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| 4 | This is when tropes have their scary elements and/or possibilities brought up. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | This can be done in several ways: |
| 7 | * Simply adding horror elements to the trope. |
| 8 | * Mixing non-horrific tropes with horrific ones. |
| 9 | * A DeconstructedTrope that plays up the horrific consequences. |
| 10 | * Characters InUniverse bringing up the FridgeHorror of the trope, i.e. AscendedFridgeHorror. |
| 11 | * Going FauxHorrific with the trope. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | This might even be inspired by one of the writers finding AccidentalNightmareFuel in a trope and then applying it deliberately. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Now it's very rare to see actual horror tropes done this way, since they are technically played for horror by default, but it's not unheard of. Perhaps the horror is {{exaggerated| trope}}, or the work finds new horrific implications of the trope. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Furthermore, this in ''no way'' excludes horror works from having examples. In fact they can get plenty of scares by finding the scary elements in things that usually aren't. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Now keep in mind the absence of horrific elements doesn't count as NothingIsScarier, unless we're meant to be freaked out by something not happening. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | A SubTrope of PlayingWithATrope. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | A SisterTrope to PlayedForDrama. Compare FridgeHorror, contrast PlayedForLaughs (though [[HorrorComedy the two sometimes overlap]]) and FailedAttemptAtScaring. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Examples: |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 31 | * WishUponAShootingStar is PlayedForDrama and horror in ''Anime/AldnoahZero''. Two children are ecstatic to see dozens of shooting stars flashing across the sky, and the younger brother happily tells his sister [[{{Irony}} he wished for world peace]] — [[DramaticIrony blissfully unaware]] that those "shooting stars" are actually huge alien spaceships descending to Earth at blinding speed, causing atomic bomb levels of devastation in the surrounding areas. |
| 32 | * ''Manga/CannonGodExaxxion'': A NeedleInAStackOfNeedles situation gets rather dark. [[ScaryDogmaticAliens The Riofaldians]] theorize that the pilot of the [[HumongousMecha Exaxxion]] mecha that is defying them is a Japanese teenager, but they don't know which… so they [[FinalSolution execute all Japanese male teenagers with a similar height, and build to the pilot]]. Scarier yet, they actually succeed -- if not for NanoMachines in his body that brought him back to life, [[TheHero Hoichi Kano]] would have become a DecoyProtagonist. |
| 33 | * ''Franchise/{{Devilman}}'' takes the SuperPoweredEvilSide trope to [[BodyHorror utterly horrifying]] and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt tragic extremes]]. In many ways, it feels like it would happen in a teenage superhero story (like ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'') if absolutely everything went horribly wrong. |
| 34 | * ''Manga/HaremRoyaleWhenTheGameEnds'' takes the concept of the HaremGenre and turns it into a DeadlyGame where the girls must win the heart of the male lead, and the losers will be killed. This takes the romantic tension of most harem series and turns it into a thriller where the girls have not just their love, but their lives on the line, all while the male lead is oblivious to the fact that his eventual decision will doom several innocent lives. |
| 35 | * ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'' |
| 36 | ** BullyHunter with Mari Nagare. She was once a happily married housewife and mother with a great relationship with her husband and son, until the latter was killed by bullies. [[KnightTemplarParent So she makes it her mission to hunt down the ones responsible and send them to Hell with her own hands]]. Mari threw away her life, divorced her husband, changed her name to Maria Akeboshi, had plastic surgery, and two years later became the nurse at the bullies' school to exact revenge. Mari is not interested in just killing the bullies; she wants to make them suffer, give them judgment, completely destroy their lives, and break them before killing them. While it's horrifying to see the lengths Mari is willing to go to destroy her son's bullies (even if they are {{Asshole Victim}}s), the true horror is how a good mother is transformed by her bully-hunting obsession into a shell of her former self who finds no joy even when she does succeed. |
| 37 | ** MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave as well. Maria, about to [[HeKnowsTooMuch silence Iijima by killing him]], sees [[ISeeDeadPeople an apparition of Kiritaka]] who reminds her that Iijima is not one of her targets. Shocked at what she was about to do, Maria relents and [[EveryoneHasStandards agrees that Iijima doesn't need to die]], and decides to silence him by other means after killing Shikimi. What makes this horrifying, though, is that Kiritaka's "ghost" has a hole where his face should be, ''[[BodyHorror leaving his brain and blood-stained tongue to spill]]''. Clearly Maria is still traumatized from cradling his mangled remains. And it's implied that the only thing stopping her from going full psycho is "[[ISeeDeadPeople an apparition of her dead son]]." |
| 38 | * ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' plays many tropes commonly associated with HumongousMecha anime (more specifically the SuperRobotGenre), using the usual premise of teenagers piloting giant robots to fight against monsters with much more darker undertones, showing how the {{Kid Hero}}es of those stories are basically {{Child Soldier}}s, and how traumatic it would be for them having to fight against {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of unpredictable nature. Not to mention that their own robots are actually {{Eldritch Abomination}}s themselves under their armor, which are heavily implied to have their own soul. |
| 39 | * ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' is basically the MagicalGirlWarrior genre played for horror, showing how a lot of the innocently fun elements of typical Magical Girl stories could easily have a much darker purpose, and that if so, they would be ''very'' good for manipulating young middle school girls. Among other things, the adorable girls with cute dresses fighting evil are {{Child Soldier}}s who die regularly, their {{Transformation Trinket}}s are [[spoiler:their {{Soul Jar}}s]], the villains they fight are terrifying {{Eldritch Abomination}}s [[spoiler:who [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie they themselves will become]]]] instead of generic MonsterOfTheWeek antagonists, and [[spoiler:the MentorMascot is a TreacherousAdvisor who set up an entire system of suffering and death to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild power the universe]]]]. |
| 40 | ** There is an entire SubGenre of these stories, detailed in MagicalGirlGenreDeconstruction. Other examples include ''Literature/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'' and ''Manga/MagicalGirlSite'', where the whole thing is presented as a DeadlyGame, as well as ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'', where the ChildSoldier aspect is brought up as the girls fight what seems like a HopelessWar against an evil god. |
| 41 | * ''Manga/{{Secret}}'' does this to the typically comedic MySisterIsOffLimits by taking it to the [[VillainousIncest logical extreme]]. [[spoiler:Shinichi Mitomo, the [[BigBad mastermind]], spends the series trying to manipulate the students into killing each other because one of them impregnated his sister, and it infuriates him that someone got to her first. His obsession with keeping his sister "pure" for himself is treated as creepy and deranged {{Yandere}} behavior.]] |
| 42 | * Despite its innocent beginning, ''Manga/ShadowStar'' plays the whole {{Mon}} genre for horror (and tragedy), showing everything that could possibly go wrong by giving real-life kids OlympusMons. [[spoiler: By the end of the series, almost every character is dead and humanity is wiped out from the face of earth.]] |
| 43 | * ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'': |
| 44 | ** The manga is based around horrific things involving spirals, so some of the stories are about the various ways that SpectacularSpinning is not spectacular at all, including how a spiral-shaped scar spins into a black hole. |
| 45 | ** One chapter uses a SpringCoil as a form of [[ArcSymbol the omnipresent spiral shape]], as well as a source of scares and BlackComedy. After [[StalkerWithACrush Jack]] gets killed in a horrific car accident, Kirie and Shuichi dig up his grave to stake his corpse, only for it to suddenly come alive and ''bouncing'' after them as ''[[BodyHorror his entire lower half disintegrates]]'', using a spring stuck in his spine to chase after them. However, once he completely falls apart, the two realize the spring was part of the car suspension that wasn't removed from his body -- [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane it's left unclear]] if his corpse was merely propelled by escaping gas or if it was the result of something supernatural turning him into [[VisualPun a literal Jack-in-the-box]]. |
| 46 | [[/folder]] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[folder:Art]] |
| 49 | * ''Art/NueCouchee'' takes the classic RecliningVenus pose and turns it into surrealist BodyHorror. |
| 50 | [[/folder]] |
| 51 | |
| 52 | [[folder:Comics]] |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'' takes many of the [[RoguesGallery recurring villains]] from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', strips them of any kind of silliness, and plays their most notorious traits for horror: For example, Dr. Destiny is no longer a creepy but somewhat cartoonish man in a cloak and a skull face, but [[spoiler:an emaciated, withered man trapped in a wheelchair. It's implied that he still posseses his terrifying dream powers as well]], the Mad Hatter is hinted at being a pedophile, etc. |
| 54 | * A really horrific example of UnreliableVoiceover is in the first issue of Vertigo's ''ComicBook/HouseOfMystery'' series. The narration is a rather uneventful story about a girl who moves back to her hometown after her parents died, becomes a wife and mother, but doesn't love her children. None of this is actually untrue, but the art fills in minor gaps like the fact that [[spoiler:the other residents of the city are all BigCreepyCrawlies, and her children were loads of maggots that left a huge hole in her back that she still has]]. |
| 55 | * ''ComicBook/IceCreamMan'' plays ConfessionCam for horror in the chapter where a scriptwriter gets TrappedInTVLand by the eponymous HumanoidAbomination and finds himself in increasingly disturbing reality shows. Each time he shifts to another show, there are interludes like this where the guy details how he suddenly found himself in these shows, how disturbed he is by what's going on, and how desperate he is to leave. There are also interviews with the other show participants (like a mannequin woman in a dating show and three zombie women in a ''Real Housewives'' sendup) who talk about their roles in the disturbing shows like nothing unusual is going on, as well as an interview with the scriptwriter's uncle who was also pulled into the shows, killed, and is now surprised that he's dead. |
