Countless films have been adapted from the work of Stephen King. Many are great (The Shining, Misery, The Dead Zone, The Shawshank Redemption) others are horrible (Children of the Corn, and its countless video sequels, Firestarter, Graveyard Shift, etc ...)

King's work for television has also been a mixed bag. I loved the miniseries versions of Salem's Lot, The Stand and IT, even though none could compare to their source material. Battleground was another small-screen winner. I hated The Langoliers and Rose Red.

If you go back to the 80s, there were two episodes of George Romero's and Richard Rubenstein's horror anthology series, Tales From the Darkside that were based on King stories.

The first, Word Processor of the Gods, was adapted by Michael McDowell (Beetlejuice) from King's short story, later published in Skeleton Crew (1985). Considering this was filmed in 1984 and involved a computer with magical DELETE and EXECUTE keys, it's almost quaint. It plays like an update of the classic The Monkey's Paw and contains ideas that King later expanded in his excellent 2008 novel, Duma Key.

The second, Sorry, Right Number, was written by King himself. After Steven Spielberg turned it down for his own anthology series, Amazing Stories, because it wasn't "upbeat" enough, King sent it to his old pal George Romero, with whom he had previously worked on Creepshow (1982). Romero loved it and put it into production. Filmed in 1986 and aired in 1987, the story involves a writer's wife who gets a very disturbing phone call hours before her husband's ... oh, but even that is giving too much away.

Never seen them? Or maybe it's been a couple decades? That's why I'm here.


TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE - WORD PROCESSOR OF THE GODS part 1




TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE - WORD PROCESSOR OF THE GODS part 2




TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE - WORD PROCESSOR OF THE GODS part 3




TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE - SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER part 1




TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE - SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER part 2




TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE - SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER part 3