Horror writer Stephen King hates Hallowe'en because neighbours expect him to turn his home into a frightfest.

The man behind horror classics like CARRIE and The Shining likes to take vacations around the spooky holiday - so he can get away from fans who think he'll treat them to a neighbourhood spectacular.

He says, "It used to be we'd stay home and thousands of people, literally, would converge on the house and we gave out I dunno how much in candy and everything else.

"We got to the point where we were actually thinking about bringing in fog machines and putting up fake gravestones and I'm like, 'Hold on here a second, I'm turning into the Hallowe'en Santa Claus.'"