King on Screen (2022)

• Year: 2022
• Released: 21 Sep 2023
• Country: France, Belgium
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13157456/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/king_on_screen
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: N/A
• MPA Rating: N/A
• Genre: Documentary
• Runtime: 105 min
• Writer: N/A
• Director: Daphné Baiwir
• Cast: Mike Flanagan, James Caan, Amy Irving
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	6.6/10
	65% – Critics

King on Screen Storyline

1976, Brian de Palma directs Carrie, the first novel by Stephen King. Since, more than 50 directors adapted the master of horror’s books, in more than 80 films and series, making him now, the most adapted author still alive in the world . What’s so fascinating with him that the directors can’t stop adapt his books ? The feature documentary KING ON SCREEN reunites filmmakers that have adapted Stephen King’s books for cinema and TV. In the cast, more than 25 directors, including Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Walking Dead), Tom Holland (The Langoliers, Chucky), Mick Garris (The Stand, Sleepwalkers) and Taylor Hackford (Dolores Claiborne, Ray). It is a movie made for the fans and with the fans, led by an international ambition.

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King on Screen Movie Reviews

Good but uneven King doc

Stephen King is an author who really needs no introduction. His books have topped best-seller lists for yonks but what is very interesting about them is that, unlike many authors, a lot of them have translated to the screen extremely successfully. Some bona fide great films have been based on his work such as Carrie, The Shining, The Dead Zone and The Running Man. Admittedly, there has been a few turkeys as well – Maximum Overdrive and The Lawnmower Man spring to mind; albeit, in the case of that latter movie, it bears absolutely no relation to King’s actual short story! But basically, the hits outweigh the misses in the King adaptions, so this documentary feels very merited.

It takes a talking heads format, with contributions from many film people involved in screen adaptions, such as Frank Darabont and Mike Flanagan. There is a lot of clips too, to keep things interesting. It does seem to be a somewhat lop-sided film though, with disproportionately large segments given over to the likes of The Green Mile and The Shining TV adaption, with only small nods given to several of the more significant works. It isn’t told in any particular order either, which does mean it does seem a bit scattershot in presentation. While this is definitely a good and entertaining watch, it does have to be said that it is very non-critical and doesn’t focus on any creative failures – this approach does mean that it can seem a bit one-dimensional and a bit bland at times. Lastly, there was a thing which bugged me – and it’s a thing you see in many such docs where you have film professionals and/or critics talking about the horror genre – and that was that, if you believed what they said, you would be believing that they all read King’s books because of their social criticism and metaphors. My eyes were rolling in their sockets as so many of the participants descended into these bouts of pretension. I personally read his books for the vampires, ghosts and spaceships buried in forests. Where have I gone wrong?

A delight to watch

The documentary King On Screen is a celebration of King’s fiction on the big (or small) screen as told by over twenty different filmmakers who were fortunate enough to adapt a King story. King On Screen tells their story.

Of the many different personalities interviewed here (Mick Garris is always a joy) there are some shockingly notable absences. No Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, Misery). And no Brian DePalma, who holds the distinct honor of directing the first Stephen King adaptation, Carrie (1976).

There are few gripes or regrets conveyed throughout the interviews. No real discussion of failure be it artistic or box office. Baiwir safely captures a positive exuberance. But make it a little shorter with some clever editing? King On Screen could have been a Blu-Ray special feature extra – or an all-star episode of “The Kingcast” podcast.

Whether you’ve always wanted to bike through Derry with the Losers or mistakenly confuse “Christine” for “Carrie”, King On Screen is a delight to watch. Especially when the lights are off.

Perfect for King fans!

Starting with Carrie, Stephen King has been adapted by more than fifty directors and had eighty or more films and series filmed. The beauty of King On Screen is that it brings together nearly every living director who worked on these films, including Tom Holland (The Langoliers, Thinner), Mick Garris (The Stand, Sleepwalkers), Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist), Taylor Hackford (Dolores Claiborne), Mike Flanagan (Dr. Sleep, Gerald’s Game), Mark Lester (Firestarter), Mikael Håfström (1408), Josh Boone (The Stand), Tom McLoughlin (Sometimes They Come Back), Lewis Teague (Cujo, Cat’s Eye), Fraser C. Heston (Needful Things), Craig R. Baxley (Storm of the Century, Rose Red, Kingdom Hospital), Mikael Salomon (Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King), Scott Hicks (Hearts In Atlantis), David Carson (Carrie 2002), John Harrison (Creepshow, Creepshow 2), Zak Hilditch (1922), Greg Nicotero (Shudder’s Creepshow), Vincenzo Natali (In the Tall Grass), Tod Williams (Cell) and so many more.

Director Daphné Baiwir starts this with a sequence that takes you directly into nearly every one of King’s stories. If you love the author, you’re going to have so much fun going back in and out of this scene to see how many references you can catch. My wife is a fan, so she was excited to see Jeffrey DeMunn show up, as he was in The Shawshank Redemption, Storm of the Century, The Green Mile and The Mist.

Don’t expect anyone to knock any of these movies — well, the movie leans too much toward like The Shining TV movie but these are all friends of King — but if you’re watching this, there’s a pretty great chance that you don’t have too many bad things to say about any Stephen King movies.

The part of this that I loved the most was more about Tom Hanks, as Frank Darabont discusses just how giving he is to everyone on set.