nemo is already one of the saddest Pixar movies, but an op-ed by Søren Hough on Movie Fail makes it even more tragic if you believe what his theory suggests. He believes that Marlin (Albert Brooks) was the only true survivor of the 2003 family film’s tragic opening sequence and invented his son, Nemo (Alexander Gould), as an imaginary coping mechanism for his grief.

T-800 Was Preprogrammed Not To Kill (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor (Edward Furlong) urges his mechanical protector (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to not commit murder, but did he ever really have to? Based on the fact that the T-800 never kills anyone in the opening scene (despite causing bloodshed rather quickly in the first film), Redditor Potential_Gap3957 speculates that Connor’s adult self already programmed him with this command before sending him to 1995, but also asked him to stage a killing in front of young John as a way to build up his leadership skills.

Michael Myers Is A Vampire (Halloween)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers attempted to explain the iconic horror movie villain’s supposed immortality as part of a curse given to him at birth by a deadly cult, but there is another theory that we think is far more amusing. According to ScreenRant, Michael is really a vampire — not the typical bloodsucking kind, but one that feeds on murderous acts — and his psychiatrist from the reboot trilogy, Dr. Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), is his familiar, which might explain why he wanted to be like the slasher.

Pearl Is Maxine's Grandmother (X, Pearl)

Is it possible that the resemblance between young Maxine and the elderly Pearl (both played by Mia Goth in Ti West’s X) is more than just an example of the acclaimed A24 horror movie’s nuanced commentary on aging? On Reddit, Thabrianking speculates that Maxine’s televangelist father is Pearl’s son, who turned to religion after witnessing his mother’s homicidal tendencies, which were a main plot point in the prequel, Pearl.

Ned Ryerson Is The Devil (Groundhog Day)

There has never been a definitive explanation for how Phil (Bill Murray) relives February 2nd over and over in 1993’s Groundhog Day, but a Redditor named SuperConductiveRabbi believes it is the work of Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), who may even be the Devil himself. Evidence: the time loop begins after Phil insultingly refuses to buy insurance from Ned and stops when he gives in to the offer (symbolism for selling one’s soul) and finally treats him with respect.

Jar Jar Binks Was In Cahoots With The Sith (The Star Wars Movies)

While very few people would call Jar Jar Binks their favorite Star Wars character, some have warned that the seemingly harmless, motormouth Gungan was not to be underestimated. Before The Force Awakens was released, Lumpawarroo predicted that he would play a major role in the film, which would also reveal that he was not only a Sith Lord the entire time, but the true identity of Supreme Leader Snoke. The Sequel Trilogy may have debunked that last detail, but is still fun to imagine the rest being true.

Walter Never Served In Vietnam (The Big Lebowski)

In 1998’s The Big Lebowski, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) finds any opportunity he can to bring up his tour of Vietnam, which is not typical behavior of a military veteran, as pointed out on a FanTheories subreddit post that suggests the avid bowler was never even in the service. Goodman himself once admitted in an interview with Today, for the 20th anniversary of the classic Coen Brother comedy, that he agrees with this theory.

Juror #8 Is A Reformed Criminal Who Coerced The Others Into Changing The Verdict (12 Angry Men)

Sidney Lumet’s 1957 courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men, is hailed as a powerful story of justice prevailing over a broken system, thanks to Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) pointing out flaws in the others’ initial “guilty” verdict, but is that truly the case? According to a theory by Redditor Agile-Confusion-626, Juror #8 actually did believe the poor, young defendant was guilty of murdering his father, but as someone who once fell prey to the criminal lifestyle in his own youth, wanted to give him a chance to redeem himself outside of prison. Thus, he conned the other jurors into changing their minds.

Dom And The Crew Are Super Soldiers (Fast And Furious Movies)

With how implausibly over-the-top the Fast and the Furious movies came to be over time, the best explanation is that Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew were made into super soldiers at some point. According to YeppImNaked on Reddit, not only is that exactly what happened, but the team actually exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they were dosed with the same serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America by their true employers, S.H.I.E.L.D.

Ripley Is Genetically Suitable To Host A Queen Xenomorph (Alien Movies)

It seems that no matter what she does, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) cannot escape running into some horrifying situation involving the vicious creature from the Alien movies known as the Xenomorph, and that might actually be by design. As a theory by Redditor clutzyninja suggests, not just any human can be impregnated with a Queen Xenomorph and Ripley can, which is why she is considered a special asset to Weyland-Yutani.

Kevin's Dad Is In The Mob (Home Alone)

In Home Alone, the Wet Bandits consider the McCallister household to be the “Silver Tuna” of the Chicago suburb they target during the holidays, which begs the question, how exactly was Kevin’s (Macaulay Culkin) father, Peter (John Heard), able to afford such a lovely, expensive home with five children and a non-working wife (Catherine O’Hara)? Redditor cubanesis believes he may have mob connections, which would explain why he so quickly comes to the defense with Harry (Joe Pesci), disguised as a cop, asking to speak with him at the beginning.

The Predator Is In Exile (Predator)

On Reddit, Mister_E69 points out that, in 1987’s Predator, the titular extraterrestrial hunter’s technology is severely outdated to that of the Predator we see in 2022’s Prey, which takes place centuries earlier. For that reason, it could be possible that the creature from the original film has been exiled from his planet and forced to use a less reliable cloaking feature, blades of a stunted length, and glitch infrared vision. 

Cobb's Real Totem Is His Wedding Ring (Inception)

The ending of Inception has puzzled fans for years, but the answer to whether or not Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is awake at the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s trippy masterpiece may lie in what one Redditor belies is his real totem: his wedding ring. We never see the thought-extractor wearing it when he is awake and, since it is not on his finger in the final scene, perhaps we can conclude that the long-awaited reunion with his children is real.

Tree Is Stuck In Purgatory (Happy Death Day)

The concept of time-loops being a form of purgatory serves as the basis for BingeWatcher_Fanatic’s theory that, in Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is actually dead and continuously reliving Monday the 18th as a way to repent for her sins. Even though this contradicts pretty much the entire plot of the sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, it offers an intriguing, deeper meaning to the fun slasher flick.

Jenny Is The Girl From The Tommy Tutone Song (Forrest Gump)

Apparently, Tom Hanks’ titular protagonist is not the only one from Forrest Gump who made an impression on American culture, if we are to believe paulvs88’s theory. The Reddit user speculates that Tommy Tutone’s 1981 one-hit-wonder “867-5309/Jenny” is, indeed, about Robin Wright’s character of the same name.

Ron Used Magic So Hermione Would Fall For Him (Harry Potter Movies)

Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Grainger (Emma Watson) initially seemed like a pretty unlikely match, which makes their romance in the Harry Potter movies so endearing. However, it is not so heartwarming if you believe EmperorDeathBunny’s theory on Reddit suggesting that he used the Imperius Curse — which is basically a manipulation spell — to enchant into falling in love with him.

Luca Is Atlantean (Luca)

The 2021 Pixar film, Luca, stars Jacob Tremblay as the voice of the titular sea monster who gets a taste of life on the surface with another creature of his kind (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer) by disguising themselves as humans. As a fun way to expand on the lore, Redditor Drecon1984 posited a theory that the sea monsters are actually descendants from the lost city of Atlantis.

Wendy Imagined The Horror At The Overlook (The Shining)

There is an insane amount of conspiracy theories inspired by The Shining, but regarding the ones that actually focus on characters from the 1980 Stephen King adaptation, we like one we found on MovieWeb. It suggests that, instead of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), it is really his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), who is losing her mind while staying at The Overlook, where none of the bizarre and tragic things that take place are real, but exist her in imagination.

Movie fans have some wild imaginations, don’t they?

If you need any more reason to be excited by the fact that Mike Flanagan is adapting The Dark Tower, I recommend that you check out his comments on the scene that he is most excited to bring to life (spoiler alert: it’s a scene from late in the series that brought him to tears). But that wasn’t the only exciting development in the world of Stephen King this past week; in addition to a new Blu-ray review and a first reaction to the author’s latest book, I also have a new King Beat exclusive to entice Constant Readers.

