Stephen King Listed His 10 Favorite Movies Ever And The Real Shock Is How Unscary They Are

Stephen King just posted his 10 favorite movies, and the twist is how little “boo!” there is. The list has heavy hitters, but not a single 2025 movie schedule title—or any new horror movies—made the cut. In fact, few picks come from after the late ’70s, and almost none are horror at all. Let’s get into it.

Stephen King’s 10 Favorite Movies (No Particular Order)

The master of the Macabre recently took to his X account to post his list of ten favorite movies of all time, and in his own words, they are in no particular order. In the social media post, which you can see below, he even excluded some of the heavy-hitter book-to-screen adaptations of his own work (Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand By Me) to keep things clean.

The picks skew heavily toward some of the best ’70s cinema. Here’s the complete list:

• Sorcerer (1977)
• The Godfather Part II (1977)
• The Getaway (1972)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• Casablanca (1942)
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• Jaws (1975)
• Mean Streets (1973)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Double Indemnity (1944)

At first glance, the “King of Horror” naming a list with virtually no horror feels like a jump-scare fake-out. But is it really that surprising?

Why The Lack Of Horror Is The Most “Stephen King” Thing Ever

Scan the titles and a pattern emerges: these are movies about pressure and consequence, not monsters. A couple of the best noir movies that are also doom spirals (Double Indemnity), greed eating men alive (Sierra Madre), flawed guys trying to go straight (Mean Streets, The Getaway), and ordinary people facing the unknowable (Close Encounters). Even the “popcorn” picks might be surprising. For example, Jaws is terror in broad daylight, and Groundhog Day is a comedy. At the same time, one of the best movies of the 1990s, it's also a nightmare of a story where a man is trapped in a supernatural loop until he redeems himself.

Another tell is the ’70s grit running through so many choices, from the directors like Friedkin, Coppola, Peckinpah, Scorsese, and Spielberg. That era’s moral ambiguity and working-class texture are the same oxygen as the novelists' stories breathe. So yes, the list is light on explicit horror, but it’s heavy on King DNA. Pick any of the Shining author’s book off the shelf and scares’ll greet you, sure, but also human frailty, mounting anxiety, and the awful moment when a small decision turns fatal. In other words, less “boo,” more bite.

Fans Weigh In On The Horror Author’s Picks

The comments from fans did what comments do—question, cosign, and lobby for their faves. A sampling of some of the best responses:

• @cwfreenews: “Some wild swings. No Blade Runner?”
• @ElBurroDOro: “Not gonna mention the unmentionable club, fair enough.”
• @wattoclone: “Respectfully disagree, except Jaws.”
• @salvador__1: “Stand by me, Shawshank redemption, Jaws, Close encounters of the 3rd kind, Misery, All impeccable movies. 100% agree on that.”
• @Mile_Zee: “I approve that you have Jaws in here. It’s my favourite of all time.”
• @drocktrot: “I agree, those are some great movies, it would be awesome to have a online book club discussing some of your greatest novels. Just a little revisit back to those days of Pet Cemetery, IT, Thinner, Carrie, Cujo, Misery too name a few ”
• @joanne_paulson: “Oooooo Sorcerer. Not a lot of peeps I know remember/have watched that movie, but I thought it was brilliant and kind of chuffed to see it here.

The through line? Surprise at the omissions, love for Jaws, which makes a ton of sense especially if you first experienced it in theaters, and a mini-evangelical wave for Sorcerer, and, honestly, it's probably the most “Stephen King” pick on the list.

So yes, the iconic storyteller largely picked movies that aren’t horror. But the author's stories have always been character-first, fear-second, with the supernatural often working as a pressure cooker for empathy, choice, and cost. This list just makes that subtext text. The jump scare fades—the moral hangover sticks. And if you’re surprised his favorites skew more human than hellish, that might be the most horror twist of all.

But hey, maybe something on the 2026 movie schedule will tickle Stephen King’s fancy and make the list. Only time will tell.