The Long Walk: King's nastiest premise, streaming now

Watch it. The Long Walk is now streaming on HBO Max and Starz, Collider reports. It's Stephen King's bleakest premise in years. The film, directed by Francis Lawrence, drops a group of teenage boys into a deadly walking contest in a near-future America. Keep the pace or get a warning. Too many warnings and you're killed. Only one walker survives.

That's the whole nasty idea, and the movie doesn't soften it. There's no arena, no revolution, nothing televised for our enjoyment. Just survival, plain and grim.

Collider's Jeff Ewing praised the film for making the walkers real characters. He wrote that they get detailed backstories and an emotional anchor, which makes their fates more agonizing. He called them far from "murder fodder."

That's the reason to watch. The movie makes you care about these boys before it starts picking them off. It's a tough watch, but it's worth it.

• dystopian horror
• Francis Lawrence
• HBO Max
• Starz
• Stephen King
• The Long Walk