Movies to Watch Before You See The Dark Tower

Author Stephen King has never been shy about wearing his influences on his sleeve, and his “Dark Tower” novels have always been an exotic blend of Herbert-esque sci-fi, Leone-style western, Tolkien fantasy and Lovecraftian horror. Hence, in the wake of Sony‘s new filmic adaptation of The Dark Tower, we’re giving you twelve movies to watch or at least be aware of going into it.

Our list contains three different kinds of movies: 1) Films based on King’s own writing that have direct connections to the “Dark Tower” world, 2) Films that directly inspired King when writing the eight “The Dark Tower” novels, and 3) Movies that are similar enough to The Dark Tower that they will get you in the right mindset. If you’ve already seen The Dark Tower movie, this list will contain a lot of interesting connections as well.

It also so happens that two key movies on this list have just been released on fabulous new Blu-ray editions. On August 15, Kino Lorber is releasing a 50th Anniversary edition of Sergio Leone’s western classic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which contains a gorgeous 4K transfer of the original theatrical cut, available for the first time ever in HD. Lionsgate Home Entertainment’s Vestron Video Collector’s Series has also just recently unleashed a Warlock three-movie Blu-ray collection, so if you want to get your B-movie sorcery on that’s the surefire way to go.

Click here to pre-order Kino’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray!

Click here to order the Warlock three-movie collection on Blu-ray!

Which of the movies on our list do you think connects most to Dark Tower? Any others you would recommend? Let us know in the comments below!

12 Movies to Watch Before You See The Dark Tower

The Mist (2007)

Frank Darabont's adaptation of King's 1980 novella is just as lean and mean as its source material, and contains multiple connections to The Dark Tower. For one, Thomas Jane's character is a poster artist finishing art for a then-non-existent Dark Tower film, featuring Roland in full cowboy gear. The character of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) speaks the line "My life for you," which hints she may be communicating with Randall Flagg/Walter Padick/The Man in Black. Lastly, the monsters Roland (Idris Elba) refers to in the film that Walter wants to unleash on all worlds are from Todash Space in the "Dark Tower" books. Those are the same Mist monsters likely unleashed by the Arrowhead project by creating a Thinny, which is also featured in a scene in the new Dark Tower movie. So yes, The Mist is more or less a full-on Dark Tower film.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

Not only was J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy of novels an acknowledged inspiration for "The Dark Tower" series, but the later success of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy and the subsequent fantasy revival in cinema that followed was a major impetus for Hollywood to begin approaching King to adapt Dark Tower to the screen.
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

The Dark Tower film begins with a scene of "Breakers," children with psychic ability being harnessed by the Man in Black to break the beams holding up the Dark Tower. The main character in Hearts in Atlantis, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) is one of the most powerful of these Breakers, and he's being pursued by Walter's Low Men/Can-Toi agents, who are the rat-like creatures disguised as humans featured throughout the new film. The character of Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) may also be a Twinner (alternate world version of) Dark Tower's protagonist Jake Chambers. So, like The Mist, Hearts in Atlantis is very much a Dark Tower movie.
The Stand (1994)

The appearance of Walter Padick/The Man in Black in The Dark Tower, as played by Matthew McConaughey, is not the arch villain's first screen appearance. In the world of Stephen King novels, the devilish sorcerer character is also known by the name Randall Flagg, and he appeared as the baddie in King's novels "The Eyes of the Dragon" as well as "The Stand." In the 1994 TV movie of The Stand, the character was played with devilish relish by Jamey Sharidan in a more blue collar getup than McConaughey sports.
Warlock (1989)

Many of the reviews of the new Dark Tower movie make the (somewhat fair) argument that the movie feels like a lower-budget '80s horror movie in places. When critics say that, it's hard to believe they're not thinking specifically of Warlock, wherein Julian Sands plays a black-clad sorcerer not unlike McConaughey's Man in Black, who steps out of his own realm to destroy Earth... kind of like the Man in Black. Like Dark Tower, there's also a driven, tortured hero (Richard E. Grant's Giles Redferne) teaming up with a sarcastic contemporary Earthling (Lori Singer) to kill the sorcerer, leading to much fish-out-of-water antics. Warlock and the new Dark Tower movie are so similar, it's kind of frightening, actually.
Dune (1984)

In 1984, David Lynch was tasked with adapting a similarly-dense sci-fi/fantasy tome in Frank Herbert's Dune, which (much like Dark Tower) deals with traveling through portals between worlds, people with psychic abilities and a lone hero whose father is killed (Paul Atreides/Roland Deschain) who seeks to restore balance to the universe. Like Dune, The Dark Tower movie doesn't quite succeed at channeling the material into a masterpiece, but like Dune it is also immediately misunderstood by critics and destined for cult status once people realize there is greatness within.
Excalibur (1981)

So yes, Arthurian mythology is also weaved throughout The Dark Tower. Even in the movie, the Man in Black acknowledges that Roland's Sandalwood Guns were forged from the famous magical sword Excalibur, and that Roland is descended from the line of Arthur Eld (King Arthur), who was himself a guardian of the Dark Tower. For a good introduction to Arthurian myth, specifically the sword, look no further than 1981's boobs-and-blood-drenched epic Excalibur, which takes its inspiration from Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur."
The Shining (1980)

This one's a gimme. You've definitely seen this movie, or at least know that Danny Torrance's ability to "shine" is a loose term for psychic abilities. This "shine" is also referred to explicitly in The Dark Tower movie, and the fact that Jake Chambers has it big time is one of the main reasons The Man in Black is pursuing him. This ability is referred to as "The Touch" in the books.
El Topo (1970)

Alejandro Jodorowsky's art house western is a great primer for reading the "Dark Tower" books, as its imagery of a black-clad gunfighter traveling with a young boy through a wasteland and encountering surreal situations and deformed people is very similar in tone to what King would achieve when he wrote the first story, also in 1970. Scenes such as Jodorowsky's gunslinger killing a whole town of people and a Crimson King-esque sigul are just a few of the similarities it shares with King's work.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Sergio Leone's western created the archetype of the mythical "Man With No Name," as played by Clint Eastwood. The character type of the terse gunslinger who travels the desert was a chief inspiration for Roland (he's often depicted as Eastwood-like on the covers), as well as George Miller's Mad Max. The character made his first appearance in A Fistful of Dollars, then in the sequel For a Few Dollars More and, finally, in Leone's masterpiece The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The latter is the most "Dark Tower"-esque, as it involves Eastwood's gunslinger traveling reluctantly with a partner allied against a sinister figure of evil, in this case the amoral Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef). Oh, it's also one of the greatest movies (not westerns, movies) ever made.
Seven Samurai (1956)

Akira Kurosawa's legendary samurai epic later inspired westerns like The Magnificent Seven, and King's "The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla" is an almost 100% riff on it. In terms of the movie, there is a scene where Roland almost single-handedly defends a small Mid-World town from the Man in Black's henchmen, and it's very much in the spirit of "few against many" in Kurosawa's film.
Shane (1953)

This influential western was directly referenced in the recent Logan, and the relationship between Roland and Jake in Dark Tower is very similar to the one between Shane (Alan Ladd) and Joey (Brandon deWilde). There's even a bonding scene where Roland teaches Jake to shoot that's very similar to a scene in Shane, where Ladd explains that "a gun is a tool," no better or worse than the man who uses it. Not that dissimilar from "I do not shoot with my hand, I shoot with my mind."