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
Any pronouns
Move the rest to fridge horror
We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.
Any pronouns
I wonder if Sofia the First, ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks, and Franklin should be deleted. I deleted most of the weak/fridge horror examples, but still. Franklin's page only has two examples now.
EDIT: DEFINITELY delete PAW Patrol.
Edited by sudrictoon on Nov 26th 2022 at 1:40:53 PM
We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Drax and Mantis' chase after Kevin Bacon is comedic, but seeing Mantis leap from pillar to pillar while cast in shadow complete with gleeful shrieking and a Slasher Smile gives the sequence a brief, sinister edge.
- The idea that Mantis was pretty much pulling an Ego by essentially brainwashing Kevin Bacon to be a present for Quill and forgot to put air holes for the gift box that she and Drax stuffed him in. If Quill didn't hear the banging and voice, Mantis would've accidentally killed Kevin Bacon. Worse is that Rocket doesn't seem to understand that this is wrong, stating that Quill should be happy to have a human being as a present.
I'd advocate to cut it as both examples are Played for Laughs in the episode.
Edited by Silverblade2 on Nov 26th 2022 at 7:49:13 PM
NightmareFuel.Romantic Killer was created recently, and want to confirm my judgement calls. There are 1-2ish valid examples in there but the formatting is a mess (lots of unnecessary bold text, indentation issues).
- Try putting yourself in Anzu's shoes: your parents left you alone in a house with no money, no one to protect you, and you're only good at making Ramen. And worst of all: you're a girl, making you a lot more likely to go through rape or violence without any backup. Anzu is lucky she has 3 strong and smart guys and a wizard protecting her, and the worst thing she's seen break into her house was a perverted thief...
Fridge horror kind of thing, and her situation of suddenly being left alone with her house is mostly comedic/light-hearted in-series. The incident with the perverted thief doesn't show anything terrifying. Cut.
- Yukana Kishi. Might as well put everything related to her in this page.
- When she fell over and hurt herself, Tsukasa came over and gave her bag back to her. At this moment, her frown suddenly turns into an eerie smile. Afterward, every day when Tsukasa walks home with his friends, she's standing there in the exact same spot, with the exact same blank smile. And all she says to him is "Morning." Not only is this creepy, but it's also downright disturbing.
- And it only gets worse from there. The next thing she does is send him packages to his address, which are usually new clothing. She's been doing this on his mother's account by several different names. Not only has she been creepily waiting for him every day; she's straight-up stalking him!
Yukana [with the same eerie smile]: "Morning. That shirt looks great on you."- And you think that wasn't bad enough: Tsukasa tells her to stop following him and stop sending him packages. To which she responds with nothing but a creepy smile. He then tries to get away from her, but no matter where he goes; Yukana is always with him. Yandere doesn't even BEGIN to describe how horrifying she is.
- While he was studying in his house, Yukana drugs Tsukasa by putting something in his drink and forces him to pass out. She then comes into his room and takes pictures with him as he's passed out, using his social media account to do so. This causes Tsukasa to get a ton of clout for dating her and he even got slapped by his father. Who is ashamed of him for the stuff Yukana did...
- When Tsukasa comes outside, Yukana is standing right behind him; this time, with a kind-of saddened frown and her eyes shaded. She states that others don't understand her relationship with him, and then tries to rush and pursue him with the craziest Nightmare Face you can think of! If it weren't for his sister, Arisa, stepping in and knocking her down, who knows what would've happened to Tsukasa...
- And the reason that Tsukasa doesn't go with girls anymore? The reason he's so distant from other girls until he meets Anzu? Everything that happened above traumatized him so badly that he gets terrifying hallucinations of Yukana every time a girl tries to approach him. Unlike Saki, Tsukasa wasn't fortunate enough to have Anzu protect him, and his parents blamed him for Yukana's actions, so this made his trauma even worse. The poor guy was so traumatized, that he couldn't even go to school...
Valid example overall — the adult woman Yukana falls in love with middle school boy Tsukasa and stalks him to the point of traumatising him, and it's portrayed very dramatically. But this needs some cleaning up/rewriting (eg. the second-last bullet point should have the speculation/what-if bit at the end removed).
- Near the end of the episode where Anzu, Tsukasa, Junta, Hijiri, and Riri arrive at the Summer Festival, they take a memorable selfie of the event with everyone in the camera (sans Tsukasa, who is more in the background). However - from a social media post, Yukana manages to find Tsukasa again from the photo alone. Cue the next episode, where Yukana suddenly arrives to talk to Anzu about her infatuation with Tsukasa.
- Even Anzu notices something is off with Yukana while they were walking. She claims to be Tsukasa's "original girlfriend." She then asks if Tsukasa lives with her, and this makes her suddenly stop walking as her face turns into genuine fear. Cue Tsukasa walking down the corner, and the moment he does, Yukana suddenly rushes towards Tsukasa while shouting his name.
- Anzu blocks her way and tells her that Tsukasa doesn't want to talk to her right now. They then go inside the house, but Tsukasa does nothing but stands there - outside Anzu's door - with an eerie expression on her face before eventually walking away. Unfortunately, this isn't the last time we see her...
I should note that this sequence of events is actually shown before the above example (which is shown as a flashback), so we don't know who Yukana is and why Tsukasa is scared of her at this point on first viewing. I don't think this example explains it very well as it is, but I think it may be valid even without knowing the backstory yet; the series here shows Yukana discovering Tsukasa's new living location thanks to a harmless social media photo and then turning up to his house within days while claiming she's his girlfriend, and she creepily confronts Tsukasa and sends him into a panic while she's delusional and rambling about how they can't be kept apart anymore, and she eerily lurks outside the house before walking away — the way she's unhinged here and disturbing Tsukasa is pretty terrifying imo, but I'm not 100% if it's considered NF. Needs a rewrite if valid.
- After the cops take Yukana and place her in a cell, Riri (as a girl) congratulates Hijiri on getting some background connections to watch Yukana and making sure she doesn't go unpunished. We then cut to Yukana, slouching in despair behind bars. She mentions that when she does get out, she'll find him again because they are "destined for each other." Riri then arrives at the cell Yukana is in. Yukana asks who she is and Riri then introduces herself and tells her that her magic wasn't working during the moment when she almost killed Anzu. Yukana then asks if she is crazy. Riri responds, with the creepiest Death Glare on her face:◊
Riri [Calmly, but angrily]: "That's funny. I was gonna ask you the same thing."
- We then cut to Yukana's horrified face as the screen glows brighter and the sink makes a water droplet. It then immediately cuts to the next scene. Anzu states that it has been a while since Riri returned. That, plus the fact that when Rio does return, he tells Anzu that all of her problems "have disappeared", it can be easily assumed that he killed Yukana. Thankfully, he didn't, and actually just erased her memories of meeting Tsukasa, but it's still kind of disturbing that he worded it that way.
- Riri is a Perpetual Smiler who smiles no matter how she's feeling. However this time, she dropped the smile entirely. This is the first time we see Riri actually get so serious about something that she drops her entire playful attitude, and it's pretty damn scary...
The second and third sentences are maybe salvageable (Yukana is locked up and still being creepily hung up/delusional about Tsukasa), everything else not really. The rest of the first bullet point is tense but not scary imo (the screenshot linked isn't at all a terrifying Death Glare). Second bullet point is pointless since it clarifies that Riri didn't end up killing Yukana. Third bullet point is unsettling but don't recall it being nightmare-worthy.
The second folder is valid. Are the third and fourth folders valid (what's salvageable from the fourth folder, anyways)? Also unsure if the valid examples should be moved to the YMMV page or if the page can stay after cleanup.
Any pronouns
Cut example 1 and the pointless stuff from the fourth folder
We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.
Logic Girl
This is from NightmareFuel.The Wizard Of Oz:
- The scene where Dorothy attempts to pick an apple...and the gets promptly smacked by a living, talking, tree. I was never scared of that scene, and the description just sounds silly.
I have seen many people talking about how terrifying those trees were to them as kids, actually. Usually just passing mentions as opposed to formal reviews or anything, so I can't exactly back it up with a link, but my sense is that it's indeed a common reaction.
(That said I can't propose a rewrite because I'm personally in your boat. There were way scarier things in that movie to me as a kid.)
Edited by nrjxll on Dec 6th 2022 at 6:44:13 AM
Discarded and Feeling Blue
The trees are probably scary, though that example seriously downplays it and is basically a ZCE.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Any pronouns
Uh, if we cut stuff based on whether they're scary to individual tropers, I'd advocate purging like 95 percent of the examples from everything except actual Horror works.
