Most powerful moments featured in a Stephen King film part 1

Most powerful moments featured in a Stephen King film part 1

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

With the Pet Sematary remake hitting theaters, I decided to list off some of the most powerful moments featured in a Stephen King film today to celebrate its release. Like it, or hate it, remakes are going to happen re-telling King's classic novels. Here I'm setting aside my thoughts on the actual books, but how they translated onto the silver screen. Here are my personal choices of some f the most powerful moments featured in films based on Stephen King's books. 

The ending - The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

"I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope..."

Fun fact, The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all time favorite movies. I feel this is truly because the last thirty minutes of the movie. Here we witness the impossible actually become possible as Andy escapes Shawshank, a plan that's been in the works for over twenty years. The film's villains all get what's coming to them, and Andy escapes a free man with plenty of money to start a new life. Perfect huh? Only problem is, Red...his best friend is still serving his sentence. Here we watch Red continue onward at the prison, speaking about how Andy was a symbol of hope, and how some birds just aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright. The line that always gets me is when Red simply states that he guesses he just misses his best friend. Anyone who has experienced any form of loss can relate to this moment and Morgan Freeman's incredible acting/voiceover really makes it for the audience. When it finally gets down to his parole hearing after years upon years of being rejected, he finally gives up and tells them board actually what they want to hear and much to his surprise, he's a free man. Now thrown into a society that's frighting, and awfully lonely, he decides to take Andy's advice "Get busy living, or get busy dying." He decides to break the cycle that sadly befell on his other friend Red and remembers a very settle clue that Andy gave to him years ago the day before his famous escape. Traveling to that location, he finds a hidden letter from Andy with some money, urging him if he ever reads this to cross the border, and come see him. Freeman's voiceover forever gives me chills during this scene as Red travels, and in the last moments of the film greets his long lost friend on the beach as promised. 

Bill remembers - IT (1990)

"Promise me...if it isn't dead...promise me...we'll all come back."

The original mini-series if IT will always be near and dear to my heart. I have nothing against the 2017 film version, and I'm actually excited for chapter 2. Still, the 1990 version despite its flaws will always be the film that absolutely terrified me as a child. I still swear that King's novel is one of the scariest I've ever read. This mini-series is packed full of iconic moments, but the one that really packs a punch for me has to be the first call Mike needs to make to The Losers Club when he knows for sure that Pennywise has returned. Here he phones the unspoken leader Bill, who's now a world famous author, and is currently living in England with his actress wife working on a movie together. The second he hears Mike's voice, you see for a flickering moment he doesn't recognize the voice, nor the name before suddenly the camera zooms in and you see twenty-seven years of past memories come flooding back. Here for just a few brief seconds we see our first glimpse of The Losers Club back when they were children. We see Bill, and the other exhausted children standing by the banks of a pond, where Bill speaks the iconic words "Promise me...if it isn't dead...promise me...we'll all come back." This moment always sends shivers down my spine. I can only hope IT chapter 2 has moments like the mini-series had. 

Coming face to face with the Moonlight Man - Gerald's Game (2017)

"You're so much smaller than I remember." 