| 56 | * DeathIsCheap is horrifically [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'' when it's learned that the reason the Hulk and gamma mutates keep coming back is because death has a metaphorical revolving door for them to keep walking out of. Made worse is the fact that it's due to an EldritchAbomination that is TheAntiGod, which is only bringing them back so it has pawns it can use to enact its own plans. There's also the trauma of having to experience death in all of it's pain and terror only to come back repeatedly and realize it's going to keep happening again and again and that you may end up surviving thousands of years past the ends of your friends, loved ones and everything you ever held to be important. |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nemesis}}'' by Mark Millar basically turns the ComicBook/{{Batman}} mythos by showing what would happen if a character very similar to Bruce Wayne turned out to be more like [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Patrick Bateman]] instead of Batman. |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/TheUnfunnies'': EmasculatedCuckold is played for horror. Pussywhisker loses both his testicles after being convinced by Dr. Despicable that he has testicular cancer. His wife Polly was outraged that they cannot have children and refusing to adopt, so she forces Pussywhisker to pick up men to get to sleep with her in order to get her pregnant. When she did not get pregnant from the first guy, Polly forced Pussywhisker to get more men. It's clearly damaging for Pussywhisker to do this. At the end of the issue, as Pussywhisker is forced to find another man for Polly, she reveals that she orchestrated her husband's castration so that she would be justified in her acts of adultery with copious partners, is on the pill, and enjoys that she has forced her husband to find these partners while she waits at home. |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/WonderGirlInfiniteFrontier'': This story show a particularly ''horrifying'' example of TheJailbaitWait. It's revealed that Eros has known Yara ever since she was a child because ''he'' was the one who murdered her mother and led the siege that slaughtered her tribe. All so that [[LoveMakesYouEvil he could have her]] [[{{Yandere}} all to himself]] as the perfect wife once Yara was finally of age. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 63 | * A famed example is the "Scary Mary" recut trailer for Mary Poppins, which plays the well-known scenes of wonder and childhood whimsy of the original film with jarring music, much like a horror film would. |
| 64 | ** In fact, there are many fan-made horror recut trailers floating around on the Internet, including of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbBNqNaZVc8 The Lion King]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS5gcc2QH_8 Jurassic World]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxEHtrgTRg The Cat in the Hat]]. It's amazing what a simple change of music and a few different sounds can do to the tone of a familiar scene or trailer... |
| 65 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ckv_Dz-Sio Mrs. Doubtfire Recut As A Horror Movie]] shows the eponymous character as a crazed stalker. |
| 66 | * A common trend in fan art is to make "realistic" versions of cartoonish characters, often portraying them in a grotesque and sometimes horrifying manner. |
| 67 | * A common element from [[DarkFic darkfics]] is upping the darker aspects from fictional works, usually for drama, but also for horror as well. |
| 68 | * MadeOfIron turns dark in ''Fanfic/AtTheFoodCourt''. Ash got an MRI scan after [[spoiler:his psychotic break]], and the test showed that [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow he suffered ubiquitous hematomas and inflammation of the brain, and large parts of his brain were]] ''[[WhoEvenNeedsABrain straight-up dead]]'' from blunt-force trauma. The doctors had no idea how he was even still alive, since the injuries would normally have been enough to kill him several times over. It is not clear whether the healing spring let him survive or whether this is a CerebusRetcon of Ash being able to survive Pikachu's and Charizard's attacks in canon. Either way, the damage is so great that [[spoiler:his original personality and maturity cannot be recovered]]. |
| 69 | * MomentOfWeakness is used for horror in ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel''. [[spoiler: Raven losing control of her emotions allowed Trigon to enter Azarath and destroy it.]] |
| 70 | * ''Fanfic/FortuneLoverTGSBetaSaruRipTPlusEng0Point75SincereDotZip'' plays InSpiteOfANail for horror. The basic premise is the existence of a ''Fortune Lover'' hack (implied to have been created by A-chan), in which the AlphaBitch Katarina Claes of ''Fortune Lover'' is replaced with the AllLovingHero Katarina Claes of ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'', while everyone else's dialogs and event flags are left unaltered. The result is that all of the latter Katarina's attempts to escape her doom are worthless: she is labeled a villainess despite doing nothing on-screen to deserve it, denounced for crimes that she never committed, and finally killed or exiled for no reason other than the immutable Plot. |
| 71 | * ''Fanfic/ItAllStartedWithAnOSHAViolation'' uses BecomingTheCostume to this effect. As Skid and Pump went down the elevator shaft in their respective costumes, Skid's skeleton costume fused with his bones while Pump's costume head fused with his head and became an actual pumpkin. [[spoiler:Monster was revealed to have suffered the same fate once he fell down the same shaft; the lemon head of his mascot costume became his actual head.]] |
| 72 | * ToonTransformation is used for horror in the ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45818845 i was a middle-aged weretoon]],'' where Peppino, after being [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent bitten by a pair of wind-up teeth]], undergoes an [[PainfulTransformation unpleasant]], BodyHorror-laden transformation into a toon [[MythologyGag resembling his in-game form]]. |
| 73 | * ''Fanfic/RediscoveredFrontiers'' shows the darker effects of RippleEffectProofMemory. Silver's efforts to change the future are successful, and he always remembers the old timeline, but not the new one. This has resulted in places, people, friends and even ''his own parents'' being outright erased or replaced from his perspective, and each time he has to refamiliarize himself with the new history, of both the world in general and his own personal life. |
| 74 | * YourMimeMakesItReal is played for both scares and BlackComedy in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' FanFilm [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-64TO5uPfk "The Silent Treatment"]], where an overly-committed mime ends up in one of Jigsaw's ironic {{Death Trap}}s... which to the viewer looks like a completely empty room. At first, it appears the mime is only ''acting'' like he's up in chains and forced into [[LifeOrLimbDecision a sadistic life-or-limb scenario,]] but once he "mimes" cutting himself and [[BloodyHorror very real blood starts coming out of him]], it's left [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane really unclear just how imaginary the trap was]]. |
| 75 | * CryIntoChest is used for horror in ''Fanfic/StrikerStrikesBack''. Moxxie weeps into Valentino’s shoulder after getting a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown and then locked inside a storage chest [[spoiler: and [[ForcedToWatch forced to listen]] to Vox being BludgeonedToDeath.]] What makes this disturbing is that Valentino not only is Moxxie’s captor and abuser, [[spoiler: but also the one who beat Vox to death in the first place and [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou then pushed the blame on Moxxie.]]]] But the poor imp is so traumatized and desperate for comfort that he’s willing to accept it from any source. |
| 76 | * Estee's ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'' features a kind of In-Universe {{Flanderization}} with ''falling into the mark'', an extremely common psychological disorder among ponies where the pony allows their special talent to dominate their lives to the point where there is ''nothing'' outside the mark. In ''A Mark Of Appeal'', there’s also the discovery of a disease that amplifies the mark magic until it renders the pony unable to do or think of anything that is not the exercise of their talent. |
| 77 | * LikesClarkKentHatesSuperman is played for horror in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33994849/chapters/84549145 Watch Me Burn]]''. After learning that Marinette is Ladybug, Adrien starts dating her... and at the same time, amps up Chat Noir's harassment of Ladybug, deliberately cultivating this dynamic [[ForTheEvulz for his own amusement]]. He finds the contrast between Marinette's stammering crush on him versus her exasperation and frustration with Chat Noir being a NominalHero amusing, and intends to string both of her identities along for as long as he can before dropping the bombshell by revealing himself. |
| 78 | -->''And if she ever tries to leave him, well.''\ |
| 79 | ''[[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive He knew where she lived, after all.]]''\ |
| 80 | ''It wouldn't be out of character for Chat Noir to stand by, laughing, as [[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS03E06Weredad the Dupain-Cheng Bakery was reduced to rubble]].'' |
| 81 | * ''[[Fanfic/WhatGoesAroundComesAroundMiraculousLadybug What Goes Around Comes Around]]'' plays the ShipperOnDeck trope for horror. The Agrestes both decide they're on board with Adrien hooking up with Marinette, but only on ''their'' terms -- to the point that [[spoiler:they plan to make a reality-altering Wish that will merge Adrien and Felix into their idealized son, with Marinette forced to marry him]]. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 85 | * The mini-adaptation of ''Literature/TheMysteriousStranger'' included in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain'' does this for the source material: While the dark elements were also present in the book, there was also a major MoodDissonance in the way in which the story was told, making it closer to a whimsical fairy tale than a CosmicHorrorStory. Satan himself was often described as attractive and charming, but in the animated film he is given a creepy, sinister appearance, and the adapted passage (Which is actually one of the most ''light-hearted moments'' from the original book) is given an eerie, nightmarish atmosphere which sharply contrasts with the rest of the movie. |
| 86 | * The first chapter of ''WesternAnimation/TheHouse2022'' uses OhLookMoreRooms for horror. Van Schoonbeek's carpenters are constantly building up the house, but its appearance from the outside never changes. Mabel wakes up one day to find that her window to the outside is suddenly a window into a new, windowless room. [[spoiler: She and Isobel eventually end up lost within the constantly expanding interior, and are at real risk of death by starvation]]. |
| 87 | * ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes is used to show fear in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. When the title princess runs in panic into the forest, some yellow glowing eyes seem to stare at her. They actually belong to friendly cute animals, but Snow White's imagination makes them look evil and demonic. |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 91 | * ''Film/OneBR'' uses a CloseKnitCommunity as a premise for a horror film. At first, the tenants of the apartment building [[TheProtagonist Sarah]] moves into are a very friendly and sociable bunch. That said, it's soon revealed that they value their community to the point of SeriousBusiness, practically brainwashing and psychologically torturing all new tenants into wanting to become permanent members of the community. |
| 92 | * Jan Svankmajer's ''Film/{{Alice|1988}}'' is an interesting case of this, adapting ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' into a dark, ominous film while at the same time being relatively faithful to the source material: The difference is that while in the original book the weirdness of the plot is used for SurrealHumor, in this movie the weirdness is played for SurrealHorror. |
| 93 | * ''Film/{{Antebellum}}'', like Creator/OctaviaButler's ''Literature/{{Kindred}}'', is a story about a Black female writer who travels back in time to a [[UsefulNotes/AntebellumAmerica pre-Civil War]] plantation in the DeepSouth, a premise that is used to explore the violence of slavery. But whereas ''Kindred'' is a dark MagicRealism drama, ''Antebellum'' is a violent horror movie in which plantation slavery is the subject of TorturePorn. |
| 94 | * What happens if you take the basic plot of ''Film/RioBravo'', in which a group of lawmen are besieged by a heavily armed gang, and give it a SettingUpdate to contemporary (1970s) Los Angeles and present the gangsters like a human version of the zombies from ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}''? You get ''Film/{{Assault on Precinct 13|1976}}'', the ActionHorror film that put Creator/JohnCarpenter on the map as a filmmaker. |
| 95 | * ''Film/TheAutopsyOfJaneDoe'' uses BeautyIsNeverTarnished for creepiness, as Jane Doe's body is unnaturally preserved and devoid of external bruises or marks. The "beauty" of the corpse contrasts even more with the discovery of the corpse's gruesome internal traumas. A final unnerving instance of it occurs when in the last moments of the movie, [[spoiler:when the police investigate the morgue following the deaths of the Tildens and the corpse is shown to be perfectly intact, which we saw resulting from the transfer of her injuries to Tommy]]. |
