7 Can't-Miss Stephen King Adaptations to Stream Tonight
Stephen King doesn’t just write horror—he defines it. From Carrie to Misery, his nightmares keep vaulting from page to screen and cementing their place in pop culture.
Stephen King has supplied a frankly ridiculous percentage of the nightmares in pop culture, and the adaptations just keep coming. If you want a solid King binge this month, here are seven movies and shows worth your time — a mix of stone-cold classics, sneaky-underrated TV, and a new entry so good (and so bleak) you may only manage it once.
7 Stephen King adaptations to stream in May
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Carrie (Kanopy) — The first King novel to hit the screen and still one of the best. Brian De Palma ’s 1976 shocker stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a painfully shy teen tormented at school and terrorized at home by her fanatically religious mother Margaret (Piper Laurie). Then Carrie discovers she has telekinesis, and, well, prom night becomes legend. It’s a genuine horror landmark with major pop-culture footprint. You can stream it free on Kanopy this month with a library card.
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The Institute (MGM+ ) — If this one isn’t on your radar yet, fix that. Based on King’s novel, the series opens with a teenager waking up in a creepy facility where kids with supernatural abilities are being studied, used, or worse. Season 1 premiered in 2025 and stars Ben Barnes, Mary-Louise Parker, and Joe Freeman. It’s already renewed for a second season, with Alfie Allen (yes, from Game of Thrones ) joining the cast. Production on Season 2 is underway; Season 1 is streaming now on MGM+.
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Misery (Tubi) — The rare King adaptation that brought home an Oscar. Rob Reiner directs this vicious little two-hander with James Caan as bestselling author Paul Sheldon and Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, the superfan who 'rescues' him after a car crash and then forces him to write the story she wants. Bates won Best Actress for a reason; it’s one of the great performances in any King movie. Free to stream on Tubi in May.
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Mr. Mercedes (Peacock ) — Not horror, strictly speaking; more a wicked, slow-burn crime thriller. The three-season series, which originally debuted in 2019, adapts King’s Bill Hodges trilogy ('Mr. Mercedes', 'Finders Keepers', 'End of Watch'). Brendan Gleeson plays Bill Hodges, a retired detective haunted by an unsolved mass murder, while a young psychopath named Brady Hartsfield sets his sights on him. It’s tense, nasty, and very watchable. Streaming on Peacock.
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11.22.63 (Netflix ) — King doing time-travel sci-fi, and doing it well. This eight-episode miniseries adapts the 2011 novel '11/22/63' and follows English teacher Jake Epping (James Franco), who learns from his friend Al (Chris Cooper) about a portal to the 1960s — and gets tasked with stopping the JFK assassination. It’s an underrated gem: faithful to the book, packed with character work, and you don’t have to be a horror person to dig it. Now on Netflix.
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The Mist (Kanopy) — One of the bleakest King endings on film, and that’s saying something. After a brutal thunderstorm in small-town Maine, artist David Drayton takes his son to the grocery store just as a mysterious fog rolls in. The people trapped inside face monsters outside and even worse decisions inside. The adaptation nails the dread and famously goes even darker than the novella — an ending King himself praised for its gut-punch twist. Streaming on Kanopy.
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The Long Walk (Prime Video ) — New, brutal, and right up there with the best King adaptations. Set in a dystopian United States, 50 teenage boys enter a walking contest for a massive cash prize; if you slow down or stop, you die. Simple rules, devastating results. The 2025 film digs deep into the competitors’ backstories, which makes the (frequent, graphic) deaths hit even harder. It’s excellent and punishing — the kind of movie you admire and maybe only watch once. Now on Prime Video.