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Danny Phantom: Stranded / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The Monster Of Specter Island is an In-Universe example. It's described as being a cross between a bear and a gorilla and is very vicious and territorial. It's first reaction is to chase Danny and Star across the island and attack them. While Danny could easily handle a ghost like it with his powers, he was still suffering the effects of the anti-ghost algae that rendered him without his powers. So, he and Star had to rely on each other in order to survive. While they manage to survive the experience, it is rather terrifying from Star's point of view.
- After getting trapped inside the school by accident, Danny and Star's attempts to get out and contact help fall flat. At first, it's believed to be coincidence and misfortune, until Danny realizes that someone is deliberately trying to sabotage them. In other words, they are trapped at school at night, their families have no idea where they are and they are being stalked by someone with malicious intent.
- From Star's point of view, getting lost in the Ghost Zone counts.
- Sam and Star get stuck together at Camp Skull and Crossbones, an abandoned campsite. As if that is not bad enough, there is something lurking on the campgrounds, stalking them. ||Turns out it was Wulf, who was trying to
*help* them but they panicked and assumed the worse||. It's still rather unnerving in hindsight.
- Dani's entire situation about being stalked and chased by an elusive ghost hunting robot is definitely worth mentioning. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DannyPhantomStranded |
Cyberpunk 2077 / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
As an M-Rated Techno Dystopia,
*Cyberpunk 2077* has tons of Nightmare Fuel. Let's just say Night City wasn't voted "the worst place to live in America" for nothing.
For moments related to
*Cyberpunk: Edgerunners*, go here. **Unmarked spoilers below!**
- The varying degrees of Body Horror on show in the E3 2018 trailer, from the girl with the lower half of her face removed◊ to the airline passenger shooting flames from his eyes and mouth, can be hard to look at.
- The general savagery and anarchy of Night City - or even
*most* cities from this universe - would also be horrific to someone from our time. If you don't have enough money for the police or Trauma Team, you're screwed, there's no social security net, and it's ruled by criminals and *horribly* corrupt corporations. Even if you're a high powered Corpo, all it takes is one mistake for your entire life to be ripped apart, your money and housing confiscated and all your implants disabled.
- The gameplay reveal video shows more facets of life in Night City that are not for the faint of heart, from gangs who subject themselves to Body Horror in an attempt to become more machine than man to heavily-armed paramedics who will just as soon shoot you as treat you.
- Royce, the leader of the Cyber-Psychos encountered in the gameplay reveal, is a prime example of the Facial Horror the Maelstrom gang exhibits. Everything of his face from his nose up just
*isn't there*, and is replaced with a metal divot with an array of mechanical eyes that makes him look like a cross between a human and a Sentinel. That *had* to have required removal of part of his frontal lobe, which explains his Hair-Trigger Temper if you read up on effects of damage to that portion of the brain.
- The Scavenger Gang at the very start of the demo is an implant harvesting gang that has no care whatsoever for the fact that they are brutally mutilating and killing people just to harvest their cyber implants. The hideout that Jackie and V raid for a specific person is littered with corpses that were taken apart and left mutilated. The sheer brutality and the fact that Jackie and V don't seem phased by it all speaks volumes about the brutality of the setting as a whole. Implant harvesting gangs are a regular occurrence.
- One of the Police Scanner missions is for an Assault in Progress at what looks like a rave where Scavs are harvesting cyberware from the attendees. Digging through the area will find evidence that the Scavs
*set up the rave themselves* and sent a bunch of messages to the teenage children of a bunch of wealthy families to lure them there so that they could be killed and harvested for their expensive implants.
- Perhaps more unnerving is the fact that despite how terrible it is, how easily one can encounter death, Night City is still considered the city everyone wants to live. Why? One simple reason: Opportunity. If you want to make it big, you come to Night City, but you do so with the understanding that you'll either make it big or literally die trying. If you want to live a (relatively) longer, safer life where you die of old age, you stay the hell away.
- The Old Net. Fearing that the Net would have been used to solidify corporate rule even tighter than it came to manifest, Rache Bartmoss released the DataKrash virus and essentially destroyed the globalized Net as it once was. While a few sections were able to be salvaged, the Old Net quickly became a digital maelstrom of rogue AIs and other virtual threats. Accessing the Old Net is dangerous and overwhelming enough that it can result in madness or outright cyberpsychosis for the unprepared, even without the AIs getting involved.
- Between the Old Net and its localized replacements stands the Blackwall, a digital barrier deployed by the international cybersecurity agency NetWatch to keep the self-aware (and potentially malicious) AIs at bay. There are a few instances in the game of people managing to breach the Blackwall, and implications that some AIs are able to breach it in return. Either way, it's clear that the Blackwall is simply not as effective as claimed, and that the world is much more susceptible to the threats in the Old Net than it believes.
- It's also not helped by one important revelation: ||the Blackwall itself is an AI. While it is considered a stopgap solution by NetWatch, and is at least trying to work as intended, there is still every possibility that it will attempt to turn on humanity like some of its Old Net counterparts.||
- There's also brief mention of netrunners being caught on the wrong side of the Blackwall when it first came online, trapping them in the Old Net with no way to safely jack out or survive in cyberspace indefinitely. NetWatch appears to have done this deliberately, too, hoping to get rid of a few troublemaking hackers even if it meant subjecting them to a horrific death.
- You get to witness your own cybernetic implants being installed. While Gory Discretion Shot is used to hide the worst of it, getting a new ocular implant still entails watching as the Ripperdoc removes your eye before seeing a first-person perspective of the prosthesis being placed into your skull.
- The E3 2019 trailer gets quite violent near the end, with V slicing up one mook with arm-blades after nearly being choked to death, then getting hacked by another, causing said arm-blades to malfunction and his vision to distort.
- Our first glimpse at Adam Smasher. In the original tabletop, his design was something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. His new design on the other hand is the stuff of nightmares.
**Adam Smasher:** You look like a cut of *fuckable* meat. *Are you?*
- When Yorinobu and Smasher enter the room with a hidden V and Jackie, Smasher positions himself to look directly at them. If you have the Threat Detector implant, it reveals that he
*knows* they're there but refuses to say anything, because to him it would be more fun for them sweat in fear and try to make a run for it.
- In the flashback segment
*Love Like Fire*, we get a glimpse of just why Smasher is The Dreaded of the *Cyberpunk* universe. The segment gets off to an exciting start, with Johnny addressing his fans for the last time before embarking on an action-packed assault on Arasaka Tower. You mow down goons with a chopper-mounted grenade launcher, before switching to an overpowered pistol with stylized reload animations once you're on the ground. The mission goes well as you plant the bomb and upload a message-carrying virus to the Arasaka mainframe, easily overcoming any resistance... up until Adam Smasher arrives. He doesn't even flinch as Johnny fires upon him, shrugging off rounds that could kill a normal man in a single shot. While Johnny initially manages to flee back to the helicopter, Smasher catches up and shoots it down. He then confronts Johnny, showing no hesitation to shoot off his arm. **Adam Smasher**: Told you, Johnny boy. Told you I'd end you some day.
-
*Love Like Fire* also highlights just how nightmarish the aftermath of the Arasaka Tower raid was. There's a brief section where Johnny is being stretchered out into a waiting van, all while sirens blare, panicked screams fill the plaza, and flames consume the building's upper floors. The next scene has Johnny being interrogated in a facility outside Night City, with his interrogators demanding to know how he acquired fissile material. Through a window behind them, you can see a mushroom cloud rising up over the city. It's a harrowing reminder that for all his motivations to fight Arasaka, Johnny still committed an act of nuclear terrorism.
- The introductory tutorial to the "Braindance" mechanic is about figuring out what happens during one such record. A robber intends to record the robbery to be sold on the Braindance market, but it goes wrong resulting in his death. After manipulating the recording V finds out that the robber was shot in the head & killed instantly by his gang-mate in a setup so he could make more money by having a 'flatline' recording of a person dying. V
*feels the sensation of a swift death*, and has to barely stomach it down due to how spontaneous and unexpected it was.
- One for the Braindance mechanic itself, but the device is based around a real life diagnostic machine used to intentionally trigger seizures in a safe environment.
note : In fact, it replicated it too well, and after an epileptic reviewer put out a PSA CD Projekt Red immediately apologised, and patched out the problematic effect This implies that the method of getting your character into these records is via causing seizures.
- The illegal braindance that V buys from the dealer in "Disasterpiece" is the closest to the video game equivalent of a
*snuff film*. The whole braindance is from the viewpoint of an unseen person being scavenged for parts. The braindance thankfully ends before it gets too graphic, leading to a horrifying variant of Nothing Is Scarier, but the intense atmosphere and sheer viciousness, as well as the screams of sheer agony from the man on the braindance make for something truly disturbing. It gets more horrifying though when you use the braindance editor, where the sound layer reveals that the room was set up to muffle the screams of the poor guy so nobody could hear, and the visual layer reveals that this guy was a netrunner and that the Scavs used some kind of machine to *burn him alive*. Worse? The fact that V had to buy this braindance, along with the names of several other of his available braindances, show that humanity has gotten so horrifically bad in the year 2077 that there is a market for braindance snuff films.
- One gig has you retrieve the raw braindance of the murder of a preacher's child to find clues about the murderer. If you question the editors, it's clear they deal with way too many child murder BDs to point you to the exact one you're looking for and you just grab them all.
- If you look at the in-game 'net on some computers, you can find a website called The Shuttle Dock that's devoted to some truly depraved pornographic braindances. It
*starts* with snuff on the "Red Room" page, complete with one where the description simply says that it's illegal in the NUSA and they'll only provide the details upon deposit. There's a page for "Hard Candy", in real life a known search term for child pornography, and the page offers more snuff, including a braindance of the military carrying out war crimes in a village. And one braindance on offer apparently features somebody who got a Vagina Dentata implant.
- One questline lets you create a braindance of a convicted murderer being literally crucified.
*For public consumption*.
- Jotaro Shobo, the guy you take on in the gig "Monster Hunt", specializes in truly horrific snuff BDs, involving him raping and torturing joytoys to death, and looking upon his computer will reveal him to be fiendishly creative in coming up with "scenarios" for the viewing pleasure of the likeminded scumbags he sells them to. It's little wonder that the Mox has put a hit out on him, and should you take him alive and take him to the fixer, she'll turn him over to the Mox themselves, and one can safely assume that they will not be merciful with him. In addition to this line of work, Jotaro is also a vicious pimp who has connections to human traffickers, Scavs, and even
*border guards*, who will happily send clanless nomads and other vulnerable people to him that they deem won't be missed.
- Medical technology has advanced to the point of being able to keep someone alive with no arms, legs, eyes or mouth. Where have we seen this before?
- After the Arasaka heist goes wrong, V is shot in the head and left for dead in a landfill. Even when they're pulled out, the biochip that's now stuck in their head is slowly erasing their personality, "killing" them in the process. Combined with the fact that V just lost their best friend, it's no surprise that they end up a broken mess when they're finally brought home from Viktor's clinic.
-
*Sacrum Profanum/Losing My Religion* details the special kind of horror the Maelstrom frequently inflict on their victims: kidnapping them then mutilating their bodies, installing experimental cyberware, or leaving it half-finished just for kicks. The monk you find pleading for his brother's life is wailing about how his body has been defiled and V reacts in horror at the unfinished state of his new robotic arm, half-attached and barely functional. During Regina Joness Cyberpsycho hunt quests, you can find a Valentino that suffered a similar fate and went mad from the process note : though take him out non-lethally and she expresses hope he can still live normally because of his relative youth and the recency of his procedure. If this sounds familiar to you, Maelstrom must have taken the idea from Black Ghost and run with it on their victims.
- Regina Joness
*Cyberpsycho* hunt quests really emphasize the sort of desperation and horror that cyberware can bring. Even the most unlikely, inexplicable, and shockingly mundane reasons can set someone into a murderous rampage, much more systemic abuse by corporations, trauma, and wealth inequality.
-
*Seaside Cafe* takes the cake as one of the strangest, saddest ones. Regina informs you of gunshots at a popular seaside cafe, currently reserved for a bougie private event. By the time you arrive there, there's a crew of onlookers recording the scene of the crime and your target, where security and a newly-wedded couple lay dead and ripped apart. There's one person crouching and weeping, "She's lost her mind!" Suicidally curious onlookers, you might think? Think again: it's a set for a post-collapse soap opera complete with the ridiculously over-the-top and unbelievable twin-switch revenge plot. The target was put into a medically-induced coma to install her new cyberware, woke up too soon, and couldn't distinguish reality from the script, murdering her "sister" (co-star), the director, a cameraman, and two security guards in a murderous rage. If you take her in alive, Regina worries what will happen when she realizes the massacre wasn't fake blood and body doubles...
-
*Bloody Ritual* is as nightmarish as the name implies. While most of the Cyberpsycho missions are set in fairly mundane surroundings, this one takes place in an alley clearly prepared for some sort of dark ritual. Amidst the arranged lights, painted ground and bloody remains of a sacrifice are the usual bodies, this time in the form of Maelstrom gangsters. One of them is still clinging to life as you approach, muttering something about "Lilith" as you approach before dying. A shard on his body states they were offering a live sacrifice to "the abyss", seemingly referring to the Old Net. A cyberpsycho with glowing red eyes then emerges from a freezer, which has been positioned in the middle of the ritual site like an altar. On her body is another shard, implying that the ritual was intended to bargain with AIs in the Old Net, offering a blood sacrifice in exchange for being reborn in digital form. The experience of jacking into the Old Net seems to have been what drove her to cyberpsychosis, but there's also the possibility that an AI may have been involved. ||Lilith is alluded to a couple of other times in the game, implying Maelstrom may have been onto something.||
- What are the final findings of the research group Regina was working with? No single cause, but a collection of botched or experimental cyberware installs, substance abuse, and a host of different kinds of psychological trauma which can be traced to the oppressive Crapsack World they live in, all exacerbated by the patients having been fitted with combat-grade cyberware that is way too pervasive in a civilian population.
- One gig called
*Eye for an Eye* from Padre tasks V with eliminating a corporate executive who got away with killing a sixteen-year-old girl in a hit and run accident. Why did she get away with it, despite the police knowing she did it? *Because her car insurance covers vehicular manslaughter*. That's right, in the world of Cyberpunk, life is so cheap and society so thoroughly messed up, that wealthy people can literally pay to be let off the hook for running someone over with no consequences other than a higher insurance premium. note : Bonus points for this imitating Real Life: China's laws against vehicular manslaughter are outright dystopian; kill someone with a car and pay a single manslaughter fee, but cripple someone with a car and they live, and you have to pay for their medical expenses for the rest of your life. Gee, the ratio of vehicular deaths to injuries in China is higher than the rest of the world... The woman V is sent to kill isn't even fazed once she learns why V is there, feeling absolutely no guilt or remorse. Believing wholeheartedly that she did nothing wrong since her insurance covered it, and even offers to bribe V to let her live. **V**: Vehicular Manslaughter Insurance... what a world.
- Similarly, Biotechnica's lead scientist is a textbook sociopath who uses nomads as guinea pigs and cries crocodile tears to save her own skin. One of the Cyberpsycho collection jobs is in fact one of her victims, and a few other crime-in-progress hotspots are hired corpo-sec goons silencing media folks.
- River's questline involves finding the lair of an insane cult leader, who has been preying on kids through a help website and kidnapping them for his sick fantasies. Through the technology of braindancing, we get to see how horrible his childhood was as an indirect result of corporate exploitation and the resulting malicious insanity that he developed. He used his victims as literal cattle in his factory farm, stuffing them with the same toxic chemicals that his family had to inject in their cows.
- Did we mention that he didn't learn how to be a cult leader on his own? You find shards in his house that give instructions on how to take abusive control in a relationship. In the corporate future,
*there are books for sale on how to manipulate and abuse others and get away with it*.
- One other particularly disturbing detail is that said Serial Killer created a honeypot site called 'Drugs Are Bad' that serves as a cult-like grooming/recruitment centre for his victims. It also describes itself as Night City's only non-profit organisation for helping drug-addicted teenagers, which, given the Wretched Hive that we're talking about here, is distressingly likely to be true.
- We also discover that River watched a drug addict murder his parents, and tried to force him to kill his mother.
- The Peralez quest-chain is Paranoia Fuel incarnate. Imagine you're a wealthy family into politics, trying to run Night City's first totally clean campaign for years. Corpos are constantly trying to enter into "mutually beneficial" arrangements, your crooked opponent is trying to cover up the death of the previous mayor, and you've just recently suffered a mysterious break-in where you remember shooting the intruder but then... nothing. You just pass out and don't remember a thing. As V continues to investigate the Peralez family, you find things like their security company leaving a massive spy room in their house and they've been watched in their own homes for months, maybe even
*years*, a surveillance van that has been watching over them, and disturbing logs about changes in behavior in ALPHA—the Peralez family. In culminates in you learning the horrifying truth that technology has advanced so far that you can remotely gaslight and brainwash someone into false memories, forgetting events, and being unable to trust their own eyes or their loved ones. The saddest part is how it ends: you get disturbing, panicked messages from the couple and then are suddenly blocked from messaging it again and then there's their epilogue videos. Agree to reveal the truth to Jefferson, and in the epilogue he calls V in a panic claiming that his wife, Elizabeth, was in with "them" and is planning to drug him; play it safe and hide the truth from him, and he talks about how "they" have changed him again and Elizabeth was the one to notice.
- It really hammers in just how wretched Night City is. If it's an urban rumor that's too bleak and horrifying to be true? It's true.
- Your final meeting with Jeff has the conspiracy directly hack into your brain to deliver a warning before he shows up, and the mysterious Mr. Blue Eyes then proceeds to watch over your entire conversation from a nearby balcony. One particularly disturbing little detail is that he's flagged as a friendly NPC, meaning that V will automatically lower their gun if they try to aim down the sights at him - the implication is that they used the hack to make you physically incapable of harming their agents. All your power, all your cunning, and these entities - whoever they are - make it clear that they can effortlessly bring you under their control just like they did the Peralezes.
- The lack of a resolution to the quest actually makes it more unnerving because literally nothing was solved. The most we get is a noticeably unnerved V and Silverhand briefly talking about what it was all about. Johnny speculates that this was all the work of a Super AI while V half-jokingly posits that it could've been aliens. There's a silent agreement between the two that one thing is certain: Whatever's going on, there is a force operating in Night City more powerful than any gang or corporation, that only a small handful of people are even vaguely aware of. And it
**does not** like to be noticed.
- Evelyn Parker's fate is peak nightmare fuel not because we see it, but because of what we hear from it. After the botched heist, she had to resort to prostitution in order to hide herself, had her brain damaged by Voodoo Boyz and was further abused by Fingers. Eventually, she was later exploited and sold to a group of scavs who film snuff braindances. As mentioned above, despite not seeing what really happened to her, you know her experience was traumatic and nightmare-inducing when Evelyn later drives herself to suicide due to PTSD.
- Hell, the VDB cyberattack on her during one of her client sessions is nightmarish enough to stand on its own: Out of nowhere she just starts screaming in pain, clutching her head and writhing as her confused and terrified client looks on. She eventually tries to run for the door, but only makes it halfway before she falls, then she begins
*crawling* as if somehow leaving the room will make it stop. Instead, the attack jolts her to her feet, and she *slams* into the wall, still screaming, before she finally collapses into a semi (if at all) conscious heap, still convulsing on the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is what happens when the Voodoo Boyz nuke your brain.
- Speaking of Maelstrom's excessive use of cyberware for their bodies, especially their faces, expect peak nightmare fuel when their cyberware that's implanted on their face are removed. For instance, you can see that one of the gang members have it's face shoved deep inside except one's lower jaw. That is a certified Squick moment right there.
- The "suicide" and "cyberpsycho" quickhacks. Imagine being compelled to take your weapon and kill yourself with it, without being able to resist. Or being forced into a berserker rage, without knowing friend from foe.
- At the beginning of Act II, after getting the bad news that the Relic is going to kill them, V returns home to sleep, only to wake up that night to Johnny Silverhand's digital ghost standing in their room demanding smokes. As if having the ghost of a famous rockerboy/infamous terrorist living in your head isn't bad enough, the ghost then
*attacks* you, and for a few moments, seems to take control of your body. The first thing he does? Try to rip the Relic out, even though it would kill you both! And when that doesn't work, bashing your head against a window! When you try to take the Omega-blockers to quell him, Johnny makes you drop them, dares you to commit suicide, vows to take control of your body, and taunts you all the while.
