Stephen King's favorite horror film? “Uncontrollable terror”

The American writer cites two major references as his most distressing spectator memories.

He very often gives his opinion on the horror films or series he watches. Stephen King recommends for example Evil (on Paramount +) or the French series Marianne (on Netflix). But what is his favorite horror movie of all time?

In an essay written for the Variety website, the man often called the “master of horror” first confides that he “seen a lot of horror films” and explains that the answer already varies depending on age:

“The scariest thing, when I was 16, was The Devil's House (by Robert Wise, 1963). As an adult, it was The Blair Witch Project (by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999) with this growing sense of doom and those truly horrible last 35 seconds. But if I had to give my favorite horror film, overall I would say Night of the Living Dead (1968), George A. Romero's low-budget masterpiece.”

Stephen King supports his choice in a precise manner, by first explaining that, in Night of the Living Dead“in the end, no one survives. Yes, this film has lost its elemental power over the years. It has become almost a joke like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But I still remember the uncontrollable terror I felt the first time I saw him. And now that I think about it, there's a real similarity with Blair Witch. Both with little or no music, both with unknown actors who barely seem capable of acting in second-rate films, both with low-tech special effects. They function not in spite of these things, but because of them.”

Night of the Living Dead can be seen streaming on Prime Video in France.