The film adaptations of Stephen King’s books are not always loyal to the source material, making way for mysteries or plot holes that are solved in the books and, in some cases, in prequels. Stephen King’s reign in the horror genre began in 1974 with the novel Carrie, which was also the first of his works to be adapted to film, thanks to Brian de Palma’s 1976 movie of the same name. Since then, King has allowed readers to explore a variety of fears in different settings and meet monsters of all types, either human or supernatural.
While there have been some successful film adaptations of King’s stories, such as Misery and It, many have failed for different reasons, mostly making changes to the source material that affected the story. These changes ended up creating plot holes and mysteries that can be answered by going back to the novels, but there are also some cases where the answer was given in a prequel, even if it wasn’t based on a book by King.
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9 The Mist Disappearing At The End
The Mist novella had a different ending.
Frank Darabont’s The Mist has one of the most controversial and shocking endings in horror history, and it’s very different from the one in the book. In the movie, David (Thomas Jane) and the other adult survivors (as there was also his eight-year-old son, Billy) make the hard decision of ending their lives. David uses the remaining four bullets to kill the other survivors, including Billy, and exits the car to be taken by the creatures from the mist. However, the mist suddenly dissipates and the vanguard of a U.S. Army armored column appears to rescue him.
In the book, David and the group survive and continue their search for a safe place, and during a stop for the night, David hears someone on the radio say “Harford”, giving him some hope.
8 Needful Things’ Leland Gaunt’s Real Identity
Gaunt’s nature was clearer in the novel.
Needful Things is the story of the residents of Castle Rock who, when the mysterious Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) arrives and opens a shop, soon find themselves involved in a series of pranks with deadly consequences. At the end of Needful Things, Gaunt accepts that what he did in Castle Rock wasn’t his best work and leaves in the same black car he arrived in, leaving the big question of who he really was, as it’s implied he was a supernatural being.
In the novel, Gaunt’s valise is revealed to contain the souls of his customers, and when he flees, his car turns into a horse-drawn wagon with the words “CAVEAT EMPTOR – Let the buyer beware” written on the side, revealing that Gaunt was a demon (and quite possibly Satan himself).
7 Jud Telling Louis About The Cemetery In Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary’s prequel offered a believable explanation.
In both film adaptations of Pet Sematary, after Ellie’s cat, Church, is run over and killed, the family’s neighbor, Jud, tells Ellie’s father, Louis, to bury the cat in the pet cemetery in the woods. Church is brought back to life the next day, though an evil version of it, and Jud reveals that he did the same with his dog when he was young. As Jud was well aware of what the consequences of using the pet cemetery were, it raised the question of why he told Louis about it in the first place.
The prequel Pet Sematary: Bloodlines explored Jud’s backstory and offered a plausible expansion to why he shared the secret with Louis: after decades in town and losing his loved ones, Jud became vulnerable to the town’s evil forces, prompting him to lure more victims to the cemetery.
6 Was Jack Torrance Crazy Or Possessed In The Shining?
Stanley Kubrick’s movie made many changes to Jack.
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining made a lot of changes to the novel but kept the premise: after Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, he and his wife, Wendy, and their son Danny travel there. When a snowstorm leaves them trapped in the hotel, Danny’s psychic powers and the hotel’s evil forces unleash a series of nightmarish events that mess with Jack’s head. Kubrick’s version left the question of whether Jack was already mentally unstable and the hotel just pushed him over the edge or he was possessed. In the novel, Jack’s situation is a lot clearer: Jack was possessed by the hotel’s evil forces, destroying what was left of his mind.
5 The Overlook Hotel’s Fate After The Shining
The Overlook Hotel had a different fate in the novel.
The ending of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is completely different from the one in the novel. In the movie, Danny and Wendy leave the hotel on Hallorann’s snowcat (Hallorann was killed inside the hotel by Jack) and leave Jack to freeze to death in the maze. In the novel, Hallorann guides Wendy and Danny to safety as the hotel is about to explode as Jack forgot to relieve the pressure of the unstable boiler. The boiler explodes, killing Jack and destroying the hotel.
In the sequel, Doctor Sleep, the Overlook Hotel was abandoned years before, and it gave it the fate of the novel as Danny (now an adult) goes to the boiler room to provoke an explosion that kills him, destroys the hotel, and frees its ghosts.
4 Why The True Knot Didn’t Find Danny Earlier In Doctor Sleep
Danny was haunted by his “shine”.
In Doctor Sleep, a now adult Danny (Ewan McGregor) teams up with a young girl named Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), who also has the shine. Abra is being hunted by a group of psychic vampires known as the True Knot, led by Rose the Hat (Rebbeca Ferguson), who feed from the “steam” released by those with the “shine” when they are tortured. The True Knot had been around for decades, yet they never found Danny, despite his shine being quite strong. In the Doctor Sleep book, it’s implied that Danny’s “shine” lost force and that he was lucky enough to never get in the True Knot’s range, and as he struggled with alcohol use disorder, substances like alcohol weaken the shine, making it harder for the True Knot to notice Danny.
3 It’s Origins
It’s complicated origins are explored in the novel.
The shapeshifting entity that the Losers Club referred to as “It” in the movie of the same name has a very complex origin. The closest the movies got to It’s origins was in It: Chapter Two, when the now adult Losers performed a ritual through which they were able to trap the Deadlights, which are the creature’s true form. The novel goes a bit deeper into what It and the Deadlights are, explaining that It comes from a void outside the regions of the Macroverse, and its species is the Deadlights. These are writhing, radiant, orange lights that can kill any human who looks directly at them, and because their form is so complex, It takes the shape of a giant female spider, as it’s the closest that the human mind can comprehend.
2 Why Christine Was Possessed
The novel gave an explanation to Christine’s evil.
John Carpenter’s Christine brought the possessed red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury to life but changed her origins to the point where it left the question of why the car was possessed. In the movie, Christine’s evil manifested on the day it was built, and she continued killing from that day on. In the novel, it’s revealed that Christine was possessed by the spirit of its previous owner, Roland D. LeBay, who sacrificed his own daughter and wife to make the car a receptacle for his spirit. Roland’s spirit later left Christine to possess Arnie, who fought back and was killed.
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1 The Identity Of Carrie White’s Father
There are many theories about Carrie’s father.
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Carrie has been adapted to the big screen twice (with one sequel and a TV movie), and in both versions, the identity of Carrie’s father wasn’t revealed. The novel mentions that Carrie’s father was Ralph White, a construction worker whom Margaret met in 1960. Ralph shared the same religious beliefs as Margaret, including that all forms of intercourse were sinful, but on a drunken night, he and Margaret conceived Carrie. Shortly before Carrie was born, Ralph and other men were killed in a construction accident, which deeply affected Margaret and was one of the reasons why she mistreated her daughter.