| 96 | * ''Film/TheBananaSplitsMovie'' adapts the original ''Series/TheBananaSplits'' series, turning a comedy show for kids into a R-rated horror movie. |
| 97 | * ''Film/Batman1989'' has an InUniverse example of {{Corpsing}} end with a literal corpse. Two anchors, one male and one female, report on mysterious deaths of models and beauty parlor customers. The female anchor starts laughing until she falls out of her chair, dead. It's then that the Joker interrupts the show with a fake commerical for his chemicals he used to poison beauty products. During this, there's a shot of the dead anchor with her face having turned into a copy of the Joker's perma-smile. |
| 98 | * ''Film/BetterWatchOut'' does this with HomeAloneAntics. As it turns out, the famous paint can trap from that film will actually ''kill somebody''. Also, the Kevin [=McCallister=] analogue here [[spoiler:is [[EnfantTerrible every bit the budding psycho]] that the [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation popular fan interpretation]] often paints him as]]. |
| 99 | * ''Film/BrightBurn'' makes it clear that it wants to do this to the SupermanSubstitute from the get-go by copying every possible beat from the trailers for Creator/ZackSnyder's ''Film/ManOfSteel'' up until the kid learns that he's an alien with superpowers... and then the rest of the trailer showcases Creator/JamesGunn's idea of what ''[[BewareTheSuperman really]]'' happens when a bullied, maladjusted kid [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers finds out that he's potentially invincible.]] |
| 100 | * The usually comedic GlassSmackAndSlide trope is played for horror in ''Film/Carrie2013''. When Carrie [[FreakOut snaps]] and starts her telekinetic rampage, a fleeing girl is hurled into the closed gym door, cracking the window and leaving a thick smear of blood when she slips down. |
| 101 | * ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' does this to the {{Kaiju}} movie and, by extension, the DisasterMovie. A giant monster's rampage through New York is shown from the perspective of the PunyHumans on the ground fighting to survive with little idea of what's going on, and while the MonumentalDamage it causes is visually impressive, it's portrayed as less cool and awesome and more terrifying, especially given how numerous shots in the film are designed to evoke the real-life tragedy of [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the 9/11 attacks]] and the accompanying panic. The monster itself, instead of looking like a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant version]] of a lizard, a dragon, a PrehistoricMonster, or some other recognizable creature, bears little resemblance to real-life Earth animals or even mythological figures and comes across more like an EldritchAbomination, especially when paired with the classic kaiju movie trope of the military and conventional weapons being largely ineffectual against it [[spoiler:and TheStinger implying that not even ''nuclear weapons'' can fully put it down]]. |
| 102 | * ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' depicts the titular characters' superpowers as BodyHorror, given that in this version, they gained them through a TeleporterAccident not unlike that of ''Film/TheFly1986''. |
| 103 | * ''Film/GetOut2017'' does this with [[RaceFetish racial fetishization]] and the concept of [[FlawlessToken “positive” discrimination]], concepts that the film criticizes for objectifying the very people they supposedly compliment. Neither is too positive when it means [[spoiler: white people kidnap Black people with the intent of hijacking their bodies for their stereotyped "positive" aspects. To make matters worse, the original people are still stuck as unwilling passengers in their own bodies.]] |
| 104 | * ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'' does this with a number of famous scenes from the original ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}''. Whereas that film did [[PlayedForLaughs the opposite]], taking supernatural horror movie scenarios and {{defang|edHorrors}}ing them by mining humor out of them, this film injects the horror back into many of them. For instance, in the original, Peter Venkman reacts to [[DemonicPossession Dana's possession by Zuul]] in classic Creator/BillMurray fashion as he tries to handle the situation with cool-headed sarcasm. In ''Afterlife'', on the other hand, [[spoiler:Callie Spengler's]] possession by Zuul is staged like a scene straight out of ''Film/TheConjuring'', with the other characters terrified by the sight and TheReveal done as a JumpScare. |
| 105 | * ''Film/GodzillaMinusOne'' turns GrayRainOfDepression horrific. Godzilla's rampage through Ginza, ends in him releasing his [[BreathWeapon atomic breath]] and causing massive devastation. Afterwards, black rain begins to fall from the sky, with Shikishima caught in the downpour. It's not just rain, however; it's ''nuclear fallout'', as the "atomic" part of "atomic breath" is played deadly straight. |
| 106 | * ''Film/TheGuest'' does this for Stale Beer SpyFiction in the manner of ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', showing how a genetically enhanced [[SuperSoldier super-spy]] who's been programmed to [[HeKnowsTooMuch kill anybody who might blow his cover]] would make for a terrifying horror movie villain if an ordinary family started to suspect who he was. |
| 107 | * ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'': HeadDesk is played for horror when [[spoiler:Peter gets possessed in class and smashes his face into his desk twice with enough force to break his nose]]. |
| 108 | * ''Film/TheHowling'' does this for UrbanFantasy, showing what it would be like for {{Muggles}} living in something like TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness. Within werewolf society, all manner of internal politics are hinted at, particularly a philosophical divide between those who wish to harmonize their human and animal instincts and those who wish to fully give in to the latter... none of which matters to the protagonists, ordinary humans hunted by werewolves who seek to either transform them (as in the case of Karen and Bill) or [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade kill them to cover up the truth]] (as with Chris and Terri). A lot of attention is given to how werewolves would operate in modern society... which is used here to highlight how TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse. There is a [[YouSexyBeast sexy female werewolf]] in Marsha who seduces one of the male heroes... but her temptations are portrayed as purely villainous, without any redeeming qualities. Werewolves can {{transform|ationSequence}} at will [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent rather than waiting for the full moon]] as per [[WolfMan the classic portrayal]], a feature that, in urban fantasy stories, is often used to make werewolves more sympathetic and/or badass by letting them control their "monster" side (or, in games specifically, give players easier access to all the cool werewolf powers)... but is used here to make them more dangerous foes for the protagonists, who aren't safe even during the day. [[spoiler:When the heroine Karen is turned, she transforms into a werewolf on live TV in an attempt to break the masquerade... and people are too {{apathetic|Citizens}} and cynical to [[WeirdnessCensor buy it as anything more than a special effects-driven publicity stunt]].]] |
| 109 | * SlowAndSteadyWinsTheRace gets dark in ''Film/TheHunt2020''. Crystal Creasy (the AntiHero and a ShellShockedVeteran) narrates a version of ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' in which, as usual, this method lets the tortoise win the race... and then, much to the surprise of [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame the fellow hunted]] she's talking to (who thought that she was telling him that's how they were going to play the game), she follows it with saying that the hare arrived that same night to the tortoise's home and [[SoreLoser got even]] [[DisproportionateRetribution by killing the tortoise and his entire family]]. [[BadOmenAnecdote The man is visibly nervous when Crystal finishes her tale]]. |
| 110 | * ''Film/ImThinkingOfEndingThings'' uses the RogerRabbitEffect for creepiness. Briefly, following [[spoiler:a mental breakdown, the janitor seemingly hallucinates the animated maggot-infested pig and follows it into the school.]] |
| 111 | * A NosyNeighbor is the villain in ''Film/{{Karen}}''. [[AntagonistTitle Karen]] Drexler, a racist ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife, gets more than a little upset at the fact that an African-American couple moved right next door. Installing cameras to keep watch of them 24/7 and interrogating them is just the beginning of [[IntimidatingWhitePresence a campaign to drive them out of the neighborhood]] that escalates to attempted murder. |
| 112 | * DomesticApplianceDisaster is invoked and played for horror in the remake of ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'': [[spoiler:The main villain Krug gets killed by [[PapaWolf Mr. Collingwood]] by ramming his head through the door of a microwave oven and putting it to max power. [[YourHeadAsplode Krug's head explodes]].]] |
| 113 | * ''Film/Leprechaun3'' uses GagLips, BreastExpansion, and [[InflatingBodyGag butt inflation]] for both horror and [[BlackComedy dark humor]]. A slender, aging casino worker wishes for a more voluptuous body. The Leprechaun kills her by making her lips, boobs, and butt rapidly expand until [[PopGoesTheHuman she blows up]]. |
| 114 | * OnlyOneFindsItFun is played for horror in ''Film/TheLovedOnes''. Lola throws an entire prom, in which her "date" is an unwilling participant, her mother is incapable of speaking or reacting, and her father is solely obsessed with her happiness. |
| 115 | * ''Film/{{Men}}'' uses the MisterSeahorse trope in a gruesome way, [[spoiler: where all the men that Harper previously faced are shown giving birth to each other in [[BodyHorror a series of extremely graphic bodily transformations]] that happen via increasingly insane orifices, leaving their bodies [[{{Gorn}}horrifically mutilated with much blood]].]] |
| 116 | * One of the scariest scenes in ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' is one that does this to the DomCom, particularly the DysfunctionalFamily sitcoms that got popular in the late '80s and '90s. Mallory's DarkAndTroubledPast is shown to the audience through a flashback staged as a sitcom called ''I Love Mallory'' that resembles ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', one in which, underneath the LaughTrack and the broad performances, Mallory's abusive, Al Bundy-esque father is presented as a terrifying figure who's straight-up [[ParentalIncest raping his daughter]]. |
| 117 | * ''Film/NothingButTrouble'': The trope CopsNeedTheVigilante is used for horror in a reveal: [[spoiler:the state police knows perfectly well that J.P. Valkenheiser is a murderous HangingJudge and not only do nothing about it but send him criminals to get rid of covertly. Chris and Diane discover this while surrounded by the army of cops that came to "arrest" the Judge after they first escaped and the Judge himself all acting chummy, and the massive collapse of Valkenvania happens just in time to interrupt what seemed to be [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade our heroes being murdered to silence them]].]] |
| 118 | * ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'': |
| 119 | ** ''Film/FirstBlood'', the first film in the series, does this for the action movie premise unlike the following sequels would played it straight, instead being a FromBadToWorse situation that makes an action film like this one being a some sort of nightmarish PsychologicalHorror experience than some fun rollercoaster. |
| 120 | ** One of the sequels, ''Film/RamboIV'', has its BigBad Major Tint who and his KickTheDog actions are this, showing how much he is a KnightOfCerebus VilerNewVillain whose misdeeds pulls no punches when is comes to their graphically horrifying outcomes unlike past villains' evil sins. |
| 121 | * ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Adventures_of_Tom_Thumb The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb]]'' turns the classic ''Literature/TomThumb'' fairytale into a SurrealHorror UrbanFantasy film with harsh, squalid environments; giant bugs and creatures crawling everywhere; violence, death and experimentation as major plot points and a dark MindScrew ending involving a nuclear reactor exploding and killing everyone. Also, Tom Thumb himself looks like a fetus. |
