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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
Bringing up this example from Unfriended: Dark Web:
- Nightmare Fuel: The sheer cruelty and sadism of the people who operate the Dark Web. Not nay are the participating in murder, rape, and slavery of innocent people but they also get a sick joy out of it and unlike Laura Barns who kept her anger focused on the teens who had a hand in her death these guys not only go after the main characters but also their families and loved ones. Just to drive this point home they kill one of the main characters sick mother while she is in the hospital seemingly just for the hell of it it!
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Not seeing anything wrong with this.
I hope I don't sound rude, but I noticed that you mostly just post examples without saying anything about them. It would be helpful if you included your own thoughts on the example, and explained why you want us to look at it.
Have to say, I concur.
From Incredibles 2
- As cool as the opening Logo Jokes are, seeing Luxo Jr. bounce over a red background, almost exclusively in shadow, is kind of unnerving.
The moment isn't really scary. It seems more amusing than anything.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
I find it hard to believe some people find logos scary. "Kind of unnerving" is not enough to count as Nightmare Fuel, especially since it's also described as "cool". I support a cut of this example.
Don't look at NightmareFuel.Vanity Plates then :P
I just don't get how people found this scary. i loved that as a kid!
edited 17th Jun '18 4:02:55 PM by lalalei2001
The Protomen enhanced my life.
Redmess
They were scared of the Disney Home Video logo? Seriously? Those were some sheltered kids.
On that note, I always used to misread the logo as "Disnep". 
edited 18th Jun '18 12:50:52 AM by Redmess
Optimism is a duty.
Logos that did scare me as a kid were this cause of how loud/unexpected it was and this cause of how unexpected it was.
Redmess
Isn't that more startling than outright nightmare fuel?
I mean, no one is getting nightmares from those logos, are they?
edited 18th Jun '18 8:01:25 AM by Redmess
Optimism is a duty.
One of my earliest memories is of my cousin going "PBS!!!!" and i'm like "NOOOOOOO" and run out of the room crying with hands over my ears.
I don't think i had nightmares though, or if I did I no longer remember them. XD
edited 18th Jun '18 8:05:15 AM by lalalei2001
The Protomen enhanced my life.
Um....I dont know what to say. But you are still awesome.
I was an easily-scared 3-year-old. Another super-early memory is being scared of Dr. Robotnik in Green Hill Zone.
For what it's worth, the Nightmare Fuel page for Vanity Plates has been cut.
I personally oppose the cut to NightmareFuel.VanityPlate because Vanity Plates could be considered works, and the page has been around for years and hasn't caused any problems. And the page had a lot of inbounds.
edited 18th Jun '18 9:19:23 PM by ADrago
Redmess
Well, these vanity plates are more startling/annoying than really scary. Something like the THX chord is really annoying, sure, but its hardly scary.
I can see how this could still be a thing, but I don't think its strictly nightmare fuel.
edited 18th Jun '18 11:35:40 PM by Redmess
Optimism is a duty.
No, the other one.
If there's a good case for it being NF, it could fit. But considering the nature of them, probably not. They kind of fall into the category of stuff we normally want to cut because tropers add everything that might potentially startle a small and easily frightened child. You know, the reason we have this thread in the first place.
The THX sound is awesome, not annoying. 
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
The actual reasoning given for the cut is that Vanity Plate is a trope, not a work or medium, and those don't get Nightmare Fuel examples.
Redmess
It is when played at full movie theatre volume. "The audience is now deaf" is a joke for a reason.
I'm not sure Vanity Plates could not be a genre. It is certainly treated like an artistic medium by their creators, with often elaborate art and sound design, and a clear Art Evolution over time.
Optimism is a duty.
I agree with the cut on that page.
THX is scary as a kid, but for adults it isn't.
I have been doing some cleanup on the NF page for Amnesia the Dark Descent. There was a lot of Natter and some off-topic examples that I removed.
There are some examples that I'm unsure would qualify as NF.
- The Chancel, with it's bottomless pit of doom underneath the bridges. Really makes you wonder what's actually down there. The Cistern entrance also seems to connect with it, somehow.
- The Castle itself seems to make no sense, with some levels taking place deep underground, then the next level having an opening with sunlight pouring in.
- Subtle one, but there are portraits of Alexander◊ scattered around the castle. Look at one with low sanity. Just try it◊. It can also act like a Nightmare Retardant if you realize he now looks like an owl with no feathers. Or it can make it worse when you realize that there are plenty of clues that suggest Alexander isn't human. Maybe his current form is a mask and that's his real face. It can be scary and silly at the same time. At least he looks like the monster he really is on the inside or at least Daniel's perception of that monster. This in turn raises another possibility: if that really is his true face, it's possible that the monsters are his attempt to emulate his kind's form in humans, though bodily mutilation.
This one could have the second half cut out since it talks about Nightmare Retardant and has lots of speculation
- While there's the possibility of Alexander having innumerable servants through the years, the bulging eye and twisted hand◊ and the messed up leg and distorted mouth◊ of the servants depicted in these diagrams from the torture rooms could suggest that Grunts and Brutes have been around a long, long time.
