28 Days Later is my favorite "zombie" movie, because they aren't actually zombies. They're still living human beings, and if you get so much as a drop of their blood in your eye, in your mouth, a bite or a scratch, you don't cease to exist. You don't have the relief of dying. Oh no, you get to continue on as some monster; a shell of what it means to be a human. Reduced to absolute primitive instinct, driven completely by aggressive hunger. You lose all notion of identity, civility, morality, and anything else that you think makes you, you, except your raw awareness of existence. The choice of practical effects > CGI, and the subtle comparisons of the "rage virus" to rabies makes it riveting and realistic. More of a thriller with jump-scares than a Lovecraftian style horror though. Anyway, my fears are of flying, becoming blind or deaf or paralyzed, and open water. I only go swimming in swimming pools. Oh, and arachnophobia.
Thanks @Lifeline. Yes, loosing control on my temper would be a great idea for a novel. Imagining what a normal person would do in special conditions. I also must agree with your lighter note. I love snorkeling but snorkeling with my face looking toward the bottom of a lake and not seeing anything, just the dark, creeps me out even though I know that there are no dangerous animals that can attack me. Now imagine being left alone in the middle of the oceans during the night. You don't see anything and there maybe a few hundreds or thousands of meters below you. Hi @Foxxx. I really loved the 28 days later and 28 weeks later movies. I find them really creepy. There was a scene in the second movie in which the main character had to abandoned his wife in a house that was invaded by contaminated people. Just try to imagine this scene in real life. You abandon your love one or you die right on the spot. What would you do? Here is the scene I was talking about.
Unstoppable giant things. An alien invasion with giant war machines that topples the militaries of the world. To know that there are significantly powerful civilizations out there that could wipe us out is terrifying. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what if something like the War of the Worlds (2005) really happened in real life, it would just be dreadful. Immortal, regenerating giants that feel no fear, hunger or pain that is focused on eating humans. You can't reason with it, you can't tire it, you can't starve it, you can't fight back and how they eat you is horrifying. Giant monsters in the deepest parts of the ocean. Remember when you were a kid and you swam in the deepest end of the swimming pool? Remember that feeling of fear when you saw nothing but the black darkness at the bottom? You'd imagine the worst monsters would reach out and grab your legs. Apocalyptic storms, we can't do anything about storms but wait them out. Usually, they're bad enough to destroy most houses and screw up a country for a few years but they eventually pass. A storm that would literally end civilization? Giant tsunamis taller than skyscrapers, tornadoes ripping the strongest structures to shreds? The cold causing people to freeze to death within seconds? It's scary. Massive demons that cannot be harmed by any means we possess. Imagine a monstrous demon the size of a country crawling towards you, eating the land and infecting everything with corruption. It's roar pierces ear drums and the world rumbles as it moves. The military uses all it's conventional weaponry on it, no effect. They get desperate and start firing nuclear warheads at it, still no effect. This one creature is your end and you are helpless. The picture below is a demon I created from my universe, it's one of the scariest things I've made. That stuff terrifies me like nothing else.
I am terrified of the idea that while I'm sleeping something is watching that I can't see. Or a shadow appears on my stairway wall (I have a half-wall and no door to my room upstairs) so something standing on the stairs and making it creak would be freaky. I'm also scared of that thing on Pan's Labrynthe that puts it's eyes on its hands... ugh *shivers* I watched that movie when I was too young. Losing my passion for art and writing scares me too.. or never finishing a book and having all those ideas go to waste.
Thank you @LordWarGod for your ideas of what is freightning you. I would say that on my part, apocalyptic storm is very scary because we don't know when it will ends. I am not afraid of giant monsters in the deepest parts of the ocean because I know there are none but I don't like the feeling to look to the deep dark bottom of a lake when I snorkel. I know there is nothing that can attack me but when I snorkel in the middle of a lake I can't swim face down. I have to swim on my back. I look down if I can see the bottom. It's only psychological I know and I am a wildlife specialist so it's hard to describe my fear when I know that there are no animals that can attack me. Hi @ShalaylaW. Thanks for your ideas. I really like what you wrote, a shadow or something watching you that you can't see. What is Pan's labrynthe exactly? Thanks again!
It's a movie about this French girl who's mother is dying, and she goes into this otherworldly place to try and save her. But it's like a horrific test, and in one part she enters this dining room with a long table and a feast upon it. And there's this thing sitting motionless at the other end, and it's this pale monstrosity, his eyes set on the table. If she takes any of the food from the table he'll wake and kill her. It's probably not that scary to most people but I still can't watch it to this day
PEDANT MODE ON: Spanish girl. The whole thing is in Spanish and is set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Anywho, now I've got that out of my system...what scares me? Big things that I can't hurt, like tanks, for example. You can feel them through the ground long before you see them. In the dark they're the stuff of nightmares: you know there's something out there, looking for you. It's big, powerful and intent on your death. That bit in Saving Private Ryan when you hear the armour coming properly gives me the fear, as do parts of various versions of The War of the Worlds when the protagonists are hiding from the War Machines. I have nightmares, sometimes, about being in command of a rearguard holding a bridge while civilians get evacuated to safety. We can't blow it until they're all across, so we have to keep the enemy at bay until then. We can hear heavy armour coming in the distance. I just want to curl up in a ball in a corner and scream and cry so much that they'll leave me alone, but that isn't an option, so I put my big boy pants on and get my guys ready to fight to the death. Thankfully, I always wake up before it gets to that bit. What else? The things that live in places where we don't go. The deep woods and the moors at night. The way that death and mayhem can come into any life so suddenly and without warning. I'm scared to look forward to things in case that somehow attracts it. I've seen too many happy, hopeful plans fall with those who made them. Presents wrapped but never given, tickets never used, babies never met. Hope is scary. Joy is scary. Other people can have them- I see it as my job to keep them safe so they can- but I can't, otherwise terrible things might happen to people I love, just to take those things away from me. Burning to death. An occupational hazard, these days, but I've nearly done it a couple of times and it just doesn't get any less awful with practice. Office jobs. The idea of spending 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in a small grey room with a bunch of people who actually wanted that out of life legitimately terrifies me. I did it for a couple of months and it's not much of an exaggeration to say that I ran away, screaming, to the sea.
