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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.

    Nightmare Fuel rules 
  • 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.
  • 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

NervousShark Still my fave from the deep sea Since: Mar, 2015 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Still my fave
#4376: Sep 27th 2021 at 12:21:04 PM

[up]I agree, but I'm not sure what to do about Fridge Horror that got explained in later chapters, if that makes sense.

Fangs of the relentless thousand
Zuxtron Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel from Node 03 (On A Trope Odyssey)
#4377: Oct 1st 2021 at 11:11:41 AM

Taking a look at NightmareFuel.My Little Pony A New Generation:

  • Sprout, for all his cowardice, silliness and ineffectiveness, is a shining example of Vile Villain, Saccharine Show. He doesn't have quite the same world-ending stakes as some of the villains from Friendship is Magic or even the 2017 movie, but he still tries to start a race war.
    Unsure about whether Sprout qualifies. On one hand, he is a somewhat realistic depiction of a racist dictator, on the other hand, the sheer amount of comedic moments he gets massively dull the impact.
    • The mere fact that the citizens of Maretime Bay are so afraid of Pegasi and Unicorns that they willingly rally around Sprout despite his idiocy both counts and crosses over with Tear Jerker. The fact that Sprout was able to convince the Earth Ponies that Hitch and Sunny were brainwashed makes it seem like a miracle that the Earth Ponies eventually left him.
    Also unsure about this.
    • It gets worse: an angry little nobody taking advantage of a society's fear, anger and hate to seize power and becoming dangerous is how a LOT of demagogues and dictatorships starts out throughout Real Life history. It could be anyone, and it can happen at anytime where there is crisis and conflict. If even a bigoted cowardly idiot like Sprout can take over Maretime Bay, imagine how much darker the film would be if some-pony else more competent and charismatic than he is does it in his place instead.
    This looks like Fridge Horror.
  • The coup/revolution in Zephyr Heights after the truth of the royal family's flight is exposed. Hearing your loved one had been arrested and/or becoming a fugitive by your own people proved to be a terrifying prospect for both Queen Haven and Pipp Petals, the former fearing for her childrens' safety and the latter freaking out over her entire life falling apart in the span of a single night. This resonates with any parent who fears getting into legal trouble and their children getting dragged into it, and any child who fears losing not only their parents but everything else with barely any idea of what's happening (or just getting into very big trouble with a lot of angry adults).
    Haven: [On Newscast] Pipp, Zipp! Save yourselves!
    Pipp Petals: [Horrified] What?! This is not happening! This is so not happening!
    On one hand, there is an Adult Fear element to this, on the other hand, everything gets fixed by the time the movie ends.
  • Bridlewood undergoes a strange ritual to a superstitious jinx whenever someone mentions one of their taboo words (magic, wings, feathers and, for some reason, mayonnaise). Seeing them all freeze up, then dance while chanting "Bing-bong", can lean towards Uncanny Valley.
    This is way more comedic than frightening. I really can't imagine anyone feeling the level of terror required for Nightmare Fuel from this.
  • Izzy nearly getting gored by the runaway splat launcher that Hitch pulled the pin from. "A bad idea" indeed.
    Yeah, she nearly gets hit... which is another way of saying she doesn't get hit. It's way too brief and inconsequential to stick to someone and haunt them.

Crossover-Enthusiast from an abaondoned mall (Lucky 7) Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#4378: Oct 3rd 2021 at 3:52:47 AM

[up][up] If it's fridge horror that gets explained later, remove it

Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Happyfrybreath Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight Since: Aug, 2018 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#4379: Oct 5th 2021 at 12:54:28 AM

Spot the 28 weeks later cut...

  • The attack on the cottage in the beginning. The scenes really make you feel as if you're right there in the middle of infected territory, so when the attack starts the panic feels real.
    • That shot where Don's running away and a horde of infected come running over the hill is downright terrifying.
      • That visual reminded this troper too much of the default Windows XP wallpaper to be particularly effective. Rather quite funny, honestly.

BigJimbo Since: Dec, 2017
#4380: Oct 5th 2021 at 10:42:10 AM

[up] I'm guessing you're referring to the second sub-bullet? It needs to go anyway for being Natter and written in first-person.