- In the sewers, you can find the shattered body of the first humanoid monster that was pursuing you (by this time, another has shown up). What killed it? The Meat Moss? The other monster? Whatever it was, it gives you the willies to think of it. Although if you have a sick sense of humor, it's just nightmare retardant. Plus, you finally get to see what they look like.
Here are some of the entries that I deleted. Let me know if I should restore them
- The designer of the bull was killed when the King, who ordered it made, wanted to hear the horn (that was already installed in the device) tested. He slammed the door shut and burned the designer alive thus claiming the bull's first victim. Yeah, that's pretty horrifying to say the least. Supposedly, he did it because he felt the creator was a sick, sick man to make such a thing. Even more theoretically, he took the guy out before he died. Then, threw him off a cliff.
- Many signs indicate deliberate, careful mutilation rather than mutation caused by the Shadow. Alexander would have a need for servants who are absolutely loyal, easily sacrificial, and replaceable if needed, and capable of inflicting mad terror in their subjects just with their appearance. Grisly mutilation + alchemy = Grunt. They were presumably hooded or otherwise disguised around Daniel before the game, since he commented on their abnormal behavior, but not appearance.
- Oh, and the deal about Alexander not having any female corpses around, and Grunts? Some may have once been a woman. Look closely.
- One document in the game lends some credence to the idea that they have been around for a while. It states that monsters had been part of the local folklore since at least the Thirty Years War, monsters that sound an awful lot like the grunts...
- The monster in the Justine expansion. It gets worse when you realize you can occasionally hear it saying "How did this happen?"
This one above might need some revision, we also already have an entry about the Suitors.
I also once added an image for the Justine expansion, but I'm unsure if the page just needed one image so I removed it
edited 20th Jun '18 3:52:21 PM by SithPanda16
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
I haven't played Amnesia, but I've heard it described as one of the scariest games ever made. That means that the bar is pretty high for something to qualify as Nightmare Fuel: even if it is creepy, chances are it won't end up in the players' nightmares due to how many much scarier things there are.
- The Chancel is just describing a Bottomless Pit, one of the most common obstacles in video games. Compared to all of the other horrors in the game, it sounds rather benign.
- The Castle sounds like a case of Alien Geometries, but that doesn't sound like the kind of creepiness that'll leave an impact.
- I agree with cutting the Nightmare Retardant and speculation from the portraits and keeping the rest. The first link is broken, by the way.
- That fourth example sounds like speculation.
- Fifth bullet point is more speculation combined with Nightmare Retardant.
Actually, a lot of examples we've been reviewing here lately have had that problem of tacking on a Nightmare Retardant entry at the end. Perhaps we could add it as an official rule?
- (Under the "Explain WHY it scared you" bullet point):
- Don't explain why it DIDN'T scare you:
- If something can turn a scene from Nightmare Fuel to Nightmare Retardant, it's not necessary to mention it. All that accomplishes is making it sound like you're arguing with whoever added the example, and if you're mentioning it in an entry you're writing yourself, that violates the next rule down below (don't add something unless it scared you personally). Either leave it be if the element that ruins the scariness is easy to miss, or bring it up in the Nightmare Fuel cleanup thread otherwise, as it may deserve a cut.
- Focus only on the fear. Sure, bad guys doing evil things can be as cool as it is scary, and sometimes disturbing topics are used for humor, but describing these instances as "awesome" or "hilarious" takes away from the terror you're trying to convey.
- If something can turn a scene from Nightmare Fuel to Nightmare Retardant, it's not necessary to mention it. All that accomplishes is making it sound like you're arguing with whoever added the example, and if you're mentioning it in an entry you're writing yourself, that violates the next rule down below (don't add something unless it scared you personally). Either leave it be if the element that ruins the scariness is easy to miss, or bring it up in the Nightmare Fuel cleanup thread
- Don't explain why it DIDN'T scare you:
I found this unindexed page at NightmareFuel.Big Finish Doctor Who 034 Spare Parts.
- Certainly the Body Horror nature of the transformations, and the creepy apocalyptic nature of the society.
- This drama takes the Cybermen, who had ended up with serious Flanderization, and makes them terrifying again.
- The Doctor's description of the Central Commitee as a sort of biomechanical Hydra of withered bodies and intertwined mechanical parts is damn near the creepiest idea for a Hive Mind ever.
- Yvonne, already transformed into a Cyberman, crying because her father won't let her in the house and thinks she's a monster. A Cyberman's voice trying to do that is deeply unsettling.
Not familiar with the story, but I think any valid examples can be moved to NightmareFuel.Big Finish Doctor Who
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Of these, only the final example isn't a Zero-Context Example. What do the transformations entail? What's so creepy about the apocalyptic society? How does it make the Cybermen scary again? More details on the Central Committee?
he/him | Image Pickin' regular
NightmareFuel.The Magic Treehouse is in need of major cleanup; not sure if anything on it is salvageable.
edited 21st Jun '18 2:07:21 AM by rjd1922
Keet cleanup
I'd need someone to double-check NightmareFuel.Destiny 2 with me. A new expansion is coming out in a couple of months, and there are entries that seem to be doing nothing but bloating already clear instances of Nightmare Fuel, not to mention I intend to strip all spoilers on the page.
"They played us like a DAMN FIDDLE!" — Kazuhira Miller, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain