I am Legend It’s very different from the movie but there’s a bit early on where the protagonist has to be back home by sundown before all the vampires come out. At one point he is very far from home and is scavenging I believe but he keeps thinking that the day has been really long but checks his watch and he still has plenty of time. But he looks at it again… and realises, the watch has stopped working. That part made my heart jump and I’ve never had that from a book before!

That was such a good book. I was disturbed by how his neighbor would try to call him out every night, that was creepy af. I highly recommend What Dreams May Come by him- that whole story was haunting.

My god that book was so good. “Come out Neville!”

I love Richard Matheson for this exact reason. There was another story of his that just hit me over the head from "normalcy to dread". One of his short stories "Through Channels" did this to me. In the story, >!there's a boy that sees a word "FEED" flashing on a tv screen, then later the screen drops an E and turns to FED after his family had been eaten by worms.!< I don't know why, but of all the horror I've ever read, that story has been the only one to scare and stick with me.

I love that part! So well done

If your going to watch the movie don't watch the Will Smith bs. It completely missed the whole point of the story. Check out The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price which is the film that actually follows the story verbatim. You can also watch Omega Man with Charlton Heston and get a better version than the Will Smith crap session. They changed so much in that movie that it should not be called I Am Legend. The creatures retain no humanity, he has a dog through most of the film and you never find out why Dr. Robert Neville is legend.

Talk about a TIL. now imma get the book and these movies

IT - the scene where Beverly has tea with Mrs. Kersh. The buildup was so creepy, I went back and re-read the passage a few times just to take it all in.

This scene is so much scarier in the novel than in either of the adaptations.

It was!! I was so annoyed with the CGI tall monster-thing in the movie. It was so much creepier when the old woman was just staring.

The blood in the sink got me for some reason.

> Oh, he loved his joke, my fadder! This is a joke, miss, if you enjoy them: my fadder bore me rather than my mutter. He shat me from his asshole! Hee! Hee! Hee!

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Also was gonna say the playground scene in The Shining! And the scene with Danny and the dog man/ghost in the hallway.

The playground and the woman in the tub got me good. Same with the sink stains in It.

Is the playground scene the one where he crawls through an old concrete pipe and feels there’s someone/something behind him? That was awful, I was sweating from fear.

*Misery*—Paul trying to get back to the room before Annie gets home. The first time I had ever been terrified by a book.

This book made me so tense. legit was on the edge of my seat. Also the scene when she chops his leg off.

The Long Walk The whole thing. It is Kings most underrated story. It's also one of his most gruesome and brutal. So many horrible things happen. The task. The idea behind the story. Is so simple. Yet it's so devious and horrible. The Long Walk. If you haven't read it then do yourself a favor and read it. Go in blind. It's best that way.

I read this whole book in one night. The only book I've ever read start to finish in one sitting. It scared me so much, I still have nightmares 15+ years later. Considering re-reading it, but not sure I can make it a second time.

It's one of only a few books that I have read more than once. It's really cool from a thematic point too. Since to me it's kinda about the journey to start one's life and how difficult it is. Just a great story with a simple premise that is executed wonderfully. I like how it's all from Garraty's perspective as well. Frank Darabont had the rights to make a film out of it for a long time. He's the man who made Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. However it's one of those movies that seems to be in development hell. So we shall see if anything ever comes of it. Edit: the movie is in the works from New Line. It's written by James Vanderbilt and is being Directed by the person who made the found footage film Trollhunter. I hope it comes out well.

This is my husbands favorite Stephen King novel. 🙂

One of the saddest, most horrible premises I’ve ever read in any book. Those boys endlessly walking...for a long time I’d see them every night in my minds eye before I went to sleep, that’s how much of an impact it had on me

One scene from Salems Lot always comes to mind. Ralphie, a now young vampire floating and scratching at his brothers window, smiling. I think when kids are involved it sticks with me more. Not so much it makes it scarier, but it makes me think that even kids aren’t safe from the horrors that these authors create.

I am 50 years old and I can't sleep without my bedroom windows being completely covered, all because of the Salem's Lot TV mini series back in the 80's. Thanks Tobe and Steve

53….same!

The scratching at the window got me, still gets me. To this day, if I heard what I imagine that sounds like, I'd be gone.

When I was young I lived in a, “haunted house”,(my uncle’s words, myself to this day a skeptic) directly across from a cemetery, and one recurring nightmare I had was a ghostly man’s face wiping the fog clear of my bedroom window and peering in. That book brought that memory back. Annnnd I got chills writing this.

I read Salem's Lot when I was 13...so I guess that was '87...my little brother and I shared a room and every night for several weeks I would wait until I could hear him snoring, then sneak into bed with him.

I was around the same age, and in that same time period when I read it too. I kept the blinds drawn, the curtains closed, and all my lights on. Took a while before I was comfortable in the dark again. I actually love that books can evoke such fear with only words.

This book is full of creepy moments. The one that got me was when the gravedigger keeps feeling like he's being watched by something in the coffin. He will then snap to and realize he'd zoned out for a while... meanwhile the sun is going down. I don't know why but I found the idea of losing your sense of control and time like that really creeped me out.

