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Stephen King Takes a Jab at Superhero Movies: “That’s Wrong”
Stephen King’s imagination has populated cinema with some of its most enduring monsters, from the sewer-dwelling clown Pennywise in It to the ghost-haunted halls of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. For decades, his novels have served as a bottomless well for Hollywood, creating a vast library of adaptations that have defined the horror genre for generations of moviegoers. This long and intimate relationship with the film industry has given King a powerful voice, one he rarely hesitates to use. With the film adaptation of The Long Walk, one of his earliest and most disturbing novels, soon hitting theaters, King sets up a direct comparison between the unflinching nature of his story and the sanitized violence that has become the norm in superhero cinema.
“If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see … some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks, but you never see any blood. And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic,” King said in an interview with The Times of London, in which he also revealed he explicitly asked for teenagers to be shot on screen for The Long Walk. “I said, if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”
King’s insistence on brutality is central to The Long Walk‘s terrifying premise. Written while he was a teenager and published in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, the story is set in a dystopian America where 100 teenage boys compete in the titular annual event. The rules are simple: maintain a walking speed of at least three miles per hour. If a contestant drops below that speed for too long, they receive three warnings before they are shot and killed. The last boy left standing wins anything he desires for the rest of his life.
The Long Walk Is Being Praised as One of the Best Stephen King Movies
For many years, a film version of The Long Walk seemed impossible, with notable filmmakers like George A. Romero and Frank Darabont attempting to bring it to the screen without success. The Long Walk film adaptation finally comes from director Francis Lawrence, who is no stranger to dystopian stories about teenagers in violent competitions, having directed multiple films in The Hunger Games franchise. The first reactions from early viewings are generating significant positive buzz, with many critics considering The Long Walk a top-tier adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
The central performances from Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson in The Long Walk are receiving immense praise, with many suggesting their work is strong enough to be considered for major awards. Overall, the film’s success seems to stem from its commitment to a hard-R rating and its focus on the grueling emotional journey of its characters, creating a viewing experience that many have described as harrowing and deeply affecting. The consensus is that Lawrence has crafted a character-driven survival story that captures the heartbreaking essence of King’s original novel, which means the author’s original notes were fully embraced by the creative team.
The Long Walk is scheduled to be released in theaters on September 12th.
Do you agree with Stephen King’s criticism of superhero movies? Are you excited about The Long Walk? Join the discussion in the comments!
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