What Scares You The Most?

Deep Water.

I always feel that there's something lurking down there, watching me paddle my feet ineffectually to stay above...

This is why I don't go swimming in the ocean.

Seconded. I really don't like the ocean; while I've jokingly said "Man was never meant to explore the sea" elsewhere, a part of me was actually being serious. Considering what's down there, the crushing pressure, the spreading darkness, and the dandy little fact that you can't breathe under there, and you've got yourself a bringer for life-long nightmares.

On one hand, I'm a little biased because of my trip to the beach when I was seven. On the other hand, THIS.◊

Anyway, story-wise I think The Corruption is a pretty nasty effect. I've used it in one of my works to some extent — a force that takes advantage of your weaknesses and worries, and starts mutating you and driving you insane because of it — but I want to take it up a notch if I get the chance. Taking a cue from Street Fighter X Tekken and its Pandora mode,◊ I think it'd be interesting to explore a corruption that you can (seemingly) tap into at will, but with all sorts of brutal implications and consequences. Imagine if people started using that on a worldwide scale...

Heights and loss of control. Both are related, as you can guess. When you fall, you have no where to go but down.

I'm not afraid of many things, but there are three things that terrify me.

Invisible monsters are far scarier than any costume creeper.

I'm also terrified of unfamiliar surroundings and people.

And the most terrifying thing I've ever encountered is biblical theology. No joke.

There are other things I wanted to say, but these are the TOP THREE.

Invisible monsters and humanoid creatures that are actually unintelligent animals are kind of disturbing to me.

It's okay, I'm not scared of you. :P

edited 18th May '12 2:40:52 PM by Noaqiyeum

I don't really get scared, but the one thing I do find on the disturbing end of the spectrum is Body Horror. I love writing body horror. In one short story of mine, this man experiences a number of extremely bizarre instances of body horror that appear to be hallucinations (for example, while looking in the mirror he watched a butterfly hatch out of his eye).

Hint: they aren't.

Teeth removal, and in more typical horror style, doll like monsters.

Body horror in fiction usually doesn't scare me, but advanced Neurofibromatosis is one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen.

(I know I'm necro-ing, but I was looking for a place to put that, and it's not quite personal enough to qualify for "your worst fears.")

Another vote for the ocean. While I know there are a wide variety of things that could go wrong, my foremost fear is sharks, followed by drowning.

Seconded for drowning. I almost drowned as a kid, so it's a personal know-how of the experience. That's why Charlie's death in LOST (is that even a spoiler anymore?) was the death that hit me the most. That feeling when you constantly thrash upwards to get less and less air, like a window of survival that's constantly closing in... brrr.

I also consider Daylight Horror to be pretty scary. While things in the dark are scary, they usually (to me) are more psychological than anything. Daylight Horror however, if done right, can evoke a terrible sense of reality. I'm talking stuff like the things you see on the news: terrorist attacks, assaults, natural disasters... I also watched a lot of crime documentaries as a kid, and I remembered those black-and-white forensic photos of actual murder victims to be the creepiest and most unsettling things my kid eyes ever saw at that point. It was scary and almost surreal, to see someone mangled like that, and that person actually existed.

Also as a kid, I used to watch some Hindu movies and TV shows with heavy religious themes, and for some reason they always show a shot of a statue of a particular deity in such a nightmarish camera angle accompanied with blaring music (traditional instruments, not sure what they're called), presented like a Jump Scare (plus it's usually a statue of Kali or some other monstrous-looking deity which didn't help), it's like they want to scare me. That's why Temple of Doom seemed not that scary to me as everyone seemed to be making it up to be. :P

I'll have to second drowning as well.

As for things that scare me the most, well, two different kinds of fear, I guess. For the mundane, as in, things that I'm scared of if it would happen to me (and with the possibility of actually happening), is paralysis, or lack of control in general. The thought of having no control over the most basic things such as your own body is really unpleasant. This extends to more conceptual things like having no control over the situations in life whether you like it or not as well. The inability to live or die on my own term, that sorta thing.

As for stuffs from fictions that scare me the most, that'd have to be Surreal Horror. I find things that are incomprehensible or flat out wrong to be the most disturbing. Things like Un Chien Andalou's eyeslitting scene are simply a big no-no for me, and not because of them being body horror oriented or anything, simply because, even in context, they just don't make sense. They completely lack reason or explanation. That's pure horror.

edited 26th May '14 4:36:00 AM by Arreimil

Besides spiders and the usual fear of losing people who you love, surprisingly enough, angels and stars.

Biblical angels based on their description alone terrify me. The intense light they supposedly put off is a big factor because I'm very photosensitive. That said, I do enjoy writing those kind of angels.

Stars are essentially the closest thing we have to an actual Eldritch Abomination, being gigantic nuclear power generators, billions in number. Though it's fun to write Eldritch Abominations with starry patterns.

Seconded on the spiders, those things scare the ever living f*** out of me. Although, oddly, I can, with only minimal discomfort and unease, have a tarantula crawling on me, if I know it has been devenomed.

What scares me the most? The Dead Island trailers and how we could well be just one mutation away from the very real kuru virus (think bird flu or mad cow) from it actually happening.

On a more serious note the atrocities committed by people such as the Nazis, these were horrifying, they are too monstrous to comprehend and yet someone thought them up, they carried them out.

More natural fears such as one a few may be familiar with, being in a position financially where you have no hope of survival, or the government makes even living in poverty impossible by taking everything from you. That may seem like a swipe at the Australian Liberal government but it's true, many fear of being abandoned if they are under a certain income or being forced to work even with no jobs out there, if you don't have a job then you're kicked out onto the street with no income. That thought more so for other people being subjected to it is scary.

One more, the idea of a area being so bad that every loser for miles is killing each other so they can have the honor of killing you, specifically. Unless we are talking Redfern in Sydney, Hells Kitchen in New York, Ravenswood in Tasmania that's not realistic but the fear is there just the same.

Not a personal fear, but I find it curious that there is such a thing as an irrational fear of handwriting.

I knew a girl once that was terrified of Rabbits. Absolutely terrified. We were camping and she saw a rabbit and freaked out.

Also, for a good example of terrifying (imho) go see the new godzilla movie. It puts in a position to think how you would react if something like that happened and it. is. AWESOME.

edited 2nd Jun '14 3:48:32 PM by whymia

I forgot to mention this earlier, but there is something terribly unnerving to me about complete silence. Not just an absence of loud or mid-level sounds, or even the usual background noise, but a sudden or prolonged absence of even natural sounds—the sort of little, almost inaudible sounds that you take for granted. To not even be able to hear your own body's sounds, or to only be able to hear those and nothing else.

And then, without a sound, something moves.

Adding to that,the scariest thing to me about extreme quiet is being able to hear my own heart beat being able to feel it. Nothing Is Scarier

edited 3rd Jun '14 11:28:36 PM by whymia