After The Monkey, Hollywood Should Adapt These Other Stories From Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew

Over his decades-long career, Stephen King has become a towering presence in both literature and film. His works have been adapted countless times over the years with varying degrees of success, and while this trend hasn’t slowed down in the past decade, it has gained prestige. For years, most film adaptations of King’s work failed to capture the magic of his writing, and ended up feeling cheap and cheesy (though sometimes still pretty scary). However, more recent attempts, like 2017’s It Chapter One and Mike Flanagan’s various works, have received praise from critics and fans alike. Plenty more are on the way, like Flanagan’s Dark Tower series and Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man.

Even though his work has spawned dozens of adaptations, there are still some books and stories in the prolific author’s bibliography that have yet to receive the cinematic treatment. His 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew has spawned a couple adaptations, most notably 2007’s The Mist and its subsequent TV series. Still, many of its stories have yet to make their way off the page and onto movie screens. Next year, Osgood Perkins, writer/director of this year’s horror hit Longlegs, will attempt to change this with his adaptation of one of Skeleton Crew’s most memorable stories, “The Monkey.”

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Time will tell if Perkins is able to turn “The Monkey” into a successful film. He’s a very talented director, so there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic. If his film is a hit, it might be a signal to Hollywood that it’s high time to plumb the depths of Skeleton Crew for more material.

“The Raft”

The ninth story in the collection, “The Raft,” couldn’t be much simpler. A group of friends takes a late-season swim out to a floating raft on a small lake, where they’re attacked by a malevolent floating blob that has some surprising abilities. While the premise sounds goofy, “The Raft” is one of King’s most disgustingly gory stories. Its vivid descriptions of carnage would make even the most seasoned gore hound a little queasy.

The story was adapted for film once already in 1987’s Creepshow 2, but the limitations of the time meant that it couldn’t be nearly as gruesome as King’s original. Given that horror cinema has pushed the limits of onscreen gore in the past 30-some years, it would be great to see a more faithful adaptation of the story. Perhaps a modern gore master like Terrifier’s Damien Leone could render it in its full, gnarly glory.

“The Jaunt”

“The Jaunt” is a rare thing in King’s bibliography: a science fiction story. It’s set in a far future that has figured out a way to transport people across vast expanses of space through a process called “jaunting,” in which spacetime is temporarily collapsed. The only problem is that humans and other higher-intelligence creatures can only withstand the journey while unconscious. Otherwise, they would be driven insane by an eternity trapped in the process. While its premise is pretty hard sci-fi, “The Jaunt” still has a pretty terrifying twist ending that brings it back into the realm of horror.

There have been attempts to turn “The Jaunt” into a film over the years. The Flash director Andy Muschietti opted to take it on before changing course and doing IT instead. Most recently, Fear the Walking Dead co-creator Dave Erickson is reportedly developing a TV series based on the story, though it will likely take a lot of liberties to make it work in an episodic format.

“Beachworld”

Speaking of science fiction, it’s no surprise that King’s forays into the genre would play with its more uncanny, frightening implications. He explores the cosmic terror of just how much of our universe remains unknown to us. “Beachworld” is another such story. A human spaceship crash-lands on a vast, sand-filled planet with a strange, almost sentient allure that threatens to draw the characters to their doom. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the sand is more than just inert rock. Rather, it has a life of its own.

There have been a couple of indie film takes on “Beachworld” to date, the first of which was released in 2015. The second was released in 2021 as one of King’s “Dollar Babies,” film projects by up-and-coming directors where King sells the rights to one of his works for just one dollar. King ended the Dollar Baby program last year, but it gave a leg up to many a young filmmaker during its run. While it’s great for indie filmmakers to have a go at the story, “Beachworld” could benefit from a larger-scale, big budget adaptation, one that could faithfully depict its frightening ending.

“Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut”

“Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” is also a bit of an outlier in King’s body of work, but for a different reason. Originally published in the women’s magazine Redbook in 1984, it’s the rare King story that explores the supernatural without descending into full-on horror. Instead, it’s a more lighthearted, fantastical tale of a woman obsessed with finding shortcuts on her car trip. In doing so, she discovers a way to pass into an alternate dimension, one that makes her younger with each trip she takes. While it plays with some uncanny and unsettling elements, its overall tone is far more wistful and melancholy than most King stories.

While King is undoubtedly a master of horror, adaptations of some of his non-horror tales, like The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile, are among his most beloved. Shawshank in particular is considered one of the best films of all time. “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” with its themes of aging and second chances, has the potential to show movie audiences another side of the author’s work, one that explores the unknown with more heart than fear.

Stephen King

Birthdate

September 21, 1947

Birthplace

Portland, Maine

Notable Projects

The Shining , Cujo , The Shawshank Redemption , It , Carrie