Plotting King.

Stephen King — bestseller list mainstay, horror icon, fierce Mainer, sporadic EW columnist — has provided the genesis of so many films that, sorting through the list of direct adaptations of his work and looser "based on characters created by"s, you're bound to come across some surprises and oddities, like, say, this Russian animated short, adapted from "Battleground." "1408," which opens tomorrow, is the latest in a less-than-valiant line of titles that have attempted to stretch a King short story into a feature-length film. For all that King has made his name in horror, the highest profile film adaptations of his work are spread evenly between that genre and his excursions into Serious Fiction. The current winner: four novella collection "Different Seasons," which has yielded "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Apt Pupil."

Below, with apologies to New York magazine's Approval Matrix, is our graphic representation of the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens of the oeuvre that is the Stephen King adaptation. (Click on the image to enlarge.)