Nightmare Fuel / X-Men: Apocalypse

"I'm here for you!"

• In the prologue, the original Four Horsemen using their powers to kill off the Egyptian guards involved in the plot to murder Apocalypse. Two of them get melted to their bones, others get burned, another one gets telekinetically crushed on himself like a pretzel. All of them get killed off in extremely brutal ways without a Gory Discretion Shot.
  • Even worse is the idea these men knew they had no chance and sacrificed themselves as the distraction so the Horsemen didn't realize the true plan to make the entire temple collapse.
  • Likewise, the deaths of the original Horsemen are similarly brutal. Most of them are crushed under the collapsing pyramid, but the telekinetic member first falls and has her back broken before the stones crush her.
• MOTHERFUCKING APOCALYPSE.
  • His reality warping/Mind over Matter powers. He can behead humans with sand particles. He also causes a man to be absorbed into a wall. All of this is quite frighteningly reminiscent of what the Djinn would do in Wishmaster.
    • The man he encased into a wall near the street market? You can still see him move his eyes, and his mouth remains open. Depending on what happened to him after, he was basically still buried alive inside that wall. A Fate Worse Than Death, indeed.
  • His Super-Empowering of Angel causes some Body Horror in Angel's back as his new metal wings grow.
  • Apocalypse's Creepy Monotone when he says, "I'm here for you, Charles" is rather unsettling. It's what a frightened child might imagine the boogeyman's voice would sound like. For those who have been previously a victim of stalking, Apocalypse comes off as being the most eerie stalker in the world because of the way he's taunting his would-be prey. Xavier can't do anything to prevent the god-like mutant from coming after him, and there is nowhere on the planet where he can hide.
    • The moment that the Professor realizes that something's wrong—that Erik's not on his own—had some viewers completely on edge with their hearts beating so hard that it made them feel sick.
      Charles: Hank...
      Hank: What?
      Charles: He's not alone...
    • Apocalypse detects Charles contacting Erik through Cerebro. How does he show it? By staring right. AT. YOU. Apocalypse's glowing white eyes (which appear brighter than usual because of the low-level lighting in the scene) are freaky, and since we're seeing him from Xavier's perspective, it almost seems like Apocalypse is going to eat our souls!
    • When Apocalypse does start connecting to Charles through Cerebro, Charles suddenly has the same apocalyptic visions that Jean literally had the previous night. The horrified expression on his face when this happens is the exact moment it instantly brings everything into terrifyingly sharp clarity for him.
      Charles: (after witnessing the apocalyptic visions, horrified) Oh my god.
    • Professor X's Black Eyes of Evil when he's able to ascertain through Cerebro just how immensely powerful Apocalypse is. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and although Xavier is clearly frightened by it, he's also completely awestruck, as if he were stuck in a trance ("I've never felt power like this before"). Dark!Charles, anyone?◊ Bryan Singer even acknowledges that Xavier "...could go inside Cerebro and rule the world, but he chooses not to," but this moment of weakness proves that even an All-Loving Hero like Professor X isn't immune to being "seduced" to the dark side when he comes in direct contact with a plethora of god-like abilities.
    • Charles only snaps out of the daze when Hank tries to remove the Cerebro helmet, and the telepath is constantly screaming his head off afterwards because he's in so much pain from attempting to resist the mental invasion]]. Yet he was absolutely calm while he was under Apocalypse's control. You know what that means? Xavier actually enjoyed losing himself in all that vast power. What a spooky way to demonstrate that Evil Feels Good to the most heroic protagonist of the franchise... and it may perhaps be a Mythology Gag to Onslaught.
  • Whenever Apocalypse shouts with a Voice of the Legion.
  • Apocalypse's Mind Rape of Charles is disturbing as hell because Xavier's mind, body and soul are being violated. Charles even shouts "GET OUT!!!" multiple times, which further reinforces his status as a victim who isn't strong enough to fight off his attacker.
    • As explained above, Charles suffers a great deal in this movie, and possibly none more frightening than this Mind Rape of him when Apocalypse decides to use him as his host for him to transfer his consciousness to. Imagine being in his position—physically restrained against your will whilst another person violates your entire mind, body and soul for their own desires—you would be terrified.
    • Even before the transfer, you can actually perceive how terrified he is. Whilst on the mountaintop, he remained steely-eyed and determined (you've got to remember he hasn't even been told what's going to happen to him yet), but this is less so when he's brought into the pyramid Apocalypse had built. Although Xavier is protesting and trying to talk Apocalypse down, you can hear the terror in his voice and see it in his eyes. He has always remained a strong figure during whatever has happened to him, but in this case, he's definitely cracking under so much fear of what's about to happen to him.
    • What we also need to remember is how this transfer was prevented. When Xavier was kidnapped, all the X-Men had literally no idea where Apocalypse had taken him. As well as being Nightmare Fuel for them because they'd just lost one of the most important figures in their lives and had absolutely no idea what horrible things Apocalypse and his Horsemen had in mind for him, think about how Xavier must have been feeling. The only reason Apocalypse wasn't able to complete the transfer was because Xavier had embedded his own message for Jean into Apocalypse's worldwide one for them to know where he was and save him. Thank God that being the world's most powerful telepath comes with benefits...
    • What's worse is that Charles doesn't have any possible means to move around after his wheelchair is discarded. Since he doesn't have the use of his legs, even if he had tried to escape, he wouldn't get far. He literally had to rely on his own students to save him from a certain Fate Worse than Death because he was completely sapped of all options to be able to save himself.
