Stephen King’s Most Underrated Movies According to Mike Flanagan

Stephen King is prolific, to put it lightly. Even big fans of the horror author haven’t read everything he’s written, much less seen all the good movies and miniseries that have been based on his work. There are several titles that have been somewhat buried, especially the TV movies and miniseries. Dated as they may be, there is still a lot to enjoy in films and miniseries like Needful Things, The Langoliers, Graveyard Shift, and others. But if you want to find the best movies you may have missed, who better to ask than Stephen King filmmaker extraordinaire Mike Flanagan? He’s directed three King adaptations and is working on a fourth, a TV series version of Carrie. When MovieWeb spoke with the charming auteur, he provided his picks for the most underrated Stephen King adaptations.

“You know what jumped immediately to my mind? The Night Flier with Miguel Ferrer is a really good movie that I don’t think gets the appreciation that it deserves,” said Flanagan, elaborating:

“I mean, I think with the books, it’s easier to point at ones where it’s like, ‘Oh, that book doesn’t get the love. Like, I always wonder where the swell of love is for Revival, which is one of my favorites of his books, or Hearts in Atlantis, which I think is just an incredible, incredible piece of work. But on the movies, yeah, The Night Flier, I think, is underappreciated, and I think the storytelling is great. The ending is phenomenal. Miguel Ferrer is wonderful in the role, and it just doesn’t get the love it should get.”

Related: The 21 Best Stephen King Movies, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

“You know, I think a lot of the others do get the love,” added Flanagan, “because, of course, I can’t say like Shawshank, Stand by Me, Green Mile, Misery, Carrie — they do, they get the love. Christine is one I find that, whenever I revisit it, I’m always glad I did. That’s one where I’m like, “Oh yeah, that one really worked. And that you don’t hear that brought up enough.”

Watching The Dead Zone in Trump’s America (And Finding Storm of the Century)

Ready for more recommendations from Stephen King’s friend and the director of Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck? “I think Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, this week, feels a lot more impactful than it might have last week,” said Flanagan. “But that’s one, whenever I revisit it, I’m like, ‘What a beautiful piece of work.’ And yet it doesn’t end up in kind of the upper echelon of the movies people bring up right away. I could talk about this all day.” Flanagan continued:

“There’s a there’s an amazing hopelessness in [The Dead Zone], there’s this fated kind of sadness to it. I got to do a commentary track for that with Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler last year, and that was the last time I saw the movie. And I remember the three of us watching that for that commentary track, just kind of all being like, ‘Why isn’t this more celebrated? Like, why? Why aren’t we kind of trumpeting the merits of this movie from the rooftops?'”

“There’s so much in it that’s so amazing,” added Flanagan, before putting the film in context of the 2024 election. We spoke with Mike Flanagan two days after Donald Trump won the Presidential election, and for Flanagan, The Dead Zone‘s portrait of a rising, warmongering fascist (played by Martin Sheen) feels more relevant than ever. Flanagan said:

“So I’d say, if people are looking to dive into underappreciated King, get your hands on The Dead Zone and do The Night Flier,” continued Flanagan. “Oh, you know what else I’d put up on there? It’s hard to find, but the limited series Storm of the Century is so good, and not nearly enough people have appreciated it and seen it, and I find myself evangelizing about it all the time. And then you can’t find it anywhere. It’s like impossible to track down, but Storm of the Century is, I think, my favorite of the miniseries.”

It’s ours too at MovieWeb, and we have a good article about Storm of the Century here. Even Stephen King himself liked it, posting about it on social media. Hail to the King.