Like I said, it's poorly written and I'm not sure how to rewrite it, but I totally believe that it's considered scary by a good chunk of the intended audience.
Any pronouns
Discarded and Feeling Blue
Also keep in mind that this is a movie for kids. The target audience matters a lot when determining what does and doesn't count as NF.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
She / Her
I say the example should be kept yet tweaked. Granted, I don't recall ever finding that scene scary personally.
Hope I'm getting doing this correctly, but I feel like the page image on the music page should be changed since its a really graphic image filled with *actual* medical gore. I'm not really sure how I would go about changing it but I feel like an Aphex Twin album cover would suffice without having to resort to somethingly needlessly as graphic as that.
Sorry for the lack of a link I have no idea how to use the markup on this site even with the help tab.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
This kind of discussion normally happens in the Image Pickin forums. Use "NSFW" as the thread reason.
Yeah.....I suggested that one.....but I was reluctant to at first, but everyone else upvoted it on a thread. That said, I don't know if any of us knew that the image was real, but with that knowledge, we should seek out a new image. If you want Aphex Twin, the Richard D. James Album cover is already on that album's page, but I Care Because You Do
◊ doesn't have a separate page, and it might work, but that album might get its own page eventually, plus, some might not like using a normal person's face as an NF image. I did also suggest the Aphex Twin spectrogram
◊, but it didn't get much support on the thread, and I also suggested the Destruction album Release From Agony as an image, but now its on Metal. Granted, that one's pretty squirm inducing as well, but the image is just an artwork and not real, so it avoids your concern. We could also use The Exploited's Let's Start a War
◊, Wolf Eyes' Burned Mind
◊ or Babes in Toyland's Painkillers
◊
Of course, we'll have to start an Image Pickin' thread for that
—signature not found—
I have started the Image Pickin' thread
Any pronouns
Sonic Prime already has a bunch of pages, including a Nightmare Fuel one, since the first episode was released within Roblox. You better keep an eye on this.
We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.
Yeah I was gonna do an image picking thread but I saw some people say to post about fuel related pages in the relevant thread so I just wanted to play it safe
We watched The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in English class today, so I figured I'd take a gander at its Nightmare Fuel page:
May the odds that this page isn't too bad be ever in my favor.
- The Victors' Village looks considerably like Auschwitz — the sign even resembles the "Arbeit Macht Frei" on the gate. Fridge Horror.
- The Peacekeepers look like a combination of Stormtroopers and Nazis. I admit that some of the scenes featuring the Peacekeepers are pretty scary (the scene of Cinna getting attacked particularly freaked me out, but that scene isn't anywhere on the page AFAIK), but this movie is PG-13. It'll take more than a resemblance to characters from other movies and Nazis to give viewers nightmares.
- Their breastplates now also bear ridges that resemble some sort of insectoid carapace, producing some sort of Nazi-Stormtrooper-Bug Monster. See the comment on the above bullet.
- The girl on the Victory Tour who cheerfully tells Katniss that she's going to volunteer as a Tribute just like her just goes to show how far gone Panem really is. Definitely scary by implications, but not so much on actual horror.
- And she was from either District 2 or 4. If you've read the books, those districts are the ones that produce "Careers": people whose teenage lives are devoted to going into the Arena and winning. Feels a little nattery.
- After President Snow's little speech at the Presidential Mansion, he drinks from a flute of champagne, only for some of it to come back a little redder... The scene honestly just confused me more than anything, but it might freak someone out just a little. Keyword is "just a little".
- Thread. At first he doesn't seem that scary, but then he shows what a bastard he is when he kicks over an old woman and is about to hit her with his truncheon before Gale pulls a Big Damn Heroes, yelling that if anybody in Twelve is out after dark, they will be shot on sight. Just seeing the damage he does to Gale's back... His voice is pretty intimidating, too. Keep.
- Doesn't seem that scary? Merge the quote with main bullet.
Cray (Head Peacekeeper of 12): Welcome to District 12, Commander Thread—
[Cray has a black hood shoved over his head and is forced down on his knees (and presumably executed) while Thread stalks off, his facial expression ice cold.] - After Haymitch talks him down from shooting Katniss, Thread is seen using his fingers to flick blood off the end his whip. Admittedly, I didn't catch the blood being flicked off, and I doubt a little blood would stick to someone after the end of the movie, especially with the other stuff that goes down.