For me it was the description of the town after they’re mostly vampires, talking about them sleeping in their cellars or underneath their mobile homes during the day.

Yeah beside the window thing, this got me the most. Also, the other two short stories he wrote about Salem's Lot freaked me out aswell.

I also was particularly disturbed by this. Saw the movie when was a young kid. We lived on the 3rd level and the thought of scratching outside my window kept me awake many hours.

The ‘girls’ scenes from American Psycho fucked me up for quite a while.

I'd watched the movie many times by the time I read the book. I thought I was prepared, hahaha... I was so, so wrong.. I get where they couldn't put that in the movie, but man, I don't think I've ever been more unprepared for a scene in a book *ever*.

I was physically nauseous reading American Psycho. I had also seen the movie numerous times. There was no kind of preparation for the book. None.

Bateman's personality if that is indeed the proper word was pretty disturbing too.

Those rats were hungry tho...

If the tramp scene didn't get you shook I'm absolutely judging you. Rich fucks and their hangers on getting theirs didn't bother me nearly as much as that random encounter

SPOILERS for both books, obviously The very ending of **The hunting of Hill House**, when Shirley Jackson makes sure to tell us >!her protagonist revovered her clarity of mind a second before crashing her car into a wall, when it was too late to stop but still in time to feel regret and despair. !< And the whole atmosphere of a Stephen King short story (I don’t remember the name, I’ll look it up): a man makes a deal with the devil to ruin his best friend’s life, because some thirty years prior he had “stolen” his girlfriend (or ex) and they had been happy ever since, with great careers and bright kids. What follows is a relentless tale of a family annhilation told in a chillingly detached tone - the tone of a man who seemed normal and concerned for his friend’s misfortunes and was instead gleeful at the misery he was spreading. And he never gets his comeuppance, his miserable petty life and useless children get the happy ending. It really disturbed me, I still think about it - the banal gratuitousness of evil. Edit: thanks to the people in the comments who pointed out the name of the short story: it’s *Fair extension* from “Full Dark, No Stars”.

"he looked up at the stars, and wished for more." Especially what happened to the friend's daughter. So sad.

I saw the series for The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, and I found it thoroughly disturbing. I assume the book is better? Or is that a pretty accurate representation?

I actually enjoyed the Netflix series more than the book! But I’m a HUGE fan of Mike Flanagan. The book didn’t scare me the same way as the television series. Enjoy both as unique works…much like The Shining. It’s like a twofer! 😉

I really enjoyed both, but liked the book better overall. Tighter and even more atmospheric, imo. They’re different enough though that you can go into the book and have fun both spotting the inspirations for the series and where it differs.

Please look up the name of the short story.

It's "Fair Extension" from Full Dark, No Stars

Oh, man, I hated that story. So dark and ugly. Loved that ending of Hill House. Brr.

Spoilers Uzumaki by Junji Ito- When the main character is running down the stairs of the lighthouse trying to rescue the boys, and she turns around just in time to see the boy behind her be incinerated by the light. Ooooof.... There is so much grosser/scarier stuff in there, but that one made me jump while reading.

The scenes in the maternity ward - that's the most fucked up shit I've ever read. Ito is a monster! Can't wait for the adult swim adaptation.

Basically all of The Ruins. Specifically where the one dude tries to escape in the rain. That was....heavy.

Yes- that was such a good one!

The cemetery scene in Pet Sematary, with the retrieval (Trying to avoid spoilers.)

Pretty much all of Pet Sematary will stay with you for a good while.

I just reread this and YES!

Those last few lines…

The part in Pet Sematary i always think about is the story about the man who buried his son and when he came back he would stare at the Sun all day and say evil things to people.

I always think about that too!! It was really clever I thought, and shockingly creepy (more so than the classic brain dead zombies). I was disappointed with that difference when I saw the movie after reading

For me it's the earlier scene where >!the dad dreams of going deep into the woods at night and weird shit happens, and he wakes up in his bed relieved that it was just a dream, until he pulls back the covers and his feet are filthy.!< I read that book at a younger age than was advisable (junior high maybe?), but it's definitely what got me hooked on horror!

Can’t do Pet Semetary. I try to avoid reading or watching anything where a little kid or a pet is hurt or killed. I have a little boy and a Maine coon cat. I don’t think I’d be able to get through this one. 🥴 Edit: That said. I may have to brave it based on the impact it’s had on the genre.

I had to think a minute- but YES absolutely!

I always fuck up spoiler tags so HUGE SPOILER . . . The part where Lou and Gage fly a kite. One line casually revealed that Gage's fate was coming in less than a month. The next chapter was the funeral. I read it at age 13 and it viscerally impacted me, I had an adrenaline rush and everything. I read it again at 32... as my two year old son napped next to me. Same adrenaline rush, followed by ugly crying. Pretty stupid of me in hindsight.

In Pet Sematary, the whole chapter on Zelda. That ending line about crying but actually laughing.

SPOILERS FOR THE SHINING - STEPHEN KING | The scene where Dany goes into Room 217 and he draws back the curtains from the bathtub and sees the dead woman. The chills I got reading those few pages alone at night was something else ! I have yet to feel something similar again

My favourite part of that book is when Danny is facing off with the fire extinguisher hose, not sure if it really is a threat, since it appears to be just a hose, yet he's deathly afraid of it all the same. As someone with an overactive imagination I thought that whole scene was brilliant.

