Stephen King/Nightmare Fuel: Difference between revisions

You saw it coming.

 

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* The end of the short story "[[Children of the Corn]]". Burt and Vicky do ''not'' survive, there are ''no'' good kids, and the cult is not stopped. The fact that one of the cultists is pregnant with Malachi's child was somehow the ''most'' disturbing thing about these lunatics.

** The part of the cat scene is that "Denker" mentions getting a dog for the same purpose. Later, he goes to an animal shelter and leaves with a puppy.

* ''[[Cujo]]'' and ''[[Misery]]'' are prime examples. Made all the scarier because they could actually happen. EEEEEE!

* ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' has several elements that seemed designed to remind the reader that King writes horror stories. From the first three books we have Norm of Tull, the end of Tull, the Slow Mutants, The lobstrosities, a man getting ''cut in half'' by [[More Dakka]], Odetta/Detta, Shardik, and the Pusher, who doesn't do drugs but pushes people in front of trains. Oh, and when Jake thinks he's going insane. And the Doorkeeper, who is a sentient, malevolent entity disguised as an abandoned ''house''. And Blaine the train, who is a real pain.

** Onward through the remaining four books, of which some of the more notable ideas and concepts include a procedure which ends up ''destroying little kids' minds'' because of what they extract. Bonus points for the fact a byproduct of the process is the accelerated growth of the kids to such a point you can ''hear their skulls expanding''. The pain is basically that of teething ... for a solid year or so. Dandelo; {{spoiler|Randall Flagg}} being psychically compelled to tear his own eyes out and then tear his own tongue out; Mordred the half-human, half-spider from the time of his birth; long pork at the Dixie Pig; ruminating on the sound of the {{spoiler|Crimson King}} screaming as he is {{spoiler|erased from existence}}; the can-toi; and, at the Battle of the Algul Siento, a hydrocephalic kid banging his head on the ground and ''dying'' with a sound like a watermelon being split in half.

* "The Jaunt," another short story. ''[[And I Must Scream|"It's eternity in there..."]]'' Contains what is quite possibly the most gruesome and memorable ending to any of King's stories.

** Mentioned and not dwelt upon, but far worse, is using the Jaunt device (with no exit) as a murder weapon. Technically, the victim never dies. Ever. She is cut off from all external stimuli, alone, with no way of ever escaping. (But the court convicted him anyway.) The defense attorney made that exact argument (that it wasn't really murder since the wife wasn't dead), but when the jury thought of [[And I Must Scream|a human being stuck in that state forever]] it pretty much [[Complete Monster|cemented the husband's conviction.]]

{{quote| The door was crooked.<br />

Not by a lot, but it was crooked, all right, canted just the tiniest bit to the left.<br />

** The mental domination of people that forced them to put the cell phones to their ears and dial ''knowing that they were doomed as they did so''.

* There were two things about ''[[Dream Catcher]]'': The part where someone plays a tape of the "aliens" imitating celebrities and telling people that they're not dangerous, and the part where the first alien appears, because it was so sudden, Jonesy just turns around and he sees it, no previous signs to warn the reader.

* "Survivor Type": A surgeon gets stranded on an island with only some powdered heroin, a couple of knives and the clothes on his back. In order to stay alive, he kills and eats a few seagulls he managed to catch, but he breaks his foot eventually. So he needs to amputate, and realizes afterwards {{spoiler|[[I Taste Delicious|that there's another way to keep himself alive.]] By the end of the story, he's cut off (''and eaten'') everything below the waist, along with his earlobes. The story ends with this last diary entry, with the implication being that he's desperate and hungry enough to ''eat his own hands'', which, as a surgeon, he has been taking excellent care of for the entire story.}}

** ''"lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers." Brrr....''

* ''Trucks'': In which trucks rebel and destroy humanity, blaring demands to their new slaves via Morse code.

{{quote| Someone must pump fuel. Someone will not be harmed. All fuel must be pumped. This shall be done now. Now someone will pump fuel.}}

** The scene where Tak "sweetens up" Audrey will make you never want to eat honey again.

* On the subject of ''[[Misery]]'', the thought of being held prisoner to someone ''that'' delusional and ''that'' fixated with you for a time span of nearly half a year is horrifying. {{spoiler|And made worse by the revelation that Annie is not afraid to mutilate Paul in order to keep him under control and is ''completely'' deaf to his pleas and begging. She even cuts off his thumb and serves it on a birthday cake as the candle.}} What's really about the {{spoiler|"special candle"}} wasn't just Annie's not-so-subtle threat to {{spoiler|make him eat it}}, but when the text suddenly went off for an entire page with no pauses, sounding almost sing-song at points. It shows how ''absolutely terrified'' Paul is.

** Annie {{spoiler|killing the young cop}}. Especially when she {{spoiler|''mowes'' '''his head'''}}.

** She {{spoiler|MADE HIM DRINK ''MOP WATER!!!''}}She also made him {{spoiler|burn the only copy of his manuscript of}} {{spoiler|''Fast Cars''.}} It's a little harder to connect to that since typewriters aren't used that much anymore, but {{spoiler|to lose every last page of work}} is a writer's worst fucking nightmare.

** The insertion of the words "I'm going to kill you" into the [[Miranda Warning]] near the beginning of the book, and {{spoiler|the Tak-possessed cop doing just that to the husband of the family at the end of the chapter}}.

* ''Dolores Claiborne'' isn't exactly a horror novel, but the old woman deteriorate into madness from age and ''realizing she can't stop it''. Only Stephen King could turn dust bunnies into a terrifying representation of a decaying mind.

* ''[[Duma Key]]'' is creepy even before bad stuff starts happening. Imagine being in an accident and waking up with no right arm. Also, you can't remember a good portion of your vocabulary. There's a page describing the protagonist getting frustrated while asking his wife to come over and sit on the ''friend'', on the ''pal'', on the ''chum'' because it's as close as his fractured mind can come to the word "chair", and it doesn't end there. {{spoiler|He ends up stabbing his wife with a plastic knife and ''choking her'' and can't remember either incident, and when she breaks the news to him that she's divorcing him, he calls her a "birch". Instead of getting angry, she corrects him and leaves without another word.}}

* The short story "Gray Matter" has {{spoiler|a man turn into a giant fungus or bacteria after drinking spoiled beer and begins to eat children}}.

* There was one story from the ''Everything's Eventual'' collection called "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" about a woman who {{spoiler|kept reliving one moment of her life.}}

* ''Full Dark, No Stars''. First off, the first story has a man being bitten to death by rats (in first person). Plus, Beadie... Just, Beadie, ok?

* There's a short story ''Word Processor of the Gods''. While the story itself isn't that scary, instead working the angle of drama, look at modern social networking. The pressing of a single key can effectively change reality. Imagine the power, or even the knowledge, if it were to be used by someone now.

* From "Skeleton Crew", a number of stories: "The Reaper's Image", especially the ending with the narrator waiting for his buyer to reappear. "Uncle Otto's Truck" had the eponymous vehicle ''slowly'' creeping up on Otto until it was ''right outside his fucking window''. His death was also pretty fucked. And "Morning Deliveries" had the most fucked up milkman I have ever seen.

* ''Autopsy Room 4'', from ''Everything's Eventual''. Live burial is a common horror subject, but leave it to King to come up with {{spoiler|live-[[And I Must Scream|but-paralyzed]] ''autopsy''}}. The funnier bits may seem to lighten up the story until you consider the protagonist's final comments: