Stream Stephen King’s Lone Oscar Winner Free This Halloween
Stephen Kings lone Oscar winner Misery hobbles back on Halloween 2025, streaming free on Tubi.
File this under perfect Halloween timing: the one Stephen King movie that actually won an Oscar is coming back to your TV for free next year. Yes, the hobbling one.
When and where to watch
Tubi says (via Collider) that Rob Reiner's 1990 thriller 'Misery' starts streaming on the service on October 31, 2025. Free to watch, just in time to make your candy taste a little worse.
Why this is a big deal
'Misery' is still the only King adaptation with an Academy Award win attached to it. Kathy Bates took home Best Actress for turning Annie Wilkes into a nightmare you can almost recognize from real life, which is exactly why she’s so scary.
- 'Misery' (1990): Kathy Bates wins Best Actress — the lone Oscar victory for a Stephen King adaptation so far.
- 'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994): Seven nominations, zero wins. Yes, really.
- 'The Green Mile' (1999): Four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, but no wins.
The setup (if you somehow missed it)
James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, a novelist who crashes his car in the snow and wakes up stuck in the home of his very self-identified No. 1 fan, Annie Wilkes (Bates). At first, she's nursing him back to health. Then she finds out he plans to kill off her favorite character, and things go from awkward to violent fast. The tension comes from how boxed-in it is — the movie basically never leaves her house — which makes every move to escape feel like a nerve test.
Who made it and who else is in it
Rob Reiner directed from a screenplay by William Goldman, adapting King's 1987 novel. Reiner also produced alongside Andrew Scheinman. The supporting cast includes Richard Farnsworth, Lauren Bacall, Frances Sternhagen, and Graham Jarvis — a quietly loaded lineup that adds a lot in limited screen time.
How it landed the first time
Released in November 1990, 'Misery' earned $61.3 million worldwide and still sits at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics singled out Bates for giving Annie Wilkes real-world logic and menace, which is why the character stuck in the culture as one of the great screen villains.
The bottom line
If you want the lean, mean version of Stephen King on screen — no clowns, no cosmic turtles, just pure dread — 'Misery' on Tubi this Halloween 2025 is the move. It also helps that the movie is still wickedly sharp and, thanks to Bates, kind of unbeatable in the awards column for King adaptations.