Today is Halloween and we couldn’t miss the perennial horror movie suggestions. But instead of throwing out a few titles and hearing the “that’s not scary” comments, we decided to share Stephen King’s film, TV and book recommendations.
Because the guy knows what he’s talking about.
Entertainment Weekly recently interviewed Stephen King about the release of In the Tall Grass. On the occasion, the American writer picked three great horror pieces that will sneak into the darkest part of your psyche this Halloween.
For the film, Stephen King chose Child’s Play, a 2019 remake of the 1988 film of the same name and a reboot of the Child’s Play franchise. The film depicts a doll trafficked by a licensed toy factory worker, who then sows terror in his adoptive family. About the film, the writer said:
“I didn’t go see it in the theatres, because I thought, ‘Well, this is just another warmed-over sequel. […] Mark Hamill does the voice of Chucky and I just f—ing loved that movie. I laughed and I cried at the things in there. Everybody who’s in the movie does a terrific job. It’s a smart script and it’s just a load of fun. It really is.”
“It’s gruesome as hell. There’s this scene where this guy is hanging some Christmas lights on his house, and Chucky does something to the ladder, and he falls off and he lands on his feet, and his bones come right out the side of his legs. And you know, it’s not funny, but at the same time it is funny.”
For the series, the author of Shining talked about Marianne, a French series currently on Netflix. The series features Emma, a disenchanted young novelist, who resolves to end the saga of horror novels that made her famous. But when she finds herself forced to return to her hometown, she discovers that the monsters created in her books are coming to life.
Basically, she has to rewrite her story to stay alive. “I love the series that’s on Netflix now, Marianne. It’s a French series and it’s very, very scary. There is something in there from Stranger Things, so a little bit of that vibe, and a little bit of the Steve King vibe as well,” said the author.
Finally, in his own field, literature, Stephen King evoked Leigh Bardugo’s novel, Ninth House. The writer, usually more into young adult fantasy novels, tells the story of a young girl with a tumultuous past who enters Yale to oversee secret and occult societies within the university.
“It’s like Harry Potter but for grownups. That’s the kind of book, you read that, you say to yourself, it’s scary, it’s smart, it’s imaginative, and you hope that there’ll be more.”