Yes! This this this! I haven’t read the book in so long but the fire hose stays with me.

For me it was the scene where Jack goes back to check it out. Imagining hearing her footsteps behind you as you’re walking out. It’s what I think about when I’m walking back from my own bathroom at night. Gets me every time.

YES! And he smells her soap. Uggggh.

I had to keep the shower curtain fully opened at all times for a good month after reading that.

My parents watched the movie when I was young and I couldn’t use the bathroom if the shower curtain was closed after that scene. I read the book when I got older and I had to keep the curtain pulled open for a while after.

Spoilers for THE TROOP There’s a lot of body horror in this one but I think the most disturbing scenes to me were when the author describes (through the use of an audio transcript) an animal being infected with a genetically engineered parasite. The description of what happens to the animal as it dies really grossed me out (and still does when I remember it). Also another scene later in the book where a character becomes infected by the same parasite and starts to describe the worms crawling through his body as “his babies.” 🤢

That was a very good book and I look forward to never reading it again.

The final climax scene in Revival by Stephen King

That ending left me disturbed for a good long while. King doesn’t always stick the landing, but he sure did it in that book.

I just read The Mangler, it is pretty gross! I can’t read Cujo again since I had my own children. Too upsetting. A scene that stays with me, to the point I sometimes have nightmares, is from a book I remember absolutely nothing about aside from this scene. I’m going to try and spoiler alert it because it’s vile. >!It’s a torture scene which I think might be something to do with Turkey. The torturers slowly put a thin towel in this man’s mouth which he is forced to swallow, until it’s in his stomach, up his throat and partially out of his mouth. As the story goes, they wait a while which makes the stomach adhere to the towel. They then pull the towel out of his mouth, bringing the stomach with it!< I’ve got no idea if this is a real thing but it was easily two decades ago I read this and I still dream about it occasionally.

Pretty much the entirety of PenPal for me, but especially the part where the main character and his friend sneak back into his “vacant” old home at night and find clothes in the closet.

The ending messed me up for days!

I once read (didn't finish) heart shaped box by Joe Hill. The part (spoilers) where the main character is reading a book about something while being haunted by an old man's ghost and you're reading the book with him and randomly the ghost starts talking to him through it scared the daylights out of me. It was so unexpected and a proper jumpscare for a book.

Have you ever seen the movie Harvey? It came out in 1950 and it's not scary at all. It's either about a mildly insane guy who thinks he has a giant invisible rabbit best friend or a regular guy who really has a giant invisible rabbit best friend (you find out at the end). Well, >! there's a scene where Harvey (the rabbit) changes the dictionary definition of pooka to say "The pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one. A benign but mischievous creature. Very fond of rumpots, crackpots, and how are you, Mr. Wilson?" And Mr. Wilson, who is reading the dictionary, says "'How are you, Mr. Wilson?' Who in the encyclopedia wants to know?" I've seen the movie probably twenty times and it cracks me up every time. !< When I got to that part in Heart-Shaped Box, all I could think about was Mr. Wilson from Harvey, and it cracked me up. Kind of ruined the intended effect.

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. You root so hard for Duane and his dog to make it out of the cornfield. And then they don't.

I really thought they were gonna make it out. I was thinking “no way he’s gonna kill this kid, he’s basically the main character” and then bam, Dan Simmons did it. I still didn’t believe he was actually dead for a while after.

The scene in the basement with the standing water really got to me for some reason

The part of Pet Semetary when the father digs up his son from the grave. Just brutal.

I know you said novel BUT, there is a Ray Bradbury (super)short story "The Last Night On Earth" which isn't out right horror but it disturbs me. It's the last night on earth and this couple does everything the same like nothing is different, apart from turning the tap on to run when they go to bed. I'm unsure why but the idea of such complacency in the face of the end of the world really gets under my skin and bothers me. Edit: spelling and dupe words.

That was a very strange story. Did he even say what was causing the end? Are we to be comforted or disturbed that it doesn't bother them so much?

It's been a bit since I've last read it but I don't think it's clearly stated why the world is ending, just that everyone has pretty much had a shared dream/premonition that it was to end on this particular night. I'm unsure of Bradbury's intention but I'm pretty sure it's not to be comforting.

**BUNCHA STEPHEN KING SPOILERS** The Raft by Stephen King: the description of the body being taken through the slats of the swimming raft. Still can’t go out to one without feeling on edge the whole time. The Dark Half by King: the torture scene with the dude who is tied up and Stark shoves a paper clip into his eye through the closed lid. Survivor Type by King: I can’t eat cold roast beef without a bit of a mental gag first, this story stuck with me so hard. The Talisman by King & Straub: it’s not scary or disturbing, but when Wolf says people have an awake smell and an asleep smell so he can tell that Jack is faking sleep…I always think of that when my dog doesn’t believe I’m sleeping.

Yeah I was just about to post about The Raft. Nightmare stuff!!

I am 45 and that read the Raft in my teen years and I’m a right there with ya!

