My Wife and Friend Played a Movie Game Modeled After a Podcast in an Effort to Determine the Best Stephen King Adaptation (And I was the Engineer)
Last month I played a game based on the Incinerator Podcast, hosted by one Billy Ray Brewton, where a friend and I determined the best film from Woody Allen. I wrote a blog about it. (https://frombtoapodcast.blogspot.com/2022/05/my-friend-and-i-played-movie-game.html ) I got a lot of good feedback on the blog and my wife (Vanessa) and a mutual friend (Scott) decided they wanted to play the same game but with Stephen King adaptations. Here is how the game works.
The premise is two people make individual top twenty lists on any given topic (for instance vampire films). The host takes a look at the lists and sees what titles the two players have in common. Let's say the players have 8 in common picks. Each player must now pick 6 out of the 12 they did not have in common and submit those. That makes up a top twenty list. There is an engineer who adds five films that he/she feels are lacking from the list and that makes a top 25.
The players then eliminate films one by one until only one is left standing. But the engineer gets to add landmines to certain films, 3 out of 5 of his picks and four of the common picks (only the host and engineer know what the landmines are). Going back to the vampire example, if Near Dark is on a common list, a landmine might be. You cannot eliminate the film at this spot. Please eliminate a film by a male director instead.
In addition to the landmines, the engineer has the ability to place one film from the list of 25 safe until the top 3. And there are saves. A player can sacrifice one of the picks on his unique list to save any film for the next round. (Saves for this game were at spot 20 in the first round, 12 in the second round and 6 in the last round). The host also gets one save. Additionally, if the common picks are uneven, the host can select a film in the common list to make it even. In my Woody Allen version, my wife was the host and I got the Woody Allen pages podcast to act as engineer. Here I was playing both host and engineer so I used a random number app to determine what the host save would go to, and I had to use a random title app to determine the film to add when they had an uneven number of like minded picks.
Scott and Vanessa submitted their lists. There were two extra rules that they came up with. It had to be an original King script adapted to film or adaptation of a King story or book So continuations that have little to do with source material like Children of the Corn 2 or Lawnmower Man 2 for instance were ineligible. Also, if two versions of an adaptation were on the list, a trivia question would determine what version made it on. So if Vanessa picked The Stand (1994) and Scott picked The Stand (2020) and Scott won the trivia, 2020 would stay on and Vanessa would have to go with another title. I limited this to individual picks. For instance, if both had played different versions of The Stand in their top 20, I did not count them as a common (like minded) pick. If they each played The Stand as one of their individual picks, they would have to trivia it out. That did not ultimately happen though.
Out of their Top 20, they had 9 in common picks.
Storm of the Century (1999)
The Green Mile (1999)
Pet Semetary (1989)
Carrie (1976)
Misery (1990)
The Shining (1980)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
1408 (2007)
The Mist (2007)
I used a random title app to bring up the 10th title
The Running Man (1987)
They each sent me 5 of their remaining 11. And I as engineer came up with 5 titles to add. And this is how the top 25 ended up in no qualitative order.
Engineer picks (3 out of 5 of these have a landmine attached)
25. Trucks (1997)
24. Paranoid (2000)
23. 1922 (2017)
22. Stand By Me (1986)
21. The Mangler (1995)
Vanessa Unique Picks (all of which can be sacrificed as saves)
20. Cat's Eye (1985)
19. Creepshow (1982)
18. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
17. It Chapter One (2017)
16. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Scott's Unique Picks (all of which can be sacrificed as saves)
15. Christine (1983)
14. The Dark Half (1993)
13. The Dead Zone (1983)
12. Needful Things (1993)
11. The Dark Tower (2017)
Common Picks (4 out of 10 have landmines attached)
10. The Running Man (1987)
09. Storm of the Century (1999)
08. The Green Mile (1999)
07. Pet Semetary (1989)
06. The Mist (2007)
05. Carrie (1976)
04. Misery (1990)
03. The Shining (1980)
02. Doctor Sleep (2019)
01. 1408 (2007)
A movie trivia game determined that Scott went first and he went after a film that I think is 2/3rds of a good movie. Scott did not like one of the stories, did not think it matched the director, Lewis Teague's other King adaptation (Cujo). And did not think it matched the other anthology on the list, Creepshow. At 25 Scott eliminated and Vanessa opted not to save (tho she did like the idea of an animal as hero in a King story)...
25. Cat's Eye (1985)
24. The Dark Tower (2017)
Vanessa admitted that Idris is hot AF but found the movie a chore to get through. Scott thought it should be on the list because it is King's most important work and Kai is a wheel but opted not to save it. It was Scott's turn at 23 and he went for what both players agreed was a good star vehicle but a cheesy film adaptation.
23. The Running Man (1987)
At 22, Vanessa attempted to play Trucks, the better version of Maximum Overdrive, but she hit a landmine. It kept Trucks safe at 17 and had her answer a trivia question to determine if she would lose her turn.
We all know Carrie is King's first novel. What is his second?
She guessed Firestarter and lost her turn. The answer was Salem's Lot. I like the short film Paranoid because it is based on a Stephen King poem. The whole text is in the short, which makes it a unique adaptation (found on YouTube). Scott liked the visuals but not the poetry.
22. Paranoid (2000)
Paranoid had a landmine attached and a somewhat positive one. It could be eliminated, but Scott now had to replace one novel adaptation on the list when one not on the list. He chose to replace Misery with Salem's Lot, the 2004 version which he is quite fond of. 21 was also Scott's pick.
21. Christine (1983)
At 20, Vanessa attempted to play 1922. It is my second favorite King adaptation. I love the setting and mood and the young lovers and the cow scene and the horrifying scene with the ghost of Molly Parker whispering in Thomas Jane's ear. Scott felt much the same way likened it to the King book Revival and opted to sacrifice The Dark Half to save 1922 at 12.
