This is the stuff so horrifying that it can give people the creeps for years. This scares the pants off of just about anyone to the author/creator's delight. This makes you shrink in the back of your chair, look over your shoulder, and remind yourself that what's going on is (usually) only fictional.
This was also known as High Octane Nightmare Fuel.Category:Nightmare Fuel
"What do you fear?"
—Fear Factory, "Fear Campaign"
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For many Horror films, achieving this effect is the whole point (and many in-universe examples arise because Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films). For some reason, many of us like to be scared on purpose. There may be a euphoria generated by surviving something that seems scary, or maybe we know that fiction can't hurt us and the idea of choosing to be scared without the danger is fun. Some think it's cathartic or therapeutic in some way to explore our fears from a position of relative safety. In any case, this is normal for the genre. Others are fascinated by the very things that most people avoid. Occasionally, it overlaps with Squick. Similarly, some Public Service Announcements choose to employ terrifying imagery in order to keep people away from doing dangerous things. These can be sources of Fridge Horror as well, as those from different cultures or eras past can demonstrate some intensely creepy Family Unfriendly Aesops. Experiences may vary from person to person. Some people, for example, may find the invasion of monstrosities which are treated as benign to be a far more terrifying prospect than things which we need to explicitly fear. Think the difference between the monster who lives under your bed when you're grown up versus the monster who lives under your bed and fist-bumps your parents when you were a young child. This is an Audience Reaction, so leave it on YMMV and Nightmare Fuel tabs and don't get too worked up about what specifically goes into it - what's Nightmare Retardant for one person may well be Nightmare Fuel for another.
* Surreal sequences, usually animated.
- A Complete Monster.
- Extreme violence and deaths.
- The disgusting images associated with Nausea Fuel.
- Unsettling body structures, human or not.
- Nightmare Sequence, disturbing dream sequences and hallucinations straight out of a nightmare.
- Horrifically mutated, distorted, injured, or... unreal faces.
- Paranoia Fuel—when things that should be harmless, or on your side, turn nasty.
- Primal Fears: possibly the most universally frightening of the mix; stuff that generally everyone gets the creeps from. Includes but is not limited to:
- The dark.
- The unknown.
- Swarms of fear-inducing animals such as rats, snakes, spiders or insects.
- Being Buried Alive...or Eaten Alive.
- Being raped - especially by something that isn't human.
- People being set on fire, or fire endangering the lives of people while they struggle to escape.
- Being drowned, particularly if it's done very slowly...
- Being trapped without escape with a violent and/or unpredictable human/animal/thing that wants to harm you.
- Adult Fears. Those things children seldom worry about: economic failure, romantic failure, watching helplessly as your children die, or possibly even The End of the World as We Know It.
- Transformation Sequences with plenty of Body Horror, including Chest Bursters.
- Rotting corpses, possibly reanimated.
- Diseases. They have no intelligence to bear anyone ill will, but once an infection/outbreak occurs, the attack will never stop until they are completely annihilated... or their victims are.
- Mutilation of specific body parts, such as the eyes, face, fingers, teeth, genitalia, or even worse than those injuries.
- Fates so horrific one can only wish for death. Being turned into stone, being trapped in another dimension, being encased in a tomb for eternity, being forcefully made into a machine without consent, or worse...
- A sexual or romantic obsession with someone that goes too far.
- The incredible depravity and monstrosity of human beings at their absolute worst.
- Psychotic behavior presented in a disturbingly childish, calm, or serene manner, alluding to the potential inhumane nature of the individual.
- Former heroes committing completely reprehensible acts both willingly or worse unwillingly.
- Surreal monsters and Eldritch Abominations that have horrific appearances.
- Soundtrack Dissonance, when used correctly, can make a scene extremely horrifying.
- Being pregnant with an Eldritch Abomination or other evil entity, or your child becoming one of these things.
- Losing all reason or willpower to continue living.
- A totalitarian authority of any kind so harsh that one wishes to die or escape from it.
- A Crapsack World so vast and immutable that revolution, change, or even escape is a laughable impossibility.
- Death and destruction.
- Being inside a living creature.
- Consumption of people as food. Wanna take that many steps even further?
- Having your mind toyed with, be it wiping your memory out, Mind Control, brainwashing, re-enacting past horrific events, invasion of your thoughts, or whatever else comes to mind.
- Being hunted AND chased endlessly.
