The Only Film Too Terrifying to Watch, According to Stephen King (and No, It's Not Exorcist)

Summary

• Stephen King has a voracious appetite for quality horror movies and TV shows.
• However, only one movie really managed to scare him.
• Despite the film's modest budget, it had a huge impact on pop culture.

Stephen King is the undisputed King of Horror, and his chilling narratives extend far beyond literature, regularly receiving film and television adaptations, some of which he personally works on.

But no matter how brilliant a writer Mr. King is, it's hard to deny that every artist is inspired (well, or rather horrified, when we're talking about horror) by the works of others. That's why King, being a massive cinephile, often talks openly about the movies in the thriller or horror genre that have been influential to him.

The movie we're talking about today, however, didn't just influence the writer, it downright freaked him out, causing him to turn it off halfway through, because King was also high after the surgery. Quite a horrible experience if you ask us, though the movie in question was capable of scaring even a completely sober person.

The Dire Circumstances King Saw the Film In

During a conversation on the History of Horror podcast with Eli Roth, Stephen King shared a not-so-pleasant experience from his past that allowed him to appreciate what he considers to be the scariest movie ever made.

In 1999, King was caught up in a car accident that left him with a collapsed lung and broken bones in his right leg and hip. Trace that King woke up in the hospital, and of course due to the numerous injuries was pumped with strong painkillers. And while the writer was in the clinic, his son brought him a VHS of a rather extraordinary movie trying to convince him to give it a chance.

Except King only got through part of it, telling his son halfway through that it was 'too freaky'.

So What is This Movie All About?

From 2007's Paranormal Activity to 2022's Skinamarink, from the creepy Scooby-Doo special on Cartoon Network to alternate reality games on Twitter, paranormal ghost videos on YouTube, and analog horror miniseries, all of these elements of today's pop culture mindset wouldn't even exist if it weren't for one particular movie.

We are, of course, talking about The Blair Witch Project, released in 1999. The movie belongs to a subgenre called found footage, and despite its significance, it is not the very first of its kind: 19 years prior, for example, Cannibal Holocaust was released, which had no less influence on the formation of the found footage genre. But it was The Blair Witch Project that divided the horror niche into 'before' and 'after', as this low-budget film project, made by student filmmakers, became one of the most ingenious hoaxes of its time, cleverly building suspense based on the technological realities of its time.

'One thing about Blair Witch: the damn thing looks real. Another thing about Blair Witch: the damn thing feels real. And because it does, it's like the worst nightmare you ever had, the one you woke from gasping and crying with relief because you thought you were buried alive and it turned out the cat jumped up on your bed and went to sleep on your chest,' King shared in his a 2010 edition of his book, Danse Macabre.

Remarkably, unlike many of today's failed big-budget horror films, The Blair Witch Project cost only $200,000-$750,000, including post-production and one of the most extraordinary marketing campaigns ever, featuring missing persons posters featuring the film's characters (with the same names as their student actors) and even missing persons reports on IMDb. Those college kids were lucky the all-consuming social networking wasn't widespread back then!

The Blair Witch Project is available for free streaming on Freevee and Plex.

Source: Eli Roth's History of Horror, Danse Macabre.