- And Haymitch successfully talks him down by reminding him that executing one of the victors would be a very bad move in the eyes of the state and President Snow. Even he's cowed by what the state might do to him. Delete, not that scary.
- Doesn't seem that scary? Merge the quote with main bullet.
- The games themselves. Somehow they manage to be more lethal and dangerous than the one from the previous film. Like lab mice the contestants are absolutely closed in with (almost) no way out except in a body bag. All are completely at the mercy of the operators and a cruel and petty tyrant who can easily destroy them with a single push of the button if he doesn't like them enough to continue living. Keep.
- In fact it's strongly hinted at that the 75th Games were made even more lethal and dangerous by President Snow, who's made his growing disdain for the Victors and especially Katniss pretty clear. If not for Plutarch's involvement, Katniss and Peeta would have been killed off right off the bat. Remove spoiler tags.
- At one point in the movie during one of Katniss and Haymitch's discussions in the Capitol, there was this black eyed, cage-headed woman (an Avox) in the background who just stood there watching them talk. Unless you read the books, it's not really explained who or what the hell she was nor is she ever mentioned during the movie but those who saw the first film will noticed she's dressed more like a prisoner than a servant. I didn't catch her while watching the movie, but I looked it up and I can imagine it scaring someone.
- Enobaria. If you thought Clove was scary, Enobaria pretty much gives her a run for her money. Out of all the tributes in the Career Alliance, she has got to be the most terrifying. Merge the bullets, but remove the natter and all caps. Remove spoiler tags.
- For one thing, she won her first games by using her TEETH to RIP ANOTHER TRIBUTE'S THROAT OUT! Her teeth are now filed to look RAZOR SHARP!
- And on top of all that, she's a cold-blooded killer! And guess what: she SURVIVES!
- The poisonous fog, whose effects are seriously painful just to look at. And while soaking the boils in water draws out the poison and neutralizes it, it still hurts like hell. Keep.
- The killer baboons, giant tidal wave, treacherous lightning, poisonous fog—you name it! The whole idea of having the arena running like a clock was pretty spooky! Each of the points about the different hazards should be split into different bullets. Remove spoiler tags.
- The screaming jabberjays, who parrot cries for help from the tributes' loved ones. And, as Finnick asks, where did they get those cries in the first place? Hearing Katniss screaming in the midst of all is truly terrifying. Keep, but remove the Fridge Horror.
- Although it is to be noted that the book states audio samples from interviews with Victors' families could have been altered by Capitol tech for the birds to hear. While this is not mentioned in the movie, it is possible if Snow has the capability to plant bugs everywhere (i.e. the kiss scene), which doesn't make much less scary. This feels a little nattery to me?
- The Wham Line after Katniss is rescued from the arena. Keep. Remove spoiler tags.
Katniss: We're not going back to Twelve?
Gale: There is no District 12. - There's a deleted scene where Plutarch goes into a room with lots of little cubby holes, goes to one, pulls out the paper inside, and replaces it with another. That CONFIRMS that the third Quarter Quell was not originally supposed to be a victors game. What makes the scene even worse is that there are HUNDREDS of these cubby holes around. The Capitol had centuries, if not MILLENIA of Hunger Games planned. Not in the movie proper, but if someone were to search for the scene and watch it, it might freak them out from the implications. Again, though, it's not very scary regarding actual horror.
Any thoughts?
Edited by cheesythegreat on Dec 15th 2022 at 1:15:43 PM
(they/them)
Any pronouns
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Keep everything marked as 'keep,' remove spoilers, and delete everything else.
I'd say Good Luck Charlie is due for a cut. None of it is scary except the first one, and it's mostly Fridge Horror. And PJ threatening to punch Gabe isn't scary, it's just generic sibling bullying.
We are the best friends, we stand as one. Whatever life may bring, we are never alone.
Logic Girl
From NightmareFuel.Futurama:
- From "Fry and the Slurm Factory", the secret ingredient of Slurm, actually the only ingredient: concentrated slime from a giant alien slug's ass.
- Played for Laughs, but said alien slug queen also states that the true ingredients of toothpaste is so disgusting even she doesn't like to talk about it!
Neither of these sound scary; just gross.
For every low there is a high.
From Andor:
While the first half of the Narkina 5 entry and the torture entry might stand, the rest are pretty weak and verge on Fridge Horror.