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Please don't list this on a work's page as a trope.
Examples can go on the work's YMMV tab.

Accidental Nightmare Fuel

Sure, she's not scared now, but how is she going to react when she sees that photo?

See more images on Image Links Wiki.

"Ah, good old fashioned nightmare fuel!"

—Mike Nelson, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?

—Or if you prefer, Tom Servo, Santa Claus

Accidental Nightmare Fuel refers to things in media that scare people even though they were never meant to. Something that was meant to amuse or entertain to the audience would otherwise result in frightening people to the point of having nightmares. It's particularly common in media aimed at children and general audiences, as kids (usually) get scared more easily than adults, but can be seen pretty much anywhere by anyone, due to the extremely subjective nature of horror.

In short: It wasn't intended to be scary, but it turns out to be anyway.

If it's scary because it was supposed to be scary, it's High Octane Nightmare Fuel instead. This page has a lot of inappropriate wicks and potholes from people who confuse the two tropes; if you find one, please change it to point to High Octane Nightmare Fuel.

The usual suspects of Accidental Nightmare Fuel include:

Puppet, animatronic, claymation, or CG characters who were meant to be cute, but who instead look like they crawled out from the darkest depths of the Uncanny Valley.
Surreal animation, which can bring about a variety of unintentional horrors.
Over-the-top slapstick violence; such as a character getting run over by a steamroller and turning into a flat photograph. It may seem funny to you, but imagine looking at such an event through the eyes of a literal-minded 6-year old.
Sudden change in medium between live-action, traditional animation, CGI, or Claymation especially if it comes without warning and changes back just as quickly.
Let's Meet the Meat, aka, disturbingly displayed talking food.
Clowns, and not just evil ones.
Unnerving children's toys.
Depressing or terrifying Game Over screens; all the more reason for a player to not screw up. Or worse, put off the game for anywhere between days and years.
An episode with a Cliffhanger ending, where it looks like the hero is well and truly screwed. A child who misses the second half (or worse, the show was canceled before it could be resolved, e.g. Alf) might require years of therapy.
A Face Heel Turn where a once beloved hero is now doing cruel and merciless actions.
A Family Unfriendly Death at its unfriendliest.

This trope is named after the phrase "Good Old-Fashioned nightmare fuel!", used at least three times in Mystery Science Theater 3000 to describe trauma-inducing sights and objects in films that appeared by design to be originally intended for children. (For the record, the films in question were the incredibly creepy Santa Claus, Roger Corman's The Undead, and a scene in the otherwise silly film The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?. And this

was from the first.)

Complicating matters is that some things are subtle - you might not think much of something the first time you watch a movie, but start getting freaked out upon watching it again. This variety of Fridge Horror is more common in media for kids, mostly due to catching things that flew right over your head when you were younger, but certainly isn't limited to it.

There is an excellent discussion about this phenomenon and its possible psychological origins in this blog post

at The Onion A V Club. And check out the website Kinder Trauma

— if you dare.

Contrast with Nightmare Retardant and Narm. If the offending material can make you sick, you've got Nausea Fuel. For deliberately scary (but not very scary) kids media, see Defanged Horrors. If a villain that causes this is in a show far more light-hearted than one would expect that sort of character to appear in, then it's Vile Villain, Saccharine Show. Contrast Faux Horrific (it's not scary, but played up as if it is).

Keep in mind: This is YMMV. Some of the entries here may come off as nothing scary to you, and that's fine. That does not give you the right to delete an entry or argue over it on its respective page. Calling someone a wimp because something that you don't mind creeped them out is rude.

Avoid natter and personal anecdotes.

As a side note, this trope originally went by the name Nightmare Fuel.

Related Tropes: