I don’t know about you, but I know a topic is great when I spend the whole panel avidly wishing I was up there having the discussion with them. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Stephen King’s first trip to the big screen with the film adaptation of Carrie, and the horror track is celebrating that milestone by taking a nostalgic trip through the past half century of King movies.

Much of the panel, held on Saturday afternoon at 4PM in Westin Peachtree 1-2, could be described as a love letter to King, start to finish, even when offering criticism of some of his weaker projects. It’s difficult to break it down into individual moments or comments because the panelists had so much love to give they often talked back and forth together in a conversational flow not often seen on panels. It truly felt like watching a group of friends discuss something they all loved very much. Loved enough to forgive and even enjoy some of its flaws. While all agreed, for example, that The Shining is a classic masterpiece that they absolutely love, they could also agree that it was a terrible adaptation of the book it is based on. And, conversely, the mini-series, which is perhaps accurate to a fault, is a lesser watch despite being more faithful.

Perhaps owing to the fact that this was the Horror Track, most of the discussion did center on King’s scarier films, though not all of it. Many of the panelists expressed a love for Stand by Me in particular and one panelist, Cris the Girl, noted that she had a particular love of The Green Mile as she had read the novellas as they were released and felt they were a formative part of her love of the author. It was noted that he is so often known for horror, but most of his best work is not in the genre at all, or only tangentially connected. He is, and always has been, as diverse in his subject matter as he is prolific.

The highlight of the panel, for me at least, was a little dueling game of Mount Rushmore vs Mount Trashmore, where the panelists were asked to pick the four best or most iconic King films, and the four worst. Stand by Me continued to get love in this section, as did classics like The Shining and Pet Sematary, but also Salem’s Lot and Misery. Meanwhile, Mount Trashmore was populated with films like Maximum Overdrive, Dreamcatcher, and the unfortunate adaptation of The Dark Tower.

As a long time fan of King myself, I wanted to be up on that stage, part of that effortless conversation they were having together. I wanted to be part of that friend group discussing the thing they love, and that is the hallmark of a great mix of panelists. I don’t know if this group knew each other before today, but I hope I see them together on something else someday. For my part, I would have liked to hear more discussion of some of the recent adaptations, or the Dollar Baby program, but you can only fit so much of a half century into an hour-long panel unfortunately. Perhaps a deeper dive is in order, Horror Track? King certainly has enough material to keep you in panels for the next 50 years.