33 of the scariest Stephen King moments

The King of Horror

Stephen King's creative output spans galaxies of grotesquerie and freaky terror, with monsters that run the gamut from otherworldly to terrifyingly human to reminds-you-way-too-much-of-someone-you-know. We set out to highlight some lesser-known but still stellar scenes, choosing just one moment to represent each project. It is entirely possible, though, that a couple of King's greatest hits landed at the top of the roster ("Here's Johnny!").

Entertainment Weekly's The Ultimate Guide to Stephen King, inside the mind of horror's most prolific author, is on sale now. Buy it here.

33. Dolores Claiborne

With all the wild nightmares that populate King's work, one shouldn't forget his ability to capture brutal real-world fear. An interlude between housewife Dolores (Kathy Bates) and good ol' boy husband Joe (David Strathairn) took a sudden — and assaultive — U-turn when he slams her in the back with a piece of firewood.

Dolores Claiborne can be streamed on HBO Max.

32. Salem's Lot

Freshly undead youngster Ralphie Glick (Ronnie Scribner) floats scratching at his brother's window, his silent smile a request for entry. Danny (Brad Savage) obligingly opens the window. We don't see much of what happens next.

Salem's Lot can be streamed on Shudder and AMC+.

31. The Waste Lands

Of all the phantasmagorical creations populating The Dark Tower saga, none is more memorably deranged than Blaine the Mono, a monorail gone rampant in apocalyptic old age. Blaine is a tauntingly strange figure, a suicide machine that just wants to have fun.

30. Castle Rock (Season 1)

After finding a room filled with paintings of evil vessel the Kid, a former Shawshank resident (It's Bill Skarsgård), Henry Deaver (André Holland) is attacked by the possessed owners of a murder-themed B&B, then saved by an axe-wielding Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), niece of The Shining's Jack.

Castle Rock can be streamed on Hulu.

29. Stand by Me

Pals Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) set off to see a dead body and decide to take a dip on the way. When they realize they're covered in leeches, they make quick work of removing them — except for Gordie, who finds one last blood-sucker in his undies and promptly passes out.

Stand by Me can be streamed on AMC+.

28. Sleepwalkers

Frequent King collaborator Mick Garris helmed this low-key horror thriller, which features an absolutely memorable moment. "People really should learn to keep their hands to themselves," energy vampire Charles (Brian Krause) tells meddling Mr. Fallows (Glenn Shadix) after he pulls off Fallows's hand.

Sleepwalkers can be streamed on PlutoTV.

27. The Rage: Carrie 2

Poor tormented Sue Snell (Amy Irving) returns for another round of high school terror in the by-default best of the many shoddy sequels to King adaptations. Grown-up Sue's a guidance counselor trying to guide Carrie's half sister away from mass homicide. For her troubles Sue winds up skewered by a fire poker.

The Rage: Carrie 2 can be streamed on the Roku Channel.

26. Maximum Overdrive

King remains apologetic about his sole directorial effort, but it does include one brilliant sequence: A Little League baseball coach tries to get soda from a faulty vending machine — only to be killed when the homicidal machine launches cans at high speed straight at him.

Maximum Overdrive can be rented on YouTube and Prime Video.

25. Children of the Corn

The never-ending franchise kicked off with an intense sequence the author only hinted at in his original short story: the fine citizens of Gatlin getting massacred by their own smirking children.

Children of the Corn can be streamed on Tubi, Plex, and Roku.

24. 'Quitters, Inc.'

King's talked openly about his past struggles with addiction, which gives this short story a searing subtext. A longtime smoker contracts a company to help him kick the habit. Soon he discovers the company's brutal policy: Smoke a cigarette, and his family can pay with their lives.

23. Christine

When horror legend John Carpenter turned King's novel into a cult-classic film, he gave new meaning to the phrase "car chase." The possessed vintage Plymouth Fury hunts down bullying Moochie (Malcolm Danare), chasing him into an alleyway. The car leaves the alley; Moochie doesn't.

Christine can be streamed on AMC+.

22. Under the Dome

Adapted from one of King's later lengthy masterworks, the small-town-snowglobe series never quite lived up to its initial promise. But what promise! When a mysterious dome descends over Chester's Mill, a poor bovine citizen is caught inside and outside. It's maybe the single grossest visual CBS ever allowed on television.

Under the Dome can be streamed on Paramount+.

21. Tales From the Darkside: The Movie

A professional hit man (David Johansen) gets an unusual assignment: kill a black cat. It's a Monty Python-worthy premise gone Lovecraftian, and the scary part isn't when the homicidal feline actually kills the hit man, crawling inside his mouth and devouring his insides. The scary part's when the cat crawls back out.

Tales From the Darkside can be rented on YouTube and Prime Video.

20. The Outsider

When troubled police investigator Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) and eccentric yet brilliant PI Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) track down shape-shifting child killer El Cuco, things get creepy. When Gibney asks why the nightmarish boogeyman targets children, the answer is, "'Cause they taste the sweetest." Shiver.

The Outsider can be streamed on HBO and HBO Max.

19. 'Survivor Type'

A surgeon is stranded on a Pacific island. He keeps a diary. It's all very Robinson Crusoe, except he has little food.. When he injures his ankle, he has to amputate— and maybe now has food.

18. Carrie

The jump scare as high art. At the end of Brian De Palma's teen-terror classic, lone survivor Sue (Amy Irving) has a somber dream about laying flowers at the grave of Carrie White (Sissy Spacek). It's a moment of quiet serenity. And then the bloody hand grasps out of the ground.

Carrie can be streamed on Shudder and AMC+.

17. 1408

Locked in a haunted hotel room, Mike Enslin (John Cusack) tries to get the attention of a man across the street. When Mike holds a lamp to his face, so does the man—and that's when Mike realizes the man is him. Mike turns — just in time to avoid the SLASH.

