Maybe a doll? A clown? A clown doll? What is the one object (a clown, in this case, being an object) that you can think of? Trying to come up with inspiration.
A man-sized voodoo doll figure with a clown face and two goat horns pulling a mantle of crawling insects while feeding on the flesh of the Pope of Rome, the Grand Imam, and the Dalai Lama.
The sudden appearance of a voice in my head (other than my own (who's a sane chap I swear)), yeah, some entity (confined but otherwise roaming free), feeling it shuffle about, popping the lid off of all manner of subject matter and goading me with its finds. < That matter being of course in the negative—ranging from embarrassment to worry to fear to abject dread.
A one hundred meter long giant centipede with the faces of dead world leaders embedded into its sides, reanimated leaders whose lamentations can be heard for several kilometers. The centipede's back is filled with sharp needles where hundreds of humans keep raining down upon from a dark cloud that stalks the centipede, whose feet leaves a trail of blood in its wake. Upon the head of the centipede rides a smiling red humanoid creature with two large horns. Drums can be heard together with the chorus of agony.
My parents had one of those old lifeless antique dolls from what looked like the 50s stuck behind a glass cabinet when I was a kid. Creeped the hell out of me. Large, framed, old sepia-toned photos of strangers I've never met also spooked me as a kid. A doll/robot-thing with a detachable face and wires pooling from its head where it's mask/face thing sits on its chest creeps me. Those weird monkey clapper things with the bulging red eyes. Didn't happen to me but a friend bought some things at a garage sale and one of those things turned out to be a notepad that she thought hadn't been written in but turns out in the middle there was some cryptic/very weird writing like a guy who had some long-seated problems using the notepad as some sort of therapy note-taking but it abruptly stopped halfway through. I'm easily creeped so maybe these aren't that creepy but, /shrug.
Creepy can mean different things, so... Kelp, and seaweed. When I see images of waves with kelp fronds in them, everything shuts down save for the limbic centers. (maybe this is more of a phobia) That one time an ex-bf (who should clearly fucking know that I'm not interested in talking) from lifetimes ago found me via the contact us function right here in the forum, meaning that the owner, Daniel, was also aware of this mild digital stalking, which was a super-special feeling, yes indeed. Centipedes. For Her Majesty's Royal Fucking Sake, why????? We have the giant kind where I live.
I hate them, creepy crawly things that rattle their way around. Which is why they would be perfect for some creepy stuff. Got a serious dislike for stalkers, mostly due to me being paranoid and think I'm being stalked all the time... must be the modern age surveillance hysteria within me... hope whoever it was left you alone!
The Whore of Babylon riding her blood soaked chariot through Hyde Park, she'd be fine if she didn't have the face of Maggie Thatcher.
I'd appreciate it if we could at least attempt to keep this thread serious for now, I'm looking for writing prompts, and silliness isn't helping. Creepy, not scary.
Actually, hmm... the only problem I have with using this as a prompt is - why the hell doesn't the MC just stay away from the sea? I assume that doesn't extend to sushi and edible kelp?
Naw, I'm cool with it on the plate, and I will beat the shit out of some genuine sushi. Just, when it's in the water... and I can see it... and especially if it's big and dark and slendermanie like kelp, then... it want's to git me!
Sorry Naomasa298, I thought creepy included scary. Wasn't trying to be silly, must be my writing is off if it came out that way. Need to practice more! I always found insects to be creepy. Or arachnids. Maybe a flying spider? Or is fantasy things not something you want? Then a jumping spider would do.
Those post-mortem Victorian family snaps are pretty spooky. One of my earliest jobs - arranging limbs of dead people, holding their smiles wide open with my little finger just out of shot. Paid well, considering.
This. I saw one of a little girl standing next to her posed dead brother. She did NOT look happy to be there. But The Others already did this.
Okay...I'll try again... There's a book called 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' which is the journal of an undertaker, or 'mortician,' specifically. Duties of the month included the climb inside ovens to scrape away fat deposits & lingering flesh AND also the delivery from the hospital of babies' heads. A bag of babies' heads has to be unsettling, I feel. I can't remember why they took them off the... And then thinking again, and I've banged on about it before but the highest tier of vile pornography award would probably go to 'I was Mengelez Assistant.' I believe it's sold at Auschwitz...there's a particular scene with twins, before and after. Sorry about that.
These are pretty good. Let me think up something morbid for today too . . . A family has a colicky infant. Each night she's fussing, and like clockwork, every twenty minutes, bursts into tears. The parents tend to her. They are nearly sick with exhaustion. Finally, one night, her cries stop. The parents are ecstatic. They celebrate like newlyweds and are about to fall blessedly to sleep. Out of guilt, the mother decides to check on the kid. She sneaks quietly into the nursery. The lights are off. The kid is under her blanket, no part of her exposed. From head to toe, the blanket slowly rustles. ~- Fin -~ So for me, the creepiest thing can't be shown directly. You build up a sense of dread. Maybe earlier in the story the mother is worried about rats climbing through the laundry vent. . . You let the reader fill in the details. The kid might just be restlessly tossing, but maybe not? Having possibilities makes it worse, I think, because then it seems more real.
The uncanny valley stuff. https://www.strangerdimensions.com/2013/11/25/10-creepy-examples-uncanny-valley/ Things that scuttle are creepy in their own way. I think those people that speak softly with a honeyed voice, can be creepy cause you don't know what their intentions are. Cartoon Characters that are given the Realistic look. Spoiler Things moving under the skin, or inserted just beneath the skin. (Flesh crawl)
Dominic Cummings. He even LOOKS like Uriah Heep, sneaking around the edges of Number 10. And he's currently running the UK (into the ground.) He is creepy. Genuinely. Those ratlike eyes ...eeegh.
Seriously, the laughing hunting-trophies on the wall in Evil Dead II (was it two or one?). Or the shaking flashing combination of the face-skull-goat head in Jacobs Ladder.
Seeing your doppelgänger – same clothes, same hair, same face – riding by on a bus. Seeing a stranger watching you from the window of your house while you're walking up the street, get inside, no one there. AAAAAAHHH!!!! Just re-read the original post and saw "object" (sry), erm, anything you've thrown in the bin returning to it's place in your house? Something that belonged to a person you know that's now dead showing up that you can't explain. One of those scary almanacs that predicts the future.
