CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984) was one of the worst adaptations of the early 1980s, but it’s a masterpiece compared to its seven direct-to-video sequels and 2009 remake. “Battleground” became the basis for the first (and some say best) episode of the 2006 TNT miniseries NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES.įeature film adaptations have not fared quite as well, illustrating that it’s no easy task to expand on King’s storytelling. “The Ledge” and “Quitters, Inc.” were combined with a third story for Lewis Teague’s anthology film CAT’S EYE (1985). The trend started in the early 80s, when “The Boogeyman” (an effectively moody adaptation by director Jeff Schiro) and “The Woman in the Room” (an early effort by Frank Darabont, who would become one of King’s most successful collaborators) were paired together in a video release called STEPHEN KING’S NIGHT SHIFT COLLECTION (1989). Sometimes she gets her degree, and sometimes she gets date-raped by frat boys.Īt this point, many of the Night Shift stories have been faithfully adapted into independent short films. The author once joked that having one of your stories adapted to the screen feels like sending your daughter off to college. For the most part, those adaptations have been out of King’s hands. In comparison, several of the other stories in this collection evolved (or devolved) into films. “The Boogeyman,” first published in 1973, is the forerunner of It. “Night Surf,” first published in 1974, reads like a prologue to The Stand.

“Jerusalem’s Lot,” written in 1967 as a college term paper, eventually became Salem’s Lot. Several of the short stories in Night Shift proved to be the seeds of his more famous novels. One of the things I realized while re-reading Stephen King’s Night Shift collection is that the author seems to write short stories as a way of capturing new, and potentially fleeting, ideas.

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