Rule of Scary: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

'''Most effective formulas for scary:'''

* [[Uncanny Valley|Mixing the paranormal or abnormal with the mundane]]. If ''everything'' is weird, then what is supposed to be scary isn't.

* Vividly showing (or describing) something scary which directly affects the human body. [[Body Horror]] is a part of this, but this is not always [[Body Horror]]. eg, ''[[The Matrix]]'' using humans as "living batteries", or some portrayals of viruses. [[Art Major Biology]] is a major factor in this.

 

 

Contrast [[Narm]], [[Nightmare Retardant]], [[Rule of Cute]].

 

 

 

* Many of the dinosaurs in ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' were deliberately stylized to be more menacing. The velociraptors are a particularly evident example.

** It doesn't stop there: why in blazes would a door lock ever be tied to an electrical grid in such a way that it cannot be manually operated? There's no sane reason for that whatsoever apart from this trope. It also explains why Tim and Lex keep a tight grasp on the [[Idiot Ball]] several times: if they didn't do incredibly stupid things, the dinosaurs wouldn't be able to menace them constantly and create tension.

* ''[[Psycho|Mrs. Bates's]]'' rocking chair shouldn't turn around like that, but isn't it damn creepy anyway?

* Italian horror movies generally take this to higher levels than those made in other countries.

*** The best of the Italian horror film makers, including [[Lucio Fulci]], the Bavas, and Michele Soavi, are very good at this. The lesser ones attempt this, and the results are usually still at least entertaining.

** Hey, how about that film called ''[[The Anthropophagus Beast]]'' about a cannibal psychopath who rips open a pregnant woman's belly to eat its fetus and when he gets his own belly ripped open, he eats his ''own guts''... The actor playing him got the nickname "the man who eats himself". And his stage name is George Eastman.

*** Soylent Red is a delicious mixture of soy and lentil proteins!

*** [[Paranoia|Soylent Orange is unavailable at your security clearance, citizen.]]

*** Soylent Green is {{spoiler|exactly what they claim it is in the book}}!

* ''[[Eraserhead]]'' is completely [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|incomprehensible, like all True Art]], and profoundly disturbing.

* Any objections people had to the reinterpretation of Dr. Jonathan Crane in ''[[Batman Begins]]'' from a university professor to an asylum manager were forgotten the moment we saw his [[Mask Power|mask]] and his use of a chemical that can literally be called "[[Nightmare Fuel]]".

** The very fact that [[The Joker]] has any capacity to do anything that he does, ''ever'', breaks most common sense, but damn isn't he funny and scary for doing it. The song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbgLapRAloQ&feature=fvw The Dark Knight Is Confused] sums them up perfectly: The Joker's goons are schizos who are nevertheless dependable and self-sacrificing and for a guy who doesn't look like he had a plan, he musta organized these attacks on an evil day planner.

*** Freddy's glove was intended to be as much a torture device as a killing tool. In "Freddy's Dead" you can see a variety of gloves in his basement, including one with what look like rusty nails for knuckles and one with straight razors attached to the tips. Also, he specifically killed young children. What would terrify a child more than ''that''? And since Freddy exists in nightmares, nothing he does has to be practical and can be as terrifying as possible. Freddy is basically Rule of Scary incarnate.

** The Pale Man is justified in that it's supposed to have been a humongously fat creature that lost its main sustenance, and as a result withered to almost skeletal proportions. That sustenance? [[Nightmare Fuel|Human children]].

* ''[[The Night of the Hunter]]'' applies this to the villain's [[Offscreen Teleportation]]. Asks one character, "[[Lampshade Hanging|Don't he never sleep?]]"

* Let's let Stomptokyo.com explain how this trope failed to cover the glaring improbabilities in the [[Bertha in The Attic]]-style plot of ''[http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/b/bad-ronald.html Bad Ronald]'', shall we?

{{quote|''The thought that an orphaned lunatic might still lurk in the forgotten corners of a creaky old house is enough to make you start knocking surreptitiously on the walls of your own home, listening for hollow spots. However, this central conceit probably worked better as a novel than as a movie. On film, it becomes obvious that Ronald's subterfuge wouldn't last long once the other family moved in. Besides the fact that the lack of a shower in his room would probably mean that Ronald's body funk would knock passing planes out of the sky, Ronald couldn't possibly be quiet enough that everyone wouldn't figure out something was up. "It's just the house settling" only goes so far, especially when you consider that Ronald has a toilet in there. ("My house is haunted by a Phantom Flusher!") When Ronald carves all of his peepholes at eye level, the idea that he could go unnoticed in the house becomes downright ludicrous.''}}

* [[Narm|Failed]] example: the theatrical ending to the movie ''Joy Ride'', as detailed under the entry for [[Shocking Swerve]].