Shadow8411 Since: Jul, 2019
#4381: Oct 5th 2021 at 1:56:22 PM

The indentation has also been fixed. Also, upon checking the edit history, the nattery second sub-bullet that used "This Troper" was added only six months ago, when the website was starting to crack down on using first person writing closer to six years ago.

Edited by Shadow8411 on Oct 5th 2021 at 2:02:29 AM

Zuxtron Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel from Node 03 (On A Trope Odyssey)
#4382: Oct 8th 2021 at 7:38:11 PM

Any comments on the MLP page I looked at above?

NervousShark Still my fave from the deep sea Since: Mar, 2015 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Still my fave
#4383: Oct 9th 2021 at 12:04:38 PM

[up]I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how well I can comment on it, but your decisions seem good. To comment on the ones you were unsure of: The first entry says that the villain is silly and ineffective, but I guess he sounds scary? I think it would depend on how he's portrayed. The second part of the first entry, at least how it's written, seems like In-Universe Nightmare Fuel. The second entry sounds like it could be scary, and it probably would've scared me when I was a kid. Even if it gets fixed by the end of the movie, that doesn't mean it can't be frightening in the moment.

Again, I haven't seen the movie, so I can't really be certain about these.

Edited by NervousShark on Oct 9th 2021 at 3:05:16 PM

Fangs of the relentless thousand
AdeptGaderius Otaku from the Anime World Since: Nov, 2018 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
Otaku
#4384: Oct 9th 2021 at 11:04:20 PM

Creepypasta is a massive clunker of a Nightmare Fuel subpage.

Most of the examples listed on the page are not alphabetized and categorized, making it cumbersome to navigate through and difficult to edit. The example descriptions are a relic from a time where editing rules were lax and loosely enforced, so it sounds conversational and subjective.

Currently, users are adding examples to the page without any care to the page. I would kindly propose a cleanup for the page to reduce the cumbersomeness and make it readable.

The Terror from Paradise: A Collaborative Story
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#4385: Oct 10th 2021 at 9:40:43 PM

Alright, now that Metroid Dread is out, decided to go back and take a look at some of the old Metroid pages. Starting with Metroid Fusion:

