Those of you who regularly read The King Beat are already well-aware that 2025 has been a special blessing for Stephen King fans. A little over half-way through the year, we’ve seen the release of two new King movies (The Monkey and The Life Of Chuck) and the debut of a new King TV show (The Institute), and the months to come include two more upcoming King movies (The Long Walk and The Running Man) and the debut of another new show (IT: Welcome To Derry). For Constant Readers, our cup runneth over… but those of you who are still screaming for more really need to put writer/director Zach Cregger’s Weapons on your radar: it’s not an adaptation, but it’s King coded to the extreme.
You don’t need to just take my word for it, as I had the great pleasure of talking with Cregger about it this week, and discussion of Stephen King’s influence on the new horror movie is the headlining story of this week’s column. But that’s not all, as there is also some very exciting home video news to discuss, both in the realm of physical media and streaming. There’s a whole lot to go over, so let’s dig in!
Weapons’ Zach Cregger Explains How The Shining And The Trailer For Needful Things Helped Inspire The Upcoming 2025 Horror Movie
Small town life. A supernatural mystery. Children in peril. Teachers. Alcoholism. Any Stephen King fan will tell you that these are all classic elements featured in the author’s bibliography – among the most influential in pop culture history – and they are also core pieces of Weapons, which is the latest work from Zach Cregger (his genre follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed Barbarian). When I had the chance to see the 2025 movie at the start of this week, I couldn’t help but perceive these links, so when I spoke with the filmmaker on Monday during the feature’s Los Angeles press day, King was the first thing I asked about… and my read of the upcoming horror story was substantiated.
Zach Cregger told me that he didn’t specifically set out to create Weapons as a love letter to Stephen King or anything of that sort, but he also didn’t deny that the influence is there – and at certain points it is more direct than at others. A perfect example of the latter: the story begins when students from a single third grade class simultaneously wake up at 2:17am and mysteriously flee from their houses, and that very specific time is intended as a reference to Room 217 a.k.a. the most horrifying room at The Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Speaking to taking inspiration from King, Cregger told me,
Subconsciously. 2:17 has to have come from that. It has to have. And look: I'm a [Stanley] Kubrick guy when it comes to The Shining; I definitely like worship that movie, and I thought of changing it to 2:37. But then I was like, 'You know what? My first impulse has gotta be the one I stick with,' so I kept 2:17.
For those of you who aren’t aware, Room 217 is the heart of terror in Stephen King’s The Shining, inspired by the haunted room at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado where the author stayed and got the initial idea to write the book. Per J.W. Rinzler and Lee Unkrich’s The Making Of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, it was changed to Room 237 in Stanley Kubrick’s controversial adaptation due to concerns from Tad Michel, the general manager of the Timberline Lodge – the Oregon hotel that was used for exterior shots of The Overlook Hotel in the film. Michel was worried that the movie would cause people to fear booking Room 217 in his establishment, and he asked for the number to be changed to 237, 247 or 257 because those rooms didn’t exist at the Timberline.
There is more King in Weapons than just that special string of numbers, though. Zach Cregger also name-dropped Needful Things – Stephen King’s epic novel from 1991 that was adapted as a feature by director Fraser Clarke Heston two years later. In the book, a mysterious and malicious man named Leland Gaunt arrives in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, and after setting up a little antiquities shop, he sets about getting the community to tear itself apart by requesting that his customers play little pranks on each other that ultimately snowball into chaos. Getting surprisingly specific, Cregger acknowledged not simply the tome or the film as having an impact on his work, but the excellent trailer for the latter. He continued:
You know, the Needful Things trailer promised something that my imagination just went nuts with when I saw that as a kid. And I had a different experience when I watched the movie, but the trailer, I was just really into a small town just imploding over one central mystery. And so I think that might have also been present when I was writing.
You can check out the very cool trailer for reference below:
For what it’s worth, the theatrically released version of Fraser Clarke Heston’s Needful Things doesn’t totally capture the spirit of the book that Zach Cregger properly identified and appreciated from the trailer – but the extended cut that was later made for television is much more faithful to the source material and a superior work (and yes, I gave it a full-throated endorsement during the interview).
Curious about the larger influence of Stephen King on Weapons? You won’t have to wait much longer to discover them for yourself, as the Zach Cregger film, which has started generating massive buzz, will be in theaters everywhere on August 8. Be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming weeks for not only more from my interview with Cregger, but also stars Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, and Josh Brolin.
Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot Is Getting A Fresh Home Video Release Thanks To Arrow Films
Of the 85 Stephen King movies and TV shows that are currently available for purchase on physical media, an impressive number (28 to be exact) have already been released in 4K UHD – the best quality available for home video presentation. Clearly there is an understanding that there is considerable overlap in the Venn diagram of collectors and King fans, and both major studios and boutique labels have done a brilliant job working on beautiful restorations and collecting fascinating special features.
This summer alone, we have seen the arrival of two titles in the format, with Neon putting out Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey and Vinegar Syndrome putting together a tremendous set for George A. Romero’s The Dark Half, but this week, it appears that Constant Readers have another fresh release to look forward to: a new edition of Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot.
An official announcement has not yet been made, but this news comes courtesy of reliable home video scooper/s Dawn On The Discs on Bluesky, which says that Arrow Films is working on a crop of new releases that includes the 1979 adaptation of Salem’s Lot along with the anthology horror Three… Extremes, the comic book movie Spawn, and two John Carpenter titles: In The Mouth Of Madness and Prince Of Darkness. The post doesn’t mention a release window, and it doesn’t confirm that Arrow is specifically putting out a 4K UHD restoration, but Warner Home Video has already made the miniseries widely available on Blu-ray, so one has to imagine that this is going to be a format upgrade.
When it comes to physical media, the early Stephen King adaptations have gotten the majority of the love, and a 4K UHD edition of Salem’s Lot would mean that restorations of the first eight King adaptations would all be available (the other titles being Carrie, The Shining, Creepshow, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Christine and Children Of The Corn). In fact, of the first 22 movies and shows based on King’s work – spanning the years 1976 to 1990 – the only works not available in the ultra-high definition format include Firestarter, Maximum Overdrive, the 1990 IT miniseries, and the anthology shows Tales From The Darkside and the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone.
Arrow Films’ other Stephen King releases include the aforementioned Children Of The Corn and Creepshow 2 – which has a new 4K UHD limited edition set that has a September 30 street date and is now available for pre-order.
Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey Will Make Its Streaming Debut On Hulu Next Month
Are you not a physical media person? I personally am, but I can respect anyone who isn’t: not every cinephile has the space and/or resources to start a collection. The good news is that streaming Stephen King movies is most definitely an option, and those of you who have a Hulu subscription will discover a special treat arriving in the coming weeks.
If you missed Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey when it was in theaters earlier this year and haven’t felt inspired to either rent or purchase it digitally, you should know that the 2025 film starring Theo James, Christian Convery, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O’Brien, and Rohan Campbell will be added to the Hulu streaming library starting on August 7. It’s not a movie for the faint of heart, as it is arguably the goriest King movie made to date, but it’s also super funny in addition to being excessively horrific, so it’s definitely worth checking out if you can stomach it.
Based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, the movie centers on a pair of estranged twin brothers (Theo James) who find themselves reunited thanks to the return of a horrible icon from their childhood: a drumming monkey toy that causes extreme death whenever anybody activates it by turning the key in its back. As I noted in my CinemaBlend review of The Monkey, it’s gory, wild madness, and it’s one of the best horror titles of 2025.
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 fresh roundup of all the biggest stories coming out of the world of Stephen King. In the meantime, you can do a bit of exploring in the history of King on screen with my series Adapting Stephen King.
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