| 122 | * ''Film/TheTerminator'', the first film in the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' series, does this with its namesake KillerRobot, depicting the premise more as a SlasherMovie than a typical blockbuster action flick the franchise would become known for starting with [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay its sequel]]. |
| 123 | * ''Film/UneditedFootageOfABear'' does this for Website/{{Youtube}} Ads that interrupt a video: The short starts with the footage of a grizzly bear while the cameraman comments on the size of the bear's ears, then the video suddenly gets interrupted by a commercial for a fictional drug called "Claridryl." But then, instead of ending, the seemingly light-hearted commercial slowly turns into a horror story about how said drug has a very negative impact, causing addiction and personality disorders to the protagonist Donna. [[spoiler:And it is also heavily implied that said drug ultimately drove her into a murderous insanity.]] |
| 124 | * ''Film/{{Unfriended}}'' |
| 125 | ** {{Annoying Pop Up Ad}}s become dangerous obstacles. As it's set on Blaire's computer screen, she is annoyed by multiple ads all the way through, especially when she's trying to call for help or figure out what's going on. In a RewatchBonus, [[spoiler:one of the pop-up "porn" ads is actually footage of Blaire and Adam having sex after she promised Mitch they didn't, an early hint that Laura is haunting Blaire's computer and taunting her]]. |
| 126 | ** There's a dark example of the protagonists playing "[[INever Never Have I Ever]]". As Laura points out, "the loser doesn't drink, [[DeadlyGame the loser dies".]] |
| 127 | * ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' plays a BedmateReveal for horror. When Max wakes up in his bed late in the film after an extended Videodrome hallucination, he finds someone laying next to him. When he removes the sheets it turns out to be the corpse of an associate of his, tied up and tortured to death. He calls up a friend to come over and look, [[spoiler:but it turns out he was again hallucinating and his bed is empty.]] |
| 128 | * TheStraightAndArrowPath is used to emphasize evil in ''Film/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin''. Kevin goes through all the trouble of becoming an expert at archery so that when he [[SpreeKiller unleashes a massacre]] [[AxesAtSchool on his school]], the press will not try to file this under any hot-button issue like gun control or bullying -- [[EvilIsPetty he wanted them all dead because they annoyed him]], that's all there is to it. |
| 129 | [[/folder]] |
| 130 | |
| 131 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 132 | * ExtremeLibido turns horrifying in ''Literature/TheAgeOfDesire''. A test subject is injected with a drug that boosts his libido exponentially. He becomes so possessed by lust [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence he murders people with his bare hands in the course of trying to have sex with them]]. |
| 133 | * The Creator/StephenKing short story "[[Literature/JustAfterSunset The Cat From Hell]]" goes to [[ExaggeratedTrope extreme levels]] with CatsAreMean with a cat that is out for revenge on a guy who got his fortune from a drug tested unsafely on cats. This cat doesn't just go after that guy, it kills his immediate family and anyone who gets in the way of its vengeance, including killing a hitman by [[AttackTheMouth jumping into his mouth, causing him choke to death]], then [[OrificeInvasion crawling all the way inside his body]]. |
| 134 | * ''Literature/DrHarperTherapy'': |
| 135 | ** The Influencer Files story line uses InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube to gruesome effect. The Chicken live-streams himself torturing someone in the most painful and humiliating way possible. |
| 136 | ** AssholeVictim is used for horror. Someone with a history of making bigoted and otherwise offensive comments online is kidnapped and tortured in internet videos. While some of the comments hope the victim will be saved, others believe her past awful behavior means she deserves it. Some people outright express pleasure that she's suffering, one calling it the best stream of the year and another asking if [[NightmareFetishist anyone else was getting a boner]]. |
| 137 | * InTheDreamingStageOfGrief is played for horror in ''Literature/GeraldsGame''. Protagonist Jessie ends up handcuffed to a bed without anyone to let her loose and she soon hallucinates from stress and thirst. When she starts to see a distorted humanoid figure that shows her a [[CreepySouvenir basket of jewelry and human teeth]], she forces herself to dismiss it as a dream "made of moonlight". [[spoiler:Months later, she sees the man on trial [[SerialKiller for murder]] and realizes [[ThatWasNotADream he was really there with her]].]] |
| 138 | * ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'' depicts the BeastMan and UpliftedAnimal tropes this way, and is an {{Unbuilt|Trope}} version of the latter. The titular doctor has used anesthetic-free vivisections to mold animals into human-like forms, and the main character is disturbed by how much the beast people hit UncannyValley for him. |
| 139 | * In ''Literature/TheJonah'', a BedmateReveal is used for horror. As a birthday surprise, old girlfriend Sandy sneaks into Jim Kelso's house and hides in his bed. Delighted to find it already occupied, she gets in and lifts the bedclothes to find [[spoiler: the solidly manifest ghost of Kelso's murderous twin]]. |
| 140 | * AssShove is used for horror in ''Literature/Moon1985'', in which a sadistic SerialKiller, in attempt to burn Jonathan Childes's internal organs, psychically projects into him the effects of a reaching hand, which becomes a ball of fire. |
| 141 | * ''Literature/TheMysteriousStranger'' uses the AbileneParadox for this. It’s revealed that few of the villagers in [[TheDungAges Dung Ages]] Austria actually believe in witches, but they all allow witch hunts to happen because they are terrified that the rest of the village truly believes it and will assume that they themselves are witches if they defend the accused in any way, including by saying that witches don’t exist. |
| 142 | * {{Cloudcuckooland}} is a trope that is often PlayedForLaughs, specially in media aimed at children. However, in ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' this trope is played for pure horror with the City Of Old Emperors, a place where Former humans are trapped in Fantasia with no memories of who they are, or what they are, engaging in endless, nonsensical tasks over and over forever, showing how ending in a place like that would be a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 143 | * ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' does this to the usually comedic HowManyFingers. In the infamous torture scene (but before Room101), an Inner Party member holds up four fingers, then asks Winston how many he is holding up. When Winston answers four, he puts Winston through ElectricTorture to ''[[TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive force]]'' him to see five, and will not stop until Winston actually, truly believes that there are five fingers. The scene details Winston's incredible pain and the sheer horror of being coerced into accepting an obvious falsehood, and is one of the most chilling scenes in the story. |
| 144 | * ''Literature/{{NOS4A2}}'' by Creator/JoeHill feels like a horror retelling of ''Literature/ThePolarExpress''. Charlie Manx basically believes he's the train's conductor, taking children to the magical Christmas Land, only the train is a Rolls Royce Wraith. In fact, he's actually a deranged psychopath who uses the mystical properties of the car to drain the abducted children of their humanity and retain his youth. The story is told from the perspective of a parent who eventually has her child abducted by Manx. |
| 145 | * "Literature/SnowGlassApples" by Creator/NeilGaiman is a [[{{Grimmification}} very, very dark retelling]] of ''Literature/SnowWhite'' (The original fairy tale, not the Disney film), turning the titular character into a CreepyChild (which is eventually revealed to be a vampire) and adding the same amount of violence and disturbing sexual content that one would expect from stuff like ''Series/GameOfThrones''. |
| 146 | * The trope PlaneAwfulFlight turns nightmarish in ''Literature/StationEleven''. While none of the horrific flights are ever shown, the always-deadly Georgia Flu spreads extremely fast and it spreads especially quickly in confinement. As a result, it becomes completely commonplace once the flu originates for airplanes to ground and [[NothingIsScarier never open.]] Clark frequently hopes that everyone is dead. |
| 147 | -->Don't think of that unspeakable decision, to keep the jet sealed rather than expose a packed airport to a fatal contagion. Don't think about what enforcing that decision may have required. Don't think about those last few hours on board. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 151 | * ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' uses BreastExpansion for squick. One episode covers the famous urban legend "woman with cheap breast implants has her implants explode during an airplane flight." The reenactment scenes depict the woman's breasts growing to absurd proportions within a short amount of time due to the implants themselves expanding because of a change in cabin pressure, and it ends with the woman dying in a bloody mess. |
| 152 | * ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' |
| 153 | ** "[[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason4TheTaleOfTheFireGhost The Tale Of The Fire Ghost]]" uses AshFace for horror. The titular ghost, in human form, appears as a charred policeman. |
| 154 | ** "[[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason6TheTaleOfTheWisdomGlass The Tale Of The Wisdom Glass]]" uses the DenserAndWackier trope for horror. Allan and Jimmy find themselves trapped in a realm where whimsically attired adults rigidly enforce whimsically bizarre rules. |
| 155 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'' |
| 156 | ** The episode "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS5E12TheUncannyValley The Uncanny Valley]]" uses TheDreadedPretendTeaParty trope in a disturbing way. A woman was sexually abused as a child by her father who bought her dolls as an apology. Decades later, he took her dolls and gave them to other girls whom he abused. His daughter, desperate to have her dolls back, abducted women who happened to look like her dolls, sedated and force-fed them, dressed them up, ''sewed a wig into a poor woman's scalp'' and forced them to attend a tea party. All while acting like a well-meaning little girl. |
| 157 | ** In the episode "Profiling 202", it is revealed that David Rossi hates his birthday, and the reason why is a perfect example of the BirthdayHater trope turned horrific. The WholeEpisodeFlashback ends with a SerialKiller with a body count of at least one hundred dead women (none of them found yet) deciding, after being arrested, that he will only reveal one dead body per year exactly on Rossi's birthday and only to Rossi. He even [[KickTheDog goes through the whole macabre glee]] of writing down the name and location in a gift card and singing "Happy Birthday". |
| 158 | * ''Series/CruelSummer'' uses a StargazingScene to unsettling effect. On the night of the family hunting trip in 1993, a distressed Kate ends up sitting out and looking at the stars, having a sweet and emotional chat...with Martin, the same person who grooms and later kidnaps her for months. As this fate is already well-known, this scene is used to show how Martin manipulated her, turning a normally nice moment horrifying. |
| 159 | * A horrific example of HotGuyUglyWife is found in a ''Series/CSIMiami'' episode. A mousy, dowdy-looking woman was so jealous of the attention other women would pay her devoted and handsome husband, that she convinced him to seduce and lure women into their plot. She would go as far as to pretend to be one of the victims, and play up a rescue only to dash their hopes, by pulling back her hands while her husband would drag them to their deaths, all so she could see the look of terror in their eyes, while her husband would kill them with a loving gaze fixated on his wife. |
| 160 | * Guns are commonplace weapons and a familiar sight in virtually any action setting, but Season 3 of ''Series/Daredevil2015'' is credited with making firearms scary in the person of Bullseye, who dispenses instant death to unsuspecting victims. |
