Stephen King is undoubtedly the king of horror when it comes to writing some of the most bone chilling books. Many of the author’s creations have also been turned into epic horror movies. But this one scene has even “reduced to jelly” the king of horror.
Today we will talk about what Stephen King thinks of Hollywood’s venture into horror and which movie he finds horrific as well. The ‘IT’ author talks about his views when he wrote an article for Entertainment Weekly back in 2008. King mentioned this classic movie in that article and talked about a particular scene that he feels paved the way for future horror movies.
Related: Which Film Adaptation Of Stephen King’s Books Is His Favorite?
Stephen King Finds This Horror Movie The Scariest
The now 76-year-old author’s career took flight with his superhit book and later movie adaptation ‘Carrie’. The blood and gore of ‘Carrie’ is what made it such a chilling book to read. Now, the author shares the movie that he found the scariest and as he wrote that “reduced me to jelly”.
And it is none other than George A. Romero’s classic horror movie ‘Night of the Living Dead’. This movie practically paved the way for future zombie movies that Hollywood would plunge into extensively. But King finds one sequence at the beginning of the movie as the most horrifying.
Stephen King is talking about the scene where brother Johnny and sister Barbara go to a cemetery to visit their dead mother’s grave. Even as Barbara complains of the eeriness of the place, Johnny makes fun of her and says, “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!” Minutes later Johnny’s words come through as a ghoul rises from his grave and kills Johnny. Even as Barabara escapes she gets trapped in the car with nowhere to run.
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Stephen King On Hollywood And Horror
In his 2008 article for Entertainment Weekly, titled ‘Why Hollywood Can’t Do Horror’, King mainly talks about the poor quality of horror movies that were making rounds at the box office. Stephen King felt that Hollywood at that time lacked the magic to scare the audience. Of course, it should be kept in mind that he is talking about the pre-Conjuring era.
He also pointed out that horror movies with low budgets had the real magic of spookiness. This can be seen when it comes to some of the really bone chilling movies of that time like ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘The Last House On The Left’ etc.
Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ fits the frame too. The film was shot in black and white which makes it even more creepy and hopeless. And not using too well known faces as the leads also did the trick. When we see an A-list actor, we’re seeing the performer and not the character. Romero did not tap into the gore, blood and disfigured faces to scare the audience. He kept it simple yet terrifying by showing the sheer fright of a human being trying to fight for their lives.
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