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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''[W]hen you get past the age where you’re capable of believing there’s [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|something carnivorous and hairy under the bed]], you don't then lose your capacity for fear. The monsters go, and in their place, lucky you, you get to start imagining real calamities: losing your parents in a car wreck, becoming destitute, having someone you love turn on you, or doing something so shocking that the community ostracizes you.''
|'''Alyx Dellamonica''', ''[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/twilight-vs-flowers-in-the-attic-sick-sex-smackdown-eighties-style Twilight vs. Flowers in the Attic: Sick Sex Smackdown, Eighties Style]''}}
After one has seen a thousand horror movies, most scary things loses some of their effect. Even [[Primal Fear
▲{{quote|''[W]hen you get past the age where you’re capable of believing there’s [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|something carnivorous and hairy under the bed]], you don't then lose your capacity for fear. The monsters go, and in their place, lucky you, you get to start imagining real calamities: losing your parents in a car wreck, becoming destitute, having someone you love turn on you, or doing something so shocking that the community ostracizes you.''|'''Alyx Dellamonica''', ''[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/twilight-vs-flowers-in-the-attic-sick-sex-smackdown-eighties-style Twilight vs. Flowers in the Attic: Sick Sex Smackdown, Eighties Style]''}}
▲After one has seen a thousand horror movies, most scary things loses some of their effect. Even [[Primal Fear|Primal Fears]] get less scary the more exposure you receive. And let's face it: You have to be a little bit crazy to worry about [[Monster Clown|evil clowns]], [[Body Horror]], or [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|plain old snakes]] while you're not watching the film.
Adult Fears are about the things every mature, well-adjusted adult ''should'' be concerned about: the safety of their children, is where you live safe to live in, or being able to pay your bills. [[Rule of Scary]] is needed to get from concern to real fear, but [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] must be maintained for effect. To an adult, kids being preyed upon by pedophiles is scarier than kids being preyed upon by velociraptors.
Can have [[Think of the Children|political purposes]] as well as entertaining ones.
The audience reaction is still to be scared, but Adult Fear is one trope used to get the reaction.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime and Manga]] ==
* Here's one courtesy of ''[[Death Note]]'': what if a new serial killer arose, more prolific than any killer before him... and that killer turned out to be ''your son''?
* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'': Played with in an episode of ''Fumoffu'' where Sōsuke is shown to be fearless, as he grew up in a war zone so simple things like haunted hospitals, ghosts, horrific screams, and spooky children with hammers don't faze him, yet he ''is'' afraid when he thinks that Kaname died falling through the floor.
* ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'': {{spoiler|with both Seita and Setsuko starving to death slowly after both of their parents die and their aunt shows that they are clearly not welcome in her household.}}
* ''[[Bitter Virgin]]'': features the rarely brought up topic of miscarriage. It also features the life of a girl whose stepfather raped her while her mother simply ignored it, until the girl got pregnant for the second time.
* ''[[One Piece]]'': Brook. In a rare case of a main character who was middle-aged in his flashback, instead of the usual childhood traumas we got the story of a parent/authority figure losing friends and loved ones to tragedy and bad decisions, finally ending up old and alone.
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* ''[[Franken Fran]]'' Chapter 29. Terrible, terrible [[Body Horror]] things happening to people, sometimes for no good reason: creepy. Terrible, horrible things happening to ''babies''.
* ''[[Bokurano]]'' can be boiled down to this -- {{spoiler|Your child is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it}}.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'', {{spoiler|Medusa's}} method of resurrection. {{spoiler|After Stein kills her, she morphs her soul into the form of a snake, and then proceeds to [[Body Surf|possess]] five-year-old Rachel Boyd with it. There's a full chapter about her and her family, and how poor Rachel's parents, who are [[Muggle|completely powerless to stop her]], react to the way she vanishes. ''Specially'' [[The Woobie|her mother]], who's [[Forced to Watch]] as Medusa talks to her through Rachel and then disappears.}}
* The H-manga ''Defiled Virgin'' takes the fear of being sexually assaulted by bums and milks it for all it's worth.
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'': Satoko's [[Evil Uncle]] Teppei. Made worse in Tatarogoroshi-hen by {{spoiler|Satoko having [[Hate Plague|Hinamizawa Syndrome]].}}
** The older children are victim to this too. For example, imaginine your once happy child becoming withdrawn and
* The otherwise incredibly lighthearted ''[[Minami-ke]]'' does one in the last episode when they find {{spoiler|what appears to be Kana's suicide note}}
* Invoked in ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'', since Kotetsu/Wild Tiger is a [[Hot Dad]] in canon and therefore he ''really'' hates the mere idea of children being in any kind of danger. {{spoiler|Worse still, in the second episode his daughter Kaede ends up in danger, and Tiger is not ''quite'' quick enough to rescue her. Fortunately, Barnaby saves her life in the nick of time.}}
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** There is also the moment where {{spoiler|Maverik}} pats Kaede's head. The simple idea of what he [[Mind Control|could do]] to her gave the fanbase itself a major freak out.
* ''[[Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]'' is insanely good at this. Stalkers, rape, violence, school shootings...
* Recently{{when}} used in ''[[Bleach]]''. One of Ichigo's biggest triggers is to see his friends and family in danger... {{spoiler|And in one arc, his sisters and friends are trapped under the effects of Tsukishima's [[Mind Control]]. So he has to face a powerful and manipulative [[Magnificent Bastard]] who has inserted himself in his own life, his physical powers ''completely useless'', and wounded where it hurts him the most. Understandably, Ichigo almost crosses the [[Despair Event Horizon]], and it takes a massive intervention from the Shinigami to save him.}}
** Said fear was already shown in the first episode, when a Hollow broke into the Kurosaki household, injured his father Isshin {{spoiler|who had lost his own Shinigami powers decades ago}} and almost killed his sisters Yuzu and Karin, alongside harming his newfound friend Rukia. [http://www.mangareader.net/94-8-31/bleach/chapter-1.html Just look at Ichigo's horrified face when that Hollow holds the already injured Yuzu hostage.] {{spoiler|And don't forget how he almost LOST it in the fourth movie, when Yuzu was killed ''and then dragged to Hell itself'' by Kokuto, and later Orihime cannot use her powers to heal her.}}
** Also, while {{spoiler|Byakuya Kuchiki}} didn't look like having one of these as he fought {{spoiler|Ichigo}}, the Soul Society arc turned out to be quite laced with this for him. {{spoiler|He has to give up his only living relative, his sister-in-law Rukia, so she can be executed, as a way to uphold the law and the very high honor of the Kuchiki clan. And as he does so, however, Byakuya is breaking the promise he gave to his dead wife aka Rukia's dead sister, Hisana, who in her deathbed had made him swear to take care of Rukia. If he intevenes to save Rukia, his clan is dishonored forever; if he doesn't, he loses the last person close to him.}} Truly a "damned if I don't and damned if I do" situation.
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** Jude Heartfilia may count as well. Literally a few weeks after he reconciles with his estranged daughter, Lucy, and manages to get over the sudden death of his wife, who Lucy is the spitting image of, {{spoiler|she and her friends are attacked by a monster and seemingly killed}}.
*** {{spoiler|Even worse when Lucy returns and finds out that he's been sending her birthday presents every year since her disappearance and then died a month before her return.}}
* In ''[[Ashita no Nadja]]'', {{spoiler|Colette Preminger}} experiences exactly the same fear when she {{spoiler|wakes up from an illness-induced coma}}, only to be told {{spoiler|by her retainers}} that {{spoiler|her baby daughter Nadja had died of the same sickness that almost killed Colette herself. (Complete with a [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] scene where Colette rushes to Nadja's wooden crib and finds it empty, collapsing in tears). In reality, Nadja had been sent away to an English orphanage to trick Colette into coming back home to her clan. And both mother and daughter only learn of the whole deal ''thirteen years later''.}}
* The climax of ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]'' has little Mei run away from home and get lost. The panic of her older sister Satsuki and the villagers is completely identifiable to any audience, especially when {{spoiler|they find a little girl's sandal in the pond and believe that she's drowned}}.
* ''[[Vampire Princess Miyu]]'' has {{spoiler|Miyu's mother, the Guardian}}, fearing the day when her child will be old enough to {{spoiler|take her place}}. Specially considering that {{spoiler|the ones who'll demand such a thing are the Shinma... who are mercilesss [[Eldritch Abomination
* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]: Ishin Shishi e no Requiem'', Yahiko {{spoiler|runs away to join the rebels that were trying to overthrow the Meiji government, since his father was an ex-samurai who died in a similar rebellion years ago.}}. Kaoru, having no idea where Yahiko had disappeared to, is frantic. When {{spoiler|Yahiko is ultimately left behind by the rebels and comes back to the dojo}}, poor Kaoru greets him with [[Anger Born of Worry|a slap to the face and then proceeds to sob into him]]. Not to mention, Kenshin immediately tells Yahiko that, had Kaoru not slapped him, he would've done that himself.
** Don't forget the Jinchuu arc, which is an horrifyingly well-done attempt by {{spoiler|Enishi}} to use this on Kenshin. {{spoiler|So Kenshin wasn't able to protect his first wife Tomoe and the mere possibility of losing his girlfriend Kaoru terrifies him? Now Tomoe's vengeful brother deliberately exploits this fear to make Kenshin believe Kaoru has been bloodily murdered by him, thus making him revive these horrible memories. And Kenshin almost crosses the [[Despair Event Horizon]] after ''that''.}}
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* In ''[[Zombie Loan]]'', minor character Sougiya is a single father trying to pay off his contract to the Z-Loan. He knows that if he isn't able to keep his end of the contract, he will die and then no one will be left to take care of his young daughter.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. One girl gone missing, another girl found dead, and their friend is very troubled by all that but refuses any help. The mother of the latter is seen in the 11th episode, and doesn't cry because she tries to assure herself that the girl can probably handle the stress given enough time. But just imagine how powerless and desperate the mother must've felt, seeing her daughter grow distant and detached.
** Say, has your (insert: daughter, sister, niece, cousin, student, neighbor, etc.) been acting distant or evasive? Coming and going at all hours? Well, you'll never know it, but your precious little girl has made a {{spoiler|[[Deal with the Devil|Faustian pact]]}} and now has to fight [[Eldritch Abomination
* In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', if Sakura loses to Yue at the Final Judgment, everyone will lose their memories and the relationships they've built. It almost happens, too. {{spoiler|Luckily, Kaho Mizuki comes to the rescue with her Shrine Bell, giving Sakura a second chance.}}
** In the anime, there's the episode in which, while catching a Clow Card, Sakura accidentally destroys her dad's laptop in which he had stored all the research he had being working for days without sleep. The whole scene is played in an actual heartbreaking way, as she realizes this is something she can't fix with magic.
** Sakura and Shaoran also get faced with this when the Clow Card search involves the safety and maybe the ''lives'' of their relatives and school friends. In example: {{spoiler|Rika is [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] when The Sword takes control of her, Meiling finds The Shot thinking it's a love spell and releases it by mistake, Touya is seriously injured while interacting with The Mirror, Tomoyo has her voice stolen by The Sound and later is captured by The Shadow...}}
*** And in the [[Grand Finale]], {{spoiler|Eriol invokes this deliberately when he puts a sleeping spell ''over the whole Tomoeda ward'', and if Sakura and her guardians lose to him, everyone in their surroundings may be rendered into an eternal sleep '''forever'''.}}
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* Lots of the episodes in ''[[Ghost Hunt]]'' qualify for this trope, but the one that most frightened this troper was "The Doll House" File. It turns out that the ghost haunting the house {{spoiler|was a distraught mother who committed suicide after her daughter was abducted, and continues to search for her in death, causing the deaths of other children living in the home. It is implied that the abductor may have killed the child, but it is never actually confirmed}}. Also, {{spoiler|the little girl currently living in the home is feared to have drowned, but luckily nothing bad ever happened}}.
