Nightmare Fuel

[IntrusivePenDesperateSword]

We've all been there. Casually playing through a game, watching a movie, reading a book or comic, etc., when suddenly, that appears. A horrid monstrosity of a concept that'll leave you sleepless for days.

From creepily detailed descriptions of body horror, to huge, writhing, eldritch monsters, to the Name, what is your experience with nightmare fuel? Does it do good or bad to a story? Have you ever gotten actual nightmares from one?

 

[Shiri]

For awhile I was big into watching short films on youtube. I found myself in the alternate universe/timeline sort of vids and that was fun. Then I ran into one that was set in the near future and there were drugs that could cure anything. Naturally all of society and their dogs bought them up, but after so long side effects started popping up. Then they showed instances of these side effects... and I abruptly stopped watching short films. If there was anything more to that film, I didn't see it.

I don't know if I can even describe what happened in those few moments. At least not in a way that would give justice to the film.The best I can relay is that there was a guy and his skin turned red, his face elongated, his neck snapped, and he screamed into the camera. This was all in a close-up shot, by the way. I'm not usually that bothered by CG body horror, but it was done in such a way that sparked all sorts of nope within me.

I'd link it if I could find it, but I don't want to look for it. xD

 

[King]

RIGHT. So I'm no stranger to 2AM horror movies and hours of /nosleep on reddit, so I love to get spooked. It's made me immune to things like I ain't spooked easily. BUT The movie 'As above so below' fucking FUCKED me up. It's about a group of people going into the Paris Catacombs and basically descending into hell.

It's actual nightmare fuel because it's so so so strange, not really gory or jumpscary, just weird,

This scene fucked me up lmao. The movie got me praying.

ALSO there was this one story on /nosleep called 'All Fours' where a kid finds his dog walking around on his hind legs in the dark. I don't know why but the image it put in my head... Definitely fuel. lmao.

All fours • /r/nosleep

 

[SacredWarrior]

I had a nightmare about FNAF and Freddy Krueger :( Yes it was in the same damn dream! I'm running away from Krueger and when I finally think I get away, this pops up in front of me and kills me!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah ya'll have fun with that shit!

 

[Dervish]

I'm reasonably sure that nothing on this earth is more terrifying than the new Edmonton Oilers' mascot.

That's not a mascot, that's a serial killer Animorph gone horribly awry.

 

[OnI6470]

This S.O.B gave me a lot of nightmares the first time I played... good times

 

[Greenie]

I'm reasonably sure that nothing on this earth is more terrifying than the new Edmonton Oilers' mascot.

That's not a mascot, that's a serial killer Animorph gone horribly awry.

It's gonna scare them into actually winning, har har. :'D

 

[Greenie]

Manga has a whole lot of creepy stuff in its horror genre, and they do a super good job of just shoving it at you at the right time.

An example would be Uzumaki. How scary can a spiral be, right? Heh. I'd post a pic but I'm still at work.

 

[Archwar]

If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up the XCOM tv tropes nightmare fuel. You'll understand the horror.

 

[Dipper]

Nemesis from RE3 has haunted my nightmares for years. He's not even that freaky visually, but... damn. He won't stop coming, no matter what you do.

An enemy that just keeps coming, no matter what you do.

Something about that gets to me. Or, it did. I'm not a kid anymore, but the anticipation drives me nuts.

 

[Xena Jade]

I've seen the one about the paris catacombs, or well brief scenes from it. Usually horror movie concepts really just make me sigh or roll my eyes, but that one seemed pretty interesting actually! It's unnerving just to watch in a tiny post. They're also idiots for looking at strange people in catacombs *shakes head*

I've got a story, where an RTS videogame scared me. More than anything I've ever seen or experienced since. A real time strategy game. I doubt it scares anyone else, too. =|

Spoiler

So I'm playing a video game on a disk that one of my uncles gave me. It had a ton of old video games written onto it, and Homeworld Cataclysm was put on one all by itself since it was newer than most of the older games. I was also like 12 or something, so I had NO idea what Homeworld Cataclysm was or what to expect, nor did I think to like google anything about it. So I was going in completely blind. The game seemed really great and everything. Political intrigue stuff.

Spoiler

Then that mission happens 4 missions in. And I'm like, silently watching it. Like "Um...?????" The mission has you go send your fleet to investigate the module that you ejected. So I did that, and then the thing shoots a red beam that infects all your ships and they have them scream again. And then this really distorted voice goes "WE LIVE"

If I remember correctly I ended up pushing away from my desk with enough force that my chair ended up upside-down, which scared me even more, which caused me to like try to stay on the chair while it's upside-down being petrified. ;n;

I DIDN'T EXPECT THAT PLZ GAME JUST LET ME SHOOT NORMAL SPESSHIPS WITH SPESSHIPS

 

[Brovo]

Meanwhile, written on the interior of the skyranger in blood: Never night terror missions... Never night terror missions... Never night terror missions...

 

[Havoc]

RIGHT. So I'm no stranger to 2AM horror movies and hours of /nosleep on reddit, so I love to get spooked. It's made me immune to things like I ain't spooked easily. BUT The movie 'As above so below' fucking FUCKED me up. It's about a group of people going into the Paris Catacombs and basically descending into hell.

It's actual nightmare fuel because it's so so so strange, not really gory or jumpscary, just weird,

This scene fucked me up lmao. The movie got me praying.

ALSO there was this one story on /nosleep called 'All Fours' where a kid finds his dog walking around on his hind legs in the dark. I don't know why but the image it put in my head... Definitely fuel. lmao.

All fours • /r/nosleep

Those sounds combined with the woman looking at the camera gave me a chill.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

SCP-096 from SCP Containment Breach and the SCP Wiki.

Seriously, the very concept of a creature like this terrifies me to no end and I'm not even entirely sure why. BTW I've essentially killed us all by posting this picture here, sorry about that.

 

[Greenie]

Manga has a whole lot of creepy stuff in its horror genre, and they do a super good job of just shoving it at you at the right time.

An example would be Uzumaki. How scary can a spiral be, right? Heh. I'd post a pic but I'm still at work.

So I finally had times to find the picture that freaked me first from the Uzumaki manga. It was nightmare inducing.

THIS

Of course, there was loads more after but yeah... this made me not read it for a few days.

 

[Shiri]

So I finally had times to find the picture that freaked me first from the Uzumaki manga. It was nightmare inducing.

Of course, there was loads more after but yeah... this made me not read it for a few days.

I remember seeing a screenshot of the live-action movie in Newtype forever ago. I still have to poke it as a movie or manga.

 

[Greenie]

I remember seeing a screenshot of the live-action movie in Newtype forever ago. I still have to poke it as a movie or manga.

I only watched a teeny bit of the movie, to be honest. It didn't catch me like the manga did.

Plus ^_^' I was a huge fan of the main protagonists pairing in the manga, an OTP of sorts. The movie seemed to have done a 180 flip on his character. Me no gusta. >_<

 

[Thornapple]

SCP-096 from SCP Containment Breach and the SCP Wiki.

Seriously, the very concept of a creature like this terrifies me to no end and I'm not even entirely sure why. BTW I've essentially killed us all by posting this picture here, sorry about that.

Holy balls I hate that things so much. There was a glitch where he wouldn't kill you once he found you, he'd just keep following you and screaming and it made me almost crap my pants TT TT

 

[Archwar]

Meanwhile, written on the interior of the skyranger in blood: Never night terror missions... Never night terror missions... Never night terror missions...