- Starting Act II, there's a random chance that while looking in a mirror, V will see Johnny's reflection instead of their own. On top of the fact that this shows that V's condition has progressed to the point where their brain is beginning to believe they
*are* Johnny on a subconscious level, Johnny doesn't even offer any of his usual smarmy commentary and instead *stares directly at you* in a way that manages to be be genuinely unsettling.
- One particular side quest starts somewhat inconspicuously, with V being hired to meet with someone and help him take out some guy who murdered his wife. As you progress in it, you find out that this man you were hired to kill has been taken out of prison under the condition he acts in a braindance reenactment of the Passion of Jesus; the catch? The crucifixion is
*real.* You eventually talk to him and get to know him better, and learn that he wants to go through something this horrific because he genuinely regrets all he's done and believes that by dying like this, he can redeem himself and serve as a message of sacrifice to the rest of the world. V is understandably unsettled by this and you can try to have them talk him out of it, but he decides to do it anyway. In the last quest of this storyline, just before he begins filming the braindance, he asks to see V and confesses to them that he's afraid, and asks if you'll stay with him till the end; that roughly translates into *being the one who nails him to the cross.* This already presents you with a dilemma (do you do something horrifically cruel and inhumane to this man as a last wish from the only one he could call a friend, or do you refuse to do something so monstrous, and deny him even that?), but should you agree to it, the game makes you manually nail him to the cross with button prompts, each and every strike of the hammer, as you listen to his agony. The whole thing is so fucked up even the braindance producer is visibly horrified by it and honestly wants you to get it over with as fast as possible, and Johnny uncharacteristically hangs back and refuses to utter a single word during or after it.
- V is a pretty scary individual all on their own. No matter what Lifepath they take, they are a ruthless, manipulative, heavily armed and augmented mercenary that has a
*really* short fuse and can easily flip out if they can't be bothered to act civil in a tense situation. And having the digital ghost of famous Rockerboy Johnny Silverhand in their head, the same Rockerboy that was responsible for blowing up half of Night City with a portable nuke and killing more than half-a-million people either influencing their actions or downright trying to possess them, is not doing *anyone* any favors.
- While there is some catharsis in slaughtering a group of gangoons or corpo assassins just as they thought they finished their dirty work, thinking of it from said gangoons/corpo perspectives can make them seem outright
*terrifying*. Imagine you just finished mopping up some gonk who thought they could get the better of you. You're expecting a "job well done" from your boss...and then out of nowhere, a few of your buddies suddenly get a shock to the system. * : Short Circuit Quickhack Another simply falls unconscious, * : System Reset Quickhack and another literally just *explodes.* * : Detonate Grenade Quickhack You look to your last choom, hoping the two of you can figure out what scopmuncher is doing this...and he just looks at you in *sheer terror* as he draws his pistol and *blows his own brains out* in front of you. * : Suicide Quickhack And then you see her as her active camouflage * : Optical Camo Cyberware disengages, and she stands from her crouch as a pair of *massive,* razor-sharp blades extend from her forearms * : Mantis Blades Cyberware and charges you. You try to bring your weapon to bear, but you cannot move. * : Cyberware Malfunction Quickhack Is it another hack? Or are you just *that* scared? Either way, the last thing you see is the murder in her eyes as she chops your head clean off your shoulders. And this could be V in the endgame.
- High-level Sandevistans are easily cause for nightmares themselves, especially when paired with Monowire, which can slice apart entire groups in one go, or a lethal katana. Oftentimes, by the time you notice your chooms are getting slashed apart, it's far too late, as you're probably right in the middle of getting slashed apart yourself, as V is moving far too quickly for all but those on speedware themselves to even stand up to.
- On that note, V's Relic malfunction attacks can be pretty nightmarish for those who have suffered through severe medical issues such as a heart attack or seizure. At the most
*mild,* V will suddenly cough up blood and experience severe glitch-like auditory and visual hallucinations, and at the worst they will literally seize up and pass out, and, in-universe, at least, these attacks come *completely without warning,* the only indication being the beginning of the hallucinations. At times during the attacks, you can hear V trying to encourage themselves to *breathe,* and the auditory hallucinations sometimes become so bad it sounds like some sort of alarm-like digital *screaming* than mere glitches.
- Dubai: Sand and Death sheds more light on the aftermath of the Mideast Meltdown. The city of Old Dubai was hit with
*five* thermonuclear bombs, which left most of the region as plains of glass and radioactive sand. Even eight decades after the nuclear exchange, survivors live a brutal and difficult life where few dare going outside without a hazmat suit, any dwellings need to be surrounded by windowless concrete bunkers at least 13 feet thick, and life expectancy is only thirty years. Yet people still come, seeing it as an asylum from corporate interference.
- If you choose to send Jackie's body to Viktor, you find out later from Takemura that it was stolen by Arasaka and subjected to Soulkiller for "questioning". While that's bad enough by itself you see the results of it later in both the "Devil" ending path and the others after connecting with Mikoshi... Came Back Wrong doesn't even
*begin* to describe it. He's blissfully unaware of everything (even his own death) and only able to repeat a few words and phrases that he's spoken to V before, but if you ask him about his death during the rooftop scene he gets up from his chair, leans against the edge of the roof and sighs saying that "Misty knows, Misty always knows." implying that for a (very) brief moment he's coherent and directly trying to respond to V. And after that he goes right back to doling out canned responses like before, meaning that he's not conscious in any way like Alt, Johnny, etc... due to it being heavily implied that he's severely degraded because he was dead for too long before Soulkiller was used. Jackie is *gone*, and his engram is little more than just a recording.
- The Devil ending is mostly an exercise in ever-building misery as you wonder just what the hell you sold your soul for, but it has one more dose of nightmares in it for you: during the 'solve the cube' tests that you continually, infuriatingly, can't ever seem to get right, there is one time where you almost solve it, but the last turn won't take for some reason. So you twist, and twist, and pull until the thing breaks in half in your hands, and the insides are
*lined with the Devil Tarot face while ungodly screeching blares into your ears*. The relic is gone from your brain. *Where the (perhaps literal) hell does this come from?!*
- 107.3 Morro Rock Radio's host Maximum Mike (voiced by Mike Pondsmith) often talks about various mysteries, rumors and conspiracy theories of the
*Cyberpunk* world. True or not, some of them are genuinely creepy.
- There are a few references in the game to the city of Busan in Korea, the population of which was killed off by a biological weapon during the Fourth Corporate War. However, the city was highly automated, and rumors persist that robots are still maintaining the city 50 years later. That alone is a creepy enough image, but it goes further. Mike claims that apartment buildings in Busan have been torn down by the robots and replaced with warehouses, implying that they've evolved beyond maintaining the city to reshaping it for their own mysterious ends.
- In the Badlands outside Night City, a Nomad came across a group that had seemingly been torn apart by wild animals... in a setting where most wildlife has died off, especially large predators. Mike compares the account to one he received from a mercenary friend of his who was sent to Romania to search for a corpo's missing relative. The merc's group camped in an old village, and were kept up all night by howls out in the woods. They initially dismissed it as wild dogs until shortly before dawn, when they were attacked by
*werewolves*. Mike believes that the creatures originated from a secret corporate lab, likely created by Biotechnica. The same Biotechnica that just so happens to have a major presence in the Badlands. The idea of designer lifeforms going amok is far from the most audacious occurrence in the *Cyberpunk* setting, meaning that the accounts may not be as absurd as they seem. ||Especially when Biotechnica's in-game website openly announces that it has successfully spliced human brain cells into wolf embryos.||
- It's common knowledge that NetWatch maintains the Blackwall, a digital barrier protecting the world from the rogue AIs on the Old Net. However, a netrunner associate of Mike's claims that NetWatch originated from the Vatican. This seems like an odd claim, but the netrunner has apparently heard the Blackwall singing in Aramaic. Said netrunner has outright come to believe that the Old Net is Hell incarnate, and that referring to the AIs that infest it as daemons is not as metaphorical as it seems.
- A different segment talks about possible explanations for cyberpsychosis. This includes some comparatively grounded conspiracy theories, such as cyberware manufacturers deliberately allowing a certain failure rate in their products, resulting in a steady occurrence of cyberpsychosis-induced violence that drives sales of defensive cyberware. However, Mike also raises the possibility of digital madness leaking out from beyond the Blackwall, possibly including AIs reaching out deliberately. While this may seem like another absurd claim, it is actually implied to have been the case (or at least a possibility) with one of the cyberpsychos that V fights, who was conducting a ritual trying to reach one of the AIs. The AI's name being Lilith only furthers the Demonic Possession parallels building on from the aforementioned Hell comparison.
- In the Official Trailer for the
*Phantom Liberty* expansion, V suffers another attack from the Relic, only this one is apparently far worse than previous ones in that *Johnny* is being affected as well, implying the Relic is dangerously close to killing them both. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Cyberpunk2077 |
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Junko, however, has the last laugh. While underneath Izuru's heel, she delivers a chilling Hannibal Lecture about the despair that causes the hitherto unemotional Izuru to react with subtle surprise. **Junko**: Aww! You really don't get it. Guess when it comes to "cold, hard reasoning," not all roads lead to Rome. You see, despair is the great unknown. A girl can only be this smart for so long before anomie sets in; that's the curse of being bright. Everyone goes on and on about "hope," but what they *really* mean is "status **quo!**" *Ah*, but despair is a big old mystery box! There's nothing like it to get the blood pumping, the synapses firing, *the senses tingling!* It straight up shatters the status quo and paves the way for chaos! Think about itwhen a single assassin's bullet can plunge humanity into world war, *none* of us are as far from the abyss as we'd like to tell ourselves! Embrace that simple fact, and voilà! You're in for the ride of your life! Look at me; every nerve ending is on eleven! * * Come on, pumpkin pie! Some part of you has to understand. They call you the "world's hope," Izuru Kamakura, and who am I to say you're not the saviour? Therein lies the rubhope only gets us as far as what we **Despair** did that! *think* we want. Safety, tranquility, *boredom*. Come on! Nirvana looks great on paper, but for someone with your intelligence... it's more like purgatory. You're better than *that!* | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool |
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Not all Monokumas have to be cute.
- Two examples
*in the first 20 minutes*.
- The Monokuma attack. Considering the comically demented Monokuma everyone is familiar with, it is
*very* jarring to watch these Monokumas—silent, murderous robots who massacre people with explicit gore.
- What's more, there's the implication that
*this* is what Monokuma would be doing to the victims of his Killing Games if he wasn't bound by the school rules. If he decided to, he could have *slaughtered* the DR1 cast with barely any effort.
- The Warriors of Hope's broadcast. What they're saying is bad enough, but the way they treat
*a dead man's corpse* like a children's toy is incredibly frightening.
- The Monokuma Kids period, with creepy helmets, identical appearances and the fact that they never speak. They also constantly have children's tune accompanying them when they appear.
- "Let's Play With Monokuma," the Ironic Nursery Rhyme the Monokuma Kids sing is creepy even if you don't understand Japanese and know that the lyrics are about how they'll murder all the adults, with lyrics like "Can we make a mountain with a thousand corpses?" and "Set fire to a corpse and it becomes a campfire. Wow, so pretty!" The fact that it's sung by
*an actual children's choir* makes it even worse. It's especially shocking when you hear it out of nowhere in the dark hallways in Towa Hills, with teeth from Kotoko's denture launcher everywhere.
- It's revealed late in the game on that most of the kids wearing helmets are actually being brainwashed. Think about the implications of that.
- Monaca, period. While at first glance she's the wheelchair bound Nice Girl of the group that Nagisa has a crush on, she's implied to be from the very beginning what she really is, an amoral Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who will do anything in her pursuits. Nothing is too bad for her, whether it be triggering Utsugi's rape trauma or inferring that she'll grant Nagisa sexual favors if he pleases her. And by the end she's become the full fledged successor to Junko Enoshima. One just has to imagine what everything will be like now...
- Junk Monokuma, pictured. It's a defective unit with elongated, mangled limbs and a disturbingly human-looking eye. If
*that* weren't enough, it's also covered in blood, and not the same pink blood used throughout the series.
- Getting a Game Over sequence in general since you get Swallowed Whole by the Monokuma unit
- Masaru Daimon and Jatarou Kemuri getting ripped apart by a mob of people in Monokuma helmets after losing their respective fights against Komaru - all that remains of the two are Masaru's headphones and Jatarou's mask. Thankfully, the credits revealed that they both survived.
- Kotoko is only spared from this fate by Jack's intervention.
- Masaru shows off just how twisted the Warriors of Hope are when he reveals a
*giant mound of corpses* in his "Killesseum", then brags about how they're the "demons" he killed. "It's worth one trillion brazillion points!"
- Jatarou's "masterpiece" shown in Chapter 2, full stop. It starts out innocently if not a bit eerie with a bunch of adults dancing around a giant Monokuma, but reaches full nightmare fuel when it's shown that the adults are really blood-smeared corpses screwed to boards and being manipulated by the Monokuma like puppets, complete with nightmare music. He's probably not going to get a gold star for that.
- During the entire cutscene, Jatarou alternates between being his usual Talkative Loon self, and being actually threatening. It makes you ask yourself how much of his weirdness is genuine and how much is an act.
- At the start of Chapter 3, it's implied that Kotoko is a rape victim, but later we find out the sordid details: Kotoko was actually forced into child prostitution by her parents, and was most likely raped by those involved in the production of her shows. Her mother felt that it was the best way to help Kotoko's career, and she even prostituted herself along with Kotoko while believing that it was all for her daughter's best interest. Her father, however, just used the money earned from all of this for his own gain, and was even having an affair with his dental hygienist. To make matters worse, he was planning to sell her off into sex slavery once she got older and the gravy train slowed down. The whole experience was so traumatizing that just hearing the word "gentle" causes her to have a breakdown, as she was constantly told that the people she was being prostituted to would be gentle with her. It is especially upsetting when Toko says she is confused with how Junko got to convince the Warriors of Hope that she was "some sweet,
**gentle** girl," in which she tearfully yells at Toko and Komaru that she'd rather be *killed* than have anyone be "gentle" with her.
- It went From Bad to Worse very soon, when we start seeing the sequels such backstory left in Kotoko's mind. It's as much of a Tear Jerker as it is Nightmare Fuel to know she sees rape and sexual assault as a form of punishment towards "cute female demons." There are few things scarier than seeing such a young child trying to sexually assault Komaru in chapter 3. It got EVEN worse in
*Ultra Despair Hagakure*, where she tries and *successfully* sexually assaults Kanon Nakajima the same way she did to Komaru in the game proper, describing gleefully how she wants to make her into a "living urinal" while heavily implying she's inflicting on Kanon the same things that were inflicted on her. It's Nightmare Fuel, Squick, and Tear Jerker at once, and getting to read Kanon's thoughts while it happens it's much more terrifying.
- Monaca forcibly kissing Nagisa and making comments about her plans to go further with it. The way Monaca plays with Nagisa's feelings towards her while grooming him into thinking that he's getting a reward if she does what she says is disgusting, and a terrifyingly realistic moment of a young kid being puppeteered by a greater authority, even if that authority is a kid his age.
- The Reveal that the Warriors of Hope were a bunch of kids from abusive families that were pushed by Hope's Peak Academy's elementary branch until they broke and became suicidal. Any belief that the school was a pleasant institution is pretty much dead. The fact that this project was done by
*Nagisa's own father* makes it far, far more unsettling.
- After the Boss Battle with Genocide Jack in Chapter 4, Komaeda casually walks over and dumps a shaker full of pepper in her face, making her sneeze and bring Jack back out. It really drives home that he won't be satisfied until
*something* gives. And what ends up giving is Jack slicing his knees open.
- The Sadistic Choice that Komaru faces in Chapter 5: does she break the controller that will destroy all the Monokumas, which will
*also* make the brainwashing helmets all the Monokuma Kids are wearing explode? Or does she refuse, allowing the Monokumas to keep rampaging and *further* riling up the angry mob of adults who are demanding the kids' demise? Even worse, it's *not* a cutscene. It is *you* who has to make that decision multiple times!
- Then it's revealed that the plan all this time was to fill Komaru with so much despair, that she'll turn into Junko Enoshima's successor. As Monaca put it, what better way to break Makoto Naegi than by turning his own sister into his sworn enemy?
- Haiji's insistence on destroying the controller in spite of the prospective deaths of the kids.
*Goodness*...
- Monaca's Room Full of Crazy containing photos of Junko is deeply unsettling. Especially when you look up at its ceiling...◊
- The revelation that Komaru and Makoto's parents were subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture before their offscreen deaths by hanging.
- The epilogue's cutscene, where Kurokuma and Shirokuma's still-active heads are being carted away by a man in a dark outfit.
- For the sake of creating hope by any means necessary, Nagito swears to raise Monaca into being Junko's successor after admitting that he set himself up to be captured by the Warriors of Hope. As she's already a Manipulative Bitch obsessed with despair much like her mentor, just imagine what her personality could be like years in the future...
note : Episode 7 of *Danganronpa 3: Future Arc* reveals that Nagito's rants about hope and despair ultimately led Monaca to become a NEET.
- In a conversation between Kurokuma and Shirokuma, it's initially "revealed" they were co-conspirators working together the whole time.
- Right after Kurokuma's last line, "Dso_new World Order" plays as the whole truth is clarified. To elaborate,
**Alter** **Ego** **Junko** has a conversation with herself detailing how she posed as both Kurokuma and Shirokuma in order to spread despair in Towa City by turning its children and its adults against each other. There's also her subtle confession to her plan for revenge against three of the Future Foundation's members for their roles in her first defeat. **Junko**
: It's
*me!* Puhu! Puhuhuhuhu!
Well, they're pretty much the same. White despair. Black hope.
In the end, neither won... but I guess that works too. I mean, I didn't really give a damn about this town from the beginning. The fact that
*those*
guys will take an interest in this place will yield a
*much*
more fruitful harvest. Hey! Don't you think so? Personally, I think they did a
*pretty*
good job for a group of kids. Hey, hey! Don't you think so? Thanks to them, the preparations are nearly
*complete!* Laying the foundations for the final match
it's
*so*
despairingly perfect! Hey, hey, hey! Don't you—
- During Junko's expository spiel, we see the man dragging Shirokuma and Kurokuma's heads away punch through them like it's
*nothing*, all without saying **anything**, and we see he is none other than Izuru Kamukura. His facial expression doesn't even change whatsoever. Badass as it may be, remember that this is the guy who *unwittingly helped Junko start the Tragedy*.
- To be more specific, he collects the chips containing the data of Alter Ego Junko, thus leading to the events of
*Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair*, confirming that Shirokuma and Kurokuma were each *one half of Alter Ego Junko*.
- Remember that this guy used to be
**Hajime Hinata**. A cynical but caring Nice Guy is already long gone, having been replaced by... something else. What drives it home is that it's all thanks to the academy he admired so much.
- Any time a character makes Nightmare Face, period. Monaca has one where it's it looks like her eyes are vanishing into her face and the one that Haiji makes makes him look
*batshit insane*.
- Nagito unsurprisingly has one too. His seems to be based on the face he makes during the first trial of
*Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair*. The marker on his face helps mitigate the effect a little but it's still rather frightening. Wanna make it even worse? Here's an edit that takes away all the marker◊. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, without all that scribbles all over his face, you're forced to notice how absolutely creepy his eyes are or maybe it's the fact that you can clearly see how he isn't actually smiling without all the scribbles but the expression just looks *off*.
- Komaru getting possessed by Tokuichi Towa in Chapter 5. Bear in mind that, at no point in any
*Danganronpa* media prior to this had ghosts or possession ever been even hinted at to have been real things in this universe. So, yeah, it's a little *absolutely terrifying* when, out of nowhere, a really creepy voice speaks up and a shot of an ethereal wisp is shown (along with Komaru's horrified expression). It doesn't help that the ghost's "talking" sprite is Komaru, except with a dead, "eyes-lulled back" expression that never changes, complete with his voice overlapping with Komaru's.
- Just why were Komaru and the rest of the
*Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc* cast's family and friends still being held hostage? Because Junko was planning on using them again as a motive in the first game. She would've shown the kid's loved ones murdering one another, and likely would've only made it stop should another murder occur. The only reason this wasn't used was because things came to a head before another motive was needed. She was planning on creating another killing game just to keep the main killing game going! Who knows what horrific things would have happened had this actually occurred in the first game...
- The descriptions of The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History can be pretty horrific at times. Komaru at one point tells Toko that several of her classmates went missing at one point, with their
*fingers* later turning up in the mail.