* Even though ''[[Berserk]]'' is littered with this, one particular case pops up: that your closest friends and loved ones will backstab you for their own goals and dreams (and it's even worse when it's done on the [[Cosmic Horror Story]] level, which would be the Eclipse ceremony that marks the birth of a new Godhand). The backstabbing is pretty much enforced, since the person chosen to become a new demon ''has'' to sacrifice somebody that they love or care about. And you know what? '''It's all up to them.''' Remember that even though the [[Big Bad Duumvirate|Godhand]] are [[Card-Carrying Villain|card-carrying]] [[God of Evil|gods of evil]], they explicitly said {{spoiler|at the beginning of the Eclipse where Griffith was chosen to become the new Godhand}} that they weren't going to force those chosen into making their [[Face Heel Turn]]: ''they'' had to decide in the end {{spoiler|of course, in Griffith's case, there was a ''bit'' of "[[Mind Rape|persuasion]]" on Ubik's part}}. That tells you something when you're playing the devil's advocate [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|for a group of devils!]]
* ''[[Detective Conan]]'' has several things involving Conan or other children being in danger. Conan has been held at gunpoint or knifepoint by a murderer or taken hostage several times, and more than once said murderer would have no problem [[He Knows Too Much|silencing Conan or another child]] for being witnesses.
** The [[Non-Serial Movie]] ''Phantom of Baker Street'' has the computer Noah's Ark taking fifty children participating in a virtual game system as hostages (where at least one child out of the fifty needs to [[Win to Exit]] or else, all of them die in real life) while forcing parents to watch as the capsule containing their child turns grey, signalling a "game over" for that child.
** The 15th movie has {{spoiler|Conan being [[Buried Alive]] under an avalanche and everyone rushing to find him before he runs out of air}}.
** Also there's the fourth movie, ''Captured In Her Eyes'', where {{spoiler|Ran, the one who [[Team Mom|always takes care of Conan]] [[Children Raise You|and Kogoro]], is struck with [[Trauma-Induced Amnesia]] and can barely handle herself}}. Seeing someone who has always been there for you need help desperately, but you can barely do anything for them... '''ack.'''
** Not to mention there's the Murdered Stage Magician case. {{spoiler|The victim's six-year-old daughter, whom the killer sort-of used to make the victim surrender to him so they could kill him? The little girl has disappeared. ''And the murderer is the one who has her''. It's a BIG relief when said killer brings her back unharmed.}}
* ''[[Fantastic Children]]'': imagine your 5-year-old child just one day disappeared without a trace and 6 years later his/her corpse was found amongst other children's. {{spoiler|There have been many parents who had to experience this throughout history since the 15th century}}. In one of the recent{{when}} cases of missing children the police refuse to pursue the case further and conclude that the child left on his own, using his then 3-year-old sister's words for their convenience.
* ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' showed us the dangers of a child left alone in a foreign land.
* Not touched upon often, in-series at least, but ''[[Wandering Son]]'' has a few examples. Imagine your 9 - 12 year old being out late, lying to you about where they've been, and being friends with ''adult'' strangers who you know little about. There's also the notion of your children being depressed and uncomfortable with their body but you knowing nothing of what to do.
** Another manga by the same mangaka had one scene where a guy who was obviously a pedophile is implied to have almost molested a 5 year old girl. Alas a teenager was in the area and the girl said a bit too loudly "Is just lifting up my shirt okay?", so he ran away.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' occasionally relies on Adult Fear. ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' and ''[[Phantom Thief Pokémon 7]]'' in particular prey on the "What if your young child is kidnapped and they can't be found?" fear.
* ''[[Spirited Away]]'' has one scene where Yubaba frantically searches her son's room while believing he's been kidnapped.
** What about the humans? A ten-year-old girl gets trapped in a strange world, has her parents get turned into pigs and therefore be unable to help her, and then ''willingly sells herself into slavery'' for the chance to rescue them. Perhaps it's a good thing her parents never found out what really happened...
* Ryuunosuke and Caster in ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' are this trope incarnate. They're basically ''serial child murderers'' who like to give their victims a [[Hope Spot]] before brutally killing them. In one episode, you even see a memorial service for one of the victims, who happens to be one of the young Rin's classmates. It's just a single photo frame, and you hear someone mention that they coundn't do a proper burial because the body was too mangled. It gets so bad that, in-universe, a reward is offered to whoever can kill Caster first, and the ''entire Holy Grail War'' is put on hold until then. Cue nearly everyone doing an [[Enemy Mine]] to take these two down.
** Really, REALLY not helped by [[wikipedia:Gilles de Rais|who *this* Caster really is]]. [[Take Our Word for It]].
* In ''[[Kodomo no Jikan]]'', despite [[Wife Husbandry|all]] [[Kissing Cousins|Reiji's]] [[Yandere|faults]], when Rin is in any danger, real or imaginary, he really freaks out. On the other hand, Reiji himself is no small cause of nightmares, with his disturbing and unhealthy interest in Rin.
* While it's generally [[Played for Laughs]], it's heavily implied in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' that the nations have no choice but to obey their bosses, meaning that the characters all live in a world where their best friends or even family members could turn on them in an instant. When the series was in its webcomic format, it was played ''very'' seriously in [http://hetalia.livejournal.com/2977183.html the story of China and Japan]. China raises Japan and considers him a little brother, only for Japan to show up in the middle of the night and attack China with a katana. China has ''no idea at all'' this is coming, and is inviting Japan inside for some food when the blade is drawn.
* The core of ''[[Ayashi no Ceres]]'' is this. {{spoiler|There's an [[Action Girlfriend]] who at first has a kind and endearing [[Interspecies Romance|human husband.]] After receiving some of her powers on his own request [[I Will Protect Her|so he can help her when in trouble]], however, said powers turn out to be [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|too much to handle.]] The formerly sweet [[Understanding Boyfriend]] becomes [[Crazy Jealous Guy|so obsessed]] [[Yandere|with her]] that he starts restricting her behavior, like locking her in the house to prevent her from talking to men who aren't him, to beating her, forcing sex on her, and even going so far as to [[Offing the Offspring|killing one of their kids]] out of fear that she would take her (Ceres) away from him (Mikage).}} Basically, this manga is a story of {{spoiler|[[Domestic Abuse]].}}
* ''[[Your Lie in April]]'':
** Saki's way of trying to address it was absolutely atrocious, but her concern that Kousei will be left alone by himself, with no way to provide for himself and his father perpetually away at work, is in of itself painfully relatable.
** For the Miyazonos, it's {{spoiler|losing your teenage daughter to an uncurable illness.}}
* ''[[Your Name]]'':
** Mitsuha's mother died from illness with her father helpless to do anything about it. To make things worse, he [[Never Got to Say Goodbye]] because his last desperate attempt to seek outside assistance left him away until it was too late.
** The greatest threat to Taki's physical wellbeing comes not from some fantastic beast, but rather {{spoiler|a fall. Considering how the mountain crater shrine is so desolate that the bottles there had moss growth from being untouched in 3 years, one can only imagine that no one would have found the body for a long time, if ever. Also imagine how terrible Miki and Tsukasa would have felt if the last they ever heard from him was a vague note that shed absolutely no light on what he was going to do.}}
** Come the [[Distant Finale]], {{spoiler|Taki is struggling to find a job, and judging by how Japanese universities have their graduation in the spring, it's been months.}} The whole thing is kinda [[Played for Laughs]], but makes for uncomfortable watching for anyone who's been in a similar situation.
* ''[[Suzume (film)|Suzume]]'':
** Screenings in Japanese theatres specifically warn audiences about realistic earthquake alerts.
** The film ''starts'' with our protagonist, at this point only four, wandering through [[Scenery Gorn]] desperately looking for her [[Missing Mom]]. She never finds her, never gets closure even years later.
** Your loved one apparently runs away from home and refuses to explain in any detail.
** The [[Invisible to Normals]] nature of the worm, while obviously fantastic, reflects a very real possibility overlapping with [[Paranoia Fuel]] that danger could be lurking around the corner at any moment with you not knowing until it's too late.
** You lose someone right before your eyes, helpless to do anything.
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[The Amory Wars]]'': Coheed and Cambria are forced to [[Offing the Offspring|kill three of their four children early on]], with the youngest (the twins, Matthew and Maria) getting poisoned and the oldest (Josephine, who had recently ''gotten engaged'', and shortly after, ''gang raped while her fiancé is beaten'') getting ''beaten to death with a hammer.'' The second oldest, Claudio, was out with his girlfriend when it happened, and when he gets home {{spoiler|he finds Josie dead on the kitchen floor.}}
* ''[[
* The kids from ''[[Runaways]]'' fight vampires, aliens, and evil robots, but the only reason they have to deal with these things in the first place is that their own parents turn out to be evil. For most of them, this comes as a shock; for Chase, [[Abusive Parents|not so much.]] Then they all start living in underground hideaways and putting themselves in danger to keep LA safe from the power vacuum created by their parents, resulting in even more physical and emotional trauma and, {{spoiler|in Gertrude aka Gert's case, death.}}
** In one of the earlier chapters, Frank Dean attacks other members of the Pride and completely freaks out when Karolina disappears.
** When the kids accidentally travel to the past and run into the Yorks ([[Timey-Wimey Ball|before they died]]), the Yorks are quite panicked and ask straight away if their daughter is with them. {{spoiler|When they learn that Gertrude is ''dead'', they immediately plan to return to her and make sure she's safe. Then they bring over a futuristic bomb to get revenge on the kids for letting Gert die in ''any'' timeline.}}
* Hey, remember those "terrorist organizations" that used to show up in [[G.I. Joe|Saturday]] [[
* The ''[[Marvel Comics]] event [[Fear Itself (Comic Book)|Fear Itself]]'' is ultimately driven by Odin's fear {{spoiler|of losing his son Thor}} and the desperate, insane measures he takes to prevent it from coming to pass. {{spoiler|He fails.}}
* Ma and Pa Kent experienced this as they watched helplessly as their adopted son [[The Death of Superman|was beaten to a bloody pulp and then died on national television.]] To make matters worse, they weren't even allowed to attend his funeral.
==
*
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2506330/1/Delw_yomenie_Deadly_encounter Delw Yomenie Deadly Encounter]'' has Elrond and his warriors going to rescue the kidnapped Aragorn and during the ambush Elrond released an arrow to kill just as the kidnapper shoved [[Human Shield|Aragorn to the frontline.]] That split second when he realized his hand would kill his adopted son, Elrond was torn between [[My God, What Have I Done?|denial and horror.]] {{spoiler|Fortunately the arrow hit a non-lethal area.}}
* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2976012/1/Final_Selection Final Section]'', a ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' fic, five-year-old Sam Winchester was taken by a man who preys upon children in a school's playground when John happened to be preoccupied, despite attentively watching Sam. The detail that the assailant had already kidnapped several other children by luring them away from their watchful parents (and being gleeful about his successes) was disturbing.
** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6536156/1/Crossing_the_Line Crossing the Line] has John Winchester [[Papa Wolf|killing a human being]] for the first time because {{spoiler|it was heavily implied that that person had molested/sexually assaulted a ten year old Sam.}}
** In [http://spn-boc.livejournal.com/6283.html Harvester Of Eyes], John Winchester is pitted against [[The Sandman|The Corinthian]]. The fact that he's hunting a possibly-human monster who preys on young boys, while having to keep track of his two young sons on the road, aside... {{spoiler|Sam and Dean get lost in the Dreaming on their own. Dean obviously knows enough about pedophiles, creeps and "stranger danger" to be on high alert regarding anyone who might hurt Sam, he can't get it across to him that sometimes the really dangerous people can [[They Look Just Like Everyone Else|look perfectly normal. Even cool and fun to hang out with]].}}
* ''[[Past Sins]]'' has one marking the point where everything goes down the tubes...namely, {{spoiler|a child being forcibly taken away from their guardian, who can do nothing to stop it. And then said child believing their guardian ''wanted'' to give them away.}}
* In ''[[Progress]]'', Sundance and every other pregnant mare in Equestria are worried for their unborn foals after the Discord incident.
* In ''[[Detective Conan]]'' fic ''[[
* In ''[[
* There is a scene during The ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'' where the pregnant Mimi Tachigawa is {{spoiler|kidnapped and taken to a laboratory where her unborn child is forcibly extracted from her. She is then left to wander the wilderness as her grief slowly drives her insane}}.
* In ''[[Streets of Rage Saga]]'', based on the ''[[Streets of Rage]]'' beat-em-up game series, two incidents are related in the back-story some twenty years before the story's modern-day timeline, both of them involving children: {{spoiler|an infant was snatched when his parents looked away for just a moment and he was later murdered, and some time after that a girl wandered away from her parents along a beach and was attacked by the same perpetrator moments later}}. What makes it even more horrifying is the common nature of both incidents--{{spoiler|both were committed by a feral child}}.
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* In the Sherlockian ''[[Deliver Us from Evil Series]]'', [[Inspector Lestrade]] fears for the safety of the young Baker Street Irregulars. Considering that he's friends with at least one, has another among his constables, and has a nephew in their ranks, he's very close to them and has every right to feel a parental horror at the boys putting themselves [[In Harm's Way]].
** Later on, [[The Hero|Dr. Watson]] ''disbands'' the Irregulars when one of the very young ones is nearly killed.
* ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/132307011-in-the-dark In The Dark]'', a [[Spice Girls]]/[[Backstreet Boys]] fic, despite Melanie being an adult, the thought of someone's daughter being injured, kidnap, and torture has to be hard on any parent.
* In the [[Spice Girls]] fic ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/163260272-astral-journey-it's-complicated Astral Journey: It's Complicated]'', (despite being an adult) seeing your daughter badly hurt after a freak accident, spare a thought for the narrator ([[Spice Girls|Emma]]) who had to see her own mother break down.
== Film - Animation ==
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** This is sadly not only a fear for adults, but "Mother Knows Best" is ''horrifically'' dark for an otherwise fairly cheerful, encouraging movie, if you consider that Gothel doesn't use magic to keep Rapunzel locked up. [[Manipulative Bastard|She preys on her innocence, affection and vulnerability]], like a real-life [[Abusive Parents|abusive parent]].
{{quote|[http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013217.html Abi Sutherland]: Plenty of Disney films have wicked stepmothers; they’re quite ordinary villains in the genre. They do things like banish the heroine to the kitchen or send her out into the forest to be murdered. There may be rags and neglect involved. But ''Tangled''’s Mother Gothel is much worse than that. She uses love like a poisoned apple or a witch’s curse, as a tool to achieve her own ends. And she’s clearly written by someone who knows, bone deep, how that works.}}
* ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]'' where young boys were turned into donkeys, shipped off and forced into labor, the parents not knowing what happened to their sons and even if they did find them, they wouldn't have recognized their own kid, seeing how they are now stuck as donkeys.
** And a subtler example from the same includes the moment when Gepetto puts on his coat to go out in the pouring rain to look for Pinocchio who never returned home from school. Hearing the agony in his voice as he paces around his kitchen is enough to make parents whose children like to play hide-and-go-seek in department store racks flashback a little.
{{quote|'''Gepetto''': What could have happened to him? Where could he be at this hour? I better go out again and look for him...}}
* In ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', King Triton had to deal with the aftermath of his youngest daughter Ariel running away after having a huge and violent argument with her. His words [[My God, What Have I Done?|"What have I done?"]] certainly brings the trope home.
* [[Mulan]]'s parents found out their daughter ran away to join the army. Imagine not being able to save your child from the horrors of war and possible gruesome death, since any attempt would reveal her gender and sentence her to execution.
** Not to mention that the reason why Mulan ran away in the first place was save her father's life; he was too infirm to go to war and survive. Their fear would have been compounded with the most extreme guilt imaginable.
* ''[[The Incredibles]]'': The scene where Elastigirl realizes that the missiles are going to hit the plane and she frantically yells into the radio "Abort! Abort! There are children aboard!" Then she runs back into the back of the plane last minute, fully prepared to die with her kids, like [[Mama Bear|any mother would.]]
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** A deleted scene from the original version of the movie also would fit. Syndrome (a minor villain and not the [[Big Bad]]) breaks into the Incredibles' home at the beginning and freezes them with a freeze ray. In the middle of taunting them, he hears young Violet crying down the hall. He proceeds to drag the two with him as he goes after their daughter.
** Near the end of the movie, when Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible hear the babysitter's voicemail thanking them for calling a replacement sitter for Jack-Jack, Elastigirl frantically exclaims that she never called a replacement. It's a short moment, but no less terrifying for the parents in the audience.
** Lets just wrap this up and say ''the entire freakin' movie'' was full to the ''brim'' with
* Similar with the above ''[[Tangled]]'' example, in ''[[Hercules (
* ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'': The threat of Lilo being taken away from [[Promotion to Parent|her older sister and caretaker]] Nani's side by social services casts a long shadow over the entire film. {{spoiler|The moment when it actually happens is utterly horrific}}
** And not long after, she watches a giant alien kidnapping Lilo. When she asks the other aliens to help her get Lilo back, they're forced to tell her that there's pretty much no way that can happen. (Fortunately, Stitch convinces them otherwise)
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* In ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'', Maurice has to watch as Belle arranges to be kept prisoner in his stead, all while he cries for her to just escape and leave him to his fate. He spends the rest of the movie trying to rescue her.
** And once {{spoiler|Belle and Maurice are reunited}}? ''Belle'' faces the fear of {{spoiler|having her father taken away from her, as Gaston blackmails her into either becoming his puppet-wife or getting him thrown in the local asylum. She takes a third option and proves her father is telling the truth... but they're imprisoned and the townspeople go [[Storming the Castle]].}}
* ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'' plays on the same parental fear of losing a child as many of the other Disney movies listed here. A little before they find baby Tarzan, Kala and Kerchak lose track of their infant gorilla son in the jungle while the deadly Sabor is on the prowl. Unlike other Disney movies, the parents and child are never reunited since Sabor ''kills and eats'' the baby gorilla.
** With the added "bonus" of knowing Sabor was also able to get into the house Tarzan's parents made and kill them, then stuck around, probably intending to go after the child while he was alone. And even if Sabor had left, if Kala had not adopted him, Tarzan would almost certainly have starved to death in his crib.
* ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'' has {{spoiler|Stoick believing his son was dead after the fight with the Green Death}}. And this was due to Stoick's own misguided actions that led to the above event. His [[Meaningful Echo|"I did this"]] was downright [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking.]]
* Imagine you were babysitting your niece and nephew for the evening, with your son there as well, and accidentally fall asleep. When you wake up you find a darkened house, with all three kids gone. When the parents return, you all go down to the beach to search, and find one of the skates used by the kids ''with no sign of them...'' This is the parental fear scenario presented in ''[[Help! I'm a Fish]]''.
* In ''[[Finding Nemo]],'' Marlin's happy future together with his beloved wife is all torn apart one day, when he can't protect them from a barracuda. Only Nemo survives, with a disability, just in case Marlin was going to be anything less than terribly protective. Terrified that Nemo will be hurt, Marlin almost smothers his son, which drives Nemo to rebel, telling his dad "I hate you" and then swimming out into open
* The original ''[[Ice Age]]'' film is certainly more serious than the sequels. Manny's [[Troubled Backstory Flashback]] reveals that his family were killed by human hunters with him unable to protect them. The tigers attacked the human settlement in the beginning with the sole purpose of kidnapping and eating a baby. The baby's father tries to protect his family and fails and is seen throughout the movie desperately trying to find them.
* In ''[[Toy Story 3]]'', Andy growing up and dumping his toys at the day care centre is '''totally different''' from your children growing up and dumping you at a care home. So don't think about that.
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* For all the city-destruction and visible skeletons in ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'', the scariest bit comes when Laserbeak {{spoiler|transforms into a pink, kid-sized version of Bumblebee to trick a little girl into letting him in so that he can kill her father}}. Up to that point, Laserbeak had been an extremely efficient killer, able to hide as a number of innocuous objects, but {{spoiler|that's pure psychological torture, and if he let the girl live, imagine her guilt...}}
* ''[[The Duchess]]'': Your husband can take your children away from you, and there's nothing you can do about it because you're a woman and he has law on his side. The same fear is brought about by ''[[Iron Jawed Angels]]''.
** Also ''[[Dear Zachary]]''. Your children could be taken away from you and given to their abuser by ''the court'', [[Double Standard|which finds it OK]] because she's ''their mother''.
** Also, in ''Seduction in a Small Town'': some [[Manipulative Bitch]] can perfectly convince others that both you ''and'' your husband are horrible child abusers and not only have your kids taken away, but ''send you guys to jail for that''. '''Twice'''.
* ''[[Paranormal Activity]] 2'': An invisible supernatural force is trying to kidnap your one-year-old son {{spoiler|because one of your ancestors made a pact with a demon. An in the end, it succeeds.}}
* ''[[The Shining]]'': A supernatural force exploits your previous vices and drives you to murder your beloved wife and son. This is scary enough, but it goes deeper: to what extent would this have happened anyway? The supernatural forces may have given it a kick-start, but the darkness was already present. The fear becomes the more realistic fear of being unable to overcome one's own secret darkness.
