The Best Stephen King Shows for Grownups

As the King of Horror's new series ‘The Institute’ debuts, it's high time to watch his greatest TV triumphs

Nicholas DeRenzo,

AARP

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Published July 10, 2025

Jason Diaz, Julian Richings and Mary-Louise Parker in ‘The Institute’

Chris Reardon/MGM+

For five decades, the fiction of Stephen King, 77, has been adapted for classic films: Carrie, The Shining, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption. But he's also made a mark on the small screen with dozens of TV shows and miniseries. On July 13, MGM+ premieres the new supernatural horror series The Institute, based on his 2019 novel of the same name, about a teen genius who wakes up in a facility filled with children of unusual abilities, overseen by the shadowy Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker, 60). Later this year, Bill Skarsgård will return as Pennywise the Clown in the HBO prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, set in a fictional 1960s Maine town. If you’re looking for still more King chillers, stream these 15 thought-provoking, often spine-tingling TV shows.

11.22.63 (2016)

Based on: 11/22/63 (2011)

The premise: Jake Epping (James Franco) is a divorced Maine English teacher who’s offered the chance to go back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. While he’s serious about his mission to stop Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber), he also begins to enjoy his life in the Mad Men era a bit too much, and falls for a woman who works at the school where he takes a job. Spoiler: trying to change history seldom goes well, and the past may find ways to thwart this intrusion from the future.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV

Bag of Bones (2011)

Based on: Bag of Bones (1998)

The premise: Aired in two parts on A&E, this Gothic horror series follows novelist Mike Noonan (Pierce Brosnan, 72), who retreats to his Maine lake house after his wife is killed by a bus. Faced with writer’s block, Mike begins to experience visions and nightmares, and he’s visited by the spirit of a 1930s blues singer (Anika Noni Rose, 52). Murders, suicides, car chases, and custody battles follow in a plot-heavy drama that might remind you at times of The Shining.

Watch it: Apple TV

Castle Rock (2018-19)

Based on: Various works set in and around the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

The premise: Think of Castle Rock as Stephen King remixed. The titular Maine town has appeared in his novels The Dead Zone, Cujo and Needful Things, and this series follows existing and original characters with plenty of references to other King stories. One character is the niece of Jack Torrance from The Shining; another is an inmate from Shawshank State Penitentiary; and Lizzy Caplan stars in season two as a younger version of Annie Wilkes, the obsessive fan from Misery.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu

Chapelwaite (2021)

Based on: “Jerusalem’s Lot,” a short story in the collection Night Shift (1978)

The premise: Before he won his second Oscar in The Brutalist this year, Adrien Brody (52) starred in this moody, 1850s-set horror series. After his wife dies on a whale ship, Captain Charles Boone (Brody) and his children return to their small Maine town — like so many of King’s protagonists — and an ancestral home where portraits are missing from frames, mysterious bloodstains mark up the floors, and the bathtub is fitted with leather shackles. What do all these portents foretell? Strap in for the suspenseful ten-episode ride to find out.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV, MGM+

The Dead Zone (2002-07)

Based on: The Dead Zone (1979)

The premise: Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall, 57, in a role Christopher Walken, 82, played in the 1983 film version) awakens from a years-long coma and learns that he now has psychic abilities, triggered by touching people or objects. Doctors attribute the newfound skills to a previously “dead zone” in his brain that switched back to life. Johnny decides to use his powers for good and helps solve crimes — until he starts seeing terrifying visions of an apocalyptic future, brought about by a congressional candidate fated to become president. Think of The Dead Zone as something of a Stephen King take on the police procedural genre.

Watch it: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Pluto TV

Haven (2010-15)

Based on: The Colorado Kid (2005)

The premise: Loosely based on the 2005 mystery novel The Colorado Kid, this supernatural crime drama sees FBI special agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) assigned to the small town of Haven (in guess which state), plagued by paranormal afflictions called the Troubles. After joining the local police force, she starts to realize that she may have been drawn here for mysterious reasons. King fans will enjoy uncovering all the book-related Easter eggs hidden throughout the plot: a killer clown, a book written by the author from Misery, etc.

