What films actually scare someone like Stephen King? The fact that the best-selling author writes horror novels does not make him immune to fear. And now he reveals what he believes is the scariest film of all time.
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Some Stephen King fans who follow news about the author of such famous works as “The Shining,” “IT” and “Cemetery of the Cuddly Toys” may remember: King definitely finds found footage horror pretty scary Blair Witch Project. He couldn’t even finish watching it, and that’s saying something. But it’s still not the scariest horror film of all time for Stephen King – or at least only to a limited extent.
Stephen King now spoke to the magazine about which films really frighten the star author Variety. And made an interesting caveat before making his choice for “the scariest horror movie of all time”: What is scary also depends on the age of the viewer.
Even for Stephen King, it’s not an easy decision
For Stephen King, at the age of 16, “Until the Blood Freezes” (original title: “The Haunting”) by Robert Wise was the most frightening film. For him as an adult, it was actually “The Blair Witch Project” because of the “building feeling of doom and the truly terrible last 35 seconds.” But overall he chose another film, which he Variety for their article “The 100 Best Horror Films of All Time” I would like to give as my very personal number 1:
For Stephen King, the scariest horror film of all time is “The Night of the Living Dead“, George A. Romero’s low-budget masterpiece, which we awarded the highest rating of 5 stars in the FILMSTARTS review. By the way, our readers are also big fans of the film – with an average community rating of 4.185 out of 5 stars, “The Night of the Living Dead”, as the film is originally called, is the best-rated zombie film on FILMSTARTS.
4.18 out of 5 stars! This is the best zombie film of all time – according to German viewers
But back to Stephen King. He also provided a reason for his choice, remembers in particular the horror in the scene in which Barbra (Judith O’Dea) tries to escape by car after the zombie attack in the cemetery, while one of the undead tries to get into the car: „[…] and the viewer realizes that he won’t stop. It’s a moment of pure atavistic terror.”
“In the end, no one survives. This film may have lost its elemental power over the years – almost even becoming a Midnite Madness joke, like ‘Rocky Horror’ – but “I still remember the helpless horror I felt when I saw him for the first time,” the author continued.
“Night of the Living Dead” and “Blair Witch Project” have similarities
And at the end he even notices something in common with “Blair Witch Project”, the other horror work that King just doesn’t want to let go of: “And now that I think about it, there’s a real similarity to ‘Blair Witch,’ both feature minimal or no music, and both feature unknown actors […]both have low-tech special effects. They function not in spite of these things, but because of them.”
The works of Stephen King himself are of course pretty scary – and are constantly being made into films. You can find out which latest King series adaptation will be launched on a streaming service in 2025 here:
Stephen King reveals the start and first reaction to his latest horror series – “Stranger Things” has to dress warmly!