    Metroid Fusion 
  • The X themselves are actually pretty frightening creatures when you think about it. A creature that can infect a host, kill them, and mimic them with ALMOST no way of identifying that you're looking at a fake? Pure Paranoia Fuel at its finest... Paranoia Fuel is a kind of Fridge Horror. Delete.
    • While it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that you're not going to be able to prevent the spread of the X making it to the various sectors of the station, the sheer perseverance of the creatures is frightening. You kill the first boss and find they've already made it to the first sectors. Deal with Sector 2 and unlock the very first security doors, they invade more of the station, and it keeps going like this with you unlocking doors and them immediately invading the newly open areas. While you have no other choice but do this in order to progress anywhere yourself, it's actually rather frightening how persistent the X is about spreading. Imagine if they had escaped the facility... Keep most of it but remove the last sentence as it's Fridge Horror.
    • The fact that these creatures absorb a host, kill them, and can mimic them is bad enough, but notice what they do to the physiology of the creature they infect. For example, compare this image of the Hornoad from Metroid II: Return of Samus with this. Not only does the X seem to mimic a host, it seems capable of changing them into something significantly more terrifying and monstrous than before. Fridge Horror. Delete. Also neither of those examples are scary.
    • The fact that because the X parasites can obtain the knowledge of their victims, they can potentially build spaceships and infect the whole galaxy at an exponential rate. The X themselves are pretty much straight transplants of the creature from The Thing (1982) and the game is not shy about this particular piece of influence. Fridge Horror. Delete.
    • Your first venture into Sector 6 has Adam warn you about X parasites who purposefully exposed themselves to Sector 5's sub-zero temperatures, knowing that as part Metroid, Samus is now severely weak to cold. A case of It Can Think mixed in with the horror that these creatures are now royally pissed and intent on killing you off however it can now. Fridge Horror. Delete.
      AI Adam: Be careful, Samus. They are hunting you now.
  • Also, the SA-X's face. Need to say more? ZCE. Delete. Also not even that scary.
    • SA-X IS Nightmare Fuel itself. It mimics a full-power Samus, can kill her easily, and the theme for when SA-X is around is... unsettling, to say the least. It speaks volumes when Samus even lampshades it herself when discussing it — Keep. It does make for pretty tense encounters.
    The SA-X. An enemy with my strongest abilities. But does it have reason? Probably not. It's just a killing machine. In my current state, I can't face it head-on. The SA-X is me, only heartless. I must stop it before it learns its potential and threatens the universe...
    • The sound of its footsteps invoke the worst kind of terror. This thing can, and will, kill you easily. The only way to survive is to run for your life. Extra points for the sound effects here: Samus herself has audible footsteps that sound rather light as she jogs briskly. The SA-X? It stalks you, with metallic echoes resonating with each deliberate footfall, and if you are spotted, the deliberate pacing will turn into a brisk tapping as it sprints for you. Also keep.
    • If you play Metroid Fusion enough, you can hear SA-X coming just by listening to the theme. Its presence invades your subconscious. Keep.
    • Late into the game, the SA-X is found in the restricted laboratory area, fighting off larval Metroids and thankfully not paying attention to you. However, this causes a self-destruct sequence that will detach the restricted area from the rest of the research station and make it explode. Once you haul ass out of there, you'll likely be delighted to know that the SA-X didn't follow, and exploded with the rest of the restricted area. What you certainly won't be delighted to hear, however, is that the SA-X had asexually reproduced, and now there are no less than ten of them on the station. You know, because one of the bastards wasn't bad enough! Thank god that this ends up being a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, and you won't encounter any of them until you fight the SA-X as a boss later on, otherwise a lot of people wouldn't be able to finish the game from sheer fright alone... Keep the first half. Not sure about the second as a lot of it is Fridge Horror but the thread of more in-game encounters is indeed scary.
    • Speaking of said fight, when you battle the SA-X as the penultimate boss, it does not disappoint- dishing out attacks just like yours and flying through the air with horizontal Screw Attacks. When you take out enough of its health, the SA-X falls to one knee and it looks like it might be over. Then it turns into something that Lovecraft would've been proud to come up with. Keep.
  • Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare. While the SA-X might hold the reputation as Fusion's scariest foe, if not in the whole franchise, Nightmare comes a pretty close second. This... thing is a massive, mechanical, floating monstrosity that can alter gravity at will thanks to the manipulator on its underside. Just look at it! Even the music that plays while fighting it is unsettling. Keep. One of the most infamously scary encounters.
    • Think that it's not scary enough? As you fight it, its "face" begins to leak a green fluid from its eyeholes, in a way that makes it look like it's crying. Keep blasting at its face, and it will explode... revealing Nightmare's true face underneath. Good fucking lord. Keep.
    • Did we mention that this thing was created by the Galactic Federation - i.e, the guys on your side (or at least the guys that were before you find out their motives)? The fact that the "good guys" have this thing and not the bad guys is pretty unsettling. Fridge Horror. Delete.
      • Made by the Galactic Federation or not, just consider for a bit why Nightmare was even created - It was made as a military weapon. Just imagine, you're fighting the Federation, and they suddenly unleash this ungodly monster that immediately begins increasing gravity, making it impossible to move, and ripping your fellow soldiers apart with ease (all while "crying" green ooze), and when it comes for you, the last thing you see before you die is that goddamn face. Have fun with that thought when you go to sleep tonight. Fridge Horror. Delete.
    • Nightmare also gets much more of an introduction than most of the other bosses, giving the player sufficient time to build up their own unease. During Samus's first trip to Sector 5, the player enters an enormous windowed room near the start of the Sector and every few seconds a huge silhouette flies past, causing the entire room to shake every time it does so (which you just know you're going to wind up face-to-face with eventually). Much later in the game, there's an explosion in Sector 5 and when Samus goes to investigate, all the windows in the room are shattered and Nightmare is nowhere to be found. Keep.
    • Another thing to think on as mentioned in one of the YMV entries, Nightmare's movement in it's boss fight is slow steady and really not that rapid if a bit jerky, but when you see it's shadow in Sector 5 early on, it's moving around in an almost directionless frenzy that could well be described as panicked. It's possible that Nightmare, despite being well, Nightmare, afraid of the X, that it is able to sense the X-parasites are dangerous, even to it that it's frantic flying is an attempt to escape being consumed by them - something that unfortunately for it, it fails in. Keep the first half, remove the second for being speculative.
  • The Galactic Federation's motives. They denied Samus from blowing up the space station so they could capture a live specimen of SA-X to use as a controlled biological weapon, despite the 100% risk of it killing them all, then raising them as mutant zombies, and then multiplying, spreading across the galaxy, eventually the universe, destroying all civilization. The Umbrella Corporation has nothing on these guys. Fridge Horror. Delete.
    • In fact, this knowledge brings up a LOT of unanswered questions as both this game and Metroid: Other M are the only ones in the series to show that the Federation isn't entirely on the same side as you. Why are they doing this to begin with? Have they become so desperate for extra power that they feel they need to rely on horrific monsters in order to protect themselves and the galaxy? If that's the case, then what has made them so desperate? Or were the observations about Metroids in Super Metroid being able to vastly benefit humanity something of the start to their descent into a dark mindset cause of a lust for that power? And if so, does that mean that this game is the continuation of their lust for power to put them as the lead authority in the galaxy? Unfortunately, as of this point there are no answers to any of those questions, but the implications that each of those possibilities present are NOT good... Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • Pretty much the entire sequence after the power goes out. It's a perfect example of Nothing Is Scarier, and you expect the SA-X to show up at any moment while you're stumbling around in the dark. Thankfully, it doesn't. Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • Considering how much your AI companion holds your hand through the first ~2/3 of the game, it's actually quite unsettling when you start doing in-universe Sequence Breaking that leaves him surprised. Shortly after the aforementioned power outage, it suddenly becomes very clear that you have entirely jumped the rails; the sense of exposure that realization grants is surprisingly jarring. Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • EMERGENCY IN SECTOR 3! EMERGENCY IN SECTOR 3! ZCE. Delete.
  • Serris, the boss of Sector 4, can be pretty scary all on its own, basically being a super-fast water snake-dragon-centipede thing. Seeing what happened to the real Serris is just plain unsettling, though. You're informed by Adam that Serris is contained in a breeding tank located just before the actual boss room. "Environmental Disquiet" starts as soon as you enter the room and you see that Serris, this big nasty monster that Adam warned you about, has been reduced to nothing more than the skeleton now lying at the bottom of the tank. Keep. Pretty creepy.
  • At the very beginning of the game, you can enter a cold storage room where you can see the frozen remains of none other than Ridley. After the power goes out, you have to pass through this room again and come face-to-face with the long-dead monster. Then he crumbles into pieces as a Core-X floats away, having stolen Ridley's DNA. Then, almost at the very end of the game, you find Ridley again at the bottom of a tall room, only now he looks like he's been dipped in molten metal and left out to dry. Then, his eyes start to glow. The characteristic "pixelization" of the X parasites covers his entire body, and we meet Neo-Ridley, giving maybe the biggest roar of any enemy up to that point as he suddenly becomes twice the size that he was before. Oh, Crap! indeed. Keep.
  • Something that doesn't get brought up enough with regards to Fusion is the overall sound design. The game's soundtrack and ambient sounds ratchet up the dread like no other Metroid game before it. The music has a much more dramatic and heart-pounding tone that constantly makes your heart tense up as you navigate the desolate station while creature sounds and definitely the sounds the bosses make can induce rampant panic attacks that numb your focus and make you react instinctively instead of tactically because you just want it to go away. Play this game with your headphones on and in the dark and it is grade-A Paranoia Fuel. Keep.
  • The setting for this game is unlike any other Metroid game. Samus is no stranger to lone wolfing it but due to the circumstances, this game truly makes you feel dreadfully alone and exposed. Everyone on the research station is dead and it's overrun with barely-understood parasites, one of which is basically a walking armory. In other Metroid titles at least Samus feels like she's on somewhat equal footing with her foes but in this game you almost constantly feel woefully underequipped, having to resort to sneaking around and avoiding situations instead of confronting them head on. You're in their house. Plus every so often something will go haywire and send the unsettling slow pace into frantic overdrive and you won't know what's wrong or what to do for the first few minutes. Keep.
  • SIXTY SECONDS TILL IMPACT. ZCE. Delete.
  • At one point, rapid plant overgrowth causes the station's power to go out completely, disabling everything, including the save points. A save point can be seen as something of a perch a player can go back onto if things get scary. Now you don't even have that to comfort you. Keep.
  • The premise has been mentioned already, but minus one detail...this is the weakest Samus has ever been. Oh sure, the first game had its moments, but here, Samus has had NO time to recover from a near-death experience before being sent to BSL. Adam's statistical breakdown when she arrives says she's only at 10% battle capacity, with that being her odds of survival. Samus is in far more dangerous territory, with a species she's having to learn about on the fly, taking increased damage as her suit has been basically carved up from the badass warrior armor down to what seems almost form fitting and significantly less protective...need we go on? Essentially, the odds are SIGNIFICANTLY stacked against you from the minute you start the game and unless you manage to find over half the secret items hidden away, it doesn't get any better. Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • The SA-X does not relinquish its power so easily. It flees on you. Then, Samus gets the dark idea to crash the space station so not one X survives. After all this, you think the game is done and all you have to do is escape in 3 minutes. Then, you get to the hangar, where there is a discarded membrane. It turns out SA-X wasn't the worst threat in the game. It's the final boss, an Omega Metroid, freshly out of its cocoon. There is absolutely no warning that a freaking Omega Metroid is loose on board the space station, and the clock is ticking toward oblivion. The beast takes one swipe at Samus and she immediately drops to 1 hit point. Luckily, SA-X morphs into Samus one more time to hit its weak spot and then Samus can reclaim her final ability and full power to even the playing field. Keep? Personally wasn't scared by this though.

