Hollywood just loves changing Kings
stories don’t they welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top ten biggest
differences between Stephen King books
and movies before we begin be sure to
subscribe for more great content and you
guys may have noticed that we recently
hit fifteen million subscribers – to say
thank you we are giving away our
WatchMojo of publishing products for
free for a limited time that’s right
check out the link in the description to
sign up get free stuff for this list
we’ll be looking at the most drastic and
shocking differences from page to screen
between Stephen King’s writing and its
adaptation whether it be gene alteration
changes in character or character
development or entire plot elements
altogether we’ll be dealing with crucial
plot and climax points so a spoiler
warning is now in effect
get set go in I’ll be back
number 10 pad dies in the novel Cujo
Cujo is arguably one of Kings scariest
and most depressing novels with an
ending that kicked you straight in the
gut at the climax of the novel Donna
realizes that her son tad is severely
dehydrated and yearing death after
killing Cujo Donna’s husband arrives to
save the day only to discover that tad
has died in the car this is altered in
the movie Donna gives Ted mouth-to-mouth
as she doesn’t the novel but rather than
remain dead to add gas back to
consciousness for the happy ending yeah
happy endings are Naitonal but come on
this is Stephen King we’re talking about
here number 9 the subplot of the
estranged wife and daughter are made up
for the movie
14:08 1408 is a terrifying short story
first released in the 1999 audiobook
collection blood and smoke and later in
print and everything’s eventual due to
its short length it’s only natural that
some padding needs to be done to the
movie enter an estranged wife and
deceased daughter for maximum emotional
impact in the film Mike debunks the
supernatural after the death of his
daughter and gets the happy ending with
his wife because every time I
well in the theatrical version at least
in the novel he’s just a regular dude
who writes about supposedly haunted
places because it makes him money
no dead daughter no wife just a really
freaky hotel room number 8 the monster
rarely appears as a clown it when most
people think of the 1990 miniseries it
Tim Curry terrifying and flips basic
kind of hammy portrayal of Pennywise the
clown is usually the first thing to come
to mind aren’t you gonna say hello
however in the novel the iconic dancing
clown form rarely appears within the
1138 pages of this horror classic it
takes on several horrifying aspects a
mummy a leper and a swarm of flying
beaches to name a few and compels the
townsfolk of Derry to either ignore or
engage in brutal acts a monster which
may appear at any time in the book it is
less of a trickster and more the
physical embodiment of fear and evil
because less than that one moon not in
map number 7 mostly everything
the lawnmower man sometimes adaptations
are just so off the mark that you wonder
why they even bothered adapting it in
the first place in King’s short story of
the same name protagonist Harold
parkette hires a lawn mowing service for
some yard work what follows is a strange
pseudo pagan ritual wherein the hired
servicemen strips naked and follows
through semi-sentient lawnmower on all
fours devouring the klitz grass the
movie is about a scientist improving the
mental capabilities of a simple lawn
mower man through virtual reality yeah
aside from a few very minor references
the plots are nothing alike and King
successfully sued new line cinema for
using his name in the title from the
imaginations of Stephen King
number six then Richards is less of a
hero the running man drop dead
I’m duty quit both movie and book follow
a dystopian storylines about it’s a
palette Aryan state which runs a TV show
called the running man in which hitman
hunt and kill contestants here sub-zero
now playing zero while the setup of the
game is also different
it’s the depiction of the protagonists
spend Richards that made the cut here in
the film Richards is an ex police
helicopter pilot was arrested and
coerced into playing the running man
after breaking out of prison this is all
alive I was praying I’m completely
innocent in the novel Ben is an
unemployed scrawny everyman with a dying
child who must enter the murderous game
to help earn enough money for medicine
and to provide for his family yeah
that’s just depressing you cold-blooded
bastard I’ll tell you what I think of it
I live to see you eat that contract but
I hope you live in a room for my fist
because I’m going to ram it into your
stomach and break you got them fine
number five Terry doesn’t cause
destruction from the stage Terry when
people think of Kerry usually one Scene
springs to mind sissy spacek on the
stage covered in blood exacting
telekinetic revenge this scene is so
iconic that even the remake used it
despite it not actually happening that
way in the novel in King’s version Terry
runs out of the building humiliated only
to remember her powers and wreak havoc
on fellow prom goers while watching
through the windows also in the 1976
film Carrie goes straight home rather
than rampaging and causing destruction
throughout the entire town and she does
in the novel still a freaky movie though
number four the hobbling scene is much
more gruesome misery they had to make
sure they could go on working but they
also had to make sure they could never
run away the operation was called
hobbling easily one of the most
memorable scenes in King based
filmography is the hobbling scene from
misery after it’s discovered that he
once left his room
Annie played to perfection by Kathy
Bates brakes pulse ankles by smashing
