For the James Bond Nightmare Fuel index, see here.
- The absolutely hideous octopus
◊ in the pre-credits title sequence is a major one. - The planned mass-scale attack by Spectre on an unsuspecting Mexico City as it's celebrating the Day of the Dead.
- Mr. White is absolutely terrified of his boss Ernst Blofeld. And with good reason.Mr. White: He is everywhere! EVERYWHERE!! He's sitting at your desk, he's kissing your lover, he's eating supper with your family!
- And the way Blofeld deals with Mr. White certainly qualifies as nightmare fuel. Giving him radiation poisoning via his cell phone so that he dies not a quick death, but slowly, watching his own body deteriorate, not to mention any pain he ends up going through. Is it any wonder why Bond gives him a quick, easy way out? What makes it even worse is that this was very likely inspired by a real-life assassination, namely that of Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in his tea.
- After Mr. White kills himself and Hinx reaches his cabin, we have a delightful shot of ravens feasting on the face of Mr. White's corpse.
- The general atmosphere that Spectre in this film gives off. Gone are the days of campy absurdity. The new version is a properly cut-throat organization dabbling in everything from human trafficking, regime change, counterfeit pharmaceuticals and utilizing a massive network of well equipped agents to do its bidding from behind the scenes. What's even worse is that they've managed to compromise British intelligence and cultivate an asset who would be able to hand them the crown jewels of the world's intelligence services on a silver platter, namely the collective intel gathered by all of them, information that they have the capability to act on and utilize regardless of who gets destroyed in the process.
- Even Bond looked very disgusted by the way the Spectre bigwigs casually discussed about the progress reports on their illegal activities: including slavery, regime change, narcotics, and terrorism. Their foray into such barbaric crimes against humanity is what forced Mr. White to call it quits. And when Blofeld quips that he and C are visionaries, Bond simply corrects him by saying that "psychiatric wards are full of them". Even more disturbing is that the bigwig meeting is basically just, essentially, a stockholder meeting as they discuss how much money they're making with a massive criminal empire.
- The surrealism of Bond walking into the Spectre meeting. Everyone else is eerily calm, dissonantly still. It's absolutely creepy. And when Oberhauser calls out to 007, revealing that he knew Bond was there the whole time, 007 can only look in sheer horror and quickly bails out.
- Elaborated on the reason why Oberhauser/Blofeld mockingly calls 007 a "cuckoo": when his father, Hannes Oberhauser, took in an orphaned 007, who lost his parents in a climbing accident, Franz immediately grew jealous of his father's increasingly close relationship with Bond, even showing physical disgust when his father insist he call James his brother — and this ultimately causes Oberhauser to develop a murderous hatred of 007 as a result. After James left and joined the Royal Navy, Franz and his father were involved in an avalanche in which both of them were thought to be killed, but it turns out that the resentful Franz had murdered his father and faked his own death, before adopting the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld (taken from his mother's maiden name) and later on, becoming the notorious leader of Spectre and orchestrating all of Bond's personal tragedies since Casino Royale.
- The scene where Oberhauser tortures Bond by drilling needles into various parts of his brain, while calmly monologuing about the effect this is having on him. Not only is the noise and sight of the needles absolutely wince-inducing, but Oberhauser's descriptions of what and why he's doing is terrifying, not least because he doesn't show any emotion throughout. At one point, he inserts one into Bond's neck, saying that if he hits the correct spot, then he will never be able to recognize faces again; he taunts Madeline, saying that he won't recognize her. Then he does so... And nothing happens, implying that he was just toying with them.
- And then Blofeld decides to aim both needles at Bond's eyes. Fortunately, Bond manages to escape that by detonating a hidden watch bomb.
- The very fact that he's doing this just to toy with him. As brutal as Le Chiffre's torture was, he was legitimately trying to get information. Oberhauser appears to be acting out of nothing but pure sadism.
