Needs Help: Psychological Horror

The entire page is full of Zero Context Examples. Almost every example on the page is just a title and that's it. Nearly every other example that gives any description more or less amounts to "Yep, this trope is sure used in this work alright!" It's not just a matter of simple cleanup—that would require either an encyclopedic knowledge of media (since there are a LOT of works listed on the page) or removing pretty much every example from the page, the former of which is highly unlikely for a single person and the latter of which seems pretty unfeasible.

So, basically, we need to put this one under the microscope. My only guess here is that it was launched from a YKTTW without the launcher actually making sure all (or at least the majority of) the examples were properly explained.

Normally I'd suggest making it an index, but Cosmic Horror Story is not and that would mean removing examples that do have context, like Homestuck.

Though I'm not sure if the horror is directed at characters or the audience. The description does not specify it. Possibly the examples have no context because contributors are confused on what it is about.

edited 18th Aug '13 12:18:00 AM by MikuruFan

This needs commenting out aat the very least. Beyond that, though, looking through the wicks for better items seems to be a better strategy.

Alright, looking a bunch of wicks at random:

• TearJerker.Achievement Hunter - Namechecked, but not an example
• Ad Of Win Archive 2010 - Not too relevant, but its use demonstrates that the person didn't know what it means. ("On the Psychological Horror page, an ad for Dragon Ball Z DV Ds. I didn't think it was that bad of a show!")
• MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic.Tropes L To P - same contextless text as on the page
• Adult Fear - namechecked, but misused
• Literature.Alice - just the trope name
• VideoGame.Eternal Darkness - only mentioned as the genre classification
• Film.Dont Look Now - just the trope name
• Gainaxing - "The anime of Umineko no Naku Koro ni gave most of the women and girls a bad tendency to do this, which would be fine if this were a comedy series. Unfortunately, Umineko is not a comedy series. Poor Shannon has the worst of it. Every time she makes a sudden movement or reacts to something, her boobs also react, with a single bounce." Just an unexplained pothole here.
• Film.Halloween1978 - "Despite the genre it inspired, this movie is actually a fairly subtle Psychological Horror movie with relatively little blood and gore, and it frequently employs Nothing Is Scarier. It arguably has more in common with Psycho than with movies like Friday the 13th, which it inspired." Borderline contextless.

I need to go right now, but I'll check more later.

I can create a definition from the words Psychological and Horror, but the page itself doesn't provide one. Most of the description is of what the trope isn't.

edited 18th Aug '13 5:30:34 PM by crazysamaritan

I'd say this part of the description works best to describe the trope. If we can expand upon this in more ways than just "it's not this", could work:

Now, more wicks:

• Literature.I Am Not A Serial Killer: "Psychological Horror: It's not just blood and gore people. It's so much more than that..." Really? Well, can you expand on this? (Actually, that whole page is full of zero context examples, so not sure if this counts.)
• The recap pages for two MLP episodes namecheck this literally just to say "This is creepy/frightening!" Rrriiiiight. Not an example. Moving on.
• Webcomic.Pinwheel Pawnshop: "The series combines Psychological Horror with whimsy. It is set to be continued in a currently undecided format, but possibly as an illustrated novel." Never heard of this work, so I couldn't tell you if this is true, but even still, the most indication the page gives of this is "Weird stuff happens!" so I'm dubious of the veracity of this claim.
• Film.Smiley: Potholed, and I have seen this film and can tell you bluntly, no, this is not at all an example. It's just a slasher flick with random references to internet memes/celebrities.
• Fanfic.The Lion King Adventures: "The King of Dreams uses this on Simba in both Dream Away and One Bad Night." I'm gonna go with misuse here. Of course, the page also has "Pure Awesomeness: The series itself. End of story" listed, so I'm doubting much care beyond fangasming was put into the making of this page.
• Series.Twin Peaks: Accurate descriptor of the series, but it's only namechecked and not explained at all.
• Manga.Uzumaki: "The genre of the story." What little I know of this manga indicates this to be the case, but again, this isn't really explained.
• Literature.The Manchurian Candidate: Potholed, but the context in which it's potholed (in an example for Through the Eyes of Madness) actually makes sense.
• Literature.The Gunslinger: "Walter o' Dim includes a little smiley face ☺ in his letter to Alice telling her the incomprehensible, indescribable Psychological Horror that would happen to her if she told Nort his Trigger Phrase." Borderline, but I'll give it a slight pass.
• Film.The Grudge: just the trope name
• Fanfic.The Art Of Subconscious Illusion: Seems accurate judging by the surrounding tropes, but there is no context for it or for most of the other examples.
• Trivia.Synecdoche New York: Borderline, since it's under What Could Have Been, but more of a "no" since it's only potholed with conjecture from the editor.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: Seems okay in the context in which it's used.
• Shallow Parody: "MAD's parody of the movie version of The Hunger Games actually used a more detailed plot-point from the book, rather than the shallower moment from the movie The mutations in the movie are larger, scarier versions of wolves, wolf-like creatures in the book were also psychologically horrifying because their eyes and fur resembled the eyes and hair of the dead tributes. MAD's writer obviously read the book, but hadn't seen the movie yet." Eh, doesn't work.

