History ParanoiaFuel / FIlm

** Basically, ''nowhere'' is safe enough. The killer manages to butcher people inside a crowded movie theater, in a crowded campus in broad daylight (getting his/her merry way out before anyone notices, in both cases), get past policemen watching the victim's house, viciously attack them in a hospital...
** And, of course, '''the killer may be anyone you know'''.

** There's actually a horrifying philosophical concept called [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/ "The Problem of Other Minds"]] which states that philosophically, there is absolutely nothing and no way of being totally sure that anyone but you exists, and that other people are not mindless zombies or figments of your imagination made by your mind or a superior being to keep you pacified from being the only person in existence.

* ''TheMatrix''. Your entire world is an illusion, your pets are holograms, and if you were to wake up from all this you would find yourself in a CrapsackWorld.
** Furthermore, many of the happenings in this movie involve common forms of paranoid / delusional mental illness actually coming true. Examples include the delusions that mysterious people are watching you without a plausible way of observing you, that mysterious government agents are out to get you, that somebody has implanted a chip or similar technological device under your skin to keep track of you, and on the positive side, delusions of having superpowers.
*** Not to mention the reason why everything tastes like chicken.

*** One could even consider of the full implications of this movie, such as that it is impossible to tell whether or not reality even exists or not, that even if you are released from a false reality there's no way to tell if that reality is true either, memory may be entirely fabricated and finally if you can make this mental leap, ANYTHING you think of besides consciousness cannot be proven to exist, and even your personality may be fabricated with the only comfort being "Cogito Ergo Sum" translated being I think therefore I am. This is arguably one of the most powerful cases of paranoia fuel IN EXISTENCE.
**** The second film managed to make it even worse; [[spoiler:They ''are'' out, but Zion itself is just another system of control that the Machines come along and destroy every once in a while in order to keep the Matrix running. The One is part of that system. All ''six'' of them before Neo came up with the truce. The only way that we know that there were six before Neo is because the head of the Matrix tells Neo that. He could well be lying.]]

* TheJoker in ''TheDarkKnight'' is, with a shocking amount of realism, a guy that could pretty much kill ''anyone 'anywhere''', no matter how hard they try to hide, [[CompleteMonster and who will kill you for absolutely no reason.]] [[ChaoticEvil He wants to bring your comfortable little world down around you in its entirety]] and [[ForTheEvulz won't even tell you precisely why.]] If he tells you anything, anything at all, he is lying. Or maybe he's not. Either way, your death, if you get in his way -- or even if you don't -- will likely be gruesome, [[MindRape or simply horrific psychological torment for the poor innocent souls enlisted to be in charge of whether you live or die for the day.]] It's all up to chance. ''Everyone'' is his enemy, except for those in his own employ -- and frequently, [[BadBoss them as well. If you side with him, he's just as likely to blow you up, kill you anyway, force you into the line of fire as a human shield, use you in one of his sick games, or turn you over to the cops.]] ''[[TheCorrupter And he wants to make you just like him.]]''

** Joker's dialogue takes straight aim at people who remark about it would be cool if Batman existed in real life. Batman requires sci-fi tech, re-purposed military technology, and usually a human at their physical peak; a combination that's pretty much impossible to align together in the real world. All Joker requires is some bullets and fire and cheap explosions, which are readily available.

* The Joker, as scary as he is, has got nothing on Universal's ''Film/TheInvisibleMan'' (1933). A crazed lunatic with the Joker's outlook and desire to cause widespread random destruction amongst innocent civilians -- only he's ''freakin invisible''. Talk about an enemy impossible to escape from. The other Universal Monsters from that time may have been scary as hell and more physically imposing, but at least you could ''see'' them. You at least had a ''chance'' of running away...

* ''When A Stranger Calls'' -- yeah, it's pretty much impossible to get a phone call from the same house you're in (unless it's a cell phone), but somehow, that just makes that moment before you pick up the phone all the creepier.

* ''TheGrudge''. I was afraid to go to sleep or take a shower for two weeks because the creepy little Japanese boy and the woman could pop up anywhere!
** You didn't [[FridgeHorror think about it hard enough]] then. ''TheGrudge'' is about a curse that lingers in a house. But if you go into the house, it sticks to you until it kills you. And anyone who comes into close proximity to a cursed person also catches the curse. Any house a cursed person lives in will itself eventually become cursed. Hell, anyone a cursed person calls over the phone, even on the other side of the planet? ''Cursed.'' The end result is likely to be total depopulation of the planet. Have a good night.