This week’s column features an update from David Dastmalchian about the King project he is working on with director Rob Savage, a close look at Scream Factory’s new Blu-ray release of Stephen King’s The Shining, and early buzz about the upcoming short story collection You Like It Darker. Let’s dig in!

David Dastmalchian Isn’t Spilling The Beans About His Mystery Stephen King Project, But He And Rob Savage Are Hard At Work

A few months ago, The King Beat led off with an exciting update regarding the ever-expanding slate of upcoming Stephen King movie and TV projects. Fresh off his experience making his film The Boogeyman starring Sophie Thatcher, Rob Savage shared that he was already developing a second King adaptation – one that would reunite him with David Dastmalchian. There hasn’t been any news about the project since then, but I had the opportunity to check in on its process this past week.

Dastmalchian’s latest movie, Late Night With The Devil, will be arriving in theaters later this month, and when I had the chance to talk with him about it last Thursday, I used part of my time to ask about his new collaboration with the Host director. The actor couldn’t reveal any specifics about what they are cooking up, but it is something that is still in the works, and he noted that he has developed a friendship with Savage since their time working together:

What’s particularly frustrating here is just how hard it is to even speculate about what it is that Rob Savage and David Dastmalchian are working on. Based on the acknowledged shared sensibilities between the two men, it seems fair to guess that they are planning on adapting one of Stephen King’s horror stories… but that hardly narrows it down. We don’t know if it’s a short story, a novella or a novel they are targeting, or even if it’s something that’s been adapted before.

It does feel appropriate that Savage would work with Dastmalchian again on another King project given that the latter’s role in The Boogeyman has the deepest ties to the story that inspired it. While the film is more of an expansion of the short story than a straight adaptation (the primary focus being on original characters), the actor notably portrays Lester Billings – the haunted protagonist of King’s source material. Audiences certainly won’t be seeing the further adventures of Lester, as he is one of many Dastmalchian’s characters who have died on screen, but any Constant Reader should be excited about what they are putting together.

While we wait for the next Stephen King adaptation from Savage and Dastmalchian, the author’s fans can either check out or revisit The Boogeyman – which is available to stream with a Hulu subscription. If you’re a physical media fan, you can pick up a copy of the movie on Blu-ray, which is a must-buy for anyone building the Ultimate Stephen King Collection. And on that note…

Scream Factory’s New Stephen King’s The Shining Blu-ray Features A Beautiful Restoration Of The Network Miniseries

Need proof that 2024 is already flying by? It feels like it was just yesterday that I was publishing my second edition of The King Beat for the year featuring the news that Scream Factory was developing the first ever Blu-ray for Stephen King’s The Shining – the miniseries remake of the beloved novel that first aired on ABC back in 1997. Three months later, my pre-order of the home video release has arrived, and it’s pretty much everything for which I was hoping.

Because the Blu-ray isn’t one of Scream Factory’s Collector’s Editions (like those that they’ve made for Brian De Palma’s Carrie, David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, Dan Attias’ Silver Bullet and more), the package put together for The Shining doesn’t include a slew of new and original special features… but it has the next best thing: it carries over all of the extras that were previously included on DVD releases – including a commentary track, deleted scenes (with optional commentary), and the original home video trailer – and it also has a restoration of the miniseries that has it looking better than ever.

Collectors will note that there has been a change in the presentation, with the 4:3 aspect ratio better representing what was show on television in the late 1990s compared to the widescreen version on the DVD – but the show looks beautiful and sharp. The experts at Scream Factory have created a 2K scan from the production’s interpositive (with the exception of some scenes that had to be upgraded from other sources), and it’s a wonderful thing to see The Shining arrive in the HD age.

I’ve included some side-by-side screenshots for comparison below, with the material from the DVD on the left and the Blu-ray on the right. In addition to the picture being sharper, the colors are richer and look much less washed out:

Scream Factory has once again proven to be a best friend to Stephen King collectors, and one can only hope that this will only be the first King miniseries they upgrade – as Storm Of The Century, The Langoliers, Rose Red and more still need to get a loving restoration treatment like this. I’ll continue to keep my fingers crossed in hope, and in the meantime, you can look forward to my next Scream Factory review in next week’s The King Beat, as pre-orders of their 4K UHD Collector’s Edition of the 2013 Carrie remake have begun shipping.

Author Linwood Barclay Has Read Stephen King’s New Book, And His Reaction Has Me Even More Psyched For The Collection

The countdown is on! In just a little over 10 weeks, the latest book from Stephen King, the collection You Like It Darker, will be available in stores for Constant Readers to try and instantly devour. We already know more than enough about the tome to be excited, including the fact that it will include a sequel to Cujo titled “Rattlesnakes,” but anticipation for the work has now reached even higher heights thanks to an early reaction to it from author Linwood Barclay.

It seems that galleys of You Like It Darker have been sent out to some lucky souls, and Barclay has evidently already gone through it cover-to-cover. He Tweeted his thoughts about the book on his personal social media page on Wednesday morning, and he was effusive in his praise:

This, frankly, is exactly what I wanted to hear about You Like It Darker. There was never any doubt that the book would feature some notable chills and thrills (what has been revealed about the aforementioned “Rattlesnakes” makes it sound terrifying), but it’s exciting to know that Stephen King is keeping up the tradition in his collections of offering a wide variety of genres. It sounds like the material is going to feature wonderful surprises on every page, and it can’t get here soon enough.

As noted by Linwood Barclay, You Like It Darker will be available everywhere starting on May 21, and pre-orders are now open from major retailers. Be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more about the book as we get closer to its release date.

Recommendation Of The Week: “The Mangler”

Let’s do a bit of anniversary celebrating, shall we? It was 29 years ago this past week that audiences first got to see the film The Mangler, which notably delivers a team-up of three horror icons: Stephen King, director Tobe Hooper, and star Robert Englund. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t actually all that good, as it opts for being schlocky over being compelling, but the good news is that the short story on which it’s based remains a frightening and fun read.

Collected in the 1978 omnibus Night Shift after first being published in a 1972 issue of Cavalier magazine, “The Mangler” follows a criminal investigation being orchestrated by a police detective named John Hunton – who opens the story arriving at an industrial laundromat where a woman has died violently after being pulled into an ironing and folding machine (known colloquially as a “mangler”). It’s a baffling case due to the fact that the accidental death should have been impossible, and what John doesn’t know is that there are supernatural forces at work. As bad as it is for the eponymous equipment to kill a single person, things end up getting far worse before the end of the story.

That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend every Thursday for my latest column, and while you wait, you can do a full deep dive into the history of Stephen King adaptations via my series Adapting Stephen King.

There are some horror movie characters — including some of the scariest villains or even the resourceful heroes they chase after — who are so well defined by the performances that brought them to life, that you cannot imagine any other actor in the role. However, history shows that things could have gone differently had other actors previously considered landed the part instead. Take a look at just how different some of the all-time best horror movies could have been by sifting through some of the fascinating and surprising examples of actors who came close to becoming horror movie icons — including some who did earn that title in other ways.

Kane Hodder (Freddy Krueger In A Nightmare On Elm Street)

As Kane Hodder revealed during ShudderFest’s Horror Royalty panel in 2020 (via Yahoo), before he played Jason Voorhees, Wes Craven considered him to play Freddy Krueger before Robert Englund joined the A Nightmare on Elm Street cast. However, at the end of the ninth Friday the 13th movie, that's actually Hodder's arm wearing Krueger’s claw pulling Jason's mask underground, meaning the actor got to play both roles after all.

Drew Barrymore (Sydney Prescott In Scream)

Seeing an A-lister like Drew Barrymore die in the opening scene of Wes Craven’s 1996 slasher revival was one of horror cinema’s greatest surprises since Janet Leigh’s death in Psycho, just as the actor predicted. Barrymore revealed on Hot Ones that she was offered Sydney Prescott, the lead role of the original Scream cast, but requested to play Casey Becker instead, knowing it would shock the audience.