them against a board with a sledgehammer
while this is disgusting and all
seriously we dare you to watch the scene
without flinching it’s actually much
more gruesome in the novel in this
version after discovering that Paul
escaped she chops off his foot with an
axe and proceeds to cauterize the wound
with a blowtorch
that’s one way to express your love we
get Tanya
number three the child origin it yeah we
don’t really know what King was thinking
with this one after the losers Club
destroys it in the sewers they find
themselves lost Beverly then has the
bright idea of having sex with the boys
in order to further strengthen their
connection yes
King actually wrote a scene that sees a
group of underaged children having sex
with each other and experiencing orgasm
violence or you know sound like I’m
promoting needless to say this was
scrapped from the miniseries while the
scene can be interpreted several ways it
manifested for Beverly as a fear of her
own burgeoning sexuality doing something
you shouldn’t doing fooling around
some long polar cruise from some balls
vanishing fear by literally making love
it only attacks children and after sex
are entering adulthood etc it doesn’t
make reading the scene any less
uncomfortable
number two the ending is completely
different the mist if you’ve seen it
chances are two things really stood out
for you in the 2007 adaptation of the
mist the gigantic Lovecraftian monster
and the harrowing ending that sees David
mercy killing his fellow survivors
including his son only to realize that
rescue was literally seconds away this
ending was and still is praised for its
bravery and subversion of expectation
and it was all original in the novella
David and the group simply drive off
into the mist in the hope of reaching
salvation but was no guaranteed King
ended up praising the new ending and we
can definitely see why we still haven’t
recovered from it before we look at the
biggest difference here a few honorable
mentions
I killed my heart
[Music]
number one the ending is completely
different The Shining here’s Johnny it’s
a well documented fact that Stephen King
was not a fan of Kubrick’s adaptation of
The Shining the movie takes some extreme
liberties with the source material with
many of its most iconic scenes including
the ending not appearing in the novel
the movie ends with and deranged Jack
chasing Danny through a hedge maze
before freezing to death in the novel
Jack chases Danny through the hotel
before briefly regaining control of his
mind and telling his son that he loves
him more than anything else oh well
he then obliterates his own face with a
mallet before perishing with a hotel
when it explodes as a result of an
unstable boiler the novel provides more
touching ending but for many the movies
finale is far scarier
[Music]
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
stories don’t they welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top ten biggest
differences between Stephen King books
and movies before we begin be sure to
subscribe for more great content and you
guys may have noticed that we recently
hit fifteen million subscribers – to say
thank you we are giving away our
WatchMojo of publishing products for
free for a limited time that’s right
check out the link in the description to
sign up get free stuff for this list
we’ll be looking at the most drastic and
shocking differences from page to screen
between Stephen King’s writing and its
adaptation whether it be gene alteration
changes in character or character
development or entire plot elements
altogether we’ll be dealing with crucial
plot and climax points so a spoiler
warning is now in effect
get set go in I’ll be back
number 10 pad dies in the novel Cujo
Cujo is arguably one of Kings scariest
and most depressing novels with an
ending that kicked you straight in the
gut at the climax of the novel Donna
realizes that her son tad is severely
dehydrated and yearing death after
killing Cujo Donna’s husband arrives to
save the day only to discover that tad
has died in the car this is altered in
the movie Donna gives Ted mouth-to-mouth
as she doesn’t the novel but rather than
remain dead to add gas back to
consciousness for the happy ending yeah
happy endings are Naitonal but come on
this is Stephen King we’re talking about
here number 9 the subplot of the
estranged wife and daughter are made up
for the movie
14:08 1408 is a terrifying short story
first released in the 1999 audiobook
collection blood and smoke and later in
print and everything’s eventual due to
its short length it’s only natural that
some padding needs to be done to the
movie enter an estranged wife and
deceased daughter for maximum emotional
impact in the film Mike debunks the
supernatural after the death of his
daughter and gets the happy ending with
his wife because every time I
well in the theatrical version at least
in the novel he’s just a regular dude
who writes about supposedly haunted
places because it makes him money
no dead daughter no wife just a really
freaky hotel room number 8 the monster
rarely appears as a clown it when most
people think of the 1990 miniseries it
Tim Curry terrifying and flips basic
kind of hammy portrayal of Pennywise the
clown is usually the first thing to come
to mind aren’t you gonna say hello
however in the novel the iconic dancing
clown form rarely appears within the
1138 pages of this horror classic it
takes on several horrifying aspects a
mummy a leper and a swarm of flying
beaches to name a few and compels the
townsfolk of Derry to either ignore or
engage in brutal acts a monster which
may appear at any time in the book it is
less of a trickster and more the
physical embodiment of fear and evil
because less than that one moon not in
