New Stephen King Movie Continues Encouraging Rotten Tomatoes Trend

For decades, filmmakers have been adapting the works of Stephen King, bringing the legendary author’s stories of horror and humanity to life on the big screen. While some of these works have been more successful than others, plenty of King adaptations have earned widespread critical praise and become fan favorites. Audiences still love films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and Misery, among many others. Given the breadth of King’s bibliography, he continues to inspire directors today. 2025 has been quite prolific when it comes to King adaptations, as four such films will hit theaters by the time the year is done. The first two earned positive reviews, and now the latest is continuing that trend.

Ahead of its release next week, reviews for The Long Walk are starting to pop up online. As of this writing, the film sports a very impressive 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Granted, that’s from only 12 submitted reviews, so that figure is bound to fluctuate as more come in. Still, The Long Walk is shaping up to be the third consecutive well-received King adaptation of this year. The Monkey has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 77% and The Life of Chuck (which premiered at film festivals in 2024 but didn’t hit theaters until this summer) stands at 81%.

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It isn’t surprising to see The Long Walk fare well on Rotten Tomatoes. Initial social media reactions to the film were very positive, with many praising Francis Lawrence’s intense direction and the performances of the cast (Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are considered highlights). Those early reactions painted The Long Walk as one of the strongest King adaptations, and it’s great to see those sentiments carried over into the full written reviews. Ideally, the word of mouth will give The Long Walk‘s box office prospects a boost, helping it become an early fall hit.

King adaptations have actually had a rough past handful of years. Prior to The Life of Chuck (which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival), the last King adaptation to earn a Certified Fresh mark on Rotten Tomatoes was 2019’s Doctor Sleep (78%). Some King-based movies released during that span were widely panned, such as 2020’s Children of the Corn (11%) and 2022’s Firestarter (10%). History has shown King’s work is more than capable of being the basis for captivating cinema, so it’s nice to see the last few films turn out well.

It’s particularly impressive that The Long Walk has earned praise. There was a time when the novel was considered unfilmable, but Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner found a way to translate the text on screen in a compelling way. Critics have said The Long Walk is a harrowing, emotional journey, making it easy for audiences to get invested in the characters’ plight. Even King himself is a fan of the film, which came as a great relief to Mollner.

There’s one more King adaptation on deck this fall: Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man, which premieres in November. The 1987 original is a fan-favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, but even the action icon believes Wright’s adaptation has the potential to be a better film. It’s been said Wright is sticking closer to the source material, crafting a film that’s darker and more serious while also mixing in his penchant for action and comedy. Hopefully The Running Man can make it 4/4 for well-received King adaptations hitting theaters in 2025. Based on Wright’s track record, it will.