A complete collection of Stephen King’s favourite horror movies
Since the 1970s, Stephen King has been churning out some of the best horror fiction ever written. With a skill for focusing on believable, sympathetic characters while also raising the spectre of fear and unleashing horror at just the right moments, he has sold more than 350 million copies of his books in more than 40 languages.
Fans of King often have one book that stands out as the unassailable favourite, whether it’s the teenage trauma of Carrie, the father-daughter relationship in Firestarter, or the sweeping ambition of The Stand. Many also have favourite movie adaptations of his work. Over the decades, dozens of directors have put his work on screen, from Brian De Palma’s blood-soaked take on Carrie to Stanley Kubrick’s classic interpretation of The Shining.
In addition to writing stories and helping bring his films to the big screen, King has spent his career analysing the horror genre more broadly, writing essays and social media posts about what fear is, how to create it, and offering examples of filmmakers and authors who have done it well. At this point, King is the reigning expert on fear, be it in the form of books, short stories, movies, TV shows, and even comics.
So when Stephen King endorses a horror movie, we should all sit up and pay attention—or cower in a corner—because he knows what he’s talking about. So, if you’re ready to be terrified, we’ve compiled his favourite horror movies of all time. Some are mainstream hits, some are obscure indies, and some are even based on his own work. Read on if you dare.
Stephen King’s 10 favourite horror movies:
For someone with such a vast understanding of horror, it’s hard to pin down just ten films, but King is generous with his praise for the movies he likes and leaves his audience in no doubt as to which he deems to be the absolute best.
His taste is eclectic, too, and not necessarily in keeping with film critics or audiences. For example, Guillermo del Toro’s 2015 Gothic horror movie Crimson Peak is more melodrama than horror, and it wasn’t particularly successful with audiences or critics, but King adores it. On the other end of the spectrum, he sings the praises of found footage hit The Blair Witch Project, a movie that creates terror through low-budget jump-scares and the unseen rather than del Toro’s sumptuously macabre visuals.
- The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- The Mist (2007)
- The Strangers (2008)
- The Changeling (1980)
- Deep Blue Sea (1999)
- Crimson Peak (2015)
- The Descent (2005)
- Final Destination (2000)
- The Last House on the Left (2009)
- Night of the Demon (1957)
Stephen King’s favourite modern horror movies
King often praises new releases on social media and in interviews, and in 2023, Open Culture composed a list of the ones he has heaped with the most glowing reviews. The list includes some of the movies that he has called his favourites of all time and others that have simply grabbed his attention in recent years.
Interestingly, many of them are not considered modern classics. Both The Ruins and The Hitcher were widely panned, though The Descent remains an underrated low-budget gem.
- Final Destination (James Wong, 2000)
- Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder, 2004)
- The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
- The Hitcher (Dave Meyers, 2007)
- The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)
- The Strangers (Bryan Bertino, 2008)
- The Ruins (Carter Smith, 2008)
- The Last House on the Left (Dennis Iliadis, 2009)
- The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
- Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro, 2015)
- The Autopsy of Jane Doe (André Øvredal, 2016)
Stephen King’s favourite Stephen King movies
King has a notoriously unfavourable opinion of Kubrick’s The Shining, which is hardly surprising. The director took liberties with the story, and like all of his movies, it is a piece of work from an auteur rather than a faithful adaptation of the source material. However, the writer has praised other film versions of his work. Speaking to Deadline in 2016, he singled out several.
Although his two favourite adaptations are not horror movies (Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me and Frank Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption), there were several horror movies that he was more than happy to acknowledge as some of his favourites, including Misery. Cuju was the one that he said was the best of the low-budget adaptations, while he listed Carrie and The Dead Zone as examples of when he’s been happy to claim the final result. Although he didn’t mention The Mist in the interview, he has praised it regularly as one of his favourite horror movies of all time, not just compared to his other adaptations.
- Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
- Cujo (Lewis Teague, 1983)
- The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)
- Stand by Me (Rob Reiner, 1986)
- Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990)
- Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
- The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)
Stephen King’s favourite British horror movies
British horror movies put their own stamp on the genre. Aside from the subgenre of British folk horror, there is often a pervading, sinister mood that you can’t quite put your finger on but which sends chills down the spine. King is adept at creating a similar sense of eeriness in his writing, so it’s no surprise that he has found some of his favourite example of horror within the British film industry.
In particular, King has identified two classic black-and-white films, Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon and Wolf Rilla’s Village of the Damned. Although neither of these are as well known as classic horror films like The Exorcist or Halloween, they are, as King told the British Film Institute, some of his favourite movies of all time.
- Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
- Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960)
The movie Stephen King compared to Alien and David Cronenberg
One of King’s most unique horror favourites is not a widely known or beloved film. Helmed by Trollhunter director André Øvredal, it stars Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as coroners trying to identify a female corpse.
On X (formerly known as Twitter), King’s praise was brief and unequivocal. “The Autopsy of Jane Doe: Visceral horror to rival Alien and early Cronenberg. Watch it, but not alone.”
- The Autopsy of Jane Doe (André Øvredal, 2016)
The movie Stephen King said was “scary from the start”
While many horror movies take a while to ramp up (some even feel like comedies or family dramas for more than half the run-time), King pointed out that there is one movie that makes your skin crawl from the very first moments.
“The Exorcist is scary from the start, when — in the prologue — the clock suddenly stops,” the writer told A.Frame. “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.” He is not alone in finding The Exorcist to be utterly terrifying.
- The Exorcist
The movie Stephen King picked as the scariest of all time
When pressed to choose his absolute number one horror film of all time, King didn’t choose The Exorcist or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the latter of which, like all slasher movies, does not appear on any of his top horror lists). He chose George A Romero’s iconic 1968 zombie movie Night of the Living Dead.
“I thought deeply about this question,” he told Variety. “Perhaps more deeply than the subject — my scariest horror movie — deserves… but then, I’ve seen a lot of horror movies, so maybe it’s a valid Q”.
“My conclusion is that the ‘scariest’ varies according to the viewer’s age. As a kid of 16, the scariest movie was ‘The Haunting’ (directed by Robert Wise). 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.”
- Night of the Living Dead (George A Romero, 1968)
