History NightmareFuel / TheSims

** For starters, it introduces a very frightening new feature: possessed sims. Once possessed, they will have an unnatural, wide smile on their faces, coupled with large, staring eyes. Their walk will be janky and twitchy, and they will run in a inhumane manner, very similarly to how WebOriginal/TheSmilingMan moves. If a non-possessed sim tries to communicate with them, they will say very creepy things back, with all of their dialogue written in a strange font to reflect the fact that something's wrong with them. The worst part is how they look in their emotion stature; unlike all other emotion postures wherein the sims stare off in front of them, the possessed sim will look ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou directly at you]]''. To say this alienated and scared some players the first time they saw it would be an understatement. Furthermore, if you play in [=StrangerVille=], these guys will be your first guests, with the "Welcome Wagon" event replaced by a "Welcome to [=StrangerVille=]" event where, instead of your new neighbors greeting you, it's a whole bunch of possessed sims showing up at your front door. (One of them is even holding the customary [[EveryoneHatesFruitCakes fruitcake]], as the cherry on top.)

** If asked if he's single, Grim says he's too evil for romance. Think about the [[CosmicHorrorStory implications]] of Death itself being sapient evil. Not a neutral force of nature, but actively evil.

* Signs of neighborhood corruption. If you delete a Sim (or the tombstone of a Sim) who had met with someone else at one point, or try to resurrect a Sim whose data is incomplete, the neighborhood will slowly get crazy. The Sims that interacted with that one Sim that was deleted would occasionally [[http://vignette99.wikia.nocookie.net/sims/images/2/24/TS2_corruption_thought_bubbles_squiggly_lines.jpg think of glitch memories]] where, instead of the deleted Sim's portrait, you'd have random icons from the game. This would be rather tame except for the fact that Sims speak to each other, something that makes the glitched memories [[OhCrap start spreading like a virus]], ending with a whole neighborhood of crazy people that talk about a Sim that does not exist, Sims disappearing from the game, Sims that are [[YoungerThanTheyLook Younger]] or OlderThanTheyLook (which can end up with things like floating children), Children with an Aspiration other than Grow Up and impossible wishes [[{{Kidanova}} such as Children wanting to go on a date]], or Sims wanting to be friends with themselves. The corruption keeps going up to the point where [[GameBreakingBug the game simply fails load the horribly-corrupted neighborhood]].

* It is unknown whether the alien babies come from intercourse or artificial insemination, but the only difference is the kind of trauma the Sim should have from that, especially after ending up with a green-skinned, black-eyed child that looks just like the aliens abusing you. Yes, the MrSeahorse-scene is funny, but would you (assuming you're not a [[FreakyIsCool Knowledge Sim]]) want to be the one who it happened to? It makes [[GeneralRipper General]] [[{{Jerkass}} Buzz Grunt]]'s [[FantasticRacism hatred]] of aliens a bit [[JerkassHasAPoint justified]].

* In The Sims: Livin’ Large, there was something called Concoctonation Station. Sims can make various potions, but can be fined if caught by police. Some potions make the Sim’s mood better, but others can change the Sim’s personality or make their mood low, including hunger, putting them at risk for imminent starvation. Others make Sims fall in love or turn invisible for a time. Three bad ones make a temporary evil clone of a Sim or turns a Sim into a Frankenstein’s monster-like thing. Their mood tanks dramatically and they can’t be controlled. All they do is walk around and break things while making a strange roaring noise, and they wake up sleeping Sims upon entering a room. They change back eventually, but it’s still unnerving. It’s impossible to control which potion is made, so it’s a gamble each time.

* The dying screams of your Sims are much, [{FamilyUnfriendlyDeath MUCH]] more pained and horrifying than in future games.

** It only continues once you start digging into the [=StrangerVille=] mystery. Once you complete part two and open the locked door in the secret lab, [[spoiler:you accidentally release a whole bunch of spores all over town. The sky turns a strange, reddish color, with purple spores floating in the air and a plume of smoke coming from the direction of the lab. Combine that with the fact that the strange, glowing plants found around [=StrangerVille=] have just expanded in both size and number (including vines that now come out of your plumbing), the preexisting knowledge that ''something'' in [=StrangerVille=] is causing sims to act possessed, and that traveling deeper into the secret lab's lower levels requires a HazmatSuit... it doesn't take much for a player to connect the dots and realize that they probably just exposed their sims, and everyone else in town, to whatever infection is responsible for the possession.]]

--> Ugh... AARgh... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH... AHHHhhHA... ughhhhhhhhh...