| 161 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': SymbolicWings are made frightening in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E4FluxChapterFourVillageOfTheAngels Village of the Angels]]" when Claire Brown looks in the mirror and sees a vision of herself with stone angel wings growing from her back. It shows she's been possessed by a Weeping Angel, an EldritchAbomination that takes the form of an angel statue. |
| 162 | * ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'' uses BigotWithACrush this way. Nate Jacobs, who has extremely fucked-up ideas about how women should look and behave, becomes obsessed with trans girl Jules, who he knows would not meet his exacting standards, and sets about trying to force her to "reform" under threat of having her arrested for underage sexting. |
| 163 | * ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': A TheseusShipParadox is played for horror. The Dollmaker [[YouHaveFailedMe punished one of his subordinates]] by subjecting him to the BodyHorror of replacing most of his body parts with incompatible pieces. |
| 164 | --> '''Dollmaker''': How much of you can be replaced before you're not you anymore? |
| 165 | * ''Series/TheHauntingHour'': TheComplianceGame is a nightmarish punishment in "Uncle Howee." The titular character, a [[SubvertedKidsShow creepy kiddie show host]], comes into the real world to punish Jared, a BigBrotherBully who's been cruel to his little sister Cynthia. Uncle Howee makes Cynthia disappear and challenges Jared to locate her, but he calls the situation a game named "Find Your Sister Before Mom Gets Home and Grounds Ya for the Rest of Your Life!" [[spoiler: Jared ultimately loses and, in a KarmicTransformation, is forced to become a puppet character on Uncle Howee's show forever.]] |
| 166 | -->'''Uncle Howee''': If you find her, you get to keep her--if you don't, well, I guess you'll have some explaining to do. |
| 167 | * The ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode "[[Recap/MastersOfHorrorS2E7TheScrewflySolution The Screwfly Solution]]" uses GirlsVsBoysPlot to terrifying effect. One day, men all over the world find themselves slowly succumbing to a HatePlague that causes them to become violent and murderous toward every woman they find -- up to and including their own wives, mothers, and ''small children.'' After the initial purges, the episode plays out like a dark version of this type of plot: the few women who avoid the first wave of attacks band together and do their best to survive, only to be slowly hunted down by the still-homicidal men, who do gruesome things like mutilate their victims' bodies and turn them into trophies (at one point, a man proudly walks around carrying a bag made from a woman's breast). The episode ends with [[spoiler:one of the last women on Earth discovering that the plague was caused by aliens, who arranged a {{Gendercide}} to make the planet easier to conquer]]. |
| 168 | * ''Series/ReservationDogs'' plays a LanguageBarrier for horror. The children in "Deer Lady" don't speak English, so from ''their'' perspective, [[BlackSpeech the adults are speaking complete gibberish]]. It also makes their abusive attacks seem that much more random and unmotivated. |
| 169 | * EvilLearnsOfOutsideContext is made chilling in ''Series/StrangerThings''. The Mind Flayer, an entirely alien entity with initially no understanding of Earth, slowly gains more and more knowledge of human behaviour and the larger situation, employing increasingly intelligent tactics as a result. It's especially frightening when the creature figures out that El and The Party are its primary opposition, learning to [[spoiler:single them out specifically and make the kids ''suffer'']]. |
| 170 | * TheCatCameBack is part of a horror plot in the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS3E1LovedToDeath Loved to Death]]". In the episode, the main character gives a LovePotion to a beautiful woman who won't give him the time of day. It works far too well. Eventually, [[spoiler:he kills himself to escape (albeit accidentally while trying to kill her), and on the escalator to Heaven, finds her right behind him, now hideously mangled because she killed herself by jumping out of a window]]. |
| 171 | * ''Series/TalesFromTheDarkside'': "Love Hungry" plays AnthropomorphicFood for horror. A "revolutionary weight loss system" consists of a hearing aid and glasses that cause the woman who wears them to perceive (ordinary, inanimate) food as alive and desperate not to be eaten. And they don't come off... |
| 172 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': |
| 173 | ** TheCatCameBack is played for horror in [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E16TheHitchHiker "The Hitch Hiker"]]. Protagonist Nan finds the hitchhiker creepy from the start, but her panic builds as she notices him every time she stops, even when she's driven long distances. |
| 174 | ** The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E30StopoverInAQuietTown Stopover in a Quiet Town]]" features one of the most disturbing uses of TheDreadedPretendTeaParty trope. A couple who were [[DrunkDriver drunk driving]] wake up to discover themselves alone in a town they can't seem to escape from. The PlotTwist is that they're in an alien child's dollhouse and surrounding toy town, and the child is just playing. After they ran off the road, the child's parents took them home to the child as playthings. Whether the child and parents are giant or there was a ShrinkRay involved is never explored. But the fear of the couple is genuine in this case given the owner of the dollhouse is at least 6 times their size. |
| 175 | * ''Series/WandaVision'' works its way through a checklist of SitcomTropes — and any one of them can turn very wrong in a moment, as the audience learns to see this as a show about a RealityWarper having a nervous breakdown. |
| 176 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'' does this to the typically comedic RubberMan trope in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E03Squeeze Squeeze]]" with the ''terrifying'' liver-eating mutant Eugene Victor Tooms. He likes to [[AirVentPassageway sneak through vents]] to reach victims in [[LockedRoomMystery otherwise locked rooms]]. |
| 177 | [[/folder]] |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[folder:Music Videos]] |
| 180 | * The video for "Run" by Music/{{Joji}} is a rare case where AbsurdlyLongLimousine is horrific. It begins with Joji waking up in the back of a limo with no clue how he got there, surrounded by party-goers who show no concern for his confusion and distress. He tries to reach the exit, but no matter how far he runs, the limo just keeps going on and on and on… |
| 181 | [[/folder]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 184 | * ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' does this with GluttonousPig. In the episode "Cruelty Free" a farmer discovers a massive, 400 kilogram pig, which devours anything that gets in its pen, starting with the other pigs and eventually moving on to humans. |
| 185 | * ''Podcast/OnTheThreshold'' takes RecurringDreams to the LogicalExtreme in an unsettling way. [[spoiler: Dr. Applegate discovers her own work, she literally can't seem to dream about anything other than getting into a looping conversation with herself and wandering empty hallways. Breaking free of the cycle temporarily only makes it far worse.]] |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 189 | * In ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals,'' MusicalNumberAnnoyance turns to Musical Number Fear. Paul gets annoyed at everyone in Hatchetfield singing "La Di Da Da Day," which eventually progresses to outright fear as they get progressively more pushy for him to join them. [[PlayedForHorror He's quite justified to be unnerved]], as it's later revealed all the singing is the result of an alien infection. |
| 190 | * ''[[Theatre/{{Heathers}} Heathers: The Musical]]'' does this with love songs during "Our Love is God", where J.D. continues to lovingly sing his worship to Veronica after he just [[spoiler:murdered Kurt and Ram in cold blood]]. Veronica is clearly terrified. What starts as a romantic ballad quickly turns into J.D. and Veronica's DescentIntoDarknessSong. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Urban Legends]] |
| 194 | * One urban legend uses OfCorpseHesAlive for horror. A woman riding a bus or subway feels disconcerted when she notices a man across from her staring at her continually. Shortly afterwards, one of her fellow riders pressures her into getting off the bus with him, which makes her even more nervous. However, the fellow rider explains he just wanted to get her to safety -- the staring man had actually been murdered and the two killers were sitting on either side propping him up. |
| 195 | [[/folder]] |
| 196 | |
| 197 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'' use the ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' mythos for horror. An adult Alice struggles through post-traumatic stress and feelings of guilt over the fire that killed her family. Wonderland has become full of violence and its inhabitants are often grotesque, if not experiencing outright BodyHorror. |
| 199 | * ''VideoGame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'' takes the style of a crappy 1990’s EdutainmentGame and turns it into a SurvivalHorror game where the title character chases you down [[DisproportionateRetribution merely for getting an unsolvable math problem wrong]]. |
| 200 | * The monster-filled locations of ''VideoGame/CarnEvil'' include a ChristmasTown. Rickety Town is a fairground located between the Big Top and the Freak Show. The player explores most of the rides and attractions here, the only exception being a rocket next to the snowglobe ice rink. While the level is presented as a Christmas-themed theme park, the game's setting is presented as a CircusOfFear, including a monstrous BadSanta[=/=]TheKrampus boss battle on a skating-rink. |
| 201 | * ''VideoGame/{{Darkwood}}'' plays AbsurdlyIneffectiveBarricade for [[PlayedForDrama drama]] and terror. Properly barricading a hideout is way more complicated than just closing a door and putting a wardrobe behind it – even ''dogs'' can push furniture out of the way with considerable ease. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' makes an IdolSinger one of the killers. Ji-Woon Hak used to be part of a boy band called NO SPIN. Growing jealous of his bandmates' popularity, he commited MurderByInaction by leaving them trapped inside of a recording studio when the building caught on fire. He then went on to accomplish a successful solo career as The Trickster, where he had a DarkerAndEdgier image... in part because he moonlighted as a SerialKiller, sampling the screams of his victims in his songs. Finally, after ExecutiveMeddling stopped him from producing his own songs, he retaliated by torturing his record label's board members to death while [[ForcedToWatch forcing the talent scout who recruited him to watch]]. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'' plays GodsNeedPrayerBadly for horror. The Seven Gods couldn't care less about mortals' prayers, because what they are really after is [[spoiler:the Source they unwitting collect throughout their lives. When a mortal dies, vestiges of their identity and personality sublimate in the Source they've collected as a kind of "ghost", which is then guided by their belief to what they believe to be afterlife at the side of the god they worshipped in life. Except that said Gods then simply consume the "ghost" for its Source, literally feeding on their worshipers to replenish their divinity. In other words, the Seven "Gods" are nothing but Rivellon's oldest Source vampires, functionally no different from the protagonists of the game]]. |
| 204 | * An UnroboticReveal turns gruesome with the {{golem}}s of ''Franchise/DragonAge'', who used to be [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]] until a MadScientist encased them in rock and poured molten [[GreenRocks lyrium]] through the slits in the case until they stopped screaming. |
| 205 | * ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'': |
| 206 | ** The series does this with SuckECheeses. The restaurant franchise that the games focus on not only has homicidal robots who hunt the [[PlayerCharacter unfortunate night guards]], but the backstory involves gruesome murders, with many of the victims being [[WouldHurtAChild children]]. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive The upper management is also corrupt]], showing little regard for the safety of their employees and caring about customer safety only as far as it matters for their reputation. |
