The 3 Stephen King movies releasing in 2023 (so far)

Screenrant recently ranked 11 upcoming 2023 horror movies by hype. Two of them were Stephen King movies, and both landed on the list’s top five: Salem’s Lot and The Boogeyman, ranking 4 and 5, respectively.

But there’s at least one other Stephen King movie releasing in 2023, too: Children of the Corn. It’ll actually be the first to hit theaters.

Let’s look at exactly when and where we can watch each of the Stephen King movies that we know for sure are releasing this year. Then we’ll look at some more that also have a possibility of coming out in 2023.

Stephen King movies definitely releasing in 2023

The first Stephen King movie to hit theaters this year will be Children of the Corn on March 3. It will have an 18-day theatrical window before premiering on Shudder.

Even though it’s inspired by one of Stephen King’s short stories from his Night Shift collection, it takes some liberties with it. Instead of coming upon a town devoid of any adults because a gang of creepy little kids has killed them all, we’ll get to see a town fall as “He Who Walks” uses a little girl named Eden to satisfy the evil entity’s bloodlust and turn the town’s youngest residents into murderous monsters.

Gary Dauberman (Annabelle, It) wrote the latest screenplay adaptation of King’s book, Salem’s Lot, which was originally slated to hit theaters on Sep. 9, 2022, but then it got pushed to April 2023. According to The Wrap, it looks like it will still be released on April 21, 2023, but IMDB doesn’t display that information yet. Even if it’s not April, I’m going to remain optimistic that it really will be out this year.

One of my all-time favorite Stephen King miniseries adaptations was the 1979 version of Salem’s Lot. (To this day, I see fog at night? I book it inside! The Mist didn’t help matters any. What is it with King and fog? But I digress…)

Like many others, I’m a little wary of how Salem’s Lot will translate into a movie. However, according to Lewis Pullman, who plays Ben Mears, the remake remains faithful to the book. Fingers crossed he’s right. He also said Dauberman is “a Stephen King hound dog so he doesn’t wanna do Stephen dirty.” That also gives me hope.

The third Stephen King movie we know that’s coming this year is The Boogeyman on June 2, 2023. It’s also adapted from one of King’s short stories from the Night Shift collection. It’s about Lester Billings, a man grieving the deaths (murders) of his three children. Their deaths all differed, but each was murdered in their bedrooms. They also each shouted, “The Boogeyman,” before they met their fates. And when their bodies were discovered, their closet doors were open, even though their dad was sure they’d been shut beforehand.

Sounds chilling right? It must be pretty decent. It was supposed to release straight to Hulu, but due to the reaction of test audiences, movie execs decided it deserved a theatrical release. It might prove a great way to cool down with a chill as summer starts to heat up.

Stephen King movies and TV shows possibly releasing in 2023

In addition to the three movies already mentioned above, another Screenrant post addressed five other Stephen King titles that could release in 2023, either as movies or TV shows. All are in various stages of production, but no release dates have been revealed for any of them yet.

The most promising would be a Pet Sematary prequel. IMDB states the plot is under wraps, but does list the cast, which includes Samantha Mathis, Henry Thomas, Natalie Alyn Lind, Pam Grier,  and Jackson White as a young Jud Crandall. It looks like it’s set to release as a Paramount+ original movie.

From a Buick 8 is also another 2023 possibility. It’s listed as in development on IMDB, so since the year’s still young, there’s a chance it could be completed in time for a late 2023 release. But if not, we know we have a Christine-like Stephen King horror movie to look forward to in the future.

Directors have been announced for both The Long Walk, which King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. But there haven’t been any production updates, so it’s not likely we’d see these in 2023. But that doesn’t mean we can’t hope, right?

And then there’s Revelations, an adaptation of The Revelations of Becka Paulson, a short story from King’s Skeleton Crew collection. In 2020, the CW announced a series inspired by the short story was under development, but it’s been crickets since then. It could turn out that it’s among the new shows being released for the fall 2023 season, or it may have been quietly scrapped. Let’s hope it’s the former!

Of the three Stephen King movies that we know are releasing in 2023, which one(s) are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comment section!