Stephen King Reveals Favorite Horror Movie That Left Him in ‘Helpless Terror’

November 2, 2024

Key Takeaways

Stephen King’s #1 scariest movie is Night of the Living Dead, a low-budget 1968 classic.
He recalls feeling “helpless terror” watching the scene of a reanimated corpse trying to kill a character.
King has been working on a TV series based on the fantasy novel Fairy Tale with A24.

Known as the King of the horror genre, author Stephen King has shared his number one scary movie of all time that left him in “helpless terror” when he first saw it, but surprisingly, it’s not a film he penned himself. Although Stephen King needs little introduction, as many horror fans will already know a lot about the legendary author, The Shining writer didn’t always indulge in the spookier side of life, with many other genres explored, which included suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery, too.

Born in Maine, where many of his novels take place, like the horrifying location of Pennywise the Clown in IT, King started his interest in writing as a young child by copying panels out of comic books, but was told by his mother that he could do much better and should write some of his own. Needless to say, the rest is history, with King becoming one of the biggest and most important authors in the past 50 years. Stephen King’s incredible line-up of books has sold over 400 million copies, with many getting turned into films, TV shows and even graphic novels. With his mind almost constantly in the world of terrifying creatures and unspeakable monsters, it’s hard to imagine King ever getting scared, but there is one movie that does fill him with fear.

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Stephen King’s Favorite Horror Movie Is a Low-Budget 1968 Classic

As part of Variety‘s latest horror writeup, Stephen King has written a short essay in which he explains what his favorite horror film is of all time and why it scared the life out of him so much. King expressed that even though he has naturally seen some of the best and maybe the worst horror movies throughout his 77 years, his number one scariest film as an adult was watching George A. Romero’s low-budget creation, Night of the Living Dead. King recalls the scene in which Barbara locks herself in her car, realizing that her brother still has the keys as a reanimated corpse tries to kill her, as something that filled him with sheer panic.

“As an adult, it was “The Blair Witch Project,” with that building sense of doom and those truly horrible last 35 seconds. But overall, I’d have to say “Night of the Living Dead,” George A. Romero’s low-budget masterpiece.”…”I still remember the helpless terror I felt when I first saw it.”

King also said that when he was 16-years-old, Robert Wise’s 1963 movie The Haunting was the scariest film at the time and also mentioned the intensity and doom of The Blair Witch‘s opening scene. He also thought that there were similarities between Blair Witch and The Haunting, due to both having very little music, unlike many big production movies with high-budget soundtracks.

Earlier this month, A24 and Stephen King joined forces in a 10-episode series based on the fantasy novel, Fairy Tale. One script has already been written by Paul Greengrass, who previously directed three entries in the Bourne action-thriller film series. While Fringe‘s J.H. Wyman will direct the film, Greengrass will also direct a few of Fairy Tale‘s episodes.

Stephen King

Stephen King is one of the most prolific living authors. A master of horror, King’s classic works include The Shining, Carrie, Cujo, It, and the Dark Tower series. Many of his books and short stories have been adapted to film and television, including The Shawshank Redemption, Lisey’s Story, 1408, Secret Window, and The Stand.

Birthdate: September 21, 1947
Birthplace: Portland, Maine
Notable Projects: The Shining , Cujo , The Shawshank Redemption , It , Carrie