Stephen King has revealed a list of his all-time favorite movies, as well as hinting at which of the many adaptations of his own work he preferred.
The horror author, 77, is one of the best-selling writers in the world and his work has been widely adapted by Hollywood.
In a post on X, he listed his 10 favorite films but noted that he was excluding Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile and Stand By Me.
These four films were all acclaimed adaptations of his own stories, but many fans were quick to point out that he neglected to mention many others such as It, Pet Sematary and The Shining.
King famously disliked Stanley Kubrick’s version of the latter story, calling the 1980 horror classic with Jack Nicholson “a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it”.
The films King did choose for his top 10, which he said were listed in no particular order, included William Friedkin’s 1977 thriller Sorcerer, Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning 1974 gangster sequel Godfather 2, Sam Peckinpah’s 1972 action movie The Getaway, and the Bill Murray-starring 1993 comedy Groundhog Day.
He also included two Humphrey Bogart classics, 1942’s Casablanca and 1948’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, along with Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster Jaws, Martin Scorsese’s 1973 crime drama Mean Streets, Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir Double Indemnity.
On social media, several fans responded to praise King’s list, with one writing: “Any list with Sorcerer in it, deserves respect.”
Another added: “Great list. Bogart is the coolest person to ever be on screen. I love African Queen and Maltese Falcon as well.”
A third observed: “Can’t go wrong with Jaws.“
While King’s dislike of The Shining dates back to the film’s release, he worked a criticism of the Stanley Kubrick film into one of his novels as recently as 2018. In The Outsider, he wrote that a character was watching Kubrick's 1957 war film Paths of Glory because it's “better than The Shining.”
Last year, King described the recent adaptation of his book The Life of Chuck as “one of the good ones.”
“It’s sad, has a touch of the paranormal, but it’s also joyful and life-affirming,” he posted on social media. “Maybe not what you’d expect from me, but there ya go.”
The author also gave a blunt three-word response after discovering that 23 of his books have been banned from school libraries in Florida.
