1. Fullmetal Xeno

    Fullmetal Xeno Protector of Literature Contributor

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    What type of Character would creep you out?

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Fullmetal Xeno, Jul 16, 2011.

    Well i created a charcter that scared me, but in my opinion if a charcter scares me, it's obviously good, Right? But my question is, what type of charcter or thing would creep you out?
     
  2. Domino

    Domino Active Member

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    I'll tell you a character who really creeped me out. Kevin Spacey's character in the movie Se7en. :eek: I couldn't look at him the same for years after I saw that film. lol.
     
  3. Kio

    Kio New Member

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    I see that you are a Fullmetal Alchemist fan which is chockful of creepy moments as well as creepy characters. I can safely say that Gluttony is one of them (especially in the movie; don't even get me started on that movie).

    Another character that creeped me out was Carrie along with her crazy mom from the book Carrie by Stephen King. Then again, all his books have that obligatory creepy character. The difference was that Carrie was the main character. And you WOULD feel sorry for her if only she wasn't so, well, off. And her mother was a different kind of crazy.

    Another Stephen King book, while I'm at it: Misery's Annie Wilkes. The scariest part was when she was telling the main character, a writer, what to write. Creepy stuff.
     
  4. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    The one who is always eager to help, but has an unfathmable gleam in his eye and a silky voice.
     
  5. CosmicHallux

    CosmicHallux New Member

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    I get creeped out really easily.

    I've met creepy people in reality. People who are perfectly helpful and charming on the outside. They say the perfect things, in the best ways.

    And although they have a flawless mask of humanity, beneath it they are nothing but cold, soulless predators who seek out targets for their next fix.

    The creepiest thing is that they don't even know what they are--they can't tell if everyone is just pretending, or if they are somehow incapable of the range of motivations and emotions that most of humanity possesses. They can't form deep interpersonal relationships because there is no depth in their fake personality--and beneath that is predatory impulses.

    Edit--I think the gist of creepiness, for me, is a character that I cannot help feeling slightly concerned for, or maternal for--that pulls my empathy strings, but that is extremely dangerous and violates my ethics grievously.
     
  6. TedR

    TedR New Member

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    Pedophiles.

    Basically, that shifty smile with those deep, dead eyes.
     
  7. JPGriffin

    JPGriffin New Member

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    I have yet to read a Stephen King book without a character that has made me shiver. The guy's a genius when it comes to making these characters, yet I can't help but feel concerned for his, and, while reading about them, my own sanity.
     
  8. martial_wolf

    martial_wolf New Member

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    I think I have to agree with the secretly soulless guy. There's just something about a person who can simultaneously make small talk and kill you that gets me. It's just intense.
     
  9. PenandPencil

    PenandPencil New Member

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    It's the guy with the sallow skin ... who is in the "group" but is always in the background, and never says anything. He has that look in his eyes that seems to go through your soul ... he knows everything, he knows everyone but keeps quiet and meek because no one knows him. And then, just at the climax when what he does has the ability to affect everyone, he turns sly and destroys every one of them. And then he turns back to the shadows where it all starts again.

    Not exactly creepy, but a character like that makes it interesting. For me, anyway.
     
  10. CosmicHallux

    CosmicHallux New Member

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    Pedophiles are creepy too--I agree. Also, dangerous racists and misogynists.

    I just stumbled onto this site called "Best Gore." I hesitate to say the name because it is so pathetic that I don't even want to increase its traffic by giving it the extra attention.

    But the kind of characters that post on there are creepy to me. People that devalue sacred things, like life, creep me out. Some of them say that they would never do the things that entertain them--but I can't help but think that some of them would be dangerous, given the right circumstances.

    I created a new character today, based on the posts on that website. Guess what--no beautiful blond models will be erotically murdered in my book! It will be the guys who get off on that kind of stuff that bite the dust in my novel--because I am the author--mwahaha!

    I think part of the reason I dislike characters that view murder as entertainment is because there is an element of that in myself--and probably most people who watch TV or read a lot. So there is that element of self loathing involved in characters like that. But my new character isn't very creepy--mostly he is just stupid, shallow, and egocentric.
     
  11. seelifein69

    seelifein69 Active Member

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    After years of being desensitized by my love of scary movies, I think the scariest thing to me is something real. The guy next door who you always let watch your dogs when your on vacation was just arrested for rape, murder, and canibalism.

    Or someone who just doesn't care about the value of anything. Think Rob Zombies characters in most of his movies.
     
  12. Fei

    Fei New Member

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    Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men.
     
  13. Nicholas C.

    Nicholas C. Active Member

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    The creepiest character for me, hands down, has to be "The Mystery Man" (played by Robert Blake) from David Lynch's Lost Highway. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google or youtube "Robert Blake Mystery Man".

    It will make your skin crawl.
     
  14. Knight's Move

    Knight's Move New Member

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    Coming from a sci-fi background, I think that some of the creepiest characters are the aliens who seem very nearly human, yet have completely different motivations and values. You trick yourself into thinking they will behave and react in a rational (human) way, yet because of their fundamental differences, they turn out to be completely unpredictable.

    Basically, someone that you feel like you can relate to and understand that turns out to be utterly cold and alien.
     
  15. Islander

    Islander Contributor Contributor

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    I think it's creepy with people who act like they know me. Like a salesperson who uses my first name and asks things like, "How's often is it you work out?", even though I've never seen the person before in my life and they have no idea if I work out at all.

    When watching movies, I've noticed that out-of-place intimacy is often scary. For example, if someone's tied up their victim and starts speaking softly and intimately to them and act like they care.
     
  16. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    Someone who seems normal at first, but then gets more and more unsettling. A prime example of this is the dude from the short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. Also, the dog from the short story "Dog," I think by Joe R. Landsdale; dog =/= person, but same situation, where something starts of beneign and spirals into an extremely disturbing situation.

    That always gets to me way more than someone who's sketchy right off the bat.
     
  17. Trilby

    Trilby Contributor Contributor

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    A stalker.

    In broad-daylight a complete stranger tagged along, at a distance behind me, I noticed that he was getting closer and closer, at first I thought that maybe I was being paranoid, so to test the water I crossed the road and at the same time I doubled back on myself - he did the same thing. I crossed back over the road - so did he, there was no-one else about, I had problems. Lucky for me a friend of mine was passing in her car and she stopped to give me a lift - I dived in her car and in a panic I blurted out what had just happened.

    For weeks after that I kept to main streets that were packed with people - even then I would keep on checking over my shoulder
     
  18. Islander

    Islander Contributor Contributor

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    Huh? Do paedophiles look a certain way?

    Or are you talking about some sort of film stereotype where paedophiles are always shown the same way, like psychopaths or German World War 2 officers?
     
  19. Fullmetal Xeno

    Fullmetal Xeno Protector of Literature Contributor

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    Personally i think Ryuk from Death Note is pretty creepy but friendly. I thought the Kymara from Fullmetal Alchemist were kinda creepy. Keep the Scary Posts coming :D !
     
  20. Kaye00

    Kaye00 New Member

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    I've never been that creeped out by a character or a type of character. There have been characters I would loathe, but I've never really understood fearing things like that. Worst case scenario, I am entirely disgusted with a character, but that's it.
     
  21. suddenly BANSHEES

    suddenly BANSHEES Senior Member

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    I dunno about that. Humbert Humbert seemed like a pretty nice guy.


    Also, seconding what Islander said, strangers acting overly familiar can be pretty creepy.


    I've never been creeped out by a particular character, myself, but I have scared myself silly with some late-night creepypasta. The trick to making your audience uneasy is to be subtle about it - stories that go into detail about how "scary" something is tend to be kind of boring, and not scary at all. Instead, just show the weird/creepy thing happen, and the reader can decide for themselves if it's spooky or not.

    But I'm not a horror writer, so I could be wrong. Just my two cents.
     
  22. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Largely self-delusional, however. But he's definitely not a shifty-eyed, weird-looking sort. Makes the character all the more effective, given that he seems to be the sort that no one would suspect.

    Great book :)

    Creepy characters? Hard to say, as I don't find many things terribly creepy. I seem to recall Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar from Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE being kind of creepy. And the 'other mother' from Coraline freaked the hell out of my daughter when I read it to her.
     
  23. Ichabod's Done Hiding

    Ichabod's Done Hiding New Member

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    I see I'm not alone in my love of anime.

    I don't think I've ever found a character creepy because in most cases, there's a redeeming characteristic that makes them almost likeable.

    The closest I've come is also Domino's answer. Keven Spacey in Se7en make my skin crawl.
     
  24. PastPresentNFuture

    PastPresentNFuture New Member

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    I get slightly creeped out by hideous, grotesque charcters with equally disturbing voices. I think Voldemort scared me a bit when i was seven.
     
  25. Fineas

    Fineas New Member

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    The flashbacks of the father in Boondock Saints II. A child who was so cold and dead inside. That is creepy to me.
     

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