- Yasuhiro finding Kanon's notebook in
*Ultra Despair Hagakure*. The contents are nothing but "Leon Onii-chan" repeated until the ink runs out. The chapter then ends with Kanon discovering Yasuhiro is a Future Foundation member and trying to choke him to death.
- Kanon Nakajima herself may count as Nightmare Fuel for some.
*Danganonpa* is not strange to obsessive characters with a Single-Target Sexuality, but Kanon's case is the first one that is not Played for Laughs in any way and is instead meant to be as disturbing as it should be. Since half the chapters in *Ultra Despair Hagakure* are from her point of view, we get to see how Leon is the only thing she seems to think about, with him being her sole motivation for doing *anything*. Since Leon himself never saw her as a romantic prospect and she admitted to have some violent thoughts against him when she saw him on dates during her stalking, it makes you wonder if she would have eventually snapped in a true Yandere fashion had the Tragedy never happened.
- The Torture Cellar, if not for obvious reasons. Hundreds of adults were tortured to death in gruesome ways by the Warriors of Hope. You get the walk into the room during Chapter 5, and it's not pretty: various torture devices are laid around the room, all freshly stained with blood. Not to mention, the room has a camera which streams video to a TV in the Adults' secret base. While you never watch any of the torture, you see the other adult survivor's reactions to the footage...
- Monaca sees absolutely nothing wrong with
*deliberately triggering her teammates' trauma* in order to get what she wants. Bear in mind that she's about 11 years old.
- She also wasn't planning on killing herself. She just thought watching the other four jump to their deaths would be a funny prank.
- Near the end of the game, inside Towa Hills, we read journals glimpsing into the minds of the parents of the Warriors of Hope, and they are utterly disgusting. Makes it hard to feel any kind of sympathy for their deaths.
- Jataro's mother regretted ever having him because she felt he limited what she could do with her life, to the point where she wished he'd disappear or that she'd wake up one morning and he'd be dead. As if that wasn't bad enough, she was jealous of her son's beauty so she convinced him that he was ugly and made him wear a mask.
- Masaru's father forced his son to go out and get alcohol and tobacco for him. When Masaru couldn't buy them and tried to steal them instead, his father beat him for humiliating him in front of the police.
- Kotoko's mother believed that prostituting her own daughter would be in her best interests and that she could "sparkle forever." She refused to believe any of what she was doing was wrong, even prostituting herself along with her as a "mother and daughter set." Meanwhile, her father was busy stealing money, cheating on his wife with his dental assistant, and planned on selling Kotoko into the sex trafficking industry once she hit puberty.
- Nagisa was subjected to human experimentation by his own parents, where they wanted to see just how far a child's mind could be pushed before it snapped. They forced him to study for days on end, stick IVs into him to keep him awake, and keep him under surveillance at all times. His father describes him in cold, clinical terms, referring to his son as "the subject." And in the end, disappointed with the results, he's debating switching subjects.
- Monaca's mother dumped her off with her biological father and half-brother, who treated her like an alien in their own home. They hated hearing her laugh or smile, and even hit her on regular occasions. Eventually she started pretending to be paralyzed to garner some sympathy from them. It really makes you wonder just
*what* they were doing to her to make that seem like a plausible excuse.
- The documents that can be found in the room where you meet Haiji Towa for the first time are disturbing as all get-out: The first one is an adult describing how the "newbies" who are being brought to the hideout are deeply traumatised and keep going mad, making them feel hopeless; the second one is an adult ranting about how evil the children are, and going into very graphic detail about how he wants to murder them all; and the last one is simply a list of the dead and missing, two lists that Komaru notes are very long. Even though the Resistance hideout is a relatively safe place for our heroines to (temporarily) stay in, it becomes obvious from the start that keeping all these traumatised, scared adults in one place was never going to work out in the long run...
- In Masaru's room, there's a book of laws for the "children's paradise." One is that children are to commit suicide if they feel themselves "turning into demons" (i.e. growing up). | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls |
Danganronpa: Mall of Despairica / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The following will contain unmarked spoilers for Mall of Despairica.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Kuni, in her execution, is forced to work until she gets too hot, and is compressed into a tiny little beetle.
Not a murderer, but Ryuketsu's death must've been incredibly painful.
"Ryu is found in front of the Pharmacy with his ribs crushed in. Though he didn't die instantly, it was quite close as his lungs had been torn open from the inside and caused Ryu to be unable to breathe."
Kai is surrounded by people that he cares about, but they won't look at him or give him the time of day. When the one closest to him finally moves, she bumps him and pushes him into the water, causing him to drown. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaMallOfDespairica |
Danganronpa: Galactic Melancholy / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The ending of the execution deserves special mention:]] **Narration:** (...)it's clear that the Ultimate Musician has long perished. **Narration:** The evidence? **Narration:** The fact that he isn't struggling anymore, and the sight of blood pouring out of every hole in his head, including the two new ones where his eyes used to be. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganRonpaGalacticMelancholy |
Daredevil / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
When your title as the Man Without Fear, is put to the testBetween all the twisted madmen, murderers and rapists, monsters, and unholy creatures Matt faces, it's a blessing he's known as the Man without Fear
- Matt himself is pretty scary, especially when his Hair-Trigger Temper flares up. At his worst he looks like a legit demon fresh from Hell, with superhuman senses to know how you feel and make you feel excruicating pain down to the last detail.
- Bullseye is deranged hitman, who's seen as one of Marvel's version of the Joker for a reason. Between his impeccable aim with any object he wants to use and relentless bloodlust, it's not hard to see why people are afraid of him. Entire prisons shrink in his presence, and he's made a living off going on killing sprees. Not to mention his predatory love for murdering women, especially ones close to Matt.
- The Purple Man. Especially in his treatment of Jessica Jones and overall rape-tastic abuse of his Mind Control powers. Most horrifically when he ordered thirty-odd innocent bystanders at a Denny's to stop breathing so he could eat his eggs in peace. Even worse is he was still at large afterwards.
- Typhoid Mary/Bloody Mary, deranged sadistic assassin who just likes hurting people with a Superpower Lottery to boot. To put this in perspective: she once scared off
*Deadpool*, the one person who, due to his healing factor, could take all the punishment she could dish out and usually jokes off murder attempts. She's just that crazy.
- The Kingpin is pretty scary in a realistic sense of a dangerously influential crime boss who can have you killed on the most fickle whim whenever he pleases. In person, he's a gigantic brute who can crush skulls with his bare hands and has gone to town on some of the best fighters in Marveldom.
- Mister Fear is a pretty disturbing individual, literally starting a years long vendetta against Matt for beating him in a mock trial in Law School. ||To wit, he has experimented with pheromones that make men irresistible to women, and used it to try to convince Betty Brant to kill Spider-Man and commit repetitive rape. He has driven Matt's blind ex-wife to insanity to the point of putting her in an insanitarium for life. To top it off, he has been committed to Riker's prison where he entertains himself by lording over the inmates and raping the female guards, and is content to leave anytime he wants||
- Coyote, as shown in the page image. He was an expert thief and smuggler before a shadowy organization put him through the same procedure that created the Spot against his will. His primary business is human trafficking. Specifically by removing peoples heads and keeping them separate. He keeps the heads in a shed and tosses scraps of food in to keep them alive. The bodies act as perfect slaves, being unable to resist without their heads. The men's bodies are sold for menial labor to work in mines and fields, while the women's are put to use as varieties of Sex Slave. Worse is the bodies can
*feel* everything that's happening to them!
- Muse. A veritable Humanoid Abomination and Mad Artist if there ever was one. He's a Lightning Bruiser and a living black hole that can suck in every bit of sensory information around him, making Daredevil's enhanced senses hard to target him. He even appears distorted in photographs and just looks plain wrong to look at.
- Believe it or not, the Spot, as rendered in the first issue of Waid's run by Paolo Rivera. When you see him the way Matt does, you see a creature with chunks bitten out of him.
- When the Spot shows up again ||around issue 20 when it's revealed that he's powering the Coyote||, it gets even worse.
- Remember how Matt was blinded and gained his powers because he saved a blind old man from being hit? The miniseries
*Father* added a bit of Backstory Horror to that. During *Father*, we meet Maggie Farrell, a woman went to Matt, claiming to sue a power company for giving her cancer. She also turned out to be the villain, a serial killer targeting people Matt helped and her visit to Matt's office was a pretext to get her hands on the names of her clients. As for why, she revealed that it was revenge for Matt saving the old man, who was her father — who'd also been *molesting her*. The "good deed" Matt thought he was doing that got him blinded actually saved a monster and led to more suffering for Maggie and her dedicating what was left of her life to destroying Matt's successes. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Daredevil |
Crash Bash / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Could be Accidental Nightmare Fuel, but the opening to the game is unnaturally dark. So many beats between transitions, a vocoded, robotic voice narrating each screen, and a droning, ambient didgeridoo-based track in the background. To quote SomecallmeJohnny, "Are we playing Crash Bash, or Resident Evil?" The Evil Ending is quite possibly the grimmest moment in the entire series, with Uka Uka actually succeeding in capturing the crystals and Aku Aku, on the brink of a Heroic BSoD, begs Crash and Coco to flee for their lives. No gags, mood breakers or even any goofy music, just Uka Uka laughing demonically as lightning erupts in the background, with the Earth having only damnation to look forward to. Really, Aku Aku's final line just cements it. He laments that good failed in the face of evil and sends Crash and Coco into hiding, even though it's clear that his brother will hunt them down regardless.Aku Aku: (mortified) How can this be? Was I so naïve to believe that Goodness on its own could triumph over Evil...? Now Uka Uka has the Crystals, the Earth is surely doomed. Run, Crash, hide! My friends... save yourselves!Uka Uka: There is nowhere to hide... FROM THE WRATH OF THE MIGHTY UKA UKA! (laughs maniacally) Even before then, Uka Uka is portrayed in a far more menacing light. If you thought that Clancy Brown made him creepy in Warped, this is even worse. He's far more aggressive, his voice is much lower, almost like a demonic entity, and he's just barely stopped from outright killing Cortex and N. Brio where they stand for failing him in the Good Ending. Considering the stakes, it becomes very evident why.Uka Uka: (furiously) YOU HAVE FAILED ME FOR THE LAST TIME! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INCOMPETENCE! Even worse there's a cut away to Aku Aku just as Uka Uka prepares to zap them and we hear both characters' hurt grunts. Given the other ending is Canon Discontinuity, who's to say he didn't? The Bearminator's deep, growling Evil Laugh if you lose to him is pretty unnerving, especially combined with his Black Eyes of Crazy and mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/CrashBash |
Danganronpa An Adventure Of Mutual Killing / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
As with the series it's based on, An Adventure of Mutual Killing has a heaping dose of Nightmare Fuel ready in wait.
UNMARKED SPOILERS AHEAD.
The executions, of course.
The first killer, Chiharu Akio, has her face mutilated by a drill and saw. When she discusses her execution as a ghost, she notes that the saw cut into her eye. Yikes.
The second killer, Rei Ueda, is pulled under murky water by reanimated skeletons, and drowns.
The third killer, Shinobu Kurosawa, is instantly obliterated by every one of her lethal creations firing at the same time. By the time the execution is over, there's literally nothing left of her.
The fourth person to be executed, Chiharu (this time in the form of Beta), isn't even a killer. Monokuma just hates her enough to have her disassembled and tipped into an incinerator while still conscious.
Toyozo's many murder schemes.
His first scheme involved pouring Sodium hydroxide, AKA 'Lye', into the swimming pool while everyone was inside, oblivious to his actions. All the while, he's desperately trying to talk himself out of it.
That's Sodium hydroxide. Remember your chemistry, Toyozo? That stuff leaves nasty burns.
At the time of his death, he was planning to murder Katsuo and use buckets to transfer his blood across the school and hide the real scene of the crime.
Chapter 4's motive. The cookies that Tamaya served the students were laced with a poison that would induce nausea, abdominal pains, vomiting, intense fever, and diarrhea. It is revealed that one of the treats was enough to cause severe symptoms. Sentoki had three.
Katsuo tried to hypnotize Sentoki to ignore the pain by first focusing her attention on it. As she started writhing about, he hesitated, almost considering leaving her in this state of pure agony.
Tamaya has to find out that the Bio Lab is a morgue the hard way. She pulled out one of the bodies, which happened to be Chiharu. Just imagine her mutilated and torn up face staring at you. Yikes... | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaAnAdventureOfMutualKilling |
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
"Malice. His entire body, nothing but raw and unfettered malice."
*Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony* is even Bloodier and Gorier than the rest of the franchise, so it should be expected that there are plenty of terrifying moments to be found.
- A few of the murders are even
*more* horrific than the previous two games...
- Ryoma is drowned by Kirumi. Not especially gruesome, except for the way she disposes of his corpse: she hides it in a piranha tank, and when Himiko uses it for a magic show, his body is dropped into the water and almost immediately devoured by the starving fish, reducing him to nothing but bones in a matter of seconds!
- Kokichi's death rivals Nagito's in terms of sheer gruesomeness. He is shot twice with crossbow bolts, one of which was poisoned, then he
*willingly lies under a hydraulic press, which slowly and completely crushes him* until not even the normally near-omniscient Monokuma can recognize him. It's bad enough that we get to see several times a video tape which shows the exact moment Kokichi was crushed followed by a massive blood splatter. Special mention goes for the discovery of Kokichi's remains. The crime scene is a total mess and there's literally blood everywhere. The initial shock is so great that it takes a while before Shuichi and the rest even *realize* that someone's crushed remains are inside the press. And even then they believe that the body belongs to Kaito since his coat sleeve is dangling from the press.
- Miu, in a rare example for this series, Dies Wide Open and completely goreless, but her corpse is particularly disturbing despite that. Her face is completely Blue with Shock and distorted in agony, with her irises horrifically shrunk down and her mouth widely agape as tears and saliva stream down her face in a manner nothing at all like some of her over-the-top sprites that are usually Played for Laughs, which makes this double as Dramatic Irony. It would be revealed later on that she was strangled in the virtual world, which killed her in real life due to her five senses being connected to it. On top of that, because the physical strength of every person's avatar was equalized, her death at Gonta's hands ended up more drawn-out than it would have been in real life, with later investigation on her corpse having made clear that she suffered a lot.
- Some of Kokichi's facial expressions are more than a little terrifying. This one◊ in particular, however, takes the cake. Not to mention, Kokichi's expressions get gradually worse during and after the fourth trial which is often accompanied by a mad laughter. This confirms that he has gone almost completely
*mental* because of both the guilt of manipulating Gonta into becoming the blackened and the sheer stress of the killing game.
- Kokichi's reveal of Gonta's guilt in Chapter 4. When Shuichi triggers his Berserk Button by lying to him, Kokichi is
*pissed* and goes chillingly serious, confessing the whole setup without any hints of his normal Troll behavior, because he knows that giving everyone the truth they want so much is *the perfect revenge.* The way he casually announces it can send chills down your spine.
- The executions are back as usual, and this time around, they're arguably the most absolutely
*brutal* and **agonizing** executions in the franchise to date...
- Chapter 1's execution, "Der Flohwalzer". Our first culprit of the game is none other than Kaede Akamatsu. Yes, you read that right; this is
**Kaede's** execution. For the first time in the series, the protagonist is executed by Monokuma, and following the trend of first chapter executions, it matches Leon and Teruteru's executions in terms of cruelty and brutality. Plus, after seeing it, you'll **never** hear the Flea Waltz the same way again. Monokuma hangs her by the neck, and then the Monokuma Cubs use a pulley system to play a giant piano with her body. Through all of this, Kaede is struggling with the rope around her neck until her face is blue and her eyes burst into spirals (not unlike those who were affected by Despair). The execution is drawn out to make her suffer as much as possible (if the giant clock behind the piano is accurate, it goes on for *hours* and it's merely sped up for our benefit), and any sense of dignity is thrown out the window when an audience of Monokumas starts booing and pelting her with tomatoes and stones. Once the show is over and Kaede has gone limp, the iron maiden style keyboard cover slams shut on her and Monokid, reducing her body to unrecognizable paste, and decapitating Monokid. And in the final chapter, we learn the truth: Kaede was innocent. Tsumugi was the one who actually killed Rantaro, meaning Kaede's execution was ultimately pointless and unfair. If this was the first game, Game Over the Blackened got away with it. Everyone except Tsumugi gets executed and the official game ends here.
- Chapter 2's execution, "Strand of Agony", is possibly one of the most brutal and torturous executions in the
*entire franchise*. This time, Kirumi's up on the chopping block, and unlike most of the other culprits, she actually makes an effort to escape... before she gets surrounded by an angry mob. She's given the option of climbing a rope to safety... except the rope is a thorny vine that cuts her hands every time she grabs it. And that's not even getting into the buzzsaws whirling around the rope, shredding her clothes and her body as she climbs, screaming in immense pain. Kirumi narrowly survives the Death of a Thousand Cuts and nearly reaches the escape hole... but this is Monokuma we're talking about, so the "hole" is just a childish drawing taped to the ceiling. As she realizes that there was never a chance for her to escape, the rope snaps, and Kirumi falls several stories to her death, crushing Monosuke in the process. And to top it all off, this is likely the *only* execution in the games where you actually *hear* the victim screaming.
- Chapter 3's execution, "Cultural Melting Pot". While Korekiyo had it coming, it doesn't make it any less horrifying. To start, the remaining Monokubs rapidly spin him around until he's crying, before a samurai cuts down the ropes he hanging from, sending him into a pot of water. From there, the Monokubs proceed to
*boil him alive*, even causing him to bleed from his eyes. Once Monodam runs into the fire to finish the job, Korekiyo emerges as a ghost and is seemingly about to reunite with his sister. But then his sister and Monokuma begin pelting him with salt, causing him to seemingly *melt*, effectively killing him twice.
- Chapter 4's execution, "Wild West Insecticide". A fair word of warning for this one: if you have a crippling case of entomophobia, you will
*not* like this execution, as poor Gonta ends up facing the darker sides of entomology in the most extreme fashion Monokuma can think of. Tied to a post with no chance of escape, Gonta finds himself being shot at by Monokuma, using robotic wasps as ammunition for a custom-made tommy gun, and each wasp that hits him stings his face to the point that he looks horribly swollen and deformed by the time Monokuma stops firing. To make matters worse, Monophanie is writhing on the ground in pain the whole time with her body steadily getting more and more swollen until *a giant, unsettling clawed insect that resembles a praying mantis* **bursts out of Monophanie's stomach** and slices Monotaro in two the moment it pops out. It then flies over to Gonta and gores him on one of its claws, piercing the laptop tied to him, his chest and the post he's tied to. Monokuma then finishes the job with a flamethrower, engulfing Gonta and the insect in a fiery blaze as he walks away in satisfaction.
-
*Korekiyo Shinguji*. At first glance, he seems to be the Gundham-analogue for this game; unsettling appearance but mostly harmless. However, Chapter 3 kicks in and not only does he murder both Tenko and Angie in cold blood, but he lets out one of the most repulsive motives in the entire series. And if his execution is to be believed, even *Monokuma finds him disgusting.* The way he acts in his trial is more than off-putting, alternating between him and his split personality based on his sister once he is caught, and actively relishing the feeling when being found out. Also worth noting is how he sees absolutely no wrong in his actions, justifying his quest of killing 100 females with his great love for his sister. And before his execution, his only regret was that he died so close to the 'promised number' of 100 friends for his sister. Meaning that his number of victims almost reach three digits. To top it off, his Love Hotel scene has him **ready to rape** Shuichi, all for his pet theory of human beauty. Not even in the bonus modes does this let up since being in love with his sister and a serial killer is still very much canon in both the Talent Planner and the dating sim. His ending in the latter even seems to indicate that he might make an exception to his no boys rule and *murder Shuichi* so "Sister" can meet him after all. As shown in "Ultimate Talent Development Plan", even **Genocide Jack** hates him!
- It's rather disturbing to see the audition tapes of Shuichi, Kaede and Kaito play out showing how they were before being brainwashed and had less then noble goals for wanting to participate. Special mention goes to
**Kaito** outright saying that he was only interested in killing people. Shuichi might be the most horrifying, as not only is he planning a gory murder *just* because an Ultimate Detective has never been a culprit before, he's also **gleefully imagining his own Execution**.
- There is evidence that even the audition tapes might have been faked via Flashback Light-induced brainwashing (contrast them with how everyone was confused and scared and very much
*not* voluntarily present in the prologue), meaning that Team Danganronpa kidnapped everyone and brainwashed them into looking like they were active participants. Both possibilities are horrifying.