Okay, so, I think it's clear that either people on the whole don't know how to use this trope or that people are really lazy in adding it to whatever they want.

Honestly, after looking through all these examples, I feel like it'd probably be best to turn this into an index. Psychological horror is a broad concept in itself, and some tropes that we have (such as Through the Eyes of Madness or Ironic Punishment EDIT: I could've sworn we had that one as a trope here) seem to cover more specific aspects of it.

edited 18th Aug '13 5:59:14 PM by 0dd1

Let's make it an index of tropes.

Cosmic Horror Story already has an index of tropes. Whatever's applicable here could be copied or moved.

edited 18th Aug '13 6:00:34 PM by Mikurufan

• replacing physical threats
  • what PH is not
• with psychological threats (e.g. madness)
  • what is a psychological threat? Madness is a condition, not a threat.
• thorough exploration of the mind of the involved protagonists
  • it should say character, not protagonist. "Bad guys" are usually antagonists.
  • exploring the mind of the antagonist is an Antagonist POV, and I don't think every instance of that is an example of PH.
• replacing overt displays of horror
  • again, not PH
• more subtle, creepy details, and so on.
  • what is more subtle? What is a creepy detail? Is this Fridge Horror?

Works for me. I know we can make it a subpage of Madness Tropes or vice versa, depending on how you look at it. Probably make Madness Tropes a subpage of it. And this page will definitely fall as a subpage of Horror Tropes. Tropes that can go under it:

• And I Must Scream
• Potentially Circus of Fear, depending on how it's played
• The Corruption
• Fate Worse than Death
• Mind Rape
• Paranoia Fuel
• Through the Eyes of Madness
• potentially Psychological Torment Zone

EDIT: Damn, hit send too early. Stuff from Psychology Tropes could probably go here too.

It's more like horror in which the conflict comes from the protagonist's mind and manifests itself in horrifying ways. And, generally speaking, it is the protagonist who is the focus of the story in these kinds of stories.

edited 18th Aug '13 6:19:53 PM by 0dd1

And instead of a definition, you give me a similie. I think the priority here is creating a definition. Because of the subtlety of the trope, that's not going to be easy.

Is this a subgenre of horror?

Is it aimed at frightening the audience or protagonist?

I'm sure Tomato Surprise and Tomato in the Mirror get involved.

That...wasn't a simile. That's what it is. It is horror in which the conflict comes from the protagonist's mind and manifests itself in horrifying or traumatic ways.

I'd think the name is indicative of whether or not it's a subgenre of horror. Really now.

"Is it aimed at frightening the audience or protagonist?" Isn't the point of most horror both?

I'm gonna defer to The Other Wiki on this one:

And, from PopMatters:

edited 18th Aug '13 6:53:54 PM by 0dd1

Anyway, are there any suggestions on what we should do? I suppose making the description more clear is in order, but what can we do about the examples without nearly blanking the entirety of the examples section? And what can be done to rectify its rampant misuse/use as a Zero Context Example? Alternatively, should we just raze the example section and turn it into an index of tropes, or, perhaps, an index of media ala The Abridged Series or any other genre page?

Maybe we need a crowner here. More suggestions would be appreciated, though.

Zero Context Examples are dealt with by commenting out as described here. It's also often useful to look through the wicks for context.

I personally believe that @7 is too much work, by the way. As for the description, I think a bit of borrowing from Wikipedia might help.

I just feel like it's a bit broad to be just left as just a trope. It's a genre in itself, which has its own tropes that are used in the making of the genre, so cataloging those as such would be a boon to it.

As for the Zero Context Examples, commenting out can certainly be done on the articles it's in (though there are 199 counts of it in wiki pages here), but, as I've said, doing that on the actual page itself will wipe out the vast majority of the examples.

And, as I've demonstrated above, I've already looked through a good number of wicks, most of which have nothing to them, just use it as a pothole, or don't have any understanding of what it's supposed to be.

edited 23rd Aug '13 12:57:52 AM by 0dd1

It's not a problem if most examples are wiped out. It's only a problem if only a handful examples are left.

Well, I counted how many examples would be left on the page. Is 19 enough for it to not be a problem?

That's enough for me.

Clock is set.

Clock's up; locking for inactivity. No further action is to be taken based on this thread.