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.
Subcategories
This category has the following subcategory, out of 2 total.
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- Video Games/Nightmare Fuel (269 P)
Pages in category "Nightmare Fuel"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 1,520 total.
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- Soul Nomad & the World Eaters/Nightmare Fuel
- South Park/Nightmare Fuel
- Space Beasts/Nightmare Fuel
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast/Nightmare Fuel
- Space Quest/Nightmare Fuel
- Space Runaway Ideon/Nightmare Fuel
- Speed Grapher/Nightmare Fuel
- Spelunky/Nightmare Fuel
- Spice and Wolf/Nightmare Fuel
- Spider-Man/Nightmare Fuel
- Spider-Man: Edge of Time/Nightmare Fuel
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions/Nightmare Fuel
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series/Nightmare Fuel
- Spirited Away/Nightmare Fuel
- Splatterhouse/Nightmare Fuel
- Spoilsbury Toast Boy/Nightmare Fuel
- SpongeBob SquarePants/Nightmare Fuel
- Spooky Month/Nightmare Fuel
- Spore/Nightmare Fuel
- Spyro the Dragon/Nightmare Fuel
- The Stand/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Control/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Fox (series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Trek III: The Search For Spock/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Trek/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Trek: Retribution/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Wars/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Wars: Clone Wars/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars/Nightmare Fuel
- Star Wars: X-Wing/Nightmare Fuel
- StarCraft/Nightmare Fuel
- Stargate Atlantis/Nightmare Fuel
- Stargate SG-1/Nightmare Fuel
- Starlit Heroics/Nightmare Fuel
- Stars Above/Nightmare Fuel
- Starship Titanic/Nightmare Fuel
- StarTropics/Nightmare Fuel
- Stay Alive/Nightmare Fuel
- Steins;Gate 0/Nightmare Fuel
- Steins;Gate/Nightmare Fuel
- Stephen King/Nightmare Fuel
- Still Life (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Story of the Blanks/Nightmare Fuel
- The Strangers/Nightmare Fuel
- Street Fighter/Nightmare Fuel
- Street Sharks/Nightmare Fuel
- Streets of Rage Saga/Nightmare Fuel
- Streets of Rage/Nightmare Fuel
- Stuart Ashen/Nightmare Fuel
- Subnormality/Nightmare Fuel
- The Suffering/Nightmare Fuel
- Sufjan Stevens/Nightmare Fuel
- The Suicide Squad (film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Suikoden II/Nightmare Fuel
- Suikoden III/Nightmare Fuel
- Suikoden IV/Nightmare Fuel
- Suikoden Tierkreis/Nightmare Fuel
- Suikoden/Nightmare Fuel
- Summon Night/Nightmare Fuel
- Super 8/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Aleste/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Mario (franchise)/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Mario 64/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Mario RPG/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Meat Boy/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Robot Wars Operation Extend/Nightmare Fuel
- Super Smash Bros./Nightmare Fuel
- Superjail/Nightmare Fuel
- Superman Theatrical Cartoons/Nightmare Fuel
- Superman: Birthright/Nightmare Fuel
- Superman: The Animated Series/Nightmare Fuel
- Supernatural (TV series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Survival Crisis Z/Nightmare Fuel
- Suspiria/Nightmare Fuel
- Sutef/Nightmare Fuel
- Swamp Thing/Nightmare Fuel
- Swans/Nightmare Fuel
- SWAT 4/Nightmare Fuel
- Sweet Home (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Symphogear/Nightmare Fuel
- Syndicate/Nightmare Fuel
- System of a Down/Nightmare Fuel
- System Shock/Nightmare Fuel
T
- T.A.T.u./Nightmare Fuel
- Tabletop Games/Nightmare Fuel
- Taiji Sawada/Nightmare Fuel
- A Tale of Two Kingdoms/Nightmare Fuel
- A Tale of Two Sisters/Nightmare Fuel
- Tales of Monkey Island/Nightmare Fuel
- Tales of the Abyss/Nightmare Fuel
- Tamers Forever Series/Nightmare Fuel
