The Institute star Mary Louise Parker praises Stephen King's craft, but admits she doesn’t watch horror movies: "I cry at Verizon Wireless commercials"

The Institute star Mary-Louise Parker says she's not a big fan of horror, but has love and admiration for legendary author Stephen King for his talent and craft.

"I don't usually watch thrillers or horrors. I'm kind of a baby when it comes to all that stuff, but, I really admire his writing and his craft. And you can see it even in Misery," Parker explains to GamesRadar+. "He just knows how to take a hold of the audience and just keep them in this place where you almost can't stop watching. You think you know where it's gonna go, and then you really don't. He’s a master."

The Institute, based on King's 2019 novel of the same name, follows Luke (Joe Freeman), a smart kid who is kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken to a facility where young children with telepathic and telekinetic abilities are forced to undergo grueling experiments at a cruel institution run by a mysterious and powerful entity. Parker plays Julia Sigsby, the director of The Institute who hand-selects each forcibly admitted child and oversees the experiments.

Without spoiling anything, Sigsby is nothing short of terrifying. She seems to fully believe that what she's doing is for the greater good, but she has no remorse about the abuse that goes into it. When she's not making terrible things happen from being her desk, she wears cut-off tees and calls her ailing father. Though The Institute isn't a straight horror, and veers more into the science fiction genre, Parker says she understands why people love a good horror movie.

"I cry at Verizon commercials. I see brutal documentaries and stuff like that, but I have a harder time with actual horror. My son watches horror and my daughter, and and I just have to kinda close [my eyes] when I walk through the room," she continues.

"But they had explained it to me [...] how people with intense anxiety, sometimes thrillers are in a way – there's some kind of antidote within them because there's this little controlled period of time where your anxiety is being directed, and you know it's going to end. So it's not some kind of free floating thing that's just kind of tormenting you. I find that really interesting, and then it gives you this kind of release. Because before, I I would never understand why someone with anxiety would wanna to watch content like that, but it actually made sense once I heard that explanation of it."

The Institute is set to hit MGM Plus on July 13. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming your way in 2025 and beyond, or, check out our ranking of the best Stephen King adaptations to add to your streaming queue right now.