The X-Files to The Outsider and IT: Your guide to Stephen King’s creepy TV universe

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Prepare yourself. It is, once again, Stephen King time. When the supernatural prequel It: Welcome to Derry premieres on October 26, the series will be the latest in a long line of screen adaptations derived from horror’s most successful author. Prolific, to say the least, King has been penning bestsellers for 50 years, and for much of that time television has been reimagining his vivid prose and nightmarish revelations. The quality of those shows can vary, so as a guide, here are the 11 adaptations available to stream in Australia.

11/22/63

A science-fiction thriller that’s equal parts historical what-if and temporal menace, this 2016 limited series stars James Franco as Jake Epping, a teacher given the opportunity by a dying friend to travel back in time to 1960. The goal is to prevent the titular assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but the more Jake gets attached to the past – and its people – the trickier his mission becomes. This is a richly detailed production, but digressive; the story, like Jake, keeps getting sidetracked. And Franco’s performance can waver at times. Binge

Creepshow

Sometimes a little Stephen King has to go a long way. This 2019 horror anthology, intended as a continuation of the successful 1982 film of the same name that King wrote, has almost 50 segments (doled out as a pair each episode), but just two of them are directly related to King. His 1973 short story Gray Matter is adapted for the very first segment, while 1982 short story Survivor Type is the opening segment in an animated episode. They’re perfectly fine, if for completists. AMC+

The Dead Zone

Another reality with Stephen King adaptations: a book can become a movie and then a television series. King’s 1979 novel and David Cronenberg’s 1983 movie were a thriller about Johnny Smith, a teacher with psychic powers who realises a future US president will start a nuclear war. The series, which ran for six seasons from 2002, primarily moved to the case-of-the-week genre, with a grown-up Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club) playing Johnny, who uses his enhanced abilities to solve crimes and prevent future wrongs. 7plus

Haven

Indirectly based on the author’s 2005 mystery novel The Colorado Kid, this 2010 supernatural drama is one of the loosest Stephen King adaptations going around. When an FBI agent, Audrey Parker (Emily Rose), is dispatched to yet another fictional Maine town, she becomes involved in the battle against “the Troubles”, an otherworldly affliction that divides residents. What starts as a spooky procedural adds significant world-building, as Audrey comes to suspect the town has a hidden purpose and her mysteriously blank past is connected to it. 7plus

The Institute

The latest model to reach the market, this grim 2025 horror series follows a brilliant child with extrasensory abilities, Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), who is kidnapped and taken to a covert facility where Mary-Louise Parker’s unsettling administrator studies her unique teenage inmates. If this sounds like a homage to the Eleven sequences in the first season of Stranger Things, a show in part inspired by King’s early works and their adaptations, then you’re getting the circular appeal of the concept. Could the execution be better? Yes. Is a second season already commissioned? Also, yes. Stan*

It: Welcome to Derry

This prequel to Stephen King’s It has been officially sanctioned by the King of Horror himself, and fans of the book and the subsequent film adaptations will not be disappointed. The nine-part series expands the It universe, taking place in 1962 – the previous Pennywise “cycle” from when the original story takes place – and features both central teen characters (many relatives of the original characters), as well as adults and a compelling origin story.
And things are no less gruesome in the early ’60s; the gore is even more in-your-face, likely to shock/impress horror buffs within the first few scenes. HBO Max

Lisey’s Story

Why is the most prestigious Stephen King television series – Julianne Moore and Clive Owen star, all eight episodes are directed by Pablo Larrain (Jackie) – so rarely appreciated? The answer, I believe, is King’s screenplay, adapted from his 2006 novel, is too sluggish and deferential. Moore plays the widow of Owen’s famous novelist, besieged by hungry academics and a violently obsessive fan, whose quest to understand her husband’s otherworldly journey goes from the metaphorical to the literal. Put this 2021 series down as a lost opportunity. Apple TV+

Mr Mercedes

Based on a trilogy of crime novels King published in 2014 and 2015, the three seasons of this 2017 psychological thriller followed retired but troubled police detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson), who engages in an obsessive cat-and-mouse pursuit with a budding young psychopath, Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway). Creator David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, Presumed Innocent) crafted a sharp show about people teetering emotionally, with the two leads giving performances that were persuasive in their flawed humanity. It remains an underrated series. Amazon Prime Video, Binge and Stan

The Outsider

With Ben Mendelsohn as the story’s embittered but unyielding protagonist, Georgia police detective Ralph Anderson, this slow-burn mystery begins as a tense crime thriller that forces the characters and audience to consider supernatural possibilities when contradictory evidence turns a horrific open-and-shut child murder into an inexplicable event. The 2020 limited series is distinguished by empathetic, engaging writing and a compelling addition, with Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo entering the story as a gifted private detective who brings a fresh perspective. The Outsider is the best show on this list. HBO Max

The Stand

One of King’s signature works, The Stand has had two go-arounds as a post-apocalyptic limited series. The first, from 1994, is currently unavailable, but the second is a thorough if overly long evocation of good versus evil. A capable cast led by James Marsden play American survivors of a world-ending pandemic, who gravitate to either the saintly Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) or the demonic Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard). The show was released in 2020, when the world was dealing with a real (albeit far less deadly) pandemic, which didn’t help, but it fundamentally lacks a galvanising charge. Amazon Prime Video

The X-Files

Stephen King has always been an assertive admirer – when he likes someone else’s work, he lets the world know. In the 1990s he went one further, volunteering to write an episode of The X-Files, the hit science-fiction drama that gave us Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as paranormal FBI investigators Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. X-Files creator Chris Carter is co-credited for his rewrites but this standalone episode, “Chinga”, from 1998, about a Scully vacation in Maine that becomes work, still has plenty of King creepiness as a demonic doll wreaks havoc. Paramount+

What is your favourite Stephen King TV adaptation? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

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