It’s only August, but 2025 has already proven to be a spectacular year for new horror movies. The best of the bunch, Weapons, is arriving in theaters this weekend, but it’s following on the heels of a number of amazing works including Companion, The Monkey, Sinners, The Rule Of Jenny Pen, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Bring Her Back, and 28 Years Later. It may make you wonder if Hollywood will be able to keep the head of steam going and really bring it during spooky season, but I’ll remind you that one of the most exciting titles on the way in the fall is the upcoming Stephen King movie The Long Walk – and it not only looks like a brilliantly brutal cinematic experience, but it sounds like it was also a seriously intense mission for the cast.
Insight regarding the extreme exercise on the set of the new Francis Lawrence-directed film is the lead headline of this week’s edition of The King Beat, but for those of you who are looking for something to watch more immediately should check out Stephen King’s latest social media-posted movie recommendation. There is a whole lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!
The Long Walk Stars Trekked An Estimated 300 Miles In The Making Of The Movie
In addition to being a Stephen King fanatic, I enjoy running as another one of my hobbies. I do a five mile loop around my neighborhood most mornings, with life, work, and recovery time sometimes leading me to skip days, and in a good month, I’ll run about 100 miles total. All this is to say that I can appreciate a healthy cardiovascular workout – and I am thusly wowed by the commitment of the actors starring in The Long Walk.
In the long journey to adapt the Stephen King novel for the big screen (which has included multiple failed attempts by immensely talented filmmakers), the principal focus of the “unfilmable” commentary has been the extreme content of the book, but I’ve long questioned how the movie would be made without taking an extreme physical toll on the actors. It turns out, the answer is that it can’t. CinemaBlend’s Mick Joest spoke with the cast last week during San Diego Comic-Con, and Garrett Wareing provided some impressive numbers when discussing The Long Walk’s titular activity:
So basically – for continuity/editing purposes, they needed the same backgrounds for the lines. So we would walk 3/4 of a mile per take. There were long scenes and we would reset, go back to one, and those military trucks would turn around. We'd all walk back to our starting marks, and at that point we would have walked a one-and-half [miles] already, so do that 12 more times, and that is one day on The Long Walk. And I think we ended up walking somewhere around 300 miles during the filming.
I had two instant reactions to reading that quote for the first time: 1) That is a serious number of miles, and 2) It seems almost cruel that the actors had to walk back to their original marks instead of, say, taking a ride on one of the military trucks. In regards to the latter, perhaps everyone was so dedicated to their roles that they didn’t want to break the “reality” of the movie by doing something that their characters could never do?
Based on the very first novel that Stephen King ever completed (but ultimately published five years after Carrie under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman), The Long Walk is a dystopian story that sees the United States organize what is a rather sadistic competition in the name of patriotism and demonstration of the American will. Teenage volunteers participate in what is essentially a death march, with the last boy standing being declared the victor and winning both a heap of cash and any prize of his choosing. They have to maintain a three mile-per-hour pace and receive warnings if they slow down or stop. If anyone collects three warnings within an hour or tries any kind of escape, they are killed by soldiers overseeing the “game.”
Of course, these rules and plot developments have a notable impact on the cast: not everyone could have walked Wareing’s quoted 300 miles, as the earlier a character dies in the story, the less walking the actor had to do on set. But for the performers who make it into the third of The Long Walk? The single word that comes to mind is “Wow.” I’m imagining very sore feet but also very toned calves.
An added benefit of all the walking? It meant that the stars entered into a “no acting required” situation. Or as Garrett Wareing phrased it,
I think at a certain point we didn't really have to act the physicality of it because it was just so brutal on the body.
I know that The Long Walk wasn’t made with an outrageously big budget, but I am hoping that the wrap party involved foot baths and massages. And maybe some therapy to process the intense themes of the work.
Featuring the talents of Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Joshua Odjick, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill in addition to the aforementioned Garrett Wareing, The Long Walk will be the fourth Stephen King adaptation of 2025 thus far (following Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck and the MGM+ series The Institute). It will be arriving in theaters everywhere on September 12, and while I expect it will be a painful watch, it is one of my most anticipated movies set to be released this fall.
Stephen King Shares Love For Together, Highlighting The Characters And “Brave” Performances By Dave Franco And Alison Brie
There are a lot of things that make the works of Stephen King particularly exceptional, but if I had to choose just one to highlight, it would be his gift for developing characters. The way in which he provides depth and personality to his protagonists and antagonists is ultimately the key to the stakes in his stories, as you become invested in what’s happening because you care about the fates of everyone tangled in the (frequently frightening) web. It’s an important part of King’s sensibilities as a writer, and it’s why I’m hardly surprised that he is a big fan of the new body horror feature Together starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie.
The movie is now playing in theaters everywhere following its critically acclaimed premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Stephen King recently saw it, loved it, and posted his thoughts about it on social media, taking to his account on Bluesky to write the following:
Dave Franco and Alison Brie are great--and brave--in TOGETHER. Horror movies work when you care about the people. This one works.
Written and directed by Michael Shanks, Together sees the betrothed Dave Franco and Alison Brie play Tim and Millie – an unmarried couple that makes a big commitment when they move out of the city to a home in a rural community where Millie has landed a teaching job. The move puts a big strain on the relationship, but things go from stressful to horrifying when the characters go out for a hike in the local woods and get lost. Staying in a cave overnight and drinking from a mysterious pool, they find themselves in the following days literally physically and mentally drawn to each other, leading to fused body parts and abundant psychological terror.
Together has a wild ending, and some terrific special effects (one scene brought to life with the aid of a shoebox full of sex toys), but what really makes the movie impressive is the dynamic between its stars. The movie uses body horror as a venue to discuss co-dependency, and the reason why Stephen King calls the performances by Dave Franco and Alison Brie “brave” is because the relationship between Tim and Millie gets super raw – and it seems impossible that the material didn’t have them doing at least some introspection about their marriage. Both characters are relatable and flawed, and it’s appreciation of their humanity that successfully draws you into the story.
Like both The Monkey and The Life Of Chuck, Together has arrived in theaters courtesy of Neon, which picked the movie up for distribution following its world premiere in January and gave it a wide release starting at the end of last month. Buzz landed the low-budget film in sixth place at the box office during its opening weekend, and you can check Fandango to find a theater near you where it’s playing.
That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with another new roundup of the biggest news out of the world of Stephen King. In the meantime, you can learn about the exceptionally long and varied history of King’s stories and books in film and television via my series Adapting Stephen King.
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