Prolific horror author Stephen King has written about some pretty nightmarish things over the course of his long career, but one of his earliest works is also among his most brutal. First published under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, in 1979, "The Long Walk" is a deeply disturbing novel about a dystopian alternate U.S. that holds an annual walking contest with only one winner — the last person walking. "The Long Walk" was later collected in "The Bachman Books" and has since become appreciated as among the author's most impactful works, though it's been notoriously difficult to adapt into a movie or television series. There's been plenty of apt comparisons to Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games" novels and their film adaptations, but "The Long Walk" is its own unique and truly nasty beast with its origins in King's personal history.

Director Francis Lawrence, who's helmed every "Hunger Games" movie to date save for the 2012 original,...