- Near the end of the final chapter, Ki-bo was hacked by the Danganronpa audiences. Along with the Occult Blue Eyes and the Voice of the Legion, it's incredibly disturbing that the player was going against "Ki-bo" while telling themselves at the same time that the person they're fighting wasn't really Ki-bo at all, but rather, the audiences controlling him. The health gauge doesn't even have Ki-bo's name, instead consisting of a glitchy, illegible mess that signifies that they're not only fighting against one person, but a million people who wanted Danganronpa to continue. It makes the BTB with Junko in the first game
**look completely normal** in comparison.
- Instead of "Ki-bo" saying the traditional Argument Armament lines like the previous chapters, most of the lines spilling out are various reactions from the audience about how Danganronpa shouldn't end at all.
- The Madness Mantra includes the crowd chanting for "hope!" and "despair!", and the Voice of the Legion gets increasingly harder to understand when they're saying things at the same time.
- Ki-bo's "armour" is him in 3D with numerous chains surrounding him. The disturbing part was when those chains showed that Ki-bo was trapped in a puppet-like fashion and being controlled by the Outside World. The poor robot couldn't catch a break.
- Ki-bo's screams are both heart wrenching and horrifying at the same time. It hurts even more when you realize that the Argument's really against his will when he got hacked in the first place.
- The expression on Tsumugi's face before her death. Or more specifically, the
*lack* of expression. She's just blankly staring into space as she waves goodbye before getting crushed by falling debris. When she said she doesn't want to live in a world without *Danganronpa*, she clearly meant it, as she is hollow and empty without it.
- The (fake) reveal at the very end of the Chapter 5 trial. In the aftermath of Kaito's heartbreaking execution, Shuichi manages to draw strength from the fact that Kaito and Kokichi's sacrifices weren't in vain: the group has drawn ever closer to exposing the true mastermind. And then, without any warning, the screen fades into an unknown location, where a giant Monokuma head (with half its covering apparently ripped off) is floating in a tank of liquid... and in front of it stands the silhouette of a familiar teenage girl. She then declares (as "New World Order V3", normally the protagonists' theme, begins playing) that as long as she exists, the killing games will never end, but will repeat over and over, before imitating Monokuma's trademark laugh and declaring "Such despair." Cue Mass "Oh, Crap!" from the players. The revelation in Chapter 6 that it's not the real Junko only
*slightly* lessens the impact.
- The "reveal" of the Gofer project and the outside world. It almost makes you glad the whole thing was a fabrication.
- The world was threatened by a series of meteor impacts so severe that the Earth's destruction seemed unavoidable. The nations of the world came together and came up with the Gofer Project, selecting the 16 students to send into space in order to colonize a new planet. At the same time, a cult arose that believed that the meteors heralded the end of days and that mankind
*deserved* extinction. They tried to put a stop to the Gofer project and began hunting these students across every corner of the world. With no other choice, the Gofer project's leaders spread misinformation that the students had died and covertly sent them into space. Unfortunately, the cult's leader had already infiltrated the group and set about sabotaging their mission as they went into cold sleep.
- And when the survivors finally open the door and get a look out at the outside world? All that's awaiting them is an utterly desolate wasteland. There's no life, no oxygen, and nowhere left for any of them to go. Everyone they've ever known and loved has been dead for
*hundreds of years.* All the deaths that they dealt with? Absolutely pointless. And now the last remnants of the human race are a mere seven people aboard a ship with no way back into space. Many of the survivors fall far past the Despair Event Horizon and begin contemplating suicide.
- Ironically, the fact that the people in this game died for a
*fabrication* just makes it more terrifying, because what they fought for is All for Nothing.
- While the Love Hotel is either heartwarming or tearjerking, some events can get pretty freaky. As stated above, Korekiyos has him about to rape Shuichi, but so does Mius and Angies. Tsumugis event is also really squicky, given the BrotherSister Incest roleplay that goes on between Tsumugi and Shuichi. Keep in mind these are the students
*ideal fantasies*.
- The alternate ending of Chapter 1, if the kids manage to make it all the way to the end of the Death Road of Despair, has an unsettling vibe for something that should be a positive outcome. We can't see what Kaede is seeing, and while it's probably not the false destroyed world (since nobody is asphyxiating), she sounds worryingly confused. And knowing what the truth of their situation is, Monokuma telling everyone to "please take flight and re-enter society" is downright ominous. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony |
Darby O'Gill and the Little People / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The cóiste-bodhar (Death Coach) is also fearsome as we see it riding through the sky on its way to seize its prey. King Brian's warning doesn't help:
King Brian: Once it has been called, it cannot return empty; and it is a power beyond me.
The scene on the hill at night where Darby's horse goes crazy, turns fluorescent glowing colors and attacks him, neighing shrilly all the while and ultimately knocking Darby down a well deserves a very Honorable Mention. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople |
Daredevil (2015) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*"You know you're one bad day away from being me..."* **Daredevil:**
You took their eyes!
**Madame Gao:**
No. They blinded themselves.
—
*"The Ones We Leave Behind"*
When they said that
*Daredevil* on Netflix was going to be Darker and Edgier than the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they weren't kidding.
- Two words: Wilson Fisk. A brutal mob boss who has bought the media and half of the police for his benefit and protection. Basically, he has both the mob and the law in his possession. In season 1, the mere mention of his name causes so much fear in his associates that they are willing to commit suicide or murder in his name. He makes it almost impossible to link criminal activity to him by having others do his dirty work for him, but don't let that fool you because if you piss him off, he's more than a capable fighter. He's like a shadow consuming everything in its path.
- Season 3 Fisk in general. He essentially achieves Kilgrave levels of control over people without any supernatural abilities whatsoever. He has nigh-unlimited surveillance over his targets, is able to read into people's psyche and their weaknesses, creates traps for them
*years* in advance just in case they may become useful to him later, makes already unstable people go over the edge and forces good upstanding citizens to do his dirty work by blackmailing them with threats against their families (stuff we've already seem him do in season 1). As Matt repeatedly states, Fisk is five steps ahead over any of their plans that could harm him, having over a dozen of FBI agents under his direct control and able to threaten anyone who could testify against him and *make good on that threat*. He orders a complete bystander Julie killed merely because she's too much of a positive influence on Dex, and controls SAC Hattley by killing one of her kids and then threatening the other. His level of influence is completely **terrifying** in part because unlike Kilgrave, he was able to achieve this by purely mundane means.
- Even more disturbing is how realistic the character really is. Fisk is not very different from many real criminals who have gained so much power and influence that imprisoning them was difficult while their corruption reigns lasted, such as Al Capone or Pablo Escobar.
## Season 1
- The series opens with Jack Murdock coming onto the scene of the accident and finding Matt on the ground, his face covered in unknown chemicals. Matt then starts screaming how he can't see while Jack just holds him, helpless.
- James Wesley is introduced walking up to Clyde Farnum as Farnum is having lunch in a park. Without saying a word, he sits down next to Farnum. Right off the bat, there's something very unsettling about the way Wesley presents himself.
**Clyde Farnum:** *[annoyed]*
There's plenty of room over there. Do you mind?
**James Wesley:**
$28,957.
**Clyde Farnum:**
Tell Rigoletto he'll get his money.
**James Wesley:** Mr. Rigoletto has retired
. His books have been acquired by my employer
.
**Clyde Farnum:**
...Well you tell him the same thing.
*[he gets up to leave, until...]* **James Wesley:**
I'd like to show you something. If you have a moment?
*[Wesley sets down a tablet on the table; on it, a live feed plays of Farnum's daughter in a park]* **James Wesley:**
What is it about college girls in Monet T-shirts? Open composition and spontaneity reflecting this... transformative time in their lives, perhaps? Or maybe they just like the color blue.
*Call her*
.
*[hands shaking, Farnum frantically digs in his pockets for his phone and calls up his daughter]* **Tracy:**
Hey, dad. What's up?
**Clyde Farnum:**
Hi baby. I'm just checking in. You need anything?
**Tracy:**
Uh, yeah. I actually have a ton of laundry. I was gonna swing by this weekend and use the machines, and then maybe we could catch a movie after your shift?
**Clyde Farnum:**
Yeah. Yeah, that would be great. Uh, look, baby I—I gotta go. I love you, baby.
**Tracy:**
I love you too. Bye, Dad.
*[Farnum hangs up; the tablet feed shifts slightly to the left and focuses on a man seated on a park bench]* **James Wesley:**
Now you see this man here? If we're being honest with each other, Mr. Farnum, I find his methods...
*unpleasant*
. But such are the times we live in
.
*[to the tablet]*
Give us a wave, Mr. Rance!
*[Rance looks up at the camera and waves with his hand]* **Clyde Farnum:** *[getting the message]*
I told you... that I will get you the money.
**James Wesley:** Such a small sum is of little interest to my employer. Your position, however? That's something we can work with. **Farnum:** What do you want me to do?
- With the Union Allied scandal exposed, Fisk orders Wesley to have everyone involved killed so they can't talk: Karen's boss McClintock is force-fed an overdose of pills. Farnum is shot through his mouth in his basement and his death staged to look like a suicide. And Rance, captured after Matt thwarted his attempt to attack Karen in her apartment, is hanged in his jail cell with his bedsheets, the very fate that Farnum had originally tried to give to Karen.
- Madame Gao's heroin workshop, operated solely by blind workers.
- Episode 12 reveals it
*is*. Gao claims they did it to themselves after she showed them something. Considering that Madame Gao is also one of the Five Fingers of the Hand, it's even worse... perhaps something fanatic themselves.
- The first people Matt fights are sex slavers who were in the middle of loading a group of kidnapped women into a shipping crate.
- Matt torturing Semyon for information... with the assistance of a trained medical professional.
- To elaborate, Matt presses a sharp object through Semyon's eye socket, without touching the actual eye itself, and starts cutting the soft, tender parts protecting his
*brain*. One step short of a transorbital lobotomy, which he supposedly does in order to *directly stimulate the part of the brain that feels pain.*
- And then Matt throws the guy off the roof. He lands in a dumpster and will live, but it really looked like Matt
*did not care if he just murdered a man*. "In The Blood" reveals that while the fall didn't kill him, the impact put the man into a coma.
- Healy commits suicide by impaling himself on a spike
*through the eye socket*. The camera *does not* cut away (holds on it afterward, even). Matt's utterly horrified reaction matches the audience's.
- Healy in general. Right from the opening scene, where he beats Prohashka to death with a bowling ball, it's clear just how remorseless and guilt-free he is. Until he spills Wilson Fisk's identity, and he suddenly becomes a terrified wreck, prompting him to kill himself before Fisk can think of a reason to kill the people he cares about.
- The aforementioned opening scene involving Healy and Prohashka, specifically how, during the fight between the two, Prohashka has his arm broken and the camera ever-so-briefly focuses on the bone
*sticking out of his arm* and Healy smashing Prohashka's head in with the bowling ball, blood splattering on his face.
- Wesley manages to be one without doing much for the entirety of his interaction as he hires Nelson & Murdock to defend Healy. There's always something off about him, and then the casual way he mentions knowing Karen.
- Now that we've gotten to meet Fisk in person, he comes across as friendly, socially awkward and a bit of a romantic with Vanessa...until Anatoly makes the mistake of crashing his date to inform him that they want to agree to Fisk's offer of support and resources. He has Wesley take Anatoly to an empty lot in Queens. As they're sitting in the car, Wesley has some ominous words that make your skin crawl.
**James Wesley:** They say the past is etched in stone, but it isn't. It's smoke trapped in a closed room, swirling, changing. Buffeted by the passing of years and wishful thinking. But even though our perception of it changes, one thing remains constant. The past can never be completely erased. It lingers. Like the scent of burning wood.
- The way the Ranskahov brothers escaped from the gulag is gruesome in and of itself — after the guards left their dead cellmate with them to be consumed by rats, Vladimir ripped a hole in the corpse's side and fashioned one of his rib bones into a shiv.
- To follow up on Anatoly's brutal murder, the first thing we see after the opening credits is Fisk's mechanics washing
*brain matter* from the door well with a high pressure hose. Before the credits, we see what little is left of the body as it is delivered to Vladimir.
- Later, the way Vladimir washes the beaten, headless corpse is the definition of creepy.
- The scene when one of Madame Gao's blind workers casually strolls into Vladimir's warehouse and blows the place up just reeks of brainwashing creepiness.
- We learn in season 3 that there were innocents who got killed in the bombings, as Foggy encounters a woman at one campaign event who lost her husband to one of the explosions.
- Our glimpse into how Matt really views the world - aside from being a none-too-stealthy Title Drop. Imagine seeing the world like that for more than ten years.
- Matt tells Stick that due to his enhanced sense of touch cotton sheets feel like sandpaper. This implies that Matt feels injuries far more intimately than the average human being, which is especially horrifying given how often and how badly Matt is injured on a regular basis.
- The revelation of what Black Sky is: just a boy. When Matt confronts Stick on it, Matt insists that he could hear the boy's heart.
*He was scared*. However, Stick insists that what Matt saw wasn't a boy, but a weapon who was the "bringer of darkness". Given that season 2 reveals that Stick is fighting a war against the Hand, this opens up some disturbing possibilities on what Black Sky was supposed to bring. Moreso after Elektra is ultimately revived as their Black Sky.
- After losing the council election, Bill Fisk decides to go confront Bernie Walker, a kid who was knocking down Bill's signs and who assaulted Wilson. After a bit of back and forth, he begins beating on Bernie, and then makes Wilson join in.
- What's worse: Fisk killing his Abusive Dad with a hammer or his mother
*sawing him to pieces* after the fact to dispose of the body.
- Nobu's fight with Matt is incredibly
*brutal*. Summed up by stabbing him, and then using the chain attached to the blade to drag Matt along the floor, trailing blood the entire way.
- Nobu catching fire and burning alive at the end of the fight. All the more unsettling because he doesn't make a sound and still throws a couple of kicks. And as season 2 reveals, it doesn't kill him. Or rather... it doesn't keep him down.
- We finally learn what drove Matt over the edge to becoming a vigilante: he heard an Abusive Dad who then escaped conviction because his wife refused to believe it. Some people believe that the man was a child molester, although nothing indicates that there is such evidence of this (although it does not make it any less terrible than it already is).
- All of the blind heroin workers turn on Matt and swarm him like they were zombies. For what it's worth, Matt's reaction plays into it as well, since he's both frightened by their unexpected reaction and confused since he doesn't know how to handle the situation without hurting them, all the while pleading that he's there to help.
- Ben Urich's death. Ben returns home with his Cardboard Box of Unemployment, and as he begins typing at his computer, the camera slowly pivots around his head...to reveal Fisk sitting in an armchair behind Ben. The resulting conversation is very tense, with it unclear if or when hell is about to break loose. The breaking point is when Fisk asks Ben if he killed Wesley, something Ben knows nothing about.
**Wilson Fisk:** Yes, I didn't think so. You're a man of principle, of conviction. I understand that, I even admire it. But you went after my mother. That's not something that I can forgive. **Ben Urich:** I wrote a lot of stories in my years pushing ink. You know how many times people have threatened me, to get me to keep my mouth shut? **Wilson Fisk:** *[growing more agitated and angrier]* But that's **my mother** that you brought into this, Mr. Urich. My **mother**! So I am not here to *threaten* you, I am here **to kill you**. *[Fisk lunges at Ben from the chair he's been sitting at, throws him to the ground and chokes the life out of him]*
- Fisk's Slasher Smile as Ben dies. The fact that it's the last thing Ben ever sees makes it worse.
## Season 2
- Meet
**Frank Castle, aka the Punisher**, who finally gets to show off some of the Tarantino-esque violence of the comics *onscreen*. Killing you is the least he could do with you if you're lucky. To clarify, he not only murders his victims, but also tortures them and leaves them in horrible agony. Sure, his victims are just gangsters and criminals, but that doesn't take away the fact that the man is a brutal, bloodthirsty killing machine to the extent that even Fisk is surprised at his effectiveness. Basically, he is less a man and more an unstoppable force that leaves waves of murder.
- When Matt loses his hearing due to his concussion. First everything seems louder than ever before, causing him to drop a glass of water. Then we see the glass shatter...but we don't hear it. The panicked look on Matt's face says it all, even getting worse as he starts to scream out and we
*still* can't hear anything. Imagine how terrifying it would be to have already gone blind and *then* be struck deaf on top of it. Thankfully it's only temporary, *but he had no way of knowing that when it happened*.
- Especially for Matt Murdock, where his hearing is heavily implied to be the primary means by which he navigates the world, and what allows him to operate as Daredevil.
- For the full effect of this, turn on the audio description and close your eyes. It's incredibly eerie when the sound of the show suddenly cuts out and you're left with just the narrator describing Matt's reaction.
**[INAUDIBLE]** **[INAUDIBLE]**
- When the Punisher kills people in this show, or his own, it's all screaming ferocity. But when he murders the sleazy pawnshop clerk who tries to sell him child pornography, he's completely silent. Just the eerily calm, methodical way he closes the store and picks up the bat to kill him with is chilling, even if the guy deserved it. The fact that we don't see the impact adds to it. Also, full props for Jon Bernthal for being terrifying through body language.
- Frank showing up at a Dogs of Hell garage. It starts with the guy with the headphones cleaning the blood out of the truck cabin. Then, after a few brief moments, we hear shouts and shots fired, but the cleaning guy doesn't notice until one of the men collapses against the truck. The guy turns, the song he's listening to becomes the background music, and then Frank steps into shot, shotgun in hand and his eyes cold and dead.
- Round two of Matt versus Frank, which ends about as well for the former as the first fight did. Everything seems to go fine until the two fall through a skylight. As Matt struggles to get up, Frank steps across the broken glass, unknowingly causing Matt's concussion to act up. As Matt staggers, trying to keep control, Frank slowly closes in...
- Frank Castle, at first doesn't seem quite as intimidating as his deeds would have you believe, having a cup of Joe and making small talk. Eventually the conversation between them gets more and more heated until Matt gets fed up and calls him a nutjob. You can
*feel* the white-hot rage emanating off of Frank, and *hear* the fear in Matt's voice.
- That's right, Frank's rage was so powerful it managed to, if only for a moment, scare the Man without Fear.
- Finn Cooley, an Irish mobster who was the father of one of the criminals Frank killed in the mob massacre, stabs a fellow associate in the eye with a ice pick during the funeral ceremony after saying that death was just a natural part of their business.
- Frank gets perforated with a power-drill by the Irish mobsters during his Cold-Blooded Torture.
- For animal lovers, Finn threatening to do
*double* of everything he's done to Frank to the abused pit bull Frank rescued will strike a chord, particularly Frank's horrified and desperate reaction to that threat. Thankfully, the pit bull is fine, but still... *wow.*
- Though the bastard really had it coming, Finn's death was really messy and detailed.
- Though we (thankfully) don't get to see it, the death of Frank's family is described in very grisly detail with him holding his dead daughter
*with meat spilling out of her face after being shredded by gunfire*.
- The episode ends with Matt and Elektra finding a massive hole dug in the floor of the future site of Midland Circle. Matt throws Elektra's flashlight down the hole and listens for it to hit the ground. A good eight seconds go by before Elektra asks if it has hit the ground yet, and Matt says it hasn't, she waits a few more seconds and asks for him to let her know when it does. The episode ends before we ever hear it hit the ground. By the time the episode ends, the flashlight has been falling for almost 20 seconds. For reference, a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building takes about nine seconds to hit the ground. Assuming that a flashlight is affected by gravity and air resistance in a roughly similar enough manner to a penny, then the hole they have dug is more than twice as deep as the Empire State Building is tall.
- Elektra is poisoned in the opening by a Hand ninja, and the healing process administered by Stick to save her is unpleasant as it sounds like: cracking open a hole in Elektra's abdomen and
*directly dumping the boiling cure into it*.
**Stick:** I'm gonna make her worse before I can make her better.
- Frank Castle's outburst is quite the awesome I Am What I Am speech, but as awesome as it is, it's also every bit as terrifying, especially when you take into account Nelson & Murdock's efforts to get him out alive, as well as Karen's assertion that Frank originally wanted to clear himself (as he was beginning to show in the previous episodes). Because, as it turns out, Fisk has made him an offer he can't refuse.