Crossover-Enthusiast from an abaondoned mall (Lucky 7) Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#4386: Oct 10th 2021 at 10:34:47 PM

So uh I wanted to add this to YMMV.Spooky Month, but since I'm not too good at describing emotions I just wanted to pass it through this thread first:

  • Nightmare Fuel: Unlike the more humorous shorts advertising the original plushies and the shirts, the short for the second edition of the plushies has the "glitch witch", whose eyeless face and faceless eyes alternate as a repeating, almost circus like tone plays. Lila walks into the living room to find Skid and Pump have been turned into toys and discovers the glitch witch on the TV, staring into her eyes as the tone quickens and distorts, before the camera closes in on one of the witch's bloodshot eyes to reveal Skid and Pump staring back at her, flickering in and out. The very last frame shows Lila now in the spot between them, and the short just ends.

Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Klavice I Need a Freaking Drink from A bar at the edge of time (Don’t ask) Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#4387: Oct 11th 2021 at 2:43:17 AM

Meh, even as a kid I wasn't scared of much in Fusion. The SA-X being an unkillable menace can just go under whatever our Player equivalent for Oh, Crap! is. Even the beast it turns into isn't that scary. And this is coming from someone who had nightmares about certain disturbing Zelda enemies.

Keep Nightmare maybe because it's a meme with how freaky it looks, not sure about anything else.

Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
ejmenendez Since: May, 2015
JHD Since: Jan, 2021
#4389: Oct 11th 2021 at 9:13:43 AM

All subpage redlinks have been purged. I didn't remove literally every redlink, but the ones that linked to cut subpages were distracting to me.

Crossover-Enthusiast from an abaondoned mall (Lucky 7) Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#4390: Oct 11th 2021 at 1:40:18 PM

So I was going to go add the Spooky Month example and found someone already beat me to it:

  • Nightmare Fuel: The October 2021 Twitter commercial for Skid and Pump plushies. In it, Skid and Pump watch an advertisement on TV that's clearly inspired by Halloween III, featuring a frightening, flickering witch. Just watching this commercial does... something to turn them both into plushies. When Lila walks by, she flies into a panic. As the camera closes in on the witch's Nightmare Face, she can only hug her plushified son in horror before her silhouette shows up in the witch's eyes for a split second, implying she suffered the same fate.

