History Main / BloodyHorror

A SubTrope to {{Horror}} and BodyHorror, and a SuperTrope to SplatterHorror. Related to OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank, HighPressureBlood, EvilIsVisceral, and AfraidOfBlood which is about specific characters that freak out at even minor sights of blood like paper cuts and donor blood packs. Some Subtropes are BloodSplatteredInnocents, BloodSplatteredWeddingDress, BloodIsTheNewBlack, and CouldntFindAPen. ChestBurster is a variation. Compare PaintTheTownRed and SymbolicBlood. Also see BloodMagic for when blood is used for magic by ritualistic sacrifice. Contrast BloodyHilarious, where blood is played for BlackComedy; BloodlessCarnage, where scenes where characters would normally bleed are censored to be less scary; and {{Gorn}}, where blood is also part of the aesthetic, but it's meant to be exciting, not scary.

[[folder:Films]]

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': On his way home Touma sees now-familiar habit-wearer Index sprawled on the floor near his apartment door. Knowing [[BigEater Index's appetite]], Touma can expect her hunger to be the cause again, and proceeds to perhaps help her up, quickly getting whiplashed by not knowing [[CliffHanger what's with all the blood pooling under her.]]

* ''Videogame/{{Persona 3}}'': During the Dark Hour any water/liquid in the environment turns blood red. Blood will often be puddling on the floor and dripping off the walls during animated cut scenes.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' has the infamous scene in "Cat's in the Bag..." where Jesse tries disposing of a body by putting in a bathtub and dousing it in hydrofluoric acid... only for the acid to eat through the bathtub ''and'' the floor, causing the tub to crash down onto the floor below, spreading blood and liquefied remains everywhere.

* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', [[HarmfulToMinors a four-year-old Izuku]] is thoroughly traumatized after he accidentally throws Bakugou through a wall with his reckless use of his newfound SuperStrength. He clearly remembers how Bakugou's body was just covered in blood. Later on, a flashback shows the full extent of Bakugou's injuries: [[spoiler:his chest was ripped open from end to end, his ribs were protruding through his torso, and he was gushing blood. The sight of it makes Bakugou want to throw up when [[ComicBook/TheSandman Death]] shows this to him.]]

* ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'': After killing Jeremiah Fink, Daisy Fitzroy deliberately smears his blood across her face.

* ''Webcomic/{{TREVOR}}'': None of [[spoiler: Trevor’s]] kills are done without copious amounts of blood spilled.

* VideoGame/HauntingStarringPolterguy'': Poltergeist Polterguy can temporarily turn a table cloth into a pool of blood.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' has the infamous scene in "Cat's in the Bag..." where Jesse tries disposing of a body by putting in a bathtub and dousing it in hydrochloric acid... only for the acid to eat through the bathtub ''and'' the floor, causing the tub to crash down onto the floor below, spreading blood and liquefied remains everywhere.

{{Horror}} and BodyHorror are {{Super Trope}}s to this, and SplatterHorror is a subtrope. Related to OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank, HighPressureBlood, EvilIsVisceral, and AfraidOfBlood which is about specific characters that freak out at even minor sights of blood like paper cuts and donor blood packs. Some Subtropes are BloodSplatteredInnocents, BloodSplatteredWeddingDress, BloodIsTheNewBlack, and CouldntFindAPen. ChestBurster is a variation. Compare PaintTheTownRed and SymbolicBlood. Also see BloodMagic for when blood is used for magic by ritualistic sacrifice. Contrast BloodyHilarious, where blood is played for BlackComedy; BloodlessCarnage, where scenes where characters would normally bleed are censored to be less scary; and {{Gorn}}, where blood is also part of the aesthetic, but it's meant to be exciting, not scary.

See DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch for "bloody" as a curse word. Compare ABloodyMess when the horror turns out to be a false alarm--it was just ketchup.

