‘The Long Walk’ First Reactions: “Harrowing, Traumatizing” Film Ranks With Stephen King’s Best

‘The Long Walk’ First Reactions: “Harrowing, Traumatizing” Film Ranks With Stephen King’s Best

The first reactions are in for Stephen King‘s dystopian cardio thriller The Long Walk, and critics say that the film is a brutal and riveting adaptation that might even generate Oscar buzz for its young stars.

Based on King’s 1979 novel, The Long Walk (trailer below) chronicles an annual state-sponsored contest where 50 teenage boys set out on a march where a contestant is shot if they fall below 3 mph. They walk until just one boy is left standing. King wrote the book in high school — making it the first novel he wrote — and then it was published under a pseudonym after he became a best-selling author. The long-awaited film adaption is directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed three of the Hunger Games movies, and stars Cooper Hoffman (son of the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman) and David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus) as two of the Walkers and Mark Hamill as the military officer in charge of the contest.

The early reactions of the Lionsgate project say the adaption a devastating and harrowing, effectively capturing what readers loved about King’s cult favorite novel while expanding the tale’s emotional depth (and throwing in a few changes).

Below is a sample of some of the reactions so far:

“The Long Walk is an incredibly harrowing, terrifying, and traumatizing film,” writes The Direct‘s Russ Milheim. “Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson give Oscar-worthy performances. It’s maybe a tad long, but it does really sell the world it creates & the characters viewers find themselves walking with until the end.”

“The Long Walk easily one of the most intense emotional wallops of the year,” wrote Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff. “I’m exhausted — and the movie earned it. You can tell the source material was adapted by someone who really gets it. Much respect for [screenwriter] JT Mollner, and also director Francis Lawrence, for not holding back in the least when it comes to showing how terrible The Long Walk is. But one of the things that I found most remarkable about the movie is how it still manages to be soulful and have its heart firmly in the best possible place while wading into the darkness.”

“The Long Walk one of the most powerful Stephen King adaptations in recent years,” writes DiscussingFilm‘s Andrew J. Salazar. “Francis Lawrence pulls no punches, driving home the book’s themes of how authoritarianism continues to eat away at today’s youth.”

“An absolutely brutal experience that left me visibly shocked,” writes Reel Roller‘s Chris Gallardo. “Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson’s friendship is sweet to watch in the midst of the grueling moments and physical struggles. It’s Stephen King in the vein of Hunger Games: purely intense.”

“I had an hour-long drive home after my screening of The Long Walk, and I couldn’t listen to music or an audiobook; I just had to sit in silence with the knot in my stomach,” wrote CinemaBland‘s Eric Eisenberg. “It’s a powerful, gripping and shocking film that is a perfect adaptation of the Stephen King source material. Unforgettable.”

“Mark Hamill leans a bit too heavily into the Major’s villainy,” wrote Matt Neglia of the Next Best Picture podcast. “But Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson deliver powerful, magnetic & relatable performances of remarkable depth, grounding the film in profound emotion and humanity through their characters’ brotherhood in the face of totalitarian oppression & certain death. The result is an exhausting yet gripping journey that, even at under two hours, left me feeling as though I too had marched for hundreds of miles alongside them. Hard-R brutal and moving.”

“The Long Walk houses pitch perfect, exceptional performances from Cooper Hoffman & David Jonsson,” writes film critic Courtney Howard. “Visceral, gripping, emotional & provocative, a brilliant Stephen King adaptation & 1 of the year’s best films. A towering achievement reminiscent of The Outsiders & Full Metal Jacket.”

The Long Walk strolls into theaters Sept. 12. In an odd coincidence, The Long Walk actually represents the first of two King novels that were released under his Richard Bachman pen name that have been adapted into films this fall, and both are about dystopian contests. The second, The Running Man, stars Glen Powell and is being released Nov. 14.