When a beloved, best-selling creator boasts a physique of labor that’s tailored at the least a dozen instances yearly, it may be fairly tough to maintain up. Effectively, Stephen King is a kind of authors whose books are ceaselessly translated into high-profile initiatives on a regular basis, which embrace the extremely anticipated Mike Flanagan adaptation of “Carrie” and Edgar Wright’s revamped rendition of “The Working Man.” If we glance again at main film releases primarily based on King’s works, loads of them have fared nicely on the field workplace (“It,” “Distress”), whereas others have flown underneath the radar regardless of being uniquely competent (like Flanagan’s genuinely chilling “Physician Sleep”).
For the time being, a brand new King thriller has damaged a large Rotten Tomatoes file, sporting a powerful 95% on the Tomatometer forward of the movie’s theatrical launch. The movie in query is Francis Lawrence’s “The Lengthy Stroll,” which etches a dystopian image of America with its gut-wrenching exploration of what it means to be a young person robbed of selection and autonomy. It’s value noting that Brian De Palma’s “Carrie” nonetheless holds the second-highest combination (for a King adaptation) on Rotten Tomatoes (94%!), adopted by “Stand By Me” and “1922” (the place each sport a 92% score).
/Movie’s BJ Colangelo praised “The Lengthy Stroll” for its visceral emotional impression, together with the truth that it valorizes “friendships nurtured between and by boys, permitting them to hold the identical weight as any romantic love story” (you’ll be able to learn the total evaluate right here). Based mostly on related evaluations that symbolize crucial consensus, it seems that Lawrence’s adaptation of King’s supply materials intimately understands the necessity to reshape and recontextualize the story to create a extra genuine (albeit heartbreaking) cinematic expertise.
With out additional ado, let’s check out what makes King’s “The Lengthy Stroll” so particular within the first place.
Stephen King’s The Lengthy Stroll is a bleak mirror reflecting unsavory truths
King had revealed “The Lengthy Stroll” underneath the mysterious Richard Bachman pseudonym in 1979, nevertheless it was among the many first novels he had begun writing throughout his freshman years. The novel is actually pessimistic in tone, and this bleakness feels doubly pronounced due to its impressed roots in actuality, the place the metaphor is uncomfortably crystal clear from the get-go. When youths like Ray Garraty are thrown right into a life-or-death scenario with out being given a selection, they struggle their finest to romanticize these brutal circumstances, as it’s the solely factor pushing them to maintain strolling.
You see, the premise of the novel is that The Stroll should happen alongside a pre-arranged route whereas the (unwilling) contributors are flanked by guards, with repeated warnings resulting in immediate demise. When these younger boys begin dying and their lives are discarded for no motive, the horrific desperation etched on the onlookers’ faces mirrors our personal. It’s not straightforward to show such a harrowing premise right into a gripping, 400-page thriller with constant emotional stakes, however King does it with nice talent and aptitude. Each character, even those that seem for a short while, makes their mark, as each life misplaced within the identify of this annual contest has been cruelly trampled unprompted.
“The Prize” on the finish of this stroll would not actually matter, because the promised paradise on the finish of the road is not value it and is tainted with demise, devastation, and grief. Lawrence and “Unusual Darling” author/director JT Mollner appear to have leveraged this all-encompassing heartbreak to gas the narrative, the place each character’s subsequent absence stings and additional endangers our protagonists with each step they take.
I do not assume any prior data of King’s novel is required so that you can expertise the total emotional weight of Lawrence’s newest thriller. That stated, you’ll be able to completely go to — or revisit — King’s “The Lengthy Stroll” after watching the film, however there is a stable likelihood that the novel would possibly find yourself feeling extra well timed and devastating than ever earlier than.
“The Lengthy Stroll” releases in theaters on September 12, 2025.
