# which Stephen King novels are least scary? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2005, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245 "2005-12-12T11:54:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/21 "2005-12-13T00:03:36Z")
I’d say **The Dead Zone** and maybe even **Firestarter**. I avoided horror novels for years until a friend pushed those two on me, saying they weren’t really horror at all. Read them, loved them, and he was right. So I asked him for another one, and he lent me **'Salem’s Lot**. Bastard. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/22 "2005-12-13T00:16:08Z")
I second **The Dead Zone**. IMO this is one of his best. **The Stand** isn’t scary per se, but it is kinda creepy in an apocalyptic kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/23 "2005-12-13T00:26:20Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Stephen King did porn? Goddamn cranberry juice BURNS when you choke on it! ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/24 "2005-12-13T05:20:25Z")
I didn’t really find **The Tommyknockers** to be particulary frightening. It’s got some viscerally unpleasant moments, but most of it is riffing on 1950’s sci-fi archetypes rather than horror. \*_Needful Things \*\* wasn’t scary. I can’t recommend it in good conscience, though, because it seemed to be_ trying \* very hard to be scary; it just didn’t succeed. It’s like one of the lesser episodes of Rod Serling’s _Night Gallery_, padded out to a three-hour running time. (Note to Stephen King: the rhyme begins, “\*ITSY BITSY \* spider.” Not “\*Hinky-pinky \* spider.” No one in the history of Earth has ever started the water-spout rhyme with “hinky-pinky.” Any chance of \*_Needful Things \*\* being scary went out the window the instant you put the phrase “hinky-pinky” in it. The **Necronomicon** wouldn’t be scary if it had the phrase “hinky-pinky” in it. \* “Ph’nglui mglw’nfah Cthulhu R’lyeh hinky-pinky wgah’nagl fhtagn!”_ See how that works? You just entirely shot yourself in the foot with that one.) > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Misery is the least scary because there is absolutely no supernatural in it, and the most scary because it could actually happen. I think that the scariness level of **Misery** hinges directly on how closely the reader identifies with the protagonist. Weirdly, while Stephen King has in the past been able to persuade my limbic system into believing that being afraid of vampires is absolutely reasonable, this same author couldn’t make the main character of **Misery** , a famous author, seem quite as real to me as those vampires. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/25 "2005-12-13T05:24:54Z")
I didn’t find _Cycle of The Werewolf_ all that scary, but that one Berni Wrightson drawing of the werewolf peeling back the sherriff’s cheek was a ongoing image in my nightmares for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/26 "2005-12-13T06:25:50Z")
Gerald’s Game. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/27 "2005-12-13T08:13:54Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > How did you happen to get your hands on a copy of The Plant? He did an online project 6-7 years ago where you could download the Plant one chapter at a time (for a ‘donation’), but stopped halfway through. By the way, a felt and still feel this project was a [ripoff](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=6893915#post6893915). ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245/28 "2005-12-13T13:17:08Z")
Ah, I vaguely remember that now. I didn’t have internet access at the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-stephen-king-novels-are-least-scary/335245.md?page=1)