History NightmareFuel / TheNeverEndingStory

* Morla, the giant sneezing turtle, has robbed many a child of sleep on her terrifying appearance alone. Her -pardon me,- ''their'' cynical views, complete indifference to ''everything'' and possible schizophrenia do not help the situation.

* Right before we cut back to Bastian, we see ''solid ground'' getting blown by the Nothing.

** The build-up to the first and final confrontation between Atreyu and Gmork. As the entire world falls to pieces around him, Atreyu finds himself in a ruin where he sees murals of his entire journey going all the way back to the beginning of the film: taking up the challenge of stopping the Nothing, losing Artax in the Swamps of Sadness, Falkor...and then comes upon a mural showing an unfamiliar scene. A hole in a stone wall, with the terrifying face of a snarling, wolf-like creature emerging from it, and the scene becomes very quiet. Then, we hear a growl. Atreyu turns around, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70u6MH-e50c a terrifying chord plays, one that we've heard in the film before]], and both Atreyu and the audience realize that the scene in the mural is unfolding right this very second. Gmork is finally revealed in all his nightmarish glory. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOPAW7Em8mE Really, words don't do it justice]].

* Smerg, the european-style dragon created by Bastian for Hynreck to fight. Everything about this... [[AnimalisticAbomination thing]] just screams BodyHorror and BizarreAlienBiology at their worst. For starters, it has the head of a crocodile, a pair of bat-like wings, the body of a mouse, complete with short forelimbs and the legs of a grasshopper. If that's not enough, it has the heads of elderly humans (a woman and a man respectively) in place of eyes.

** Just how unnatural Gmork looks and sounds, despite being a wolf. He looks like a combination between a wolf and black cat, and his green eyes are almost human-like. And he doesn't howl or snarl like a wolf either, he ''roars''. The roar he lets out whenever he lunges at Atreyu is terrifying.

** The fact that there is actual Rule34 of him only makes it worse.

** The way it inexplicably draws in anyone who gets too close to it. There are no words to describe it, as demonstrated in the first chapter. Atreyu can't even ''look'' at it without his mind rebelling at the non-sight. It is, quite simply, something that can not ''exist'', because it ''[[CircularReasoning doesn't]]''.

-->'''G'mork:''' I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing.

* Our hero Bastian's proggressive descent into becoming a tyrannical nutcase toward the end of the book.

** The build-up to the first and final confrontation between Atreyu and Gmork. As the entire world falls to pieces around him, Atreyu finds himself in a ruin where he sees murals of his entire journey going all the way back to the beginning of the film: taking up the challenge of stopping the Nothing, losing Artax in the Swamps of Sadness, Falkor...and then comes upon a mural showing an unfamiliar scene. A hole a stone wall, with the terrifying face of a snarling, wolf-like creature emerging from it, and the scene becomes very quiet. Then, we hear a growl. Atreyu turns around, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70u6MH-e50c a terrifying chord plays, one that we've heard in the film before]], and both Atreyu and the audience realize that the scene in the mural is unfolding right this very second. Gmork is finally revealed in all his nightmarish glory. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOPAW7Em8mE Really, words don't do it justice]].

** This deserves a bit more detail. The whole scene leading up to this is very slow and tense, with the music building up in a gradual crescendo as Atreyu approaches the Sphinx Gate across the sands, alternately in a long shot that emphasizes his smallness in comparison and in a close-up where the viewer can see just how nervous and unsettled he is. When he finally reaches the gate, we're treated to a beautiful DutchAngle of him gazing up at each Sphinx in turn before he moves closer through a rising wind, passing the scattered bones of previous questors. Finally he approaches the fallen knight, only for the wind to blow his helmet open in quite the JumpScare as the camera lingers on TheReveal of his charred appearance. Atreyu begins to panic...backing up a bit at a time and constantly looking in terror from one Sphinx to the other, the music rising and the DutchAngle becoming increasingly acute...until finally the eyes begin to open, letting through the slits a blindingly bright light...