| 207 | ** [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1 The first game]] uses a NoodleIncident to disturb the player. Phone Guy mentions the animatronics used to roam during the day, but that ended after the Bite of '87. He remarks "It's amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, y'know?" |
| 208 | ** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation'' uses an UnreliableVoiceover to add to the frightening atmosphere. There are many beats where you ostensibly need to rely on [[ComputerVoice the automated HandUnit guide]] to give you instructions on how to deal with [[HostileAnimatronics the animatronics]], but you'll quickly realize that it's not good at its job or keeping track of the things that are ''supposed'' to be in its system. One example is where it'll ask you to shine a light on Circus Baby's stage, but it will "helpfully" announce that she's still there [[NothingIsScarier even though she very clearly isn't anymore]]. |
| 209 | * Doing a FourthWallPsych is played for scares in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick''. When someone tries to talk to a ghost and they aren't using the ghost world, their sprite will turn and directly face the viewer as if talking to the player themselves. [[spoiler:And when Yomiel does it, catching you in the act of trying to save Cabanela, it's fucking terrifying.]] |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' does this with ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and the many [[FirstPersonShooter FPS]] games that followed in its wake. Like ''Doom'', you play as somebody who uses a [[StandardFPSGuns prodigious arsenal]] to fight off hordes of monsters after an advanced physics experiment GoneHorriblyWrong, but unlike the Doomguy, Gordon Freeman is ''not'' a soldier, and he will die quickly if he runs headlong into combat. And while ''Doom'' used its ExcusePlot to leave as little as possible between the player and the action, ''Half-Life'' used its lack of explanation to create mystery and shocking twists, ultimately revealing that Gordon is merely a pawn in something much bigger than himself that he can't hope to comprehend. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': IOweYouMyLife is dark in terms of Zaalbar's life debt to the main character. For players of Dark-Sided alignment, it is in fact a form of slavery, as he will do ''anything'' they tell him to if you remind him of the life debt. [[spoiler:This includes ''killing Mission'' if she angers you or gets in your way, even though he's extremely protective of her]]. [[spoiler:However, he won't do it unless you use Force Persuade on him, and if you take him on the Star Forge afterwards he'll attack you]]. |
| 212 | * ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' deconstructs many WesternRPG gameplay staples by giving them horrific in-story justifications. For instance, the ExperiencePoints are revealed to be an expression of the [[PlayerCharacter Exile]] actually devouring the life force of the people and creatures s/he murders, while RelationshipValues turn out to be an indicator of how successful s/he is at {{More Than Mind Control}}ling her traveling companions. |
| 213 | * ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has variants on ThePowerOfLove. [[EvilOverlord Viego the Ruined King]] exploits a twisted, villainous version of it in that his power over [[FogOfDoom the undead horde of the Black Mist]] is [[LoveMakesYouEvil driven by his love for his fallen queen]], with his vain attempts to bring her BackFromTheDead forming the Shadow Isles and one of the biggest threats in the game. Even worse, he can use the Black Mist to corrupt and bend people to his will by exploiting [[YourHeartsDesire what THEY love and value]]. |
| 214 | * ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'' heavily and frighteningly exaggerates CapitalismIsBad. While the game doesn't outright state it, the City doesn't have any non-corporate governors. In fact, it's ''solely'' ruled by corporations known as Wings who basically run on ''fanatical capitalism''; even the Head, supposedly being ruling authorities, are actually one such Corporation known as A Corp. It's not even a matter of pure greed; many of them seem to just make decisions that maximize bloodshed or violate all common sense either because they are integral for the Wing's survival, outright weirdness, malice or even any combination of the above. Standouts include former L Corp where the Manager deliberately gets his employees horribly killed by Abnormalities or W Corp[[spoiler: forcing passengers of the Warp Train to suffer from a 2000 century torture only to undo them instantly]]. Commonfolks are thrown into backstreet slums that the Wings don't usually give a rat's ass about and everyone has to more or less, eat rats or kill other human beings to survive. Most people there actually have to earn enough money to go to metropolitan areas called Nests, where the Wings behind it can and will kick you out if you don't yield any produce or societal contribution. |
| 215 | * ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' has a few CameraFiend characters, but one in particular turns out to be [[spoiler:quite the literal fiend. He is the BigBad drugging and kidnapping girls to take them to his Dark Room, where he photographs them in sexualized positions and tortures them, all to capture the moment where innocence becomes corrupted.]] |
| 216 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 217 | ** An UnroboticReveal is done this way. The Reapers are initially portrayed as incredibly powerful and ancient sentient spaceships. Then we find out how Reapers are created: millions of people taken from the dominant race during a Reaper Cycle are ''liquefied'' into technorganic slurry that is fed to a Reaper superstructure. Worse, it's implied that the minds of the victims live on inside the Reaper and act as a MindHive. |
| 218 | * LostInCharacter is used for horror in ''VideoGame/NeedyStreamerOverload''. The "Internet Overdose" ending concludes with [[spoiler:Ame having a psychotic breakdown from all her stress and losing herself in her [[{{Kayfabe}} [=KAngel=] streamer persona]], to the point of holding a memorial picture of Ame in one stream as if holding a funeral for her original self]]. |
| 219 | * ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' has a dark version of a HardDrinkingPartyGirl in the form of Bad Girl. She's [[EstablishingCharacterMoment first introduced]] gleefully smashing apart cloned gimps with [[BatterUp a baseball bat]] (which, given she's Rank 2 of [[ProfessionalKiller the United Assassins Association]], is implied to be ''her job''), then "unwinds" by cracking open a cold one and downing it within seconds. Combined with her young age (early twenties at the absolute maximum) and the fact that beer is the only thing in her fridge creates a very eerie display of who she is. |
| 220 | * ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' does this to the ExcusePlot common to PuzzleGames. You move through a series of rooms, solving the puzzles contained therein, whilst guided by a voice over a loudspeaker. However, the rooms have a creepy, oppressive atmosphere from the very beginning, the guide's contributions [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds are unhelpful, bizarre, condescending or some combination of the three]], and venturing out of bounds reveals that you aren't the first one to go through the rooms, with the previous participants ending up insane and/or dead. It all comes to a head when the guide throws off the pretense and tries to ''flat-out murder you''. |
| 221 | * As discussed in [[http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/flashback-the-arcade-horror-of-sinistar/ this article]], what makes ''VideoGame/{{Sinistar}}'' so frightening beyond the [[NightmareFace titular character himself]] is the way the game is structured. Like every other game of its era, ''Sinistar'' is an EndlessGame with NintendoHard difficulty, but uses these conventions to create a CosmicHorrorStory that instills hopelessness in the player: no matter how many times the player character destroys Sinistar, his followers will quickly resume in rebuilding him elsewhere in the galaxy, and so the player character is thus [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption always doomed to fall]] at the hands of Sinistar. |
| 222 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' ROM hack ''VideoGame/SM64DotZ64'' does this with GameBreakingBug, crashing the game at the end of each loop and displaying the message "[[MadnessMantra SOMETHING CHANGED SOMETHING CHANGED SO-]]" in the crash handler. |
| 223 | * ''VideoGame/VeryLittleNightmares'' uses a LonelyDollGirl as a villain. The [[BigBad main antagonist]] is a [[HumanoidAbomination monster with the appearance of a prettied-up little girl]] who lives alone in a OldDarkHouse. To keep her loneliness at bay, she collects life-size dolls made of [[WaxMuseumMorgue the skin of actual children her servants capture and kill]]. She seems to believe they are actually living children. |
| 224 | * ''VideoGame/WhenTheDarknessComes'' does this with ButThouMust. The game presents buttons at various points in the game, for the purposes of answering questions. However, the player is never allowed to actually make a choice; either they only get one answer, which invariably isn't the answer they'd typically want to choose, or the answer is nullified anyway because "they didn't mean it". [[spoiler:A rather dark version comes near the end. The player is given a button and a woman asking them questions, but they aren't allowed to move. As the woman tries in vain to make you respond, you can do nothing but stand there and fail her.]] |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 228 | * ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' uses {{Defictionalization}} to dark effect, by revealing that [[spoiler:the various fourth wall breaks of Monokuma are actually because the series have been turned into a reality TV show. When the characters discover this, they are utterly shocked as they realize all of their memories and emotions were fiction. This reveal psychologically devastates the surviving members, until Shuichi comes to the realization that even if everything is fictional, their experiences and pain are real. The final battle is against the embodiment of the TV audience itself.]] |
| 229 | [[/folder]] |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 232 | * ''WebAnimation/DontWalkHomeAloneAfterDark'': An AmbiguousCriminalHistory is played for unnerving effect in ''WebAnimation/TheWorm''. It's never fully detailed what Sparrow did to get her landed in a mental hospital, but it's implied to have been pretty serious, with the narrator stating that when he met Sparrow he'd been half expecting an “uncontrollable monster” and that it was hard to reconcile the small, quiet teenager in front of him with what she had done. A newspaper in one shot states she was taken into custody over her suspected involvement in the murder-suicide of her friends and an older man, but it's unclear what exactly went down. In the comment section on the video, Andy Coyle simply said that Sparrow did [[IDidWhatIHadToDo "What she had to…"]] |
| 233 | * While in theory ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' tends to subvert the AmusingInjuries trope for BlackComedy, the incredibly gruesome deaths of the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter cute and cuddly cast]] in some episodes ends being more disturbing rather than comical in plenty of occasions, often indulging in BodyHorror and {{Gorn}}. |
| 234 | * ''WebAnimation/LaceyGames'' |
| 235 | ** ''Lacey's Diner'' plays LethalChef and RevengeIsADishBestServed for horror in the bad ending. In her SanitySlippage and anger towards her customers, Lacey serves food made of ''cigarette butts, dead roaches, porn magazines, meth, used condoms, broken glass, and [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies human flesh]]''. It's unclear if the customers survive this. |
| 236 | * The FloatingLimbs trope is used for horror in the ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'' animation, ''An Experiment''. It answers the question of what happens when those floating hands are then put as far away from a Nevadeans body as possible. Turns out that it would be extremely painful for the test subject, and would cause them to glitch out, even being driven insane to the point that their faces are scraped against the wall over and over until [[FacialHorror the only thing that can be seen is their bloodied skull and scraped off flesh]]. And when they get their hands back, the world starts to distort and glitch out, culminating in the lab exploding once the subject dies. |