* The [[http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=404735&page=2 Ottomas Twins]] can have disturbingly hideous and deformed faces. They've been known even to [[GameBreakingBug corrupt the game]]. Not that their siblings and grandmother are lookers either.
** There was a similar glitch in the original Sims, where a Sim's face icon would be a black-eyed, pointy-haired, big-lipped and generally deformed face, a bit like the Ottomas twins. When the player suddenly notices it, it's startling and frightening.

** ''Compello Acceptus'' makes the targeted Sim forced to accept the next 5 social interactions. [[FridgeHorror Think about what this could mean]]. It's treated as a [[MoralDissonance "good" spell]].

* ''World Adventures'':
** At least two tombs have an inscription left by a previous explorer that ends with a variant of "I'm sure I'll find my way out any day now." Both have a skeleton lying a few feet away from them... [[FridgeHorror Becomes worse]], since we know the body disappears when The Grim Reaper appears, so that means that he couldn't reach these bodies, and that means [[FateWorseThanDeath their soul can't move on]]. [[NightmareRetardant Then it gets better again]] since you can buy the skeletons from the buydebug cheat and the description says that it's a joke and made of plastic.
** The same Expansion Pack also gives us the death by Mummy's Curse. A very unlikely death, given how it occurs, but it's pretty unsettling all the same. For starters, when your Sim loses the fight with the Mummy, the Mummy has a chance of casting some kind of spell on them, with them screaming all the while. And a few days in, a strange border begins appearing around the screen when the view is on the Sim in question. When there’s only a few hours left, the game feels the need to add a ScareChord to emphasise the impending demise of the Sim, after which the aforementioned border gets accompanied by a ''skull fading in and out of view'', which gets more and more intense the longer the Curse is left. ''Eeesh.'' And then, when the time of death finally comes, the Sim is surrounded by a tornado and... just blows away. It's a very creepy death, especially in comparison to the rest of the deaths.

** The sting (heard in the beginning of the video above) played when the burglar (or some other dangerous event, such as raccoons and getting fired) appears on your lot in the first game. The combination of the eerie music, the picture in the corner highlighting the burglar's furtive and ever-forward movements, and the knowledge that you can't do anything about it - [[ClassicCheatCode not even cheating]]! - save for calling the police, is simply terrifying. Oh, and sometimes it happens that a burglar appears in the lot, [[NothingIsScarier but leaves immediately afterwards]]. Let's not forget that this usually happens late at night (typically during the hour after midnight), when all of your Sims are asleep and everything is quiet except for the chirping crickets - you couldn't be in a more tender, vulnerable state of mind when [[JumpScare danger suddenly strikes]]. The burglar music scarred so many childhoods that all future Sims games would water down the accompanying theme considerably.

** The sting (heard in the beginning of the video above) played when the burglar (or some other dangerous event, such as raccoons and getting fired) appears on your lot in the first game. The combination of the eerie music, the picture in the corner highlighting the burglar's furtive and ever-forward movements, and the knowledge that you can't do anything about it - [[ClassicCheatCode not even cheating]]! - save for calling the police, is simply terrifying. Oh, and sometimes it happens that a burglar appears in the lot, [[NothingIsScarier but leaves immediately afterwards]]...

* If the game is paused at just the right time, some of the Sims' faces can look [[http://i48.tinypic.com/263fv4h.jpg downright spooky]]. On that note, pausing the game does not always immediately stop a Sim's animations, often allowing them to complete a tiny movement such as a few frames of a head turn or the like. It's subtle enough that most people won't notice it until they either look for it, or their Sim appears to [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou turn their head towards the screen]].

** It only continues once you start digging into the [=StrangerVille=] mystery. Once you complete part two and open the locked door in the secret lab, [[spoiler:you accidentally release a whole bunch of spores all over town. The sky turns a strange, reddish color, with purple spores floating in the air and a plume of smoke coming from the direction of the lab. Combine that with the fact that the strange, glowing plants found around [=StrangerVille=] have just expanded in both size and number, the preexisting knowledge that ''something'' in [=StrangerVille=] is causing sims to act possessed, and that traveling deeper into the secret lab's lower levels requires a HazmatSuit... it doesn't take much for a player to connect the dots and realize that they probably just exposed their sims, and everyone else in town, to whatever infection is responsible for the possession.]]

* The "Strangerville" Pack has in a short time become infamous for having a very frightening, new feature: possessed sims. Once possessed, they will have an unnatural, wide smile on their faces, coupled with large, staring eyes. Their walk will be janky and twitchy, and they will run in a inhumane manner, very similarly to how the ''WebOriginal/TheSmilingMan'' moves. If a sane sim tries to communicate sith them, they will say very creepy things back. The worst part is how they look in their emotion stature; unlike all other emotion postures wherein the sims stare off in front of them, the possessed sim will look ''directly at you''. To say this alienated players the first time seeing it would be an understatement.
** If you play in Strangeville it can be ensured that those guys are your first guest.