map number 7 mostly everything
the lawnmower man sometimes adaptations
are just so off the mark that you wonder
why they even bothered adapting it in
the first place in King’s short story of
the same name protagonist Harold
parkette hires a lawn mowing service for
some yard work what follows is a strange
pseudo pagan ritual wherein the hired
servicemen strips naked and follows
through semi-sentient lawnmower on all
fours devouring the klitz grass the
movie is about a scientist improving the
mental capabilities of a simple lawn
mower man through virtual reality yeah
aside from a few very minor references
the plots are nothing alike and King
successfully sued new line cinema for
using his name in the title from the
imaginations of Stephen King
number six then Richards is less of a
hero the running man drop dead
I’m duty quit both movie and book follow
a dystopian storylines about it’s a
palette Aryan state which runs a TV show
called the running man in which hitman
hunt and kill contestants here sub-zero
now playing zero while the setup of the
game is also different
it’s the depiction of the protagonists
spend Richards that made the cut here in
the film Richards is an ex police
helicopter pilot was arrested and
coerced into playing the running man
after breaking out of prison this is all
alive I was praying I’m completely
innocent in the novel Ben is an
unemployed scrawny everyman with a dying
child who must enter the murderous game
to help earn enough money for medicine
and to provide for his family yeah
that’s just depressing you cold-blooded
bastard I’ll tell you what I think of it
I live to see you eat that contract but
I hope you live in a room for my fist
because I’m going to ram it into your
stomach and break you got them fine
number five Terry doesn’t cause
destruction from the stage Terry when
people think of Kerry usually one Scene
springs to mind sissy spacek on the
stage covered in blood exacting
telekinetic revenge this scene is so
iconic that even the remake used it
despite it not actually happening that
way in the novel in King’s version Terry
runs out of the building humiliated only
to remember her powers and wreak havoc
on fellow prom goers while watching
through the windows also in the 1976
film Carrie goes straight home rather
than rampaging and causing destruction
throughout the entire town and she does
in the novel still a freaky movie though
number four the hobbling scene is much
more gruesome misery they had to make
sure they could go on working but they
also had to make sure they could never
run away the operation was called
hobbling easily one of the most
memorable scenes in King based
filmography is the hobbling scene from
misery after it’s discovered that he
once left his room
Annie played to perfection by Kathy
Bates brakes pulse ankles by smashing
them against a board with a sledgehammer
while this is disgusting and all
seriously we dare you to watch the scene
without flinching it’s actually much
more gruesome in the novel in this
version after discovering that Paul
escaped she chops off his foot with an
axe and proceeds to cauterize the wound
with a blowtorch
that’s one way to express your love we
get Tanya
number three the child origin it yeah we
don’t really know what King was thinking
with this one after the losers Club
destroys it in the sewers they find
themselves lost Beverly then has the
bright idea of having sex with the boys
in order to further strengthen their
connection yes
King actually wrote a scene that sees a
group of underaged children having sex
with each other and experiencing orgasm
violence or you know sound like I’m
promoting needless to say this was
scrapped from the miniseries while the
scene can be interpreted several ways it
manifested for Beverly as a fear of her
own burgeoning sexuality doing something
you shouldn’t doing fooling around
some long polar cruise from some balls
vanishing fear by literally making love
it only attacks children and after sex
are entering adulthood etc it doesn’t
make reading the scene any less
uncomfortable
number two the ending is completely
different the mist if you’ve seen it
chances are two things really stood out
for you in the 2007 adaptation of the
mist the gigantic Lovecraftian monster
and the harrowing ending that sees David
mercy killing his fellow survivors
including his son only to realize that
rescue was literally seconds away this
ending was and still is praised for its
bravery and subversion of expectation
and it was all original in the novella
David and the group simply drive off
into the mist in the hope of reaching
salvation but was no guaranteed King
ended up praising the new ending and we
can definitely see why we still haven’t
recovered from it before we look at the
biggest difference here a few honorable
mentions
I killed my heart
[Music]
number one the ending is completely
different The Shining here’s Johnny it’s
a well documented fact that Stephen King
was not a fan of Kubrick’s adaptation of
The Shining the movie takes some extreme
liberties with the source material with
many of its most iconic scenes including
the ending not appearing in the novel
the movie ends with and deranged Jack
chasing Danny through a hedge maze
before freezing to death in the novel
Jack chases Danny through the hotel
before briefly regaining control of his
mind and telling his son that he loves
him more than anything else oh well
he then obliterates his own face with a
mallet before perishing with a hotel
when it explodes as a result of an
unstable boiler the novel provides more
touching ending but for many the movies
finale is far scarier
[Music]
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
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