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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
A request to lock NightmareFuel.Super Smash Bros Ultimate was rejected without explanation, so I made another request: [1]
.
NightmareFuel.Monty Python And The Holy Grail
This page just had an Image Pickin' thread closed due to the subject matter not being scary in context. I'm thinking the entire page can be nuked but I don't know if it's been evaluated in here or not.
Personally I can see the gory bits of the Killer Rabbit scene as being legitimately scary, at least compared to the rest of the movie. A scene can be both scary and funny. Either way, the entire page can probably be cut and moved to the YMMV section.
To nobody's surprise, Louey, who made the IP thread, also made the subpage. They're the same one who was arguing to keep the NightmareFuel.Wonder Park earlier.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jan 7th 2021 at 4:52:05 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.There's also NightmareFuel.Shrek 2. Right off the bat, the page image is not scary at all.
On that note, NightmareFuel.Shrek The Third (not made by Louey - it's over six years old) needs a look-over. The very first example is a nattery ZCE.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.They also created NightmareFuel.Spies In Disguise. While I've never seen the film, the page isn't looking very good.
That page actually sucks. I've seen the movie and enjoyed it, but I was never really scared at any time.
Edited by Spidey on Jan 7th 2021 at 11:20:05 AM
"Unite GUN/BAZOOKA/LAUNCHER/TANK!"YMMV.My Neighbor Totoro has these examples:
- Nightmare Fuel:
- The possibility that Mei might have drowned in the lake.
- The Catbus. That smile and the glowing eyes...its hollow body. Good lord, how is that thing not terrifying?!
- It could also be worse. It's a nekomata; those are usually evil, but at least this one's reformed. Probably.
First is Fridge Horror, second isn't scary, third is speculative. All can be cut.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Jan 8th 2021 at 9:57:52 AM
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallNightmareFuel.Cobra Kai has loads of FH, and a not scary image. It's unsettling but as we know unsettling does not equal scary.
Even knowing the context, they couldn't have picked an image of somebody getting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown or something? Like Kyler beating up Miguel?
Edited by Klavice on Jan 10th 2021 at 4:42:21 AM
Kinectimals has this:
- Nightmare Fuel: The cover. As Yahtzee described it, it's like what would happen if John Wayne Gasey worked at Disneyland.
Misspelling of "Gacy" aside, as the main page shows, the cover isn't really that scary, or at least the entry doesn't explain why it is. I guess a reviewer finding it scary helps show it's not a shoehorn, but still.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.The Most Popular Girls in School might need a look. Several of the examples are really pushing it and there's one example of Fridge Horror.
Oh, I believe in yesterdayJust saw NightmareFuel.Trash Taste and I doubt that either entry really qualifies.
They both look rooted in Real Life horror, not in how this show explores the subject matter.
Just went to WandaVision after watching the first two episodes and I found this as a subbullet about the in-universe commercials:
- These commercials star the same two actors, one a man, the other a woman, and the way the man treats the woman (implied to be his wife) is dripping with misogyny.
I think that it's just a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance, since the whole "50's sitcom" setting the first episodes have, and not a scary thing (the most misogynistic thing is the watch commercial stating that a wife is just an accessory for her husband)
True or not, the way it's written is lacking in context, not to mention it doesn't explain how it'd be specifically scary as opposed to merely upsetting. Otherwise getting heartburn would qualify as Nightmare Fuel.
There seem to be several questionable examples on NightmareFuel.Other
- Mac laptops have a light that, when closed, blinks slowly in the same rhythm as a person breathes as they sleep makes them just a little too human.
- Many desktop Macs nowadays do that as well, as does the Nintendo 3DS when it's closed and still switched on.
- Some laptops (observed from a Dell laptop) will even make a soft whining sound that sounds like breathing as the light is pulsating.
- The story of "The Giant Shrimp in the Laundry Room"
, an allegedly true story told by a woman who lived in an apartment complex which had a huge basement/laundry room that, for some reason, had tons of holes in the walls—she was told that the basement was connected to the water. As she was hanging up her clothes, she had this unsettling feeling of being watched. When she turned around, there was a five-foot-tall shrimp-like creature crawling out of one of the massive holes and headed straight towards her. Needless to say, she opted to move out of the apartment as soon os possible.
- TV Tropes in of itself can be nightmare fuel in some ways.
- Clicking through the Nightmare Fuel pages can actually be quite terrifying at times, as many of the NF pages feature an especially scary image on them that appear right at the top of the page. This means that when you open up a certain NF page, said scary image will suddenly be displayed on your screen, hitting you straight in the face, and there is absolutely no way to be prepared to what you'll see if you've never been to the page before. In a way, they're basically like silent jump scares.
- And it's not just the NF pages. Even the regular TV Tropes pages can open up with a rather unpleasant image. And there's still no warning for which one it'll be.
- If you put a page that you are editing into preview mode, the page image is shown in the preview, which can result in some self-induced nightmare fuel on pages with scary images, especially if you're a serial tweaker.
Some of the Nightmare Fuel pages can be scary, but, I mean...listing Nightmare Fuel pages as examples of Nightmare Fuel seems kinda redundant.
I also have many concerns about NightmareFuel.Thomas The Tank Engine...not least of which is the misplaced video example. But I'm not sure it's editable due to being the only video for Right Way/Wrong Way Pair (?)
- James' manipulation of the nighttime fog and some steel pipes in The Phantom Express is quite frightening. There's also Stephen creeping through the tunnels of Ulfstead Castle as we hear him puffing ominously.
- The episode "Slow Stephen" has The Sodor Suspension Bridge collapsing yet again. Only this time, it nearly KILLED GORDON AND HIS CREW AND ALL OF THE PASSENGERS ON THE EXPRESS. Thank God that Stephen could stop him before he could cross. Not to mention the actual collapse is pretty unsettling, complete with a Scare Chord.
I've seen some questionable entries but "light slowly blinks" being scary is beyond a reach. I mean, my keyboard has a feature like that, the horror. Agree on the TvTropes entries (escp. because they're very generic too) but unsure about the giant shrimp. From the way it's described it sounds so absurd that it's funny.
Edited by valozzy on Jan 15th 2021 at 10:19:59 AM
Er... I'm pretty sure the "soft whining" is just a result of the computer containing moving parts. Laptops are small enough for the sound of a hard drive to be more audible than with desktops (solid-state drives aside).
Either way, that sleep mode stuff sounds like a violation of NRLEP.
Edit: Also, the Wii had a pulsing and blinking light for WiiConnect24 notifications and it was timed with the call of the Japanese bush warbler, rather than anything coming from humans. The part about the LED pattern for when the 3DS is in sleep mode sounds like it's overthinking things.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 16th 2021 at 7:15:28 AM
I got a rock for Halloween.

Speaking as a writer, I can promise they definitely enjoyed adding those breakdown scenes even if they're portrayed as a negative thing. Putting characters through hell or bringing out the crazy in them can be genuinely fun, despite it almost always being in a negative context in the story itself.
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