Stephen King screen adaptations are approaching the milestone of one hundred film and television projects after more than half a century of prolific writing. Ahead of the Halloween season, streaming platforms offer a distinct mix of cinematic and streaming series projects based on the master of horror’s bibliography, spanning crime thrillers, supernatural mysteries, and classic hauntings across Netflix, HBO Max, and Movistar+. Here is a look at the standout titles available to watch right now.
Netflix: Crime Thrillers and Recent Cinematic Chillers
Despite Stephen King’s vast literary output, Netflix features just one notable television series adaptation, leaning closer to police procedural than supernatural terror. Mr. Mercedes ran for three seasons, adapting the novelist’s trilogy centered on his detective Bill Hodges. Created by David E. Kelley—known for Ally McBeal and Big Little Lies—the series stars Brendan Gleeson as the investigator haunted by an unsolved crime involving a driver who plowed a Mercedes into a crowd of 16 people, sparking a psychological cat-and-mouse game with a ruthless killer.
In its film catalog, Netflix focuses primarily on cinematic adaptations from the past decade. Subscribers can stream Gerald’s Game (2017), 1922 (2017), In the Tall Grass (2019)—co-written alongside King’s son, Joe Hill—and Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022).
HBO Max: The Expanding Universe of It and Supernatural Mysteries
Few creations hold the cultural footprint of It, the sprawling novel credited with having cemented the image of the killer clown. HBO Max houses the theatrical film adaptations released between 2017 and 2019, featuring performances by Jessica Chastain, Finn Wolfhard, and Bill Skarsgård as the terrifying entity Pennywise. Alongside the films sits the 2025 prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, set in the 1960s to explore the origins of all the pain that pushes that clown to adopt his most diabolical and child-devouring incarnation.
Notably, the platform’s catalog omits the more sober film adaptation featuring Tim Curry’s celebrated performance as Pennywise. Beyond the It franchise, HBO Max offers the 2020 supernatural horror miniseries The Outsider, adapted from King’s novel about the brutal murder of an 11-year-old boy in Cherokee City, where contradictory evidence points toward unearthly forces. The streaming service also features the 2024 film adaptation of Salem’s Lot, starring Lewis Pullman and Makenzie Leigh, which follows a writer returning to his hometown in search of inspiration only to uncover a vampire.
Movistar+: Cinematic Masterpieces and Classic Adaptations
Movistar+ holds the streaming rights to Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson as a writer slowly losing his sanity while caretaking the isolated Overlook Hotel during the winter months, while the boy has terrifying visions about what happened in that building. While widely regarded as one of the peaks in the history of horror cinema, the film famously earned the ire of King himself for its divergence from the source material’s key plot points. King later championed a more faithful television adaptation, though it crashed because it paled in comparison to Kubrick’s film.
Directed as a feature film and starring Ewan McGregor, it is a film recommended for lovers of the Overlook universe. The platform's King collection extends to several other celebrated cinematic adaptations, including the supernatural prison drama The Green Mile starring Tom Hanks, the nostalgic coming-of-age journey Stand by Me, and John Carpenter's 1983 horror classic Christine, about a car that comes to life.
Viewers looking to dive into these adaptations can stream them across their respective platforms ahead of the holiday. Share your favorite Stephen King screen adaptation in the comments below.
