King's Quest/Nightmare Fuel

The Nightmare Fuel page for King's Quest.

King's Quest I Quest for The Crown

When I realized those kids outside the cupcake hut were exactly what I dreaded they were. This is a game where being Genre Savvy can make things much easier - or much nastier.
And also the suspense of going through Dahlia's woods used to TERRIFY me as a child. As I've said before, that's when I needed to be on Daddy's lap and be holding Big Sister's hand. I still hate it, my knees go weak when I hear her "swooping down" music!
As for scaries, the wolf in KQ1 & 2, as a kid, scared me so bad that I would not go in the same room as my computer. Of course, it didn't help that it made me jump once, but my brother would go back and forth on the screen repeatedly to scare me...
The ogre. In the original, he just shakes you around. In the Sierra remake, you get into a Big Ball Of Violence, with him holding your limp body. Neither of these are particularly terrifying. But in the AGDI remake, the ogre just grabs your head, literally crushes it, and blood trails out of his hands. It kept me out of the forbidding darkness of the forest for a few years.

King's Quest II Romancing the Throne (The Fan Remake)

Raiding the Vampire's castle is nerve-wracking in the canonical game, but AGD cranked it up a few notches. Seeing what you were expecting to be the friendly monk from the canonical game transform into a werewolf? Oh Crap. Seeing Graham pinned to the wall, Caldaur's hand around his neck, the music shrieking in the background? Oh, CRAP! Being pinned down by the Brotherhood between the swamp and their jaws? OH, CRAP!
Navigating the Sharkees land is an equally frustrating experience.

King's Quest III to Heir Is Human

Half-expecting, half dreading you miscalculated by just that much and that Manannan would come back at any second and turn you to ash. The ominous organ music that plays when he appears doesn't help. Worse, was this was a timed game, and you had a lot to do with very little time to do it. Miscalculate the margin of error, and poof!
Screwing up the spells. A typo could be lethal in this game. Sometimes led to Have a Nice Death - but not usually. Add it to the time limit of knowing Manny could come back at any second and strike you dead just added to the tension.
But, it is hard to judge because waiting for Manannan to pop up was terror, especially when you had items and you were rushing to get to your room, or when you were in the wizards laboratory. Also, when the cat was waiting for you on the laboratory stairs, and you fell, I still jump from that. Amazing how simple things are so effective.

King's Quest IV the Perils of Rosella

The cave troll. Oh, dear Gods, the cave troll. You heard that music, and there was no escape. you could try running, and it would never be enough!
- - I was always on the edge of my seat, waiting impatiently for Rosella to make it safely to next screen. Then, all of the sudden, the scary music kicks in...
The Ogre in KQ4. That jerk ALWAYS gives me a heart attack when I see him charging full speed at me. And then when the stupid hen wakes him up and he leaps up and starts chasing you...
- His wife is even scarier to some players. This troper included. *shudder* The way she drops her kill for the evening and goes after YOU...
The unsettled ghosts...especially the cradle that rocks, despite being completely empty, a baby's haunting cry splitting the air, and realizing that baby has probably been manifesting for many more nights than the poor dear ever saw alive.
- How come nobody mentioned just DIGGING UP the graves?! I played this game with my sister, and when we found out what the shovel was for... suddenly the game got much creepier.
Sneaking around the castle when even the slightest misstep means a nasty death at the bottom of the stairs, or capture.
Also, trying to picture Lolotte's dying screams. *shudder*
There's also that massive truck of Fridge Horror that hits you when you realize just how badly and on how many levels Lolotte had twisted up poor Edgar. She twisted his body into a hunchbacked form that was likely in pain all the time, tried to pass him off as her son when we later find out she'd kidnapped him, and was trying to twist his mind as well. *Wince*
How about if you eat the magical fruit and take the amulet back to Genesta, then get sent home to watch Graham die anyway?

King's Quest V Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder

The gypsy showing Graham what was going on with his family. Mordak is torturing Alexander, and threatening to feed him to the cat. Said cat used to be the same son-of-a-witch who had enslaved and brutalized Alexander for years. On so many levels, that is the stuff of bad dreams.
The scream used when Graham calls to his death
- Definite case of YMMV here, as eventually it happens so many times for such inane reasons that it becomes hilarious.
Yes, Cedric, we know it's a poiiisonous snake. It still is a nasty death.

King's Quest VI Heir Today Gone Tomorrow

Alexander being captured by the Druids and put up in a wicker cage to burn to death. There are times when being a mythology geek adds a few new ways to wince. This would be one of them. Burning to death is not a pleasant way to go, either.
Just about anything on the Land of the Dead. Creeping zombies of those whose torments drove them mad, and having to dodge them, lest a single touch cause Alexander's flesh to dissolve! There's the door death, the River Styx death, seeing the walls and twisted passages of the Land of the Dead and realizing they are literally Samhain's flesh as he has fused with his hellish throne and the land he rules is literally his body.
Sipping the "Drink Me" without knowing it only knocks you flat for a few minutes. The animation is unsettling to start with. The narrator and Benson's voice acting do not help.
Navigating the catacombs. So many ways to go wrong, so many death traps, and no warning. Traps everywhere, skeletons everywhere, and if you are traversing it for the first time, with no idea where the minotaur is? Heck, even if you know where you're going, confronting the Minotaur is pretty tense, especially when you look at the ritualistic altar on which he was planning to do Gods-knew-what to Celeste before devouring her!
- As an eight-year-old, this troper was unfortunate enough to come across the minotaur while roaming the catacombs, only to watch him pick up Alexander, and gore him upon its horns...MORTIFIED by what she witnessed, this troper hid that memory in a dark corner of her brain up until today.
- If only the minotaur DID gore you. If memory serves, he jerks you around and friggin RIPS YOU IN HALF! (Note: look at the eyeballs fall separate ways along with scary sound effects.)
- The minotaur only rips you in half if it's dark. The goring happens when there's light.
We know from the first meeting Alhazred is no gentleman. When we find out what he did to Cassima's parents, he turns into "detestable slime bag." When we see that he was behind the islands' discord and colluded with Mordak, he jumps up to "pile of shit." When we realize that he plans to "dispose" of Cassima after the wedding night, Alhazred turns into "Alex, skewer the bastard NOW!"

King's Quest VII the Princeless Bride

The Boogey Man character in King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride was so terrifying that it caused this troper to stop playing the game. A bony, ash-faced creature with a huge gash of a mouth and rows of enormous teeth, the Boogey Man appears whenever you stand still for too long and will eat you unless you leave immediately. He also appears if you use the Gravedigger's Horn more than once, lurching out of the ground and groaning the phrase "Thanks for inviting me to dinner." You scream, and then you die. Since you must use the horn to proceed in the game, using it at any point before you need to fairly well ensures your doom.
- For the record, not quite accurate. Whether or not he appears is determined by whether or not some plant or other is standing up straight when you use the horn, not whether you've used it before, and that changes when leave the screen. Still correct about the rest. Also you forgot his last appearance--if you forget to re-don your disguise after sneaking into and out of the witch's house, he'll pounce you out of nowhere the moment you step out into the open, giving you the only real closeup he has.
KQ7: The death messages rolled before anything too frightening was seen, but the scorpion made me jump, as did the Boogeyman.
The ghostly wanderer who shows up in the desert, while not evil, is pretty creepy.
There's also the giant scorpion in the desert temple.