Now with a sandbox!
It appears that many Nightmare Fuel pages have problems, including:
1. Listing non-scary things that made the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable at worst.
2. Having spoiler tags on them (which is against the page's guidelines).
3. Listing Fridge Horror and fan theories.
And much more!
On a few occasions, people from outside the site's community have pointed out our overly lax usage of Nightmare Fuel to make fun of us, meaning that it can legitimately harm our reputation to let this go unchecked.
The TRS thread
meant for redefining Nightmare Fuel started to become a place for cleaning up Nightmare Fuel pages in general, so we may as well move these discussions to Long Term Projects where they belong.
Here are the guidelines to determine whether something is Nightmare Fuel or not.
- This is a page whose name is intended to be taken more literally than most. It's not enough for material to be scary; to truly qualify, it has to be frightening enough to legitimately unnerve/disturb the viewer, with actually being nightmare-inducing as the ultimate endpoint.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- It left you feeling shaken even after the credits had rolled, you turned the last page, or are otherwise done with the work.
- You have a hard time falling asleep if you think about it at night, or have a literal nightmare about it.
- You dread that episode, scene, level, chapter, or song during re-watches, and consider skipping it.
- With that said, don't add something just because it happens to be your personal phobia. For example, spiders can be scary and many people have arachnophobia, but just because a spider happens to be in the work, it does not make a Nightmare Fuel entry. It needs to reasonably be scary to someone without the phobia.
- Don't confuse tension with fear. If the hero is in trouble, but you know he'll make it out okay at the end, it's probably not Nightmare Fuel unless the threat is especially disturbing.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- Explain WHY the entry scared you. Try to convey your sense of fear to your readers. Avoid putting up Zero-Context Examples.
- Remember that Weblinks Are Not Examples, and neither are quotes on their own. You should explain the horror in your own words, rather than rely on others to do so.
- Don't add things that might have scared someone. If it didn't scare you, and you don't personally know anyone else who was scared, you shouldn't be adding it to Nightmare Fuel.
- Nightmare Fuel should stick to you even after you're done with the work.
- If something is initially presented as scary but turns out to be harmless, it's most likely not Nightmare Fuel since The Reveal makes the scariness vanish.
- Jump Scares are a good source of Nightmare Fuel, but not all of them automatically qualify: being startled is not the same as being scared.
- Hypotheticals are not Nightmare Fuel:
- Remember that Trailers Always Lie: a scene that is presented as scary in the trailer could very well turn out to be inoffensive in the finished work. Only add examples from unreleased works if they were especially terrifying in the previews.
- Fan theories do not belong on the Nightmare Fuel page under any circumstance. No matter how much evidence they have to support them, don't add them until they've been officially confirmed. In the meanwhile, take them to Wild Mass Guessing.
- Fridge Horror goes on the Fridge page, not Nightmare Fuel. Don't add it unless it's Ascended Fridge Horror.
- Keep in mind the work's intended audience when considering whether or not something is Nightmare Fuel.
- If something is normal or expected in the genre, it does not automatically qualify. Violence in a Fighting Series or gore in a horror movie must be especially disturbing or gruesome by the work's standards to be Nightmare Fuel.
- Remember that Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films. If a work is rated PG-13 or higher but would only be scary to young children, it's not Nightmare Fuel.
- The standards on what qualifies as Nightmare Fuel are especially stringent on works aimed at children and pre-teens: kids have hyperactive imaginations, so even something benign can give them nightmares.
- Spoiler tags do not belong on Nightmare Fuel pages. Much of what scares us comes from inherently spoilery stuff such as death and the unknown, so finding spoilers on these pages should be expected.
- Nightmare Fuel is an Audience Reaction, so it needs to be scary for the audience. Describing how the characters react to something scary isn't needed. Just because something scares them, that doesn't mean it scares us as well.
- Nightmare Fuel is a No Real Life Examples, Please! page. Meta-examples involving the actors, production, or behind-the-scenes incidents are not allowed.
Guidelines when proposing cleanup of a page:
- Some rules are pretty objective. If you see a Zero-Context Example, Fridge Horror, Real Life example, speculation, In-Universe reaction that isn't scary to the viewers, examples that explicitly describe themselves as not being very scary (including "mildly creepy", "somewhat unnerving", and other synonymous phrases), or examples that are just scene summaries without going into detail about why it's so scary, you can (and should) remove them immediately without coming here to ask.
- You should also strip all spoiler tags from the page. Itty Bitty Wiki Tools has a tool for that, but it can cause problems, so if you use it be sure to preview the page and thoroughly look it over.
- Once you've fixed the objective issues with the page, bring it here so we can look at the more subjective problems, such as examples that may not be scary enough to qualify. If a consensus is reached that a certain entry does not qualify, it can be removed.
Edited by Zuxtron on Aug 1st 2020 at 9:40:30 AM
Right, they might not know the full context, but they can be an effective impartial barometer to how well the entry is written. The mark of a good NF entry is that it should be able to effectively communicate why something in a work is considered frightening even to someone who isn't familiar with the work.