[[folder:Film]]

* One of the iconic images from ''Film/TheShining'' is the scene with an elevator full of blood pouring out and flooding a hallway. There's also the instance where a shot of a pair of [[CreepyTwins Creepy Twin]] girls asking Danny to play with them in a CreepyMonotone is intercut with a shot pictured above of the same twins covered in blood sprawled on the floor across the now blood-streaked hallway.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

Blood is a [[AfraidOfBlood primal fear]], which makes it, and other things you'd usually like to keep in your body, ripe for scaring people with in fiction. If someone is bleeding out you know they've been attacked or are in danger of dying, and when there's blood pooling in an everyday place you know that place is no longer safe and should fear for a character's life. This is a staple of the [[{{horror}} Horror Genre]]. Appearing in hauntings and {{Survival Horror}}s such as ZombieApocalypse stories. It's also used in [[DetectiveFiction Murder Mysteries]], and SerialKiller stories that have elements of horror.

This trope is the reason why BloodSplatteredInnocents, BloodIsTheNewBlack and BloodSplatteredWeddingDress are horrifying, and that fear is why EvilIsVisceral. BloodFromTheMouth is often combined with IncurableCoughOfDeath to induce horror and signal to the viewer they should fear for a person's life. And then there's the LogicalExtreme of BloodFromEveryOrifice.

There are many ways blood can invoke fear. Haunting stories sometimes have blood supernaturally "bleeding" and dripping down/out from furniture, and architecture, for unnaturalness and creepiness. Blood can also signify danger is nearby, and that somebody was wounded, or worse, ''killed''. [[DetectiveFiction Murder Mysteries]] with horror elements have gorey murders specifically for this reason, some going beyond just blood, and showing the victim's internal organs or separated body parts. Finally blood and gore is very often used as Gross Out Horror, which also makes it pretty common in {{Medical Drama}}s, to show the character's health is declining or it's shown during surgery. Either way it signals the audience should fear for the patient's life.

There's no question, psychologically why this is the case. The fears of blood and death are very common, and most people like to keep their blood inside their body, and the rest of their body intact. This trope is why kids' shows tend to use [[SymbolicBlood symbolism]] in place of bleeding, use [[BlackBlood non standard colors]] for blood or just have BloodlessCarnage to get around the censors. This is because blood horror is often seen as too scary for young children.

Since this has a lot of overlap with DeathTropes, and thus is ripe with spoilers '''spoilers will be unmarked'''.

{{Horror}} and BodyHorror are {{Super Trope}}s to this, and SplatterHorror is a subtrope. Related to OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank, HighPressureBlood, EvilIsVisceral, and AfraidOfBlood which is about specific characters that freak out at even minor sights of blood like paper cuts and donor blood packs. Some Subtropes are BloodSplatteredInnocents, BloodSplatteredWeddingDress, BloodIsTheNewBlack, and CouldntFindAPen. ChestBurster is a variation. Compare PaintTheTownRed and SymbolicBlood. Also see BloodMagic for when blood is used for magic by ritualistic sacrifice. Contrast BloodyHilarious, where blood is played for BlackComedy, and BloodlessCarnage where scenes where characters would normally bleed are censored to be less scary. Contrast with {{Gorn}}, where blood is also part of the aesthetic, but is meant to be exciting, not scary.

{{Horror}} and BodyHorror are {{Super Trope}}s to this, and SplatterHorror is a subtrope. Related to OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank, HighPressureBlood, EvilIsVisceral, and AfraidOfBlood which is about specific characters that freak out at even minor sights of blood like paper cuts and donor blood packs. Some Subtropes are BloodSplatteredInnocents, BloodSplatteredWeddingDress, BloodIsTheNewBlack, and CouldntFindAPen. ChestBurster is a variation. Compare PaintTheTownRed and SymbolicBlood. Also see BloodMagic for when blood is used for magic by ritualistic sacrifice. Contrast BloodyHilarious, where blood is played for BlackComedy, and BloodlessCarnage where scenes where characters would normally bleed are censored to be less scary. Not to be confused with {{Gorn}} which isn't intended to make people afraid, but uses gore to "thrill" the audience instead.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}} makes frequent use of this, especially in the Kripke era. There are too many to fully list, but notable examples include:

-->--'''Music/BarenakedLadies''', ''Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel''

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* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': On his way home Touma sees now-familiar habit-wearer Index sprawled on the floor near his apartment door. Knowing [[BigEater Index's appetite]], Touma can expect her hunger to be the cause again, and proceeds to perhaps help her up, quickly getting whiplashed by not knowing [[CliffHanger what's with all the blood pooling under her.]]