Watch it: Prime Video, Peacock

It (1990)

Based on: It (1986)

The premise: Nightmare fuel for an entire generation, it's the story of a shape-shifting monster who can take the form of his victims’ biggest fears — including Pennywise, a terrifying clown played by Tim Curry, 79. The two-part miniseries is set in two different time periods, with a group of kids known as the Losers Club taking on Pennywise in 1960 and then again as adults in 1990. While it wasn’t exactly a critical favorite, it’s become a cult classic and spawned sequels, documentaries, big-screen adaptations and an upcoming HBO prequel series.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu

Lisey’s Story (2021)

Based on: Lisey’s Story (2006)

The premise: King has called the 2006 bestseller his most personal book ever, and he decided to adapt it for the screen himself — the first time he wrote an entire TV series since the 1997 miniseries version of The Shining. After the death of her famous author husband Scott Landon (Clive Owen, 60), Lisey (Julianne Moore, 64) is besieged by academics and obsessive fans trying to get her to release his unpublished manuscripts. Scott has set a posthumous scavenger hunt for her, and along the way, she must face forgotten repressed memories from their past. Joan Allen, 68, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, 63, co-star as Lisey’s sisters in a gorgeously shot (if a bit overly mystical) adaptation by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, best known for Jackie and Maria.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV

The Mist (2017)

Based on: The Mist (1980)

The premise: First published as part of the Dark Forces anthology and later adapted into a 2007 feature film, this horror novella is set in a small Maine town — noticing a pattern? — that becomes enveloped in a mysterious mist. Residents find themselves trapped in a mall, a church, and a hospital, and see apparitions associated with past fears or guilt with often gory consequences. Plus human-eating bugs. The cast includes TV stalwarts like Six Feet Under’s Frances Conroy, 72, and The Gilded Age’s Morgan Spector.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV

Mr. Mercedes (2017-19)

Based on: The Bill Hodges trilogy, including Mr. Mercedes (2014), Finders Keepers (2015), and End of Watch (2016)

The premise: David E. Kelley, 69, developed this crime drama, based on King’s hard-boiled detective trilogy. Irish Oscar nominee Brendan Gleeson, 70 (The Banshees of Inisherin), stars as Bill Hodges, a retired detective who becomes obsessed with the unsolved case of Mr. Mercedes, a murderer who rammed a car into people waiting in line at a job fair. The killer, an electronics store worker named Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway) begins taunting Bill with a series of letters, setting off a deadly cat-and-mouse game.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV, Peacock

The Outsider (2020)

Based on: The Outsider (2018)

The premise: After the body of an 11-year-old boy is found in the Georgia woods, detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn, 56) finds evidence points to a popular Little League coach (Jason Bateman, 56), and there may be supernatural elements at play. Double Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (Wicked, Harriet) co-stars as Holly Gibney, an investigator with savant-like memory, who also appears in other King works, including the Bill Hodges trilogy. It’s a dark, suspenseful show that would appeal to fans of True Detective.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu, Max

Salem’s Lot (1979)

Based on: ’Salem’s Lot (1975)

The premise: King tried his hand at the vampire genre with this 1975 novel about a writer who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine — ’Salem’s Lot for short — to work on his next book. But he quickly finds that the place he once knew is being overrun by vampires transforming townspeople into forces of evil. This 1979 miniseries version was such a cult hit that it led to a 1987 theatrical sequel, a 2004 miniseries starring Rob Lowe (61) and a 2024 feature film.

Watch it: Prime Video

The Stand (1994)

Based on: The Stand (1978)

The premise: This chilling four-episode miniseries follows the aftermath of a weaponized influenza accidentally released from a government lab, wiping out over 99 percent of the world’s population in two weeks. The survivors quickly divide into two camps: Those who follow a mysterious, 106-year-old woman named Mother Abagail (Ruby Dee) who claims to be a prophet of God, and those who follow the antichrist-like Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan, 73). The sprawling ensemble featured more than 125 speaking roles, with a cast that includes Gary Sinise (70), Molly Ringwald (57), Rob Lowe (61), Ossie Davis, and many more. The miniseries was critically acclaimed, earning six Emmy nominations and winning two for makeup and sound mixing.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV

The Stand (2020-21)

Based on: The Stand (1978)

Talk about bad timing! Or perfect — this nine-episode adaptation began on Paramount+ and Starz in December 2020 at the height of a real and quite scary pandemic. The 2020 remake updated the setting to the present day, and King worked with his novelist son, Owen, on a new ending for the saga. Whoopi Goldberg, 69, took over the role of Mother Abagail, with Alexander Skarsgård plumbing his nefarious side as Randall Flagg; the ensemble included James Marsden (51), Greg Kinnear (62), Odessa Young, and Amber Heard.

Watch it: Prime Video, Apple TV, Paramount+

Under the Dome (2013-15)

Based on: Under the Dome (2009)

The premise: Fans of Lost will enjoy this CBS sci-fi series that ran for 39 binge-worthy episodes. An enormous, indestructible dome appears out of nowhere over the small town of Chester’s Mill, cutting off its residents from the world outside. As the government and the military try to tear down the barrier, the trapped townspeople have to learn how to survive inside their human terrarium, as supplies dwindle and tensions start to boil over.

Watch it: Prime Video, The CW, Paramount+

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Nicholas DeRenzo is a contributing writer who covers entertainment and travel. Previously he was executive editor of United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Sunset and New York magazine.