I don't like it. I know I know, how could I not like such a masterpiece? Well don't worry because I will tell you in my review! Before I begin, I want to point out that Stephen King himself didn't like this interpretation of his critically acclaimed novel. Also, I watched a different version of the novel which I actually liked. Soo.... Let's begin!

Script: 5

Acting: 6

Story execution: 4

Production value/Style: 7

                    SCRIPT

Ok, I wasn't too impressed with the script and that might be because of some of the acting. But it felt like they didn't develop the characters very well at all which really took me out of the movie a little.

                     ACTING

The only reason why I have the acting an 6 is because of Jack Nicholson and that little boy whose name I can't remember. Jack Nicholson is so freaking awesome! He's always awesome! That scene when the boy sees those two girls in the hallway and is immediately horrified? Yeah that got me scared. Not because of the girls but because of that boy's facial expression. However, Shelly Duvall was just BAD. Honestly, I feel really bad for her. Stanley was way too hard on her, but her performance was still bad and I almost wanted to stop watching because of her acting. Also, that REDRUM scene was so annoying. I wanted to feel afraid but after what felt like 5 minutes of the but saying REDRUM over and over again was just too much for me

            STORY EXECUTION

This is a also a mixture of the script. The story was suppose to be about a man's fall into insanity, but to me it felt like he started off kind of insane already. There wasn't a gradual decline in his mental state, instead it felt like he just showed the colors that were already inside of him from his life as apposed to ghost bringing him down to insanity.

   PRODUCTION VALUE/STYLE

The blood coming out of the elevator was an incredible moment. The unforgettable camera shot and infamous quote,"Here's Johnny!" Was totally worth the wait ( kind of) and the "I'm gonna bash your brains in" along with the camera shot of Jack slowly walking to the stairs are all amazing. With that being said, there wasn't anything else, production wise, that was game changing enough for this film to be considered one of the greatest Films of all time.

            FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm not judging this film by average filmmaking, this is suppose to be the one of the greatest Films of all time. And I didn't see it. The acting overall was relatively average, saved only by Jack Nicholson and that boy(I'm gonna look up his name after this lol). The script was ok. The execution was not all that great. The production value/style had it's moments but it wasn't that great or scary. I wonder why Stephen King didn't like this movie, maybe it's because of some of the reasons I brought up?

Being a human fascinated by the grotesque these days is nothing you’d be ostracized for. Heck, a woman can marry a serial killer on a witness stand. We are all deviants these days, privately or not so. We are all depraved to some extent but it’s easier to find love now even if you are. Apt Pupil is about a boy who was depraved in a time when family life was stable, there were no wars, no slavery, just apple pie lives. I think it’s a great feat that Stephen King was able to make his deterioration into psychosis so slow and so elegant. I probably would have made him too similar to that boy from A Catcher in the Rye. It’s a wakeup call to parents of sociopaths or psychopaths to acknowledge fully that even if you want to believe the opposite (because no matter what the evidence says, your child has never been this person he’s accused of being), if the facts are staring at you point blank, don't shield your child or yourself from reality, find help for them. I think we ought to as a society push for psychiatrists to be more accessible in schools so that children with such thoughts know where to seek proper help because let’s face it, a guidance teacher would not be helpful in this case. I think best of all, Apt Pupil makes us aware that psychosis is an impending trap for people who are afflicted with these thoughts. Without an author’s name, I would have sworn it was Sidney Sheldon’s. It’s incredible how King mastered Sheldon’s genre while never waning in his own. 

Best Work

When I was 9, one of my older brothers gave me Salem's Lot to read.  "Here, read this!" He would do this from time to time with horror books that he read - it is also because of him that I have an inclination to the horror genre.  Anyway, for me, Salem's Lot is a book that continues to give me the creeps and while others have the long argument that the Stand and/or the Shining are the better books.  It is his development of the characters from Ben Mears and Susan Norton to Kurt Barlow and Richard Straker that make this book so great.  The voices are clear and as I got older, it's something I would strive for in my own writing.  I wont throw any spoilers in here if you haven't read this, but just read it.  

It is also in this book that the student and local grave digger, Mike Ryerson awaits for his teacher in a back bedroom of his house one night after being buried in the graveyard he worked in.  That was enough to keep me up at night when I was a kid.  

Best Adaptation

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redeption.  One might argue that its between this book and The Green Mile, but again, for me, The Shawshank Redemption was the best adaptation.  Again, you could argue it is Dolores Claiborne or Stand By Me or Green Mile.  All were great adaptations, but for the... wait...How could I forget Misery?  Yeah that one goes in the list, too. 

Wait wait wait...Carrie?  Does Carrie make this list?  How could you make me pick just one?  OK, OK, OK, This is going to have to be a list because all of these were rock solid and this is my opinion based on what I liked - with no critical training in critiquing adaptations.