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' is a series about human-looking creatures that feed on human flesh. There are numerous scenes involving blood gushing, leaking, pouring, or splashing from bodies and people being covered in the red stuff. Notable scenes include Tsukiyama's white suit being soaked through after he tears a hole in someone, and Kaneki accidentally walking in on [[TheCutie Hinami]] eating... and freezing in horror at the sight of the sweet little girl with blood dripping from her mouth.

* ''Film/{{Marebito}}'' There is a lot of focus on blood. The voiceless girl only drinks blood, and Masuoka kills two women and bottles up their blood for F to drink.
* The '''geyser''' of blood from the bed of Glen (Johnny Depp's character) in the first ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'' movie. Which continues to flow ''on the ceiling''. Epic.

* ''Film/TheNightFlier'': As a vampire story, it makes a lot of use of this. Mutilated, bloody corpses are frequently seen, the Night Flier writes messages in blood, and the inside of his airplane is covered in blood, dirt and maggots.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' has the infamous scene in "Cat's in the Bag..." where Jesse tries disposing of a body by putting in a bathtub and dousing it in hydrochloric acid...only for the acid to eat through the bathtub ''and'' the floor, causing the tub to crash down onto the floor below, spreading blood and liquefied remains everywhere.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': Bloody Horror: The Game. The setting of the game revolves entirely about blood and infections. The city of Yarnham is a pilgrimage site where people come to visit the healing church that claims to be able to heal any illness through transfusions of supernatural blood. Playing around with strange blood also leads to people going insane and slowly transforming into huge beasts and slaughtering normal people and each other in the search for more blood. Many enemies spray huge amounts of blood when hit or sometimes using it as an attack, quickly leaving you covered in blood from head to toe.

* In the climax of ''VideoGame/{{ICO}}'', we see the only blood in the game when [[spoiler:Ico's horns snap off]]. The sudden physical sign of violence after a game full of whacking nothing but intangible Smokemen is like a punch to the gut.

** The disembowling in Higurashi makes an encore in Umineko, on the first twilight (murder) of the second arc leaving blood and guts all around the crime scene. Played for horror again since they were sitting at a party table when they were found
** In episode 06 of the visual novel it's revealed that Erika decapitated the heads of people who were playing dead, and stuffed them in garbage bags so she could trap Battler (who was GM at the time) in a logic error by making it so nobody could replace the chain lock if he left the room he had "died" in.

* In ''Webcomic/WeakHero'', Wolf is established as being even more vicious than the bullies who came before him. However, even in those fights, people were being beat so severely that it's amazing they didn't need a hospital visit. So in order to establish Wolf's brutality as being on a whole other level, there's a much higher emphasis on the amount of blood that's spilt by his hand. One of the most striking shots is Wolf aiming a fierce kick at Eugene's head, which then cuts to an aerial shot of Eugene's glasses flying through the air and a large spurt of blood following them.

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' is a series about cannibalistic creatures that feed on human flesh. There are numerous scenes involving blood gushing, leaking, pouring, or splashing from bodies and people being covered in the red stuff. Notable scenes include Tsukiyama's white suit being soaked through after he tears a whole in someone, and Kaneki accidentally walking in on [[TheCutie Hinami]] eating... and freezing in horror at the sight of the cute little girl with blood splattered around her mouth.

* ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'':
** There's a scene where one of the characters hallucinates ripping his face off in the bathroom, and dripping blood into the sink
** There's another scene nearing the end of the film, after rescuing the daughter the mother and the daughter come out of the ghost's world, and fall into a bathtub full of blood.

** ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' the Wrath of God scene - Toht's face melts with the skin and blood evaporating off his face
** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' there's the scene where an evil hindu priest forces his hand into a person's chest, and removes his heart, and it's ''still beating after''.