**Frank:** Those people? The ones I put down, the people I killed? I want you to know that I'd do it all again. ... This is a circus, all right? It's a charade, it's an act. It's bullshit about how crazy I am. ... I ain't crazy! I'm not crazy. Okay? I know what I did. I know who I am. And I do not need your help. I'm smack-dab in the middle of my right goddamn mind, and any scumbag, any... any lowlife, any maggot piece of shit that I put down, I did it... because **I LIKED IT!** Hell, I loved it! I'm sittin' here, I'm... I'm just itching. I'm itching to do it again. And you think... What, you think you're gonna send me to a nuthouse? Some doctor, they're gonna get me to stop from doing what I want to do? Well, that ain't happening! Not on my watch! You people, you call me the Punisher, ain't that right? The big bad Punisher. Well, here I am! You want it, you got it! I am the Punisher! I'm right here! You want it, I'll give it to you. And anybody who came here today to hear me whine, to hear me beg? Well, you can kiss my ass! Do you hear me? I'm guilty. Come on, please, Judge! I'm guilty, you hear me? I'm guilty! I'm guilty! I'll kill every one of 'em! I'll kill every single one!
- Elektra
*slitting the ninja's throat*- without the benefit of a Gory Discretion Shot. And he was just a kid.
- After the scene in the previous episode, Matt calls Elektra out on what she did, and how once again, she
*enjoyed* it. She still tries to brush it off as self-defense, but after Matt keeps challenging her, she reveals a horrible truth. She murdered her first person when she was twelve, and for no reason other than to see if she could. It's the moment that confirms to Matt, and the audience, that while there is some good in Elektra, Stick largely turned her into a cold-blooded sadist and borderline sociopath.
- Frank Castle's attack on Dutton, immediately followed by his savage takedown of the inmates. To amplify this, remember Matt taking down the Russians in the hallway or the Dogs of Hell in the stairwell? Difference is Frank doesn't spare his enemies. He beats nearly half of them unconscious and the others: he
, **drives a broken stick through a guy's chest,** *snaps another's neck*, split another guy's head open with a hatchet, and for the finish... By the end of it all, Frank's face is bathed in blood, and there is a skull-shaped bloodstain on his uniform. **gouges out a man's eye and slits his throat to the point where his head nearly comes off.**
- Dutton slowly dying on the operating table as his lungs fill up with blood, and Fisk sits there calmly gloating about his triumph.
- While Asshole Victim DA Reyes's death-by-assassination through a ton of firepower was pretty much in the making (plus her death was virtually papered over by subsequent events), it's hard not to scratch off her going out with Dies Wide Open, the fact that she was basically begging for forgiveness in order to keep her daughter safe, and the fact that Matt, Karen and Foggy could have been turned into salsa with her (Foggy actually sustaining an injury).
- Matt goes to see Fisk and threatens to have Vanessa barred from ever entering the United States if he doesn't confess his coercing Frank Castle to make a guilty plea. Fisk then snaps his handcuffs, grabs Matt, slams him into the table like a ragdoll and holds him up to his face with contemptuous ease:
**Wilson Fisk:** **SPEAK HER NAME AGAIN! GO AHEAD!** *[Matt punches him, and Fisk slams him into the table again*] Yes, the son of a boxer! **Matt Murdock:** You... You are running this place! Yeah, you did set him free... **Wilson Fisk:** You ask such small questions, Mr. Murdock. **Matt Murdock:** I know you're regaining power in here— **Wilson Fisk:** Yes, ask my lawyer. He'll deny it! Ask the guards, they'll deny it! Ask the inmates here! They'll cut their TONGUES out before they talk! But I have something to say to you: When I finally get out of this cage, I will dismantle the lives of the two amateurs THAT PUT ME IN HERE!! You, Mr. Murdock, and Franklin Percy Nelson! **Matt Murdock:** I put you here! Not Nelson! I did! **Wilson Fisk:** The two of you took the laurels. You'll both take the blame. I'll chop both the heads off that snake, and I'll spend more than $6 on postage to bring you down!! You see, I had a lot of time to reflect on my journey here, Mr. Murdock! My mistakes, everything I took for granted. While I try and sleep in this bleak place, the one thing that keeps me warm is the thought that I will look down upon this city, the city that *birthed me*, with the woman that I love, whom I love with *everything* that I am! If you're worried that Frank Castle will wreak havoc on Hell's Kitchen, *[throws Matt back into his seat]*... **just wait.**
- And this is one of his
*last* appearances in this season, denying us any kind of catharsis by reminding us of his current relative lack of power.
- Plus, at the end of the episode, Fisk feels his split lip (the only blow Matt managed to land during the above scene while being throttled), contemplates it for a moment and then demands to be brought his file on Matt. He's ready to declare war on Matt for his threats, something that he makes clear the first time he ever contacts Matt in season 3.
- The audience knows that this is Matt vs. Fisk, so that the fact that Fisk so easily overpowers him is a fearsome display of strength and power, except that Matt isn't there in costume. And Fisk has no idea who hes really dealing with. Which means Fisk just pulled out his full strength to beat up a civilian blind man, which is somehow more terrifying.
- Just before Fisk snaps his handcuff he is
*snarling* at Matt. Showing that Fisk is still just an angry thug that will kill you if you push his buttons.
- The scene where Claire Temple sees the kids controlled by The Hand, standing there motionless, with a dead body to their feet (which happens to be the
*father* of one of the kids, no less). Then they slowly look up at her, while the alarm blares and the hallway lights continue to flicker on and off.
- There's a moment during the diner shootout that's worth paying attention to. At the point when Frank is stabbing that one guy repeatedly with a knife, the scene cuts to Karen taking cover, and she covers her mouth in horror listening to the stabbing. That one shot drives home the realism and brutality: that the Punisher is not a hero. He's a monster who destroys other monsters. If you didn't have the context of the scene, you'd think Karen was hiding from a villain.
- In his attempt at putting down Nobu (who just killed Elektra inadvertently), Matt has essentially broken his
and he had no idea Nobu would survive this. Stick was eventually the one who finished him. **rule by throwing Nobu off the building,**
- In fact, Season 2 had been all about Matt's struggle with the desire to kill and his deep religious belief against killing. Frank Castle challenged him on a real world practical level. He dealt with the issue of how the justice system is simply not able to handle these criminals and how the police simply can't stop them from hurting innocent people. Elektra challenged Matt on a personal level. She dealt with the fact that Matt actually enjoys beating the shit out of people. Remember what Matt said in the very beginning of the show about "letting the devil" out? Elektra is always unrestrained and she brings that side out in Matt. The season 2 finale was the culmination of the conflict. Matt let the devil out, and confirmed Frank Castle's "You're one bad day away from being me" remark from earlier in the season.
- The Stinger of the series is The Hand robbing Elektra's corpse and beginning the resurrection process.
*The Defenders* shows the rest of the resurrection process in full detail.
## Season 3
- Matt's dark new outlook throughout Season 3. A man who has gone through hardship after hardship, endured tragedy after tragedy, who has only kept his resolve due to his faith (which he basically loses in the beginning) finally hits his breaking point after seemingly losing everything. The season goes to show how terrifying Matt can be when he basically has nothing to lose as he resorts to more and more brutal methods to get at Fisk and kill him. In short, this is what Frank meant when he said that Matt was really one bad day away from becoming just like him.
- Benjamin Dex Poindexter. A born psychopath with Improbable Aiming Skills, as a twelve year old, he kills his baseball coach - who was not only constantly kind to him but encouraged his talents - all because Coach Bradley wouldnt let him finish pitching a game (which in itself was only so other kids could get a chance to play). He is then assigned a therapist, Dr. Eileen Mercer, who quickly diagnoses him with borderline personality disorder, psychopathic tendencies, and significant lack of empathy as he admits to not feeling any remorse for killing his coach and believed he deserved it for benching him. As an adult, Dex becomes an FBI agent who has a constant record of using lethal force. When saving Fisk from being killed, he knowingly murders two hit men who already were surrendering, then uses ejected gun clips like daggers to kill another group. Fisk, seeing his potential, begins to subtly manipulate Dex into becoming his personal The Dragon with his first assignment being massacring a good chunk of the staff at the
*Bulletin* while wearing Matts Daredevil suit, before killing off Jasper Evans. A tormented, sociopathic monster who enjoys killing, Dex is easily one of the most terrifying villains of the MCU.
- Something particularly scary about him is that no reason is given for him to present such a threat, sure his accuracy is explained and while Matt might have the edge in hand-to-hand combat, the gap isn't nearly as wide as it should be. Matt was trained by the Chaste and was shown to match the Iron Fist, the Black Sky and any of the Five Fingers; he should be able to make short work of someone who (supposedly) only has the standard training of a soldier or an FBI agent, but Dex
*always* beats him, the implication being that he's such an Inexplicably Awesome perfect killing machine just because he's meant to be and his violence, focus and insanity allowed him to be so. note : Though some of that also has to do with Matt not being in 100% fighting shape. He spends season 3 recovering from his Midland Circle injuries, and one can argue that he'd stand a much fairer chance against Dex in any fight if he were at the top of his game
- Even worse? Dex
*tries* to be good, clings to anything and everything he can to keep himself from becoming the complete, unrepentant, unstoppable monster he knows he can be. And Fisk methodically takes away every pillar that props up Dex's failing morality. Eventually, Dex just gives up and embraces his utter amorality, to a degree that even *Fisk* is left worried.
- Much like when Matt lost his hearing when he got shot by Frank, the audio makes us feel what Matt is going through as he's lost partial hearing in his right ear.
- That stuff about people becoming savages in prison from season 2? Let's see it again, this time with Jasper Evans shanking Fisk for snitching.
- Jasper Evans has been paid by Fisk to shank him as part of his plan to manipulate the FBI. But that makes some other things about the scene terrifying in retrospect. After Jasper shanks Fisk, Fisk overpowers him, pins him to the ground with a barbell, and while, in hindsight, he looks like he's about to bludgeon him to death with a giant weight (ostensibly so that Jasper can't testify to being paid off). Ultimately, Fisk settles for dropping the weight on the floor a few feet away from Jasper's head. Of course, Fisk is putting on a show to create a false paper trail in case anyone questions how he got out of prison, but we don't know how much information Jasper was told beyond "shank Wilson Fisk nonfatally and make it look like he's being targeted for snitching, and you will be spirited out of the prison". If that's all he was told, then the terrified look on his face is likely because he thinks Fisk is reneging on the payment he was promised.
- The sequence that introduces Dex involves Fisk's FBI convoy being ambushed, like in the season 1 finale. But this time, it's not one of his own making, but rather is the Albanians that want revenge on Fisk for ratting them out. The entire scene plays out from Fisk's POV. He is left trapped in his car, hanging upside down by his shackles, and can only watch as the Albanians gun down his FBI escorts outside. Fisk frantically tries to break the bolt linking his restraints to the floor, succeeding after a struggle. By the time Dex emerges out of nowhere to kill the assailants, the attackers are already preparing to saw the doors off of Fisk's car.
- It's also rare to see Fisk looking terrified, because while Jasper Evans' shanking
*was* planned, this is the one variable in his carefully orchestrated release plan that he didn't plan for. And if not for Dex's intervention, Fisk could've died.
- We get a brief moment establishing Dex's ruthlessness when he uses a disassembled gun's parts as daggers to kill a pair of assailants who are actively surrendering.
- The Albanians that Fisk snitched on apparently have all the markings of a very ruthless bunch, which makes it no wonder why Fisk picked them of all people to sell to Nadeem (among other reasons):
**Ray Nadeem:** You're right. Wilson Fisk is a piece of shit. After every time I'm in the room with the guy, I want a shower. But let's talk about the Albanians for a minute, what they have done. Four dead NYPD officers, 12 more riding desks with disabilities. One hundred and seven civilian murders. And even after five task forces over seven years, to the tune of $11 million, we got zero. Those are some shitty numbers. But here's another one: with Fisk's intel, we beheaded the Albanian syndicate in one day. One single day. No loss of life, no injuries, no mayhem.
- How much long-term planning does Fisk have? He's come up with an elaborate scheme just on the off-chance that one of the lawyers who put him away visits the prison. His loyal guards and inmates lure Matt into an exam room, where the nurse then proceeds to inject Matt with a sedative. While Matt is catching his breath after disarming the nurse, the phone in the exam room rings. Matt goes over to the phone and nervously picks it up.
**Wilson Fisk:** You're not Franklin Nelson. **Matt Murdock:** *[swallows]* ...Fisk. **Wilson Fisk:** It's quite something to see. For a blind man, you have very impressive reflexes, *Mr. Murdock*. **Matt Murdock:** What was I injected with? **Wilson Fisk:** Do you remember the last time that we spoke? *[Matt faces the camera and nods slowly, knowing Fisk is referring to their exchange from after Castle's escape]* You said that for the cost of postage, you could prevent my reunion with the only person who gives my life meaning. The only person that I love. And I would've let bygones be bygones. But you didn't just threaten me. *You threatened Vanessa!* And that is something that I cannot forgive. **Matt Murdock:** Listen to me very carefully- *[there's a click as Fisk abruptly hangs up]*
- Next thing Matt knows, he's being ambushed by about a half-dozen inmates working for Fisk. While he manages to fight them all off, it is quite a brutal struggle for him. Then he has to take down two dirty guards, negotiate with Vic Jusufi, and have one of Vic's men disguise himself as a guard to escort Matt out through a chaotic riot set off by Fisk's men. The sedatives take effect and Matt passes out just as he gets back in the cab.
- It doesn't end there. When Matt comes around, he finds that the driver who brought him there has been replaced by another of Fisk's henchmen. Seconds later, the driver bails out and the driverless cab drives into the water, taking Matt with it.
- The tone in Fisk's voice when Matt answers the phone implies that he was expecting Foggy to be there, not Matt. Its chilling to think of the idea that Fisk had something planned for Foggy, someone with none of Matt's fighting prowess.
- Fisk's newest plan to strike back at the people who put him away: he sends Dex in a Daredevil costume to attack Karen at the
*Bulletin*. Dex enters and immediately kills several reporters and maims a few others.
- Right out of "Born Again", we get a scene of Fisk sitting in a dark room full of TV monitors reporting on the attack, and a Psychotic Smirk forming on his face as he admires the success of Dex's work.
- Just how well thought out has Fisk planned his gambit to frame Matt? He's predicted that Matt would go to Melvin as soon as he realized who made the suit, and had Melvin make a second suit for Matt to be caught with. And had an FBI SWAT team stationed right outside for when Matt shows up.
- The nightmare Karen had of Fisk in her apartment coming to kill her after she killed Wesley was terrifying enough. But it was just foreshadowing the inevitable: her decision to confront Fisk directly and provoke him into trying to kill her to violate his parole. The atmosphere of the scene is best described by Deborah Ann Woll:
**Deborah Ann Woll:**
I killed his best friend. He doesnt know it yet, thats a good thing. It was funny, they kept saying, Play the paranoia. We definitely want to work up the paranoia. Its not paranoia if its real! If hes really going to kill you if he finds out, thats not paranoia. Thats real fear. We definitely play with that. I finally got to do a scene with Vincent and it was fantastic. We were both so excited because he killed my Ben Urich and I killed his James Wesley so we have a mutual hate, I guess. Very Shakespearean mutual disgust for each other. But as actors, I think we both have tremendous respect for each other and the opportunity to get to play with him in this brilliantly flamboyant performance he gives, which is very much a contrast to Karen. So it was great to get both of those energies in a room and see how they play off each other. It was a great day. There was like a snowstorm out when we shot it. We felt very much like we were all stuck in this little sound stage, the winds were roaring outside, emotions were roaring inside. It was cool.
- Kudos for Deborah Ann Woll for how menacing and scary she can sound as she brings up Wesley's death. Even it pales to Fisk's rage.
**Karen Page:** He died quickly...if you were wondering. Didnt suffer much. You see, Wilson, Matt Murdock isnt the person you should be worried about. *I* killed Wesley. *I shot him seven times... * **Because the clip ran OUT! HE DESERVED MORE!** (Fisk unleashes a scream of primal fury, ready to TEAR HER APART) ** **
- When Fisk gets angry its usually like a spark. As seen in cases like Anatoly's death, it goes off, does its thing for brief moment, and then disappears. Here
we see Fisk just fuming with rage as Karen gloats to him about her killing of Wesley, and when he gets up you almost really believe that he is going to kill Karen just like he did Ben. But fortunately the FBI comes in and escorts her out thanks to Foggy's arrival.
- Foggy later points out that if her plan had worked, its very likely that the agents would not have made it in time to save her from Fisk. Karen doesn't say anything to counter this.
- It's worse than that. We later learn that the FBI guards are already in Fisk's pocket, so it's likely that if not for Foggy's intervention, Fisk would have beaten Karen to death then had them get rid of the body, and maybe do with her body what he does Julie.
- Fisk's murder of Julie Barnes. It comes into this because of its detached, inhuman depiction. We see it all unfold as Fisk watches it on a video camera he had installed in her apartment. She arrives home, finds two "handymen" in her hallway, and gets half a question out before she's shot in the head. No build up, no drama. Just alive to dead in two seconds. Then the guys proceed to wrap her in plastic for removal like it's nothing, like they're cleaning up a normal painting job and nothing else, as Felix Manning picks up Julie's phone and flashes it to the camera. Equally chilling is Fisk's non-reaction to watching it all. There's nothing but cold satisfaction in his eyes the whole time.
- This scene rams home just how terrifying Fisk's influence has become, how ubiquitous and just how little he values human life. Julie is a "problem" to him, so he has her popped like he's swatting a fly. And how did he know? Because he has Mrs. Shelby hack the security camera feed from a coffee shop Dex and Julie met in.
- Which is the sole reason he orders her killed. She had a
*single meeting* with Dex, promised him nothing other than she would talk to him, and so Fisk decides she has to die. *That's* how easy it is to get on Fisk's bad side. And you'll never know you are, until it's too late.
- To make things worse, in the finale episode, we see Fisk has literally put Julie's body in a freezer...and the bodies of the two hitmen hired to kill her. No loose ends.
- Ray meets up with Agent Hattley and her supervisor to out Dex and Fisk's manipulations. Except, Dex is not the only agent working for Fisk. Hattley is, too. And that's only apparent when Hattley suddenly picks up Ray's gun and shoots Winn to death with it.
**Tammy Hattley:** *[in fake distress]*
"No! Ray! Put down the gun! Please!"
*[stops the recording]*
Damn you, Ray. You bring this into my house? My home?!
*[points Ray's gun at him]*
Sit down. Sit!
*[Ray slowly sits down, shaking uncontrollably. Felix Manning emerges from the basement and enters the room with an evidence baggie]* **Felix Manning:** *[bags up...]*
Your prints, your weapon, the recording. Do I need to explain to you what this means?
*[Ray stares at Felix, wide-eyed]*
Answer my question, please. Do you understand your situation now?
**Tammy Hattley:**
Ray? You get this?
**Ray Nadeem:** *[swallows]*
Yeah, boss. I understand.
**Tammy Hattley:** I'm not your boss anymore. Wilson Fisk is.
- And on rewatch, you realize there are several glaring red flags that tell you something bad's going to happen: the room is all covered in plastic, like it's a kill room, just like with Julie.
- Now blackmailed, Nadeem walks into a conference room and finds it of terrified-looking FBI agents. He blanches, and the music takes on a very ominous note, as he, and the audience, realize that with the exception of Dex,
*every* agent in this room is being blackmailed by Fisk in some way. And all of them, Dex included, are following Fisk's agenda, not the FBI's.
- How did Hattley get mixed up in all this?
*Fisk killed one of her kids*. In fact, she's been in his pocket for so long that not even close colleagues like Ray, who's worked for her for the last ten years, remember that she used to *have* two kids. **Ray Nadeem:**
So what was it? Money? I've known you for ten years, for Christ's sakes.
**Tammy Hattley:**
Shut your goddamn mouth!
**Ray Nadeem:**
Or what? You'll frame me for another murder?
**Tammy Hattley:**
Keep your head forward. There's no mics in here, but you know they're watching.
**Ray Nadeem:**
You murdered Winn. How do you live with that?
**Tammy Hattley:**
I killed him to save your life. That's right. This is on you. I didn't tell you to break into Dex's apartment. I would've stopped you, and you wouldn't be here. But here you are.
**Ray Nadeem:**
I can't believe you want this. We made this happen. We can find a way to end it.
**Tammy Hattley:** There's no way out, Ray. Fisk's had you marked for more than a year. **Ray Nadeem:** What do you mean, "had me marked"? **Tammy Hattley:**
Why do you think your sister-in-law lost health coverage? He made you desperate for this job, you did everything you could to get him this penthouse, get him everything he asked for.