* ''[[X-Men: First Class|X Men First Class]]'': The Holocaust. The death of a parent, and the medicalized torture of an innocent child. All within the first 20 minutes. {{spoiler|A bit of a foregone conclusion, but Charles and Erik's "beach divorce", even though it's [[Ho Yay|only a metaphorical divorce]], (metaphorical) children having to decide which parent they're siding with in said metaphorical divorce, having a loved one be permanently disabled because of something '''you''' did, the fear that no one will [[Pass Fail|love you as you really are]]...}}
* ''Where The Heart Is'' has Ashley Judd as a single mom who comes early home from work and {{spoiler|finds her current boyfriend molesting two of her children.}}
* ''[[The Blob]]'': In the 1988 remake, the cheerleader Meg Penny learns from her parents that her brother Kevin and his friend are missing while the town is under quarantine, thinking they snuck out to see a slasher movie. What makes this terrifying was the fact that Meg's little brother is now in danger of being eaten by the titular monster now getting bigger by eating anyone that gets too close. She arrives to find the theatre is in a state of panic with Kevin and his friend desperately trying to use the emergency exit and while she does save them, they wind up having to evade the Blob in the sewer. The Blob follows them down there and {{spoiler|Kevin's friend then gets pulled underwater. Meg tries to save him only to later see him rise up from the water half-eaten; imagine dying by drowning and being eaten alive ''at the same time''}}. What makes this all the more horrifying was the fact {{spoiler|Kevin's friend has an older brother that let them both into the movie and we saw his mother ''hoping he was going to come home safe''. At least Meg and her brother survived...}}
** Just imagine {{spoiler|the guilt the kid's older brother is going to feel for the rest of his life knowing that his little brother would still be alive if he hadn't helped him sneak into the movie.}}
* ''[[Eye for An Eye]]'': This 1996 drama starts with Karen
* ''[[The Monster Squad]]'' has one utterly chilling scene for adults, when Sean's father sees Dracula and realizes the supernatural things his son has been so scared of all day are real. And then Dracula tells him "I will have your son" before turning into a bat and leaving.
* The very premise of ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' is a nightmare to any
** ''Wes Craven's New Nightmare'' may even have more adult fear to it than the other entries, as a major focus is Heather trying to protect her son Dylan, who is significantly younger than Freddy's usual teenage victims.
* In ''[[Hook]]'' not only does Captain Hook kidnap Peter's children and threaten to do the same to his descendants, he tries to brainwash them into loving ''him'' instead. {{spoiler|It almost works with Jack (who was already distressed), but utterly fails with Maggie.}}
** It's not much better when {{spoiler|he kills a 15-year-old boy, Rufio, in front of Peter and all of the new Lost Boys.}}
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** And that's before we learn that {{spoiler|the Bride almost has second thoughts in regards to the end of her revenge when she sees that Bill, for his horrifying actions, ''has'' [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones|taken good care of their child]], [[Creepy Child|BB]].}} Even more so when we see that {{spoiler|she learns about it when she sneaks into Bill's home to kill him... and the first person who comes into her sight is BB, who does it with a happy smile.}}
* [[The Lord of the Rings]]: The beginning of ''Return of the King'' has Smeagol kill Deagol over The Ring. Well what if the friend you trusted most easily turned on you over one little trinket?
* [[Star Wars]]: Anakin [[Face Heel Turn|falls]] to the Dark Side because of the fear of losing Padme after already witnessing his mother die
* The French film ''L'Argent de Poche'' gives us a [[Black Comedy|comedic]], though not [[Dude, Not Funny|tasteless]] example when the mother of the infant Grégory [[What an Idiot!|leaves him alone]] in the apartment on one of the higher floor ''[[Too Dumb to Live|with the windows open]]'' while she searches for her wallet. Grégory inevitably ends up hanging from the sill above a crowd of [[Oh Crap|terrified onlookers]] before falling and landing in a hedge, unharmed. Suffice to say, the mother, upon seeing her child in the hedge, promptly passes out. As this film is more or less a social commentary about the world children inhabit that adults often fail to see, the Adult Fear is played completely straight.
* ''[[The Pursuit of Happyness]]'' depicts a father trying really, really hard to provide for his kid, and failing. There's no zombie apocalypse, no external mustache-twirling villain, just the inexorable facts of the matter and a string of bad luck. He ends up with his son in a subway-station closet, hiding from the elements and hoping they'll be able to stay there overnight. If you've ever been responsible for providing for another human being, this is ''terrifying''.
* ''[[Megan Is Missing]]'' manage to turn the fear many parents of teens with an internet connection have about sexual predators online [[Up to Eleven]].
* ''[[Bubba Ho-Tep]]'': growing old and weak and finding yourself left to die in a care home, with your children "too busy" to come and see you.
* ''[[Orphan]]'': having your children in danger, your spouse turn against you, and being thought insane when in reality you are the only one who knows what is really happening. Then the terror of having it be even worse than you already thought.
* Discussed in [[Parenthood]]: Kevin suffers severe anxiety issues as a gradeschooler, in part, because he "was first" and his parents frantically over-protected him as a child.
* ''[[Death Sentence]]'': The protagonist's son is killed by a gangster. He avenges the son, only for the gang to escalate by killing his wife and hospitalising the other son.
* ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]
** In the very beginning of ''[[
** Fenrir Greyback. In the book he just manages to edge out Bellatrix in the bone-deep creepiness category. In [[Harry Potter (film)|the movie]]{{context}} <!-- MOD: Which movie? He's in more than one. --> he's downright disturbing, especially with Hermione. This was entirely intentional on Rowling's part.▼
*** In the first part of the final film installment, Fenrir's part is downplayed... but they play up the character of Scabior, one of the snatchers. To children in the audience, Scabior is frightening because he's feral-looking, gross, cruel, and hunting down the main trio. To slightly older viewers, particularly women, he is... a ''lot'' more frightening because he's ''threatening to rape Hermione''.
** The flashbacks to the night Lily and James were killed, full stop. The two died in total fear, but doing their best to protect their infant son. In the end, they weren't able to hold back the guy who broke into their house at all. If it weren't for [[The Power of Love]] and Lily's [[Mama Bear]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome]], they would have had no way to protect baby Harry at all.▼
== Literature ==
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** And what about children spying on their own parents and reporting to government?
* In the first book of [[The Thrawn Trilogy]], from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]], Leia is pregnant. She spends some time brooding about whether the twins will [[Turn Out Like His Father|turn out like her father]], and whether evil skips a generation. More explicitly, Thrawn's Nohgri commandos pursue her all over the galaxy, seeking to capture her ''without'' the use of [[Stun Guns]]. Stun guns would make these things simpler, but they can induce miscarriage. Meaning that they want to catch her ''and'' her unborn children. No matter where she goes, the Nohgri find her, and her escapes get narrower each time. At one point she realizes that Chewbacca and her other defenders would probably be killed, but not her. She'd be taken before Grand Admiral Thrawn, [[Affably Evil|who would smile, and speak politely, and take her children away]].
** When Leia has her third child, the [[Dark Empire|reborn Emperor Palpatine]] chases after her and the baby so he can replace its soul and take over the infant's body. He doesn't want to kill the
* [[The Bible|New Testament.]] Herod ordering the murder of all the newborn babies.
** The resurrection/healing of the little girl in Mark 5. Obviously her resurrection is a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] {{spoiler|"Little girl, I say to you, get up!"}} but ''a poor little girl is dead''.
** Old Testamente. Jewish male babies being abandoned or killed via Pharaoh orders. 'Nuff said.
*** And earlier, Joseph's [[Secret Test of Character]] for his brothers... which involves the youngest of all of them, Benjamin.
* This makes ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'' arguably more frightening for adults than it is for children. For children, it has fairly standard [[Aesop
** In the movie, it becomes a sobering moment for children (even teenagers) when Coraline can't find her parents. The first time staying alone in your house can be a scary thing. In Coraline's case, she doesn't know where her parents are, if they're even coming back, or what will happen to her. The scene with the pillows in the bed is both heartbreaking and oddly terrifying.
* Occurs in, of all places, ''[[Goosebumps]]''. Specifically the ''Night of the Living Dummy'' series. As several people, along with the blogger himself, pointed out on the [http://www.bloggerbeware.com snarky Goosebumps blog], the ''Night of the Living Dummy'' series may be creepy as a child, but as an adult, a completely different layer of creepy reveals itself. The living dummy in question is obsessed with making preteen girls (and it's ''always'' girls, never boys in these books) into his slaves. When they refuse, he punches and slaps them - a rare act of physical violence for this series - and even knocks one girl unconscious. In ''Bride of the Living Dummy'', he goes further, demanding a 12 year old girl as his bride (instead of the female dummy), and even calling his violence against her a "love tap". From adult eyes, it takes on a [[Fridge Horror|whole new meaning]] that flew over our heads when we were kids, with some really disturbing subtext...
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** Arguably most of the series could count. The books center around preteen children who are stalked by monsters, cursed, subjected to [[Body Horror]], kidnapped, and all sorts of other horrible things, and very rarely have parents or [[Adults Are Useless|adults in general]] who can help them. It gets to the point where the above-mentioned blog has a "Questionable Parenting" section.
* [[Stephen King]] draws on this a lot. ''[[The Shining]]'', for example, deals with Jack Torrance's fear of hurting his wife and son, of failing as a writer, of becoming crazy and/or [[The Alcoholic|an alcoholic]], etc.
** The image for this page comes from [[The Film of the Book]] of King's ''[[Pet Sematary]]'' which is, as heart, a prolonged riff on the very adult fear of the death of a child.
* ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'': In addition to the aforementioned elements shared by the movie, the book features, among other things, a chapter in which Alex rapes a pair of young girls, and graphic descriptions of the [[World War II]] footage he is forced to watch as part of his "treatment".
* ''[[Two Weeks With the Queen]]'' is told from the perspective of the young Colin, who takes a long time to understand what's going on. However, the focus on the book is still a very adult fear: living knowing you are going to lose your brother (Colin), your child (his parents), or your life partner (Ted).
* The ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' series, despite being [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|aimed at children]], has ''plenty'' of moments that scare the parents more than the kids, and a lot of them have to do with child abuse, [[Parental Abandonment]], and not being able to protect or take care of your own children. Most of this probably came from Rowling's own fears as a mother (and especially as a single mother, having broken off an ''abusive'' marriage.).
** It's very easy to see ''why'' Molly Weasley goes full [[Mama Bear]] during the Battle of Hogwarts. ''Not my daughter, you BITCH'', indeed. After all, we saw her boggart in the [[
▲** In the very beginning of ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Harry Potter]] [[Harry Potter (film)|Part One]]'', when Hermione has to {{spoiler|erase all of her parents' memories of herself so Voldemort can't torture them for information.}} It gives a parent a sense of failure to protect their child, that they're weak and powerless.
** When you're a kid, the scene in the [[
▲** It's very easy to see ''why'' Molly Weasley goes full [[Mama Bear]] during the Battle of Hogwarts. ''Not my daughter, you BITCH'', indeed. After all, we saw her boggart in the [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix|fifth book]] - {{spoiler|her family dead.}} Not to mention, {{spoiler|she lost her two brothers in the last war, one of the Weasley twins has just died, and the daughter she so desperately wanted after having several sons is apparently the next one...}}
▲** Fenrir Greyback. In the book he just manages to edge out Bellatrix in the bone-deep creepiness category. In [[Harry Potter (film)|the movie]] he's downright disturbing, especially with Hermione. This was entirely intentional on Rowling's part.
▲*** In the first part of the final film installment, Fenrir's part is downplayed... but they play up the character of Scabior, one of the snatchers. To children in the audience, Scabior is frightening because he's feral-looking, gross, cruel, and hunting down the main trio. To slightly older viewers, particularly women, he is... a ''lot'' more frightening because he's ''threatening to rape Hermione''.
▲** The flashbacks to the night Lily and James were killed, full stop. The two died in total fear, but doing their best to protect their infant son. In the end, they weren't able to hold back the guy who broke into their house at all. If it weren't for [[The Power of Love]] and Lily's [[Mama Bear]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome]], they would have had no way to protect baby Harry at all.
