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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
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yeah, I don't see what's scary about the image, and this is coming from someone who still gets pretty startled if I hear the Deep Note at night or without expecting it.
Okay, who added this page?
- While Steve and Blue learn in "What Blue's Scared About" that not everything that appears is scary, the haunted house contains some slightly disturbing details.
- A painting that appears to be a photo of Steve with a beard that looks at him regardless of where he is.
- Boo's father who is too big to appear in the screen.
- The crumbling house and the creaking wood make you thankful that ghosts don't have legs to step on the floor.
- For a moment, Steve's shadow makes it look like something is about to attack Blue, Shovel, and Pail, which might seem a little unsettling to kids watching.
- While it's not a big deal, Sleeping Beauty's dream in "What Was Blue's Dream About?" can be a little unsettling. The dark environment, the monstrous cake and the world furious with the main character seem a little out of place from what you would expect from a cartoon like Blue's Clues.
- In "The Wrong Shirt", the picture frame shakes, warps, and inverts colours while making horrible gurgling sounds before one character of the day skidoos out of it. This would be a bit unnerving, but what seals the deal is that it's strong enough to shake the room and warp reality, like elongating Sidetable Drawer until she can reach Steve's height and turning the outside world upside down. It can make even older viewers let alone adults uneasy.
Edited by generation81 on Jan 28th 2024 at 3:56:23 PM
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
The way the last example is written is okay. The other two uses phrases that are synonyms of "it's not very scary".
I can edit them to remove them.
Edited by generation81 on Jan 28th 2024 at 4:06:39 AM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Granted, we need to keep in mind the target demographic. Sesame Street's page was kept because kids find these things scary.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
KIRBY CAR
(x6) I removed the mention of the sheet music.
Edited by ChillyBeanBAM on Jan 28th 2024 at 4:13:12 AM
he/him
Angry babby
I could see the moving picture being frightening for little kids and the last bullet makes sense. The others seem like Fridge Horror or just poorly written examples.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Honestly at just three examples, I dob't think a NF page is need, they can just go on the YMMV page.
Now's your chance to be a [[BIG SHOT!!]]
Some of the stuff on NightmareFuel.Daft Punk seems like a stretch. The example about the ending of "Rollin' N Scratchin" sounding like "robotic screams of agony" in particular. Really, nothing about the Homework album is even a little scary.
Having heard that song before, it's definitely harsh, but I don't know if that alone makes it scary.
I haven't heard all of Daft Punk's work, but the "Prime Time of Your Life" and "Technologic" music videos are keeps, I think.
—signature not found—
Very Spooky
Bumping this post on NightmareFuel.Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, as I want some more opinions to determine what should be cut.
I agree on getting rid of NightmareFuel.Blues Clues, only keeping the entries on the painting and the shadow and moving them to the YMMV page.
back lol
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Er. Keep in mind that according to What Goes Where on the Wiki, moments should be separated even if there's less than 3. No reason to merge pages back.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Very Spooky
Really? I wasn't aware of that until now, even if it does seem to be policy. I don't want to distract from this thread's topic too much, but I don't see the point in enforcing separate subpages when there's very little entries.
That said, I suppose we can just trim NightmareFuel.Blues Clues for now.
back lol
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
I only discovered it somewhat recently myself, but yeah it's just a rule apparently
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Everybody, Everybody!
The page for NightmareFuel.The Three Body Problem is structured is mis-structured as a YMMV page rather than a Darth Wiki page, and seems to have been stuck like this since its creation.
Is there a way to fix this or is it simply built into the page now?
Edited by CanuckMcDuck1 on Feb 6th 2024 at 6:14:45 AM
Everybody loves the me! I’m a great athlete!
Very Spooky
What exactly do you mean? Only problem that I can see is the miscapitalized title, and that can be resolved easily.
back lol
He/Him
For the most part, a lot of the entries on NightmareFuel.Hazbin Hotel are valid, especially the scenes concerning Alastor and Valentino
But maybe some of the blatant Black Comedy moments should be cut out?
Like Niffty wanting to stab Angel in "The Show Must Go On". Like that's played as a joke
Or the Niffty staring at the camera. Unsettling? Sure. But it's clearly meant to be 100% comedy and not something to terrify viewers.
And Vox's anger and rivalry towards Alastor in Episode 2 isn't really that terrifying on his part.
Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Feb 6th 2024 at 9:00:50 PM
Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project
Everybody, Everybody!
How can the title of a page be changed?
With the Wiki Word tool.
Very Spooky
This thread, actually; I've already brought it there.
Everybody, Everybody!
& Alright thanks. jandn already brought attention to the name change, so I’ll leave it there.
Edited by CanuckMcDuck1 on Feb 6th 2024 at 7:26:30 AM
Everybody loves the me! I’m a great athlete!
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
A few examples from NightmareFuel.Jujutsu Kaisen that I find very iffy:
- Cursed Technique: Hollow Purple, the pinnacle of Gojo's offensive power, hammers in the scope of his abilities as Person of Mass Destruction outside of Domain Expansion. Hanami bolts immediately after sensing it incoming and still loses the entire left side of her torso. Also, it left the Jujutsu Tech's grounds with a new perfectly cut out valley!
- Megumi's demonic grin before using his Domain Expansion for the first time is so much more unhinged than could be expected from the team's Only Sane Man. Justified by the fact that being the cautious, responsible one or trying to play it safe wouldn't get him to that level.
- It's shortly after the revelation that he used to be a vicious Bully Hunter only a few years ago and the underclassmen at the middle school he went to are still terrified of him. The younger him is shown sitting on top of a pile of people he beat up. Despite the cool attitude, guy has enough rage inside him for the whole team.
- Kugisaki goes full on Terror Hero when she and Yuji fight against Eso and Kechizu. Her response to getting infected with their poisonous blood is to stab nails thorough her hand and use Straw Doll Technique: Resonance to make them feel it. They know it can't hurt them too much, but are disturbed by her actions anyway. Worse, even though both Jujutsu sorcerers got hit by their Cursed Technique and should be in excruciating pain, they have barely slowed down. Way to horrify the horrors.
- Gojo's fight with Hanami and Jogo in Shibuya. Despite the curses' confidence, Gojo easily deals with both of them, pursuing the duo relentlessly while making numerous Slasher Smiles the whole time. It comes to an end when he catches Hanami with her guard down and smashes her against the wall with Infinity, crushing the curse until she's no more than a stain.
- What's more, Jogo desperately tries to distract Gojo by threatening to kill a civilian before he can finish Hanami off, with Gojo purely focused on killing the other curse. Jogo is noticeably affected by her demise.
Mahito: Hanami would be upset!Jogo: Hanami's dead.
- What's more, Jogo desperately tries to distract Gojo by threatening to kill a civilian before he can finish Hanami off, with Gojo purely focused on killing the other curse. Jogo is noticeably affected by her demise.
- Yuji's Badass Boast to Mahito is both an awesome moment and a horrifying one, due to just how malicious and predatory it sounds, so much that it could very well be a villain speech:
Yuji: You're right, Mahito. I'm you. I wanted to reject you, convince myself that you were wrong. But that doesn't matter now. I'm gonna kill you. Even if you come back as another curse, I'll kill you. Change your name. Change your form. I'll kill you again. I don't need to find meaning or a reason. Maybe in a hundred years after my death, the meaning behind my actions will become apparent. In the grand scheme of things... I'm probably nothing more than a cog. But I'll keep killing curses... for as long as I can. That's my role in all this.
All of these are about good guys being threatening towards villains.
Kugisaki turning her nails against herself could count as scary to some, but that example revolves entirely around how it scares the bad guys rather than the audience.
Gojo's fight with Hanami and Jogo in Shibuya, likewise, could have counted as scary, but more because of how the curses try to take advantage of the many civilians in the area rather than how Gojo is too good at fighting villains.
NightmareFuel.Investigation Discovery is troping real-life cases, which I think might already fall under ROCEJ, but also does so pretty poorly since all of the entries are just blow-by-blow descriptions of cases with little focus on why they're scary.
The Protomen enhanced my life.
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
Regarding Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
I think this entry is valid, at least, especially when the film is deliberately playing them as eerie and sinister. (For example, quoting a poem by William Allingham to use as an Ironic Nursery Rhyme that associates the Oompa Loompas with fairies who kidnap children.)
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
The sheet music to the THX Deep Note (which is normal sheet music) was added to Vanity Plate. Should I cut that subbullet for being literally just sheet music?
She/her. Profile pic is by Richard Michael Gomez @StarmansArt. Please watch Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. https://youtu.be/Vm92JNgPbqk