# What is the scariest story you ever read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446 "2004-01-08T17:01:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/61 "2004-01-09T17:12:00Z")
I’ll second _The Hot Zone_ by Robert Preston, for two reasons: 1. was on an airplane when reading it, and 2. my sister WORKS at USAMRIID The first chapter of that book scared the ever-lovin’ shit outta me… ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/62 "2004-01-09T18:06:26Z")
Steven King’s _The Mangler_ packs a pretty good wallop, especially if you have ever worked – or even toured – a commercial laundry. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/63 "2004-01-09T18:07:54Z")
Wow. Hadn’t heard that either, **Superdude.** John Turturro kicks ass as a crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/64 "2004-01-09T22:00:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by **Superdude** :\*The last line still sticks in my head: “And, in the darkness, she heard someone clear their throat.” I have that very story in a collection at home! It’s definitely by Ray Bradbury, but I don’t recall the title. I’ll have to go look it up. I \*think[/] it might be “At Midnight, In the Month of June.” _The Shining_, again. I also think “Grey Matter” (in _Skeleton Crew_, I think) is very creepy. _At the Mountains of Madness_, by Lovecraft. I know it’s stupid, but ever since reading it years ago, penguins (especially in large groups) creep me right out. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/65 "2004-01-09T22:17:05Z")
They creep me out so much, I CAN’T EVEN CODE! ---
**Author:** ![abba21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f4b2a3/32.png) [@abba21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abba21)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/66 "2004-01-09T23:05:40Z")
I love Stephen King’s short stories. My favorite from his most recent collection is “The Road Virus Heads North”. It gives me goosebumps! King says that it’s based on an actual painting that was given to him by his wife. I would love to see the real one so that I would know if it’s as creepy as what I see in my head when I read that story. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/67 "2004-01-09T23:43:51Z")
Stephen King. The Exorcist. Pooh. Lucy Clifford’s “[The New Mother](http://www.ualberta.ca/~woollard/.index.html).” Read it and weep, you sissies. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/68 "2004-01-10T00:36:21Z")
A one page short story (author–can’t remember) about the Last Man On Earth. It briefly discusses his years of loneliness, because he is deinately & absolutely the Last of Humanity. And then…the knob on the front door…begins to _turn_… ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/69 "2004-01-10T00:52:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElvisL1ves \* > \*\*H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” - the only time I’ve ever not been able to sleep after reading something. \*\* That one gave me nightmares, but I’ll still take that one over Neil Gaiman’s “We Can Get It For You Wholesale” (if I’m recalling the title correctly) from his _Smoke and Mirrors_ collection. The “less is more” approach to his description means that what comes through the door in the last scene could be _anything_. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/70 "2004-01-10T01:00:06Z")
Holy crap, _totally_ forgot about the Ted the Caver story. Now THAT was by far the most disturbing thing I’ve ever read. It just kept building up this uneasy feeling me, and it got stronger and I got more scared with every page I read, and then the end…oh my, I was almost crying for real. I haven’t read many of Poe’s short stories, but “The Black Cat” scared me pretty good when I read it my freshman year of high school. When it talked about the cat that had been sealed inside of the wall with the corpse with “red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire” That scared me pretty bad! ---
**Author:** ![raizok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@raizok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raizok)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/71 "2004-01-10T01:32:31Z")
I just finished reading the Caver story thats been linked on here, and what the hell is that all about? Scary, sure. But whats with the abrupt ending? Was it supposed to imply that they died? If thats the case, then it sucks. I wonder how true of a story it is 😛 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/72 "2004-01-10T02:22:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by delphica \* > \*\* But the sociopathic killer of **Red Dragon** – that could happen! \*\* Damn right. Slept with a loaded gun under my bed for a week. Not under my pillow, under my bed so I could grab it as I rolled out of bed and leapt through the window. ---
**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/73 "2004-01-10T02:57:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mehitabel \* > > “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, about a future ‘automatic house’ that continues to cook food, clean, and read to a family that is lying in charred pieces around it, killed in a nuclear apocalypse, is pretty scary. Huh. I seem to recall a similar scene in Bradbury’s _The Martian Chronicles_: an abandoned dog wandering around a computerized house looking for its family. Eventually, the dog lay down and died–and was promptly cleaned up the cleaning robot. I couldn’t finish the book. But it wasn’t scary, just unbearably depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/74 "2004-01-10T03:00:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amanita \* > \*\*[Richard Preston](http://www.randomhouse.com/features/richardpreston/)’s non-fiction, specifically _The Hot Zone_ and _The Demon in the Freezer_. I read the latter last spring shortly after the war in Iraq began, and I didn’t sleep much for a week. \*\* YES! Scariest book evar. Re-read it 3 times in a row when I first got the Hot Zone. The shear veracity of Ebola makes it seem so unnatural. Kinda like an alien disease or something. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/75 "2004-01-10T06:26:39Z")
At the end of the caver story I was expecting to see [this](http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/CaveBeing.html) picture. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/76 "2004-01-10T06:46:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*“The Shining,” which made the movie version all the more putrid. > > When Danny goes up and finds the woman in the bathtub… > > I slept with all the lights on. \*\* Ditto. And I read an article where the writer asked Steven King if anything he wrote ever scared him himself and this was what he cited. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/77 "2004-01-10T06:53:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Moody Bastard \* > \*\*Wow. Hadn’t heard that either, **Superdude.** John Turturro kicks ass as a crazy. \*\* The ONLY thing that set me off was that it appeared that Turturro was doing the same accent he did in _O Brother, Where Art Thou?_ Not that there’s anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/78 "2004-01-10T06:56:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AllShookDown \* > \*\*Ditto. And I read an article where the writer asked Steven King if anything he wrote ever scared him himself and this was what he cited. \*\* He also said that the hand coming out of the ground in the movie version of _Carrie_ scared him, and he knew it was coming. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/79 "2004-01-10T07:02:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sleeping \* > \*\*Huh. I seem to recall a similar scene in Bradbury’s _The Martian Chronicles_: an abandoned dog wandering around a computerized house looking for its family. Eventually, the dog lay down and died–and was promptly cleaned up the cleaning robot. I couldn’t finish the book. But it wasn’t scary, just unbearably depressing. \*\* It’s the same story. It’s a chapter that makes a great stand alone story. Ironically, it’s the story that made me want to read the martian chronicles(I have a wierd affinity for post-apocolyptic stories). “At the Moutains of Madness” made me shiver on a hot summer day while reading it. That’s what I call creepy. ---
**Author:** ![raizok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@raizok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raizok)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446/80 "2004-01-10T07:12:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HDS \* > \*\*At the end of the caver story I was expecting to see [this](http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/CaveBeing.html) picture. \*\* Sheesh, now THATS closure. :eek: Too bad the debunking stuff is at the end of that article. I want to believe! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-story-you-ever-read/223446.md?page=5)