Items57The creator’s order
  1. 1I Am the DoorwayI Am the DoorwayNight Shift. An astronaut returns from a mission to Venus with eyes opening in the skin of his hands. The fear is of keeping something inside so that it can’t use him to see. Try it if a disturbing bodily detail is enough to carry your science-fiction horror.0
  2. 2The Jaunt (2009)The Jaunt (2009) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2009Skeleton Crew. At a teleportation terminal, a father tells his children why passengers go to sleep before the jump. Try this for a scary story that works as a science-fiction thought experiment. The most troubling part of the trip is something the technology usually takes care of for you.0
  3. 31408 (2016)1408 (2016) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2016Everything’s Eventual. A writer who makes his living investigating ghost stories checks into a New York hotel room with a fearsome reputation. The manager’s effort to talk him out of it makes the room feel dangerous before you get inside it. Pick this if you want a haunted-house story in which the…0
  4. 4N. (2016)N. (2016)Published Jan 1, 2016Just After Sunset. A psychiatrist’s notes record a patient’s account of a Maine field where the number of stones seems to change. The counting is what keeps this longer pick frightening. King leaves you room to wonder whether a repeated ritual protects anybody or makes the fear harder to escape.0
  5. 5The BoogeymanThe BoogeymanNight Shift. A father sits in a psychiatrist’s office and tries to explain why he’s afraid of closets. The door that keeps turning up slightly open gives you an ordinary detail to dread. Read it for a concentrated piece of domestic horror that’s short enough to make that one image stick.0
  6. 6Children of the Corn (1978)Children of the Corn (1978) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1978Night Shift. A couple driving through Nebraska reaches a small town after a roadside accident. The orderly streets make their questions feel more urgent. Choose this if you want a rural horror story that puts the weight of its menace in community customs and the corn surrounding them.0
  7. 7Survivor TypeSurvivor TypeSkeleton Crew. A surgeon’s diary begins as a record of what he can do to stay alive after a shipwreck. His training makes the entries harder to read as the choices narrow. This is one of the most physically gruesome stories here, and the dry accounting is part of what makes it so hard to shake.0
  8. 8The Man in the Black Suit (2002)The Man in the Black Suit (2002) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2002Everything’s Eventual. An elderly narrator remembers meeting a strange man on a childhood fishing trip. Read it for the difference between the pace of a boy’s fright and the slow way an adult can go on carrying it. The familiar routine of fishing gives the encounter a place to wait.0
  9. 9One for the Road (2010)One for the Road (2010) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2010Night Shift. A visitor staggers into a bar during a snowstorm, asking for help for the family he left in a car. The locals know the road he took. Read it if you want a fire, a drink, and a little local knowledge to make everything waiting outside feel colder.0
  10. 10The Monkey (1989)The Monkey (1989) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1989Skeleton Crew. The toy monkey that haunted Hal’s childhood comes back into his family’s life. The sound of its cymbals lets King put the tension into one movement of a cheap object. The family history is the reason the noise carries beyond the first scare.0