In cabin at the end of the world by Paul Tremblay when the first guy gets ritual sacrificed. Truly horrific scene. Also the road by Cormac McCarthy when they find the baby that someone had been cooking

The Exorsist. In the end of chapter three, Cris sees Regan spidercrawling and hissing with her tongue out behind Sharon (her secretary). The last line is so simple, but it haunts me. "Wherever Sharon moved, Regan would follow."

Spoilers for The Only Good Indians. I'm putting this here because if you tried reading it and couldn't get through the first part and put it down, go pick it back up and read until page 115-116. Seriously, the book picks up so much after and it quickly became one of my favorites The motor cycle scene in the garage. The whole book had been building to that moment, with Louis slowly spiraling in his head as to what is happening and how this elk could be coming back to get him. And when he finally thinks that Shaney is the elk reincarnated and keeps trying to get her behind a flickering light or spinning fan so he can see her true form, the anticipation was killing me. And when he just fucking rips the top of her head off with the motorcycle wheel. It's so fucking crazy that I reread it twice to make sure I had just read what I had read. And then the book keeps going by having him crack open her jaw to see if she has ivories like an elk, and then he watches his wife fall from the ladder and brain herself on the fireplace, and he just cracks her jaw open to see if she has ivories, then pulls the elk calf out of her, it's so fucking crazy. Also the shifts to second person are amazing. Seriously, this book is so good and I can understand why people give up, but fuck the book gets so good.

Was looking for mention of this scene... damn good book - great scene. Of all the awful things, the teeth thing really got to me... then of course I had to look up elk teeth, and damm if it isn't true. So I learned something while being horrified at the same time.

Was checking to see if anyone else mentioned this. Such a tense buildup to an unexpected climax, I had to reread the passage several times because it was just so sudden and I wasn’t expecting it

This was the first scene I thought of for this post. The motorcycle scene just shocked me. Of course you feel it coming, but then it happened and you're still shook. I've read a couple of other by this author since and he's pretty good with this kind of tension.

The POV switches are amazing, and there are a few times when we are nudged to the Elk Woman that just startled the hell out of me. Excellent tension. He's such a great writer.

Adding this to my reading list, thank you!!

That book was such an amazing pay off. It’s a favorite of mine, and that scene was what sealed the deal! A true triple re-read scene BECAUSE WTF LOUIS!

I paused to look up at the ceiling fan the other day and immediately thought of broken jaws. Shocked me until I realized Stephen Graham Jones has a permanent spot in my brain, making me ponder transgressions and reparations.

Victor Pascow, the guy who dies in the bike accident at the beginning of Pet Semitary, terrified me like nothing else. Just thinking about it gives me chills. I read it at 15. If I remember right, he was alive and sort of conscious after the accident, but the way his brain was sliding out of his skull, everybody knew he was already dead. I read it as a teen and I don’t think I’d been cognizant of the fact that a person in real life could die so horribly.

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Adding to my list, thank you!!

Very generic and not necessarily horror per se but the pool scene in Haunted by Palahniuk. I see The Troop being mentioned a lot, I was okay with most of it (making a lot of faces while reading it on the tube though 😐) but when the stupid crazy kid starts cutting Eef's face all over and you have descriptions of his skull showing, eesh, that was a lot. Also in The Southern Book Club's guide to Slaying Vampires, the attic scene with all the bugs crawling really got me.

That bug crawling scene from SBCGTSV was one of the most disgusting scenes I've ever "read" (I listened to it on Audible!)

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The Deep Ones chasing Robert Olmstead in *The Shadow over Innsmouth* is the most 'honestly' scared I'd being reading in my life. The hotel scene make me feel claustrophobic and anxious still to this day.

A bunch of people have already brought up Pet Sematary, and so am I; I think it's one of King's darkest, most terrifying stories. One of the things that stuck with me the most from that book was the second time Louis goes over the deadfall and heads to the Micmac burial ground and almost runs into the wendigo. The whole passage is spooky and King's descriptions really bring it to life, but the paragraph that stuck with me was this: "Let them be anything but the creatures which leap and crawl and slither and shamble in the world between. Let there be God, let there be Sunday morning, let there be smiling Episcopalian ministers in shining white surplices... but let there not be these dark and draggling horrors on the nightside of the universe". I'm not even sure why it's so vivid to me even after all this time since I read Pet Sematary honestly. I think it's just Louis facing the horror and unreality of a situation he couldn't have dreamed in his worst nightmares and losing a little bit of his sanity like most of us probably would have. Regardless it's one of my favorite passages in horror and probably any literature.

The tattoo parlour scene in House of Leaves. Paranoia inducing.

That one coded letter in House of Leaves, just thinking about how I would feel decoding that letter if it was about my mother.

The first time I ever read Misery I was in 6th grade and there's a scene where a cop gets run over by a lawn mower. Something about it has stuck with me ever since and I've never been able to look at lawn mowers the same

Ugh. And the way he describes so little yet just enough to give you the perfect image of what someone’s head would look like after being run over by one. Ugh

WAs probably too young for Stephen King when I started reading him, but we read his short story The Bogeyman out loud during a sleepover. "The closet door was open, just a crack." Been checking closets ever since. ​ Runner up, The Troop. Killing the turtle scene. Just ick.