Christopher Lee (Dr. Loomis In Halloween)

An undisputed Scream King for playing Dracula and starring in other classics like The Wicker Man, Christopher Lee's influence could have cast a wider net with a role in Halloween. According to The Digital Fix, he later said he regretted the chance to star in John Carpenter's seminal 1978 slasher as Dr. Sam Loomis, which was ultimately given to Donald Pleasence.

Bela Lugosi (The Creature In Frankenstein)

Following his success in the title role of 1931’s Dracula, Bela Lugosi was given the chance to play another legendary Universal Monster in that year’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. According to The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi by Arthur Lennig (via SlashFilm), the actor believed such a grotesque, inarticulate creature was “beneath him,” giving Boris Karloff the chance to embody Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creation.

Leonardo DiCaprio (Patrick Bateman In American Psycho)

Christian Bale once told GQ that every role he has played was first offered to Leonardo DiCaprio and one accurate example is Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, as Vice’s oral history recalls. Legend has it Gloria Steinem (Bale’s stepmother, coincidentally) convinced DiCaprio that playing the sadistic investment banker would hurt his post-Titanic reputation, but he later told The Morning Call that he passed because felt the script “didn’t mean anything in the end.”

Jean-Claude Van Damme (The Predator In Predator)

The late, 7’2” Kevin Peter Hall played the titular extra-terrestrial hunter in 1987’s Predator and its first sequel, but the original actor chosen for the role was actually the 5’6” Jean-Claude Van Damme. As detailed in oral history by THR, the future Belgian action movie star quit because he did not want to be hidden in the costume, which resembled a large insect at the time.

Jamie Lee Curtis (Regan MacNeil In The Exorcist)

Playing Laurie Strode in Halloween made Jamie Lee Curtis one of the first and all-time greatest Scream Queens, but her years as horror royalty apparently could have started earlier. The Oscar winner told EW that a producer for The Exorcist asked her mother, Psycho’s Janet Leigh if the then-13-year-old could audition to play the possessed Regan MacNeil. Leigh refused on her daughter’s behalf and the role ultimately went to Linda Blair.

Will Poulter (Pennywise In 2017's It)

Bill Skarsgård made one of modern cinema’s scariest horror villains out of his portrayal of Pennywise in the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s It. However, as director Andy Muschietti told Deadline that year, he had, at one point, spoken to Will Poulter about the possibility of succeeding Tim Curry as the clownish, shape-shifting entity until the future Midsommar star became “slowly disengaged” from the dark role.  

Jack Nicholson (Father Damien Karras In The Exorcist)

Before playing Jack Torrance in The Shining made him horror royalty, Jack Nicholson read for the role of Father Damien Karras in 1973’s The Exorcist before it went to Jason Miller. At the 2013 Dallas International Film Festival, director William Friedkin said the Oscar winner came up to him and Ellen Burstyn at a restaurant asking to be considered, to which the filmmaker responded, “Jack, if I show you in a priest collar, the whole audience is gonna go up.”

Bette Midler (Annie Wilkes In Misery)

Kathy Bates’ Oscar-winning performance as Annie Wilkes is a key reason why Rob Reiner’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery is such a classic. However, the role of the nurse with a morbid obsession over her captive guest, author Paul Sheldon (James Caan), was previously offered to Bette Midler, who told Variety that the character’s violent, unfunny, and irredeemable qualities turned her away from it.

Jeff Bridges (Matt Hooper In Jaws)

When speaking to Vanity Fair about the making of Jaws, Steven Spielberg shared that Richard Dreyfuss was not his first choice to play shark expert Matt Hooper. One of his initial candidates was Jeff Bridges, whose closest contributions to the horror genre have included 1976’s King Kong, Terry Gilliam’s Tideland, and R.I.P.D.

Emma Stone (Margot In The Menu) 

In director Mark Mylod’s 2022 horror-comedy, The Menu, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Margot, one of several guests at an exclusive dinner run by an unhinged chef played by Ralph Fiennes. According to The Film Stage, Taylor-Joy actually stepped in as a replacement for Oscar winner Emma Stone, who was cast in the role was Alexander Payne was attached to direct.

Slim Pickens (Dick Hallorann In The Shining) 

You could argue that the heart and soul (and a few endearing qualities) of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining is Scatman Crothers’ performance as Dick Hallorann. According to Screen Rant, the musician was not actually the first choice to play the Overlook Hotel’s head chef, which was offered to Slim Pickens, who previously worked with Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove and said he would only take the role if his scenes could be done in fewer than 100 takes.

Alice Cooper (Pennywise in Stephen King's It) 

Before Bill Skarsgård, the definitive image of Pennywise was that of Tim Curry, who was actually just one of several actors considered to play the embodiment of fear in the miniseries adaptation of It from 1990. Perhaps the most fascinating name tossed around, according to THR, was rock star Alice Cooper, who has dabbled in horror on the big screen (such as when he played Freddy Krueger’s father in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare) and in his music.

Haley Lu Richardson (Dani Ardor In Midsommar)

After appearing in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, Haley Lu Richardson passed on the opportunity to lead another disturbing movie called Midsommar, which turned out to be one of the best A24 horror movies in the eyes of many. She told Backstage in 2023 that she did not have to courage to watch it yet, but has nothing but praise for Florence Pugh, who ultimately did play Dani Ador in Ari Aster’s sinister sophomore effort from 2019.

Al Pacino (Hannibal Lecter In The Silence Of The Lambs)

While Brian Cox first played Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter, Anthony Hopkins’ became the most recognizable iteration with his Oscar-winning performance in The Silence of the Lambs. However, Jodie Foster revealed to Deadline that there were a few American actors considered to play the cannibalistic criminal psychologist in the Best Picture Oscar winner, including Al Pacino.

Michael Cera (Cole Sear In The Sixth Sense)

When talking to Esquire, Michael Cera recalled auditioning to play Cole Sear in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense without realizing the character was a medium. Upon seeing the thriller, when watching the scene he read for, he noticed how Haley Joel Osment played it very sorrowfully instead of the upbeat and optimistic vibe the future Arrested Development star was going for.

Tilda Swinton (Pennywise In 2017's It)

Her chameleonic talents — best seen in her unrecognizable turn in 2018’s Suspiria remake — have us convinced that Tilda Swinton could have played Pennywise. Indeed, the Academy Award winner’s name was brought up as a possible choice for the fear-devouring clown in 2017’s It, as Andy Muschietti confirmed to Vanity Fair after a journalist jokingly mentioned her.

Sharon Tate (Rosemary Woodhouse In Rosemary's Baby) 

The title role of 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby — a woman who grows suspicious of her new neighbors after becoming pregnant — skyrocketed Mia Farrow into movie stardom. Before Farrow was cast, according to Vanity Fair, writer and director Roman Polanski’s own wife, Sharon Tate, fought hard to play the role herself.

Helen Mirren (Ellen Ripley In Alien)

In an interview with Vulture, Helen Mirren recalls reading the script for Alien and not being able to tell if Ripley, or any of the characters, were male or female. The future Academy Award winner would audition for Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic, but the role of Ripley ended up going to Sigourney Weaver.

Chris Evans (Dan Torrance In Doctor Sleep)

Despite making a cameo in Doctor Sleep, The Shining’s original Danny Torrance, Danny Lloyd, is a former child star who no longer acts, which is why Ewan McGregor assumed the role for Mike Flanagan’s 2019 sequel. The filmmaker confirmed on his personal Tumblr account that, before the Emmy-winner was cast, one of the actors he met with was the MCU’s Steve Rogers, Chris Evans.

Shelley Winters (Pamela Voorhees In Friday The 13th)

While the Friday the 13th movies’ centerpiece slasher is Jason Voorhees, the main antagonist of the 1980 original was his vengeful mother, Pamela, played by Betsy Palmer. David Grove, author of On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13th, told EW that one of the actors previously discussed to play the iconic female horror movie villain was Shelley Winters, best known for her Oscar-winning performances in The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue, and her nominated role in disaster epic, The Poseidon Adventure.

