“The Long Walk” (*** out of four) was a harrowing adaptation of Stephen King’s 1979 novel set in another dystopian future in which a group of young kids (Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, and others) are forced to compete in the title game in which they must maintain a certain speed or get shot by the military regime of the evil mayor (Mark Hamill) and the race goes on endlessly until the last man standing. Initially seems plodding and overly familiar but becomes tense and nerve-wracking once the actual walk begins and doesn’t let up. A rock-solid effort from director Francis Lawrence and an interesting companion piece to his other dystopian future work in “The Hunger Games” and one of King’s better film adaptations in a long while.