Stephen King Names The Best Blumhouse Horror Movie
Stephen King has said that The Black Phone is his favorite Blumhouse movie.
Stephen King is one of the most prolific writers in history, and many of his books and short stories have been adapted into some of the most frightening motion pictures and television shows known to man. Last year, the “King of Horror” saw three adaptations of his work released, including the remake of the 1984 thriller Firestarter from Blumhouse. Oddly enough, when the company recently took to Twitter to ask its followers to name their favorite Blumhouse release of 2022, King was quick to shout out The Black Phone.
The Dark Tower author is known for being extremely opinionated, and he often takes to social media to share his views on a variety of topics including politics, books, and cinema. With that said, it should come as no surprise that Stephen King jumped on the opportunity to chime in with his favorite Blumhouse title. Considering The Black Phone is one of the highest-rated horror flicks of 2022, the renowned writer is clearly not alone in his sentiments.
It’s worth noting that The Black Phone was adapted from the 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill, who happens to be the son of Stephen King. The terrifying tale appears in Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts, which was published in 2005. It is possible King is playing favorites by saying the big-screen adaptation of his son’s work is the best Blumhouse release of 2022, but one look at the film’s scores on Rotten Tomatoes would indicate King is merely stating the obvious.
On the review aggregation website, The Black Phone has a solid score of 83 percent from critics and an even higher score of 88 percent from everyday viewers. Meanwhile, Firestarter, which is based on the 1980 science-fiction horror novel of the same name by Stephen King, was absolutely panned by critics. The Blumhouse remake has a measly score of 10 percent from critics and a score of 47 percent from audiences.
Although Firestarter was a critical and financial disaster, Stephen King seemed to prefer the Blumhouse remake over the 1984 original. He told Vanity Fair last May that he loved the script, and he appreciated that the writers made it more of a family story this time around. He was also impressed with the casting choices, particularly Zac Efron, who King praised for his compelling performance.
Like the novel by Stephen King, the Blumhouse film follows a man, who after being experimented on by a shadowy government agency, develops psychic powers and meets the love of his life. Together they have a daughter with powers of her own and the agency will stop at nothing to capture the young child. They want to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction. The movie was released on May 13, 2022, in theaters, and it was also streaming exclusively on Peacock on the same day.
It probably goes without saying that The Black Phone is superior to Firestarter in just about every way. Stephen King definitely knows a thing or two when it comes to horror, and we agree with the author that the Scott Derrickson-directed feature is hands-down the best Blumhouse title of 2022. After streaming exclusively on Peacock for months, the hit thriller is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.