- Think you're safe behind the Fourth Wall because it is Fiction? THINK AGAIN!
Tropes used to invoke this feeling are Horror Tropes. Tropes about fear are Fear Tropes. If it is meant to scare but fails to deliver, and becomes hilarious instead, it devolves into Nightmare Retardant. Characters that are this In-Universe are The Dreaded. Personal examples are Troper Tales and do not belong here.
No real life examples, please; there may be real life things that induce fear, but there's just too many to document as the degree of fear varies from person to person. And, as phobias show, everything is Nightmare Fuel to somebody.
Pages in category "Nightmare Fuel"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 1,520 total.
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A
- ABBA/Nightmare Fuel
- The Abyss/Nightmare Fuel
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth/Nightmare Fuel
- Ace Attorney/Nightmare Fuel
- Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War/Nightmare Fuel
- Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War/Nightmare Fuel
- Action Man (2000 TV series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Adventure Time/Nightmare Fuel
- The Adventures of Dr. McNinja/Nightmare Fuel
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad/Nightmare Fuel
- Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers/Nightmare Fuel
- The Adventures of Willy Beamish/Nightmare Fuel
- Aeon Natum Engel/Nightmare Fuel
- Afraid of Monsters/Nightmare Fuel
- AKB0048/Nightmare Fuel
- Akira/Nightmare Fuel
- Aladdin (1992 Disney film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Alan Wake/Nightmare Fuel
- Alastair Reynolds/Nightmare Fuel
- Albion/Nightmare Fuel
- Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Alice in Wonderland/Nightmare Fuel
- Alice: Madness Returns/Nightmare Fuel
- Alien (franchise)/Nightmare Fuel
- Alien Abduction Incident in Lake County/Nightmare Fuel
- Alien Nine/Nightmare Fuel
- Alien Soldier/Nightmare Fuel
- Alien Storm/Nightmare Fuel
- Alien vs. Predator (franchise)/Nightmare Fuel
- All Dogs Go to Heaven/Nightmare Fuel
- All That Jazz/Nightmare Fuel
- All-Star Superman/Nightmare Fuel
- Allec Joshua Ibay/Nightmare Fuel
- Alone in the Dark/Nightmare Fuel
- Alter Ego (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Altitude/Nightmare Fuel
- The Amazing World of Gumball/Nightmare Fuel
- American McGee's Alice/Nightmare Fuel
- The Amityville Horror/Nightmare Fuel
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent/Nightmare Fuel
- Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid/Nightmare Fuel
- Anastasia (Animation)/Nightmare Fuel
- Anatolia Story/Nightmare Fuel
- Angel Cop/Nightmare Fuel
- Angel Heart (1987 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Angry Birds/Nightmare Fuel
- The Animals of Farthing Wood/Nightmare Fuel
- The Animatrix/Nightmare Fuel
- Animorphs/Nightmare Fuel
- Anonymoose's Monster Girl Saga/Nightmare Fuel
- Another Code: Two Memories/Nightmare Fuel
- Another World (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Another/Nightmare Fuel
- Ao Oni/Nightmare Fuel
- Aphex Twin/Nightmare Fuel
- Apocalypse Now/Nightmare Fuel
- Apocalypse Zero/Nightmare Fuel
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney/Nightmare Fuel
- Apple of Our Eye/Nightmare Fuel
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force/Nightmare Fuel
- The Aquabats!/Nightmare Fuel
- Are You Afraid of the Dark?/Nightmare Fuel
- The Arithmancer/Nightmare Fuel
- Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth/Nightmare Fuel
- Arthur (animation)/Nightmare Fuel
- Arx Fatalis/Nightmare Fuel
- Ask a Pony/Nightmare Fuel
- Assassin's Creed II/Nightmare Fuel
- Assassin's Creed/Nightmare Fuel
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations/Nightmare Fuel
- Astral Journey: It's Complicated/Nightmare Fuel
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire/Nightmare Fuel
- Atop the Fourth Wall/Nightmare Fuel
- Audition/Nightmare Fuel
- Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter/Nightmare Fuel
- Avatar (film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Avatar: The Last Airbender/Nightmare Fuel
