Summary

  • Movie adaptation of Autopsy Room Four by Stephen King in the works, a short story great for horror movies.
  • Mike Flanagan adapting King's works, upcoming film features single location horror trope.
  • King's stories, like Autopsy Room Four, are creepy, smart, memorable, and keep being adapted for movies and TV.

Stephen King can't write his horror books fast enough for his fans. While everyone waits for his latest release, which Entertainment Weekly reported is the May 2025 novel Never Flinch, quite a few King projects are being developed in Hollywood.

Deadline reported that a movie adaptation of the Stephen King short story Autopsy Room Four is in the works. As Deadline explained, the short story has shown up in a few different places. Besides being made into a 2003 short film, it was included in the 2006 Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King on TNT. The story was published in the short story collection Everything's Eventual along with Robert Bloch's Psychos anthology in 1997 and Six Stories in 1997. Short stories are great horror movie inspiration since they tell a succinct and complete story.

Ranjeet S. Marwa will write and direct the film, and Jon Levin is producing. The story includes the single location horror trope, which is always a fun one to watch. A man got into an accident that could have killed him. While he has survived, he finds himself in an autopsy room, as the title suggests.

bill skarsgard as pennywise the clown in stephen king's it
Stephen king's pennywise in it is not a killer clown

King fans can look forward to plenty of King adaptations, from Mike Flanagan's Dark Tower series to The Running Man, which will be directed by Edgar Wright. Autopsy Room Four stands out since it's about a man stuck in one place. The story features the main character, Howard Cottrell, who lives in the classic King setting Derry, Maine and who appears to be paralyzed. He has to fight for his life and talk to the doctors about what's going on. This story is part of a long history of horror movies or TV episodes in medical settings, like the American Horror Story episode "X."

King has published novels, novellas, and short story collections throughout his long and incredible career. This includes the 2024 release You Like It Darker. In an interview with NPR, he explained that he began writing a story called "The Answer Man" at 30 years old and then completed it at 75. He said:

"What happens with me is I will write stories and they don't always get done. And the ones that don't get done go in a drawer and I forget all about them."

While waiting for more details about Autopsy Room Four, King's fans are also hoping to hear more about Flanagan's Carrie TV series. These upcoming adaptations are all reminders that King's tales are always creepy, smart, memorable, and thought-provoking. He writes about characters experiencing the paranormal and the extraordinary while living in seemingly regular small towns, and it's no wonder so many of his stories are still being made into movies and TV shows.

Source: Deadline.com