Tell Us Now: 14 Stephen King Characters That Give Us Nightmares

Even if you have been living under a rock, we’d assume you have heard of Stephen King. Since 1967, he’s entertained us with suspense and horror books. Even if you’re not much of a reader, it’s nearly impossible to miss his influence on the cultural landscape: from movies to miniseries to comic books, you can’t miss his writing. Even if you completely avoid horror altogether, there’s little chance you’ve missed the references and parodies of his work. 

We asked Cracked readers on Facebook, “Who’s the scariest Stephen King character?” The King of Horror has written 64 novels and somewhere around 200 short stories. There are a lot of options to choose from. We expected the obvious: Pennywise, Carrie, the Grady sisters. However, the consensus was that more than any of the supernatural creatures, characters who were based in reality…who could actually be walking among us… are the most terrifying. Do you agree?