The one movie genre Emily Blunt has never enjoyed: “I actually loathe”

Posted On February 16, 2026February 16, 2026

We all have our own preferences when it comes to watching certain genres – personally, it takes a lot to convince me to watch an action movie or something with superheroes.

When you’re an actor, though, these preferences likely inform the roles you take on. Or do they?

A conversation between two of cinema’s most iconic scream queens, Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell, revealed that the pair actually dislike watching horror movies – that’s right, Halloween‘s Laurie Strode and Scream‘s Sidney Prescott dislike scary films, and clearly, they put their dislike of the genre behind them when it comes to doing their job, separating their viewing habits from their work.

Similarly, Emily Blunt can’t stand horror movies, and while she might not be a scream queen, she has enough prominent horror credits under her belt to make this a rather questionable statement, and to be fair, the English actor has never really boxed herself into one genre – her career starting with the British drama My Summer of Love, a series of period dramas, and then the classic fashion-forward comedy The Devil Wears Prada, but since then, she has done everything from action to sci-fi, thrillers, fantasy, musicals, and adventure movies, dipping her toes into basically every genre presented to her.

Yet, if she hates horror so much, then why did she take on a leading role in the A Quiet Place franchise… I mean, it probably helps that it was co-written and directed by her husband, John Krasinski, who also starred alongside her in the film, but still, for someone who hates horror, it’s pretty impressive to appear in a movie that contains monsters and gore. 

Her first horror movie, though, was 2007’s Wind Chill, a pretty forgettable supernatural flick that went straight to DVD, and in an interview with JoBlo, the actor revealed that she only took on the role so that her younger brother could watch her in something that would’ve been of interest – clearly he wasn’t interested in fashion magazines and catty rivalry or coming-of-age over a hot Yorkshire summer. 

She explained, “I thought it was very removed from anything else I’ve done, and really, I’m making it for my 16-year-old brother who has loathed my other movies that I’ve done, and he thinks it’s awesome that I’m doing this one. So this is for him, and I wanted to do something physical, and it’s a stretch to do that deep fear acting, and you don’t want to spend too much time.”

She admitted that it was a challenge, because she really doesn’t like to be scared, but sometimes, you have to push yourself and step into new creative avenues. “I’m someone who likes to be challenged, and I like the idea of playing that absolute disabling fear,” she said, although she admitted, “I actually loathe horror movies, I never actually watch them- I’m a real wuss.”

Wind Chill didn’t really make much of an impact, unfortunately, but it clearly didn’t put Blunt off the genre completely, and Blunt hasn’t done much horror besides the A Quiet Place franchise, so it seems like we shouldn’t expect her to appear in another scary movie anytime soon.