Like I said, there's no way out. We're out of our league here.
*[they exit the elevator on the floor where Fisk's secret "war room" is]* **Ray Nadeem:**
You could've gone to Homeland Security or the NYPD. Not take me down with you. Not murder an agent. You make a report. You get your family somewhere safe.
**Tammy Hattley:**
That's not an option with Fisk. I used to have two children, Ray. They made it look like a hit-and-run. I got a divorce. Maybe that keeps him a little safer. But there's still Allie, so think about Seema and Sami. And do what Fisk tells you.
- Remember how the season 1 finale sorta hinted that Fisk had an FBI higher-up in his back pocket who was responsible for giving his men the necessary information to ambush his convoy and attempt to free him? Well, this conversation pretty much establishes that Hattley probably was that insider.
- And as it turns out, Fisk has managed to manipulate Foggy for a good amount of time,
*using the same moves he's used to manipulate Nadeem*. He directed the suppliers to stop doing business with the shop, causing them to lose money and end up in financial ruin, where Theo would be unable to get a loan from any of the banks because he didn't have enough collateral. Then Fisk had Red Lion swoop in to the rescue and give Theo some crooked financial advice, and trick him into being creative with his books to secure a loan. Its bad enough to put Theo in prison, and even worse, is that Fisk managed to get Foggy's parents to also sign the loan. Thanks to Fisk taking advantage of Foggy's family's desperation, Foggy either has to bow out of the DA race or see his family go to jail. You can hear Foggy cursing under his breath at the mere mention of Red Lion.
- Fisk arranges a meeting with all of the rival crime lords. One particular mouthy one, Everett Starr, protests the 20% protection tax Fisk wants to impose on all of them. Dex promptly walks in, wearing his Daredevil suit, and beans him in the forehead with a baton. Its a subtle, but intimidating show of power that Fisk has even got "Daredevil" working for him. Starr's body falls face forward on the table, and as blood pools across the table from the fresh wound, Fisk calmly looks at the blood and down at his own hands.
- The suddenness of Karen's car accident. She's taken her eyes off the road to look at Kevin, only for Kevin to shout "Watch out!" Karen looks back in time for the car to hit a guardrail, launch into the air, then flip over three times before coming to a rest on its roof. Karen is briefly knocked out by the impact, while Kevin is instantly killed.
- Dex's entry to the church as he prepares to attack Karen. He looks like a character from a horror movie.
**Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter:** *[tapping his baton on the sides of the pews as he advances towards the pulpit]* Where. Is. Karen. Page?
- When Karen finally does reveal herself (as Dex begins attacking innocent parishioners to lure her out of hiding), he uses the exact same "Hello, Karen. It's nice to see you again" line he used in the
*Bulletin* attack.
- It turns out that behind Fisk's back, Dex has gone to Mrs. Falb's brownstone, killed her, and stolen the "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" painting. A spot of blood on the edge of the frame is all we (and Fisk) need to see to know what exactly happened. It becomes clear to Fisk that Dex has gotten to a point where he has become a liability, moreso when Dex introduces himself to Vanessa claiming to be "the new James Wesley".
- Like in the season 1 finale, some civilians have the misfortune of being nearby when Fisk's men ambush the police van that is carrying Matt and Nadeem to the courthouse. Imagine being stuck in a traffic jam when people with automatic guns begin opening fire around you and you have no way to escape.
- Turns out Fisk anticipated Nadeem going to a grand jury, and manages to do some speed-chess to coerce all the jurors. It renders Nadeem so paranoid that he decides to knock Foggy out in the bathroom and flee to his home, record a video confessing everything, and just resign himself to his fate when Dex comes by to kill him.
- The fact that its not Fisk who orders Nadeem's death but
*Vanessa herself*. Confirmation that she is just as evil and amoral as him.
- Matt is arguably at his breaking point in this episode. First, he interrogates Felix Manning by dangling him over a rooftop, which breaks his leg from the sudden stop. He then sends Dex on a bloody warpath after Fisk by revealing Fisk murdered his Morality Pet Julie. And in regards to the man himself, he is dead set on killing Fisk, so he's setting Dex toward an objective that he intends to deny him anyway. One gets the feeling that the Arc Words of the Murdock boys being cursed isn't just for dramatic effect.
- It says a lot that Matt gets Felix Manning (a man who has been shown to be one of the few people loyal to Fisk out of some degree of respect rather than just fear) to flip on Fisk in the first place. As you may remember from Healy, Fisk is the kind of person many people would rather commit suicide then give him up, but Matts brutal interrogation of Felix has Felix rather take his chance with Fisk rather then endure Matts torture.
*That's* Matt when he's in a bad mood.
- Let this one sink in for a minute: Matt turns Dex loose on Fisk's hotel just as a distraction so Matt could have a better chance of getting to Fisk. Either Dex takes out a significant chunk of Fisk's FBI protection, or the FBI is too busy fighting off Dex to stop Matt. And if (as it did in the end) it does end up as a Mêlée à Trois between Matt, Fisk, and Dex, that works to Matt's advantage, too. Stone cold manipulation worthy of a true sociopath, and how many innocent people were in Dex's way before he got to Fisk? Matt's damn lucky Dex didn't happen to be in a massacre mood.
- When Dex shows up at Fisk's wedding, he drives into the garage, wearing the Daredevil suit with a smile... and Julie's frozen body in the passenger seat. Whatever control Dex has over his madness is completely gone, and he now truly is Bullseye.
- Fisk breaking Dex's back on a wall's corner can be painful to watch (even if Dex totally deserved it). Especially the snap sound it makes.
- After the final fight, Matt furiously declares that Fisk will be facing life in prison, and that if he is to harm anyone else again, Vanessa's role in Nadeem's death will be revealed and she too will be in jail. And, while Fisk's fate is well deserved, just the sheer amount of
*rage* in Matt's voice can send chills down one's bones. It really does show how far the guy's been pushed, after so long of being tormented. Beware the Nice Ones to its purest core. **Wilson Fisk:**
No prison can keep me. You know that.
*Come on! Kill me!!* **Matt Murdock:** *No!*
God knows I want to, but you don't get to
*destroy who I am!*
You will go
*back*
to prison, and you will live the rest of your
*miserable life,*
in a cage! Knowing that you'll
*never*
have Vanessa, that this city...
*rejected you*
! It
*beat you!* **I!! BEAT YOU!!!** *[Matt unmasks himself in front of Fisk]* **Matt Murdock:**
You keep my secret
...and you won't harm Karen Page, or Foggy Nelson. Or anyone else. Because if you do...
*I * **will** go after your wife.
And I will prove Vanessa...ordered the murder of Agent Ray Nadeem. And like her husband, she will spend the rest of her life in a cell. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Daredevil2015 |
Danganronpa Class Switch / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked according to Spoilers Off policy. You have been warned.** **Part 1 - Hope's Peak Academy**
### Original
- Like with canon, the murders get progressively worse and worse, debatably to an even more extreme degree:
- The executions here are just as brutal as in canon, if not
*more* so:
- Case 1:"Despair Tribe Sacrifice Festival" Korekiyo is bound up to a large wooden pole placed upon a podium and surrounded by Monokuma wearing stereotypical tribal gear and brandishing different weapons. 2 Monokuma then leap off a giant statue behind Korekiyo and start stripping him down. After that, the Monokuma start repeatedly lashing Korekiyo senselessly, beating him with countless whip after countless whip. When the Monokuma are finished whipping him, the statues mouth opens up to release a giant hive of scarabs who seem poised to swarm and sting him to death, however instead, they end up
*invading his orifice inside him and * before having his corpse desecrated by having magma poured on it. **eating him alive from the inside out.**
- Even worse? This execution takes a page from One Woman Army and has Rantaro attempt to rescue Korekiyo from the execution, only to be caught in the cross fire. While he's never put in mortal danger, Monokuma makes it
**very clear** that Rantaro's minor injuries were there only warning regarding what happens if you interfere with an execution.
- There's also the excrutiating detail given to how Korekiyo's killed by the scarabs. Rantaro's description of what happened to Korekiyo as the insects ate him is nauseating.
**Rantaro's Thoughts:** Korekiyo's screams became unbearable to listen to as the horde of scarabs began mauling at his innards. Blood began streaming from his nose, mouth and even ears as his body became riddled with countless, almost microscopic holes as his eyes began to become bloodshot from the damage they were incurring.
- Case 2: "Paint It Red" Angie's execution is almost, if not just as torturous as her canonical killer's. Placed in front of a canvas on a stage and wielding a paint brush, Angie is tasked with creating a painting, the twist? She doesn't have any paint, so Monokuma draws markings on her back and forcefully takes control of her body. At that point she is forced to stab herself to use her own blood as paint, stabbing herself again when she runs out of blood on the brush. Of note is that it's stated that she stabbed herself in the eye. When she's still alive after finishing the painting, Monokuma ultimately forces her to slit her own throat as the final blow.
- Case 3: "The Chess Master" Kokichi is restrained to a chair with barbed wire and set in front of a table. Monokuma then descends to the other side of the table. Forced to play a game of chess with Monokuma, Kokichi has a numbered collar counting 16 placed around his neck. As they play Kokichi has the upper hand, however when Kokichi is forced to lose a piece, his collar electrocutes him. As the game continues, Kokichi winds up losing more and more pieces, forcing him to endure more shocks, which, due to the barbed wire, is extra painful. Eventually Kokichi finally manages to come out on top, barely. With that Monokuma slides Kokichi a bento box for him to eat from. Just as Kokichi takes a bite from it, the food is revealed to be poisoned, and Kokichi is left puking up blood and keeling over when the poison finally kills him.
- Case 4: "Dead Woman Walking", After getting her hand cut off before she's taken away, Maki is suspended in an execution chamber as Monokuma prepares to execute her via lethal injection. As Monokuma stabs her with drug injected needles, Maki escapes the chamber, slashing the Monokuma in two. She escapes into a hall full of jail cells and an army prison guard Monokuma, as she fights through all of them. She eventually reaches the roof, where she's met with 2 armed helicopters as the Monokuma army catches up to her, however as she begins to fight them, the drugs injected in her begin to kick in as the Monokumas begin to overpower her, eventually impaling her on her own katana, causing her to fall back down. To finish her off, the helicopters launch missiles at the building, finally killing her.
- Case 5: "Swan Song", Sure, Kaede survives in the end, but her execution is still horrifying. She's brought to a stage where she's forced to play for an audience of Monokumas. While she starts fine, once she screws up, the Monokumas begin to start Produce Pelting her. As she continues to make more mistakes, the Monokumas switch to throwing things like knives and other blunt objects. As this naturally causes her to screw more, the known objects only become more and more numerous. Finally, the Monokumas cover her in gasoline before attempting to Kill It with Fire.
- Case 6: "The Ultimate Punishment", Kaito is put through every single one of the previous executions, with some special mentions going to being pierced by a giant spear in Angie's and crushed by an asteroid in Maki's, before being disemboweled by a horde of Monokuma that tried to incinerate Kaede.
- The first motive is revealed at the end of the second deadly life chapter, naturally, Rantaro's captives are his 12 younger sisters that he's grown to call family. Given that Tsubaki, the oldest of them, is directly stated by Rantaro to be 14, it is likely that the vast majority of his siblings, aren't even teenagers.
- The first attempt at killing done within the game is Miu, attempting to have tried lashing Kokichi to death with an electric whip, even if he's a bratty Jerkass, no one deserves to die for that reason. Fortunately, Gonta is able to diffuse the situation.
- Tenko ends up being an unwitting Spanner in the Works to Korekiyo's murder plan, as she was in the room with Kirumi while Korekiyo made his attack, forcing him to knock her out so that his murder plan would work. Imagine how powerless Tenko felt after it happened, knowing that a murder occured in the room you were in, and that you couldn't do anything to prevent it.
- Korekiyo's motive is more noble than in canon. He wanted to make sure that his terminally ill sister was still alive and take care of her. However there's Fridge Horror that stems from this. Given that she's heavily implied to still be alive, it's more than likely she's on the Warriors of Hope's hitlist. If this is the case, then odds are that she's essentially a sitting duck with no way to protect herself.
- It's Played for Laughs but Rantaro shows of some pretty unnerving expressions, almost on par with Kokichi in canon.
- Angie's secret, Her island's traditions meant that she was forced to participate in Human Sacrifice rituals, if her secret ever got out then her island would have likely executed her for letting this secret. Her willingness to kill Kaito and condemn the entire class, including Tenko and Himiko to death? It was all done out of fear that she herself would face that fate should her secret get leaked.
- With the revelation that Kaito is the mastermind, it's also revealed that the one that Angie murdered was Tsumugi. Turns out that she discovered Kaito's secret was that he was working with the mastermind. Whether or not she knew that Tsumugi was Kaito in disguise, or Angie just thought he betrayed the group for his own benefit is to be debated, but it's possible she was so angry with Kaito for taking advantage of the class' trust, that she decided to kill him.
- One also has to think about Tsumugi's last moments. Going from Kaito's dialogue in Chapter 6, he didn't intend on Tsumugi dying within the game, and was possibly willing to save her if they killed another student. Given that information, one can only imagine what Tsumugi was thinking as they wer dying... Assuming that she was even awake to begin with.
- As part of Kokichi's murder plan, he ends up causing a blackout throughout the entire school in order to bait Kiibo to the physics lab, so their accomplice, Maki can murder Kiibo so he can't reveal the crime to the rest of the group, instantly incriminating him. Having it done in a small room like in the second game is bad enough, but Hope's Peak had almost half of it's floor's already opened, a power outage like that, coupled with a temperature spike? At least one of the more astute students would have figured out that a murder was occuring, and yet they were probably either too afraid or physically incapable of preventing the crime, due to their body temperature.
- Kokichi's backstory is pretty scary as well. Not only was he apparently abused by his dad, driving him to the streets, there's also the matter of the group he formed. While in canon, 'DICE' was just a bunch of harmless pranksters, here there an out and out wannabe criminal syndicate as stated by Kokichi, where they would consistently burndown places like abandoned buildings, and also burgled people's houses. If that along with his cold blooded killing of Himiko doesn't bury his status to the rest of the students as a harmless prankster 6 feet under, nothing will.
- When Maki realizes that Rantaro knows she's The Mole, she threatens to lock him in a room only the two of them know about and let him starve if he doesn't agree to keep quiet about it.
- Even after she's voted guilty, Maki refuses to go out gracefully, launching an attack against Rantaro, not only the person closest to her on the podiums, but also the one who largely incriminated her. She only stops when Rantaro has to forcefully disarm her by
*cutting her hand off.*
- Maki's predicament that was caused by Monokuma's hostage motive. Not only did she have to worry about the fact that Monokuma was holding her students, who she legitimately cared about, hostage. But she also had to choose between saving them, or her teacher, who, if her words are anything to go by, acted as a surrogate father to her. It doesn't justify everything she did over the course of the killing game, but who wouldn't panic being put in her position?
- During Rantaro and Shuichi's investigation around the school for information about Tsumugi, they end up discovering a skeleton inside what is revealed to be her room turned into Kiibo's for the killing game. Who does it belong to? Why is it there? How long has it been dead? None of this is explained.
- Monokuma's motive for the class in this Chapter is a doozie. Remember the motive videos in Chapter 1? Well guess what? Since the majority of the people who those motives were given to them are dead, Monokuma's going to kill their hostages to satisfy is bloodlust if another murder doesn't occur! Given that it's mentioned by Rantaro that he was at least on good terms with Korekiyo's sister, who's to say that this was Monokuma's attempt at axing the person who'd been the biggest thorn in his side so far?
- Shuichi ends up conducting a plan with Rantaro and Kaede separately in an attempt to pull one over on the mastermind. His true plan involves faking his own death to get Kaede falsely convicted as a blackened so that Monokuma violates his own rules, while also hacking into the school database to rescue Kaede from her execution. How does he do this? Making it look like he was
*killed in an explosion* by taking the skeleton from inside Tsumugi's room, shoving it inside Kiibo's body, and detonating the latter.
- Rantaro ends up getting an up close and personal look at Korekiyo's body after his execution. It's not pleasant.
- Rantaro, Kaede and Shuichi end up finding Jin's skeleton inside a coffin within his Dormitory, Unlike in canon, his eyes were also left intact after his execution, leaving his corpse with a dead eyed stare as his eyes are practically bulging in there sockets. Jeez...
- Miu ends up having a complete breakdown near the start of the trial, after it's become clear how much the game has damaged her psyche. She's reduced to a screaming wreck bemoaning how the other's can act rationally after everything that the game has done to them.
- The Mastermind's identity is revealed to be Kaito Momota, the one who got murdered by Angie was Tsumugi disguised as him. Junko in canon while not being a complete jerk was still rather blunt and a little rude to the other students, resulting in her being somewhat difficult to get on with. Kaito in canon is an out and out nice guy, and is able to maintain that guise while at Hope's Peak and even when Tsumugi was disguised as him, allowing the class to be effortlessly manipulated because of it.
### Remake
**Part 2 - Jabberwock Island** | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaClassSwitch |
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The rather graphic description of Makoto being stabbed by a Gungnir spear can be this, especially considering how fond of him the reader probably is. *As that thought entered his mind, a sharp, sudden impact struck his side, followed by an intense, deathly pain that ran down his spine and spread throughout his entire body. The spear stabbed into his side, instantly tore his flesh to shreds, and shot out his back, coated in blood and other bodily fluids. At that moment, the black fog that had engulfed Makoto's mind was consumed by death itself, and as his consciousness slowly faded, he remembered everything.*
- Oh, and let's add in Genocide Jack's commentary about the gory aftermath for good measure.
*"Huuuuuuh? Big Mac, you're like, totally about to die. What's the deal? Did the world fill you with so much despair that you all came here to commit mass suicide? That's so hot! But why are you starting without me!?"* *"T-Toko?" cried Aoi, "Get ahold of yourself!!"* *Genocide Jack ignored Aoi and let her emotions run unchecked, jumping and dancing with excitement as she held her scissors.* *"Agh, jeez! I wanted to stab Big Mac's side myself! This spot right here, where the ribs are kinda showin' already! H-He's not even screaming right now, though! Wh-Wh-What does that mean!? Oh well, maybe I can just get used to this feeling of alienation instead. Haha...hahahahahahahaha."* | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavocIf |
Dark Forces Saga / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- In a moment of
*"what the hell, developers?"*, the corpses from the second mission of the first game are, upon inspection, sprite copies of the charred corpses of *Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru*, after the Imperial visit to the Lars home in Episode IV.
- In the first Dark Forces, Kyle has just defeated the first Phase II Dark Trooper and is now escaping the facility. The only way out is through a dark, narrow hallway filled with the occasional Phase Is. The frantic music is pumping, the gas mask that was put on while placing the charges may still be on and in addition to its respirator adding to the atmosphere, you can hear the sound of metal feet on the metal ground throughout.
- In the first Dark Forces walking through a dark sewer with very little light and no idea when a Dianoga will jump out.
- Stage One Dark Troopers. They look like walking metal skeletons with swords and are partially bulletproof. And Lordy, those things are
*fast*!
- Kell dragons. They're the size of tanks, they're practically unkillable (especially in
*Jedi Knight*, where bullets *deflect off their scales*), and they sport gruesome Slasher Smiles.
- What's worse, in both encounters you'll have with them the developers specifically made sure it would be as nerve-wracking as possible. The first is in Jerec's palace, where you'll ride a long elevator down into a large room. As soon as the elevator touches down a door opens and the beast lumbers out at you. You can force jump up to safety on a narrow ledge just above it but you won't have enough explosives to kill it at this point. The only way out is to go inside the creature's holding pen and push a button on the wall that summons the elevator at an
*agonizingly* slow rate. The second encounter is in a later level when you're exploring the Valley of the Jedi. After dropping down a shaft you fall into a dark pit. Stormtrooper body parts are scattered all around and before long you'll hear the sound of not one, but *two* Kell dragons. You'll need to either kill both of them or evade them long enough to find a way out of the dark pit in order to progress.
- Gran and Trandoshans, who serve as Elite Mooks in
*Dark Forces* before assuming a more prominent role in the early levels of *Jedi Knight*. Trandoshans can easily kill you from as much as an eighth of a mile away with their plasma-loaded "concussion rifles", while Gran toss grenades down on you from high platforms or windows.
- Gamorrean guards, at least after they Take a Level in Badass in
*Jedi Knight*. Their evil piglike grunts are intimidating enough without those nasty battle-axes, which they can swing with deceptive speed. A couple of swings is enough to whittle your health down considerably, especially since melee attacks bypass your shields.
