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10 Stephen King Book Moments That Terrified Me, And I Usually Don't Get Scared

October 24, 2024

This article contains mention of abuse.

Stephen King is the master of writing disturbing moments that continue to scare years later, including those that terrified me when I read them. Many of his works have become staples of the horror genre between the original source material and the many movie and television series adaptations that came later. Stephen King’s books tap into the universal fear of the unknown as he builds an unparalleled sense of suspense and dread. This buildup pays off with supernatural and real-world horrors that range from the demonic entity known as It to abusive parents.

While I do not get easily scared by fictional stories, King has written several moments that remain genuinely terrifying. Many of these moments are impactful not just because of the monsters or the gore involved, but because of how they play on real-life fears and a sense of existential hopelessness. This is what gives many of Stephen King’s best villains their real power, as they make the protagonist and the reader trapped by a feeling of inevitable and perpetual doom.

10 Kurt Barlow Forces Father Callahan To Drink His Blood

Salem’s Lot

When I read a vampire story, I fully expect to see vampires feeding on the blood of their human prey, and Salem’s Lot delivers on this expectation. What I did not expect was for the ancient vampire Kurt Barlow to force Father Donald Callahan to drink his blood. This is part of Barlow mocking Father Callahan and proving that the priest’s faith is not powerful enough to defeat a vampire. The ultimate mockery is that, with Barlow’s blood now running through his veins, Father Callahan is unable to reenter his church since he is now corrupted.

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What Barlow does to Father Callahan is a level of twisted and personal torture that supersedes the usual actions of vampires. In many ways, doing this to Father Callahan was a fate worse than death and becoming a vampire. Father Callahan’s story later continues in The Dark Tower series, and he finds redemption, but this arc does not make the scene in Salem’s Lot any less horrifying, especially with how much Barlow relishes the deliberate way he torments the priest.

9 The Room Speaks To Mike

1408

Plenty of stories feature haunted houses or haunted rooms, but the room in King’s short story “1408” takes on a life of its own when Mike Enslin picks up the phone and the room speaks to him. The most chilling part is when the room’s harsh voice says, “We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead!” These words are already feeding into the fear of losing loved ones, but the true horror is in the “rasping emptiness” King describes behind the voice and his emphasis that the cadence is more alien than it is machine-generated or humane.

“1408” is filled with disconcerting imagery, but none of it made as much of an impact on me as this moment when Mike is fully confronted with the horrible truth that he is dealing with something genuinely sinister, otherworldly, and real. This goes beyond any haunting or paranormal activity he has ever read about before. The “rasping emptiness” behind the cruel words makes them even unsettling to read and creates a palpable feeling of hopelessness.

8 The Creature Grabs Deke’s Leg Through The Cracks In The Raft

The Raft

The short story “The Raft” follows four college students on a wooden raft and the mysterious creature in the water below them. In one of the most disturbing moments that I have ever read, the creature oozes through two of the raft’s wooden slats, grabs onto the foot of one of the students, Deke, and pulls him through the cracks. There is something deeply unnatural about the creature moving in the narrow space between two pieces of wood and then pulling a human through that same space.

“The Raft” was adapted as part of the movie
Creepshow 2
.

The horror is further amplified by two of the other students, Randy and LaVerne, watching helplessly as the creature grabs hold of Deke, devours him, and pulls him under. The combination of Deke’s unnatural death and the powerlessness that Randy and LaVerne feel makes this moment particularly memorable. King capitalizes on the fear of the unknown and being unable to counter the fear once it shows itself, all of which left me never wanting to go on a raft.

7 Susan Delgado Is Burned Alive

Wizard and Glass

The fourth installment in The Dark Tower series, Wizard and Glass, explores the past of Roland Deschain, including when the love of his life, Susan Delgado, tragically dies. What makes Susan’s death terrifying is that she is burned alive at the stake as the townspeople turn against one of their own. The mob mentality feels too reminiscent of real life as the townspeople chant, “Charyou tree” repeatedly and revel in seeing Susan suffer a horrible death.

While there are many major deaths in The Dark Tower books, this has always been among the most haunting, even though Susan was not as well-developed and prominent throughout the series as many other characters. Being burned alive by one’s own community is a truly excruciating and nightmarish fate on both a physical and emotional level. I can understand why this tragedy continued to haunt Roland long after it happened.

6 Ricky Claws His Eyes Out After Experiencing The Jaunt

The Jaunt

“The Jaunt” is a science-fiction short story set in a future where teleportation, referred to as Jaunting, is possible, which makes immediate transportation between planets possible – however, one must be put to sleep beforehand, as the vastness of the in-between renders one crazy, otherwise. The ending of “The Jaunt” sees young Ricky and his family Jaunting to Mars, only for it to be revealed that Ricky was conscious throughout the journey, left alone with nothing but his thoughts for what felt like an eternity. Ricky repeatedly declares that he was left in this state “Longer than you think!” as he begins clawing out his own eyes.

Even after the Jaunt is over, Ricky is still irrevocably traumatized by it, which comes with the terrible realization that there are some horrors that are impossible to heal from and get past.

