10 Horror Movies for the Writing Community

I’m part of the wonderful writing and horror communities on Twitter and Facebook, and I thought I’d do something to give back. You’re going to love this.

I have compiled a list of 10 movies—not just movies but horror movies—featuring writers! YES!

On a side note, Stephen King has written numerous books with an author as the main character, of which many been made into movies. These include The Shining, Misery, Salem’s Lot, It and The Dark Half. In case you’re wondering, this is not a list consisting mostly of movies based on King’s books.

King gets only one slot. I decided on The Shining, just because it’s one of my personal favorites.

My list, in no particular order:

1. Hush (2016)

Maddie Young is an author who’s deaf. She is home alone at her isolated house in the woods when she is targeted by a sadistic masked serial killer. What I especially like about the movie is how Maddie, when trying to outwit the killer, plays out different scenarios in her head in the same way that authors plot their books.

Now streaming on Netflix.

2. The Shining (1980)

Writer Jack Torrance is hired as caretaker of a sprawling hotel in the mountains. He figures he’ll have plenty of time to write while he’s snowbound in the hotel with his wife and young child. Instead, something sinister is hell-bent on driving him mad.

3. Half Light (2006)

Successful murder mystery author Rachel Carlson is stricken with guilt when her young son dies in a tragic accident caused in part by her carelessness. She leaves her husband and holes up in a remote cottage on the Scottish coast to finish her book. She begins to see ghosts of her son and others.

The movie is streaming on Crackle, Tubi TV and The Roku Channel.

4. Sinister (2012)

A true crime writer moves himself, his wife and their two children into a house where a family was murdered, thinking that would make good fodder for his next book. While settling in, he finds a box of home movies depicting several families being killed. He finds out that in each case, one of the children goes missing. A pagan deity seems to be involved.

Sinister is streaming on Hulu.

5. Burnt Offerings (1976)

A writer rents an old country estate for himself, his wife and his son for the summer. He gets a discount, in exchange for which his wife has to bring meals up to the owners’ mother, who lives on the mansion’s top floor. The writer’s wife begins to fall under the mansion’s sinister influence.

6. Cooties (2014)

Teachers try to escape from zombie children at their elementary school. Among them is a substitute teacher who also is an aspiring horror writer.

You can watch Cooties on Tubi TV or The Roku Channel.

7. The Marsh (2006)

A children’s book writer rents a house that looks exactly like the one in her recurring nightmares. After she sees ghosts in the house, she hires a paranormal investigator to help her unravel the mystery behind her dreams.

The Marsh is streaming on Hulu.

8. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

In this John Carpenter-directed flick, an insurance investigator looks into the disappearance of a horror writer.

9. I Spit on Your Grave (2010)

Warning: this movie is disturbing. A novelist rents a cabin in Louisiana for peace and quiet to write her book. She is raped and tortured by four locals. She goes after them, exacting revenge in gruesome ways.

I Spit on Your Grave is streaming on Tubi TV. 

10. Scream 4 (2011)

Scream 4 features not one but two writers: former reporter Gale Weathers, who is suffering from writer’s block, and Ghostface survivor Sidney Prescott, who returns to Woodsboro to promote her self-help book. Stylish and clever.

The movie is available on Netflix.