Aw, I think he’s adorable (as are all people with Maine accents).
Hey now! That’s Jordy Vance you’re bad-mouthing!
I don’t think I’ll ever look at a copy of Cujo again. The mother and son trapped in the car with a rabid dog outside…way too realistic. I was hoping for something supernatural to happen to keep it from being so “it can happen to you”-ish.
I had the same problem with Misery. Please let it be demonic influence! Nope, she’s just a crazy stalker. You might run into one tomorrow. shiver
I’ll add one I don’t think anyone has mentioned yet…
In IT, there is a scene where one of the ‘losers’ I don’t remember if it was Stan but it might have been, is inside a water reservoir tower, narrow steps to climb, etc, and the door slams shut… and hears sort of fairground music and smells fairground smells like popcorn or cotton candy… along with nasty squishy moist rotten footsteps descending the stairs, something dead coming down to greet him in the dark…
::shudders::
Oh, God, yes, the Gerald Durrell story. That’s the one I came in here to mention. It’s called “The Entrance” and it’s the last story in his book “The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium”, and it follows a bunch of light, humorous stories that have you feeling relaxed and cheerful – and then it scares the crap out of you. God.
I read that story years ago and even today, when I have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, I’m reluctant to look in the mirror. If I do, I sometimes have to turn on all the lights in the apartment. Just to check.
I’ve read two stories by him about that club.
How many are there?
“The Breathing Method”, last novella in Different Seasons. You might know it as the only story in that book not to have a movie twin.
Easily my most terrifying moment in a Stephen King novel was–I think I was halfway through INSOMNIA–realizing that I had no other books to read, and I was only halfway through this plotless mess of gibberish with no characters that I gave two shits about and no story that I could possibly discern.
I think it was '82 or '83 when THE STAND came out. I was sick with the flu, and since it was near Christmas The Giver Of Life (AKA Mom) was pretty slack on which days I had to go to school. I SWEAR, every time I tried to start reading that book the flu would kick in and I thought “I GOT THE CAPTAIN TRIPS!!!” :eek: and would do almost anything to feel better and go back to school…not limited to, but also including faking healthy!
Only problem, this happened about three times in a row.
Had to wait until summer break to read that one.
I saw that story in an Outer Limits episode. I remember the eyebrow pencil, and she drops it on the sink, making little blood drops…
That happened to me around page 160 of “Lisey’s Story.” Fortunately, I was at home at the time, and was able to throw the book into my back yard and dispatch it with rifle fire.
The short story called The Sun Dog. At least I think that’s what it was called. As a kid I had always desperately wanted a Polaroid camera because I thought they were cool. Then King had to ruin that with the scary tale of a camera that only spat out pictures of a really gnarly and utterly horrific hound… and the kid realizes that the pictures are all a little different and the dog is moving!
I think the story is in Four Past Midnight.
ETA: It might only be scary to me because I wanted a Polaroid camera so badly.
Some time the Poloroid camera is gotten rid of once and for all, the boy gets an automatic typewriter for his birthday. He tests it by pecking in: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy sleeping dog”. But what comes out is:
THE DOG IS NOT SLEEPING.
THE DOG IS HUNGRY.
AND HE IS VERY ANGRY.
It’s not what I’d describe as scary…but listening to the last Dark Tower book this morning, I reached the part where Walter/Flagg dies at the “hands” of Mordred. shudder
Bad scene, man. I was actually yelling out loud, “Oh God! No! Stop it!”
I dunno. I couldn’t really think of a more fitting ending for Flagg than that one. It was horrifying, but if anyone deserves that kind of thing, it’s Flagg.
I suppose, but that’s got to be the worst death in any SK book.
Eek but there are some truly gruesome deaths in his stuff though.
The one that springs immediately to mind in the short story in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, about the out of town couple and the toads. Bloody hell. Also a bit in Salem’s Lot where the town gossip Mabel tricks a friend into letting her come over to stay the night because she’s frightened - when the friend opens the door, there’s Mabel standing there, nekkid, ‘with her purse over one arm and grinning with flashing incisors’ (paraphrased, soz).
Also the deaths in the stories ‘The Last Rung on the Ladder’ and ‘The Woman in the Room’, from Night Shift. Not horrifying, but very sad.
It’s also referenced in “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” in Skeleton Crew. I think there’s one other reference, but I can’t think of it right now…
The Raft - Cause I read it at summer camp and we had one of those rafts platforms.
Single most disturbing story I’ve ever read although the part that got to me more than the boy was what happened to the ‘Jaunt’ researchers wife…
Another vote for The Jaunt. Such a singularly horrifying consequence of such a simple, yet interesting premise. Not only the ending with his son, but even the moment of the convict coming out from the other side. “It’s an eternity in there.”
I actually wrote a screenplay of this a while back, hoping to turn it into a ‘Dollar Baby’. One day…