Ricky gouging his own eyes is an unnerving image, but it is made worse by the Jaunting that preceded it. The idea of being left alone with nothing but one’s own thoughts for eternity is beyond frightening, one of the most devastating depictions of hopelessness that King has ever written. Even after the Jaunt is over, Ricky is still irrevocably traumatized by it, which comes with the terrible realization that some horrors are impossible to heal from and get past.

5 The True Knot Takes The Steam From Baseball Boy

Doctor Sleep

In Doctor Sleep, the True Knot and their leader, Rose the Hat, feed off the steam, also known as the shining, that their victims possess. This is described in horrific detail when they capture Bradley Trevor, referred to as baseball boy in the book because of his love for the sport, and drain the steam from him. The True Knot torture him until “his vocal chords ruptured”, to the point that he even begs to be killed, but he is not given a merciful death as the True Knot continue feeding on him as long as they can.

Doctor Sleep‘s baseball boy scene takes the common fear of children being kidnapped by strangers and makes it infinitely worse with the torment and suffering that the baseball boy experiences at the hands of the True Knot. The threat they pose to Abra Stone feels more real because of this earlier scene and the potential of Abra meeting a similar end. Baseball boy has become one of the most memorable deaths of a minor character in King’s many stories.

4 Flashback To Jack Torrance’s Abusive Childhood

The Shining

Even more terrifying than any of the supernatural phenomena in The Shining is a flashback to Jack Torrance’s abusive childhood. This includes the family being at the dinner table when Jack’s father picks up a cane and begins beating his wife’s face with it, all of which he does in front of their children, and he conceals the truth when the doctor later asks what happened. This kind of domestic abuse is horrifying to read about on its own and is even when knowing how frequently such abuse happens in the real world.

Frozen Jack Torrance and Stanley Hotel Custom Image

7 Moments From The Shining That Were Based On Stephen King’s Experiences At The Stanley Hotel

The Overlook Hotel of The Shining is one of the most famous haunted places in horror, based on a real hotel where Stephen King and his family stayed.

What Jack’s father did to his wife and his children is unspeakably evil and inevitably leaves Jack with unresolved trauma. The Shining‘s Overlook Hotel uses this trauma to take advantage of Jack, leading to many of the chilling supernatural scenes in the book. Much of The Shining‘s horror works because it is rooted in the real-life issues of abuse, alcoholism, addiction, and the perpetual cycles that they can create within families, with this scene in Jack’s childhood encapsulating many of those elements.

3 Pennywise Manipulates And Murders Georgie Denbrough

It

It has no shortage of scary scenes, but the most impactful one occurs at the beginning when Georgie Denbrough follows his paper boat to the sewer where he sees Pennywise the Dancing Clown. This is the audience’s first exposure to It, when the true scope of the story’s threat is not yet understood. The manipulation and murder of Georgie solidifies Pennywise as the most terrifying form that It has, with a playful demeanor that lures the boy in. This demeanor vanishes when It grabs Georgie’s arm and “destroyed [Georgie’s] sanity in one clawing stroke.”

The description that comes shortly after of Georgie’s body being discovered, with the left arm torn off, the bone beneath now showing, and the yellow raincoat soaked with blood further escalates the horror. While It commits many atrocities throughout the story, none of them have stuck with me as vividly as what he did to Georgie. The creepiness factor is also heightened with the unforgettable line, “You’ll float, too” that It says to Georgie before killing him.

2 The Lincoln Tunnel Scene

The Stand

After the superflu wipes out almost everyone in Manhattan, survivors Larry Underwood and Rita Blakemoor eventually leave the city littered with corpses festering in the summer heat. They leave the city by walking through the Lincoln Tunnel, a trek that takes them hours to complete. This scene provides a whole new meaning to being afraid of the dark as Larry and Rita travel through the dark tunnel for hours, which is filled with dead bodies and carnage left behind by those who attempted to flee the city.

Jovan Adepo played Larry in the 2020 adaptation of
The Stand
.

Larry and Rita eventually reach the end of the tunnel and make it to the other side. Nevertheless, I still find myself on edge when thinking about their situation, feeling as though I am making no progress no matter how much I move forward given the vast distance and seemingly never-ending darkness. The contents within the tunnel make the scene even scarier with the remains of the mass panic that led to even more death and destruction during a global epidemic.

1 Roland Deschain Realizes He Is Stuck In A Loop

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower ends with Roland realizing that this is not the first time he has completed his quest and that he is stuck in a loop of him journeying to the Tower over and over again. It is existentially horrifying to find out that after seven books, now eight with The Wind Through the Keyhole, and thousands of pages, Roland has to restart his journey to the Dark Tower, all while believing it is the first time. This is one of Stephen King’s best endings that creates a new meaning to feeling helpless and unable to change reality.

The knife is further twisted by Gan whispering that the result might be different this time, along with Roland now possessing the Horn of Eld. This feels like false hope, though, before Roland begins yet another arduous journey to an endpoint that he has already reached countless times. It is a cruel conclusion, especially after all the suffering Roland has endured and the sacrifices he has made, but that is the point, making it a truly terrifying Stephen King moment.