The early novels written by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman were mean, nasty, and bleak, none more so than The Long Walk, the first book the author wrote (even if it wasn’t published until 1979).

King’s dystopian nightmare paints a grim portrait of an America in which suffering is sport and death is entertainment, and in the years since its debut, its influence has crept into various nooks and crannies of global pop culture. Trace elements of its tale about a marathon waged by kids for TV audiences can be found in everything from Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale and Netflix’s Squid Game to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.

It’s the director of that franchise’s past five installments, Francis Lawrence, who assumes behind-the-camera duties for Lionsgate’s adaptation of Kin

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