Tobey Maguire (Alex Browning In Final Destination)

On director Jeffrey Reddick’s wish list for the Final Destination cast, he wanted the lead to be Tobey Maguire, who was cast in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man just two years later. However, as the filmmaker shared with Den of Geek, New Line Cinema was not convinced by the choice, which led Devon Sawa to ultimately take the part of Alex Browning.

Michelle Pfeiffer (Clarice Starling In The Silence Of The Lambs) 

Jodie Foster won her second Oscar for playing intrepid FBI trainee Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, but the part was previously offered to Michell Pfeiffer. The actor told The New Yorker that the “evil” in the film made her nervous, but she does regret turning down the opportunity to reunite with her Married to the Mob director, Jonathan Demme.

Freddie Prinze Jr. (Billy Loomis In Scream)

In an interview with Dread Central, Freddie Prinze Jr. revealed that he and Skeet Ulrich were the final two candidates to play Billy Loomis in 1996’s Scream before the vengeful murderer role ultimately went to the latter. At least Prinze Jr. got to work with writer Kevin Williamson on another teen slasher favorite, I Know What You Did Last Summer, the following year.

John Lithgow (Seth Brundle In The Fly)

Jeff Goldblum gave one of his best performances as half-man, half-insect Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg’s 1988 remake of The Fly. Before he was cast, however, the role was offered to Goldblum’s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension co-star John Lithgow who told In Magazine (via IndieWire) that he “didn’t want to play something so grotesque.”

Johnny Depp (The Invisible Man In The Invisible Man) 

In 2016, The Wrap reported that Johnny Depp was up to star in the title role of a modern reimagining of The Invisible Man. That was until the immediate failure of the Dark Universe convinced Universal to go in a different direction with its monstrous properties, allowing Leigh Whannell to introduce his own modern interpretation of H.G. Wells’ classic thriller.

Drew Barrymore (Carol Anne Freeling In Poltergeist) 

Drew Barrymore broke through at age 7 with her role in E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, but she actually met Steven Spielberg when auditioning for another film. She recalled to Ellen Degeneres how she was considered for, but ultimately not given the role of Carol Anne (which did go to Heather O’Rourke) in 1982’s haunted house classic, Poltergeist.

Lee Marvin (Quint In Jaws)

Steven Spielberg’s first choice to play Quint in Jaws was actually Lee Marvin, but the Oscar winner (for 1965’s Cat Ballou) was not interested, as the filmmaker recalled to Vanity Fair. Thus, the role of the intrepid shark hunter was given to Oscar nominee Robert Shaw.

Anne Lockhart (Laurie Strode In Halloween)

It is impossible to imagine other than Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode — the one Haddonfield babysitter who survives Michael Myers’ killing streak in the original Halloween. However, according to Biography, one of co-writer and director John Carpenter’s first choices was Anne Lockhart of Battlestar Galactica fame before she passed on the role.

Jodie Foster (Margaret White In 2013's Carrie)

As Vulture reported in 2012, Jodie Foster was approached to star alongside Chloe Grace Moretz in a remake of Carrie as the titular telekinetic’s overbearing mother, Margaret White. The part ultimately went to Julianne Moore, who, coincidentally, was Foster's replacement to play Clarice Starling in 2000's Hannibal.

Kirsten Dunst (Clear Rivers In Final Destination)

As Final Destination director Jeffrey Reddick shared with Den of Geek, he had a wish list for the unique 2000 horror flick’s cast that included Kirsten Dunst as Clear Rivers. Instead, that role would end up going to Ali Larter, who came back for Final Destination 2.

We would honestly love to peek into an alternate universe in which one of these actors got the iconic horror movie role they were up for, just to see how creepy it might have turned out.

Have you been following the news out of the world of Stephen King this week? If so, you’re hopefully already catching up on Fargo Season 5 based on the author’s recommendation, and you may have caught his fun story about a lunch he once had with fellow legend Bruce Springsteen that involved an amazing interaction with a fan. But those aren’t the only King-related developments that have happened in the last seven days, and I’m here to catch you up with the latest edition of The King Beat.

For this week’s column, I have for you a cool news story about developments at the Stanley Hotel (birthplace of The Shining), an anniversary reflection on the 2002 miniseries Rose Red, and a warning that one of the best Stephen King movies of all time is less than a month away from leaving Netflix. Let’s dig in!

The Stanley In Estes Park, CO Is A Legendary Spot For Fans Of The Shining, And It’s About To Get Even Cooler

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is a special place. About sixty-five miles outside the heart of Denver, it sits high in the Rocky Mountains, and the thin air is both refreshing and exhausting. It’s a beautiful and sprawling estate with an incredible white Georgian Colonial Revival building with a scarlet roof as the centerpiece, and it’s been the subject of many ghost stories. And, of course, it’s the hotel that famously inspired Stephen King to write The Shining.

Needless to say, it’s a legendary spot for Constant Readers to visit… but it’s seemingly about to get even better. If Shining fans were to go on a trip to The Stanley today, they would find a number of exciting treats awaiting them – including the notorious Room 217 and the mini-model of the main building that was used in the 1997 miniseries adaptation – but more is coming. According to The Denver Post, a deal was made this week that will see Jason Blum and his company Blumhouse turn the hotel into an even more exciting destination for horror fans.

The developing project was announced by Governor Jared Polis’ office in coordination with the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media, and it will see Blumhouse become the curator of the 10,000-foot space that is the on-grounds Stanley Film Center. Per the source, the owner of The Stanley has been pursuing a partner to develop an exciting space for genre fans, and John Cullen, president of Grand Heritage Hotel Group says in a statement, “there’s no one better than Blumhouse.”

Targeted to open in 2026, the Blumhouse Space is described as “a mini-Academy Museum dedicated to horror” by Colorado film commissioner Donald Zuckerman, and it seems the plan initially will see the exhibit focus on titles in the studio’s catalogue – which includes titles like Get Out, The Purge, David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy, The Black Phone, and Happy Death Day. Because of Blumhouse’s existing partnership with Comcast, there is also a suggestion that classic horror from Universal Pictures could also be in play.

It should be noted at this point that both Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and its sequel, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, were produced by Warner Bros., so it’s unclear how connected the Blumhouse Space will be to the greater legacy of The Stanley. That being said, it’s noteworthy that Blumhouse has produced a few Stephen King adaptations in the past (including Mercy, based on the short story “Gramma”; the remake of Firestarter; and Netflix’s Mr. Harrigan’s Phone), and it has a few upcoming King projects in the works (including a remake of Christine and a TV series based on the 2021 novel Later).

What is being built here could end up being very cool, and it’s something to keep an eye on as it comes together in the next couple of years.

As Rose Red Celebrates Its 22nd Anniversary, Let’s Take A Look Back At The Now-Streaming Miniseries

In all the time that I’ve been writing about Stephen King for CinemaBlend, I don’t think I’ve ever thrown a particularly bright spotlight on Rose Red. I wrote about King’s cameo as a pizza delivery man for my feature cataloguing all of Stephen King’s film and television appearances, and its existence on DVD is acknowledged in my guide to building the Ultimate Stephen King collection, but I’ve never put together an article specifically critiquing or analyzing it.

This week, with the TV miniseries celebrating its 22nd anniversary, I’ve decided to put that particular streak to an end and write about its merits and issues – letting you ultimately decide if you want to give it a watch while it is available to stream with a Hulu subscription.

Premiering on January 27, 2002 and airing in three parts on three consecutive nights on ABC, Rose Red was initially conceived by Stephen King as a kind of riff on Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and it centers on a psychology professor (played by Nancy Travis) who brings together a group of psychically inclined individuals in the hopes of proving the existence of paranormal phenomena. She brings the collection of oddballs to the notoriously haunted titular estate in order to try and gather hard scientific evidence, but her hubris while trying to advance her career results in her seriously underestimating the danger in which she puts herself and her research team.

