10 Recent Horror Movies That Stephen King Enjoyed, From Barbarian To No One Will Save You

Stephen King’s Twitter is a font of knowledge for horror lovers, and his movie recommendations always carry a lot of weight. At 76, the master of horror is still a voracious connoisseur of all things spooky, regularly offering takes on the latest novels, shows, and movies the genre has to offer. His taste is broad-ranging and his enthusiasm for all kinds of filmmaking, from big-budget blockbusters to hyper-indie festival darlings, is contagious.

Of course, while he watches and reads a broad range of things, horror is his bread and butter and his one true love – he is, after all, the King of Horror for a reason. As such, it’s most interesting to hear his take on new horror movies, such as King’s praise for upcoming serial killer flick Strange Darling, especially from upcoming directors. A few recent movies have piqued his interest, so much so that he offered up public praise for them to get others to watch.

10 Civil War

“All muscle and no fat”

Civil War

3.5

Civil War is a 2024 action thriller from writer and director Alex Garland. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, Civil War takes place in the near future and shows the United States entering a new Civil War after California and Texas attempt to separate from the country.

Release Date

April 26, 2024

Alex Garland’s latest, political horror-thriller Civil War, received mixed reviews for its ambivalent, even cautious approach to its themes of journalistic responsibility, good citizenship, and the nature of photographic ethics. Stephen King offered a different angle on the film, focusing less on its “red state and blue state” appeal, and getting back to basics by commending it as a piece of horror filmmaking instead.

“CIVIL WAR: Fantastic movie,” The Shining author wrote on Twitter. “The pacing is terrific, all muscle and no fat. Reminded me a little of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE,” he continued, referencing a 19th-century war novel by Stephen Crane.

9 Infested

“Gross”

Infested (2024)

3.5

Director Sébastien Vanicek makes his feature film debut with a story that follows Kaleb, who is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a bazaar and brings it back to his flat. It only takes a moment for it to escape and reproduce, turning the whole place into a dreadful web trap. Starring Théo Christine (Suprêmes), Finnegan Oldfield (Final Cut), Jérôme Niel (Smoking Causes Coughing), Sofia Lesaffre (Les Misérables) and Lisa Nyarko.

When the man that brought you The Mist calls a giant creature movie “gross,” you should probably believe him. And that’s precisely what he called Sébastien Vaniček’s Infested, a down-and-dirty spider horror flick set in a French apartment building suddenly overrun by what King called “spiders, some as big as puppies.” Critics were positive about this particular arachnid-fest, inspired in part by the all-in-one-night thriller Green Room (2015). King agreed, in his avuncular and to-the-point fashion: “Scary, gross, well made.” (via Twitter)

8 Barbarian

“It was crazy!”

Barbarian was a sleeper hit when it was released in 2022. The twisting (and twisted) tale of an Airbnb stay gone horribly awry in an abandoned Detroit neighborhood, Stephen King wasn’t alone in calling the movie crazy. This movie is guaranteed to keep viewers guessing ’til the end. When a fan on Twitter asked him for his opinion, King commented “That movie blew me away. It was crazy! Crazy GOOD!” (via Twitter)

7 MaXXXine

“Terrific”

MaXXXine

4.0

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx lands her big break, but her rise to stardom is jeopardized by a mysterious killer targeting starlets. As the body count rises, secrets from Maxine’s past threaten to surface, intertwining her quest for fame with a deadly game of survival.

Release Date

July 5, 2024

MaXXXine, the third and final installment of Ti West’s trilogy, is a tour through the seedy side of Hollywood circa 1985. Pulling liberally from the works of Brian De Palma, Dario Argento, Mia Goth’s Maxine Minx rifles through New World Picture’s dirty laundry, looking to make it big outside of porn by starring in a horror sequel, The Puritan II.

Never one to mince words, Stephen King, whose work has touched on similar themes from obsessive fandom (Lisey’s Story, Misery), to religious zealotry and purity culture (Revival), to a non-fiction book on Hollywood filmmaking (Danse Macabre), was succinct but definitive in his praise: “Maxxxine is terrific.” said King.

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6 A Quiet Place: Day One

“The cat steals the show.”

A Quiet Place: Day One

2.0

A Quiet Place: Day One is a spin-off of the A Quiet Place franchise conceived by John Krasinski. The film is set at the beginning of the invasion as humanity scrambles to survive, before the events of the original film, with Lupita Nyong’O leading the cast, directed by Michael Sarnoski.

Director

Michael Sarnoski

Release Date

June 28, 2024

A Quiet Place: Day One, the third installment in the franchise originally helmed by actor-turned-director John Krasinski and his wife, Emily Blunt, far exceeded critical expectations when it came out this June. As such, A Quiet Place: Day One topped the box office for several weeks. This version is a prequel to the high-concept quasi-art horror original film, about alien invaders whose evolved sense of hearing means the last vestiges of humanity must tiptoe through life in order to survive. Here, Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a cat-loving cancer patient, has to duke it out with the aliens with only her wits and her cat for company.

King’s thoughts sum up the reason for its success: “A QUIET PLACE DAY 1: The rare “big Hollywood film” that is both intimate and textured. (And the cat steals the show.)” (via Twitter)

5 In A Violent Nature

“When the blood flows, it flows in buckets.”