** Some of the [[https://alfonsomassaro.tumblr.com/post/136108820492/gmork-the-nothing-commission-piccioninja illustrations]] [[https://morbidfantasy21.tumblr.com/post/187951894874/werewolf-concept of]] [[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L2OwJA G'mork]] paint him as a out-and-out EldritchAbomination, harbinger of the Nothing, and generally give the movie version a major run for its money in being straight-up ''terrifying.''

* The implication that all the terrible destruction in Fantasia is deliberate and planned by a malicious being who is never seen or described.
** Even more frightening is the implication that it isn't a being at all. G'mork never says he serves another being, he says that he serves a POWER. It can be inferred that G'mork is the servant of the one powerful thing that destroys people's hopes and makes them forget their dreams: FEAR ITSELF.

* The Sphinx Gate. The movie version simply blasted you to charcoal. This one hits you with every riddle ever known to man. You simply sit there in an AndIMustScream state until you die of exposure or thrist. And it does this ''completely randomly.''

** When he reveals his identity, G'mork looks extremely shocked for a moment... then it's replaced by a look of cold rage.

* The Sphinx Gate

** Some of the [[https://alfonsomassaro.tumblr.com/post/136108820492/gmork-the-nothing-commission-piccioninja illustrations]] [[https://morbidfantasy21.tumblr.com/post/187951894874/werewolf-concept of]] [[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L2OwJA G'mork]] paint him as a straight-up EldritchAbomination, harbinger of the Nothing, and generally give the movie version a major run for its money in being straight-up ''terrifying.''

* Nimbly, the hideous anthropomorphic chicken thing from the second film. Granted, he eventually becomes a good guy but still.

** Bastion screaming at her introduction didn't help.

* That hideous anthropomorphic chicken thing from the second film.
** The fact that there is actual Rule34 of it only makes it worse.

-->'''G'mork:''' I am a servant of the power behind the Nothing.

* The City of Old Emperors. While a city of nonsense may sound funny, it's '''not'''. Former humans are trapped in Fantasia with no memories of who they are, or what they are, engaging in endless, nonsensical tasks over and over ''forever''. Truly a WorldGoneMad.

* Ygramul the Many, [[TheWormThatWalks a myriad of blue beetles acting as one]], most of the time forming a big spider but changing into multiple forms when hunting its prey, or into a huge skull with a single eye when talking to Atreyu.

* Ygramul the Many, [[TheWormThatWalks a myriad of blue beetles acting as one]], most of the time forming a big spider but changing into multiple forms when hunting with its prey, or into a huge skull with a single eye when talking to Atreyu.
* Our hero Bastian's descent into becoming a tyrannical nutcase toward the end of the book.

** The kid actor also apparently got scarred for life because he got hurt several times during filming - during his horse riding training, he fell off and got stepped on. Then evidently, his leg got caught in the elevator and he got pulled under.

* Smerg, the european-style dragon created by Bastian for Hynreck to fight. Everything about this... [[AnimalisticAbomination thing]] just screams BodyHorror and BizarreAlienBiology at their worst. For starters, it has the head of a crocodile, a pair of bat-like wings, the body of a mouse, complete with shore forelimbs and the legs of a grasshopper. If that's not enough, it has the respective heads of an elderly male and female human in place of eyes.

* The Nothing is the ultimate Nightmare Fuel. Paradoxic, isn't it?

* Ygramul the Many, [[TheWormThatWalks a myriad of blue beetles acting as one]], most of the time forming a big spider but changing into multiple forms when fighting with its prey, or into a huge face with antennae instead of a tongue when talking to Atreyu.

* The insane shlamoof creatures have quite the {{Monster Clown}} vibe going on. And towards the end it is revealed they have been pursuing Bastian for quite a while.

* Yor's Minroud is an in-universe example. It's a mine where dreams are found, isolated in a landscape of eternal winter (particularly cruel considering the previous chapter was set in an area of perpetual summer) and tended by a single blind miner. The thought of having to work there, in the dark, is enough to make Bastian, who still has all the gifts of Fantasia including fearlessness, shiver in dread.

* Forthat matter, the look on Atreyu's face when he challenges G'mork is a little chilling. As the outcome of their encounter shows, [[GoodIsNotSoft he's not called a warrior for nothing.]]