| 237 | * [[https://youtu.be/RR2dlAnP0-I This]] episode of WebAnimation/SomethingAbout is a legitimately tense short with an engineer being pursued by horrifying, [[VideoGame/DeadSpace Necromorph-like]] ghosts...then you get a glimpse of the engineer and realise it's a sci-fi horror take on VideoGame/PacMan. It even has a human version of Ms. Pac-Man, who happens to be a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Ripley-esque]] ActionGirl. |
| 238 | [[/folder]] |
| 239 | |
| 240 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 241 | * ''Webcomic/TheBikiniBottomHorror'' takes the show ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants ''and uses it for horror. It starts with [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath Patrick Star graphically killing and eating SpongeBob]] and escalates from there. Multiple memes from the show's fanbase make it into the comic as well, usually with rather dark context. |
| 242 | ** The line "No, this is Patrick" goes from a joke about Patrick's ditziness to a terrifying statement. |
| 243 | --->'''Mr. Krabs:''' Wait... Please... This is insane! This is evil!\ |
| 244 | '''Patrick:''' No... This is Patrick. |
| 245 | ** The comic does this with HealingFactor. Patrick's regenerative abilities allow him not only to withstand all types of damage, but also to ''multiply''... which is what empowers him to go on a deadly rampage upon learning the awful truth. However, [[AttackItsWeakPoint hitting certain "nerve clusters"]] can negate this ability, killing a Patrick outright. |
| 246 | * ''Webcomic/KnightsOfBuenaVista'' plays up some parts in ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' as if it was horror (this is a CampaignComic): |
| 247 | ** Weselton talks about how he heard people in the palace over the years said they sometimes felt rooms become as cold as the grave. Mary even compliments Walter on making Elsa's powers seem spooky. Then she's genuinely spooked out by Weselton further interrogating her. |
| 248 | --->'''Walter:''' And he leans close, almost like he's trying to see the darkness in your pupils. |
| 249 | ** When darker ice appears within the ice of Elsa's palace after she finds out she caused an EndlessWinter in her kingdom, Dick describes the effect as something like a Japanese horror film. Mary has as much of a genuinely freaked out look as Anna, and says if anything starts coming out of the ice [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere she's quitting the campaign]]. |
| 250 | [[/folder]] |
| 251 | |
| 252 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 253 | * ''AudioPlay/AlienAbductionRolePlay'' uses the AlienCatnip trope to add horror. Acktreal Domma feels a strong, irrational desire to eat her human test subjects, even after [[HeelFaceTurn working to redeem herself]]. It's later revealed that human blood has an intoxicating, even addictive, effect on her species. |
| 254 | * For a while, there was a copypasta/{{creepypasta}} floating around the internet about "the scariest video game ever". According to the story, you play as a madman with an insatiable appetite that compels him to devour everything he touches, and he is trapped in a dark labyrinth where he is hunted by terrifying spirits that graphically tear him apart if they catch him. The twist at the end (for readers who have not caught onto the joke yet) is that "the scariest game" is ''VideoGame/PacMan''. |
| 255 | * ''Literature/CreepypastaCookoff'': |
| 256 | ** ChristmasCarolers are horrific monsters in "[[https://bogleech.com/creepy/creepy13-achristmasperil A Christmas Peril]]" by [=Vague1=]. A group of Victorian looking carolers are {{Humanoid Abomination}}s that attack the protagonist. |
| 257 | * ''[[Website/{{Reddit}} r/nosleep]]'': |
| 258 | ** The {{Creepypasta}} "[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/drpsa3/my_neighbor_wont_stop_singing_christmas_carols/ My Neighbor won't stop singing Christmas carols]]" does this to the "annoying ChristmasCarolers" trope. The titular neighbors- the wife and daughter specifically- sing carols for days on end, never stopping, and [[AndIMustScream will not respond to anything, even as they are peeing and crying]], making it clear that something is ''wrong''. [[spoiler:They are being forced to sing by a race of goblins resembling pine trees, and anyone caught in a specific radius from one is magically compelled to join in the caroling forever- eventually, nearly the entire town joins in, with hordes of people forced to sing against their will before being devoured by the pine goblins.]] |
| 259 | ** TimeDissonance is played for horror in "[[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/cokl1l/if_youre_armed_and_at_the_glenmont_metro_please/ If you're armed and at the Glenmont Metro, please shoot me]]". The narrator participates in a clinical trial for a drug that accelerates his brain functions, causing him to perceive time more slowly. At first, the downsides are only annoying and boring, with minutes feeling like hours and his 30-minute ride home feeling like days. As time goes on and the effects of the drug keep intensifying, to the point that turning the pages of a book takes longer than reading it and he can see the individual frames on TV, boredom gets the better of him he eventually decides to take an Ambien to try and sleep the effects off. [[spoiler:The sleeping pill interacts with the drug and begins ''severely'' magnifying its effects, hitting him right as he was running down the stairs at the metro station, causing him to lose his footing from the sudden change and get locked into a fall down the steps that, from his perspective, takes days. The impact dislocates his shoulder and he discovers, while his senses are slowed down, the pain never subsides because his body is still working in real-time, and he decides it's too much and tries to throw himself onto the tracks. His perception of time eventually slows to the point that simply ''blinking'' plunges him into darkness for centuries. After enduring what feels like thousands of years of pain and boredom over the course of a few minutes, he posts online, begging for someone to put him out of his misery. A shot to the temple should only take a few decades.]] |
| 260 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': |
| 261 | ** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3520/ SCP-3520]] turns ChubbyChaser horrific, where an unknown force takes sado-masochistic glee in watching humanity become this as they destroy Earth's environment to make way for industrial farms to make more snack food. |
| 262 | --->'''Second female voice''': [[BigFatFuture 60% of American women are obese, 75% of American men, 100% of true American animals.]] Let yourself slip into a dying asteroid, like me! |
| 263 | ** [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3344 SCP-3344]] uses IHaveNoSon to this effect. The SCP causes Site 24 Director Carter (and anyone with whom he interacts) to believe that his adult son Niklas, who is living in Site 24 and desperate to contact his family, does not exist and to be completely unable to perceive any evidence to the contrary. |
| 264 | ** The Foundation has several none too pleasant examples of ImmortalityField. |
| 265 | *** Any person placed inside [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-762 SCP-762]] enters a state of [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] and they would no longer need food, water, or even air and they are immune to disease and injury (when it was found, it contained someone who was probably stuck inside for centuries)... except those caused by its own spikes, because it's an IronMaiden, in a subversion. As a torture device, its primary purpose is likely not to keep people alive but to prolong the victim's suffering. The person inside is conscious the whole time and the experience is described to be very painful. This is {{double subver|sion}}ted afterward, as even those wounds heal completely after the person is released. |
| 266 | *** There's also [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-135 SCP-135]], a girl with an aura that makes her and any other organic matter within a 10 cm radius immortal, while causing rapid and uncontrolled cell growth -- AKA ''cancer''-- within 2.25 meters. Having developed this aura ''in utero'', she is stuck in a fetal position and permanently encrusted in a constantly growing mass of plants, fungi, and microorganisms. The most that can be done for her is to have robots cut off some of the excess matter when it gets too big. ''[[AndIMustScream She has full brain activity]].'' |
| 267 | ** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3512 SCP-3512]] ("The More You Know") is [[TakeThat a satirical take]] on pick-up artists that uses their misogyny and QuestForSex to disturbing effect. Through body-mutilation rituals (like [[{{Fingore}} cutting off their own fingers]]) and creating a sentient doll-like construct from human fat and bones to take control of the person one desires, instances of the SCP turn women they want to fuck into living sex dolls. The affected victims undergo complete personality changes that leave them eager to please their brainwashers, and are [[AndIMustScream completely aware of this outside force taking them over, but can only express it in bouts of screaming that eventually fade away as it takes complete control]]. The process is detailed in a book written by a pickup artist, excerpts of which are in the report, and advises readers to stop thinking of hot women as people and think of them as instruments to be controlled. |
| 268 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3004 SCP-3004]] is a horrific form of InterfaithSmoothie. An old cicada-based nature deity that found itself syncretized with the Christian God by missionaries to win over its cult. Unfortunately, this worked too well, as this meant the cicada god ''itself'' was convinced it was the Christian God, and is essentially trying to replace God as the central figure of Christianity--and it doesn't help that it also conflated the idea of venerating Jesus's sacrifice with just venerating pain and torture in general. This manifests in abrupt and inexplicable instances of staunch Christians and churchgoers performing bizarre sacrificial rituals that usually end in live cicadas crawling out of someone's orifices. |
| 269 | ** The Fifthist Church is [[InterFaithSmoothie syncretization]] played for a different type of horror. The Church's central tenet is something about transcending reality and assimilating into the mysterious 'Fifth World', which is so alien that the only way they can relate to normal human belief systems is by co-opting a kludge of whatever beliefs are common to the area, some astral symbolism and Lovecraftian themes. A lot of modern Fifthist cults take a NewAgeRetroHippie look, but there's versions that appropriate Christianity, Buddhism, Communism, Aztec polytheism, Confucianism, self-help books, chapstick sales, and every other belief system under the sun. The general effect is to highlight how creepy the Fifthists are. |
| 270 | ** A ChristmasTown is used for horror. [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-784 SCP-784 - Christmas Cheer]] is a town somewhere in Texas, that is decorated with Christmas all year round regardless of the weather. It is an anomalous location where the inhabitants are AmbiguouslyHuman and assimilate those who do not exhibit the right level of Christmas cheer. This includes things as minor as wishing someone “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”, singing the wrong lyrics to a carol, or not showing enough enthusiasm for a gift. |
| 271 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-752 SCP-752]] is a "utopian" society that turns GoodFeelsGood and TheNeedsOfTheMany unsettling. The inhabitants, collectively called SCP 752-1, were built to rationally and willingly be unselfish and devoted to the needs of others over their own private good… which just means that the monstrous things their society does to itself are all perpetrated upon fully-willing people. This includes things like [[BuryYourDisabled disabled people being murdered]] or DrivenToSuicide and people willingly working themselves to death at a relatively young age. |
| 272 | ** ChristmasEveryDay is weaponized in the alternate world of [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5000 SCP-5000]]. The Foundation is mentioned to have utilized various temporal anomalies to make it Christmas everyday… so that [[TheKrampus SCP-4666]] will remain active and keep murdering families all year as part of their plan to exterminate humanity. |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 276 | * ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' takes many cues from cutesy {{Edutainment}} shows aimed at little kids (Such as ''Series/SesameStreet'') and use them for a {{surreal|Horror}} and terrifying PsychologicalHorror series. |
| 277 | * ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'': AndThereWasMuchRejoicing is PlayedForDrama and Horror in the aftermath of [[spoiler:Tommy's death]], as the Eggpire throw a party in the victim's house -- and after getting kicked out, rent a room in the victim's hotel to continue their revelries. Do bear in mind that the leader of the Eggpire, [=BadBoyHalo=], confirmed by WordOfGod that his character would be horrified and in mourning if he weren't BrainwashedAndCrazy. |
| 278 | * ''Creator/{{Dropout}}'' did this with their [[RealTrailerFakeMovie fake trailer]] for a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMXME2pm83c film adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheSims'', which does this with VideoGameCrueltyPotential by showing how horrifying it would be to live under the whims of a CruelPlayerCharacterGod. |
| 279 | * ''WebVideo/EmpiresSMP'' Season 1 plays SitcomArchNemesis and AnimalJingoism for Horror. Jimmy and fWhip initially appear to be rivals/enemies to each other due to the two's conflicts of cod versus salmon, but this "species rivalry" later proves to be much more dangerous and sinister -- when [[RivalsTeamUp the two team up]] to try to create a new Codfather head, a prophecy ends up rearing its ugly head. Specifically, the prophecy stated, "The resolution of a neverending feud brings [[spoiler:unimaginable chaos that will [[ApocalypseHow destroy the world]]]]", and it rings true: [[spoiler:the machine they used for their experiment overloads from combining cod and salmon, obliterating the Grimlands (fWhip's empire) in a huge explosion that almost killed fWhip, and the various natural disasters following or caused by the catastrophe leads to at least three of their fellow rulers and friends being ''KilledOffForReal''.]] |
| 280 | * Done with BangingForHelp in WebVideo/DannyGonzalez's "The Truth About Jake Paul and Team 10". Danny and a friend hear some kids tell them they heard banging coming from the Team 10 house, all adding to their fear that something bad is going on. |
| 281 | * WebVideo/GusJohnson uses KnuckleCracking for horror and [[BlackComedy morbid laughs]] in the sketch "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOdDGRyoN6w Crack]]". Two guys crack their knuckles and soon snap other body parts in increasingly painful and [[BodyHorror unpleasant looking ways]]. |
| 282 | * The ''WebVideo/Local58'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BD-ba-aXQo "Skywatching"]] uses GiganticMoon for this. The extremely large moon brainwashes the camera man into worshiping it. |
| 283 | * ''WebVideo/MarioPartyDSAntiPiracy'' does this with UnwinnableJokeGame. |
| 284 | ** Triggering the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md-Uu1nBcqg Monty Mole anti-piracy routine]] forces the player into a minigame called "Run", in which they are ostensibly tasked with fleeing a giant Monty Mole, but have no controls with which to do so. |
| 285 | ** "Host Hoedown", a fictitious minigame where you are forced to apologize to a personalized host (in Joey's case, D.J. Hallyboo, an expy of M.C. Ballyhoo) for pirating the game by tracing the word on the bottom screen. During the third phase, the word moves around, effectively rendering the game this. While it's technically possible to beat the game via TAS, [[spoiler:this'll result in your own life being unwinnable.]] |
| 286 | * A DescriptionCut is the first overt scare in the AnalogHorror short ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFZKW_jD6I MEAT PRODUCT: LIFE MEAT]]'', which is about a meat substitute made with no meat called "Life Meat". As the narrator describes how much healthier it is than regular meat, the short immediatly cuts to a DeadHandShot of someone after eating Life Meat, followed then by a commercial stating that Life Meat has been recalled after an outbreak of an unknown pathogen. |
| 287 | * The {{Groin Attack}}s done to both genders in Episode 3, [[GirlsBehindBars "Women in Prison"]], of ''WebVideo/MissingReel'' are treated this way. |
| 288 | * ''WebVideo/PiratesSMP'': |
| 289 | ** BigEater becomes Horrific during the "Captain Golden Beard" quest subplot, where the curse on the treasure inflicts Shep and Owen with insatiable hunger to the point their full in-game Hunger bars can drop to zero in mere ''seconds''. Owen's case is alleviated with the use of an automatic feeding upgrade on her backpack with sufficient food stocks to withstand the curse, while Shep's ''isn't'' and while he treats it with a MajorInjuryUnderreaction, he nearly depletes his entire food supply over the course of the curse's effects. |
| 290 | ** BrokenPedestal goes Horrific (but equally [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Awesome]]) in Kuervo's backstory, as he went from idolizing [[spoiler:the commanders of Naya]] and aspiring to become one of them to learning [[spoiler:BigBrotherIsEmployingYou and they had sent his older brother to a preventable death by UnfriendlyFire and did not care for their soldiers at all]], and proceeded to [[spoiler:commit mass {{Tyrannicide}} and [[DefectorFromDecadence be sent on the run]] after being [[EyeScream violently]] caught in the act]] -- complete with audio gore in the animatic. Mind you, he was sixteen when this all happened. |
| 291 | ** SurprisinglyNormalBackstory is implicitly Played for Horror in that a late event implies [[spoiler:Guqqie]] GotVolunteered and was targeted as a HumanSacrifice by the main antagonists ''because'' of their relatively normal upbringing. |
| 292 | ** WellDoneSonGuy is also implicitly Played for Horror with Shep in his backstory, who tried so relentlessly to earn the approval of the man he saw as a ParentalSubstitute (but was more of an EvilMentor) that he committed murder in the past for him, [[TeensAreMonsters while no older than the age of 21]] (his age in the canon era). |
| 293 | * When ''Website/SFDebris'' reviewed the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Captain's Holiday", Chuck started it by mocking Picard's [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace Screw Gun Safety]] attitude with a kid finding the tossed phaser and accidentally shooting himself. The scene is also PlayedForLaughs, but still doesn't shy away from how dangerous such an action was. |
| 294 | * ''WebVideo/SmileTapes'' has a devastating FantasticDrug called SMILE. It is made from an unknown fungus, is distributed through the black market and has utterly horrific effects on the human body. |
| 295 | * ''WebVideo/WinterOf83'' |
| 296 | ** EvilIsDeathlyCold is played for horror with [[spoiler:the monsters, which can control and spread through snow]]. |
| 297 | ** WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties is used for scares during the emergency weather broadcast. [[spoiler:The weatherman is murdered and replaced, a stilted voice telling viewers to join them out in the cold]]. |
| 298 | [[/folder]] |
| 299 | |
| 300 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 301 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' uses FlatCharacter to make its villain the Lich even more horrifying. [[Characters/AdventureTimeTheLich The Lich]] backstory is vague, he doesn't speak much, and his entire character revolves around [[VileVillainSaccharineShow destroying the normally whimsical land of Ooo]]. The Lich is [[OmnicidalManiac an absolute force of destruction]], and at the end of the day [[CardCarryingVillain that's all he wants to be]]. |
| 302 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': |
| 303 | ** EvilIsPetty is part of what makes [[Characters/DCAUJoker The Joker]] scary. His plots include [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE2ChristmasWithTheJoker ruining Christmas for Batman and Gotham]] by taking hostages, [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE9BeAClown ruining the mayor's son's birthday party]] by planning to blow it up, [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE22JokersFavor ruining a party in honor of Commissioner Gordon]] with the help of an average guy [[StalkerWithoutACrush he obsessively stalked and threatened]], all because the guy cussed at him while driving, and [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish attempting to patent something that legally cannot be patented, and then gassing the guy at the patent office who told him so]]. |
| 304 | * The ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode [[Recap/GravityFallsS2E18Weirdmageddon "Weirdmageddon"]] does this with ClothingAppendage. An off-center shot from Ford's WaveMotionGun hits Bill Cipher's "hat", [[TorsoWithAView creating a gaping hole]] that exposes a mess of fleshy innards [[GoodThingYouCanHeal before regenerating]]. |
| 305 | * {{Trainstopping}} is used to [[{{Gorn}} gory]] and horrifying effect in the ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'' episode "[[Recap/Invincible2021S01E08WhereIReallyComeFrom Where I Really Come From]]". [[spoiler:Omni-Man]] picks up a battered Mark and holds him in front of an oncoming subway train, causing Mark's invulnerable body to tear through the train—and its hundreds of passengers—like a bullet through Styrofoam. By the time it ends, Mark is covered in blood and thoroughly traumatized. |
| 306 | * ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'' uses EvenTheRatsWontTouchIt for horror in the episode "Plague of Madness". The corpses of creatures infected by or killed by victims of the titular plague give off such an air of ''wrongness'' that even the flies won't touch them. Fang, a T. rex who usually doesn't care about what she eats, approaches one such corpse and ''recoils''. |
| 307 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheRealAdventuresOfJonnyQuest'': In one episode, being SquashedFlat is portrayed [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome realistically]]. Two scientists end up trapped in a room with the ceiling closing in on them, and by the time Race opens the door to that room, it's too late to save them. |
| 308 | * ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' uses many common fantasy/sci-fi tropes that tend to be played in a rather light-hearted manner in other works, taking their horrifying implications to the deep end: A LovePotion? [[spoiler: It causes the entirety of humanity to be horribly mutated into monsters obsessed with Morty.]] An ExpendableAlternateUniverse? [[spoiler:When he has to leave his dimension by the first time, Morty is clearly traumatized by the notion that his friends and family are all doomed and he will spend the rest of his life with identical strangers.]] |
| 309 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence is played for horror. After lying about ascending all episode, O'Connor finally does so near the end. It results in terror and agony for him, and the episode is vague over whether he actually ''survived'' in any meaningful sense. |
| 310 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' has the PrincessClassic and RoyalSchool tropes played for horror. Rebellious princesses are sent to the [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses]], where students are psychologically broken down and stripped of their identities, slowly being brainwashed into becoming perfect princesses. |
| 311 | * TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat is used for horror in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersWarForCybertronTrilogy''. Starscream steals the Golden Disk, containing the information from the future, along with sample of Megatron's energon, and sees the recording of Megatron getting reformatted into Galvatron to be enslaved by [[EldritchAbomination Unicron]]. He reacts in amusement...until Unicron in the recording starts [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou speaking directly to him]], revealing that he's aware that Starscream is listening and goes as far as to leave direct instructions for him on how to earn his safety as Unicron's herald. |
| 312 | -->'''Unicron:''' Starscream... ''(Starscream gasps in shock)'' Starscream... I know you're there. I know everything. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
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