Why Joey King Wanted To Make The Lie, Despite Being Freaked Out By Horror Movies

Joey King in Welcome to Blumhouse's The Lie
(Image credit: (Amazon))

This Halloween season, just about every streaming service is offering exclusive films and television shows to get into the spooky spirit. When it comes to Amazon Prime Video, the platform has Blumhouse Productions on its side for a series of films called Welcome To Blumhouse. The first two movies in the collection that came out this week were Black Box and The Lie. The latter stars Joey King, who isn’t one to voluntarily sit through the jump scares or blood and guts of the genre.

The actress, well known for her role in spine-chilling film The Act and Netflix’s hit rom-com, The Kissing Booth, recently spoke to CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg about what drew her to The Lie. Check out what she said below:

As Joey King explained to CinemaBlend during the virtual press day for The Lie, she doesn’t necessarily characterize the Welcome To The Blumhouse film as a straight-up horror film. She found intrigue in the thrilling aspects of the script that disorient the audience and challenge the characters involved in the film.

The Lie certainly falls into the psychological crime thriller territory. It was adapted by Veena Sud from the 2015 German film We Monsters and follows separated parents (played by Peter Sarsgaard and Mireille Enos), as they attempt to cover up a murder committed by their daughter, Kayla (King).

While Joey King may not be particularly fond of horror, she was grabbed by an element of the genre that has drawn in fans since its inception. The Lie touches strikes a nerve by placing its characters into nightmarish situations that test one’s fears and comfort levels. Horror often finds clever ways to place audiences in unsettling circumstances.

Back in 2018, Joey King starred in The Slender Man, a much more classic entry into the genre. After this new movie, King is set to star in the third Kissing Booth movie after The Kissing Booth 2 recently dropped on Netflix. The actress is also going to produce and star in an adaptation of the popular YA novel Uglies for Netflix as well.

Other than The Lie, you should also check out Black Box on Amazon Prime, which is about a widower undergoing an experimental treatment. On October 13, the next two -- Nocturne and Evil Eye -- will hit the streamer. It’s true the entries in the Welcome to the Blumhouse series are not exactly “horror” tales but actually fascinating and eerie stories to experience during the October month.

Aside from Amazon Prime’s originals, Netflix has a vast array of Halloween movies between Adam Sandler’s Hubie Halloween and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor. Hulu is celebrating “Huluween” with movies such as Books of Blood and Bad Hair. You can stream The Lie on Amazon Prime right now.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.