Rose Red marked a reunion between Stephen King and director Craig R. Baxley, who is responsible for some of King’s best/most underrated TV works in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s – namely the original miniseries Storm Of The Century and the canceled-too-soon show Kingdom Hospital. Because of my affection for those other works, I try to love or at least appreciate the 2002 King/Baxley collaboration… but the cold truth is that Rose Red is overlong and mostly underwhelming.

The biggest problem is that so much of it registers as derivative. The fact that it is its own take on The Haunting Of Hill House with original characters and an original setting doesn’t prevent the plot from feeling overly familiar, and the pacing is akin to molasses (by the time you finish the first 90 minute episode, the characters still haven’t stepped foot in Rose Red). Also not helping anything is how it feels like King is cribbing from himself in some parts – like an early Carrie-esque scene with a young psychic girl causing rocks to rain down on her house when she is upset.

On the positive side, Craig R. Baxley and production designer Craig Stearns clearly had a lot of fun in the design of the eponymous building, as the constantly morphing mansion has some amazing rooms, including a library with a mirrored floor and a study that is built to appear upside down. It’s also neat to see a large number of talented actors getting a bit of experience with Stephen King material, as Nancy Travis is joined in the ensemble by Melanie Lynskey, Matt Ross, Judith Ivey, Emily Deschanel, Julian Sands, Kevin Tighe, and Jimmi Simpson.

If you haven’t seen it before, Rose Red is worth watching for any Stephen King fan who is also a completionist, but more than two decades after its release, it’s not a title to be ranked among King’s best TV projects.

You’re Running Out Of Time To Catch Stand By Me On Netflix

Contrasting Rose Red, I admittedly write about Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me a lot as part of The King Beat. In just the past few months, I’ve highlighted Kiefer Sutherland talk about the origin of the title, Stephen King give credit for the film’s existence to Norman Lear, and Mike Flanagan listed it among movies with the all-time best closing lines. The truth is, there’s never a bad time to think about the beloved coming-of-age classic… and if you’re looking for an excuse to watch it, I have one for you this week, as the title now has less than a month left as part of the Netflix streaming catalogue.

As January 2024 has transformed into February 2024, Stand By Me’s time on Netflix has added a countdown. If one goes to the film’s page on the streaming service, one will note that there is now a note that sits right above the plot description: “Last day to watch on Netflix: February 29.” So, if you want to revisit the movie (or check it out for the first time) before it’s gone, your time is limited.

Stand By Me, of course, is based on Stephen King’s novella “The Body,” which is included in the 1982 collection Different Seasons. Set in the late 1950s, the movie follows four young best pals – Gordon "Gordie" Lachance (Wil Wheaton), Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) – as they go on an unforgettable adventure together to see the dead body of local kid who was killed after being hit by a passing train. As they travel together, their lives are risked and the bonds of their friendship are tested, and it becomes a journey that none of them would ever forget.

As noted earlier, Stand By Me is unquestionably one of the greatest Stephen King movies and it doesn’t get old no matter how many times you watch it. If you want to test this theory for yourself, it’s a good way to make use of your Netflix subscription in the coming month.

Recommendation Of The Week: “The Fifth Quarter”

Reflecting on Stephen King’s outpouring of love for Fargo Season 5 (which really is exceptional television), I got to thinking about King short stories that match with the tone and perspectives that fit alongside what’s featured in Noah Hawley’s Coen brothers-inspired anthology series. The title I found myself landing on for my Recommendation Of The Week is “The Fifth Quarter” – which was first published all the way back in 1972 in an episode of Cavalier magazine but was eventually collected in the 1993 omnibus Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

The Richard Bachman-esque story follows an ex-con protagonist who is on a mission to both avenge his murdered former cellmate and acquire a cache of cash that was stolen during a bank heist and buried in a secret location. The map to the spot was cut into four places, and the main character’s friend was killed for his quarter. After six months of hunting, the unnamed narrator tracks down the person responsible and goes about collecting all of the map pieces for himself, no matter what it takes. It’s a narrative that would easily plug into a season of Fargo.

That does it for this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I will have a new one for you next Thursday here on CinemaBlend. While you wait, check out my previous King-related column, Adapting Stephen King, which dives into the full history of Stephen King film and television.

It is always so cool to see when former child stars continue to act to this day, which also tends to remind us of the former child stars whom we do not see very often anymore, if not at all. It begs the question, what are they doing these days? Well, allow us to provide that answer about the following one-time child actors.

Shirley Temple 

The quintessential name in child stardom is, undeniably, Shirley Temple, who got her start when she was 3 years old and rose to fame as one of the Depression Era’s biggest stars in movies like The Little Colonel and Bright Eyes. Following her 2014 death at the age of 85, Time published an obituary recalling how she quit acting at 21 and went on to pursue a political career that included running for Congress in 1967 and serving as a U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas

After getting his big break on Home Improvement, Jonathan Taylor Thomas joined Disney’s original The Lion King voice cast as Young Simba and landed more movie roles that made him one of the ‘90s most popular teen heartthrobs. He still acts on occasion — such as when he reunited with Tim Allen and Patricia Heaton on Last Man Standing, but is rarely seen in public these days.

Mara Wilson

From her debut in 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire to her leading role in Roald Dahl’s Matilda three years later, Mara Wilson was the talk of the town in her younger years, but did not always enjoy the experience. A negative experience on the set of 2000’s Thomas and the Magic Railroad convinced her to abandon acting (which she has been doing on occasion in more recent years) and pursue her primary claim to fame these days as an author.

Jeff Cohen

Jeff Cohen of The Goonies cast fame once told The Daily Mail that his career began to slow down when he went from "Chunk to hunk" and started losing weight after hitting puberty. These days, he is an entertainment lawyer and one of his most notable clients is none other than the actor who played Data in the 1985 family adventure classic: Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan.

Carrie Henn

“Newt” — the young sole survivor of a Xenomorph attack on her colony in 1986’s Aliens — is the first and only acting credit of actor Carrie Henn. She told Tulsa World (via Mirror) that she chose to, instead, follow her true passion in education and succeeded, now working as a teacher.

Peter Ostrum 

After scoring the “Golden Ticket” with his very first acting gig by playing the central role of Charlie Bucket in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Peter Ostrum immediately turned his back on Hollywood and has not acted since. However, you could say that he does make some contribution to the chocolate industry today by working as a veterinarian for large animals such as cows, as he explains in a segment of OWN’s Where Are They Now?

Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen

After sharing the role of Michelle Tanner on Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were on top of the world and both continued to act well into their early 20s. However, the twins did not return for a cameo in Netflix’s revival sitcom, Fuller House, as their successful fashion careers had already begun to take off.

Angus T. Jones

After 10 seasons as Jake Harper on  Two and a Half Men, Angus T. Jones quit the show and acting altogether due to his religious beliefs (which drove him to openly criticize the top-rated sitcom’s raunchy material) and interests in business opportunities. He would later return to the craft, and reunite with Charlie Sheen, by making an uncredited cameo on a 2023 episode of Bookie.

Kay Panabaker

Along with her older sister, Danielle, Kay Panabaker was one of the most promising Disney Channel stars of her generation, appearing in hit shows like Phil of the Future and leading the made-for-TV movie, Read It and Weep. While Danielle still acts (and is best known for starring in The CW’s The Flash), Kay has left that world behind, but still works for Disney as an animal keeper at at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, according to Naperville Magazine.

Charlie Korsmo

Charlie Korsmo is best known for his role in 1991’s Hook as Jack Banning — the son of a Robin Williams’ character, who has forgotten his days as the legendary Peter Pan and grew up to be a lawyer. Coincidentally, after walking away from acting at starring in Can’t Hardly Wait, Korsmo grew up to become an assistant professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, but revealed to the school’s official website that he still gets fan mail from fans of Hook and Dick Tracy.

