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‘Maybe this says more about me than the film’: Stephen King got a kick out of an ‘utterly brilliant’ flop that lost a small fortune

He's definitely in the minority.

babylon
via Paramount

If there’s one thing Stephen King is known for as much as his back catalogue of horror classics, it’s his fondness for recommending movies and TV shows to his millions of followers.

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The legendary author would have no doubt been thrilled to discover Apple TV series Silo had been renewed for a second season following his regular outpourings of praise, although he definitely seems to be in staunch disagreement with critics when it comes to the merits of Dracula do-over The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Carrying on in that vein, his latest thumbs-up is one not everyone is going to agree with.

One of the most polarizing releases of last year, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon was an expensive ode to excess that split opinion straight down the middle, with just as many people praising it as pulling it apart for such an abundance of self-indulgence. That being said, King has made it patently clear which side of the fence he falls on.

babylon
via Paramount

Babylon also had the misfortune of dying an agonizing death at the box office, and while it didn’t end up losing the $150 million that was initially prognosticated following a diabolical opening weekend in domestic theaters, ending up an estimated $90 million in the red by the time the dust settled is hardly something to be worn as a badge of honor.

Either way, now that King has voiced his approvals – and even thrown in a nod to his well-known preference for the version of The Shining that wasn’t directed by Stanley Kubrick – maybe more people will be inclined to check it out.