Carrie

Brian De Palma is a master of the psychological thriller, so it’s appropriate that he was the first person to bring a Stephen King novel to the screen. And he does it with a flair for genre alchemy, mixing cheesecake, teen comedy, and over-the-top camp in with the horror story about a high school outcast with telekinetic powers. The climactic massacre at the school prom is still one of the most shocking set-pieces ever devised, 36 years later.

The Shining

Stephen King himself wasn’t a fan of the changes Stanley Kubrick made to his novel about a father attacking his family with an axe during a stay at an abandoned (and haunted) hotel. Most movie fans disagree, though, and The Shining has a reputation as one of the best and scariest horror movies ever made.