Taylor Momsen 

Years after her feature film debut as Cindy Lou Who in 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas propelled her to fame, Taylor Momsen’s role in the Gossip Girl cast as Jenny Humphrey was put on indefinite hiatus when her style began to change to match her persona as frontwoman for The Pretty Reckless. She ultimately chose to abandon acting completely for music, which she called a lifesaving decision when speaking to People.

Barret Oliver

You may recognize Barret Oliver as Bastian in 1984’s The NeverEnding Story, the eponymous robotic child from D.A.R.Y.L., David from the Cocoon movies, and even the title role of Tim Burton’s breakout short film, Frankenweenie. He has not acted since the late ‘80s, however, and — as the blog Photo Culture details — he now makes a living as a photographer who specializes in 19th-century printing processes.

Amanda Bynes 

After getting her big break on Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly answer to SNL, All That, Amanda Bynes got her own sketch comedy series called The Amanda Show, led the sitcom What I Like About You, and starred in movies like She’s the Man and Easy A. After announcing her retirement on Twitter in 2013, concerns over her mental health put her under a conservatorship that ended in 2022 and, the following year, she debuted Amanda Bynes and Paul Simienski: The Podcast, which she canceled after one episode.

Norman D. Golden II

Norman D. Golden II made his breakthrough in the 1993 comedy Cop and a Half as a boy who witnesses a murder and agrees to testify if he can be made partner to a cantankerous veteran police officer played by Burt Reynolds. As a profile by The Journal Times reveals, he stopped acting years later to pursue education and nonprofit work but, more recently, has written and produced some projects.

Jennette McCurdy

As Sam Puckett on iCarly, Jennette McCurdy quickly became one of Nickelodeon’s brightest young stars and, following its ending in 2012, would continue to act for a few years. Ultimately, however, as the author said on her podcast, Empty Inside, "I quit... because I initially didn't want to do it. My mom put me in it when I was 6, and by... age 10 or 11, I was the main financial support for my family."

Ross Bagley

Playing Will Smith’s cousin on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and his stepson in Independence Day made Ross Bagley a bit hit in Hollywood at a young age. According to The Sun, he makes a living in real estate these days, but did not decline the opportunity to appear in Max’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion in 2020.

Ariana Richards

A former child actor whose most famous roles pitted her against man-eating beasts was Ariana Richards of Jurassic Park and Tremors fame. According to the Daily Mail, in the early 2000s she began taking art classes in Pasadena, which led to her current career as a painter.

Danny Lloyd

One of the best performances by a young actor in one of the best horror movies of all time came courtesy of Danny Lloyd as the gifted Danny Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining from 1980. In 2017, the Kentucky biology professor told The Guardian that he realized acting was not for him once he reached his teens, but he would make a small cameo in Doctor Sleep — a sequel to the terrifying classic from 2019.

Alisan Porter 

After playing the title role of writer and director John Hughes’ 1991 dramedy Curly Sue, Alisan Porter left acting for years, but would return for a few occasional appearances. She experienced a major career resurgence, however, when she was crowned the winner of The Voice in the singing competition show’s tenth season.=

Luis Armand Garcia

Following his role as Max on George Lopez, Luis Armand’s next and most recent acting credit would mark a reunion with his sitcom dad on NBC’s Lopez vs. Lopez. According to Legit, he spends most of his time performing philanthropic efforts, including for his own foundation, Hands On Horses.

Lisa Jakub 

Best known as Lydia Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire and Alicia in Independence Day, Lisa Jakub left her acting career behind in the early 2000s. She still exists in the public eye, however, as a blogger, author, and motivational public speaker, as seen on her official website.

Jeremy Suarez 

As Jeremy Suarez got older, the star of The Bernie Mac Show and Disney’s Brother Bear (as the voice of Koda) found it more and more difficult to land acting gigs. As recalled to Atlanta Black Star, this would lead him to pursue a "normal life" working various jobs in construction, with boilermakers, retail, etc.

Liesel Matthews

With only three acting credits to her name, Liesel Matthews considered returning to the craft before a lawsuit against her father and cousins for misusing money meant for her brother stalled that pursuit, as Forbes recalls. Best known as the lead of 1995’s A Little Princess and the First Daughter in Air Force One from 1997, her current claim to fame is her philanthropic efforts.

Willow Smith

Years after making her acting debut alongside her father, Will Smith, as his onscreen daughter in I Am Legend, Willow Smith was supposed to be the star of the 2014 remake of Annie. According to The Guardian, her “intuition” influenced her to pass on the opportunity and, instead, pursue would would turn out to be a very successful music career.

Jake Lloyd

After playing Anakin Skywalker — a young Darth Vader — in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Jake Lloyd was open about his struggles with criticism over his performance for years that ultimately pushed him out of the spotlight. Following several legal troubles, according to Yahoo, he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 2020.

Jolean Wejbe

According to Big Love showrunner Will Scheffer’s comments to the LA TImes, Jolean Wejbe’s role on the HBO drama as “Teenie” was recast with Bella Thorne in Season 4 after a growth spurt caused the actor to appear older than the character’s age. On LinkedIn, she lists herself as a Computer Science student at California State University, Northridge.

Taran Noah Smith

Taran Noah Smith did not do much acting outside of playing Mark Taylor in the Home Improvement cast and, right after the sitcom ended in 1999, the then 16-year-old quit the business completely. According to EW, he went on to start a vegan food company, constructed installation art for events like Coachella, built energy-efficient water purifiers for the military with his father, and — according to SFGate — later became a submarine pilot instructor.

Tami Stronach 

The Childlike Empress from The NeverEnding Story is the only screen acting role Tami Stronach, who chose to pursue dance instead shortly after. The reason being, as recalled on Mamamia — the then 10-year-old received a lot of unwanted attention from fans who were grown men, some of whom camped outside her family's home. She later became a professor and returned to acting onstage.

Ross Malinger

Ross Malinger had a successful acting career that included starring in Kindergarten Cop, playing Tom Hanks’ onscreen son in Sleepless in Seattle, and voicing T.J. on Recess. According to THR, he went on to manage a car dealership.

Jamie Waylett 

Vincent Crabbe from the Harry Potter movies is the only role that Jamie Waylett ever played, as he was dropped from the gig in 2011 due to legal trouble that put him behind bars. According to Metro, he still makes a living putting himself in the public eye by using an app called Cameo.

Caitlin Sanchez 

Caitlin Sanchez made her debut on Law & Order: SVU and appeared on Lipstick Jungle, but is best known as the voice of Dora the Explorer — a role she was fired from when her voice changed. However, as THR reported, when she was left with no compensation to show for it, she filed a $10 million lawsuit against Nickelodeon, only to settle for $500,000.

Jason Zimbler 

Following his role as Fergus Darling — Melissa Joan Hart’s onscreen brother — on Nickelodeon’s Clarissa Explains It All, Jason Zimbler had a career in theater. However, as of 2011, he works at HBO as a software engineer, according to The Sun.

Not every child actor is destined for a life of fame, but at least they have the opportunity to discover their true callings early on.

How many times have you watched an incredible acting performance and looked up to see how many awards it won only to find out that the Oscar went to someone else that year? It’s shocking how many times this has happened over the years for some of the greatest actors and actresses of all time. Here are 32 times an incredible performance didn’t win an Academy Award for one reason or another.

Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction)

Though he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson’s name wasn’t called at the 67th Academy Awards. This is nothing against Martin Landau’s performance from Ed Wood, but Jackson’s foul-mouthed and righteous hitman is an all-time great character that should have been recognized.

Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver)

Robert De Niro received an Oscar nomination for his career-defining portrayal of Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s 1977 psychological thriller, Taxi Driver, but the unhinged and memorable performance wasn’t enough to win Best Actor. It’s hard to be mad, as Peter Finch’s Academy Award-winning turn in Network is the stuff of legend.

Harrison Ford (Witness)

One of the best actors without an Oscar, Harrison Ford has only one Academy Award nomination to his name, the 1985 crime thriller, Witness. Though not Ford’s most iconic character, his take on Philadelphia detective John Book as he goes to great lengths to protect a young boy is nothing short of amazing.

Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption)

Morgan Freeman gave the performance of a lifetime as Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding in The Shawshank Redemption. If the movie would have come out any other time besides 1994, a year dominated by Forrest Gump, there’s a good chance the aging prisoner and accomplished smuggler would have earned Freeman an Oscar.

Bill Murray (Lost In Translation)

Bill Murray’s portrayal of cynical, washed-up actor Bob Harris in Lost in Translation will forever be one of the comedian’s most beloved roles. While Sean Penn’s performance in Mystic River is more than deserving of an Oscar, it’s a shame the iconic comedian didn’t get properly recognized for a once-in-a-decade showing.

Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple)

Whoopi Goldberg showed off a more dramatic side with her lauded portrayal of Celie Harris-Johnson in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of The Color Purple. It’s absurd that the emotional, dynamic, and powerful performance didn’t win Goldberg a much-deserved Oscar, which went to Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful, instead.

Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List)

Schindler’s List features one of the best Ralph Fiennes performances with his portrayal of Nazi work camp commandant Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg’s 1993-defining film. And while the movie won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Fiennes’ unforgettable turn was not among them. Instead, he lost out to Tommy Lee Jones from The Fugitive.

Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie)

If you’re looking for one of the best New York City movies, Tootsie has you covered. If you’re looking for a movie featuring an acting performance that should have won an Oscar but didn’t, Sydney Pollack’s 1982 comedy has you covered there as well. Seriously, how Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Michael Dorsey wasn't awarded is something we just don’t get.

Denzel Washington (Malcolm X)

Denzel Washington eventually won a Best Actor Oscar for his unforgettable turn in Training Day, but the actor was robbed nearly a decade earlier after not winning the big prize for his take on the titular Civil Rights leader in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X.

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Florence Pugh was already a rising star at the time of Little Women’s release, but her portrayal of Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age drama took her to new heights. Though she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, Pugh lost out to Laura Dern from Marriage Story.

Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained)

Here’s something wild to think about – Jamie Foxx not only didn’t win an Oscar for his performance in Django Unchained, he wasn’t even nominated for Best Actor. Admittedly, it was a stacked list of actors – Daniel Day-Lewis, Bradley Cooper, Hugh Jackman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Denzel Washington – but not even being named is just something.

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

The Wrestler felt like Mickey Rourke’s big redemption arc, more so than the character he portrayed in Darren Aronofsky’s great wrestling movie. Despite pushing himself to the breaking point from both a physical and emotional standpoint, Rourke lost out to Sean Penn’s take on Harvey Milk in Milk.

Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Michael Keaton gave the performance of a lifetime in the 2014 mind-bending drama film, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), one that seemed to channel the actor’s past in such a way it felt like an autobiography. However, stealing the show as Riggan Thomson, a.k.a., Birdman, wasn’t enough, as the prize went to The Theory of Everything’s Eddie Redmayne instead.

Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)

Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for an Oscar on four separate occasions, but not a single win, which is something. One of the performances that deserved an Academy Award the most was that of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. The portrayal of a confused high school senior on the verge of entering the next stage in her life lost out to Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Tim Curry (Clue)

Tim Curry’s portrayal of Wadsworth in Clue, a butler or undercover FBI agent depending on which ending you watch, is a role that is beloved by fans of the classic murder mystery comedy. However, it wasn’t recognized at the Academy Awards or other ceremonies, which is the real crime.

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Rosamund Pike’s take on Amy Elliott-Dunne earned the sole Academy Award nomination for David Fincher’s Gone Girl, a nod that was more than deserved. However, the incredibly nuanced and dynamic performance failed to win the Best Actress Oscar, which went to Still Alice’s Julianne Moore instead.

Jimmy Stewart (Rear Window)

Jimmy Stewart is one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors of all time and his portrayal of L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is one of the his top-tier performances. However, his take on an injured photographer who uncovers a murder mystery didn’t even get a nod at the Academy Awards.

Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind)

Kate Winslet gave one of her most powerful and unique performances in the 2004 sci-fi dramedy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Her take on Clementine Kruczynski, a woman who had all memories of her ex-boyfriend wiped from her brain, was rich, beautiful, and iconic, but just wasn’t enough to win Best Actress.

Al Pacino (The Godfather)

Al Pacino put himself on the map with his portrayal of reluctant crime boss Michael Corleone in The Godfather. The gradual evolution of the character over the course of the film’s three-hour runtime should have been enough for an Oscar, but like co-stars James Caan and Robert Duvall, who were also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, he didn’t get the win.

Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard)

Gloria Swanson’s "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." line from Sunset Boulevard is one of the most iconic quotes in all of Hollywood and part of an Oscar-worthy performance. While Swanson was nominated for her take on aging film star Norma Desmond, she didn’t take home the top prize.

Jack Nicholson (The Shining)

Though considered one of Jack Nicholson’s best roles, his portrayal of Jack Torrance in The Shining didn’t result in an Oscar win. In fact, Nicholson wasn’t even nominated for the unforgettable performance. 

John Cazale (The Godfather Part II)

John Cazale’s Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II is one of cinema’s great tragic figures as well as one of the late actor’s best characters. What’s even more of a travesty is the fact that the late actor didn’t even receive an Oscar nomination for his efforts. Tragically, Cazale would never receive an Academy Award nomination prior to his shocking death in 1978.

Angela Bassett (What's Love Got To Do With It?)

Angela Bassett received her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Go to Do with It?, but the miraculous turn as one of American music’s most famous and influential figures didn’t earn her a Best Actress win. 

Edward Norton (American History X)

Reformed neo-Nazi Derek Vinyard is one of Edward Norton’s most controversial and complex characters of his career, and the American History X performance earned him a Best Actor nod at the 71st Academy Awards. However, Roberto Benigni from Life Is Beautiful ran away with the top acting prize.

Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca)

Somehow, Ingrid Bergman, who was astonishing as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca, not only didn’t win Best Actress at the 16th Academy Awards, she wasn’t even nominated for her iconic portrayal of a woman caught between two men and two different lives in the 1943 black-and-white classic.

Paul Giamatti (Sideways)

In a perfect world, Paul Giamatti would have won the Oscar for Best Actor in Alexander Payne’s Sideways, but alas, that is not the reality in which we live. Miles Raymond is one of Giamiatti’s best characters and carried the movie about two friends on a wine trip they’ll never forget.

Henry Fonda (12 Angry Men)

An amazing courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men is still arguably one of the best movies of all time. While its star, Henry Fonda, received a Best Picture nomination as a producer, his dynamic and rich portrayal of a juror who insisted on getting things right didn’t earn him an acting nod, which is a real miscarriage of justice.

John Goodman (The Big Lebowski)

You can add John Goodman to the list of great actors who have never received an Oscar nomination, which just doesn’t make sense. It’s especially maddening when you consider his legendary portrayal of Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski, a character loosely based on John Milius, per Far Out Magazine.

Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line)

Joaquin Phoenix has since won an Oscar, but his portrayal of Johnny Cash in James Mangold’s 2005 biographical drama, Walk the Line, was more than deserving of the top acting prize at the Academy Awards. What’s interesting is the fact that Phoenix was beat by his future The Master co-star, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won for his take on Truman Capote in Bennett Miller’s Capote.

Ellen Burstyn (Requiem For A Dream)

A little more 25 years after winning an Academy Award for Best Actress thanks to her outstanding performance in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Ellen Burstyn had another shot at capturing an Oscar with her turn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream. Her take on a woman battling unchecked depression, anxiety, and a diet of weight loss pills gave audiences one of the most incredible and sympathetic characters of the early 21st century. Unfortunately, this also happened to be the same year Erin Brockovich was released. 

Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood)

There Will Be Blood is remembered more than a half-decade after its release because of the Academy Award-winning performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, but one of the three-time Oscar winner’s castmates was also deserving of recognition. Paul Dano’s Eli Sunday (he also played the smaller part of Eli’s twin brother, Paul) is one of the more fascinating characters of modern cinema, and he should have received an Oscar for his troubles. Dynamic is an understatement for this overzealous, petty, and temperamental preacher.