Losing the freedom of privacy, and even worse, having a society that can doctor things, that's a nightmare. V For Vendetta (2006) - Secret Police and Hellish future and Westminster being taken over.
To write my nightmare, would have to be bleak. Would have to describe London set in a whole new political landscape and social norm than enjoyed today. To write my nightmare, UK doesn't become a US state or my road isn't occupied by America or nothing. It's occupied by the British, an elite with ultra conservative mixed with ultra socialist of hive mind for the greater good preventing for private ownership and human rights; Like a Nanny State that wants you to be Virtuous and beliefs in discipline. To write my nightmare, I'd have to pay George Orwell's estate off since he already wrote it, but, it's still a real nightmare of mine.
How to dress 1984 up in a Halloween Costume? Include a spell? Make 1984 an evil spell? A spell that turns everything into George Orwell's 1984 or that movie V for Vendetta (2006). and throw Halloween a way into doing a 1984 scenario, and make Big Brother the witch's spell and instead of telescreens everywhere, can be the witch's evil eyes or something - Starting to sound a little like Doctor Who to me if I write hostile aliens doing 1984 and The Doctor saves the day, so instead of Oceania, it could be Hallowed Falls, a fictional town to make the witches seem a bit more sellable, and set it in the present day even though I'm from the 1990's so that means people watching the TV to me, but, IDK, might have to start picturing tablets and smart phones and enact the witch's 1984 spell through some new app, and as a shout out to 1984, have the address of the starring family unit be like 1 984 Orwell Drive or something. - or instead of Oceania it could be New Surrey Five and go shopping at the prop shop for my new alien and have 'sector 1984' and sell it to the BBC unless they've already done it; The Doctor Who thing, not the witches thing, witch is really George Orwell's grim picture, but, is also a nightmare, horror story, and could be (argued) everybody's fear.
The head monster reminded me of this(bad quality video I know) I prefer the first Silent Hill movie, which I think is underrated by critics, but this one was a corny sequel. Still, this original monster design was cool.
I love the first Silent Hill movie, it'll always be one of my favorite horrors. It's actually what got me so fascinated about Silent Hill lore and it's monsters, they all represent something to do with the characters in the series. I think what really draws me in with Silent Hill is the whole atmosphere of it all, it's completely cut off from the rest of the universe, it is an entire world of its own. The white fog, the ashes that always fall from the burning fires that happened long ago and destroyed the town, the creepy monsters that lurk the world. Not to mention, when the darkness comes, it's really nightmarish. It's a cool world but I'd hate to live in it.
I really like the visual artistry. The metaphors, the sheer visual variety and aesthetic. Also, I think want makes it work, and as others have mentioned to do with things generally working, is that subtle touch. It's not just monsters or unsettling surroundings. It's the the psychological themes. It's the fogworld moments where it's just a little bit weird without going straight to the otherworld. And then when it does go to otherworld is hits you because it's not always this harsh, and it uses it in thematic ways rather being obtusely omnipresent violence and darkness.
So far, it only seems to be deamon clowns (I couldn't even handle Pennywise's trailer). The main reason I don't watch horror is because of the blood anyway. Though there probably are scary things out there that I just haven't discovered.
I'm terribly afraid of the dark. even though I am no longer a small child, but it drives me into a stupor and makes my heart beat faster. sometimes I'm afraid of people, because they can be terribly cruel.
I respect that which can harm me yet I have no control over. It's what should not harm me that sets the alarms going. The dark, creepy...doesn't scare me. I've learned if you walk unafraid they cannot scare you.
Well, good examples of horrors for me is H.P Lovecraft, Silent Hill 1/2/3, Amnesia The Dark Descent or oriental horror. Which means I am more orientated to psychological horror or legends.
I saw the films, man... the first was good. This is two in one, a creepy kid plus a woman with a strange noise.
I laughed at the second movie, the first was alright. But the games... you nailed it, my friend. Personally, the true SH's are 1, 2 and the 3. The thing I didn't like on the games is how they have to put the pyramid head on the games, which in the first place had always belong to James Sunderland.
Invasion of the body snatchers was a great one. Made me look around for weeks afterwards. having to choose one loved one over another always makes for guilt about that decision, that someone has to live with. losing everything, and becoming a nobody. then who will remember you? the fear of being forgotten. the fear of the govt running your life for you is a good one. impending doom., like knowing your luck is going to run out, but you don't know exactly when.
