[user104658]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Misery
IT (2017)
Stand By Me

Not only are these the best adaptations... they're pretty much the only good adaptations full stop .

The Shining is a good movie in its own right but it doesn't capture the book at all. So I struggle to call it an adaptation.

The Stand TV movie is good for what it is but the production is cheap as chips and it's dated badly, and also, it's my favourite King novel and it's so packed full of material that it would take a several-full-seasons-long TV series to actually do it justice. There's a season's worth of material for practically every character in the book... and there are a tonne of characters. I don't think a "great" adaptation CAN be done... it would need a huge commitment and a decent budget.

I personally also have a soft spot for the TV adaptation of IT, as I think there are several aspects it does far better than the new movie. Not least... for most of the running time, IT is a sinister and creepy background presence, far more subtle than in the movie, which goes for a few too many "jump" and "chase" scares. For example, the giant head bursting out of the projector images is NOWHERE NEAR as effective as the same scene in the TV adaptation (they're looking at still pictures and suddenly notice that Pennywise is moving in the pictures and looking at them). Again though, suffers from dated production values, where movies like Green Mile, Shawshank and Stand By Me are timeless.

Most of the other movies haven't aged well to the point of being bad, or just weren't good to begin with.