- Boc is probably the most unnerving of all of Jerec's followers in
*Jedi Knight*. Not only does he wield *two* lightsabers at once, but he jumps around so frantically (and so high) while fighting you that it's easy to get caught from behind. That, and he's definitely The Hyena of Jerec's crew, creepily giggling and cackling nonstop until you finally slaughter him - and even then, he continues laughing until he finally chokes on his last breath.
- Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith have the Drugons, giant carnivorous fish which can kill you in one bite, can swim faster than you (if you're not using Force Speed), and may spot you from afar.
- That creepy-ass face in the 'Mysteries Of The Sith' loading screen that stares at you with those blank, empty eyes. This thing appears in every loading screen so you had better get used to it. Wondering what it is? Well good luck figuring it out, because you won't
- It's possible it's one of those eerie statues on Drommund Kaas, but it's hard to tell for sure
- The final three levels of 'MOTS'. Hoo boy
- First, there's the swamps of Drommund Kaas. Right as you start you're in a big area with lots of shadows, creepy sound-effects, lightning flashing, and an ominous statue watching you. If you try to approach the statue, it's eyes glow white and a forcefield appears, stopping you from passing
- Then there's the Sith Temple, the entire reason Kyle came here. It's important to note that this game implemented the use of coloured lighting a lot, so the result in some cases was that things were murky and dark on purpose, with thin shafts of light coming through from cracks in the walls and ceilings. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the Sith Temple
- And THEN there's the Sith Temple Catacombs. God, it just doesn't end. Eerie sounds in the distance that sound like agonised shrieks, viciously powerful monsters lurking behind every corner, the fact that the very area itslf is crumbling and decaying, like some massive long-dead animal ready to collapse at any moment. You get this incredible feeling of utter isolation and death all around you, not just that you might die, but that the land itself is anticipating your demise
- The Sith Zombies (exclusive to this final level) deserve a special mention, as does the area you encounter them. You're walking down a long, dimly lit corridor, and in the distance you can see what looks like one of unmoving the statues that you've seen so many times before, you're almost bored by them. Then suddenly, it spins around, pulling a full 180 to face you head-on. It's almost comical how fast it moves. Then the walls explode, and the Sith Zombies emerge
- Skeletal corpses, groaning quietly, shambling along in the darkness, spamming Force Lightning on your ass. Think you'll enjoy killing them after that? Think again, because their death animation is their bodies falling apart piece by piece, while letting out one final gutteral, aching moan
- Jedi Academy has the Sand Burrowers on Blenjeel, which can swallow you whole from underneath your feet if you're not careful and stand on the sand for too long. And that level is overpopulated with them, and you can hear them roaring constantly throughout the mission. They also have a very unsettling appearance, having multiple rows of teeth and no eyes. Even worse, some of the parts you need to collect to repair your ship are sitting right in the sand itself. They can be tricked into swallowing thermal detonators, but there are more Burrowers in the level than how many detonators you can carry, making them nothing more than a distraction for the Burrowers to go after. When the name for that level's save file is called "Danger", you know you're in for a nerve-racking experience.
- The Rancors in both Mysteries of the Sith and Jedi Academy can be this.
- The one in Mystery of the Sith can not only kill you in two attacks, but it eats you alive when it defeats you, and you can only kill it with your lightsaber, which you won't have at first and must retrieve from a nearby vault after getting past the creature.
- In Jedi Academy, on the Nar Kreeta mission, it's not as dangerous to deal with since you have ranged weapons that can affect it now, but it has a crapton of health, and it will just respawn if you kill it.
- On the Tanaab mission, you are dealing with a mutated specimen twice the normal specimen's size, and you spend the whole level being chased by it, and it even plows through the terrain eating any of the cultists it comes across. You can't kill this one until the end of the level. Also, for both specimens in Academy, if they grab you and you fail to break out of their grasp in time, they will instantly kill you by eating you.
- This can slide into Nightmare Retardant if you're playing around with console cheats. If you activate noclip mode right before the rancor eats you, it still bites of your model's torso, but then you can escape its grasp and run around as a pair of legs. Which still have full access to all your force powers. It's so over the top, it's more funny than Squick.
- The scene following Maw's defeat in Jedi Knight. He dares Kyle to kill him. When Kyle refuses, Maw assumes he doesn't have it in him. He belittles Kyle as weak like his father and recounts how Jerec slowly killed him, saying it was a death worthy of a coward and how Maw put his head on a spike. He then lets out a downright chilling Evil Laugh before Kyle strikes him down.
- The result of the player going on the Dark Side route in Jedi Knight. After Maw's death, Jerec shows up with Jan captured, praises Kyle for starting towards the Dark Side, and tells him to complete his journey by killing Jan. In the Light Side scene, Kyle resists the surge of the Dark Side. In the Dark Side, he boasts he has no need for Jerec and intends to take the power of the Valley of the Jedi himself, then kills the terrified Jan. Kyle had already embraced the Dark Side and had no reason to murder Jan; he simply killed her for fun, and Jan can only scream as Kyle swings his lightsaber at her. The audience does not see it connect, but it is seen swinging near face implying Kyle cuts off her head. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkForcesSaga |
Darbi / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- It would be easier to list episodes
*without* horrifying imagery, to be honest. These dinosaurs are not afraid to be vicious to one another and the artist isn't afraid to show said fact. Throats are ripped out, carcasses are burrowed through, young dinosaurs are definitely not safe from danger...and that's just to list a few things from the Episode 1! | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Darbi |
Danny Phantom / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Dark Danny turning around *head first* Exorcist-style, accompanied by a horrible cracking noise as his neck does things it clearly was not meant to do. His chilling line while doing this really makes him all the more menacing.
**Dark Danny:** Nice try, Jazz. But me, my future, **I'm inevitable.** | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DannyPhantom |
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The
*"This wasn't... supposed to... Why... me...?"* *Danganronpa* series is known for its anime-style art, its mysteries, and horrific lore behind the state of the world. Considering that *Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc* kicks off the series, expect a lot of moments that will tell you that this is not like any visual novel that you ever played.
## The game:
- For starters, the premise of the game is incredibly horrifying yet silly. You're stuck inside of a school and the only way out is to murder someone. And even if you yourself choose to go the pacifistic route of rather living in the school than committing a crime, you still have to constantly worry about the
*other* people. At any moment, any of them could snap and sneak someone, including you. It's a situation meant to drive someone insane with paranoia and despair.
- Monokuma revealing to the 15 students that they're meant to live in Hope's Peak Academy...
*for the rest of their lives*.
"Ah, now then... regarding the end date for this communal life... there isn't one! In other words, you'll all be here until the day you die! Such is the school life you've been assigned."
"No matter how much you may yell and scream for help... help will not come."
- Any time Junko appears while wearing the mask she used to hide her identity is fairly creepy or unsettling.
- The
*first* time is absolutely terrifying as it's her *sneaking up on Makoto as he reads something that could clue him in to the truth and clubbing him with a piece of lumber.* Sure she's just knocking him out so she can hide the evidence, but given the kind of story the game's telling it can fill a first time player with the dread that they've been playing as a Decoy Protagonist this entire time and that Makoto is the next victim.
- Then there's the second time, where she shows up brandishing Mukuro's knife just as Makoto wakes up from a fever-induced dream, only to see her, some mysterious masked figure, ready to stab him to death. Good luck sleeping after that.
- The bad ending that you get after Kyoko's execution may not seem so bad at first glance, but Fridge Horror kicks in when you consider this: While the remaining students (Byakuya, Makoto, Yasuhiro and Aoi, Toko was with them but she died a long time ago) have stopped killing each other — they still
*can't leave the school* and have grown to adulthood totally isolated from the rest of the world. Worse still is the mystery behind Toko's death and the fact that there are *three children* in their group shot. Considering that Aoi is the only girl remaining, that means she gave birth to all three of them (probably; it's never stated *when* Toko died). And the four remaining kids are going to grow old and die, still just the four of them, and their children will be subjected to the same destiny, lonely forever...
- In Chapter 6's trial, Junko's reveal as Monokuma's controller and the Ultimate Despair is shocking enough. A famous teenage fashion icon
*of all people* managed to successfully orchestrate not just this killing game, but also *the apocalypse*, out of her desire for despair. By using dirty tricks and charisma, she managed to bring horrific suffering to possibly billions of people.
- She
*viciously* subverts being The Man Behind the Curtain by *rapidly changing personalities*, with each one being freakier than the last. In particular, her cute personality and the Monokuma personality are jarring. Once you reach the final discussion, however, she's got a *neutral and blank expression on her face*.
- There's also how she tells her classmates about what has happened to the outside world and stating that her defeat would mean certain death for the survivors, as they'd be forced to leave. Combined with the horrified expressions on her classmates' faces, this is probably the scariest Junko gets to be.
- Something about the way corpses are rendered on the overworld is especially unpleasant and skin-crawly. They just seem
*way* more detailed and shadowed than the rest of the game in a way that makes them feel absolutely wrong.
- Genocide Jack would probably scare someone the first time she appears,probably thanks to her face.
- Even worse,she has a
*body count.* Thankfully she is very funny.
- The murders get progressively nastier as time goes on.
- Sayaka (Yasuhiro in the demo): knife to the gut.
- "Junko": shishkabobbed by spears.
- Chihiro: dumbbell to the skull; later crucified.
- Kiyotaka and Hifumi: brains bashed in.
- Sakura: ingested poison.
- The Masked Would-Be Assailant (actually Mukuro's body): found in the garden, and gets her face blown off when Jill tries to unmask her.
- Classroom 5-C. Imagine playing the game blind. You've gone through four class trials and, sure, the executions have been fairly unsettling and the murders are pretty gory but, on the whole, the game's pretty tame (especially since all the blood at this point has been neon pink). Then you get to exploring the fifth floor, you've come to expect a few unique rooms as well as two classrooms and you expect the same here. However, at some point, you notice a door labelled Classroom 5-C. A little surprised at the sudden additional classroom, you enter it to see what's inside because there's gotta be something in there, right? The classroom loads up to reveal a bloodied mess with all the tables and chairs toppled and sprawled along the floor alongside multiple chalk outlines of bodies. The real kicker's the fact that the blood in this room isn't the neon pink that you see everywhere else but a dark red. Eventually, Monokuma comes in to tell you that the room was already like this before the killing game started and that he deliberately left it like that as a clue (which is why the blood is red, it's dry). The worst part is that the game never actually reveals what exactly happened in that room (in fact it's never even really mentioned much outside of its initial reveal). You do eventually find out what happened in there in later installments, but the fact that room is just left there without a conclusive explanation is unsettling at the very least.
- The dormitory's second floor. Dear.
*God.* This location is hyped up for much of the game, and you finally get access to it in Chapter 6. Most players are probably expecting something similar to the pristine, relatively cheerful first floor. What you're treated to instead is a scene straight out of the apocalypse: broken walls and large chunks of rubble everywhere, with bloodstains suggesting that multiple people were *crushed to death* by the collapsing walls and ceiling. And contrast this to the aforementioned Classroom 5-C, which, while horrific to be sure, was at its core nothing more than the remnants of a crime scene. *This*, on the other hand... Just what the hell happened to cause that kind of devastation? We'll get that answer in *Danganronpa 3*.
- The artwork for the comics in the Closing Argument minigames can get pretty freaky at times, especially since the culprit is almost always represented as a grey featureless humanoid with a deranged-looking Slasher Smile. Not to mention sometimes the characters can end up looking so Off-Model as to be downright creepy, most notably Hifumi in the Chapter 3 comic.
- The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event In Human History, also known as The Tragedy. Thanks to Junko manipulating certain events and people at Hope's Peak Academy, everyone fell into madness-inducing despair and society collapsed. Just look at the kids' faces when they see footage of national landmarks being defaced to resemble Monokuma and people wearing Monokuma masks causing total anarchy. This has been going on
*for two years*. Talk about one bad day!
The executions, all of them. Have fun trying to sleep at night after you watch one of these. Let's break them down, chapter by chapter.
- The first execution we see in the game, "Blast Off!". The victim starts off tied up and blindfolded, struggling as he tries to free himself, only to be shown
*screaming* as he is put into the small space shuttle. It's sent into space up toward an incredibly creepy-looking sun and moon, then falls back down to the earth again, upon which the shuttle opens to show only his bones left, and then there's the shot of Monokuma just laughing... The fact that we don't know who it is initially dampens it somewhat, but it gets worse to watch it again upon knowing who it was: Jin Kirigiri, the headmaster and Kyoko's father.
- If the relevant pages in the Reload book and the implications made by the early trailer are anything to go by, this was originally
*Leon's* execution (though he may have simply been a placeholder, as Leon was the first male character designed and was the template for all the others). Also, in other illustrations the rocket doubles as an iron maiden.
- Chapter 1's execution, "The 1,000 Blows". There's a great reason it was once the page image. Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Star, is the first culprit. You first see a chain close around Leon's throat while he reaches out for help, and then it starts dragging him very quickly along the ground while he's desperately clawing at the chain the whole time. It takes him past a door that ominously closes, only it turns out the chain is dragging him to a batting cage. Leon isn't even given a fighting chance; after the chain drags him to the signpost inside the cage,
*more* chains appear encircling around just the right places on his body so he can't move his arms. Now why would Monokuma not want Leon moving his arms? So he can't raise his hands to defend himself when a pitching machine *beats Leon to death by shooting baseballs at him!* It doesn't even have the mercy of killing Leon right after the machine starts; you have to watch the machine moving up and down Leon's body from shoulders to toes and back again, while the music track conveniently plays the "ba-ba-ba-ba" part of the song during that moment, and then one final shot of Leon looking scared out of his mind right before dozens of baseballs hit him in the face, which finally kills him. And when the machine finally stops firing, you have to watch the baseballs just slowly rolling away, covered in blood, as Leon's mangled corpse hangs there limply. Also, his silhouette in the ball-rolling shot looks like his feet are off the ground, so it's possible the chain around his neck was strangling him throughout just to top things off.
- This execution was so brutal that it ended up censored in
*The Animation* (in the original broadcast, but not the DVD or English dub) so as to not show the baseballs hitting Leon or the bloody baseballs rolling away from his dead body afterwards.
- Now, thanks to the
*Reload* book, final!Leon's beaten corpse is unobscured by shadows as well!
- Even
*Monokuma himself* looks horrified when it's over (though whether this is genuine horror or mere trolling is unclear).
- And to top it all off, Hifumi's dying revelations imply that the students' memory erasure can be overcome by severe physical trauma... which suggests that Leon's look of shock before he finally dies is him remembering that Sayaka, the girl who tried to kill him and who he ended up killing,
*used to be one of his best friends.* Did all the other dead and executed students remember this just before they died, too?
- Oh, you want more? This execution is essentially stoning, except Monokuma has made it much worse. See, stoning, as it's generally understood, involves hurling big, heavy rocks at someone's head until they die. It's still a painful, agonizing way to go, but Monokuma's not using his hands and arms; he's using a pitching machine that sends countless baseballs towards Leon's body at high speeds. What's more, they're not just hitting his head; they're hitting his whole body. Realistically, Leon should be
*coughing up blood* from sustaining internal injuries. It really is a brutal and horrifying method of execution.
- Chapter 2's execution, "The Cage of Death". This time it's Mondo Owada, the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader, being executed. Mondo is tied to a motorcycle by his arms, with Monokuma driving it. Monokuma drives the motorcycle towards a "motorcycle death cage", but he ejects from the vehicle before Mondo is taken inside the cage. The reason why becomes obvious: Monokuma then proceeds to do a hula dance that speeds up the cage to absurd extremes, with Mondo having a freaked-out look as his eyes look dizzy, and finally Monokuma speeds the cage to such ludicrous degree that Mondo is
*turned into butter*, which Monokuma then puts on his pancakes and *eats*! This one is mitigated slightly, though, since Mondo makes no attempt to escape the vehicle he's tied to, even giving Monokuma a "dude, really?!" look as he ejects, and you don't actually see Mondo turned into butter, you just see the lone motorcycle left on its side with no occupant.
- Kiyotaka's reaction afterwards is equal parts this and Tear Jerker. That
*scream* really hammers in that he just saw *his recently-made best friend horribly executed in front of him*. Trying to imagine things from his perspective is just horrifying.
- What's especially terrifying is that this type of death is entirely plausible in Real Life. It's possible to exert enough force onto a human body to the point where they're crushed to a pulp (his consistency would be more akin to salsa than butter, though). Granted, Mondo would've died long before being liquefied since the immense pressure on his lungs would've caused him to suffocate. That, or death by internal bleeding due to his blood vessels rupturing as well. Either way, it's a horrible way to go.
- Chapter 3's execution, "The Burning of the Versailles Witch". It's Taeko "Celestia Ludenberg" Yasuhiro, the Ultimate Gambler. In a corruption of her dream, she stands surrounded by a cardboard castle and is set to be
*burned at the stake*, a slow and agonizing death that would give anyone nightmares at the thought of it. Only, this *is* the dramatic kind of death Celeste *wants*... so Monokuma intentionally pulls a bait-and-switch and sends a firetruck to put out the fire. Except the firetruck *rams her to death*! The only mercy you're granted is that you're not actually forced to watch Celeste being crushed, since the camera at that point is from Celeste's point-of-view so you only see the truck and hear the sound effect.
- Chapter 4's execution, "Excavator Destroyer". You might wonder how it would be nightmare fuel to use a backhoe to crush Alter Ego, an Artificial Intelligence, to non-existence. Monokuma manages it; the arm of the backhoe repeatedly strikes Alter Ego's laptop causing damage while Alter Ego looks frightened, and then it speeds up and crushes the laptop into a ball with Monokuma's face on it. And based on Alter Ego saying earlier that being in Makoto's jacket "tickles,"
*he felt the whole thing*.
- Chapter 5's execution, "After School Lesson".
- In the bad ending, it's Kyoko Kirigiri being executed. Her hands are pinned underneath the top of a desk so she can't get up from her chair, and she's forced to watch a puppet Monokuma teaching a lesson on the chalkboard about a crushing machine. Only the crushing machine is
*real*, and the chair is on a conveyor belt moving Kyoko towards it. So Kyoko has to listen to the huge block repeatedly crashing down behind her, and you see her shoulders heaving slightly, and her face turns blue out of horror: Kyoko Kirigiri, the eternal stoic, has finally been broken and made to feel fear. Mercifully, the game fades to black at the moment when the huge block actually crushes poor Kyoko to death, but you can still *hear it*...
- If you-as-Makoto choose not to get Kyoko executed... Makoto himself is slated to go through the "After School Lesson". Except Alter Ego, who uploaded himself as a virus to the school's network before his execution, saves him at the last moment, and later the living Kyoko finishes the work. It's still fucking scary.
- And now with
*Cyber Danganronpa VR: The Class Trial*, **you** get to experience this execution through the eyes of Makoto when Monokuma decides to end the demo by executing him. This time, however, he's facing the machine, and Alter Ego isn't here to save him...
- Finally, the last execution in the very end: "The Ultimate Punishment". Yeah, you don't get to feel sorry for the victim because it's Junko Enoshima, the Big Bad who was behind Monokuma and was to blame for the whole plot in the first place... but still, she
**willingly** subjects herself to the aforementioned deaths, including "Blast Off!" from the game's beginning! And she lives through them until "After School Lesson", and enjoys them thoroughly due to her fetish for despair, **all** **smiling madly until almost the very end.** Meeeep.
- Junko's face just before the execution, as she
*willingly* reaches out to press the button...
- Something that can stick with you is the way she stops smiling
*just* before the crusher slams down for the last time. You can almost hear her thinking "Wait—"
- Another thing that makes this execution even worse. It's implied that this was the execution Junko intended for
*Makoto* had he failed to defeat her.
- Here is a post that includes informations about the plans for the whole cast's executions.
- Sayaka's execution would've had Monokuma place her on a stage, promising a perfect idol singing performance, complete with a meter to "score" her. Being the Ultimate Pop Sensation, she naturally would've done well. However, just before the meter reached full, Monokuma would've destroyed it. This would've triggered the
**failure** condition and caused a giant beartrap-looking contraption to slam shut, presumably *bisecting her.* And this could've happened if she successfully killed Leon. So in this scenario, Makoto would've had to personally expose his closest friend's crime, including her lying and trying to frame him, before watching her die.
