Conan O’Brien picks his favourite horror movies
Conan O’Brien has been a mainstay of American late-night television for decades, hosting multiple talk shows to critical and commercial success. Before he became a household name, O’Brien worked behind the scenes as a writer for Saturday Night Live and then The Simpsons, penning some of the latter’s most acclaimed episodes.
Despite his anxieties around joining the writing crew for The Simpsons, O’Brien fit in well, helping to move the show further into the surreal. The writer would pitch all of his story ideas in the characters’ voices, unaware that this was not the norm. Soon, he became one of the series’ most important contributors, with writer Josh Weinstein describing how pitching sessions became “ten-hour Conan show[s], nonstop”.
In 1993, O’Brien was chosen to become the new host of Late Night, receiving the call whilst on the set of The Simpsons. According to postproduction supervisor Michael Mendel, “He was passed out facedown into this horrible shag carpet. He was just quiet and comatose down there on that carpet. I remember looking at him and saying, ‘Wow. Your life is about to change in a really dramatic way.'”
Following the retirement of David Letterman, O’Brien became the longest-running talk show host in the United States. However, he ended this tenure in 2021 after retiring from his late-night role, his run lasting 28 years. Since 2018, O’Brien has presented a prolific podcast called Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, with famous guests ranging from Barack Obama to Tina Fey to Dave Grohl. One of the podcast’s series is entitled Summer S’mores, which features O’Brien and co-hosts The Chill Chums – Sona Movsessian and Matt Gourley – chatting by a fire.
In an episode that aired in August 2022, the trio discussed horror movies, with O’Brien revealing his favourite terror-inducing flicks. He began by stating: “I find movies where something’s just off, but it’s not that explicit…That terrifies me”. Adding more detail, O’Brien explained that he is most unsettled when when “something is unsaid or unstated,” citing films such as The Blair Witch Project, Hereditary, Midsommar and The Witch. He continued: “In the movie The Witch, they can just show trees in the distance, and they’re undulating in the breeze, but because of the tone they’ve set and the music, I find that scary … guys dressed up in a leather mask with a chainsaw doesn’t do anything for me.”
Discussing the three major movie killers, Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th), Michael Myers (Halloween) and Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street), O’Brien claimed: “I never liked those ’cause I never understood what the rules were. I like to know what the rules are”. When asked which old horrors terrified him growing up, the presenter stated: “The Omen scared me”. However, he prefers newer horror movies by the likes of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, claiming: “Those freak me out. Those are brilliant. I think the horror they’re doing now is maybe superior.”
Conan O’Brien’s favourite horror movies:
- The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
- Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)
- Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Whilst not everyone will agree with O’Brien’s comments, the presenter’s love for what has been described, somewhat tenuously, as “elevated horror” represents the current craze sweeping the horror genre, giving less attention to blood and gore, instead focusing on psychological thrills and socially-conscious themes.
