(#1) Little Gage Creed Gets Hit By A Truck
... he believed that the tips of his fingers had actually brushed the back of the light jacket Gage had been wearing, and then Gage's forward motion had carried him out into the road, and the truck had been thunder...
Pet Sematary remains one of Stephen King's scariest books and some of his most horrible events happen within this novel. One of the biggest is the death of Louis's young son Gage. After spending more than half the book getting to know him (even though you know he's going to die), it still hurts when you learn Gage is hit by a truck on a busy highway as his father tries desperately to save him.
(#2) Annie Wilkes Does A Number On Paul's Feet
Unsurprisingly, a book called Misery doesn't turn out to be all rainbows and sunshine. In the novel, Paul Sheldon is a writer who ends up trapped with his "biggest fan." Those familiar with the movie know that Annie Wilkes breaks Paul's feet by smashing them with a hammer, but the novel takes things even further.
Instead of just hitting him, Annie viciously cuts off Paul's foot with an ax, then cauterizes the wound with a propane torch.
(#3) Georgie Meets Pennywise
And George saw the clown’s face change. What he saw then was terrible enough to make his worst imaginings of the thing in the cellar look like sweet dreams; what he saw destroyed his sanity in one clawing stroke.
One of Stephen King’s most terrifying creations, Pennywise is pure nightmare fuel. The clown's introduction, in which he kills poor Georgie, still stands as one of the most horrifying things Stephen King has ever written. What makes it even more horrible is how the body is found, with the young boy's slicker drenched in blood and his arm ripped off. Damn you, Mr. King.
(#4) Gage Creed Comes Back As A Monster
Hello Jud, you f*cked with me once. Did you think I wouldn't come back sooner or later and f*ck with you?
Stephen King knows there's nothing more horrifying than children. It's why one of his scariest villains is Gage Creed in Pet Sematary. After dying and coming back, Gage is not the same boy he used to be.
(#5) Mrs. Massey Reveals Her True Form
In The Shining, no room is more feared than 217, and for good reason. In the novel, Jack Torrance enters the room and encounters a beautiful woman taking a bath. Jack, rapidly losing his mind, is enthralled, but things go south pretty quickly.
Before his eyes, the ghost known as Mrs. Massey morphs into a rotting corpse that cackles a spine-chilling laugh that causes Jack to flee the room.
(#6) Danny Sees The Woman From 217 Again
The woman from Room 217 was there, as he had known she would be. She was sitting naked on the toilet with her legs spread and her pallid thighs bulging. Her greenish breasts hung down like deflated balloons. The patch of hair below her stomach was gray. Her eyes were also gray, like steel mirrors. She saw him, and her lips stretched back in a grin.
Stephen King's Doctor Sleep is the decades-later sequel to The Shining, and judging by the opening few pages, it's every bit as terrifying. To be presented with such a horrific image right off the bat is a sign that the book you're reading will most likely traumatize you. In Doctor Sleep's case, that's entirely accurate.
(#7) Cujo Descends Into Rabid Madness
Cujo got back up. His muzzle was bloody. His eyes seemed wandering, vacuous again... The dog made as if to walk away, suddenly snapped viciously at its own flank as if stung, whirled, and sprang at Donna's window. It struck right in front of Donna's face with another tremendous dull thud. Blood sprayed across the glass, and a long silver crack appeared. Tad shrieked and clapped his hands to his face, pulling his cheeks down, harrowing them with his fingernails.
The scariest part about Cujo is how down-to-earth everything is. It's not some interstellar space clown bent on consuming the souls of children, it's a dog slowly driven mad by rabies. Stephen King is such a master of his craft that he makes you simultaneously sad about Cujo's transformation, but also horrified that this dog is going to maul Donna and Tad.
(#8) Henry Carves Ben's Stomach
It is filled with violent moments, but one of the most disturbing is Henry’s actions toward the overweight Ben. Most bullies like to give swirlies or massive wedgies, but Henry goes further than that. After Ben refuses to let Henry cheat off him on a test, Henry tracks him down and sets out to carve his name into Ben’s stomach with a knife.
Fortunately, Henry only carves the H before Ben escapes, but it's a scar that remains with him for the rest of his life.
(#9) Susannah Is Assaulted By A Demon
A lot of horrible things happen in the Dark Tower series, but one of the most graphic is the sexual assault of Susannah by the Speaking Demon in the third book, The Waste Lands. Even though she's able to tap into her tougher personality, Detta Walker, to help fight back, it's still an extremely horrifying situation.
It also doesn't help that she becomes pregnant with a demon baby.
(#10) Mrs. Carmody Rallies For A Human Sacrifice
While the film version of Stephen King's The Mist has one of the most horrifying movie endings of all time, the book itself has plenty of terrifying moments that show just how dangerous everyday people can be. The real threat to the survivors is not the titular mist and an abundance of dangerous creatures, it's other people.
While trapped in the supermarket, religious zealot Mrs. Carmody is quick to point out that the mist was sent by God as punishment for man's sins. The single most frightening thing in the book is how quickly she is able to convince her fellow survivors that the mist wants a human sacrifice.
(#11) Dolores Faces Her Abusive Husband
That grin struck a chill all the way through me, Andy, because it was the grin of a dead man - a dead man with blood all over his face 'n' shirt, a dead man with what looked like stones pushed into his eyes. Then he started to climb the wall.
Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne is an interesting novel because it's told confession-style as Dolores recounts how she killed her horrible, abusive husband by pushing him down a well. The big moment when she actually kills Joe is quite frightening, as Joe's fall doesn't kill him, and the monstrous man starts climbing the walls of the well to escape.