* [[Halloween (film)|Michael Myers]] is always right behind you. No matter how fast you run, no matter how slow he seems to be moving, he is ''[[Nightmare Fuel|right behind you]]''.

** [[Handwaved]] by the explanation that he's supposed to actually be [[Eldritch Abomination|evil and hate personified]].

* The ghost/demon from ''[[Paranormal Activity]]''. It causes a lot of jump scares by stomping around, dropping pans and slamming doors, but why? None of that helps its objective of {{spoiler|kidnapping children}}. Maybe it just likes to play pranks?

** The parapsychologist/exorcist guy from the first film explains that demons feed on fear and that interacting with it only makes it stronger. By freaking everyone out and provoking them, it's making itself stronger.

 

== Literature ==

** Specifically Lovecraft's idea of horror, which means that anything alien (read: foreigners) and fish are terrifying. This adds its own veneer of creepy to modern readers.

* ''Anything'' by [[Clive Barker]]. ''Ever.''

* [[Stephen King]] loves this trope- why the hell is a dog/clown/car/laundry press/platoon of green army men toys/pair of chattering teeth trying to kill people? Why is that kid's dad {{spoiler|turning into a giant germ from drinking expired beer}}? Where did that man-eating oil slick come from? The answer: Who cares? It just happened, and it's ''scary''.

** And explaining where some of these horrors came from would probably have made them less frightening.

** In discussing his early novel ''Firestarter'', Stephen King once wrote that he was unhappy with his clumsy attempts to explain where the antagonist's pyrokinetic powers came from, and ultimately decided that the 'how and why' of his scary ideas didn't interest him as much as the scary ideas themselves.

** Most monsters from Stephen King books can just be [[Handwaved]] as having come from a different dimension. This is usually the most in-depth explanation they ever get anyway.

* ''[[Harry Potter]] and The Chamber of Secrets''. How does a giant snake living underneath a castle stay alive for over 1000 years without eating any of the students? Doesn't matter, it's still terrifying.

 

* This is second only to [[Rule of Cool]] in ''[[Doctor Who]]''.

** Many aspects and subplots of the Seventh Doctor episode "Ghost Light" are never fully explained, but the effect is so creepy you don't care... all you actually want is a sofa to hide behind.

** Well, by the time season four rolls around, now we know.

* ''[[Supernatural]]'' '''is''' this trope.

** It gets worse with the change of the Klingon Race between ''The Original Series'' and ''The Next Generation'' (or even the movies). Originally? Actors in costumes. Now? Full facial makeup required and much stronger. Handwaved in ''Deep Space Nine'' because Worf "is forbidden to discuss it"

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Playing a mortal in ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' (as distinct from an actual [[Hunter: The Vigil|hunter]]) will typically mean that encounters with the supernatural will be left unexplained and seemingly non-sensical. Supernatural characters generally have a better chance of figuring out what's going on (although there's always an exception...).

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' has a strange mixed relationship with this. On the one hand, most of the monsters defy physics and evolution entirely, and are often made far more frightening for it. On the other hand, this makes sense because many of the monsters are aliens, and often extradimensional beings that don't follow normal laws of physics.

 

== Video Games ==

* Or in Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Why did those mannequins move to block the door behind you? Almost everything else in the game had some form of explanation, except [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPP5Ja7YNas that bit]! [[Sanity Slippage]] machines that are literally everywhere. It's just a hallucination. Now, why are [[Sanity Slippage]] machines literally everywhere? [[Ancient Conspiracy]]. Why would an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] want [[Sanity Slippage]] machines literally everywhere? This trope. That's why.

* Similar to the ''[[Condemned]]'' example above, what is up with the mannequins in [[Nightmare House]]? Or the shadows in the hallway? {{spoiler|Are the zombies even real in the first place?}}. Doesn't matter, it's still damn scary.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Fear Tropes]]

[[Category:Rule of Index]]

[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]