* ''{{Videodrome}}''. Its psychotic genius only topped by its mad depravity, this film starts us off with a pirate UHF/cable channel operator who seeks to boost his ratings by latching onto a snuff TV program whose name is where the movie gets its title. Progressively, the viewer is introduced to concepts and ever-stranger special effects that warp the difference between reality, flesh, and video, until it's literally impossible to tell what's "really" happening...but whatever it is, it's very very bad. Readily doubles as MindScrew material.

* Oh, and don't forget about the ''[[Series/{{Firefly}} Reavers]]''. And their origin. And did I mention you can't stop the signal? And that Berserk Button-inducing subliminal messages are put in commercials by the government? Not to mention the Operative, who can [[spoiler: paralyze you and then position a sword under you]]. Oh, and he doesn't officially exist. And he KNOWS he's a monster. Brr.
** And that's not even mentioning the Academy, and what they do to people who are far above average in intelligence.

*** To add to that: What if Lego bricks were alive and built themselves into changing, morphing abominations when we slept? Those bricks you step on that hurt like hell? Those are the ones that couldn't homogenize into the greater mass and escape before you observed them.
* The film ''LawAbidingCitizen'' is basically about a realistic version of Ledger's Joker. Except he's not so much "spreading fear" as "killing everyone who let off the guy who killed and raped his wife and daughter". And he continues to do this ''even after they put him in jail''. [[spoiler:Luckily, "realism" includes a crippling vulnerability to [[SpannerInTheWorks spanners]].]]

* Holy hell, [[TransformersFilmSeries Frenzy]]. Given that spazzy little bundle of NightmareFuel can be bashed to pieces and simply reformat himself into some other innocuous little device, he's prime (no pun intended) for this trope.

** If Frenzy is enough to put you on edge, then Laserbeak takes it UpToEleven. This little vulture from hell can basically transform into ''anything'' he damn well pleases. He could be ''anywhere'', plotting your demise as we speak.

* {{Knowing}}. Dear GOD Knowing. Most of the stuff that is predicted? It's highly possible. Most of those disaters made me afraid of planes, trains, and the SUN for a while...

* ''Film/{{Gojira}}''. A nuclear bomb could awaken/mutate a monster hell bent on killing you and all of humanity. The only way to kill him is to use a weapon even '''worse''' than the nuclear bomb, and said weapon kills its victims via asphyxiation (You'll die a slow horrible death as oxygen molecules are ripped apart underwater and you're reduced to bone...and then ash.). Think you're safe now? [[spoiler:Nope. Turns out the one you just killed was the first one of its kind. Another one is going to ineviteablly show up.]]

* ''Film/{{Disturbia}}''. How well do you know your neighbors? And even if you do know them fairly well, how can you be sure that they aren't violent [[SerialKiller serial killers]]? And should you figure out that they ''are'', in fact, violent serial killers, should you notify the authorities? What if they don't believe you, and all you've managed to do is letting your serial killing neighbor know that you now know too much. Also, having serial killers for neighbors is absolutely, 100% TruthInTelevision as not even serial killers tend to completely isolate themselves.

* ''Film/{{Scream}}''. The [[HarassingPhoneCall Harassing Phone Calls]] that plague various characters in the movies didn't help either.

* Watch ''The Strangers'' alone when it's dark. You'll never be able to hear someone knocking on your door without feeling paranoia, ever AGAIN.

** And anyone who's ever, for example, worked in a hospital kitchen, knows that the latter is very much TruthInTelevision.

* ''[[MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders]]'', featured in ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'', has an evil, possessed monkey toy which rains death and hellfire on all around it. Perfect for what was marketed as a children's movie, no?

** Well, the thing is, ''every'' zombie movie is this. Nobody in the movies thought a ZombieApocalypse was really possible until they were in the middle of it and sometimes didn't think so until they were already being devoured. Since we don't know what diseases are really capable of, we can't really laugh it off and say "that could never happen" because for all we know, it could.
*** We do know how diseases spread. A disease as obvious and virulent as a zombie plague would not only be extremely easy to contain, it would also burn itself out long before it reached society-threatening proportions. The reason why the deadliest diseases haven't wiped out the humanity is because the victims don't survive long enough to spread them far.

