It’s been said before, and said before by me, that Stephen King is the most prolific movie writer ever, and he rarely (if ever) even writes for the screen. His books and novellas are constantly being adapted into feature films. Heck, there have been two major ones this year between The Monkey and The Life of Chuck. And now, there’s a third for the year, and it’s possibly the best of the year. Now, there’s The Long Walk.

The Long Walk takes place in a dystopian America where a war has ravaged the country and, in order to boost morale and stimulate the workforce, a competition is held every year. One young man from each state is selected to walk until he can walk no more, hopefully farther than the others. Because if a contestant slows down below three miles per hour, after a series of three warnings, they are executed. And the last boy standing gets a cash prize and a single wish granted.

So, yeah. It’s like a simplified The Hunger Games. Or an “elevated” The Hunger Games. Because in its simplicity, the concept becomes more real…and more terrifying.

Anyway, the participants of this year’s Long Walk cruise along and talk. Friends are made, as are enemies. Alliances are forged, as are rivalries. And as the pool of walkers shrinks, the fact sinks in with the survivors that only one of them will still be walking at the end of this nightmare.

The Long Walk was the first Stephen King book ever written, even completed before his first published novel, Carrie. It was published later, though, and under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. And it remains a solid example of the early, not-overly-indulgent King that fans knew and loved 50 years ago.

For the most part, The Long Walk sticks fairly close to King’s source material. A couple of characters are combined here, and some intricacies are changed there, but basically, the story is the same. It’s much more faithful than most of the King adaptations that moviegoers get these days.

It’s not insignificant that The Long Walk was directed by Francis Lawrence, who did most of the Hunger Games movies. Aside from the concept being similar, the look and feel of the dystopian America in The Long Walk is very much like that of the downtrodden District 12 in The Hunger Games. But even more significant is that King’s story was adapted for the screen by JT Mollner, who brought us Strange Darling last year. Mollner has a way with dialogue, which is very important to The Long Walk.

See, basically what The Long Walk boils down to is a series of conversations between the walkers. Although all of the participants get screen time, the main characters are two boys named Ray Garraty (Licorice Pizza’s Cooper Hoffman) and Pete McVries (David Jonsson from Alien: Romulus), and their discussions go everywhere from the philosophical topics of free will and the fear of failure to more intimate ones of their family lives and the familiarity of their hometowns.

Lawrence captures these talks in long takes and single shots that really let the actors run loose with Mollner’s dialogue, and the results are mesmerizing. The characters are a combination of desperate and guarded, wanting to connect with their fellow contestants but also afraid of forming a close bond with someone who will not live out the event. And as they get more exhausted, the discussions get just as vulnerable as the walkers.

These conversations are, unfortunately for the boys, interrupted and punctuated by sudden acts of extreme violence. Every time a contestant fails, they die, and they die in gruesome and brutal ways. And Lawrence’s camera captures this in all of its unflinching glory. These violent episodes are where The Long Walk earns its stripes as a horror movie. The concept of walking for your life is terrifying enough, but when the audience actually sees the punishments that these guys are facing, it’s downright traumatizing.

And then, there’s Mark Hamill. The legendary Star Wars icon plays a character known only as “The Major” who is essentially in charge of the Walk, accompanying the participants on every mile of their arduous trek. Although he does it while riding next to them in an Army Jeep instead of expending any energy himself. And this fact makes the characters (and the audience) hate him even more than they already would. Hamill’s performance is pretty one-note, but that one note is all it takes for him to craft a deplorable villain. He makes the viewer want to punch through the screen and knock the helmet and sunglasses right off his smug face. And with every death of a walker, he’s hated more.

The Long Walk is one of the more inventive horror movies in recent memory, if only because its concept doesn’t revolve around ghosts, zombies, or serial killers. Which also makes it one of the more effective horror movies in recent memory. It’s more believable and realistic than any supernatural story, especially in today’s political climate. Let’s all hope The Last Walk remains a work of fiction.

GRADE: A

Rating: R for sexual references, pervasive language, grisly images, strong bloody violence, and suicide
Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes
Release Date: September 12, 2025
Studio: Lionsgate