The Worst Fears of 7 Horror Icons

What qualifies as “scary” differs from person to person—so it takes a brilliant (and twisted) mind to create horrifying stories and characters with mass appeal. Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, and Mary Shelley are examples of artists who made their name by tapping into people’s most primal fears. But masters of terror aren’t necessarily immune to terror themselves—and in some cases, they used what scares them to inform their most famous works. Let’s turn the tables and find out what seven horror icons are most afraid of.

1. Stephen King // Cars
2. Stanley Kubrick // Flying
3. Shirley Jackson // Leaving Her House
4. Alfred Hitchcock // Eggs
5. Robert Englund // Snakes
6. Jordan Peele // Doppelgängers
7. Mary Shelley // Childbirth

Stephen King // Cars

The mastermind behind some of the most terrifying stories ever put to paper—including The Shining, It, Carrie, and Pet Cemetery—is intimately acquainted with fear. In a 1986 interview, Stephen King revealed a phobia of trucks and cars he traced back to childhood: ”They seemed so large, and I seemed so small. I had the same imagination then that I do now, except that, for a kid, everything is harder to control.” The renowned horror author also described some of the darker thoughts related to bulldozers he had when he was younger: “I would imagine what would happen to my little fingers if started to move .”

Instead of turning away from these unsettling fantasies, King indulged them in works like Christine and Maximum Overdrive (1986).

Stanley Kubrick // Flying

While Stephen King was disappointed by Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, the 1980 film is considered a psychological horror classic today. And according to The Times, the director had his fair share of phobias. He feared that an atomic bomb would be dropped on Britain, so he planned to leave his home and move to Perth, Australia, in the early 1960s. This was complicated by the fact that he was also severely afraid of flying. He looked into traveling by ship, but this brought up another problem: sharing a toilet with other passengers for six weeks. According to Reconstructing Strangelove: Inside Stanley Kubrick’s “Nightmare Comedy” author Mick Broderick, this scenario was “intolerable.”

Due to Kubrick’s anxieties around travel, he scrapped his relocation plans and stayed in Britain. Even after becoming a major director, he continued to shoot his movies in the UK—including The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which are both set in the U.S.

Shirley Jackson // Leaving Her House

Shirley Jackson is one of the most famous horror writers of the 20th century. The author‘s best-known works include her short story “The Lottery” and her 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, which King dubbed one of the “great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years.”

After Hill House hit shelves, Jackson developed severe agoraphobia, or the fear and avoidance of places that can cause panic and uncertainty. The phobia is often reflected in her work, with her 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in a Castle being the clearest example. “In her books, there’s always this tension,” Jessica Harrison, editorial director of Penguin Classics, told the publishing house’s blog, “between being afraid to go outside, where there are other people and groups who can hurt you, and staying inside, where you can protect yourself, but at the same time you’re isolated.” Jackson even told her friend that she had “written into house” to avoid people.

Alfred Hitchcock // Eggs

Many people dislike certain foods, but few are outright terrified of them. In 1963, director Alfred Hitchcock revealed his fear of eggs to journalist Oriana Fallaci. “I‘m frightened of eggs,” he said. “That white round thing without any holes, and when you break it, inside there’s that yellow thing, round, without any holes ... Brr!”

The “Master of Suspense” behind iconic horror films like Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) could look past his fear when eggs were cooked into a quiche Lorraine, one of his favorite breakfast foods.

Robert Englund // Snakes

Robert Englund got his start in the movie industry tossing leaves around the set of Halloween (1978). Just a few years later, he became one of the most iconic horror characters of all time: the slasher known as Freddy Krueger. The Nightmare on Elm Street star has played the serial killer numerous times since the franchise debuted in 1984, and he’s appeared in other horror films like Urban Legend (1998), The Wishmaster (1997), and The Mangler (1995).

During a press event in 2020, Englund admitted that he was afraid of snakes when he agreed to be in the 2000 film Python. The actor played a herpetologist (a scientist who studies amphibians and reptiles) and walking around with a real snake on his shoulder was part of the job. “That’s how I got over my fear of snakes, because the snake was so small,” the actor recalled. “She not venomous. I worked with her for six weeks on the movie, and she was in my armpit for five of those weeks.”   

Jordan Peele // Doppelgängers

After breaking out in sketch comedy, Jordan Peele made a surprising jump to horror in 2017 with his directorial debut, Get Out. He followed it up with Us (2019), which reflects his fear of doppelgängers. When asked about the making of the film, Peele told BBC News, “You always have to start with something that scares you [...] The idea of encountering myself with no warning always just dropped my stomach out from under me, so that was the first thing I thought of.”

On a funnier note, the director also finds rabbits eerie because of their “sociopathic expression” that “look past you in a creepy kind of way.” The animals are also featured in his sophomore film.

Mary Shelley // Childbirth

Many scholars believe Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus reflects the author’s fear of childbirth. She had good reason to be terrified of it, given the death rates of women who had babies in the early 19th century—and the fact that her mother, the feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, died from an infection shortly after giving birth to her. Shelley herself dealt with a life-threatening miscarriage and the losses of all but one of the four children she bore [PDF]. When Frankenstein was published in 1818, Mary had already experienced the potential horrors of bringing life into the world firsthand.

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