20. The Dark Half (1993)
(Only 1 landmine left in the engineer picks)
19. Trucks (safe at 17) 18. 1922 (safe at 12) 17. Stand by Me 16. The Mangler
(Vanessa's save picks)
15. Creepshow 14. Dolores Claiborne 13. It Chapter One 12. The Shawshank Redemption
(Scott's save picks)
11. The Dead Zone 10. Needful Things
(Agreed picks with 4 landmines left and if Misery had a landmine it is in Salem's Lot 2004 now)
09. Salem's lot-2004 08. Carrie-1976 07. The Shining-1980 06. Storm of the Century 05. Pet Semetary-1989 04. The Green Mile 03. The Mist 02. Doctor Sleep 01. 1408
At 19, Scott attempted to play Stand by Me, arguing that it is a good coming of age story, but it has some of the same beats as It and that has the advantage of a killer clown. The film had a landmine attached. It meant that Stand By Me was safe for that turn and Scott had to pick a film with "The" in the title. He picked one he found uplifting but not horror.
19. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
18. Needful Things (1993)
17. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
That was a shock to me. But we must soldier on. At 16, Vanessa finally got rid of Trucks. I love the hippie character and enjoyed the film quite a bit.
16. Trucks (1997)
The next one hurt because it is so much fun and has a great Ted Levine performance, but Scott found the CGI utterly lacking tho he liked the film as well. All three of us, in fact, admitted it was a good time.
15. The Mangler (1995)
A quick recap of the list.
14. 1922 (safe at 12) 13. Stand by Me
(V's unique picks which can be used as saves)
12. Creepshow 11. It Chapter One
(Scott's unique picks which can be used as saves)
10. The Dead Zone
(Agreed picks with 4 landmines left and if Misery had a landmine it is in Salem's Lot 2004 now)
09. Salem's lot-2004 08. Carrie-1976 07. The Shining-1980 06. Storm of the Century 05. Pet Semetary-1989 04. The Green Mile 03. The Mist 02. Doctor Sleep 01. 1408
At 14, it turned out Vanessa was in agreement with Scott about Stand by Me.
14. Stand by Me (1986)
Wildcard Scott then went with one of his own picks, a miniseries he dearly loves but could not see going past 13.
13. Salem's Lot (2004)
Vanessa then eliminated Scott's only save on the board admitting it did not hit as hard as the other titles left. For my part, I hated the girlfriend character and never bought Walken as a normal guy with powers. But we all commented that it was weird that Martin Sheen played two note worthy bad guys in two King adaptations in the early 80s.
12. The Dead Zone (1983)
For 11, Scott admitted he loved all the stories but just not enough to save the film past this point.
11. Creepshow (1982)
Vanessa attempted to play Storm of the Century at number 10. There was a landmine attached. She had to make a choice. She could replace Storm of the Century with another miniseries and that miniseries would be safe until number 6. If she did that however she would lose a turn. The other option was simply eliminate Storm of Century and carry on as usual. She opted to replace Storm of the Century with The Stand (1994) and the next two picks were for Scott. Scott chose a heartbreaking drama because Coffey was too much of a Christ figure for his liking.
10. The Green Mile (1999)
At 9, Scott argued that The Shining tho it is a great work is not liked by the author, so that is reason enough it should not hit the top spot. The pick did have a landmine that required Scott to be able to name four other Kubrick films in order to eliminate The Shining or else he would have to pick something else. He did so with ease.
09. The Shining (1980)
With Doctor Sleep safe, Vanessa chose 1922.
08. 1922 (2007)
07. It Chapter One (2017)
Vanessa reluctantly went for one of her own picks she added to the list next. She admitted it had some slow parts but "Don't fear the Reaper" really stuck with her.
06. The Stand (1994)
Things change radically at pick 5. In the podcast on which this game is based, there is a guess the engineer thing that never quite works for me. I just do a trivia question to determine who gets picks 5 and 2 and who gets picks 3 and 4. All landmines are diffused at 6 and saves no longer work. So it is a good time to admit that my random app put the host save on Carrie which never needed to be used. Carrie also had one of the two landmines that did not go off. It would have required the person trying to get rid of Carrie to chose a 1990's film instead. The other landmine was attached to Pet Semetary and it would have changed out the 1989 version for the 2019 version. I am glad that was not played. So here is the top 5.
5. Carrie (1976)
4. Pet Semetary (1989)
3. The Mist (2007)
2. Doctor Sleep (2019)-safe at 3
1. 1408 (2007)
And here is the trivia question. We know Stephen King has dozens of film adaptations. How many does best selling horror author Dean Koontz have?
Scott answered 4 and Vanessa answered 3. The answer was seven. so Scott was up at pick 5 and would ultimately get the winner. He was really into 1408, but he wished the film did a better job of making the audience believe he was free from the room at certain points. He said 1408 is great but he still has Oculus to watch.
05. 1408 (2007)
Vanessa decided to go with Pet Semetary and Doctor Sleep; goodbye Rose the Hat.
04. Pet Semetary (1989)
Scott now had to go with either Carrie or The Mist. And Vanessa had a few regrets. While Scott admitted Carrie is iconic and the film that started it all, The Mist shook him to the core because of Thomas Jane realizing he had murdered his son for nothing. Society breaks down in a closed room.
02. Carrie (1976)
01. The Mist (2007)
They made some tough choices, sometimes went against their own interests, but the results were fun. There is talk Vanessa and I may do an Adam Sandler game one day.
For now, I am going to focus on getting the first episode of my new podcast out by end of June. https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/davidraschepodcast
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