Stephen King names the five horror movies he finds the scariest
Perhaps no single mind in the history of American literature has had a more impactful effect on modern Hollywood horror than the great Stephen King, the writer of such classic novels as Carrie, It and The Shining. A lover of intense horror tales, King’s stories have sculpted the shape of the cinematic genre, informing the paths of such filmmakers as Stanley Kubrick, Brian De Palma and Frank Darabont.
Vocal about which adaptations of his own work he likes and which ones he detests, King isn’t afraid to hide his opinion. Whilst he was famously opposed to Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining, this was not the movie based on his own material that he hated the most, naming 1984’s Firestarter as “the worst of the bunch”, adding: “Even though in terms of story it’s very close to the original. But it’s flavourless; it’s like cafeteria mashed potatoes”.
His attitude towards his own adaptations was volatile, but, as a lover of horror, he has always elevated the movies that he considers superior and once sat down with the Academy to discuss the scariest horror movies of all time.
First on his list is the sci-fi classic Alien from British filmmaker Ridley Scott, a masterpiece of tension that introduced one of the greatest action heroes of all time in Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley. “I loved the working-class ethic of the guys on the ship (Ripley included),” King started, “And all the swinging chains. But of course, with that one, it’s all about the ‘chest bursting’ scene. At that time, no one had ever seen anything like that”.
His second choice takes things to the contemporary craft, naming the revolutionary found footage flick The Blair Witch Project by directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick. “Blair Witch scared the living daylights out of me,” he told the publication. “I think, because it was so unpolished. And nothing tops the final shot,” making reference to the moment when we glimpse the Blair Witch, or do we?
When it comes to the Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, you might think King would select Videodrome or The Fly, yet the author prefers 1979’s The Brood. “The Brood is David Cronenberg’s first great film,” he states regarding the movie that tells the story of a man trying to get to the bottom of a spate of murders, “with Samantha Eggar (‘Bad mummies! Fucked-Up mummies!”) and Oliver Reed (who looks on the verge of exploding) playing parents from hell. Only hell turns out to be the children”.
King’s penultimate pick goes back to the classics of horror, opting for the William Friedkin blockbuster The Exorcist. Contested by the director himself as to whether it’s a horror movie at all, King still loves the film, stating: “The Exorcist is scary from the start, when — in the prologue — the clock suddenly stops. It’s very claustrophobic for a studio movie, and every time we go back to that bedroom with Regan, we dread even more what we’re going to see. But for me it’s the grisly grace notes that make the film. Who can forget, ‘Couldja help an old altar boy, fadder?’”.
Bookending King’s horror list is the George Romero zombie flick Dawn of the Dead, a film that would go on to significantly inform the future of the sub-genre. Speaking about the movie, King states: “It’s like Alien, only instead of one amazing gross-out we’ve never seen before, there are half a dozen — like the woman biting into the cop’s neck or the top of the zombie’s head getting cut off by a helicopter blade. Kudos to Tom Savini, who dreamed up the special effects with no CGI. And again, there’s the constant claustrophobia of the diminishing band of survivors being trapped in a shopping mall”.
Take a look at King’s list of favourites in full below.
Stephen King picks the scariest horror movies:
- Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
- The Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick, 1999)
- The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)
- The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
- Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978)
