“Gorgeous and just fucking terrifying”: the gothic horror that blew Stephen King away
It is practically a given that most cinema lovers have seen at least one Stephen King adaptation in their lifetime, whether that be a horror classic like Carrie or The Shining, or emotionally-charged tales like Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. The author just has a knack for writing tales that work terrifically on the big screen, making him one of the most adapted writers in cinema history.
Thus, King has always deeply involved himself in the world of cinema, becoming quite the aficionado himself. While King’s attempt at directing went fairly poorly when he helmed the 1986 horror movie Maximum Overdrive, which was reviewed negatively, he still loves watching movies, specifically scary ones. As the ‘King of Horror’, as he is affectionately known, King knows what makes a good spooky story, having built a career on terrifying readers with everything from killer clowns to haunted hotels.
It was a horror story of King’s that helped him to rise to mainstream prominence – Carrie – which Brian De Palma adapted in 1976 to significant success. The film left a significant mark on popular culture; many movies, television shows, and even album covers have referenced the prom scene in which Carrie is doused in pig’s blood. As horrifying as many of his stories are, King often crafts ideas that, when adapted into movies, emerge in a twistedly beautiful way.
Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek, is a tragic story, but it is shot gorgeously, contrasting the sheer terror of the movie with neon-soaked lighting or hazy, moody sequences that convey the titular character’s difficult life.
Great horror can present us with breathtakingly beautiful shots alongside stomach-turning or scary ones, highlighting the fact that life isn’t made up of separate divisions of good and evil—the two are intertwined and overlap in day-to-day life. One of the most gorgeous subgenres is gothic horror, with films that fall into this category often balancing themes of evil and fear with grandiose mansions and incredible chiaroscuro lighting.
Many great gothic horror movies have emerged since cinema began, but when King saw a more recent entry to the genre, he was simply amazed. Guillermo del Toro’s stunning 2015 horror movie Crimson Peak, set in England during the Victorian period, stunned King, who took to Twitter to call the film “gorgeous and just fucking terrifying.”
The film stars Mia Wasikowska as Edith, a young aspiring author who marries Tom Hiddleston’s Thomas Sharpe and relocates to an old mansion in the north of England. Accompanied by Thomas’ sister, Lucille, played by Jessica Chastain, Edith soon finds herself caught up in a terrifying world where ghosts come out of the woodwork to haunt her. The movie was well-received by viewers, who praised the film for its beautiful visuals, alongside its tense and scary plot.
King liked the film so much that he wrote another Tweet claiming that Crimson Peak “electrified me in the same way Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead electrified me when I saw it back in the day.” Now, that is high praise, indeed.