▲** When you're a kid, the scene in the [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone|first novel]] with Harry seeing his family in the mirror is interesting and sort of sad. When you're older it kind of makes you want to cry.
** Xenophilius Lovegood is a whole lot more tragic in ''Deathly Hallows'' because of this. {{spoiler|"They took my Luna, and I don't know if I'll get her back!" The poor guy nearly blows up his house trying to catch the trio, but ''not'' out of ill will towards them... but only so he can save his poor daughter from being imprisoned by Death Eaters.}}
** Narcissa Malfoy's most prominent and sympathetic role in the story comes from her attempts to save Draco from the power of Voldemort. So much that {{spoiler|she managed to ''lie to the face of Voldemort'' so Draco would live.}}
** In the fourth book, Harry is trapped in a room with someone he thought he could trust, {{spoiler|a teacher no less}}. Only for said person to try to murder him.
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (novel)|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'', full stop: there's a catastrophe looming in the horizon but the government is too scared/incompetent to do anything about so it just decides to pretend it doesn't exist, manipulate the media into discrediting those trying to warn people about it, send [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|bureaucrats]] to force institutions to leave people ''less'' prepared for the catastrophe and finally just start arresting people who keep insisting.
* In Terry Pratchett's ''[[
* Many of [[Bentley Little]]'s novels deal with these sort of themes, including the nullification of personal identity (''The Ignored'') and the destructive power of consumerism (''The Store'').
* The premise of ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'' is based on the worst possible outcome of the "Oh, shit. My kid was supposed to be home hours ago; what if they're dead?" fear.
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* [[Thomas Ligotti]]'s short story "The Frolic" plays into both this ''and'' [[Cosmic Horror Story|existential terror]] with the walking, talking slab of undiluted [[Paranoia Fuel]] that is "John Doe". Think of ''[[Fate Worse Than Death|the worst thing]]'' that someone could possibly do [[Would Hurt a Child|to a child.]] Now, think of [[Complete Monster|someone who does this. Often.]] Someone that does this [[Obliviously Evil|without even knowing]] [[Blue and Orange Morality|that it's even slightly wrong]]. Someone (or rather ''something'') that [[Humanoid Abomination|may not even be human]]. [[Play-Along Prisoner|His capture, he says, is merely time for him to rest.]] Now, imagine that, for what ever reason, he just ''knows'' that you have a daughter...
* ''[[A Little Princess]]'' is about a young girl named Sarah who is forced into a life of servitude after her father dies and leaves her apparently penniless and with no other living relatives. {{spoiler|And his closest and most trusted friend and business partner believes it's ''his'' fault that he supposedly lost the fortune and drove his friend to die. He wants to find his friend's daughter (Sarah) and take care of her because he feels he owes her father that much, and is worried for her safety. But he has no idea where she even ''is,'' or even if she's within the country! His search for her lasts ''years.'' Arguably it's even worse in Cuaron's movie version, where her father is alive and living next store, but due to his injuries and trauma he's suffering from memory loss. When Sarah is running from the police and hides in the house, she recognizes him and starts crying and trying to get him to remember her as she's dragged away to be arrested. He remembers her at the last minute, but still!}}
* Although {{spoiler|Joffrey Baratheon}} in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is one of the most hated characters in the series, his death in the books is uncomfortable for many parents because of the very realistic desperation and grief of his {{spoiler|[[Smug Snake]] of a mother, Cersei,}} neatly triggering the fear of one's children dying and illiciting sympathy for both.
** Don't forget how {{spoiler|Catelyn sees her eldest son Robb being '''horrifyingly''' killed in front of her. And ''then'' she also gets killed off. And ends up [[Came Back Wrong|coming back wrong]].}}
* ''[[Bridge to Terabithia]]'', period. The idea that a [[Cheerful Child|cheerful, friendly, imaginative and full of life child]] suddenly dies in a freak, ''senseless'' accident ( {{spoiler|best swimmer in a class drowning in creek shallow enough to ''walk'' through}}) is utterly terrifying to parents, especially since said child did nothing to deserve death. "Bonus" points for this being the only child.
** Another terrifying point is that the whole is [[Based on a True Story]]. {{spoiler|It was a lightning in reality making it even '''more''' tragic. One minute that little girl is happily playing on a beach, the next [[Tear Jerker|there is a corpse...]]}}
* In [[The Green Knowe Chronicles|The Stones of Green Knowe]], the protagonist, Roger, at one point sees what he thinks is his own village being massacred, with his family slaughtered. Despite the fact that Roger is only a child in the story, this would have been a very realistic fear for anyone at the time the novel takes place (the twelfth century), as well as in parts of the world today.
* ''Die Wolke'' ("The Cloud") by Gudrun Pausewang describes what would happen to a country if a nuclear plant would go fully caboom.
** Pausewang is very fond of this trope. Compare also: ''Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn'' (The Last Children of Schewenborn), which describes the aftermath of an implied nuclear war with all its horrors {{spoiler|(the protagonist's family save his father dies one after another while suicides, murders, radiation sickness and starvation deaths happen all around him)}}, and ''Der Schlund'' (The Abyss), which is set in a Germany that falls pray to another fascist regime a la Third Reich. The protagonist here {{spoiler|loses her entire family to the regime and essentially commits suicide-by-proxy at the end.}}
* ''[[The Hunger Games (novel)|The Hunger Games]]'' centres around Katniss who takes on a motherly role for her young sister prematurely due to her father dying in a mining accident and her mother's ensuing depression. To feed the family she breaks the law and increases her odds of being picked for the deadly games. But because this is a [[Crapsack World]], the sister is picked for the Games anyway, so Katniss volunteers as sacrifice, knowing she'll never win and her family will be left without a provider. Harrowing enough but then {{spoiler|her younger sister dies in the revolution Katniss starts - likely at the hands of the man Katniss loved}}.
** Just the thought of it being ''your'' kid chosen for the [[Deadly Game]]...
* ''Three Days'' by Donna Jo Napoli focuses on an eleven-year-old girl visiting in Italy with her father. All is well until he suffers a heart attack while driving and passes out...and then the girl ends up being kidnapped. So now in addition to watching her father get a heart attack and probably ''die'' while they were driving and she was right next to him, she's trapped in a stranger's home, surrounded by people who don't speak any English, in a strange country that she doesn't even know her way around.
* What about [[The Raven (poem)|never being able to see someone you love]] - ever?
* The ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' has a woman who collects mentally handicapped children to experiment on, since the law is more likely to miss perfectly normal kids or adults.
* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' deals with this a couple times. The forest is dangerous, so it's always frightening to the characters when a young cat disappears... one mother has to deal with the fact that her daughter's hindlegs are paralyzed so she'll never live a normal life and might die early... another mother's kits go missing, and she's forced to realize that her mate may have kidnapped them to live with him.
* ''[[Those That Wake]]'' had ''everyone'' forgetting about teenage Laura, even her parents. And at the end of the book, {{spoiler|they still don't remember}}.
* ''School Crossing'', by Francis King, is about a child-hating headmaster bitter after being sacked from the school where he worked. Whenever he drives anywhere near the school, he begins seeing the ghosts of children on the crossing outside. {{spoiler|After being told by a doctor that he is hallucinating and should drive at the ghosts to prove they're not real, he does - only to run over and kill several children. The "ghosts" were a premonition.}} This is a fear instantly understandable to anyone with kids or who drives anywhere near places where children gather. The author has stated that he began having nightmares about it after acquiring a large, powerful car that he found difficult to handle.
* [[House of Leaves]] has many scary things going on, most noticably the [[Nothing Is Scarier]] aspects. But perhaps the most insidious facet of the book's creepiness is the fact that these terrible things are all going on in a family home. {{spoiler|And then the children start changing. And also the claustrophobia, and the steadily escalating insanity that's probably the only thing of these that's actually happening.}}
* Fay Woolf's short stories "Slowly" (about a child being trapped beneath a fairground ride - {{spoiler|engineers try to free him but then discover the machine sliced him into a pile of body parts, which rain down upon the rescuers}}) and "Sideshow" (about a boy suffocating to death during a party game at a school fair.) The events of both stories are described in such a way as to hold off the full horror until the end, and they are reasonably unlikely to happen - but still perfectly plausible and possible. Not fun for any parents reading.
* ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]'' examines the life and world of a [[Child Soldiers|child soldier]] from the inside out. It's a harrowing read in its own right, but if you have children of your own, you ''will'' find yourself unconsciously putting them in Matteo's place. [[You Can't Go Home Again|Or Asher's.]] [[Killed Off for Real|Or Otto's.]] [[Sex Slave|Or Ruth's.]] And weeping with terror. And then you remember that [[Truth in Television|there are really children going through this]].
* In ''[[Palimpsest]]'', Lyudmila died as a child, before her younger brother was even born. Her ghost is his sole companion {{spoiler|and turns out to only be a hallucination from him not taking his medication}}. There's also Sei's {{spoiler|pregnancy near the end, with the warnings that her baby will be [[Creepy Child|terrifying]] if she goes through with the birth,}} along with her own memories of her mother's insanity.
* ''[[Radiance]]'' has Severin's disappearance and all the sadness and stress it brings to the ones who love her. Of particular note is her father, who is so heartbroken and convinced he failed as a parent that he spends most of the story struggling to make a movie that will bring him some sense of closure.
* "Balanced Ecology" by [[James H. Schmitz]]: When the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]'s offer is refused, he reveals that he's already bribed enough people to {{Spoiler|have the farmer's adopted daughter forcibly re-adopted by her uncle, who she hardly knows, and who will use his "parental" right to steal her land}}. As if that isn't enough, {{Spoiler|the parents she knows are to be [[Brainwashed]] and exiled, and it's implied that they'll lose their son as well.}}
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'': A moment that could fill any parent with terror was in the first season, when a toddler is tempted into climbing inside a fridge which then closes. Cue mother looking for child, and taking a looong time to find that child. ([[Infant Immortality|The child survives]], but still...)
** Later seasons get less and less quick to enforce [[Infant Immortality]], and children are more often either possessed, hurt, used, or more than one of the above. Several episodes have dealt with what happens when the child itself is a danger, such as with the need to kill or scar one's soul for life. Why? Because the universe ''doesn't care'' about age.
** Of course, the entire series is built on this from the first episode. Imagine walking into your infant's room late at night and seeing a man standing over his crib. You assume it's your significant other, only to walk away and realise that your husband is downstairs and you have no idea who is in the room behind you or what they're doing with your baby. If that wasn't bad enough, when you run back into your child's room you are pinned to the ceiling and forced to watch as this unknown assailant corrupts your child before slowly killing you and burning you alive...all as you can't help but stare straight down at the baby you were unable to protect.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Turn Left", Western civilization devolves into a police state and things get increasingly bleak with war and economic depression. {{spoiler|It turns out it was a parallel universe, a nightmare realm, and Donna manages to return history to its old, proper course. But still.}}
** It's made all the worse by the obvious Holocaust parallels at one point. The government sends foreigners away to "labour camps" as they're unable to simply deport them. Donna, while agitated, clearly doesn't grasp the situation in full. Her grandfather, Wilfred, lived through WWII and cries as he watches history repeat itself.
*** Not just the holocaust - there was a very disturbing 9/11 parallel as well, with the mushroom cloud rising above London, while people look to the distance and can't quite believe what is happening.
