The Horror Film Stephen King Said Was 'Too Freaky' To Finish

Despite penning the bone-chilling books behind several scary movies including Carrie, Misery, and It (to this day, Bill Skarsgård and his unfocused eyes are my three sleep paralysis demons) it seems there is one film so terrifying that it forced the King of Horror himself, author Stephen King, to tap out: None other than the 1999 thriller mockumentary, The Blair Witch Project. 

“The first time I saw , I was in the hospital and I was doped up,” King recalled while appearing on an episode of Shudder’s Eli Roth’s History of Horror last summer, referencing the June 1999 incident in which he was seriously injured after being hit by a van. “My son brought a VHS tape of it and he said, ‘You gotta watch this,'” King recalled. But even with this recommendation, he quickly tapped out. “Halfway through it I said, ‘Turn it off it’s too freaky,'” he recalled. 

Even with this strong initial reaction, King ultimately changed his tune surrounding The Blair Witch Project. He not only finished watching the beloved flick, but enjoyed it so much that he even penned an essay about the movie's impact on horror in the 2010 reissue of his nonfiction book, Danse Macabre.

"One thing about "Blair Witch:" the damn thing looks real," King wrote. "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," he continued. “It may be the only time in my life when I quit a horror movie in the middle because I was too scared to go on.I was just freaked out of my mind."

So, folks, here's to Stephen King. Let's hope he never finds footage from the sequels!

Top Image: NBC 

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