Stephen King’s R-Rated ‘Hunger Games’ Replacement Officially Walks Onto HBO Max

We're so used to dystopia these days having some kind of competitve edge to them, in the form of a game, or a competition, or a huge pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Survival itself is the entertainment, but this time there's no arena or flashy costumes, no revolution waiting to catch fire and it's not even televised for our enjoyment. It is grim, simple, and honestly one of the nastiest premises Stephen King ever came up with.

The Long Walk is now streaming on HBO Max, bringing King’s bleak dystopian novel to the screen. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the film follows a group of teenage boys selected for an annual walking contest in a near-future America. The rules are horrifyingly simple: keep walking at the required pace or receive warnings, and after too many warnings, die. Only one participant survives. It's a brutal watch, and the Long Walk feels very long when you're rooting for your favorites. If you don't have HBO Max, then don't worry, as The Long Walk is also now streaming on Starz.

Who Stars in 'The Long Walk?

The cast includes Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza, Saturday Night) as Garraty, David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus, Rye Lane) as McVries, Garrett Wareing (Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, Independence Day: Resurgence), Judy Greer (Halloween, 13 Going on 30), Mark Hamill (Star Wars, The Fall of the House of Usher), Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete, All the Money in the World), and Ben Wang (American Born Chinese, Karate Kid: Legends).

Collider's Jeff Ewing praised the film and laid out what made it such a tough watch. "Converting a group of teens and young adults into murder fodder has long been one of the horror genre's most recognizable tropes, often intended as sources of carnage for cool horror antagonists more than fleshed-out characters. That's far from true in The Long Walk, and the film's all the better for it," he wrote in his review of The Long Walk, adding that the characters aren't just humanized, but rather are given depth, detailed backstories and an emotional anchor for the audience to root for. All of that makes it even more agonizing when we see them blasted through the skull with a gun.

The Long Walk is now streaming on Starz.