1408 can be rented on YouTube and Prime Video.

16. Cujo

Mom Donna (Dee Wallace) leans over her son (Danny Pintauro) to unbuckle his safety belt. The camera moves up behind her, as if ready to attack — and then slobbering, rabid Cujo the Dog almost jumps through little Tad's window.

Cujo can be rented on YouTube and Prime Video.

15. Creepshow

One of the anthology film's most memorable moments is complete with an abominable monster living inside a wooden crate. When Professor Northrup (Hal Holbrook) realizes the beast can't stop killing, he introduces it to his wife. Divorce, King style.

Creepshow can be rented on Prime Video and Apple TV.

14. Creepshow

The standout entry from the King anthology film is "The Raft," which finds a group of coeds terrorized by, of all things, a man-eating oil slick. In the middle of a lake, the last survivors think they're safe — and then the oil slips through the cracks.

Creepshow 2 can be streamed on Shudder and AMC+.

13. Pet Sematary

By the last page, Louis Creed has put his dead wife in the mystical Indian resurrection mound. In his empty house he awaits her return. The novel leaves Louis hanging on a freaky final sentence: "'Darling,' it said."

12. Gerald's Game

The sheer horror isn't just watching Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino) gruesomely cut open the skin of her hand to get free from handcuffs after role playing with her husband (Bruce Greenwood) goes terrifyingly wrong. It's when she later discovers a face-eating serial killer (Carel Stuycken) was in the house with her the whole time.

Gerald's Game can be streamed on Netflix.

11. Doctor Sleep

Field of Screams, anyone? Walking home after a baseball game, a young boy — played by Jacob Tremblay is kidnapped by a group of supernatural, vampire-esque beings led by Rebecca Ferguson's Rose the Hat. Shockingly, the kid in this The Shining sequel is tortured and murdered so the ghouls can inhale his essence, or "steam."

Doctor Sleep can be rented on YouTube and Prime Video.

10. The Dead Zone

In King's novel, madman murderer-rapist Frank Dodd slashes his throat when he suspects his jig is up. In director David Cronenberg's brilliant adaptation, the demented deputy sheriff goes one step further, chomping on the blades of a pair of scissors.

The Dead Zone can be streamed on HBO and HBO Max.

9. Chapelwaite

Rebecca (Emily Hampshire) discovers a vampire feasting in the gothic 19th-century town of Preacher's Corner from King's 1978 short story "Jerusalem's Lot" (prequel to Salem's Lot). She chases the figure into an alley (!!!), where he reveals he's a very much undead Phillip Boone (Julian Richings), the great uncle of Adrien Brody's damaged protagonist Capt. Charles Boone.

Capelwaite can be streamed on Epix.

8. Castle Rock (Season 2)

A young, surprisingly sympathetic, and mentally ill Annie Wilkes (where's Lizzy Caplan's Emmy?) of iconic Misery infamy gets her very first in-person glimpse of her "favorite" author Paul Sheldon. Cue ominous camera close-up and the cryptic words: "I'm his No. 1 fan."

Castle Rock can be streamed on Hulu.

7. The Mangler

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper overcooked a short story about a killer laundry press, but there's a terrifying power to the film's first death scene, when a worker gets swallowed whole.

The Mangler can be rented on YouTube and Apple TV.

6. Mr. Mercedes

How do you make sadistic murderer Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway) an even more terrifying foe for haunted, retired Det. Bill Hodges (kudos to the enthralling Brendan Gleeson) after he plows a Mercedes into a crowd, killing 16? The moment the sicko, anxiety-triggering villain gains the ability to control minds.

Mr. Mercedes can be streamed on Peacock.

5. Lisey's Story

King's use of the mundane as a weapon of terror is at
an all-time high here. An obsessed fan (Dane DeHaan) of dead writer Scott Landon (Clive Owen) makes good on his threat of violence against the deceased's widow, Lisey Landon (Julianne Moore), by taking a pizza cutter to her skin repeatedly — stopping only to eat a sandwich.

Lisey's Story can be streamed on Apple TV+.

4. The Mist

What's in the mist? Nothing: That's what bag boy Norm (Chris Owen) thinks when he volunteers to walk outside and restart the supermarket's generator. But when the loading door opens, he's grabbed by constricting tentacles, pulled screaming into the ether. Like much of King's work, the greatest scare is what you don't see. What the hell are those tentacles even attached to?

The Mist can be streamed on Netflix.

3. It

A little boy named Georgie Denbrough loses his paper boat in a storm drain. Inside the sewer lingers Pennywise, a clown with tufts of blood-red hair. He offers the boy balloons. "They float... they float." Georgie reaches his hand into the sewer and quickly loses it. Our nation's Clown Terror began here.

Both the 1990 and 2017 iterations of It can be streamed on HBO Max.

2. The Tommyknockers

Why would Sheriff Merrill (Joanna Cassidy) collect scary dolls? Of course, they attack her when she tries to call for help. They. Are. Scary Dolls. Also, they're controlled by aliens, or it's a hallucination, or something. The point is: SCARY DOLLS. DON'T BUY THEM.

1. The Shining

No one ever watched Johnny Carson's Tonight Show the same way again. The freaky-hilarious announcement Daddy Torrance delivers through the freshly axed-in door is somehow vintage King: pure pop-referential nuclear-family mania. What sells it is Jack Nicholson's murderous smile. He's broken all-the-way bad, and he's never been happier.

The Shining can be streamed on HBO Max.

Get more on Stephen King

Entertainment Weekly's The Ultimate Guide to Stephen King, inside the mind of horror's most prolific author, is on sale now. Buy it here.