Most adapted author in the horror genre

The author whose works have been most frequently made into horror movies is Edgar Allan Poe (USA; 1809–49). As of 2024, there have been 80 horror movies inspired by his short stories and poems.

The most commonly adapted of Poe's works is the tense psychological horror of "The Tell-Tale Heart", written in 1843. This story of a murderer driven mad by the persistent, audible heartbeat of the man he killed has been adapted 14 times. This number of adaptations is all the more impressive when you consider that the story's heavy reliance on sound meant that it was rarely filmed during the silent era.

Poe's enduring popularity among filmmakers owes a lot to the varied nature of his written work. His fiction includes torture horror ("The Pit and the Pendulum"), disease-related body horror ("The Masque of the Red Death") and gothic horror ("The Fall of the House of Usher").

The second place position is held by another American short-story writer, HP Lovecraft, whose own weird fiction was heavily influenced by Poe. At total of 62 movies have been made that draw on Lovecraft's short stories, as well as the broader context of his "Cthulhu Mythos" series. Stephen King is the highest ranking living writer, with 52 movies based on his work – but it's worth noting that this count doesn't include King's non-horror adaptations such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999) and Stand By Me (1986).