- Tangled (2010 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Tarantula/Nightmare Fuel
- Taxi Driver/Nightmare Fuel
- Teen Titans (animation)/Nightmare Fuel
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters/Nightmare Fuel
- Temeraire/Nightmare Fuel
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann/Nightmare Fuel
- Terminator (franchise)/Nightmare Fuel
- Terminator: Dark Fate/Nightmare Fuel
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles/Nightmare Fuel
- Terranigma/Nightmare Fuel
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Nightmare Fuel
- Texhnolyze/Nightmare Fuel
- That Guy With The Glasses/Nightmare Fuel
- The 7th Saga/Nightmare Fuel
- The Andromeda Strain/Nightmare Fuel
- The Cell/Nightmare Fuel
- The Dark Knight Rises/Nightmare Fuel
- The Death Gate Cycle/Nightmare Fuel
- The Fly (1986 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- The Grey/Nightmare Fuel
- The Hidden: Source/Nightmare Fuel
- The Incredible Shrinking Man/Nightmare Fuel
- The Legend of Kyrandia/Nightmare Fuel
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Nightmare Fuel
- The Longest Journey/Nightmare Fuel
- The Manchurian Candidate (2004 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- The Mothman Prophecies/Nightmare Fuel
- The Omen/Nightmare Fuel
- The Real Ghostbusters/Nightmare Fuel
- The Silence of the Lambs/Nightmare Fuel
- The Stanley Parable/Nightmare Fuel
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard/Nightmare Fuel
- The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing/Nightmare Fuel
- The Witcher/Nightmare Fuel
- The Wizard of Oz (film)/Nightmare Fuel
- There Will Be Brawl/Nightmare Fuel
- They Live!/Nightmare Fuel
- Thief (series)/Nightmare Fuel
- The Thing (1982 film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Threads/Nightmare Fuel
- Thrill Kill/Nightmare Fuel
- Thriller Restaurant/Nightmare Fuel
- Throbbing Gristle/Nightmare Fuel
- Thunder Force/Nightmare Fuel
- Tiger and Bunny/Nightmare Fuel
- Tim Burton/Nightmare Fuel
- Time Braid/Nightmare Fuel
- The Time Machine/Nightmare Fuel
- TimeSplitters (series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Tintin/Nightmare Fuel
- Tiny Toon Adventures/Nightmare Fuel
- Titan A.E./Nightmare Fuel
- Tokyo Tribes/Nightmare Fuel
- Tom Waits/Nightmare Fuel
- Tomb Raider/Nightmare Fuel
- Tomba!/Nightmare Fuel
- Tomie/Nightmare Fuel
- Tool/Nightmare Fuel
- Toonstruck/Nightmare Fuel
- Torchwood/Nightmare Fuel
- Torchwood: Miracle Day/Nightmare Fuel
- Tori Amos/Nightmare Fuel
- Toriko/Nightmare Fuel
- Torin's Passage/Nightmare Fuel
- Toshimitsu Deyama/Nightmare Fuel
- Total Drama Island/Nightmare Fuel
- Total Recall/Nightmare Fuel
- Touhou/Nightmare Fuel
- Tower of Animus/Nightmare Fuel
- Toy Story (franchise)/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers (film)/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers Alter Verse/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers Animated/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers: Prime/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers: The Movie/Nightmare Fuel
- Transformers: TransTech/Nightmare Fuel
- Trauma Center (series)/Nightmare Fuel
- Travels Through Azeroth and Outland/Nightmare Fuel
- Treasure Island/Nightmare Fuel
- Tremors/Nightmare Fuel
- Tribe Twelve/Nightmare Fuel
- Trigun/Nightmare Fuel
- TRON: Legacy/Nightmare Fuel
- True Blood/Nightmare Fuel
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea/Nightmare Fuel
- The Twilight Zone/Nightmare Fuel
- Twin of Twins/Nightmare Fuel
- Twin Peaks/Nightmare Fuel
- Twisted Metal/Nightmare Fuel
- Tyler, The Creator/Nightmare Fuel
- Tyrian/Nightmare Fuel
U
- UFO Robo Grendizer/Nightmare Fuel
- UFO: After Blank/Nightmare Fuel
- The Ugly Barnacle/Nightmare Fuel
- Ultra Seven/Nightmare Fuel
- Ultraman Ace/Nightmare Fuel
- Ultraman Leo/Nightmare Fuel
- Umineko: When They Cry/Nightmare Fuel
- Unbreakable/Nightmare Fuel
- Undertale/Nightmare Fuel
- Uninvited (video game)/Nightmare Fuel
- Unreal II: The Awakening/Nightmare Fuel
- Up (animation)/Nightmare Fuel
- Utopia Academy/Nightmare Fuel