*** I found that haunting until I realised that if it is true, the person who came up with the idea (can't remember who) doesn't exist either and then his ideas don't matter. And BTW, I am you.

* ''{{Killers}}'' (the one with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl) What if your neighboorhood friends that you've known for a long time were really secret agents watching your every move for the past 3 years? And then they get an order to kill you for money, and then suddenly almost the whole neighboorhood is trying to terminate your ass? That's a pretty unsettling thought.

** There's also Scarecrow's fear toxin. You could be mosying down the street and all of a sudden, a water vaporizer could cause a toxin to fill the air that would instantly send you into a personal Hell filled with whatever you're most scared of in the world, which might cause you to attack or even kill another person in frenzied "self-defense" or you could be attacked. And if your exposure was concentrated enough ''this could be permanent.'' Sweet dreams.

* ''{{REC}}'': when you're in a place where there is a horrid virus running, the government will be very happy to ''lock you in with the infected and sit on their asses while you fight for your life (and most probably lose)''.

* The ''[[{{Film/Alien}} Alien]]'' quadrilogy(?). Those creepy facehuggers could be hiding ''anywhere''... [[spoiler: including the back of your monitor!]]

* ''BattleRoyale''. Any one of your classmates could [[FaceHeelTurn turn on you]] and [[AxCrazy kill you in a heartbeat]] if they believed it was their only chance at surviving. * Shudder*

* ''{{They Live}}''. Even with all of its 80's {{narm}}, the concept that aliens among us are controlling humanity through subliminal messaging and most have ''no way of determining'' who's a human and who's not. They could be ''anyone'', your husband, your wife, your bank teller, your ''president''.

* The Austrian film and its American remake, ''Funny Games''. Watch it, and then walk home from the bus stop after dark. I dare you. You'll never lend anyone a couple of eggs or a cup of sugar again.

* ''{{Videodrome}}''. Its psychotic genius only topped by its mad depravity, this film starts us off with a pirate UHF/cable channel operator who seeks to boost his ratings by latching onto a snuff TV program whose name is where the movie gets its title. Progressively, the viewer is introduced to concepts and ever-stranger special effects that warp the difference between reality, flesh, and video, until it's literally impossible to tell what's "really" happening...but whatever it is, it's very very bad. Readily doubles as [[MindScrew Mind Screw]] material.
* Try watching ''{{Saw}}'' for the first time by yourself at night and just see if you don't race around the house, checking your closets with a blunt object in hand.

* ''[[Film/RedEye Red Eye]]''. That cute, well-dressed guy you met at the airport bar is working for some TerroristsWithoutACause. You're stuck on an overnight flight with a violent sociopath who's trying to assassinate a major government figure and his family (including young children) for purposes unknown. And he needs your help doing it.

** Why anybody would say that, especially five times in front of a mirror? You can't do that by accident. You might as well just say "CandleJack" and save yourself some

** Matango is the name of a village of cute, friendly mushroom people in ''Secret of Mana''. The question is, does that make the movie better or the game [[{{FridgeHorror}} worse]]?

* ''ToyStory''. Your toys, plushies/soft toys, and figurines ''are alive''. And they see eeeeverything you do. If you've ever vented your anger on them, or done cruel/weird things to them, ''you are a monster''. Some children, after seeing ''ToyStory'', became terrified by the thought that their toys were alive. The scene where Woody leads the toys to revolt against Sid probably didn't help. The fact that all of Sid's toys are ''cannibalized horrors that he's variously torn apart and rammed back together in numerous grotesque ways'' probably helps even less.
-->Woody: We toys ''(slow ExorcistHead)'' can see everything... so play nice!

* The 2009 film ''ParanormalActivity'' certainly ranks very highly on the paranoia fuel list. Seriously, this film is VERY fond of preying on the complete helplessness of being asleep and all the sorts of unpleasantness that can happen without your knowledge.

** "Stealing your secrets" is not even the worst thing. They might be ''putting thoughts in your head'', which you will perceive as your own. Every time you have a peculiar idea, you will wonder if it as actually your own.

** It's worse: How many stories have the media fabricated? How many stories has the government ordered fabricated? How much of the truth is being concealed from you? How much of what you know is bullshit? Can you trust anyone?

* In ''[[PansLabyrinth Pan's Labyrinth]],'' during her narrow escape from [[ChildEater the Pale Man]], Ofelia drops some of the chalk she uses to create doorways, and doesn't have time to retrieve it. Think about that. A piece of chalk, that has the power to create magical doorways to anywhere the user needs to go, is now lying on the floor in the lair of a child-eating monster who was just awoken and is ravenously hungry and violent. What's going to happen if he picks it up and figures out how to use it?
** [[NightmareRetardant Good thing]] [[{{ChalkZone}} Rudy]] [[NightmareRetardant found it first, then.]]
*** [[{{SincerityMode}} Thank you.]]
** There's another, potentially even creepier piece of Fuel in that scene: when Ofelia closes the way to the alternate world, the Pale Man's bangs and knocks on the door slowly turn into ordinary creaks of an old wooden house. Now think about it: maybe every time the house creaks earlier in the movie, it's because something wants to come through. Every time ''you'' hear a creak, it's an otherworldy monster behind the thickness of a shadow, trying to find an entrance to our world...

* ''{{Inception}}'': You could be dreaming now, and everyone else is poking around your brain trying to steal your secrets. And if you die, you either wake up, or get sent to Dream Hell (and you will not even be able to tell the difference). This film is probably even more effective than the Nightmare on Elm Street series at scaring people into trying not to fall asleep.

* [[{{Godzilla}} Gojira]]. A nuclear bomb could awaken/mutate a monster hell bent on killing you and all of humanity. The only way to kill him is to use a weapon even '''worse''' than the nuclear bomb, and said weapon kills its victims via asphyxiation (You'll die a slow horrible death as oxygen molecules are ripped apart underwater and you're reduced to bone...and then ash.). Think you're safe now? [[spoiler:Nope. Turns out the one you just killed was the first one of its kind. Another one is going to ineviteablly show up.]]
* TheRockyHorrorPictureShow. That creepy castle you drive by? It could be the home of a psychotic transvestite alien who can emotionally manipulate you into having sex with him.

* ''{{Pontypool}}'': What ''Jaws'' did for swimming, this movie does for [[spoiler:''the entire English language'']].
* "It's Alive!" - Stay away from the maternity ward.
* ''{{Disturbia}}''. How well do you know your neighbors? And even if you do know them fairly well, how can you be sure that they aren't violent [[SerialKiller serial killers]]? And should you figure out that they ''are'', in fact, violent serial killers, should you notify the authorities? What if they don't believe you, and all you've managed to do is letting your serial killing neighbor know that you now know too much. Also, having serial killers for neighbors is absolutely, 100% TruthInTelevision as not even serial killers tend to completely isolate themselves.

* The closing narration of ''{{Gremlins}}''. If anything electrical or mechanical in your house breaks, "turn on all the lights, check the closets and cupboards and look under all the beds, because you never can tell. There just might be a gremlin in your house."

* JimHenson's ''[[http://www.flaniganswake.com/TheCube/ The Cube]]''. Yes, ''that'' [[TheMuppetShow Jim]] [[SesameStreet Henson]]. ...You know what? Just watch it. Assume nothing, and enjoy the [[HappilyEverAfter happy ending]]. Oh, and have fun with the idea that reality as you experience it now may suddenly be revealed as an illusion before you go back to the debilitating chaos that is The Cube.

* ''{{Teeth}}''

** So if they didn't want anyone finding out about them, why'd they make a whole boxload of glasses that let you see through TheMasquerade and then just leave it lying around where anyone could find it? Because they ''wanted someone to find it''. Its all part of their [[XanatosGambit plan]].

* ''{{Candyman}}''. Cand ... aw, hell naw!

* ''{{Disturbia}}''. How well do you know your neighbors? And even if you do know them fairly well, how can you be sure that they aren't violent [[SerialKiller serial killers]]? And should you figure out that they ''are'', in fact, violent serial killers, should you notify the authorities? What if they don't believe you, and all you've managed to do is letting your serial killing neighbor know that you now know too much. Also, having serial killers for neighbors is absolutely, 100% TruthInTelevision as not even serial killers tend to completely isolate themselves.

* An in-universe example is Mr. White's "WeAreEverywhere" speech from ''QuantumOfSolace.''

* ''TheTrumanShow'': ''You are being watched every second of your life. Your parents are only pretending to love you. Your friends are just actors -- you don't even know their real names. The girl you love is playing you for a sap, so the people watching you can laugh at your misfortune. Everybody you have ever met is lying to you. Your entire life is an elaborate charade staged for the amusement of the rest of the world. And you are the only one who doesn't know. That's why your mom always seems amused at something whenever you talk to her. She's laughing at you behind your back, just like everyone else...''

* ''InTheMouthOfMadness''. What's your favorite writer up to? Oh, he's gone insane writing a book that gives him absolute control over everyone who reads it. Nevermind, now he has reality-warping powers, has wiped people completely out of existence except for anyone who has read the book, and is preparing the world for an Eldritch horror. An Eldritch horror that gets unleashed! No, nevermind, there's still time to stop him as long as you can warn people and burn all of the books. [[spoiler: Wait...they optioned a movie?]]

-->Woody: We toys ''(slow ExorcistSpin)'' can see everything... so play nice!

-->Woody: We toys ''(slow [[TheExorcist Exorcist head spin]])'' can see everything... so play nice!

* The monsters from ''TheDescent'' were cavemen who, rather than leaving the cave, had withdrawn further and further in, managed not to be wiped out by anything, and evolved into [[http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6008/thedescent2512051tf8.jpg crawlers]]. The cave has gone undiscovered because the few people who have found it and gone down never made it out. The ParanoiaFuel comes because there's nothing to say this really couldn't have happened. They really could be down in a cave somewhere... And as soon as you set foot in that cave, you're a dead man.

* ''{{Jaws}}''. The beach was a very lonely place the summer after that movie was released.
* [[ANightmareOnElmStreet "One, two Freddy's coming for you..."]]

** All serial killers movies involve psychopaths with too much time on their hands, full knowledge of total strangers thoughts and deeds, and who can apparently bi-locate and go through walls.

* ''BlackChristmas'' (the original, that is). [[AxCrazy Billy]] was [[NightmareFuelUnleaded one crazy nut]].
* Watch ''The Strangers'' alone when it's dark. You'll never be able to hear someone [[NightmareFuelUnleaded knocking on your door]] without feeling paranoia, ever AGAIN.

* ''ToyStory''. Your toys, plushies/soft toys, and figurines ''are alive''. And they see eeeeverything you do. If you've ever vented your anger on them, or done cruel/weird things to them, ''you are a monster''. Some children, after seeing ''ToyStory'', became terrified by the thought that their toys were alive. The scene where Woody leads the toys to revolt against Sid probably [[NightmareFuel didn't help]]. The fact that all of Sid's toys are ''cannibalized horrors that he's variously torn apart and rammed back together in numerous grotesque ways'' probably helps even less.

* [[{{Godzilla}} Gojira]]. A nuclear bomb could awaken/mutate a monster hell bent on killing you and all of humanity. The only way to kill him is to use a weapon even '''worse''' than the nuclear bomb, and said weapon kills its victims via asphyxiation ([[HighOctaneNightmareFuel You'll die a slow horrible death as oxygen molecules are ripped apart underwater and you're reduced to bone...and then ash.]]). Think you're safe now? [[spoiler:Nope. Turns out the one you just killed was the first one of its kind. Another one is going to ineviteablly show up.]]

** Watching this in the theater actually [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel scarred my soul a little]] and more than a decade later it gives me the creeps.

* Think OldYeller is just a classic, heartwarming TearJerker movie? Try being a kid who's never heard of rabies before. The idea of a disease that will turn a seemingly harmless animal (or kid, as far as you know) into a vicious, mindless beast that will attack anyone and everyone, even its beloved master is enough ParanoiaFuel for the rest of your life.

* "It's Alive!" - Stay away from the maternity ward.

* ''{{Pontypool}}'': What ''Jaws'' did for swimming, this movie does for [[spoiler:''the entire English language'']].

** Wait, wait, wait. So, to win the Game, all I have to do is know that the point of the Game is not to think about the Game? {{xkcd}} was [[http://xkcd.com/391/ right!]]

*** This [[http://xkcd.com/396/ xkcd strip]] shows that it's worse than you think.

* TheGrudge. I was afraid to go to sleep or take a shower for two weeks because the creepy little Japanese boy and the woman could pop up anywhere!

* {{Contagion}}: Touch anything, be near anyone, and you DIE.