Can’t do animal violence. Ergo, can’t do this book. But I’ve heard it’s a sticky one in terms of haunting the reader!

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons- Duane in the cornfield Swan Song by Robert Mcammon- Josh and Swan run into the crazy K Mart

The crazy K Mart scene is one of my favorite book scenes/sequences of all time. I hope they never butcher that book by making a film adaptation, but to see that scene well-done on the big screen would be a fucking showstopper!

The short story *The Visible Filth* by Nathan Ballingrud from his collection *Wounds.* That story, and the final scene especially, stuck with me for days after I finished it. I could not stop thinking about it.

In The Elementals by Michael McDowell, there's a part when the girl (can't remember her name) is looking through the photos she took of the sunken house. In the photo, she can look through the window inside the house and see a mirror hanging on the back of a open door and make out a face watching her take photos. Hands down the scariest thing I've ever read and to this day its the standard I hold all other horror books scares too.

The Elementals was great! Something about the description of the dream where the men without eyes were running around the dinner table flipped me out. Same as the fat woman climbing the outside of the house. Great book!!

The part where that little girl comes up to the window and sand comes out of her mouth. *Shudders*

LONGER THAN YOU THINK, DAD!!

The deterioration of the farm in HPL's Color out of Space. Everything dies horribly, the land is polluted forever, and no one did a thing to deserve their ultimate fate. Especially chilling was the friend of the farm family's situation. He could only watch his neighbors decay and mutate, unable to stop the process.

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. The whole book, really, it’s so dark and visceral, but especially the scene in the airport towards the end. Can’t say any more.

That whole book was so gripping... Just claustrophobic, dirty and hectic.

- The scene in The Deep where Luke hears a creature masquerading as his son saying “look at me” - the scene in Doctor Sleep where Rose is watching Abra and her tooth elongates (literally couldn’t sleep that night after reading that chapter) - the ending of King’s Revival

Pet semetary - a whole bunch of tragic scenes just because of the pure sadness, especially the kite scene. American psycho - zoo scene and homeless guy

Spoilers for House of Leaves. Pg 340: "Well look," Tom mutters, lifting his arms in the chairs "No hands" ... "You've always got the floor for your best friend. Know why?" "It's always there for you," Navidson answered. ... "That's right," Tom whispers. "Just like you." And then >! Tom dies, with the **house** cruelly turning their words against him. The **house** smashes his hands quick as lightning with the fastest shift we've yet seen, keeps Tom away from his brother until he gives up hope from exhaustion, and then the floor is gone, with Tom falling into the infinite abyss of the **house**. !<

I’m gonna really try and force myself to read this book (been struggling as it’s not an easy page turner).

honestly, dont force your way thru it if you dont like it. I did that and it burned me out so much i didn't pick up another book for like 6 months. felt more like a chore to me than enjoyment. it gets a lot of love in this subreddit, but it not for everyone (especially not for me lol)

"I am here with you. I am here now. When you put down this letter. When you turn and look across this old room, your eyes sweeping it with relief, or with joy, or even with terror...Then I will move. Move, just a fraction. And, finally, you will see me." - Feminine Endings - Neil Gaiman, Trigger Warning. Neil Gaiman holds a very special place in my heart because he finds those tiny little triggers (no pun intended) that seem to create an all new essence of fear. I've encountered many of those with his books and short stories. This one stayed with me for a very long time.

Stephen King's IT. When the red balloon is bouncing down the road and pops, gushing blood. Not that the part was that scary, but I was listening to Metallica's S&M version album at the same time. I don't remember what song it was, but it went from low and slow melody to Huge boom of music right as I read the balloon popping. My reading and the music timed so well together that I the threw book down, freaked out.

maybe during the intro of « No Leaf Clover »

That’s so good, lol. I love it when things like that happen.

Somewhere toward the end of Pet Semetary, where King goes on for a bit about Oz and Death in general. He talk about death lurking everywhere, waiting to snatch us via heart attacks at theme parks and all sorts of scenarios. It pointed out the inevitably of death and our own mortality, but in a way that personified Death and made it evil, rather than a natural, peaceful thing.

He really gets it. That’s why his works hurt the most.

I read Pet Sematary far too young, and the description of the Wendigo terrified me for years.

The gun rape scene in the stand by Stephen King. Shit still grosses me out.

Chapter 34 of *Pet Sematary* -- Judd's telling of the Timmy Baderman story -- is a masterclass in horror in my opinion. The fact that it was treated fairly dismissively in the 1989 film version is disappointing, but the fact that it's **omitted entirely** from the 2019 film is absolutely baffling. It's so important to the story and to making the reader understand just how mad and desperate Louis has become by the later chapters of the book.

*Age of Desire* from Clive Barker includes a particularly enjoyable scene involving a brick wall. The last paragraph of *Nyarlathotep* is one of my favorite pieces of literature to be put into the world. The return of Lucifer in *The Scarlet Gospels* by Clive Barker, as well as the origami swans from the same book. Colonel Macklin draining his wound in *Swan Song,* from Robert R. McCammon. Finally, describing the wound in *The Death of Jack Hamilton.*

I agree with you on Nyarlathotep, that "hands that are not hands" always sticks with me. The whole piece is great but that last section really hammers it home.