For years everyone believed there was no way Gerald's Game could ever be made into an actual film due to the novel's subject matter. In 2017 Netflix and director Mike Flanagan proved them wrong. It was this film that made me know for certain that the upcoming Doctor Sleep (sequel to The Shinning) would be in the right hands since Flanagan was hired on as director. This film is truly beautiful and haunting in so many ways, but the moment that really did it for me was the end. Some people (who aren't familiar with the book) found the last twenty or so minutes confusing. To me, this was truly the perfect way to wrap things up. Almost a year following what happened in the cabin, Jessie has somewhat recovered physically, but not completely mentally. Here she learns from reading the newspapers that "The moonlight" man that she believed she saw several times while chained in the cabin was actually real. The first clue was that despite how hard the police searched, they never found her wedding ring (which while in shock, and suffering massive blood loss after escaping, finds the man in the shadows and drops her wedding ring in his bag of bones and jewelry almost as if paying a toll to pass and be able to leave.) A voiceover of Jessie explains that some news stories caught her attention resulting in her following a horribly disfigured man who was mentally ill who used to rob graves, before graduating into breaking into homes. Graphic details are spoken (let's just say the dog wasn't the only one feeding on her husband!) and on the day this man is set to appear in court, Jessie storms in and gets the man's attention. Here he grins, breaking his handcuffs, causing the courthouse's security to grab him. He towers over Jessie and smiles like a child filled with glee and says "You're not real! You're made of moonlight!" The same exact words spoken by Jessie when she left the cabin the year before. As she approaches him, guards struggling to hold him back, she sees images of her father, and husband. Both men that had shackled Jessie mentally long before her near death experience in the cabin. Instead she holds her ground, looks him straight in the eye and smiles saying "You know...you're so much smaller than I remembered." Here she confronts her past, knowing it can no longer hurt her. She turns, and walks out into the sunlight, a new woman. Seriously, one of the best moments ever. 

The sacrifice - The Dead Zone (1983)

"It reminds me of a line from 'The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow' the last story I read to my class before...the accident. Ichabod Crane disappears...the line goes 'As he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled their head about him anymore."

If anyone asks me what's the most tragic novel/film by Stephen King, the answer is always easy. 

The Dead Zone (1983)

King and David Cronenberg teamed up for this film during a year where Stephen King's works were being pumped out one after another due to the author's popularity. In my eyes Christopher Walken was the perfect John Smith, and watching this poor man go through Hell and back after an accident leaves him in a coma for several years. When he wakes, his family is in debt due to his medical bills, he's weak, unemployed, and his fiancé' is now married with a child. To top things really off, he also learns he has the gift of second sight. Anytime he touches someone he can see past, present, or future. Deemed as a freak, John tries his best to live a quiet life, and also attempts to use his gift (which he sees more as a curse) to help people. In the end, he sees what's going to happen in a very popular man in politics continues on the campaign trail. WWIII will happen. So the question remains? If somebody from the past knew what Hitler was going to do, and knew if they attempted to kill them, they wouldn't get out alive...would they do it? John decides with nothing to lose, he's going to assassinate this man before it goes any further. Lucky for him, when his attempt fails, the man who he's targeting holds an innocent baby up to shield himself from the gunfire. After being fatally shot, he lays bleeding to death when the angered man grabs him asking who he is? Here he sees the future where images of the man holding the screaming baby as a human shield completely ruining his political career. Smiling, John knows he's succeed, and tells him he's finished. In the last moments of this heartbreaking film, John's ex fiancé  who was at the event runs over weeping. She leans over holding onto him saying she loves him. Johnny smiles weakly, before whispering in her ear goodbye before dying in her arms.

"Show me." - Christine (1983)

"How can you kill something that can't possibility be alive?"

If anyone asks me what's one of my all time favorite movies, I always tell them Stephen King's Christine is in my top 3. In 1983 when King was at his most popular, books, and films were being cranked out one after another. This lucky had two horror titans ganging up together to make in my eyes one of the best adaptions of King's work. We got John Carpenter, who not only directed and help write the movie, he also provided the iconic soundtrack. The film is insanely good, but the moment that always sticks out to me is when Arnie, all ready too far gone with his obsession with Christine, visits her at the garage alone one night. The local bullies who have harassed him decided to break in a few days before and completely trash and total the car. Feeling completely helpless, Arnie stands back looking at the damage before muttering that "They can't hurt us anymore...we'll show them," Here Arnie stands back and the secret of how Arnie has been able to repair the car so quickly is revealed. Carpenter's score starts up, and Arnie looks on smiling, like a man watching a woman give a striptease. Slowly the car magically begins to repair itself. The broken glass, and metal all fills in and repairs itself in just a matter of moments, headlights shinning bright. It's here we know the revenge on who's harmed Christine is just starting. 

Stay tuned for part 2 soon!