Stephen King’s The Institute and Mr. Mercedes share a sinister creative link– And not just by story

On the surface, Stephen King's The Institute and Mr. Mercedes may seem linked only by their origin in the fertile mind of the author.

Both are shaped from his novels and brought to life by King’s customisation of moral complexity and icy atmosphere. But beneath those superficial commonalities runs a far deeper bond: both TV adaptations are based on work by director and executive producer Jack Bender, whose recent work with Stephen King across projects has resulted in a distinctive tone that combines the intensity of crime-drama with psychological horror.

Bender’s fingerprint is all over the bones of both shows. Mr. Mercedes made him a director capable of giving King’s dark vision the equivalent of a ground-and-pound, character‑driven showdown between a detective, Bill Hodges, and the monstrous Brady. Now, in The Institute, he brings those same instincts to a sci‑fi thriller set in and around a sinister facility, conjuring up a haunting new world in which Stephen King’s surrealist imagination can thrive.

---

Stephen King link: How The Institute and Mr. Mercedes are bound by Jack Bender

Both The Institute and Mr. Mercedes draw deeply on Stephen King’s themes of hidden evil, flawed humanity, and the lengths to which individuals will go under pressure.

In Mr. Mercedes, a retired detective named Bill Hodges (portrayed by Brendan Gleeson) is drawn back into dark waters by a maniacal killer who targeted a job fair with a stolen Mercedes. That violence forms the emotional beating heart of the series, with Bender ensuring the terror feels disturbingly tactile.

In an interview with Collider, Bender described:

"I wanted it real and I didn’t want to sensationalize it. One of the reasons I didn’t want to have a score is that I didn’t want sexy action music. Stephen wrote this based on an event that I think happened in 2008, when he was down south."

"It didn’t get national attention, but somebody mowed down people at a job fair, and that started his wheels turning, during the economic downturn. That event, in our show, took place in 2009, and now we’re in 2011, two years later, before it became the drug of choice for terrorists and maniacs, all over the world."

Further, he said:

"We see these horrific events from afar. I didn’t ever want to make an opera out of blood. I just wanted to put the audience there and make them look at something horrific like this. It also sets up our whole character and his demise. I felt to minimize it or sanitize it would be cheapening it."

In contrast, The Institute adapts Stephen King’s 2019 novel and premiered on MGM+ on July 13, 2025. The eight‑episode series traces Luke Ellis, a telekinetic teenage prodigy who wakes up abducted in a remote institution alongside other children, where they’re subjected to tests and manipulations. Mary‑Louise Parker is Ms. Sigsby, the facility’s no‑nonsense overseer, while Ben Barnes is ex‑cop Tim Jamieson, who gets caught up in the unravelling mystery.

Critics like it as a moody, suspenseful thriller, not the jump-­scare variety of horror, but something akin to creeping dread grounded in ethical conflict. It’s Bender’s steady vision that gets carried over; each show treads the character and atmosphere lines, working out Stephen King’s moral calculus, whether in small‑town detective noir or dystopian child exploitation. And working with Stephen King once more, Bender makes a case that his filmmaking is more than rote action; it’s nurturing King’s thematic DNA in visual terms.

---

Stephen King on display: Stories of power, evil, and moral ambiguity

Where Mr. Mercedes is steeped in actual human violence and mental manipulation, The Institute takes a speculative and even uncanny turn. Luke Ellis is taken to a prison where he is deprived of his freedom and observed and tested for paranormal skills. He is surrounded by other gifted children forced under the eye of Ms. Sigsby, a woman who believes she can harness their talents for a higher purpose, even if it means breaking moral boundaries.

Creator Benjamin Cavell remains faithful to King’s structuring, an anchor that he refurbishes for television through a slow‑burning narrative and the pacing required by the long-haul dissemination on television.

Stephen King is also an executive producer and has raved about the adaptation staying true to the emotional heart of his novel. He has stated that the series effectively examines the tension between exploitation and resistance, questioning ideas of authority, control, and what constitutes heroism when children are weaponised by adults.

In Mr. Mercedes, the opposite describes the obsessive duel between Bill Hodges and the criminal killer Brady. Haunting, held, and retired, Hodges finds his courage to face a killer who thrives on psychological torture. Brady’s technological sleight of hand, the remote control of machinery, and the cool letters up the ante. Bender’s direction raises the creep factor on the crime, with the killer seeming all but omnipresent and even omnipotent.

Both series are interested in generational divides and the mutation of evil- Mr. Mercedes, through the collision of Hodges’s analogue detective methods and Brady’s tech‑savvy menace; The Institute, through the exploitation of youth psychic power by institutional authority.

In each, Stephen King’s brand of the dark meets Bender’s reputation for grounding. The result is two series that feel like siblings separated by five generations but still clearly cut from the same creative cloth, a testament to how both can bring terror and tenderness into harmony onscreen.