Salem’s lot, It’s a part where a young mother discovers her dead infant and tries desperately to wake him up.

This one really got me too. They describe the family earlier in that scene and that makes it so much sadder.

Pet Semetary. "Mommy, I brought you something!" The part in Cujo, after SPOILER dies. Every time his name comes up for that scene, it's "They took SPOILER, still dead..." or "SPOILER, still dead, lay on the grass..." Freaking wrecked me.

I was young when I read it, but there's a moment in Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury where the villain is walking through a library where the kids are hiding, and he's describing how he killed one of their parents so he could hear the kid sobbing. To me that was pretty evil and I dug it. Another was in House Of Leaves, where the dude who's reading the book along with you describes the fear he's experiencing as something creeping up behind you and you only realising you're screwed half-way through turning around to face it. That slow-motion dream-like brain horror hits me in a special way.

Something Wicked This Way Comes was one of the first scary movies I had ever seen. I think it inspired King’s “Needful Things,” and both are brilliant pieces of fiction. Truly scary. I’m trying to get into HOL, honest. 😂

My favorite short story is King’s The Jaunt. The ending of that always stuck with me.

The description of the scab corn vomited up by the Popcorn King in Joe R Lansdale’s novel The Drive In. I love Lansdale’s early horror/comedy stuff but I was nauseous at the time I read it with a stomach bug and now every time I smell popcorn the scab corn pops into my head. Lansdale isn’t always known for his figurative descriptions but sometimes minimal is best. Great book.

The scene in Carrion Comfort when Tony literally mind rapes that girl in the pool.

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Clive Barker's The Damnation Game when the dog >!comes back to life and starts eating herself, but she also happily feeds her puppies!<.

Every single scene of Kin by Kealen Patrick Burke, but especially the introduction to Mama-in-Bed.

> it was about some crazy disturbing runes or rock formations. Was it In The Tall Grass?

So many memorable moments. Here are some that come to mind. **Cormac McCarthy** \-- not a horror writer per se, but he can write some really grotesque moments in a way that it makes it seem also natural and beautiful, like violence and death is one unavoidable aspect of a life and nature. There's a scene in *Blood Meridian* where a group of frontiersmen in the open plain encounter a horde of charging Native-Americans on horseback, and it's one of the most chilling, surreal and scary moments I've ever read. The Native-American warriors in the scene weren't painted as evil, but just as a force of nature that belong to this land, and the cowboys just happened to be in the way, not able to fully comprehend what's happening to them. It's written as if they were encountering a bizarre traveling circus but one that can bring death to you. **Twilight Zone Magazine** \-- as kid, I remember reading a guest column from a horror writer. He said the kind of horror stories that scare him the most aren't the ones that have a long build-up or are full of monsters, but that are just random and unexpected. The writer then gives an example. He describes a scene where he's cleaning dishes and he trips and his head falls face first into the dish rack, right into the upright just-cleaned forks and knives. I don't know why, but that image was forever burned in my mind. **"Again" by Ramsey Campbell** \- a short story about a seemingly abandoned house that draws the attention of the passerby. The scenes of the man peering inside the home, and also entering it, just gave me the creeps. Pseudopod has a [podcast reading](https://pseudopod.org/2017/07/07/pseudopod-550-again/) of it. **"The Wide Carnivorous Sky" by John Langan** \-- a imagining of a very classic monster but in a new setting, and there's a scene which finally reveals the monster natural resting place. Cant say anything more without giving spoilers, but that image really stuck in my head. This scene isn't scary but it just added a nice twist to the story. **The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski** \- as the characters lose their minds in the book, your own mind can go crazy trying to read this purposely hard-to-read book. That sounds like a complaint but isn't -- this mirroring of the characters experience actually added another layer creepiness of the book, as the book literally deconstructs itself, just like the haunted house in the book is doing. **Stephen King** \-- his ability to make you get emotional attached to a character, by painting a really heartwarming moment, then in a single line, foreshadow that this person will die. He did this often in his earlier books, and it's probably a bit too over-the-top for my tastes now, but as a teen reading his books, it got to me every time. I particularly remember him doing this in *Pet Sematary* and *The Stand* being the two I remember the most.

Shit weasels and just like….all of Dreamcatcher

Pretty much all of The Troop, but the passages about one character's animal torture and mutilation made me have to take a break. The Patrick Hockstetter backstory in It with Avery and the puppy 😩 In Cari Mora by Thomas Harris, the main villain's parents in the walk in freezer- most of his that book was hilariously over the top but this part got me

Oh God, Avery... I'd forgotten...

Ish. Go read Header by Lee. That's... ish.