* The [[http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=404735&page=2 Ottomas Twins]]. They've been known even to [[GameBreakingBug corrupt the game]]. There was a similar glitch in the original Sims, where a Sim's face icon would be a black-eyed, pointy-haired, big-lipped and generally deformed face, a bit like the Ottomas twins. When the player suddenly notices it, it's startling and frightening.

** At least two tombs have an inscription left by a previous explorer that ends with a variant of "I'm sure I'll find my way out any day now." Both have a skeleton lying a few feet away from them... [[FridgeHorror Becomes worse]], since we know the body disappears when The Grim Reaper appears, so that means that he couldn't reach these bodies, and that means [[FateWorseThanDeath their soul can't move on]].[[NightmareRetardant Then it gets better again]] since you can buy the skeletons from the buydebug cheat and the description says that it's a joke and made of plastic.
** The same Expansion Pack also gives us the death by Mummy's Curse. A very unlikely death, given how it occurs, but it's pretty unsettling all the same. For starters, when your Sim loses the fight with the Mummy, the Mummy has a chance of casting some kind of spell on them, with them screaming all the while. And a few days in, a strange border begins appearing around the screen when the view is on the Sim in question, with a ''skull fading in and out of view'', which gets more and more intense the longer the Curse is left. ''Eeesh.'' And then, when the time of death finally comes, the Sim is surrounded by a tornado and... just blows away. It's a very creepy death, especially in comparison to the rest of the deaths.

** Sims with the [[FlatEarthAtheist Supernatural Skeptic]] trait has special social interactions. Some are funny enough, like "imply mother is a junebug" when talking to fairies, but some are... unsettling. For example: Look through the options and see "Enthuse about Witch Hunts". The speech bubble even depicts [[TorchesAndPitchforks three torches]]. Keep in mind that witch executions are usually depicted as them being being burnt on the stake.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3o9xmcgriA The Grim Reaper's music in Sims 3]] is a mix of creepiness and CrowningMusicOfAwesome.

* With a bit of work, you can set up an AndIMustScream situation using the Cowplant and the Resurrect-O-Nomitron. Repeatedly feed the Cowplant with a Sim and then have another Sim drink the Cowplant's milk, thereby extending their own life. Then call the Grim Reaper and cough up the money to resurrect the dead Sim and feed him/her again to the Cowplant, rinse and repeat for eternal life as long as you have enough money to pay the Grim Reaper, and the poor Sim will be stuck in a constant state of being EatenAlive and then resurrected until the one resurrecting him/her stops. Fun!
* The existence of zombies. While the ZombieApocalypse is utterly averted and zombies aren't dangerous in game, it's heavily implied that the zombified Sim resents their resurrection as it robs them of their eternal rest (they get a bad memory and lose relationship with the one who resurrected them). Oh, and it's also [[AndIMustScream permanent]], once a Sim becomes a zombie, they will stay like that forever. And we do mean forever, they're biologically immortal. Their personality is also [[LossOfIdentity wiped out]] and they all have a new fixed one with 4 Outgoing, 3 Active and 1 Playful point and they lose all their skills. It almost feel like a MercyKill when they die and are never resurrected again.

* Any time an NPC brings their toddler to the library, the kid crawls over to the toychest and literally disappears into the box. And if you teleport home when holding the neighbour's infant (uh, kidnapping), there's a good chance the infant will turn into an invisible, unfindable, crying baby.

** The Werewolf transformation. The Sim looks (and sounds) like they're ''in pain'' when it happens. And if you're playing with the game on full moon, it happens whether you like it or not.

* You can romance the Grim Reaper, flirting with him whenever he comes to harvest souls. But he only calls when somebody dies, so to romance him, you have to kill Sims.

* Vampire attacks at night. An ominous music sting will play as the vampire enters your Sim's house and does a ''{{Nosferatu}}''-style walk to their bedroom, all with you powerless to do anything about it. If your Sim gets drained by Vlad, you may also get a message in which he declares his intentions to return and feed again whenever he wants, since your Sim's plasma is just that delicious.

!!From The Sims 1:

*** "The flashing light was just a test. You'll have plenty of warning next time."
*** "You have been Chosen. They will come soon."


!! From The Sims 2

* A few of the spells introduced in ''Apartment Life'' have some very disturbing [[UnfortunateImplications implications]].

!! From The Sims 3

!!From The Sims 4