1. Shawshank Redemption

2. Dolores Claiborne

3. Misery

4. The Green Mile

5. Stand By Me

As I sit and look at this list - The Shining was a good movie but really, it was just loosely based on the book and therefore doesn't make the list...so, there!

I started reading King when I was pretty young, I believe the first book I ever read was The Shining which then started my love affair with his writing. It was his only book that scared me enough to raise the hair on my neck, not that many of his others weren't suspenseful...

As far as I'm concerned, The Shining (first movie anyway) was the best screenplay/adaptation/interpretation of any of his books. Period. Misery was a close second, and Stand By Me (based on a short story called The Body) was a third. 

Now, trying to come up with the worst will be a hard one for me. I don't think Hollywood "gets" King like all of us do, there will never be enough time to properly tell his longer stories on screen, but the real problem is, they all start out with a bang and then fall short or crash completely on the ending. Then what happens is they become instantly forgettable, therefore I cannot decide which movie adaptation was worse. I want to say it was The Tommyknockers or maybe The Langoliers but then again, I can't remember. Whichever movie had the giant, stupid spider thing at the end. Ruined the whole movie for me.

I have not had much time for pleasure reading as of late, and I am way behind on King's latest creations, however, I did see that The Dark Tower series is being made into a movie and I am looking forward to that. Who else was surprised that the lead character (The Gunslinger) was black? I sure was!  #Hairy_Situation

Novelist extraordinaire,

Stephen, truly a King

To whom I bow,

Makes horror sing.

Of all that I have liked,

Only one rings true,

On both paper and film,

Applause is due.

Not Cujo,

While a compelling book,

Not done justice on the screen,

As horror it just didn’t hook.

Yet one has dug into my soul,

And gripped my heart,

On the edge of reality,

I will now impart.

The Dark Half,

Its human aspect quite chilling,

Struck several chords,

On both mediums, truly fulfilling.

In my opinion, Steven Kings "Needful Things" was a perfect adaptation of his book into a movie. King understands how the devil works better than some Christian leaders!

How it all starts out with one tiny thing and snowballs into a huge fiasco. By the time he leaves, everyone is all stirred up!

Liked the story good thriller!

While I agree with many of the posts before this one, I have to admit that MY favorite Stephen King book and movie is "Thinner". I think I was initially intrigued by the idea of being cursed with thinness, as I was overweight at the time, so I wondered how thinness could be a curse! *lol* But once I started reading, I was totally into it. I love gypsies, so having some in the movie made it all the better for me.

But really, I think this story has the perfect blend of spookiness, revenge, horror (mental AND physical), and 'what-the-fuck'-ness. The book is a little better, of course, because you can read the inner workings of the protagonist and better feel his increasing horror at his predicament, coupled with his desperation to resolve it, not to mention his feelings of anger towards the one person who's supposed to love him most. I felt everything Billy felt and could completely imagine being in his shoes. And his cronies! Oh, my! I won't give everything away, but the curses they were under were at least as horrifying.

And insofar as the movie, Joe Mantegna is the shit; I love him in most everything, but he was all over his character and I couldn't get enough. The other actors were also spot-in and I was never taken out of the story due to terrible acting.

If you haven't heard of this one because you've been overwhelmed with all the biggies, I implore you to check it out; you won't be disappointed.

The Stand definitely had some... mature... moments, but other than that I found it amazing. It was pretty intimidating when I saw how big the book was--tiny font, lots of pages (almost 1200) and just an overall big book length- and width-wise--but I finished it in about a week (and I'm a pretty slow reader). It was really graphic, most of the time in really good ways. Nothing about Stephen King or any of his works is ordinary, but I thought The Stand was especially unique because of the characters (and I loved the reference to The Stand in the Dark Tower series, which I didn't actually get at the time because I read The Stand right after). Randall Flagg and Trashcan Man gave me goosebumps (in their own ways, of course). The Stand was also really unpredictable, in my opinion, which makes it so much better; additionally, as much as I don't want main characters to die, when they do die, it makes the story way better because it creates so much suspense, as opposed to when the main characters are basically invincible so all battle-type scenarios are boring because you know nothing will happen. Stephen King is great at that, and The Stand is a perfect example. If you haven't read it, I highly suggest reading it. I read the uncut addition and didn't think it was too long or anything.

By P.I. Barrington

Hands down the best adaptation of of King's work is Brian DePalma's film of Carrie. Not only did it capture all of the images, dialogue, action, and effects, it brought those to life for those of us who read it when the book came and we all saw the same things reading and watching the film. The ONLY thing wrong with it was the miscasting of Sissy Spacek. Carrie was specifically described as overweight and oafish and Spacek was a stick figure and also had a Southern accent. I didn't even mind the film's surprise ending which was different from the book's ending.  I've always said that a great writer can make almost all his/her readers see the same exact images. JMHO.