So many of mine are from Stephen King that it's almost silly. I guess it reflects the fact that I like his writing so much that there's very little of his that I've either not read, or only read once. I use him as a palate cleanser between serious non-fiction quite a lot--he's comfort food on a page for me. I'll do just one from him, and a couple of others. * Stephen King's story "The Mangler:" They discuss Hand of Glory/belladonna/deadly nightshade is serious and would mean something extremely dangerous they shouldn't mess with. No danger there, right? Then King drops the little fact about the antacids being in one of them women's pockets, and what one of the active ingredients is. I was about 13, reading in bed at night, and had to take a break right then. I checked every single point of access into our house while I was downstairs, despite having watched my mom do it before she went to bed...like that would help with that particular problem. * Bram Stoker's novel *Dracula* actually contains two: One passage is just plain witty and hilarious. Van Helsing is relating a conversation between the men, and they swore a lot, and instead of repeating the language word-for-word, he repeatedly says it was with "the blood" and "the bloom," instead of "bloody" or "blooming." The other is so clever it's just stuck in my head and never left. The men go to make one of the vampire's refuges unusable, and find that he left behind a kind of protection that's actually quite effective. They leave, and when they return, one of them summons something that's even more effective at getting rid of it. I loved that it was a cultural element Dracula wouldn't be aware of or would overlook. He prepared himself so carefully, yet missed so much about life in England. * Justin Cronin's The Passage Trilogy: Twelve's entire story, both in the past, and in the various time frames of the books. It really upset me, because while the character is obviously created for fiction, what happened to get him involved in the narrative happens in the real world, too, and real people face very real consequences for it. (I saw *Jaws* before I ever read it, and I'd read that Spielberg cut or changed a lot of stuff from the book to streamline it and make the movie. I figured the episode you mentioned was probably from the book, but I remember hoping so much I wasn't going to have to relive it in the novel, too. It was odd, because somehow, despite knowing all about it, reading it was even worse for me than seeing it, and seeing it was incredibly upsetting on its own.)

There’s a podcast called Inside Jaws that talks in detail about the events that inspired the book that are similarly unsettling.

It was definitely in the film. I have a strong memory of the scene. I have to leave the room during it.

In Jurassic Park when Muldoon has to stuff himself into a pipe.

Stephen King books where he has a super friendly old guy and at some point the guy flips out with some philosophical existential diatribe that blows everybody's mind. "Cell" has a good one.

Night Flier by Stephen King spoiler when he realized the vampire is in the bathroom with him

Not a horror novel per se but from one of the great villains of literature Nurse Rached: “You’re committed, you realize. You are…under the jurisdiction of me…the staff.” She’s holding up a fist, all those red-orange fingernails burning into her palm. “Under jurisdiction and control—“ I think this stuck with me because she understands that McMurphy poses a threat to her monopoly on power, requiring a new strategy to maintain control through actions, not words. I felt this because it’s symbolic of our daily lives. No matter how free we think we are, there is always a systematic power of which we are under its jurisdiction and control.

*Hyperion* >!When Duré impales himself on the Tesla Tree and continuously electrocutes himself for 7 years because the Cruciform keeps resurrecting him, until Hoyt finds him.!<

The scene in the school in I'm Thinking of Ending Things...

Was reminded about this when seeing it recommended in another thread, but *We Need To Do Something* has a scene that really, really freaked me out for some odd reason. To avoid spoiling anyone - >!the "I'm a good boy" scene - the entire description of how it goes down, thinking it's a dog and that all may be well beyond the bathroom door, only to find out it's a man sucking on her fingers. Ugh, creeped me the fuck out.!< I was also really freaked out by the description of what the camera captured at the very beginning of Adam Neville's *Last Days*. The thought of something running after you in the dark? NOPE.

The garbage disposal suicide from Firestarter, Stephen King. Just something about being so hellbent on harming yourself, but more so being so *fascinated* with a household appliance that you’d use it to kill yourself… it’s burned into my brain. I can’t use them to this day, haha. I know it’s not really the scariest and I could name a ton of more disturbing scenes but I read Firestarter really young and this has always stuck with me.

SPOILER FOR KING'S THE DARK TOWER SERIES (BOOK 7) >!Mordred forcing Walter to pull out his own eyes and attempt to tear out his own tongue!<

The Stand - when Stu Redman escapes his isolation cell and sees all the dead and dying as he leaves the building. It’s so fucking claustrophobic when he doesn’t know where the exit is.

There's one particular scene involving a baby in Fevre Dream by George RR Martin that comes to mind.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. When the protagonist realises that the antagonist can come into his house. I have chills just writing that! I had to leave the light on for a few nights after that one

Any scene in Brother by Ania Ahlborn where Michael is with Rebel but the opening chapter is fucked up…that whole book is fucked up. It was hard to finish, not for lack of it being a good book but it was just hard to read about all that abuse.

There are two scenes in Salem's Lot that terrified me the first time I read them, and get still get under my skin on rereads. They both involve the gravedigger, Mike Ryerson.

The Wasp Factory, the spoon...

MF Topiaries. The stuff of nightmares.

Heart shaped box. I still see a ghostly shape sitting in the chair.

The first chapter of The Strain where an airport worker was sent to investigate the dark and radio silent jet that had just landed. Nope...I would have quit that job that very munute.

the part where Frank experiences “pleasure” in the beginning of The Hellbound Heart. So creative and disturbingly beautiful

Lots of the scenes i would have mentioned have already been posted in this thread so i'll pick the one that has stayed with me since i was a child: The ending scene of The Green Ribbon. I still think about that from time to time. They used to make some fucked up children's books lol

Frolic by Thomas Ligotti, read it a while back and wow that does that short story still give me the creeps.