- The Avengers (2012 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes/Nightmare Fuel
- Awesome Possum/Nightmare Fuel
- Awesome Series (Web Animation)/Nightmare Fuel
- Axis Powers Hetalia/Nightmare Fuel
- Azure Dreams/Nightmare Fuel
B
- Babar/Nightmare Fuel
- Babylon 5/Nightmare Fuel
- Baccano!/Nightmare Fuel
- Bad Moon/Nightmare Fuel
- Bambi (Disney film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Bambi II/Nightmare Fuel
- Banjo-Kazooie/Nightmare Fuel
- Barefoot Gen/Nightmare Fuel
- Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden/Nightmare Fuel
- Baroque (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Bastion/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman Begins/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman Beyond/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman Returns/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman: Arkham Asylum/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman: Arkham City/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman: Arkham Knight/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman: The Animated Series/Nightmare Fuel
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold/Nightmare Fuel
- Battle Chess/Nightmare Fuel
- Battle Royale/Nightmare Fuel
- Battle: Los Angeles/Nightmare Fuel
- Battlefield: Bad Company/Nightmare Fuel
- Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Battletoads/Nightmare Fuel
- Beast Wars/Nightmare Fuel
- Beasts of Burden/Nightmare Fuel
- The Beatles (band)/Nightmare Fuel
- Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Beavis and Butt-Head/Nightmare Fuel
- Beetlejuice (film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Being Human (UK)/Nightmare Fuel
- Bejeweled/Nightmare Fuel
- Ben Drowned/Nightmare Fuel
- Bendy and the Ink Machine/Nightmare Fuel
- Beneath a Steel Sky/Nightmare Fuel
- Berserk/Nightmare Fuel
- Berzerk/Nightmare Fuel
- Beyond Good & Evil (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- The Bible/Nightmare Fuel
- Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (animation)/Nightmare Fuel
- Biker Mice From Mars/Nightmare Fuel
- Binary Domain/Nightmare Fuel
- The Binding of Isaac/Nightmare Fuel
- Bio-Hazard Battle/Nightmare Fuel
- Bio-Meat: Nectar/Nightmare Fuel
- BioShock (series)/Nightmare Fuel
- BioShock 2/Nightmare Fuel
- BioShock Infinite/Nightmare Fuel
- The Birds/Nightmare Fuel
- The Birthday Massacre/Nightmare Fuel
- Black and White/Nightmare Fuel
- Black Butler (anime)/Nightmare Fuel
- Black Butler (manga)/Nightmare Fuel
- Black Butler II/Nightmare Fuel
- The Black Cauldron/Nightmare Fuel
- The Black Hole/Nightmare Fuel
- Black Jack/Nightmare Fuel
- Black Lagoon/Nightmare Fuel
- Black Swan/Nightmare Fuel
- Blackest Night/Nightmare Fuel
- Blade Runner/Nightmare Fuel
- The Blair Witch Project/Nightmare Fuel
- BlazBlue/Nightmare Fuel
- Bleach/Nightmare Fuel
- Blinky Bill/Nightmare Fuel
- Blood+/Nightmare Fuel
- Blood-C/Nightmare Fuel
- Bloom County/Nightmare Fuel
- Blue Gender/Nightmare Fuel
- Boards of Canada/Nightmare Fuel
- Body Harvest/Nightmare Fuel
- Bokurano/Nightmare Fuel
- Bones (TV series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Boogiepop Phantom/Nightmare Fuel
- The Book of Lost Things/Nightmare Fuel
- Borderlands/Nightmare Fuel
- Brain Dead 13/Nightmare Fuel
- Brain Scratch Commentaries/Nightmare Fuel
- The Brave Little Toaster/Nightmare Fuel
- Brave/Nightmare Fuel
- Bravely Default/Nightmare Fuel
- Brawl in the Family/Nightmare Fuel
- Breaking Bad/Nightmare Fuel
- Breath of Fire II/Nightmare Fuel
- Breath of Fire III/Nightmare Fuel
- Breath of Fire IV/Nightmare Fuel
- Breath of Fire/Nightmare Fuel
- Brink (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Broken Saints/Nightmare Fuel
- The Brood/Nightmare Fuel
- Bruce Dickinson/Nightmare Fuel
- Brütal Legend/Nightmare Fuel
- Bubble Bobble/Nightmare Fuel
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Nightmare Fuel
- A Bug's Life/Nightmare Fuel
- Bullet Witch/Nightmare Fuel
- Bully (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
Media in category "Nightmare Fuel"
The following 17 files are in this category, out of 21 total.
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