In a Violent Nature

3.0

In a Violent Nature is a 2024 horror-slasher film written and directed by Chris Nash that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024. A group of campers in the middle of the wilderness stumble across a fire watchtower and discover a locket buried beneath its charred ruins. However, by unearthing the locket, they’ve invited the wrath of its prior owner and now must survive the rampage of a supernatural killer looking to retrieve his possession.

Director

Chris Nash

Release Date

January 22, 2024

Cast

Lauren-Marie Taylor , Andrea Pavlovic , Ry Barrett , Reece Presley

In A Violent Nature, Chris Nash’s full feature debut after his segment in ABCs of Death, is an ambitious and somewhat strange blend of meditative arthouse slow cinema and retro slasher throwback. It tells its boilerplate tale of teens getting smashed, sliced, and diced in the woods through its silent killer’s eyes, following his lumbering footsteps through beautiful pastures, only to punctuate long stretches of verité style contemplation with noteworthily nasty practical blood and guts.

King wryly recommended the movie on these terms (and with his usual black humor): “IN A VIOLENT NATURE: If you need a slasher movie, this one will do the job. It’s leisurely, almost languorous, but when the blood flows, it flows in buckets. The killer in his mask looks like the world’s most terrifying Minion.” (via Twitter)

4 The Coffee Table

“The Coen Brothers’ darkest dream.”

“There’s a Spanish movie called THE COFFEE TABLE on Amazon Prime and Apple+,” wrote Stephen King in May on Twitter. “My guess is you have never, not once in your whole life, seen a movie as black as this one. It’s horrible and also horribly funny. Think the Coen Brothers’ darkest dream.”

La Mesita del Comedor (The Coffee Table in its American release), is indeed a black comedy. Directed by Caye Casas (Killing God) is the shaggy dog story of a family just trying to build a new coffee table. To go into further detail would be a disservice, but if King lauded its combination of inky black humor and shock, that’s good enough for us.

3 No One Will Save You

“Truly unique.”

No One Will Save You

3.5

No One Will Save You is a sci-fi horror film by writer-director Brian Duffield created for Hulu. Kaitlyn Dever stars as Brynn, a young woman who struggles to connect with the world and spends her time at home honing her creative talents. However, Brynn’s peace is disrupted when her home is suddenly the stage of an alien invasion, forcing her to break out of her shell enough to fend off her would be extraterrestrial assailants.

Director

Brian Duffield

Release Date

September 22, 2023

Cast

Kaitlyn Dever

Hulu’s No One Will Save You is a masterclass of slow-burn psychological horror, where the monsters don’t come from under the bed or in the closet, but from the sky. Kaitlyn Dever stars as a shut-in who struggles to cope with the world outside. Her life is horrifically upended, however, when the outside world comes to her in the form of an attempted alien abduction. It got lots of praise for its tense atmosphere and inventive execution.

Stephen King evidently agreed: “NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU: Brilliant, daring, involving, scary. You have to go back over 60 years, to a TWILIGHT ZONE episode called “The Invaders,” to find anything remotely like it. Truly unique.” he said (via Twitter)

2 Late Night with the Devil

“Absolutely brilliant.”

Late Night With the Devil

4.0

Late Night with the Devil is a horror thriller starring David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy. Delroy is a late-night talk show host in 1977 trying to keep his broadcast on the air. But when he tries to communicate with the devil through a young girl live on the air, things don’t go according to plan.

Director

Cameron Cairnes , Colin Cairnes

Release Date

March 22, 2024

Cast

David Dastmalchian , Laura Gordon , Ian Bliss , Fayssal Bazzi , Ingrid Torelli , Rhys Auteri , Josh Quong Tart , Georgina Haig

Even for all the criticism the production of Late Night with the Devil received for its use of AI generated graphics, the film was still well-received as a pulpy paean to late night television in the era of Satanic Panic. Pulling from a range of tacky sensationalist gimmicks often seen on the likes of The Geraldo Rivera Show or 20/20, a late night host (David Dastmalchian) gets more than he bargained for straining for ratings.

“LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL: I got a screener,” King reported about a week after its SXSW debut in 2023 (via Twitter). “It’s absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Your results may vary, as they say, but I urge you to watch it when you can.”

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1 Night Swim

“Those creepy bunny slippers!”

Night Swim

2.5

Based on the 2014 short film Night Swim is a horror-thriller film that follows a woman being terrorized by a spirit in her swimming pool. Kerry Condon and Wyatt Russell star in the film, handled by Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions.

Director

Bryce McGuire

Release Date

January 5, 2024

Of all of Stephen King’s recent endorsements, the film that needs the boost the most is Bryce McGuire’s little-loved, Night Swim, a tale of a haunted pool that eats people and a former baseball star (Wyatt Russell) whose family is going to fight it at all costs. While the film wasn’t an outright failure, many critics struggled to determine how deeply this kitschy film’s tongue was in its cheek (though others have reclaimed the film as a bonafide camp object).

Stephen King‘s earnest affection for the film fell into neither category, another example why the Master of Horror keeps the genre fresh and the blood pumping: “I loved THE NIGHT SWIM (Amazon Prime). It’s like a lost, low-budget Steven Spielberg film from Spielberg’s early period…say, after DUEL but before JAWS. Simple story, but…the cat on the diving board! And those creepy bunny slippers!” (via Twitter)