Horror fans have been debating for years about cinema's scariest moments, and now the king of the genre himself has chimed in to claim that there's one scene that trumps them all.
Whether through his books or film adaptations, Stephen King has been responsible for his fair share of nightmare-inducing plots over the decades, with Misery, It, Pet Sematary and countless others all considered undisputed classics of the genre.
So when it comes to spooking the spook-master himself, you've got to think it would probably take a pretty special effort.
Now, King has finally revealed what he considers to be the scariest horror movie seen of all time... and it's not what many of his fellow horror fanatics may have expected.
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In an article written for Entertainment Weekly, King recalls a moment in a classic 60s horror flick that left him a shuddering wreck, and said he stands by his view that it's the best horror scene in history.
The film in question is Night of the Living Dead, the 1968 George A. Romero zombie classic that's widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
'The scariest sequence I can remember is in Night of the Living Dead,' King writes, explaining 'The cemetery-visiting heroine, Barbara, is chased back to her car by a lurching zombie with white hair and dazed eyes. She locks herself in only to discover her brother has taken the keys. The zombie reaches down, finds a rock, and begins to bash it strengthlessly against the car window. The first time I saw this (and twice after), the scene reduced me to jelly.'
Check out the scene in question here:
For those who haven't been able to bring themselves to watch it, Night of the Living Dead follows the trials of a groups of friends who find themselves trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, as an ever-bigger gang of the cannibalistic undead bear down on them.
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It was one of the most violent and gory films ever to have been released in cinemas at the time, and was initially subjected to heavy criticism and controversy. Since then though, the horror genre has only grown more popular, and Night of the Living Dead is now considered both a cult classic and a groundbreaking peace of filmmaking.
And while the scene in question might come of as a bit tame to modern day horror fans, it's worth remembering just how unprecedented this kind of thing was when King first saw it all those years ago.
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Topics: Stephen King, Film and TV, Horror