- Oberhauser's/Blofeld's horrid facial scar as a result of Bond's explosive exit. When we see him afterwards, it hasn't quite healed up yet and is still looking quite bloody, to say nothing of his now blind, pale white eye. And yet he still shrugs it off as if nothing unusual happened.
- Oberhauser's henchmen in Morocco who move in unison at his command. There's just something very unnerving about it.
- The final showdown at the Vauxhall Cross building has Bond walking through the completely abandoned building with Blofeld taunting Bond with pictures of those involved in the tragedies in his life didn't help things.
- During one scene, Bond finds a hidden room. In it is a videotape simply labeled "Vesper Lynd Interrogation". The look on Bond's face says it all and he puts it down.
- There is a scene where Bond and Madeleine have a nice dinner together. Then Bond catches the reflection of Mr. Hinx walking up to them from behind on the cocktail shaker. There is no time for a BondOneLiner as Hinx kicks up the table with no warning.
- Mr. Hinx in general. To wit, his Establishing Character Moment has him challenging another guy who intended to replace Sciarra following his death in the Spectre meeting and quickly stealing that role for himself by means of cold-blooded murder. When asked for his credentials in succeeding Sciarra, Hinx's response is to just stand there silently... waiting for the other guy to lower his guard... before violently bashing his head on the table without warning. Then he follows up by gouging the guy's eyes out with his thumbs, and finally finishes him off with a Neck Snap. He then establishes himself as one hell of an Implacable Man and more than a match for this version of Bond who in the past could easily overcome the henchmen sent after him. The fact that he never says a word just makes him all the more unnerving.
- Bond vs. Hinx on the train. Easily the most brutal fight in the Craig-era. It really isn't helped by the fact that absolutely nothing Bond does has any effect. Were it not for Madeline's intervention, Bond would almost certainly be dead.
- Oberhauser/Blofeld himself is a walking Nightmare Fuel. How so?
- He's a very unpredictable, dangerous and utterly ruthless megalomaniac of the worst kind. He's unbelievably resourceful, and could access vast amounts of weaponry, technology, organizations and illegal activities - in other words, he was able to create and control Spectre.
- Disturbingly enough, he is the darkest version of Blofeld ever, as he's far more brutal and violent compared to his previous incarnations. His extremely horrible knack for petty vendettas and sadism could perhaps rival those of Max Zorin or Franz Sanchez.
- He has an eerily calm and reserved personality, and addresses any and all problems with an insidiously and incredibly relaxed attitude, even if a gun was pointed on him. Whether he's sadistically torturing Bond or having one of his henchmen killed off, he keeps his Faux Affably Evil demeanor; even the various Spectre meetings he conducts have an unnervingly disturbing feel to them.
- His Mooks are terrified of the scope of his wrath, and what he's capable of if they fail to please him, knowing that he micromanages them like an iron-fisted and tyrannical dictator. And he's willing to send death squads against those who call it quits.
- He's also a master in inflicting emotional and psychological warfare, especially on Bond (given their It's Personal Cain and Abel relationship), and is also capable of anticipating his opponent's next move, enabling him to outwit them.
- He's a very unhinged brute to boot, describing himself to James Bond as 'the author of all his pain'. Showing a sickening willingness to toy around with Bond's life in any way possible, and taking a genuinely sadistic but vile pleasure in tormenting 007 really shows the psychopathic monster he truly is. Throughout the film, he plays cruel and elaborate mind games with 007's mind concerning his past and the people he has lost his entire life - Vesper, M, his parents, etc. He didn't flinch even when he crossed the Moral Event Horizon by murdering his own father. And even his delivery of "Me, James. It's always been me." is chilling.
- He's already given enough Kick the Dog moments to Bond, but his attempts at rubbing 007's past failures in his face and trying to guilt-trip him into a Despair Event Horizon via Sadistic Choice in the climax really shows the monster that he is.
- Jealous of how his father took to a young James Bond, Franz mockingly calls 007 a "cuckoo," after the species of bird that forces out the biological offspring and supplants their place in the nest. Anything he does throughout the film, especially the climax, it's all done to rile Bond with malicious intent.
