Fear of the Unknown

Is this true? Is the ultimate fear in encountering something that goes beyond our supposed reality and ability of definition? Whenever this comes up I think of the Blair Witch Project or Slender Man, two entities beyond logical definition

If we can't understand it, we can't control it. I think that's a major reason for the fear.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

Works in horror or suspense movies. Then when they show the thing, it's often a letdown.

Example in media: Serenity and the reavers. Reavers in the TV show were scary (to me, anyway), because we were shown so little about them. Just a tore-up looking ship, loads of worried looks, Jayne getting the heebie-jeebies, and some good ominous music - it was well done. Even the guy who went bonkers after witnessing the attacks wasn't clearly shown on-screen after his self-mutilation. Plus, that particular episode hinted that the reavers still posessed sufficient intelligence to rig traps and stuff.

Movie comes out and ho hum, some cannibalistic biker-looking thugs that need to take a bath. My only real dissapointment of the film.

For real life, it could be virtually anything, depending on the idividual. It's unknown - and our primal fears come right to the surface.

I would say that the horror of the Reavers was toned down a bit, because they had an important, brilliant and plot-relevant backstory.

YMMV, of course, if you liked them in the series better, then you are not happy with this decision. I'm just saying that it had a reason.

Horror is subjective. For me, the greatest horror would not be some indescribable monster eating my brains, but the thought of my sisters suffering. Further, I know exactly what a parasite is, and that does nothing to make it less scary.

I think sometimes the scariest monsters/fates are the ones that you are told just enough about for your mind to start trying to fill in the blanks.

This doesn't work for me at all, because when the heroes encounter something squamous my immediate reaction is "Just punch it in what passes for a head." (Well, unless it's something cute and squamous, like a chameleon. See, I actually do know what that word means!) Anyways, I tend to think of the scariest monsters as the ones where you have an explanation for why that won't work.

And I Must Scream is probably one of the scarier tropes, as is Surreal Horror. Neither of these require a lack of knowledge, all it needs to be is unsettling.

^ Actually, I would argue that Surreal Horror is founded on the unknown, since we lack any knowledge of how reality could distort itself in such a fashion. (Though again, that's not really what scares me.)

Neither of these require a lack of knowledge,

Surrealism is based on the inability to understand.

I must disagree. Imagine some sewn together fetus monster thing. Now give it a name and let's pretend it's a normal part of nature. It is perhaps incredible bizarre, but is based on thoroughly normal science. There is nothing incomprehensible about it, it just looks weird. In short, you know what it is.

But that doesn't make it any less unsettling. If you know what it is, then how can it be based on the unknown? Unless that doesn't count as surreal horror, in which case, what is it then? It's not frightening like a lion, or a supernatural monster like a werewolf.

edited 11th Dec '10 10:49:26 PM by TheMightyAnonym