** Plot holes aside, "Gridlock" becomes very disturbing, in a peculiar fashion, if you start thinking about being stuck in an inescapable traffic jam that will ''never, ever end'' (maybe you have to drive into to work to appreciate it).
** In the episode "The Eleventh Hour", the then-seven-years-old Amelia Pond is clearly frightened of a crack in her bedroom wall, which she can hear voices out of. When the Doctor meets her, he even notes that she's quite brave and that the crack must be extraordinarily strange to scare her so much. It's also shown that Amelia's aunt - her only guardian - not only doesn't believe there's anything wrong with the crack, but is often not home to care for her. {{spoiler|It turns out that the "crack" is an opening to a parallel dimension, which an alien prisoner escaped from. Because the Doctor jumps through time 12 years instead of 5 minutes, Amelia unknowingly spends most of her life living with an alien criminal hiding in her house, creating a mental link with her to steal her form}}. While this obviously plays off of a child's fear of things like the bogeyman and seemingly mundane details, there's also the parental fear of danger coming to a child because of not taking their worries seriously.
*** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]] at the end of the season. {{spoiler|Remember how the crack erases people from existence? Yeah, it got Amelia's parents. Imagine being removed from reality itself. Your own daughter won't remember that you ''ever existed''.}}
** "A Good Man Goes To War" has an even worse one for Amy and Rory. {{spoiler|Not only does their baby get kidnapped, when it seems like they've saved her it turns out that the bad guys swapped her with a flesh copy that literally ''dissolves in Amy's arms'' And it gets worse; Amy & Rory don't see their child again until she is already an adult; an adult deliberately raised to be a sociopath.}}
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* The 1988 TV movie ''God Bless the Child'' provides a very depressing scenario: a woman is deserted by her husband, and evicted from her apartment. She and her daughter are homeless and have to go on welfare. She is unable to get a job because she is homeless, and has limited experience, having been a homemaker. Although the state agency finds her some low-income housing, it is infected with rats; when she complains to the health department, the landlord evicts her in retaliation. Eventually, her daughter gets an infection, and, while she recovers, her mother sees no other option but to turn her over to foster care.
* ''[[Jam]]'' relied heavily on this. The [[Black Comedy|"Plumber Baby"]] sketch is possibly the best-known example, with other sketches focusing on paedophilia, child murder, sexual assault, [[Out with a Bang]] ("Gush") and more.
* ''[[Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter]]'' has a story arc where people, including one of the team, are getting sick seemingly randomly; the culprit turns out to be toxic waste dumped in the community garden. It's horrible enough for kids, but even worse from an older perspective; imagine being a parent of one of those kids, finding out that the community garden you thought could only be a good thing is actually poisoning your children.
* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' uses this in one episode, when {{spoiler|Annie sees her mother for the first time after dying. There are two points that stand out in particular. The first is when Annie is too shocked to say anything, and the medium who is speaking on her behalf has to tell Mrs. Sawyer that there isn't anything he's being told. Mrs. Sawyer says that she hopes he's lying, because she can't stand the thought that her daughter could communicate through him freely, but can't speak to her own mother. The other is when Mrs. Sawyer breaks down and confesses that she feels she failed her daughter and that if she was a better mother, she would have known that her child was unhappy and alone.}}
* There are far too many things in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' that appeal to parents watching it. Such as child abduction, pedophiles, child porn and [[Harmful to Minors|children seeing things they shouldn't.]] Not to mention the episodes that subvert [[Infant Immortality]].
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' was full of this in addition to more supernatural threats. The episode "In Praise of Pip" shows a bookie receiving news that his son Pip has been seriously wounded in [[The Vietnam War]] and is possibly dying. The rest of the episode revolves around the man hallucinating(?) that Pip is a ten year old boy again while he is dying of a gunshot wound. In what is a massive [[Tear Jerker]] of a scene, he begs his son not to die and apologizes for not being a better father and role model to him while promising to do better even though he realizes it may be too late for both of them.
* ''[[Rescue 911]]'', full stop. Usually about [[Once an Episode]] they'd feature a true story about a kid getting wounded in some horrible way or another.
* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' pretty much takes this trope and serves it on a silver platter, because it centers on [[Ripped from the Headlines]] plots, doesn't hesitate to whip out the truly alarming statistics on domestic abuse, sexual assault, incest, and child molestation. In one particularly upsetting-for-grownups episode, a little boy goes missing at a birthday party and is found dead shortly afterward. The security tape from the party shows him holding a balloon as he walks out of the camera's
* The first season finale of ''[[Lost]]'' has Michael's son Walt ''stolen right out of his hands'' and abducted by the Others for unknown purposes, before they torch the raft to ensure they can't be followed.
* In ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Marshall's reaction to {{spoiler|his father's sudden heart attack}} was [[Tear Jerker|sob-inducing]] because it was sudden and unexpected and ''[[Truth in Television|it happens.]]''
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== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* One arc of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' has the family return from a trip only to find that their house has been broken into. Calvin is pacified immediately after finding Hobbes, whom they had accidentally left behind when they went on the trip. His parents, however, are notably shaken, and the realization that they aren't as safe as they thought they were lingers with them for the rest of the arc. Calvin's dad in particular has to come to terms with the fact that being a parent doesn't automatically equip you to deal with any problem, contrary to what he thought after idolizing his father when he was younger. Parents are people too, and what makes them seem invincible is the fact that they put on a brave face for the sake of their children, which he learns to do.
** There's also the story arc in which Calvin finds the dying raccoon. He brings his mother to help him save it, telling Hobbes: "You don't get to be Mom if you can't fix everything just right."
** Adult fears are also treated humorously with Calvin using them as ideas for his Halloween costumes: a barrel of toxic waste, and nothing (just a child; think of what he and his generation receiving questionable influences will have grown up into when the adults he's trick-or-treating are old and weak).
* Several times in [[FoxTrot]]. One arc had Roger coming home from work to find Andy and Jason gone. Paige tells him they're at the hospital, and that Jason was hit by a car. Of course, she meant to say it was a ''toy'' car (Jason had gotten hit on the chin with one and needed stitches), but Roger doesn't know that and promptly tears outta there to see Jason at the hospital. Then there's the arc where Peter goads Jason into going onto the roof, Jason loses footing and falls off, hitting his head and having to go to the hospital for supervision; Paige and Jason finding a needle at the beach (they throw it out, which freaks Andy out because she fears they accidentally pricked themselves when they did); Paige going to the dance with a lecherous date who ''clearly'' wants to have his way with her...
* ''[[Peanuts
* The cartoonist [[Quino]]
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** To add to that, the entire game focuses around catching a serial killer who drowns children in rainwater, and the worst part is nobody really has a clue who he or she is.
* In the first ''[[Silent Hill]],'' you get to play a parent who is desperately searching a dangerous city for his missing child. You get to spend a lot of time in the dark where monsters are lurking.
** ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]'', the (very liberal) [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of the original game, takes this even further, as the game actually focuses on a veritable cornucopia of
** ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' is about a man who has been deeply changed by his wife's early death. {{spoiler|The fact that James ''killed her'' is another Adult Fear: the fear of failing a loved one and of selfishness. James's guilt is overwhelming, hence his punishment.}} Due to his wife's long sickness James is also sexually frustrated, and angry and guilty enough about it that the town creates a ''physical manifestation'' of his dark impulses toward sexual violence.
** ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour]]'' deals with Murphy Pendelton and the guilt he has over {{spoiler|not being able to save his son from their neighbor, Napier, who kidnapped, raped, and murdered poor little Charlie.}}
* ''[[Live a Live]]'': [[Two Words: Obvious Trope|One spoilered word:]] {{spoiler|Oersted}}. By the end of the relevant chapter, {{spoiler|everyone in the kingdom believes him to be an evil monster after he's manipulated into murdering his king, the only people who believed in him are dead, he's killed his own childhood friend after finding out that said friend had masterminded the above manipulation, simply out of sheer jealousy of Oersted's fame and success. To cap it all off, the woman he loved had just declared her love for said dead friend and given Oersted a rather misplaced [[What the Hell, Hero?|bitching out]] for, basically, not being a better friend to the poor unappreciated guy, and then offs herself.}} After such an emotional roller coaster, he [[Despair Event Horizon|snaps]], [[Humans Are
** His [[Famous Last Words|last words]] say it all: "With hatred, anyone can become a demon."
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'''s final act, if you get past the [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]] part. {{spoiler|The US is pretty much controlled by AI programs and the entire point of the plot is revealed: They figured out they can make anyone into what they want, given the right set of circumstances. Oh and the main character's love interest? Set up by them. It even makes you question whether she actually ''exists''.}} Let's see: Fear of loved ones having ulterior motives? Check. Fear of not knowing what's actually real? Check. Fear of having no control in your life? Big check.
** Likewise, ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''. First: Snake facing his declining health and dealing with a terminal illness. Part of Otacon's emotional arc is about coping with the long-term illness of his close friend and partner. There is also the question of children growing
* The adventure horror game ''[[Sanitarium (video game)|Sanitarium]]'' has a strong theme running throughout it of child endangerment. One of the first chapters takes place in an [[Ghost Town|abandoned town]] where all of the adults have disappeared and left the children alone, who are slowly being turned into deformed abominations. That same chapter features the story of a young girl who was killed by her abusive father while the townspeople turned a blind eye. Another chapter has you play as a young girl in a [[Circus of Fear]], and other chapters feature things like alien babies being thrown into a furnace. As the game progresses and you learn more about the main character, you find out that {{spoiler|he and his wife had been searching for a cure for their unborn child, who is suffering from a fatal disease. This is compounded by the fact that the protagonist was severely traumatized by the death of his little sister when he was a boy}}.
* ''[[
** For those of you that can't watch it: [[Complete Monster|Curtis Blackburn]] confronts his former partner Pedro (who has turned against him) and reveals that {{spoiler|he killed (and probably raped) Pedro's wife - ''in front of his son'' - before killing his ''son'' as well. At the same time he mocks them, commenting on his wife's "unique" mole and calling his son a "sissy" for not trying to save his mother. When Pedro babbles his daughter's name, Curtis tosses him ''''' his daughter's head'''''. Curtis then kills Pedro, but by that point the man probably welcomed it.}}
** Not to mention it's later shown that Curtis kidnaps and rapes young girls. And then makes hauntingly creepy taxidermy dolls out of them.
** And Susie, who seemed to have had a decent life but ''killed her own mother'' just because she wanted her to ''go to school''. A reminder than no matter how good a parent you are, sometimes your kid can turn into a [[Complete Monster]].
* The ''introduction scene'' to ''[[
* For those who are lonely and/or prone to depression, there's probably nothing scarier than the ending of ''[[Yume Nikki]]''. In a nutshell, {{spoiler|Madotsuki finally kills herself, and the only ones who mourn her are the monsters from her dreams}}.
* ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2's'' mission "Of Their Own Accord" opens with an automated public service broadcast as {{spoiler|the Ultranationalists invade the United States.}} That single PSA broadcast is enough to scare the piss out of anyone viewing it, because it indicates just how far along the "To Shit" meter everything has gone.
