All 6 Stephen King Adaptations Released in 2025, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes
From high-quality series to intimate psychological thrillers.
Year after year, film adaptations of Stephen King's works continue to capture viewers' imaginations, demonstrating the enduring power of his literary legacy.
However, 2025 was truly special, giving fans six new projects based on the works of the King of Horror.
6. 'The Running Man', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%
The novel The Running Man received the second adaptation from Edgar Wright this year. While the survival game in a dystopian future retains key elements of the original, it fails to genuinely engage with Ben Richards' misadventures.
Despite Glen Powell's charisma, the movie is a rather lifeless knockoff of the original, with a similar narrative but lacking charm and dynamism.
5. 'The Institute', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64%
It's easy to dismiss the adaptation of The Institute as just another series designed to help fans pass the time while waiting for the finale of Stranger Things.
However, The Institute is an honest sci-fi that doesn't aspire to the scope and accolades of premium television. Instead, it allows King's average book to be reborn as paranormal fiction on the small screen.
The story follows young genius Luke, who is kidnapped and placed in the mysterious Institute, a facility where children with paranormal abilities are held. While the director subjects the children to cruel experiments, former cop Tim investigates the sinister organization.
4. 'The Monkey', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%
Twin brothers Bill and Hal find an old wind-up monkey in the attic. They realize that the toy is possessed by an evil spirit intent on killing everyone in its path. Many years later, the grown brothers encounter this demonic force once again.
The last thing anyone would expect from Oz Perkins, author of slow burners like The Blackcoat's Daughter, is an ironic and caustic adaptation of a Stephen King short story.
However, the combination of Perkins' cinematic style and King's writing is so unique that it clearly enhances King's screen presence.
3. 'It: Welcome to Derry', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%
It is the 1960s in Derry, and children are disappearing once again. Four young outsiders, unaware of the 27-year cycle, try to uncover the truth. They encounter a local monster – the infernal clown, Pennywise.
Stephen King's novel It is only partially the source material – the book included interlude chapters that explored the history of Derry and the origins of Pennywise.
The series aims to fill in the blanks and recount what transpired 27 years prior to the formation of the Losers' Club.
2. 'The Life of Chuck', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%
Mike Flanagan is one of Stephen King's greatest allies on screen. This time, the director has created a supportive, psychotherapeutic, and touching movie.
The Life of Chuck drew comparisons to The Green Mile almost immediately after its release – both films offer warmth and a bittersweet farewell.
The plot weaves together three stories surrounding the death of a man named Charles Krantz. After dying of brain cancer at age 39, he suddenly begins living his life in reverse.
1. 'The Long Walk', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
An alternative future. Every year in the US, The Long Walk, a nationwide event, is held. One hundred young men, aged 16 and 17, are carefully selected to participate.
The grand prize is a large sum of money and whatever the winner desires for the rest of their life. The goal is to complete the course without slowing below four miles per hour. Failure to comply with the distance limit results in death.
Director Francis Lawrence brilliantly presents this teenage competition for life or death, but he depicts the walkers' deaths as terrifyingly realistic and merciless, not cinematic.
