The Ten O'Clock People

"Ten O'Clock People" is a short story by Stephen King published in the Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection. Unlike many King's stories that take place in fictional places like Castle Rock, Maine, "Ten O'Clock People" takes place in the distinctly recognizable Boston, Massachusetts. In the story, the main character, who is a smoker trying hard to quit for health reasons, discovers a horrible aspect of reality that only those attempting to quit like him are capable of seeing - that many of the people living among us, even such figures as the Vice President, are in fact inhuman monsters disguised as people. A unique chemical balance, caused by his smoking only on his morning break (thus the reference to Ten O' Clock in the title) makes him able to see the true nature of these creatures through their disguises.

In King's novels Song of Susannah and Hearts in Atlantis, similar creatures, called "can-toi" or "low men in yellow coats", appear as minions of the Crimson King. Whether those creatures are intended to be the same creatures as the ones appearing in this story is unclear.


The story has many similarities with John Carpenter's film They Live.

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