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* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' runs on nearly every dark trope ever, and this one is no exception. Listing every character that plays on an adult fear would take a page of its own, so sticking to party members:
** In a very long fantasy metaphor for abusive personalities, the Nameless One destroys everything he touches and hurts everyone he cares about. No matter how much some of his incarnations might want to, he will never be able to stop. {{spoiler|He finally does stop...by committing suicide.}}
** Dak'kon has sworn a vow of absolute obedience to someone who is frequently a complete monster, resulting in plentiful on-screen psychological abuse if the player has the stomach for it. And that's not even touching on lost faith or having lived through a genocide. Ignus and Vhailor have lost their basic humanity to traumatic experiences and zealotry. Annah's relationship with her father figure isn't exactly a healthy one, and she promptly finds herself drawn towards an equally unhealthy relationship with a much (much, much) older man. Fall-From-Grace was sold into slavery by her mother. Morte was physically abused but stuck around out of the conviction that it was somehow his fault and he deserved it, and Nordom is the very picture of childlike innocence lost.
*** Deionarra is a literal [[Love Martyr]], but what sends this into Adult Fear territory is that her relationship isn't some [[Fantastic Aesop]]
* A recent{{when}} trailer for the upcoming game ''[[Dead Island]]'', has a man desperately trying to save his wife and young daughter from the zombies. [[Tear Jerker|None of them survive.]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg Watch it here.]
* ''[[Persona 4]]'': The last victim of the kidnapper is {{spoiler|your little cousin Nanako}}. Needless to say, her father {{spoiler|Ryotaro Dojima}} goes through absolute ''hell'', alongside you.
** You know how in [[Real Life]], serial killers tend to be people the victims know, right? Well, the guy pulling the strings here is none other than {{spoiler|Tooru Adachi, Dojima's partner. He's visited the Dojima residence on at least two occasions as a seemingly-trustworthy guy, and knows Nanako very well...}}
*** Adult, nothing. That bit is meant to set up Adult Fears in the gamer playing a high-school student - and it ''does''. {{spoiler|Nanako}} is set up brilliantly as a constant, pleasant, cheerful part of the game. {{spoiler|Not hearing her voice when you get home from school is first scary (when she's lost) and then extremely sad (when she's laid up in the hospital).}} '''No''' teenager should have to deal with that - and it would be a cold-hearted person (or one not paying that much attention to the story) that didn't feel some of the fear and loss in those scenes.
** Even more so: {{spoiler|if you want to give in and punish her kidnapper? You will get '''the Bad Ending''' and Nanako will die. It's a really easy option and one that many newbies are likely to take, and then BAM. Kid is 100% dead, and you'll lose the chance to get her "fixed".}}
** What, just the Protagonist? It may be less spectacular, but the interaction with Mrs. Hisako Kuroda touches pretty close on {{spoiler|how awful it is to watch your spouse die before you, as well as the pain of old age and having a loved one suffer from memory loss. Yeah, Mr. Kuroda had ''Alzheimers'', thank you. (Even if it's not treated by name)}}.
* ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' arguably does a reversal of this trope, showing how serious and poignant child's fears can be: abandonment, loss of parents, rejection, bullying, betrayal...Notably the game only implies, but refuses to show the genuine adult fears, like child abuse and murder.
* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Justice For All'', Case 4. So I heard you like {{spoiler|defending a client who is clearly a [[Complete Monster]] and having your dear partner's life depend on his acquittal.}}
** Just ask real attorneys, who will most likely find themselves defending a guy {{spoiler|like Matt}}. The scary and sad part comes when the miracle most likely won't ever happen for them.
** The first game has Dee Vasquez, who has ties to [[The Mafia]]. Towards the end of the last investigation day, {{spoiler|when Phoenix and Maya uncover some critical evidence, Vasquez summons her Mafia goons and orders them [[Deadly Euphemism|"erased"]]--a cruel reminder of how terrifying organized crime can be. Only a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment by Gumshoe prevents a premature end to Phoenix's and Maya's lives.}}
*** The third game has Furio Tigre who is also a gangster and also, {{spoiler|almost erased Phoenix (again saved only by an opportunistic entrance of Gumshoe)}}.
* ''[[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney|Apollo Justice]]'' has {{spoiler|Kristoph Gavin}} trying to kill {{spoiler|''a 12-year-old girl'', Vera.}} The method? So utterly ''sneaky'' and "innocent": {{spoiler|since the girl has the bad habit of biting on her nails, he'll just put poison in her nail polish bottles, so she'll ingest it while seeking solace for her [[Shrinking Violet]] nature.}} Not only it's sneaky, but like a punch in the gut since it involves {{spoiler|attacking a shy little girl when she's at her most vulnerable}} - and not exactly easy to discover.
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games also can raise fears about, "what if the person you either love or are starting to love is actually a much worse person than you think they are?" It obviously gets taken to ridiculous extremes in a series of murder mysteries.
** In Justice for All, {{spoiler|Celeste Inpax}} gets burned by two different people because of this, and {{spoiler|Juan would have found out that Adrian was just using him if he hadn't gotten killed (though plenty would argue that he was worse than her)}}. It's sort of averted when you find out that {{spoiler|Regina getting Bat "killed" was an accident}}.
** In Trials and Tribulations, {{spoiler|Doug, Phoenix, and Terry}} ''all'' suffer when they fail to spot the major [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]. {{spoiler|Viola}} is far from a saint, but she also has to go through the pain of realizing that all the bad things done to help {{
** In [[Apollo Justice]], {{spoiler|one of Apollo's mentors, Kristoph Gavin, is the [[Big Bad]]. ''And'' he's also the older brother of the game's prosecutor Klavier Gavin.}}
** In Ace Attorney Investigations, {{spoiler|Lauren's father gets killed by her boyfriend.}}
* ''[[Mother 3]]''. Imagine your spouse being killed by a creature acting against its own will. Frightening enough. Now imagine your child, only about
** They don't call it "heartrending" for nothing.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' does this intentionally, since it's a [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed coming-of-age story made to contrast with]] ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]''. Link takes the role of a young adult who deals with adult problems, yet is still given the perspective of a child. It's mixed in with more fantastic problems too, but most of the problems have to do with adult relationships.
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*** Link himself is searching for a childhood friend that he may never see again.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|Wind Waker]]'' and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]'' have this too. In the former, Ganondorf has various young girls kidnapped because they share a couple physical similarities to Princess Zelda, among these is Link's child sister. The parents of these lost kids are appropriately freaked out. In the latter, the children of Link's hometown are stolen by Bulblins and much of the first half of the game is about Link tracking down and rescuing all of them.
* ''[[
* An old one for video games, but has to be said. ''[[King's Quest III]]'' has Graham paralyzed by grief. His son was kidnapped from his cradle and enslaved by his enemies ''somewhere,'' his kingdom has been burnt to cinders by a dragon that his best efforts cannot defeat with innocents suffering and dying on his watch...and then his only remaining child offers herself up as a [[Human Sacrifice]]. The canonical game doesn't play it up, but the [[Fan Remake]] games and [[Fan Sequel]] ''[[The Silver Lining (video game)|The Silver Lining]]'' don't make an attempt to downplay it.
* ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia]]'' has a main villain, Lang, who not only massacres whole villages if one person rebels, but kills boys and ''rapes'' girls. You can imagine how well ''that'' was taken by Marth and his group. It's also invoked in the backstory of Lena's pupil Maillesia (which involved her going into hiding and having to pretend she's much younger than she truly is to avoid him or his troops) and in Yubello and Yumina's (as the fallen heirs of Ludvick, Lang and others kill their guardian and then use them as pawns)
** There's also Princess Maria, whose own brother Michalis uses as a hostage to force their sister Minerva to fight for him. As a result, Maria spends a long part of her life as a hostage, and Minerva can't do anything but fight on the evil Michalis's orders to ensure she won't die.
* The ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral]]'' games bring up the {{spoiler|"child hunts".}} An horrifying project in which boys and girls from all the Jugdral continent are {{spoiler|kidnapped, brought to different cities, and then are forced to fight until they die. The few who survive will end up as nobles of the empire, which will be few more that puppets for the Lopto Sect.}} The parents are more often than not killed when they try to oppose to this. The heroes, several of them being very young teenagers not much older than these kids, have to fight themselves to save these poor kids (and in Thracia, more than one chara who joins the troupe actually does so ''specifically'' either to thanks them for saving the children, or to make up for having been in the side of the Empire); meanwhile, more than one villain in the game is [[Even Evil Has Standards|troubled by the existence of such deals]], and those who aren't are pretty much [[Complete Monster
** Even worse for {{spoiler|Emperor Alvis, whose teenaged son Julius ''is the leader of the child hunts''. In fact, the boy is actually the vessel for the Lopto God, and has pretty much stripped Alvis of his authority so he can't do almost anything about it.}}
** {{spoiler|Mareeta}}'s backstory involves a lot of these. {{spoiler|She was an innocent girl living in hiding with her [[Fallen Princess]] father, who did what he could to keep her safe and next to him. They were doing fine as travellers, but once Galzus was distracted for a mere second - BAM! Young Mareeta was kidnapped by slave traders and taken into a slave market. Thank God [[Mama Bear|Eyvel]] was there for her, but if she didn't...}} This is invoked again at the beginning, when {{spoiler|Mareeta and Eyvel's ''other'' daughter Nanna get caught by the enemy, and you have to ''fight a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Mareeta'' who's under the influence of an [[Evil Weapon]]...}}
** King Trabant is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to ''exploit'' adult fears, and does so twice. In the first part, the whole {{spoiler|Yied Massacre}} happens when Trabant attacks {{spoiler|Ethlin, Cuan, and their troops}} and, after killing {{spoiler|Ethlin}}, he stages a cruel [[Sadistic Choice]] to {{spoiler|Cuan}}: either he {{spoiler|drops his powerful Gaebolg lance}} or {{spoiler|his three year old daughter and heiress Altenna dies}}; as a result, {{spoiler|Cuan drops the Gaebolg... only for Trabant to kill him anyway and take both little girl and sacred weapon to his kingdom}}. In the second part he forces a powerful general named Hannibal to fight Celice's group via taking his adoptive son {{spoiler|(Sylvia's son Corple, or his [[Expy]] Sharlow if she died childless)}} as a hostage; either Hannibal wipes out the rebels, or his child dies. {{spoiler|So you first have to find and release the kid, then send him out to talk to Hannibal so he can join Celice's troops too. Otherwise, you lose two recruitable characters. (And if Corple's dad is either Levin or Claud, you will ''also'' lose a valious Sacred Weapon: either the [[Blow You Away|Holsety tome]] or [[Back
** Aless is also brutally slapped to the face with one of these, when {{spoiler|his prospect love interest and companion Leen (or her [[Expy]] Laylea) is incarcerated by their boss Bramsel, who is a known [[Dirty Old Man]].}} As Aless finds out, he [[Not So Stoic|LOSES it]] and rushes back to the castle, despite his leader Jabarro's warnings. {{spoiler|It's strongly implied that, while he finds Leen/Laylea mostly unharmed, she has already been molested or downright raped by Bramsel.}}
* '' [[Pokémon Black and White]]'' gives us {{spoiler|N's upbringing by Ghetsis, locked in a [[Gilded Cage|room with meaningless toys]], socially isolated, and emotionally abused, so that he will become a [[Tyke Bomb]] for Ghetsis to take over Unova. Implications are strong that [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|when this is done]], Ghetsis plans to [[Offing the Offspring|dispose of N]]}}. To rub salt in that, {{spoiler|one of the Plasma agents mentions that N might not actually be Ghetsis's son, and might have been ''kidnapped from another family'' to be raised in a psychologically-abusive, socially-maladjusted environment as a disposable figurehead for Team Plasma}}.