(#12) Ralphie Gets Taken By A Vampire, Then Turned Into One
He did feel something and knew they were no longer alone. A great hush had fallen over the woods; but it was a malefic hush. Shadows, urged by the wind, twisted languorously around them.
There’s something undeniably unsettling about evil directed toward small children. There’s something even more unsettling when small children are turned into freaky vampire demons. That's why this passage from Salem's Lot is so horrible. It hurts to see an innocent kid put in danger, but it's also scary to see what the vampire spits back out.
(#13) Carrie Gets Mowed Down By Billy
She stood swaying, her arms thrown out like the arms of a stage hypnotist, and she began to totter toward them.
The end of Stephen King’s first novel builds to an absolutely intense climax. After a whirlwind of emotions (do you root for Carrie, do you not root for Carrie?), the reader is treated to a sickening ending as Billy runs Carrie over with his car. After everything that's happened, it's sort of a perfectly awful conclusion to Carrie's sad life.
(#14) Roland Lets Jake Fall To His Death
Go then. There are other worlds than these.
In the first book of the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, Roland is a hardened man obsessed with his quest to find the titular tower. He meets a boy, Jake Chambers, who becomes his surrogate son. Jake looks up to Roland, but fears what will happen when Roland has to choose between him and his mission. Unfortunately, that very problem occurs near the end of the book, and Roland has to decide whether to go after the Man in Black who has the answers he seeks, or save Jake who is dangling over a ledge. Once Jake realizes that Roland won't save him, he lets go of the edge and falls without screaming.
(#15) Trisha Is Stalked By A Faceless Monster
In its glare Trisha saw something with slumped shoulders standing on the far side of the road, something with black eyes and great cocked ears like horns. Perhaps they were horns. It wasn't human; nor did she think it was animal. It was a god. It was her god, the wasp-god, standing there in the rain.
Although not as well-known as some of his bigger novels, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is still quietly terrifying. Perhaps the scariest part is when Trisha realizes she's being followed by a faceless creature and the 9-year-old's mental state slowly starts to deteriorate.
(#16) A Pistol Penetrating The Trashcan Man
In Stephen King's epically epic The Stand, a terribly burned pyromaniac known as the Trashcan Man crosses the post-apocalyptic wasteland of America from Indiana to Nevada largely on foot.
In the unabridged version of the novel, he encounters a bullying sociopath who calls himself "The Kid," and who, at one point, forces a loaded gun into Trash's most private area.
(#17) Beaver Fights A Toilet Monster And Loses
Dreamcatcher might be one of Stephen King's oddest books, but it doesn't mean there aren't some horrifying passages in it. One of the scariest is Beaver's fight with the toilet monster, which ends up being a lot more frightening than it sounds.
As Beaver struggles to keep the creature in the toilet by sitting down on the lid, he can't help trying to reach for his toothpicks. As they fall from his hands onto the blood-soaked floor, he foolishly continues trying to grab one. The weight shift allows the alien to break free and viciously attack poor Beaver.
(#18) Danny Encounters The Hedges
There was something in here with him, some awful thing the Overlook saved for just such a chance as this... Danny heard the stealthy crackle of dead leaves, as something came for him on its hands and knees.
You’ll never look at hedges the same way again. In Stephen King’s novel The Shining, little Danny finds the entire Overlook Hotel is out to get him. The scene with the hedges is nerve-wracking, and as Danny runs to safety, readers feel like they're running too.
(#19) The Gunslinger Reaches The Dark Tower
And each time you forget the last time. For you, each time is the first time.
Seven books, give or take what feels like a million pages, and Stephen King decides to end his Dark Tower saga with one of the most shocking moments ever put to page. The reader is horrified to discover that Roland has been on his quest to find the Dark Tower many, many, many times before. Every time he reaches it, he resets back to the beginning of his quest with no memory of what happened. It’s a definite shock for readers who followed the Gunslinger from the very beginning.
(#20) Big Jim Disembowels Thibodeau, Then Asphyxiates
Stephen King loves to put characters in confined spaces with one another so they'll eventually rip each other apart. That's what happens in his hefty Under the Dome, which sees residents of Chester's Mill suddenly trapped under a massive, invisible dome.
No one is more despicable than the villainous Big Jim, and although his death is extremely satisfying, it's also horrifying. Trapped in a bunker with his loyal confidant Thibodeau with dwindling supplies, the two eventually turn on each other and Big Jim eviscerates Thibodeau.
Stuck down there with his rotting body causes Big Jim to start hallucinating. He's so scared that he runs out of the safety of the bunker and into the poisonous gas covering the whole town. He dies clawing at his own throat.
(#21) Clay And His Group Realize They All Had The Same Dream
Clay looked down at his sketch, which he was still carrying - the torn flesh, the torn sleeve of the pullover, the baggy blue jeans. He supposed that Raggedy Man was not a bad name at all for the fellow in the Harvard hoodie.
Cell is Stephen King's version of the zombie apocalypse, and it's filled with horrifying moments. One of the biggest is the group of survivors all having the same dream, which includes standing in a stadium surrounded by zombies. It's horrifying enough as it is without revealing that everyone else also had the dream.
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About This Tool
Stephen King once said in an interview that the best effect for him is that readers die of a heart attack while reading his novels. No one can surpass his achievements in the field of horror novels. When it comes to horror movies, the first thing most people think of is the world-famous movie The Shining, which is also the most famous adaptation based on Stephen King’s books.
His books always make people unable to stop reading. The tortuous and complicated plots, unpredictable specialization, and vivid descriptions make various horrible things in his novels particularly impressive. Here the random tool shares 21 of the most terrifying things in Stephen King novels.
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