The Long Walk (Lawrence, 2025) is the latest adaptation to be churned out of the Stephen King factory. Although interestingly this isn’t the standard horror picture you’d come to expect, yet this packs more of a visual punch.

The film itself bases its main plot line on one concept, a large group of men competing by walking as far as they can otherwise they will be killed by the army. It is this years battle royale, where others like Squid Game or The Hunger Games have come before it. This is where the film lacks the flair it really needed. The character development and relationship between characters didn’t come naturally but felt more like the communication between the characters was to stop the audience thinking they were watching speed walking at the olympics. No one else out of the 100 people competing communicated throughout apart from those talking with the main character in Raymond (Cooper Hoffman) or found themselves at the front of the pack. For a good battle royale film to work you have to feel the distraught nature it would be like to be in their shoes, here it feels more like there having a jolly time with each other and their not going on this journey together.

What does work is how visual the film is at times. It doesn’t shy away from showing the participants being murdered or the gruesome injuries they incur throughout the event. It manages to visualise the excessiveness that Stephen King delivers so well in his books. The film also acts as a glimpse into a dystopian world where what we learn about the environment outside of the race comes from the events that happen within it. It is a film that creates a world thats worthy of a King adaptation, yet it does still lack in the immersion needed from the characters in the film. Without the feeling of desperation your meant to share with the main protagonists, the little you care for each person falling victim of the dystopian system they are placed within.