** Preceded in ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|Pokemon Platinum]]'' by a post-game encounter with an elderly man who laments that he knew his grandson was living in an emotionally unhealthy home (whether it was abusive or just that severely neglectful is left to speculation), but didn't do anything to help until it was already too late to save him. It's heavily implied that his grandson is Cyrus, the [[Big Bad]] of the game. Imagine living with the guilt of knowing you could have prevented that and ''didn't''.
* In ''[[Deus Ex]]'' the player has the option to read the emails of a cyborg government agent. In one email he expresses fears about new innovation's in cybernetics that will render him obsolete and useless thus forcing the government to fire him and leaving him without specialist care he requires to function.
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* [[Katawa Shoujo]]. Think about this... how horrifying would it be if you can hear one of your friends in distress... but you can't see them, have no way of finding them, and don't know how serious the problem is? Congratulations, you now know {{spoiler|what Lilly Satou (who is blind)}} feels when {{spoiler|Hisao suffers a heart attack during their holiday vacation and their other companion Hanako [[Heroic BSOD|panics]], so she can't tell her what's happening.}} And it happens in {{spoiler|Lilly}}'s own route, so it takes place {{spoiler|when ''she is developing feelings for Hisao''.}}
* [[Kingdom Hearts]]. Imagine this: It's stormy outside - really stormy. Your child has been in his room all evening. You go upstairs to call him in for dinner... the window's open, he's gone, and so are his two friends and their boats. He doesn't come back for years - during which you have no idea where he is, or if he's safe, or if he can ever come back. (Of course, the parents of the main characters never get more than a shadow in a doorway...) On the other hand, [[Word of God]] states that a world remains frozen in time once it is swallowed by the darkness. Also, due to events of [[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Chain of Memories]], the parents forget about their son until Namine restored Sora's memories, which means that they only started worrying at the beginning of [[Kingdom Hearts 2|Kingdom Hearts II]].
* Very little of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is particularly scary for most people, because it's not that kind of game, but amidst all the [[Money Spiders]] and [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Loot Pinata
* ''[[Fallout 4]]'': The Sole Survivor's spouse is killed and son kidnapped.
== Webcomics ==
* in ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', we have the arc [https://web.archive.org/web/20111115231306/http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00161.html "Hunter of Shadows."] Imagine that your child has been suffering from [https://web.archive.org/web/20100525114846/http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00167.html inexplicable night terrors]
* This is heavily implied to be why [[Papa Wolf|Tiger]] became a superhero and [[Spinnerette]]'s mentor. His wife demanded he give up crime-fighting out of fear of him dying. He complies... until a gunman opens fire at his daughters' school. His daughters were fine, but the news [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die|traveled slowly]].
* The [[Korean Webtoons|Korean webtoon]] [[Trace]] is unique among other X-man-esque spin-offs in the fact that it follows the journey of a middle aged business man as he develops mutant powers, rather than the usual gang of high school teenagers. Of course, since this a [[Crapsack World]] he lives in, his wife and daughter are taken away by the government under the pretense of normal screening and testing, when really {{spoiler|they are used for human experimentation. The protagonist doesn't realize this until he breaks into the facility, where he is greeted by the sight of his wife's head floating in a vat.}} Talk about preying on a typical father's worst feelings of helplessness.
* In the "Just Today" story arc of ''[[Something
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': Poor Jane's dad. It's hard enough that their have been attempts on his teenage daughter's life, but then he had to watch her {{spoiler|get blown up by a letter bomb...}}
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Snopes]]'' has an entire collection of Urban Legends with this trope in mind under the [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/parental.asp Parental Nightmares] section.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130529005127/http://bash.org/?32509 This] [[bash.org|Bash]] quote.
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]]'s kindergarten drawing of his parents as monsters bloodily tearing him apart has a tendency to affect real life parents more than the teenagers of his fanbase.
* [[Potter Puppet Pals]] parodies the whole concept of Adult Fear in "Harry's Nightmares", where, nestled in among the bizarre and occasionally juvenile ("In one dream, I was ''middle aged!'' Yuck!") traumas that haunt his noggin, was the dream he had where he gave birth to Ron, and raised him from infancy, but one day, he misplaced him, and that terrified him, because it meant he had failed as a parent.
* In ''Silver'', of the ''[[Elcenia]]'' series, Ehail and Gyre start adopting shren
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Madeline]]'' may have [[Tastes Like Diabetes|Tasted Like Diabetes]] at times, but the movie ''Madeline: Lost in Paris'' made ''great'' use of this when Madeline is supposedly adopted by a man claiming to be her uncle, only for it to turn out that he's a serial kidnapper, has kidnapped multiple girls this same way, and now all of them are forced to do hard labor in a lace
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", where due to several misunderstandings, child welfare accused Homer and Marge of negligence and their children are taken away from them. It was particularly [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] when Homer and Marge wander in their house to each of their kids' empty bedrooms. And when Marge and Homer heard Bart's signature ring, they rushed down to the front door, faces joyful, only to see nobody was there.
** Speaking of the Simpsons, there was the episode where Homer's mother Mona dies. Homer has been reunited with his mother for the first time in a while, after being abandoned by her ''again'', and he's genuinely angry at that. So he tells her that he doesn't want to forgive her, and goes away... only to find, later that night when he comes down to apologize to her, that poor Mona died in her sleep. For many adults, the realization that they are ''highly'' likely to see their parents die, and the idea of a parent (or any loved one really) dying after an argument is... sobering.
** The episode where Lisa finds a beached whale and tries desperately to save it hits us with the "not every life can be saved and parents can't solve everything" message, made even more painful by Lisa's [[Hope Spot]] dream where [[Bumbling Dad]] Homer of all people rescues the whale by organizing a ton of different people for the sole purpose of making Lisa happy
** In "5000 Keys", Maggie is locked alone in the car. {{spoiler|Of course, she's smart enough to get out on her own, but it's still pretty scary}}.
** Parodied when Lisa tricks Homer into letting her go downtown by herself on the bus. He casually tells Lenny and Carl this, and they're horrified. Cue Homer making up a story about how Lisa is so smart she overloaded a computer, which Lenny and Carl don't fall for, and Homer finally running off to save Lisa.
** "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly"
* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'': ''[
* In ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' episode "Nothing to Fear", Magica DeSpell used real-life images of Uncle Scrooge & co.'s worst fears to descend upon them. For Uncle Scrooge, this took the form of being told by Huey, Dewey and Louie that they secretly couldn't stand him and they only wanted his money, for HD&L it was that unca Scrooge never loved them.
* In ''[[Lilo
* In the two-part pilot of ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'', the Justice League are angry that Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash ran off on their own to investigate Cadmus without telling them. But when we find out that {{spoiler|after capturing them, the Light's original plan was to clone them and send them off to the League as moles, killing off the originals, we can see why the League (particularly the mentors like [[Batman]]) acted the way they did.}} Then in the season 1 finale we find out {{spoiler|this ''already happened'' to Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy. The "Roy" seen in the series is actually a clone of the original Roy created three years ago.}}
** The ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' episode "Misplaced" explores the terror of parents being separated from their children on both sides. Sportsmaster deliberately invokes this by inciting a mob to lay siege to STAR labs on adult world accusing them of making their children vanish as a distraction {{spoiler|to steal a piece of Starro.}} On kid world, there are a quite a few scenes of children being endangered by the sudden disappearance of their parents. Near the very end, {{spoiler|Zatara is faced by a parent's ultimate nightmare: a powerful force kidnaps his daughter and refuses to let her go. Then Zatanna has to live with the fact that her father sacrificed himself to save her from her own decision.}}
* ''[[Justice League]]''. "The Enemy Below". {{spoiler|Aquaman in a [[Death Trap]]}} is bad enough, but {{spoiler|Aquaman ''and his baby'' in a [[Death Trap]]?}} HOLY SHIT!, [[Big No|NOOOOOOOOOO.]]
** Just like him, [[Memetic Mutation|you WOULDN'T hesitate. AT ALL!!]]
* The ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' episode "See No Evil" is about a woman dealing with her ex-con ex-husband who proceeds to befriend his daughter (who doesn't know it's her father due to his invisiblity suit) and ends up kidnapping her.
* Also, in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' we have {{spoiler|Return of the Joker. With Tim being kidnapped and then completely '''destroyed''' by [[The Joker]].}} Again, [[Big No|NOOOOOOOOOO!]]
* In ''[[Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'', {{spoiler|it turns out that Fred Jones Sr. ''kidnapped Fred as a child'', taking him away from his real parents and feeding lie after lie to him, bringing the issue of parents not just lying to you, but not really owning you and treating you that way}}.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'':
** An episode where Rarity has to spend a week with her much younger sister Sweetie Belle, with her essentially taking a parent role for in every scene they have together. They get on each other's nerves until they declare that they don't want to be sisters anymore, and Sweetie Belle runs away. Rarity soon has a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment and heads out to find her, and while the next scene has her doing just that, the fact that her epiphany happened in the daytime and the next scene is at night indicates that she's spent quite a long time desperately searching everywhere in town, worried about what might have happened to her baby sister.
** Then there's season one episode "The Stare Master". The Cutie Mark Crusaders venture into the [[The Lost Woods|Everfree Forest]], in the middle of the night, to find a missing chicken. Fluttershy, who was entrusted with their care, goes after them and bumps into a [[Taken for Granite|petrified]] Twilight Sparkle; she then realizes that a Cockatrice, a very dangerous ''chicken-shaped'' monster, is near...
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* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has a major adult fear as {{spoiler|the Ice King's}} backstory: slowly and against your will going violently insane, driving loved ones away in fear and hate, aware the entire time of the slow degradation.
** And there's Season 4 in general. While the show in general becomes darker as it progresses, Season 4 deals with Finn's changing perspective and feelings. There's something horrifying about watching him unable to process how he feels, as well as his rejections from various girls. It takes this troper back to when I was 13...Not a fun time. Watching him so realistically deal with these issues just makes me feel 13 again. Special mention goes to the episode "Hug Wolves", which is either about rape or sex; either way, it's about being unable to have a proper outlet for your pent up emotions and how it affects your relationships with those around you.
* One episode of the ''[[Dungeons
** In another, Hank (who is 15 year old) is kidnapped alongside Bobby (as much 8). Then Venger blackmails Hank into betraying his friends (including Sheila, Bobby's older sister) under the threat of torturing or killing Bobby. Considering that Hank is the [[Team Dad]] and often responsible for the team's safety, and that Sheila is [[Promotion to Parent|a borderline mother figure to Bobby]] ever since being spirited away...
** And then we have ''Last Illusion''. Varla's parents love her unconditionally even when she's the local [[Master of Illusion]], but since Venger wants her and their neighbors fear her to death, they cannot do anything to save their poor 12-year-old daughter from him. For worse, Varla's powers are such a strain on her that they're apparently ''killing'' her.
* Netflix series ''[[Camp Cretaceous]]'' has six children stranded in a camping trip gone horribly wrong. And there's dinosaurs that will kill (if not eat them) them if they get caught by them. Fortunately, they have not been killed by the dinosaurs. But one can only imagine how their parents are reacting to this information.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fear Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Adult Fear]]
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