With a whopping 65 novels under his belt, Stephen King’s works have influenced a great number of other authors and film directors. Really, he’s influenced the world of horror cinema all around. Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Dead Zone, Cujo, Christine, Pet Sematary, It and Misery have all gone on to be massively influential. And, of course, all of them have received adaptations of their own. But, for Stephen King fans, what is next to watch after going through all the movie and TV series adaptations? Something that is at least tangentially related, and given how many works the man has cranked out, just about any horror film has some sort of indirect relationship to a King book.
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What follows are seven blood-soaked movies that have at least the thinnest connection to a King novel. As long as you can take the gore, you’ll find something to love about these movies, be it as a King fan or as a horror fan in general.
1) Abigail
Which King novel is Abigail similar to? The tone is certainly different, but ‘Salem’s Lot. Both feature a child vampire (not that the titular vampire of Abigail is actually a child as much an elderly bloodsucker forever trapped in the body of a child).
One could also point to The Lost Boys and 30 Days of Night, which similarly involve a vampiric presence taking over a single locale small town. But at the end of the day Abigail gets the entry here because it is about as blood-soaked as a vampire movie can be. The third act is almost entirely red.
Stream Abigail on Prime Video.
2) American Psycho
Some might argue American Psycho isn’t the goriest movie out there, and fair enough to that. There is far more dialogue than bloodletting, but Jared Leto still (maybe) gets cut up by an axe so it counts.
As for which King project American Psycho relates to, it’s The Shining. Like The Shining, American Psycho is all about an unraveling psyche. The difference is that Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman may not actually be a murderer.
Stream American Psycho on Prime Video.
3) Scanners
In The Dead Zone, Johnny Smith uses his clairvoyance for good. He tries to save a child from skating on a thawing lake and, after learning about a potential president’s eventual starting of a nuclear war, he reveals the man’s true character.
The characters of Scanners also have special abilities. Specifically, psychokinetic abilities. However, Michael Ironside’s Darryl Revok has quite a different heart from Smith, which he displays by blowing a man’s head up on national television.
Stream Scanners on HBO Max.
4) Piranha 3D
Has Stephen King ever written a book about an aquatic monster? Not really, the closest he’s come is the short story “The Raft,” seen in Skeleton Crew. However, he has touched the “When Animals Attack” subgenre. Specifically, by giving it arguably its most oft-referenced entry outside Jaws: the rabid dog book Cujo.
And, if you’re looking for a “When Animals Attack” movie that is just drenched in blood, that would be the goofy horror comedy Piranha 3D. It will never be as good on the small screen as it was in theaters, but it’s still fun nonetheless.
Stream Piranha 3D on Prime Video.
5) Terrifier 3
Every now and then King praises a slasher movie, like In a Violent Nature, but none of his books are really straightforward slashers. But the subgenre is not why Terrifier 3 was included, but rather because its killer is a clown.
However, Art’s clown getup isn’t the only reason he’s here. It’s more because he’s more than a clown. It‘s Pennywise the Dancing Clown is actually an alien who takes the form of a clown to terrify his victims. Art is still a mystery at this point (franchise creator Damien Leone has said this will be explored in the upcoming fourth film), but one must imagine he’s a demon. He certainly has greater abilities than a guy in a clown suit. Furthermore, like Pennywise, Art has himself a nasty sense of humor.
Stream Terrifier 3 on Peacock.
6) Sleepaway Camp
Sleepaway Camp is similar to Carrie in that both of them feature a protagonist who is bullied and exacts horrifying revenge. Though, admittedly, that is basically where the similarities between the two end.
Even still, Sleepaway Camp is worth a watch. It’s easily one of the best fairly well-known slashers that nonetheless didn’t quite reach the A-list level of Friday the 13th and Halloween. And, while the ending arguably hasn’t aged well in our PC times, it’s still pretty scary.
Stream Sleepaway Camp on Prime Video.
7) The Thing
In Dreamcatcher, the alien takes over a person’s mind and walks in their footsteps. In The Thing, the alien assimilates the human being, which kills them, and proceeds to walk around in their footsteps that way. No one around it knows that the person they’re seeing is not a person at all but rather an alien that now has its sights on assimilating them next.
The Thing has blood, even an autopsy scene that ends via two hands being bitten off, but what it really functions as most of all is bizarre body horror. Any way the human body can contort is seen here and then some, and it all looks convincing thanks to the amazing practical effects by Rob Bottin.
Stream The Thing on Peacock.
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