Robert Shaw (Jaws)

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster, Jaws, won three Academy Awards – Best Filming Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Sound – but Robert Shaw, who acted his tail off as the boat captain, Quint, wasn’t recognized. This shameful act by the Academy, especially after watching the USS Indianapolis monologue, still stings nearly 50 years after the fact. That scene alone deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination and win.

Many of these actors won an Academy Award either before or after these movies and performances we just covered, but it’s just wild to think about how some of these roles didn’t take home the big prize at the Oscars.

Time will tell if 2024 will ultimately be viewed as a busy year for Stephen King fans – but we’re certainly off to an interesting start. Last week, Thomas Jane revealed his vision for a From A Buick 8 miniseries, and in the past seven days, we’ve learned about two exciting upcoming home video releases and been given new reason to speculate about Mike Flanagan’s in-the-works adaptation of The Dark Tower.

Those two bits along with a remembrance of Salem’s Lot star David Soul and a new Recommendation of the Week make up this week’s edition of The King Beat, so let’s dig in!

What If The Dark Tower Was Entirely Cast With Mike Flanagan Regulars? Let’s Think This Out

At present, there is no specific timetable for Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of The Dark Tower. The filmmaker acquired the rights to the Stephen King series in December 2022, and outside of expressed optimism about the project last summer, we haven’t heard much about its development (the writer/director has been busy with his next King adaptation, The Life Of Chuck). Flanagan has preached patience as a virtue, and if it actually happens, the reality is that it may be years before we get to see his vision get executed.

And yet, I can’t stop thinking about it, which brings us to this week’s main King Beat story.

In a recent interview, CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell asked Carla Gugino about the idea of playing a gender-swapped Roland Deschain in Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower adaptation, and while her enthusiasm for the approach is wonderful, the pitch got me thinking about who else in Flanagan’s troupe of regulars would fit for the epic saga’s key roles. Taking into consideration that it may be a while before the project goes into production and the fact that adapting all seven books would take many, many years, here are my picks:

Roland Deschain: Bruce Greenwood (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, The Fall Of The House Of Usher)

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it as many times as necessary: Roland Deschain should not be played by an actor younger than 50. Putting aside the fact that he starts developing crippling arthritis in Wolves of the Calla, Roland is written as having lived a long, rough life, with decades of pain and loss turning him into the hard case that he is when we first meet him in The Gunslinger (he shouldn’t just be 10-15 years removed from his time with Susan, for example). Bruce Greenwood is a fit in that regard, but far more important is that can provide the weathered gruffness that the role requires as well as the warmth he develops as he grows closer with his ka-tet.

Randall Flagg: Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game, The Haunting Of Hill House, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Fall Of The House Of Usher)

While I don’t totally dismiss the thought of Carla Gugino playing Roland, the reality is that I would much rather see her play the villainous Randall Flagg – and not just because it’s a lot easier to change the character’s gender. Her turn as Verna in The Fall Of The House Of Usher felt like a test run for her as a magical, sinister agent of darkness, so why not let her sprint as the principal antagonist in The Dark Tower? Plus, it would be amazing to witness a dynamic flip from Gerald’s Game with her and Bruce Greenwood.

Eddie Dean: Jacob Tremblay (Before I Wake, Doctor Sleep, The Life Of Chuck)

Jacob Tremblay will only be turning 18 in 2024, which does make him a tad bit young for the role of Eddie Dean, but time is on his side for the reasons mentioned above. I also recognize that Eddie’s attitude is not exactly Tremblay’s brand (audiences have come to love him as wide-eyed ingénue in movies like Room, Wonder, Good Boys and Doctor Sleep), but this is me casting a vote of confidence in his abilities. He’s repeatedly proven himself as a talented child actor, but as he matures into being an adult performer, that means taking on more mature roles, and between the character’s struggles with addiction and blossoming love for Susannah, Eddie would be exactly that.

Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker/Susannah Dean: Kyliegh Curran (Doctor Sleep, The Fall Of The House Of Usher)

Kyliegh Curran was a revelation as Abra Stone in Doctor Sleep and is wonderful as Lenore, the innocent and good heart of The Fall Of The House Of Usher, and she has shown that she has the talent to take on the role of Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker/Susannah Dean. Between the character not having legs and her multiple personalities, it’s an advanced and complicated part, but like Tremblay playing Eddie, it could be a perfect test of Curran’s skills and the mature role that helps define her career as an adult actor.

Jake Chambers: Julian Hilliard (The Haunting Of Hill House)

Ok, I admit that I’m cheating a bit here, as Julian Hilliard has only been in one Mike Flanagan project and therefore can’t necessarily be dubbed a “regular.” That being said, the pool of age-appropriate actors is small, and he also happens to very much fit the bill. For a young performer, he delivers a terrific turn as Young Luke in The Haunting Of Hill House and he’s further proven his skills with his turns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (in WandaVision and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness) as well as The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

Obviously Mike Flanagan doesn’t specifically have to pick stars he’s previously worked with to fill out the cast of his Dark Tower adaptation, but if any of the picks above become a reality, I will be thrilled.

The Shining Miniseries Is Finally Entering The HD Age, And The 2013 Carrie Remake Is Getting A 4K UHD Upgrade

As a physical media collector with a particular passion for Stephen King adaptations, the last few years have delivered many wonderful gifts. Many classic and cult films have been beautifully restored by passionate boutique labels – with highlights from last year including 4K UHD releases of Carrie, Cujo, Needful Things, Silver Bullet, The Dead Zone, Creepshow, and more. Unfortunately, one era that has been mostly ignored is the run of TV miniseries that were made in the 1990s/early 2000s (with the exceptions of 1990’s IT and 1994’s The Stand). We’re still waiting to see titles like The Langoliers, Storm Of The Century, Rose Red, The Tommyknockers and 2004’s Salem’s Lot enter the HD age… but at the very least, this week we learned that we’ll soon get to check 1997’s The Shining off the list.

Up until recently, the Mick Garris-directed/Stephen King-scripted remake of The Shining has only existed on SD – both on DVD and digitally – but thanks to the efforts of Scream Factory, that will no longer be the case. It was announced this week that a Blu-ray is now in the works, and it will be officially released on March 12. Pre-orders are now open.

As is typical with product announcements from Scream Factory, we don’t yet know the specs of the release, but those will be revealed in the weeks leading up to the Blu-ray arriving in stores. At the very least, we can hope that it will carry over the existing commentary track that is on the DVD and the deleted scenes, but we can keep our fingers crossed for more extras as well.

In similar but less exciting news, Scream Factory has also announced that they are putting together a 4K UHD Collector’s Edition of Kimberley Pierce’s Carrie from 2013. As I’ve previously expressed both here in The King Beat and in my Adapting Stephen King column about the film, I’m not a fan, but as someone who is forever in the process of building the Ultimate Stephen King collection, I have already put in my pre-order.

Remembering David Soul's Turn In 1979’s Salem’s Lot Following The Actor’s Passing

This past week, the acting community suffered a sad loss, as it was reported on January 4 that David Soul has passed away at the age of 80. Pop culture will largely remember him for his long run playing Detective Kenneth Richard "Hutch" Hutchinson on the 1970s detective series Starsky & Hutch, but he also has the distinction of being one of the first performers to play the lead in a Stephen King adaptation.

In the late 1970s, director Tobe Hooper cast David Soul to play Ben Mears in the miniseries Salem’s Lot – the second King adaptation ever following Brian DePalma’s Carrie and the first to ever be made for television. A writer who returns to his hometown in Maine with the intention of writing a new book, Mears is a charming character who proves himself brave amid a vampire infestation and is revealed to be haunted by a morbid incident from his childhood. These are all qualities that Soul brings to his performance, and he does his part making Salem’s Lot the classic it’s recognized as.

When the news of Soul’s passing spread at the end of last week, Stephen King personally shared his condolences on Twitter: