History NightmareFuel / AlanWakeII

* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/AlanWake/comments/17pke1v/i_remember_someone_mentioning_this_and_people/ A rare piece of dialogue from Ahti]] shows that, similarly to Maine, [[AlwaysABiggerFish even he doesn't seem immune to the effects of Alan's story]], claiming that Valhalla isn't his home.

* On the more "normal" side, the people in Bright Falls can chatter and a few have story arcs. As the story goes on, things get more and more unnerving. Of special note is an older lady talking to birds in the park who seems to know way more than she's letting on, and a trio of friends who arrive for Deerfest, only for one of them to go missing, while the others are unable to find her. Presumably the friend became a Taken, but her friends are in tears by the end and we get no confirmation either way.

* Thomas Zane may not be malicious, but that doesn't make him unnerving. To start with, he looks like Alan, sans beard and with longer hair, which the game never explains. He also claims that he's a filmmaker rather than a poet, and that Tom the Poet was a character he played in a film of the same name; Saga can find a poster for this film at Suomi Hall in Watery, and it stars Tom as the Diver, Barbara Jagger as the Dark Presence, and is ''based on a novel written by Wake'', who ''wasn't even born at the time''. It's one disturbing MindScrew after another with Zane, and the game is practically screaming at you not to trust him, but Alan doesn't have a choice. It's even worse if you've played ''American Nightmare'' and notice that Poets of the Fall's "The Happy Song" plays over Alan's memories of his and Zane's previous meetings, a song that in ''AN'' [[OhCrap was only ever associated with ''Scratch.]]''

* Thomas Zane may not be malicious, but that doesn't make him unnerving. To start with, he looks like Alan, sans beard and with longer hair, which the game never explains. He also claims that he's a filmmaker rather than a poet, and that Tom the Poet was a character he played in a film of the same name; Saga can find a poster for this film at Suomi Hall in Watery, and it stars Tom as the Diver, Barbara Jagger as the Dark Presence, and is ''based on a novel written by Wake'', who ''wasn't even born at the time''. It's one disturbing MindScrew after another with Zane, and the game is practically screaming at you not to trust him, but Alan doesn't have a choice. It's even worse if you've played ''American Nightmare'' and notice that Poets of the Fall's "The Happy Song" plays over Alan's memories of his and Zane's previous meetings, a song that in ''AN'' [[OhCrap was only ever associated with ''Scratch.'']]

* Thomas Zane may not be malicious, but that doesn't make him unnerving. To start with, he looks like Alan, sans beard and with longer hair, which the game never explains. He also claims that he's a filmmaker rather than a poet, and that Tom the Poet was a character he played in a film of the same name; Saga can find a poster for this film at Suomi Hall in Watery, and it stars Tom as the Diver, Barbara Jagger as the Dark Presence, and is ''based on a novel written by Wake'', who ''wasn't even born at the time''. It's one disturbing MindScrew after another with Zane, and the game is practically screaming at you not to trust him, but Alan doesn't have a choice.

* On the more "normal" side the people in bright falls can chatter and a few have story arcs. As the story goes on, things get more and more unnerving. Special note of an older lady talking to birds in the park who seems to know way more than she's letting on, and a trio of friends who arrive for deerfest but one goes missing and they can't find her. Presumably the friend became a Taken, but her friends are in tears by the end and we get no confirmation either way.

--> '''Youtube Commenter thebalzan9475''': In a world where reality is constantly being rewritten, having dementia is still the most frightening aspect.

* One manuscript page in the Final Draft mode ("Lake House", found in the third chapter of Return) reveals that the Dark Presence has infested an [[VideoGame/{{Control}} FBC]] site by preying on one of the researcher's need for recognition. Based on how [[SarcasmMode well]] the [=FBC's=] Containment Unit worked against Scratch, it raises the question of just how well the Bureau will be able to handle the situation.

** Damaging a Taken now takes the game into full-on BodyHorror. It's essentially the "Peeling" system from the ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake'', except you're carving up mostly normal-looking humanoid enemies. Hitting a "source point" causes buckets of blood to flow out, and on bosses like Nightingale, you can expose bone. Just regularly shooting them in center of mass, however, routinely renders their torso into a mass of red, creating the impression that they really, ''really'' shouldn't be surviving what you're doing to them. Most chillingly of all, however, is nailing a headshot on a Taken that doesn't manage to kill it; you're given the ''nauseating'' sight of a ''[[FacialHorror completely skinned face]]'', with teeth exposed and eyes wide open because the eyelids no longer exist.

* When Saga is trapped in the Dark Place, with her Mind Place trying to undermine her confidence as a detective and as a mother, it is possible to turn away from the case board only to have a Taken suddenly come screaming at you swinging an axe, who then abruptly vanishes when he strikes Saga. While the game is no stranger to [[JumpScare jump scares,]] this one comes so far out of left-field it's genuinely terrifying.