I like this one more since it does a bit of a better job, but I decided to combined both writeups:

  • Nightmare Fuel: Unlike the more humorous shorts advertising the original plushies and the shirts, the short for the second edition of the plushies has Skid and Pump watch an advertisement on TV inspired by Halloween III, featuring a frightening, flickering "glitch witch" as a circus-like tone plays in the background. Lila walks into the living room and discovers the two have been turned into dolls, before noticing the witch on the TV. She's caught staring into her eyes as the tone quickens and distorts, camera closing in on one of the witch's bloodshot eyes to reveal Skid and Pump staring back at her, flickering in and out. The very last frame shows Lila now in the spot between them, and the short just ends.

Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Happyfrybreath Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight Since: Aug, 2018 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#4391: Oct 13th 2021 at 11:16:18 AM

Capitol Critters has been cutlisted, I was going through older pages of this thread and that was still around so

AdeptGaderius Otaku from the Anime World Since: Nov, 2018 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
Otaku
#4392: Oct 15th 2021 at 9:16:26 PM

Recently, I've cleaned up the NightmareFuel.Creepypasta page by folderizing the examples by source and removing a lot of commented out examples to reduce the load of copy-paste.

The Terror from Paradise: A Collaborative Story
KingofNightmares Since: Sep, 2016 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#4393: Oct 18th 2021 at 2:59:12 AM

This entry on Toy Story 4

I don't think this counts. I watched this movie with a bunch of people, and we talked about it afterwards, and everyone found this scene funny and not scary, including the kids if I recall correctly

—signature not found—
jandn2014 Very Spooky from somewhere in Connecticut Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Hiding
Very Spooky
#4394: Oct 18th 2021 at 3:54:38 AM

I don’t think I saw that scene, but it doesn’t sound scary in the slightest. Cut.

back lol
Vyn Since: Oct, 2021
#4395: Oct 18th 2021 at 11:32:08 AM

Hey all, I was browsing the page for The Great God Pan and came across this.

  • Nightmare Fuel: This story managed to given Stephen King nightmares, as he described in the endnotes to his short story collection Just After Sunset.
    [The Great God Pan] surmounts its rather clumsy prose and works its way relentlessly into the reader's terror-zone. How many sleepless nights has it caused? God knows, but a few of them were mine. I think 'Pan' is as close as the horror genre comes to a great white whale.

Now, I've read the story and can confirm it's absolutely terrifying. I'd say it's more than earned a page. I'm just... not entirely sure how to do that.

He never sleeps. He says he will never die.
Zuxtron Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel from Node 03 (On A Trope Odyssey)
#4396: Oct 18th 2021 at 2:07:11 PM

For starters, you could rewrite that example to actually explain what's so scary about the story instead of just going "this is TOTALLY a scary story, dude, trust me, this horror writer even says so!"

Point to specific things (characters, events) that stand out as particularly horrifying. Give a good explanation of what makes them so exceptionally terrifying, in a way that emphasizes the feeling of fear, rather than just a summary description of what objectively happens (this IS an Audience Reaction, after all).

Edited by Zuxtron on Oct 18th 2021 at 5:08:44 AM

Vyn Since: Oct, 2021
#4397: Oct 18th 2021 at 3:05:39 PM

Okay, I can do that when I’m not on a mobile.

But how exactly do I create a page?

He never sleeps. He says he will never die.
Zuxtron Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel from Node 03 (On A Trope Odyssey)
#4398: Oct 18th 2021 at 4:24:34 PM

When you go to Literature.The Great God Pan, edit the URL in the address bar and replace the "Literature/" namespace with "NightmareFuel/".

You could also just click this link: NightmareFuel.The Great God Pan

Klavice I Need a Freaking Drink from A bar at the edge of time (Don’t ask) Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#4399: Oct 18th 2021 at 4:59:23 PM

Okay, having played a little of Metroid Dread, I can safely say the E.M.M.Is are scary enough, being basically a Love letter to Franchise/Alien only not carbon based. And while you can kill them, the fact you are constantly on the run from them, makes sense to be afraid of them. Unlike the SA-X, they aren't that easy to avoid and once one has spotted you even with the Phantom Cloak they are relentless in their pursuit of you.

Edited by Klavice on Oct 19th 2021 at 1:33:43 AM

Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
Vyn Since: Oct, 2021
#4400: Oct 18th 2021 at 5:24:51 PM

Made the page for Great God Pan, but there’s only two entries so far. It’s late here and I need some help, so I shall do more work tomorrow.

He never sleeps. He says he will never die.

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