~ Realm of Blood ~ Bathe in it if you wish, and go mad
Considering this is a game that starts with the main character attempting suicide and is considered a Spiritual Successor to both Ib and Witch's House, it is no surprise that Blank Dream has its share of horrifying moments.
Unmarked spoilers below!
- As mentioned above, the very first scene in the game is about Mishiro attempting suicide by jumping in a lake.
- The shadowy girl with red eyes that stalks you across the Mirror World starting with the room in the Realm of Beauty where you get the blue paint and whose presence is signified by the background music completely disappearing. It turns out she's the Big Bad. She is Utsuro, the white-haired girl from Yuzu's backstory who was revealed to be the daughter of Mishiro's grandfather Rinzou and the daughter of his mistress Tamaki after the former rapes the latter and impregnates her. Tamaki tried to raise Utsuro with love as she had done nothing wrong, but as Utsuro got into art, Tamaki started to see too much of Rinzou in her, especially his rape of her and as a result, she snaps and kills Utsuro, who then goes on to create the Mirror World and trap the spirits of her parents in it after their deaths.
- The pumpkin in the Realm of Love. You need to crush it to get a candy for a boy to progress in the realm, but neither the knife or the hammer are effective and should you try that method, the pumpkin will kill you when you try to leave the room. And when you complete the puzzle required to crush it, when leaving the room after collecting the candy, you will find yourself in a dark, narrow hallway where the pumpking will chase you. When you are nearing the exit, the Scare Chord becomes higher-pitched and the pumpkin dons a Nightmare Face.
- From the same realm, the smiling beings attending the dinner. They hammer you to death if you reveal yourself a fake and they will chase you with the intention to kill you after you get the weary key. And if you keep smiling at them and fail to find the faker among them, you will eventually break and lose your mind, prompting a game over.
- The many Jump Scares in the game are scattered across it such that you keep on edge at every step down to the final realm. It doesn't help that some of them (Such as the spawning of Utsuro's ghost in the Realm of Spirits.) are entirely random. With every new item obtained, every lever or switch activated or every puzzle solved, you will be with your hairs standing on end expecting something to start chasing you. Essentially, the savvier the players are, the scarier the game gets.
- The aptly named Realm of Death.
- The Realm of Blood. Unlike the other realms, there isn't actually anything in it that will kill you and it is actually the safest of the realms and downright pleasant in its Baroque interior and soothing music. However, considering all the other realms you've been through at this point, this actually makes it the scariest of them since you'll still be expecting death at every corner like in the previous realms and players will assume its pleasantness is but a ruse to drop the player's guard for a scare lying in wait.
- Not helped at all by the fact that the mirror of the Realm of Blood is the one where you can get the Bad Ending of the game. Said ending involves Mishiro snapping and killing all of her bullies, losing herself to the Mirror World forever as a result. It ends with the stoic Mishiro donning a Slasher Smile while covered in blood and laughing insanely.
- Julia Maria, the living painting that talks and even bleeds that is found at the very end of a narrow, dimly-lit hallway in the Realm of Beauty. She is actually one of the more pleasant and friendlier characters you will find in the realms aside from Ryotaro and Yuzu. However, you have to tear her open with your knife to get her blood as red paint for the painter blocking the way to the mirror. She is understandably outraged you would do such a thing to her for such a reason and goes silent afterwards, but blotches of blood follow you on the way out. The thing about her, though, is that she doesn't chase you like the tree in the Realm of Greenery or the pumpkin in the Realm of Love, which actually makes it worse since, until you finish the Realm of Beauty, you'll be expecting her to come after you at some point, keeping you on edge the whole time.
- The reason Mishiro wanted to commit suicide. In middle school, her family was struggling with a battle for the inheritance left by Rinzou and Mishiro, not wanting to add more stress to her family, kept silent about her bullying until she snapped and attacked one of her bullies with a knife, drawing blood and causing her mother to be strict and distant to her. During that time, her father died in a fire, which made things with her mother worse. Later, she befriended Ayato and when things were finally starting to look up, Ayato sees a car speeding in her direction while he was walking her home and pushes her out of the way, taking the hit for her. It was then that her mind and heart finally broke.
- The truth behind both the inheritance battle and the car running over Ayato are nightmarish on themselves. The inheritance battle is a result of Rinzou, Mishiro's grandfather, writing his son off his will for not appreciating his art and then divorcing his wife for his mistress and his daughter Tamaki, who do appreciate his art like he always wanted his family to. When Tamaki turned 18, Rinzou raped and impregnated her, ruining her life as a result and driving her and his mistress away. The incident scarred Tamaki so deeply that she grew a hatred of the whole Usui family as a result and when Rinzou left all his inheritance for her as his way to apologize for his deeds, Tamaki not only refused the money but she also refused to let any Usui have the money out of her resentment for the whole bloodline. Eventually, she had Rinzou's baby and later had a child with a man she married. That child was Ayato. And when Mishiro, an Usui, befriended Ayato, she tried to run over her only to end up running over her son. She killed herself as a result. Overall, one Big, Screwed-Up Family.
- How Yuzu came to the Mirror World. Unable to accept Utsuro's death, Yuzu started to study necromancy and one year later, she killed herself to be with Utsuro.
- The "Mistakes Repeated" ending. Mishiro lingers in the memory of her attacking her bullies and decides that since it isn't real, she finally has a way to get retribution. She then murders the bullies. Or rather, you murder the bullies. You regain control of Mishiro, and the bullies start running away from you; you have to run into each of them several times to reduce them to pools of blood. Jesus.