Not in this case. I chose to use Fridge Logic where the entries are certainly coming across to me as Fridge, but they're not coming across to me as Fridge Horror. Not as currently written, that is. I stuck with the non-potholed 'Fridge' short-hand for the rest of it. Perhaps I should have done that throughout.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Oct 23rd 2020 at 3:08:36 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Obsessively adds images to character pages.
Jagshemash! My name Borat. Some think I scary. NOT!
- Nightmare Fuel: The audience actually positively responding and singing along with Borat when he sings "Throw the Jew Down the Well". Given Sacha Baron Cohen is Jewish, you gotta wonder what was going on in his head when shooting this. It called Fridge Horror.note
YMMV.Borat Subsequent Moviefilm:
- Nightmare Fuel: Where is Azamat? Borat's sitting on him! Example of Zerocontexts.
- The amount of people who would be comfortable with shaming a teenage girl's looks, her being raped, or keeping her in a cage or giving he as a "gift" to a grown man. How it scary?
- The man who gives Borat tips on how to kill Roma people in a gas van and the man who is happy about Trump caging Mexican children. As with the previous film, it's outing people's bigotries and genocidal inclinations. This may be a violate of the Rule of Cautious Editjudgements.
- The doctor who, upon being misled into believing Borat had impregnated his own daughter, barely seemed to care at all and was more concerned with talking them out of getting an abortion. If Borat were an actual man who had actually impregnated his own daughter, all signs suggest he would have gotten away with doing so. It called Pregnancycenter of Crisis. And Fridgehorror.
- That Borat was used as a pawn to spread the COVID-19 virus around the world, even to the people he befriended. This is what tropesite call shoehorning. And audience find it funny.
Redmess
Giuliani is definitely nightmare fuel, though.
Optimism is a duty.
Hello, with some help I have further refined the section for RWBY's nightmare fuel, how many of the new entrances can be added and which of them need further correction?
A Night Off
- Tyrian's gleeful massacre of the citizens at Robyn's political rally. After Watts cuts off the lights, Tyrian begins the slaughter and the audience is treated to a frightening view of Tyrian making his way through a helpless crowd that is too slow, weak or blind in the darkness to react in time to save themselves. When the lights turn back on, the audience is immediately confronted by the sight of a room that is littered with blood-splattered corpses. It's the first time a massacre has been shown on-screen in the entire show, which increases the dramatic impact of the scene.
Gravity
- When Watts traps Ironwood's arm in a Hard Light shield, it's because he assumes that no-one would ever destroy their arm to pull it out. When Ironwood first tries, the audience is treated to a close-up of his upper arm, stripped of flesh and smoking while accompanied by a sizzling sound. The moment he pulls his arm out of the shield occurs off-screen, but the audience can hear him grunting in pain and the sizzling of his skin continuing in a truly cringe-inducing way. His arm is revealed to be dangling uselessly at his side, smoking after having suffered third-degree burns that cover his entire arm from the bicep right to the tips of the fingers. Ironwood's determination to sacrifice whatever it takes to defeat Salem leaves the audience with an extremely dark, horrific vision of just what lengths Ironwood is capable of going to in the pursuit of his goal.
- Mimicking Emerald's illusion from the end of Volume 5, Salem swirls into existence from a black miasma that pours from a broken Seer, swelling into a much larger size than humanly possible to dominate Ironwood's office. After cementing Ironwood's paranoia, she calmly counters Ruby's defiance with a gentle taunt about her mother's death. Ruby's emotional collapse occurs to eerie, discordant sounds and twisted visions of a melancholic mother, while the power of her silver eyes crackles and spurts like a fried electrical circuit. The whole thing plays out like a scene from a horror show, with an extra layer of creepy dissonance caused by just how impassive Salem seems in the face of the emotional chaos she's just triggered.
With Friends Like These
- Cinder's arrival at the Winter Maiden's room is announced by the entire room shaking. When Winter looks into the corridor, the audience see the corridor from her perspective. The emergency lighting is broken and on the fritz, creating only flashes that reveal multiple dead bodies and the sight of Cinder standing peacefully among the wreckage. The audience is effectively plunged into the role of the victim in a slasher film that watches, helpless to act, as the murderous psychopath casually strolls through their own carnage towards them.
The Enemy of Trust
- The new look of Cinder's Grimm arm. Back in volume 5, it ended at the middle of her left bicep. Now the arm has advanced all the way up her shoulder, exposing all muscles that would normally be covered by skin. The arm can regenerate when cut, but the audience has to witness Cinder writhing and screaming in agony while it grows. The replacement arm has therefore evolved into Body Horror at its finest.
Edited by neosspeer on Oct 27th 2020 at 7:19:54 AM
don't ask me about my niche
Do you know what is funniest the most? This site's nightmare fuel page scares me not because of the scary stuff but rather the shoehorned examples that don't seem to look terrifying to some tropers.
Also, did someone actually cleaned up Borat's page yet?
Not Sherlock Holmes
I’m pretty sure the only remedy for that page is a cutlist.
“Now! Let us engage in the art of deduction!”
The following new entries were added to YMMV.The Loud House:
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Whenever it's April Fool's Day (AKA the first day of April), Luan turns into an evil pranking machine that won't rest until the next day. What makes it worse is that in Lynn Sr.'s flashback from 'Fool's Paradise', he reveals that she forced him to work with her to prank her family, and in the episode 'Fool Me Twice', Luan takes over the monitor and gives it a evil grin to her family, while their stunt doubles are hired by her to do humiliate the Loud Family. Cue the crazed manic laugh.
- Lynn's dark flashback of how she got bullied on the first day of middle school.
- The Doll that Lucy gave to Lola was very creepy. Whenever Lola tries to get rid of it, the doll keeps haunting her. It's also one of the few times where the tough, dreaded and strong Lola Loud is actually freaked out by this thing. Granted, it turns out that Lana was the one who found it and kept bringing it back, but that doesn't change the unsettling atmosphere of the episode.
Very Spooky
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Luan: It was discussed last time that some of Luan’s actions and expressions could be frightening, but I’m not sure.
Lynn’s flashback: ZCE.
Doll: Not sure, but it sounds more weird than scary.
back lol
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Dunno about the first one, but the second is indeed ZCE, and the third sounds like the scariness goes away by the time the episode ends.
Last week, I suggested cutting NightmareFuel.Snopes for only having a couple of poor examples. Someone wanted to add more context to the examples but it's been a week and they haven't edited the page at all. Should I go ahead and cutlist it?
Oh, thanks for reminding me.
What, me worry?
From America's Funniest Home Videos
- Nightmare Fuel: The Vin Di Bona Productions Vanity Plate at the end of the show, up until 2008, had a synth jingle that tried to sound cheerful but ended up sounding creepy. It was thankfully redone in 2008; some may find it a bit creepy, referring to the low pitched version, but it's far tamer to its previous counterpart.
- Often times, there would be a silly compilation of people reacting to Screamer Pranks such as the Scary Maze Game and K-Fee Commercials. One episode featured a compilation of reactions to 2001 flash screamer What's Wrong. This episode also features the What's Wrong video being shown to the viewers first (albeit with Bergeron's normally humorous narration), which seems a bit off for the show.
- Reportedly, despite their popularity with older audiences, the "Tom's Home Videos" segments (videos presented as Tom Bergeron's home videos that featured Tom's oversized head (aka Bobble-Head Tom) superimposed over those of people in the clips) were of the accidental variety to some small children and partially contributed to the segments getting quietly retired later on into Tom's run as host.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Anything in particular you think needs to be looked at here? The one big issue I notice is the indentation.
- The first one I could go either way on, but it could be okay.
- The second example is about a Screamer Prank that (if I'm understanding it correctly) gets shown to the audience before the humorous reactions, which is indeed a pretty nightmarish to show on television.
- The last one is a definite keep, since it clearly explains that it was scary to the audience.
Edited by Zuxtron on Oct 30th 2020 at 11:05:04 AM
What, me worry?
The one I'm wondering about is the The Vin Di Bona Productions logo mention. That has nothing to do with the show itself, just a production logo from the company that made it. Last two are worth keeping, but the first entry I'm not sure about.
Not sure if you know about the logo community, but they have (or had) a notorious reputation of being scared of logos, especially ones you wouldn't think would be scary. But I won't go into that here
Edited by MatthewLMayfield on Oct 30th 2020 at 10:08:59 AM
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Yeah the first bullet can go. I am well aware (from regrettable personal experience) of the whole "scary logos" thing, and since it does not relate to the show proper, it can be cut.
Keep the other two, they seem legit.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
Obsessively adds images to character pages.
Hey everyone, I just noticed that a Nightmare Fuel page for a Video Game called Mad Rat Dead, you can check out the page at NightmareFuel.Mad Rat Dead. Now, I enjoyed the demo of this game, and yes, there are some scary parts of the game, but I don't think it should have it's own Nightmare Fuel page yet. Why? Because at the time of writing this, the full version of the game came out today. Are games that literally came out a few days ago allowed to have their own Nightmare Fuel page? In my opinion, no, but I want all of your guy's and gal's inputs on it.
The game also has a Tear Jerker page (at TearJerker.Mad Rat Dead) that I sent to the Cut List for having only 1 example.
Edited by Spidey on Oct 30th 2020 at 1:19:13 PM
"Unite GUN/BAZOOKA/LAUNCHER/TANK!"
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Nightmare Fuel isn't on the No Recent Examples, Please! list. There's no reason why a one-day-old game can't have a page.
That said, some examples look kinda speculative, and most are just scene summaries, so someone who's played the game should probably try to fix the page.
Obsessively adds images to character pages.
Huh
Well I've only played the demo, so I can only give some info on the first 5 levels of the game.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Would it be possible to make a No Recent Examples, Please! entry that has the time limit listed as the work's release date, or would that be outside that index's scope?
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
It's been decided that Moments pages, including Nightmare Fuel, do allow pre-release examples. This isn't the place to discuss this kind of change.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I didn't know that it was already decided, but that answers my question.
Well, even if you haven't played a game, you can still judge whether some examples are well-written or not. Some things might be scarier than they sound, and some might be overexaggerated in the writeup, but overall, the page needs to be written in a way that anyone can understand, whether or not they know the work.