I'm thinking of writing a short horror story, but I need ideas and inspiration. So, what frightens and scares you guys?
Cthulhu, Silent Hill, and House of Leaves. I'm something of a fan of the horror genre, and those are the most effective horror icons I know of.
Clowns, clowns WITH balloons, spiders, heights. Put it this way. If I were falling off a cliff and the only person there to offer to help was a clown and he was holding a balloon... I'd probably rather fall!
My only real phobias are spiders and heights. But ever since I was a child I've had a recurring nightmare of being trapped underwater, holding my breath, and it always ends with me finally gasping for air and waking up in bed. Horror stories don't really horrify me. Some horror movies, like slasher movies, just gross me out, but they don't really scare me. When I was a kid it was different - I loved and hated horror stories because they'd freak me out. Nowadays I don't seem to have much of a fear of death, so they don't have that effect on me. I guess I'm too old. Lovecraft never had much of an effect on me. Some of his concepts were fascinating, I thought, but his writing style was so over-the-top that I always found him more comical than horrific. It's hard to read "At The Mountains of Madness" without laughing, especially at those penguins. The most effective horror writer I've read is Poe. When I was a kid, some of his stories chilled me. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" got me deep and I don't think I slept for a week. But I was about ten when I read it.
spiders centipedes/millipedes fire [as in burning to death] very high heights [being near an edge of same]
Lovecraft and Poe are like oranges and apples, in my opinion both have very OTT styles and while Poe is unmistakably gothic horror; Lovecraft focused on unfathomable cosmic horrors and the idea that people are insignificant in a vast, unforgiving galaxy. I personally love them both, but agree Lovecraft is more interesting than scary, though the Rats in the Walls and The Hound beg to differ. I think the modern trend of gross-out horror, especially in cinema, has really cheapened the genre. Sure Friday the 13th and Halloween were never classy, but do we need 27 Saw and Hostel movies?! Learn from past mistakes and refine a genre, not stick to terrible conventions. Paranormal Activity, for instance, did more for horror with $15,000, three unheard of actors and a handheld cam than the whole Saw franchise! People are scared of different things, but suspense is always a powerful tool if done well, much more so than monsters, spiders or hundreds of gallons of blood! Suspense, implication and making your reader fill in the blanks are what will send chills down their spine.
People really like to shout and throw things at poor-old Saw, forgetting that 'horror movies' are wheeled out for quick money more often than any other genre. Pretty much every big actor has done at least one horror film at some point. Saw is actually pretty good compared to the more low-budget drivel that seem to get away with far worse. And then people miss the really good horror films like Jacob's Ladder and REC, novels like House of Leaves, and Games like the Silent Hill series. Well, the first four Silent Hill Games anyway.
I like all of those things. House of Leaves is an exceptional book and a work of art to boot! Nothing like flicking through a book with such a unique layout. REC is a good example of a European horror flick that did not need an American remake and I loved the Silent Hills games when I was younger, the fact that Jacob's ladder was one of the inspirations for the series is not lost on me. I'm starting to get the impression we're cut from the same cloth Lemex! haha How bad is Silent Hill 5? I gave up after the Room but Silent Hill 2 is in my top 10 games of all time I hate the whole Saw franchise, so maybe I'm biased in that respect. It's so trashy and relies 110% on gore out, which isn't really horror, its just sickening. I agree with horror movies being hammered out asap but there are a lot of good movies on the market I think by now the trend could move away from an unoriginal premise and 200 sequels! (Though I won't deny Saw I was fairly original)
At my age the only thing that frightens me is when I'm at someone else's house and flush the toilet and the water keeps rising.
ahaha, that scares me too seriously, why don't you write about something that scares YOU? there must be something, if you like the genre.
Unseen danger is what frightens me most. If a character is walking along a wall and realizes that there's something scary following him on the other side of the wall then I'll get more of a scare when he suddenly comes to a gap in the wall than if the something scary jumps out at him.
This is the scariest thing, hands down. I can't imagine that happening to me. What scares me is being buried alive or drowning. Flesh-eating diseases. Slow deaths that take days. Death, actually. Does the pain really end after death? What if it never ends, we just hope it ends? Also, spiders. They freak me out.
An eternity of emptiness, falling into an abyss, disappearing into another dimension, the walls of reality shattering, losing my sanity (more so than I already have).
Does the pain really end after death? What if it never ends, we just hope it ends? November 13th of this year I totaled out a Harley Davidson, lost it on a curve at about 85 MPH. I saw the tire reach the grass and that was it. There was no pain at all. The handlebars jacked to the side and my head slammed into the gas tank knocking me out. It happened so fast I don't even remember this happening but the dent in the tank with my blood in it is evidence of what happened. Plus the big, gnarly scar i have between the eyes now... Two weeks later...
Demons freak the living daylights out of me! The Paranormal Activity movies really did a number on me.
No form of media or entertainment scares me at all. It's fake for crying out loud! How can you be scared of it? However, I am scared of dieing in a horrendous way. I much want to die in my sleep peacefully.
Oooh, ouch!! Sorry to hear, Felipe. Glad you're alive and well. I think the reason why you didn't feel any pain or remember the event was because you passed out instantly. I don't think you died (or maybe you did?) By the way, awesome scar. Definite ice breaker!
