Well, you just picked one of my favourites of his:
The Dead Zone.
The problem with the "lesser known" description is that for a King fan (as I once was, though much less so now) there is no such thing
. For example, is
Firestarter lesser known? It was made into a movie (but so was
The Dead Zone).
Firestarter didn't make favourite status for me, but I did enjoy it (4/5). Same goes for
'Salem's Lot.
I've spoken elsewhere of
Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas. Three have been made into movies. Two are (IMO) some of the best that Stephen King has ever done:
Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption (movie was called just
Shawshank Redemption) and
The Body (movie was called
Stand By Me). Coincidentally - or not - the movies for these two stories are also favourite movies of mine and are excellent adaptations (not always the same thing, and quite unusual for a King story to be so done so well).
My reaction to King varied quite a lot (I hated
Carrie,
Cujo and
Thinner, and disliked
The Shining,
Delores Claibourne and
Gerald's Game.) But I liked quite a few others and would recommend you try:
Needful Things and
Insomnia. I don't think
It could be considered lesser known, but it made favourite status with me (but I definitely could
not recommend the movies).