• Mutants in East Berlin are forced to fight in cage matches on what seems to be a regular basis, and quite possibly to the death or at least maiming. Want to try to flee? The organizers have electrified the cage. No wonder poor Kurt is so terrified. Angel even warns his skittish opponent that he has to get his hands dirty, otherwise they'll be both gunned down. To make matters worse, Nightcrawler and Angel are teenagers, so the vile people who are running this fight club don't even give a rat's ass about the age of the mutants they're abducting. Since youngsters and the elderly are more likely to be weaker than adult mutants who are in their prime... well, the potential carnage is quite horrific.
• After they kill his wife and child by accident, Magneto slaughters the whole squad of Polish policemen who came to arrest him by forcing his family medallion through their throat at high speed.
  • Hell, all the scenes leading up to Erik re-taking the Magneto mantle and joining Apocalypse count as their own brand of Nightmare Fuel, and they're only slightly better than Apocalypse's consequences of his plan.
    • When Erik uses his metallokinesis to rescue one of his co-workers at the factory (knowingly or not "outing" himself as not just a mutant, but the world's most wanted mutant), he's almost forced back into his old status quo of living on the run, which is only slightly mitigated by Magda's faith in his humanity. Then the authorities take Nina hostage, and though they're much more reasonable about bringing Erik to justice (and unlike Shaw, have no desire to hurt Erik's family in any way), she has no idea what to make of it all, just that her father was going to be ripped away from her the night after he promised that wouldn't happen. She then attempts to free her father by telepathically commanding a flock of crows to attack the policemen against her parents' pleas, causing one of them to inadvertently fire an arrow and skewer them both. No wonder Erik snapped so badly against the policemen and his co-workers afterwards— out of desperation to protect his second family, he tried to resolve the conflict the way Charles would, even when he's clearly scared, only for it to blow up in his face.
• If you're a parent, watching a school explode to smithereens while class is ongoing is especially terrifying.
• Weapon X, a.k.a Wolverine's rampage through Stryker's facility. Jean wasn't kidding when she said he'd been turned into a living weapon; he completely slaughters everyone in his path, never saying anything that has any semblance of humanity, as it has been completely suppressed. The scene is considerably Bloodier and Gorier than anything else in the film (or any of Wolverine's rampages in the previous movies), and it looks like something out of a slasher/horror movie.
  Intercom: Weapon X is loose!
  • Keep an eye on Stryker's men during Wolverine's rampage. These are obviously highly trained and experienced combatants, but while the first few maintain their professionalism and training even as they go down, the rest become increasingly terrified and desperate as Wolverine chops through more and more of them without missing a beat. No one except Stryker (who immediately escaped after the first group was killed) is shown having survived afterwards.
• Try to picture the death-toll in the final act. Cairo's basically completely destroyed. Bridges crumbling EVERYWHERE. Buildings collapsing EVERYWHERE. A global event where everything with metal is in danger of being torn apart. Picture the cleanup from 9/11, but several times over, in every significant city in the world. And picture being told that the person responsible, the terrorist Magneto, is still at large...
• Quicksilver and Apocalypse take turns in being this to each other in the final battle:
  • The all-powerful mutant is reduced to Quicksilver's punching bag, who's smiling all the way. What's even worse is that while too slow to physically react to him, Apocalypse's perception speed is high enough for him to see Quicksilver. Imagine, being beat up by a speedster who is so fast that despite you knowing his punches are about to hit you, there is nothing you can do about it except get beat up.
  • Apocalypse then uses his telekinetic powers to ensnare his foot, and then proceeds to do a Slow Walk towards him, while Quicksilve] is helplessly flailing against his bonds. The former begins to beat up the latter and then breaks his leg. The bone-crushing sound and Evan Peters' very convincing facial expression and scream really sell how incredibly painful the injury is.
  • Grabbing his victim by the hair and baring his neck, Apocalypse only has a simple two-word command for the approaching Psylocke:
    End him.
  • In some dubs its even worse. His line is:
    Decapitate him!.
  • Thank god she turned out to be Mystique in disguise. Unfortunately, we're quickly treated to a Call-Back to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay as Apocalypse heals himself and strangles Mystique in fury as her Psylocke disguise wears off.
• Xavier tries to fend off a homicidal madman who has invaded his home and his school, and is a threat to him and everyone he cares about, and it turns out that he isn't powerful enough to stop the maniac. In the mind battle that the two of them share, Apocalypse crushes Charles like a bug and smashes him against a wall like a rag doll. The latter isn't just covered in his own blood; he's lying in a pool of it as well. The sheer helplessness that Professor X feels over his inability to protect his friends and students is just as painful as any injury Apocalypse causes him.
  • James McAvoy elaborates on that last point.
    "Raven is on the verge of death. For me, I see Jennifer [Lawrence] on the verge of death. And I've known Jennifer and Raven for five years now, and I love them both. Peter [Maximoff] is on the verge of torture and death, and I feel that too. Erik and Michael, they're on the edge of this pivotal moment in their life, and I feel all this. I've got a good enough imagination that I can place my friends and these characters I've shared five years with in these situations, and it's fucking horrible. [...] It wasn't just the weight of the world I was feeling. It was the death of the world."
• For Marvel's fans who stayed for the post-credits scene… We get to see the aftermath of Logan's murderous rampage, with a clean-up team at work… and one man recovers a blood sample from Logan, putting it in a suitcase among several others. When closing it, we see the name 'Essex' in the suitcase; as in Nathaniel Essex, a.k.a. Mister Sinister.