R.L. Stine names his favourite movies of all time
If you’ve been a horror fan since you were a child, chances are that the books of R.L. Stine have been a big part of your life. Known for his widely beloved Goosebumps series, Stine’s domination over the children’s horror market is undeniable. While his enjoyable approach to horror themes was often entertaining, Stine’s works also managed to resonate with readers all over the world because they regularly featured coming-of-age stories about outsiders.
Having been translated into multiple languages and sold millions of copies, Stine’s literary output has successfully crossed cultural divides. In addition to the marketability of his sanitised visions of horror, Stine also became a leading figure within the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ genre. Many of his books were structured like games, allowing the reader to select their own endings by branching the narrative out into multiple segments.
While Stine obviously has a lot of literary influences, he also considers cinema to be a chief source of inspiration. During a conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, the author decided to highlight some of his favourite films of all time. For his top pick, Stine singled out the 1937 classic – A Damsel in Distress. Starring Fred Astaire, the movie is a P.G. Woodhouse adaptation which explains why Stine loves it so much.
The writer gushed: “My favourite film is a Fred Astaire film called A Damsel in Distress. It’s without Ginger Rogers, but it’s based on a P.G. Woodhouse book, who is my favourite author of all time, and he wrote the script. And it’s hilarious, and it’s wonderful. Astaire is amazing in it. Joan Fontaine is 22 years old. It’s beautiful, and it’s based on this wonderful Woodhouse book. I watch that at least once a year. And it’s got Burns and Allen, and they’re hilarious. It’s a great film.”
Stine also expressed admiration for the works of Hayao Miyazaki, insisting that the Japanese auteur is the greatest animator in the world. Stine declared: “He is head and shoulders above everybody, and he said he was retiring. He’s like 86 or something. Then I just read he’s making a new film. Yeah, probably Spirited Away. It’s got 17 different styles of art in it. It just keeps changing. You just keep getting blown away. You can’t believe what you’re seeing.”
Check out the full list below.
R.L. Stine’s favourite movies:
- Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932)
- The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
- The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
- A Damsel in Distress (George Stevens, 1937)
- Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
Choosing five of his favourite films proved to be quite a challenge for Stine, especially because he couldn’t decide which Preston Sturges movie to include on his list. Although the writer loves Sturges’ brilliant work Sullivan’s Travels, he eventually decided to go with the 1941 screwball comedy The Lady Eve, featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.
Stine revealed: “It makes me laugh every time. It is a great comedy with some great, wonderful slapstick, and just very clever, very witty, and very sexy, too. [Stanwyck] was very sexy in this film. These are all films that I watch more than once.”
