Stephen King has some great television shows based on his work, and many of them keep the fear level expected for the King of Horror. While King’s most popular adaptations are movies, with hits like The Shawshank Redemption, Misery, The Green Mile, Carrie, and more, he also has plenty of television shows that either directly adapted his novels and short stories or were based on them.
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Television showrunners have produced several King adaptations over the years since the 1970s, and while some are network shows, they really found critical success thanks to streaming and cable networks. With new shows coming from Mike Flanagan (Carrie) and more on the way, King’s stories still connect with fans after five decades. Here is a look at the best Stephen King television series, ranked by how scary they are.
10) 11/22/63
Based on quality, 11/22/63 is one of the best Stephen King novels the author ever wrote, and the adaptation is just as high quality. However, for fear factor, this is not a scary novel or streaming series, but it is an intense and thrilling adventure story. James Franco stars as a teacher who takes on a special mission. Using a time travel device that drops him off at the same time and date every time he uses it, he has to stop John F. Kennedy’s assassination, hopefully to make the world a better place. However, as any time-travel fan knows, that isn’t how things work out. 11/22/63 is a brilliant story and a fantastic TV series, but it doesn’t rely on fear to win over the viewers.
9) The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone was the most ambitious and successful Stephen King television adaptation because it lasted for six seasons and 80 episodes. While the David Cronenberg movie with Christopher Walken is still the best adaptation, this procedural series was just as fun and delivered great action every week. Anthony Michael Hall stars as Johnny Smith, who helps the police solve cases in each episode using his premonition powers. The overall plot with politician Greg Stillson possibly causing the apocalypse is also well done, with Sean Patrick Flannery as the aspiring politician. There were some scary episodes, thanks to the serial killer aspects, and the big mystery was heading for disaster, making this a fantastic King adaptation for anyone who loves episodic televised storytelling.
8) Mr. Mercedes
Mr. Mercedes was the start of a new era for Stephen King, as this was the start of his road to writing more mystery thrillers rather than a consistent stream of horror novels. This was also the first book in a trilogy, all of which focused on private investigator Bill Hodges. This led to the Audience Network picking it up as a TV series. This was disappointing since few people watched this streaming service. However, the show itself was great, with Brendan Gleeson in the lead role, Harry Treadaway as the villain, Brady Hartsfield, and Justine Lupe as Holly Gibney. It was the terrifying Brady Hartsfield who brought the scares to the show as the sociopathic serial killer.
7) The Institute
What makes The Institute so scary is the fact that the horror happened to young kids. Playing in the same wheelhouse as Firestarter, this is about a government agency that abducts children with powers and uses them for its own nefarious purposes. Unlike Firestarter, this secret organization kills the kids’ parents and remains a secretive group, similar to the plot of Stranger Things. Airing on MGM+, the show faced some backlash as a Stranger Things ripoff, but this is a little scarier since there aren’t terrifying creatures, and the actual monsters are the humans experimenting on these children.
6) The Outsider
The Outsider is similar to Mr. Mercedes, and it even features a character connecting the two shows in Holly Gibney (played here by Cynthia Erivo). The HBO series is another detective story, but this time King adds in the horror that many of his fans demand. Jason Bateman stars as a beloved small-town Little League coach accused of killing a child. However, when the true story surfaces, it is up to a detective named Ralph Anderson to stop the actual monster in the town once and for all. This is smart and intense, and one of King’s most terrifying detective stories.
5) Castle Rock
Castle Rock is not based on a specific Stephen King novel and is instead a Hulu series set in the town that King created, which was the home of many of his early stories. The first season takes viewers from Castle Rock, Maine, to the Shawshank Penitentiary and back, and it even stars Sissy Spacek, the original Carrie actress. The second season takes a more direct approach, with a prequel story about Annie Wilkes, the psycho kidnapper from Misery. There were 20 episodes, and it left plenty of Easter eggs for King fans, while delivering some creepy and frightening action.
4) The Stand (1994)
There have been two versions of The Stand on television. The most recent aired in 2020 on Paramount+, and while it is the better-looking and more polished release, it is not the better version from a storytelling point of view. Instead, the 1994 release on ABC doesn’t have impressive effects and is clearly a made-for-TV series, but it delivers a great tale with some quality actors. Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, Rob Lowe, Miguel Ferrer, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and more star in this ultimate tale of good versus evil. While it looks dated, The Stand earned six Primetime Emmy nominations and is a terrifying story of the fight for freedom at the end of the world.
3) It (1990)
For Stephen King’s IT, the movies were fantastically done, with the first film showing the Loser’s Club as kids and the second showing them returning as adults to finish off Pennywise. However, the TV series was also fantastic, and while the cast was mainly television stars from the era, it delivered on the scares, and Tim Curry was the perfect Pennywise in that ABC series. Like Salem’s Lot and The Stand, it was clear this was a television movie of its era, which meant lower budgets and lesser effects, but that didn’t take away from the creepy factor. With stars like Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, and Annette O’Toole, this was a solid series, and Tim Curry made it unforgettable.
2) Salem’s Lot (1979)
Too many people pass on Salem’s Lot because it was a made-for-TV movie that hit ABC in 1979. The effects were clearly from the 70s, and it is a product of its time, but there are so many reasons to love everything about this vampire horror series. Tobe Hooper directed this just a few years after he made the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and the vampire scenes remain impressively horrifying. There are even some absolutely terrifying moments, such as when the vampire child floats up and creepily raps on the window. Yes, Salem’s Lot is an old TV series, but it is genuinely scary and a perfect example of how to tell a Stephen King horror story.
1) It: Welcome to Derry
It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel series to the Stephen King novel IT. While the two IT movies from the 2010s took place in 1988 (with the kids) and 2017 (with the adults), this took place in 1962, when Pennywise killed last, and it also flashes back to when the demonic alien first appeared in Derry, Maine. This series remains connected to the newest movies, even bringing in Bill Skarsgård to reprise his role as Pennywise. Airing on HBO, it is even more violent, intense, and gory than the films, and it remains one of the scariest horror series based on any Stephen King story.
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