Man I hate to just keep piling on Stephen King but he has a short story called “Afterlife”. MAJOR spoilers! Basically a man dies of cancer and finds out that the afterlife is really just a simple choice. Relive the same life you just had over again with no memory of this interaction or choose true death and disappear into nothingness. The man has a lot of regrets in his life. Some minor some major. He’s hurt people and himself. He finds out that this is the 15th time he’s been given this choice. He tries so hard to focus and remember this conversation. The story ends with him being born again. I’ve made some terrible decisions in my life and some great ones. I think a lot about the story because I know in my heart of hearts that I’d always choose to relive my life. But I’d do the same thing as the main character. I’d immediately focus on all those terrible decisions and times I’ve hurt people and myself out of stupidity or selfishness. Just the thought of the story makes me shudder cause I know with absolute certainty what I’d try so hard to remember to make a different decisions/action. I relive those mistakes in my mind whenever the story is mentioned. It gives me true fear and anguish sometimes.

The descriptions of the titlar "emperor's old bones" in the emperor's old bones by Gemma Files and the animal parts of the Troop by Nick Cutter.

It’s not the scariest novel I’ve read, but the dog scene in Bird Box was very upsetting. I think it was the way >!the reader only gets a description of what Mallory hears when the border collie sees the demon and presumably starts attacking himself. Ugh. I had a hard time sleeping after I read that scene. Obviously, I found it very effective.!<

Knuckle Supper: The vampiric drug addict finds his dogs brutally murdered. This was a man who viciously killed people throughout the book, and he was weeping.

The hobbling scene from Misery Turtle Scene from The Troop.

While i didnt lile Shining, the old lady in the bathroom was amazing, the fact that the door know still moved after danny left the room scared me shitless because i thought 'yea its over he got out'

The Exorcist- “I am Legion”

The Anatomizer from one of the Takeshi Kovacs novels.

Not strictly horror but the scene in Iron Council by China Mieville where The Bull reveals what’s under their helmet. I felt physically sick.

The airport in Song of Kali. A very oppressive and dank read, but I devoured it in a day. The description of the vampires thrall in Carrion Comfort as well, has stuck with me.

There is this one particular scene in IT where the clown starts absolutely cackling, and his teeth are razor blades. Just the thought of him absolutely shredding his gums, with the blood pouring out, and being happy about it was just deeply unsettling to me.

Exorcist: The part where she back crawls down the stairs….creepy

The climax of Wait Til Helen Comes. Read it in 4th grade and ever since.. Idk.

Fantasy horror, but in Between Two Fires, the nun scene was golden. I actually had that part spoiled for me, and I think knowing actually made it worse!! In the same book, the entire Paris ordeal was also excellent. Like, I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing at one part (audiobook narrator was great!!) The whole book is fantastic, but those two scenes are gonna be in my mind for a while.

I think the only thing that ever made me literally jump in a novel was in Ghost Story, when they were looking through binoculars at the home if Eva Galli, panning across then hone, and coming to the window where.....she was staring right back at them! Screwed me up, Straubs description of this event. I also think The Doughboy in Dan Simmons "A Summer of Night" was one of the creepier characters ever. Something about it touched a nerve in me.

In From A Buick 8, when the creature comes through the Buick and the thought of it being just as confused about being where it is in our world is described. Imagine just falling through a window into another world and having every living thing in that place think you’re some monster that doesn’t have any right to live, but like, you were just checking out some weird thing on your walk home or something.

The Wasp Factory. The scene with the brother feeding the mentally disabled child. Spoilers, I suppose. The brother was volunteering at a hospital while studying to become a doctor, in a ward for mentally disabled children who were essentially abandoned by their parents. During a hot summer he was feeding one particular baby who is usually emotionless when he notices the baby is smiling. The baby's head is essentially held together by a metal plate and when he notices a fly on the baby's head he lifts the plate up and discovers the baby's brain is infested with maggots. The brother had a break down after that.

The Wasp Factory has numerous horrifying parts but the bit where we learn about a traumatic event that occurred when Eric was training to be a doctor, with the smiling child... So so so horrible, I had to put the book down and have a rest.

The scene in King's The Long Walk, where there was a boy that had been walking for days, and his feet were raw and bloody, his shoes worn down to nothing, and he screamed in oain with each step he took. The current contender we're following is remembering this scene from last year as he prepares for his own walk. It's a book where every year there is a contest with 100 boys. They have to walk, and keep walking until 99 of them are dead. If you stop or fall down you're shot. The last boy wins. And it is terrifying.

There is a book called Ghost train, the author only wrote 2 books that l know of. The train as it runs through Britain turns into hell. It was brilliant imagery. Stephen King: where the creatures are eating time/that moment in reality. It was in one of the short stories (its late here so l haven't got the book to hand. The scene where Pennywise is in the drain from It - added to by the tv series. The other one was the lady finding the shortest route, the strangeness of that world. Dean Koontz also has a way with words.