- Aoi's execution would've had her placed in a water tank with Monokuma dressed as a magician. Think she'd be sentenced to a death by drowning? Monokuma is nowhere near that merciful. Instead, he would've placed a curtain over the water tank, lifted it back up to reveal Aoi surrounded by sharks, then covered it again, and lifted the curtain once more to reveal she'd been
*eaten.*
- Byakuya's execution would've had Monokuma drop him into a trash can in a place that looks like hell. It's here that Monokuma, dressed as an elementary schooler, would then start viciously stoning him. Byakuya would've managed to escape, but he'd then end up in a snowy wasteland. It's here that he would've died from his injuries and exposure to the cold.
- Toko's execution would've had her thrown into a dark room, with Byakuya in the distance. She would've run to catch up with him... only for a
*giant steamroller* to drop between them and chase her, ultimately crushing her to death.
- Hifumi's execution actually appears in the manga adaptation of the demo: he gets caught in a fight between his favorite character Princess Piggles and Monokuma, taking laser blasts from both of them, before getting finished off by "instant death" beams from both of them. His corpse ends up so charred that the only way he's recognizable is due to his fat.
- Kiyotaka's execution would've had him at a parade swearing him in as Prime Minister of Japan, only for Monokuma to appear dressed as Golgo 13 and shoot him. Relatively tame compared to the others, but this one has the distinction of having a
*very* faithful fan recreation that manages to capture an unsettling atmosphere—especially with how Monokuma *forces* Kiyotaka to wave to the crowd.
- Sakura's execution would've had her battling a Zerg Rush of alien enemies, something she initially does a good job at... but the problem is they just keep coming and coming and coming and
*coming* until eventually she's overwhelmed and *crushed* to death beneath them.
- Chihiro's execution is also pretty tame by comparison, but still creepy; Chihiro would be dropped in an 8-bit sidescrolling video game and chased by a bunch of 8-bit Monokumas. He tries to run, but they catch up to him and once they reach him, he'd simply... pop out of existence.
- Finally, we have Yasuhiro's unused execution, which would've involved him appearing on a quiz show. Monokuma asks him to choose between three doors, one marked A, another marked B and a last one marked C. When he tries to enter Door A, it grows legs and runs away and Door B does the same. Yasuhiro tries to get away, but Door C ends up growing a mouth and
*eats him alive*.
## Early build:
In its earliest version, the game was known as
*ダンガンロンパ Distrust*
, and it was apparently going to be a flat-out horror game instead of the Black Comedy
it ended up as.
-
*Trigger Happy Havoc* ended up with plenty of Nightmare Fuel, as this page makes clear, but at least the students were never subjected to things like the blankly-staring decapitated head and severed hand of one of their classmates, left in a plain cardboard box for any one of them to find. The implication seems to be that the victim, Junko, was forcibly shoved into a guillotine... by Kyoko, Toko, Leon and an unidentified fourth student who might be Yasuhiro. That's right — at least one case involved a *gang killing*. And if Leon's early execution (which is further explained below) is anything to go by, you could only expose one of them.
- As more information came to light, it turned out that Junko being decapitated wasn't because she was the victim of murder... but because she was
*executed for committing it!* But if that's not bad enough, consider the image right before the guillotine was shown, with silhouetted people *all smiling madly and reaching out to her*! It's highly possible that instead of getting dragged to their death by chain, the guilty students were to be *seized and forced* to their deaths by the innocent students a la *lynch mob*.
- Also, if one was to look closely (as if you would want to) below the girl (now most likely, Kyoko) in another screenshot, you can see an object that largely resembles a bonesaw... and considering that Junko is holding something in her hand, the implication of what they did to the poor girl is more than just a "little" unsettling...
- The final game's school is relatively intact. Danganronpa Distrust's school is a blood-soaked wasteland, and Class 78 is on a sadistically short time limit of seven days.
- While we don't know much about the old trust system, it had a lot of potential for Paranoia Fuel. Was it possible to provoke someone into killing you?
- Instead of Monokuma (then named "Phantom") being the monochrome bear he appears as in his final design, he was originally supposed to look like an anatomical model◊.
- At least one of Kyoko's deaths involved Leon (then named Kazuo) getting his hands on a bunch of spears and impaling her on every single one. And you thought Mukuro's death was bad...
- And Leon's execution, terrifying enough in the final version, was even worse visually. Highlights include him spewing gallons of red blood and his beaten corpse not being as obscured by the shadows. And in the end, while most students have horrified, angry or otherwise stoic expressions on their faces, Celestia is the only one who is seen
**smiling** at the outcome. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc |
Dante's Peak / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.*
- The part where lava suddenly bursts through the inner wall of Ruth's cabin (pictured).
- The part where Ruth jumps into the acid lake. Especially the very
*thought* of either doing that or crossing the lake, which you know will most likely burn through the hull of the boat, dumping you inside and causing you to most likely die a horrible death.
- Related, everything in the Squick subfolder on the YMMV page.
- The skinny-dipping deaths at the start of the movie. They (mostly) use a Gory Discretion Shot by panning away, but still...
- Also the
*extremely* narrow escape of young Graham, who was on the brink of *jumping into* that same hot acidic pool for a swim, before Harry snatched him up in mid-leap.
- The pyroclastic flow, basically the non-video game equivalent of the Advancing Wall of Doom, but it's advancing at something like
*100 mph.* We see a quick glimpse of the massive column undergoing what looks to be a fountain collapse, and then cutting to the flow making quick work of any trees and houses it encounters. But the crown jewel for this moment has got to be when the flow surges over the ridge, hurling a few rocks into the town in the process, before leaping into the town of Dante's Peak, razing it to the ground as it goes. It smashes houses apart and tosses cars and trucks into the air. What civic town buidings are left from the first eruption, literally and instantly explode into dust and rubble. When it cuts back to the aftermath, it depicts an ash-covered destroyed hellscape, with car frames twisted around tree stumps. Its also Truth in Television, for as shown at St Pierre in 1902, Mt Lamington in 1951 and the various forests around Mt St Helens, pyroclastic flows can be just that damn destructive.
- Imagine the horror on the Wando familys faces as they see the mountain that they have lived under all their life decapitate itself with the sheer force of the explosions, and then desolate their town, especially considering that they caught the best seats of giant pyroclastic flows and surges demolishing everything they touch, and hoping that they can reach the mine as the avalanche gains ground on their fleeing vehicle.
- On a related note, the final eruption itself. This volcano has been anything
*but* calm, but the final most explosive eruption of the volcano takes the mountains violence into a class of its own, as just the opening salvo of this event makes the top of the mountain burst open and takes a significant chunk out of the height of Dantes Peak. As the volcano utterly loses its shit it sends a gigantic mushroom cloud of ash and pumice skyward, the size of which is comparable to the ones formed by the 1991 eruption of * Mt Pinatubo*. If this volcano was a real thing, its undoubtable that it would hold a place in history as what can only be described as one of the greatest plinian eruptions of the twentieth century. And considering the devastation it causes, if the evacuation order hadnt been followed through, it could have been one of the deadliest.
- The start of the eruption is pretty frightening if you put yourself in the shoes of the town. Bridges and buildings collapse, people escape on foot across roads where panicked drivers ignore lanes, and smaller cars desperately drive into the river to escape and are washed away. All under a sky rapidly filling with ash. The imagery and civilian responses are almost apocalyptic.
- Towards the end of the film, Harry ends up trapped in the truck, with a broken arm (complete with bone shard sticking out of his skin), and twenty tons of rocks and boulders slowly crushing the truck's roof on top of him. He is bent into the foetal position across the bench seat, with the collapsed steel roof canopy full of boulders literally inches from his face, squealing and threatening to give way at any moment and crush Harry to death. He survives being trapped in that that crevice for
*two days*, with no food or water and only a very bleak prospect of survival and rescue. Yikes. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DantesPeak |
Dark Heaven / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The hate crime that ||destroyed Conor's music career. Surrounded by a gang led by the Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up, Conor is unable to defend himself as he relives his childhood trauma of being beaten up from all sides. With his hands mangled and pride shattered, you'd think the police would do something to catch the culprits, right? Unfortunately, not really.||
- ||Conor undergoing conversion therapy with the reverend. It's disturbingly accurate to what most congregations do to suppress LGBTQ youths of their orientation.|| The scene itself will likely trigger readers who've experienced this torturous practice themselves.
- ||Simon being made the target of public disgust and animosity after his boss leaks the sex videos he was forced to perform in. If being Forced Out of the Closet in such a way is bad enough, imagine how he must have felt at the sight of so many people wanting him dead after his trial.||
- The Reveal that ||Veronica caused the aforementioned events to happen. She bribed the W.A.F. to beat up Conor, personally gaslit him into forgetting his ex, and made sure that only Simon would be picked by T-Rex. If not for Conor and Simon getting back together, she would have gotten away with it all.||
- In chapter 67, ||Simon has an actual nightmare where Conor happily leaves him for Veronica and they have multiple kids together. While the Unbalanced By Rival's Kid factor is bad enough, the scene switches to Simon strangling Pete's neck with Gale goading him to The Dark Side. It's implied Conor may have dreamt up something similar as well in a previous chapter.||
- Half the stuff Gale does to his victims will make you retch even if they've done things deserving them. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkHeaven |
Dangerverse / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Harry's POV in Chapter 7 after being with the Dursleys for two uninterrupted weeks (Danger's comment is, "He's alive, they didn't kill him, and that's ALL I can say"):
His tummy hurt. His head hurt too, and his arms where Dudley had punched him, but his tummy more than anything. And his head felt funny. All kind of swirly, like he felt after Danger twirled him around and around.
He whimpered a little, thinking of Danger. He wanted her. He wanted her to come to the door and smile at him and pick him up and hold him close. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never held him like that.
Why didnt Danger come? Why didnt she love him any more? They took him to another lady now, an old lady who smelled funny, and she gave him good stuff to eat like Danger had, but she never cuddled him the way Danger did. And she never played scary wolf chase like Moony, or sang to him like Letha.
His nappy was all wet and messy. It hurt, but he couldnt get it off. And it was dark.
It had been dark for a long time.
He had been alone for a long time. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Dangerverse |
Dante's Inferno / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Being both heavily inspired from and also a massive re-telling of Dante Alighieri's masterpiece,
*Dante's Inferno*, naturally, showcases all of the torments of Hell and its wicked inhabitants in their terrifying glory just as the original poem does.
- The story starts off with Dante
**sewing a cross-shaped tapestry into his chest like a skin graft**. While fortunately we only see a small part of it, and we also cut away just as Dante completes the latest part, it's still disturbing either way, and, upon sewing the latest part of the tapestry in, the massive anguished cry of pain Dante lets out from pulling the thread through will no doubt make for a very appropriate Establishing Game Moment.
- There's also the horrifying feeling of knowing that we were watching Dante finishing the tapestry, which means that he must have been sitting in that forest for a while, and no doubt has endured quite a lot of pain from adding it to his body.
- The tapestry sewing is even worse in the animated epic, as, instead of Dante himself doing the deed, several demonic arms reach up from the ground and give it to Dante instead in a much more aggressive manner, and Dante wails in agony as he bleeds during the process, and even
*rips the tapestry out* after he escapes Hell and enters Purgatory (which was done in the game too, but here it's shown in full detail and Dante winces in pain as it comes out).
- Dante himself is pretty nightmarish considering some of the insanity he pulled during the Crusades. To wit, he butchered hundreds of soldiers and civilians with a sword alone, spilled pools of blood across the land, and eventually cheated on Beatrice with a slave girl before butchering hundreds of hostages and letting his brother-in-law that he swore to protect take the fall. To say he has sinned aplenty would be an understatement.
- Several of the monsters and lost souls in the Inferno are pure abominations:
- The Guardian Demons, Beast Tamers, Throne Demons, and Archdemons who are found all throughout Hell. Occasionally letting out distorted deep guttural goat-like bleating sounds when attacked.
- The unbaptized children in Limbo with their arms having been replaces with blades.
- The Seductresses and Temptresses in Lust.
- Easily a massive case of female Fan Disservice cranked in overdrive. Although they're not unlike their boss Cleopatra, their hands have been turned into sharp talons, and their belly has a deep gash from the waist down resembling a large labia. The reason? Inside their body lies a giant sting-like
*clitoris*, which can be pulled out from the belly and used as an tentacled harpoon. Even if you manage to dodge this creepy attack, the temptress still can cast a spell on Dante and lure him within her range.
- The large bile and feces spewing Gluttons in, well, Gluttony.
- The Gluttons are among the most disgusting and creepiest of the lost souls. They're massive overweight humans whose ears and hands have been turned into mouths. If that wasn't enough, they vomit and defecate hazardous bile and feces if Dante gets too close. Not only that, but their deaths have a lot of Gorn, for that matter too.
- Furthermore, although their sins are supposed to be less despicable than Treachery or Heresy, Gluttons still spend a very nasty time in their circle. The soil of Gluttony is made of filth and grime, giant worms pop out from nowhere and eat whatever stands in their way. Besides, one of the first trailers shows the damned falling from above; some of them are caught by Cerberus' smaller mouths, whereas others fall into the jaws of sentient
*slopes*.
- One scene from Gluttony has a sinner being Eaten Alive by a glutton. We even have an unsettling glimpse of his P.O.V. Cam. Fortunately, the producers skipped the biting scene and went straight to the glutton licking their hands.
- The Hoarders & Wasters; they're a pair of mutilated conjoined men full of and constantly spilling out gold in Greed; the sound of coins dropping whenever they are hit.
- The ominous Fire Guardians, constantly dissapearing into the shadows only to jump out and set you ablaze in Anger.
- The creepy Sinister Ministers that are the Heretics and Pagans chanting spells in Heresy, which is made even worse by the fact that the former are the only enemies that can block Dante's Cross attacks.
- And finally, the Damned Crusaders with their inverted cross shields from Violence. They can augment their swords and shields with hellfire, which makes them invulnerable to Dante's Scythe attacks.
- Oh and also, for one of the trials of the Malebolge in the Eighth Circle, you have to defeat everyone in this list in one single battle.
- He's not that scary, but Charon tends to be brutally honest when he recites the Gates of Hell verses. If you think there might be a chance of weaseling you way out of Hell, then you're nothing but a hopeless fool:
"
*Through me the way into the city of woe. Through me the way to everlasting pain. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.*"
- Being judged by King Minos (a blind giant half snake-half humanoid Hanging Judge) is way more painful than your typical trial: after grabbing one of the damned, he smells their sins and impales the culprit on a huge iron wheel, flinging them down into the circle they have been sentenced to.
- Even before you actually fight him, the way that his voice resonates and echoes throughout Limbo as he calls out the sentences of each and every damned soul while Dante makes his way through is rather unnerving. He pronounces his judgments in a cold and uncaring way, and if you're familiar with the poem you know
*exactly* the torments that each will suffer for eternity, torments that you'll eventually see on your journey. **Minos (said at random):**"LUST!" "GLUTTONY!" "GREED!" "ANGER!" "HERESY!" "VIOLENCE!" "FRAUD!" "TREACHERY!"
- Cerberus, who appears in the form of a beast that resembles a giant mutant hydra tapeworm rather than a three-headed hellhound.
- Even worse, all the "heads" of Cerberus
*are actually coming out of the mouth of a giant human-looking... thing.*
- Alighiero's afterlife form is nothing but unsettling: his belly is emaciated, one hand has been replaced with a pig's hoof and his eyes are hellish red. If that wasn't enough, we also find out he was about to molest Beatrice while he was alive and alludes to having wished to do so while fighting to kill his own son.
- In Greed, most of the damned spend their eternity being scalded by
*molten gold*. That is, being scalded by something hotter than lava.
- As a succubus, Cleopatra clearly falls in the Fan Disservice zone. She is as pale as a corpse, her body looks withered and emaciated, her lips form a Glasgow Grin and her nipples have licking
*tongues* which spit out unbaptized children. Moreover, if you fail to kill her, she either bites you on the neck or turns you into her new lover. Shortly before, she reveals that her lover/servant Marc Anthony has been living in her *guts* before coming out of her mouth to fight Dante.
- The Circle of Heresy's appearance calls to mind the classical depictions of a Fire and Brimstone Hell; it has souls who either denied the existence of God and the soul, or who worshiped false idols and devils in life... to be encased within flaming tombs, or nailed to inverted burning crosses while screaming in perpetual agony. It's every bit as horrific in plain view as it sounds.
- From a psychological point of view, even a former crusader like Dante was shocked to see his own mother being tortured because of her suicide. Since his father told him she died from fever, he was expecting to have at least one member of his family in heaven. He was wrong. Twice.
- Francesco was sent to his death because of someone else's actions (cfr. Dante himself), and yet, he was sent to Hell because of his recent past as a crusader. Part of his face has been monstrously warped and his body is now encased within armour clearly intended to be a mockery of his past profession in life, made of
*bones*. Good thing you can defeat him in a rather short battle...
- The damned set between two different circles have their body being impaled by a spike. They can't do anything but twitch and wriggle in the darkness and loneliness of their misery. Only the frozen damned of Cocytus suffer from a worse fate.
- Since Lucifer fluently speaks to Dante, it's safe to assume Judas, Brutus and Cassius have been digested for a long time. Obviously, none knows what could have happened to their souls afterwards.
- The revelation that the Hell being traveled through in the game is not the definitive Christian Hell officially taught by the Catholic Church, but rather one reflected by Dante's twisted belief of Hell and everyone that is supposed to dwell there based on whatever he saw as sinful. Based on the amount of souls in Hell and the torments they suffered, Dante's own fundamentalist beliefs and horrific imagination towards how others should suffer based on his sense of righteousness are portrayed as high-octane Nightmare Fuel. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DantesInferno |
Dan Vs. / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Like a real boss!
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- In "The Neighbors", Dan plans on sending
*flaming logs* flying through his neighbors window for absolutely no reason other than *them being too suspiciously kind to him.* Dan is a scary person sometimes.
- "Come work out with us, Dan."
- The Imposter's revenge plan against Dan gets rather... intense. Please note the moment he disguised himself as Mr. Mumbles... and then waited for Dan to wake up. All to drive him insane.
- He was TERRIFYING in this episode. He knew Dan's mannerisms so well he even know when Chris would be standing where, and how Elise would react to a trap. And you can't say his plan wouldn't drive you nuts, either, having stashed phones all over Dan's apartment, and even a transmitter in his tooth to make him hear voices. DAMN.
- From "The Wolfman", the skeletons from the graves that Dan and Chris loot become
*alive* and angrily chase after them. The one at the end especially qualifies, indicating that there's probably more out there looking for them.
- The monster under the bed is pretty freaky until it's revealed it's all a clever ruse by Chris and Elise to get Dan to leave town.
- The same episode shows the after-effects of "Dan Vs. Canada" after he and Chris destroyed the glacier. While it's glossed over as quickly as it's seen, there is a ton of Fridge Horror in the fact that Dan and Chris basically committed genocide on a whole country. They still haven't recovered from the avalanche when Dan is forced to go back to Canada
- "Dan Vs. Technology", where Dan and Chris are trapped in the woods with a creepy guy who doesn't use technology, and end up trying to escape after he gets mad at them for destroying his technology free moving picture slide show of a fat woman in a bath tub. Seriously, he's got an axe, and after miles of driving away from him in a car, he's
**still** chasing them.
- Also from this episode, if Dan and Chris hadn't shown up, Elise could have remained as Ditmer's Cyborg Mind Control slave forever.
- After Chris spreads litter across the elementary school grounds, Amber comes at him with a
*hedge trimmer*.
- The boss when we find out she's actually a demon could easily be this... if it wasn't so hard to take her seriously. Dan's reaction to her pretty much cements it... until he goes kidnapping Chris. Sure, he wasn't really gonna sacrifice him, but we don't know this 'til afterwards...
- Even before the reveal, the family of cannibalistic escaped mental patients in
*Skiing* are pretty damn creepy. They're just... too nice.
- The normally perky cruise instructor's Sanity Slippage in "The Family Cruise" is also unpleasant. Elise's parents along with Elise, Dan, and Chris end up being so obnoxious and destructive that she is literally driven insane and locks them in the ship's brig to drown after Dan's meddling places the ship on an imminent course with a giant maelstrom.
- Any mention of Dan's mom can fall under this category, as it's heavily implied she was abusive. We see the effects that she's had on his personality ("Summer Camp" hints that Dan's the way he is now because he had to learn to lash out to get any sort of attention) and even his perceptions of what a parent should be (screaming at your infant child when they're crying to get them to pipe down is in Dan's scope of good parenting). It's easy to be scared for Dan when any mention of his childhood comes up. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DanVs |
Dark Nights: Death Metal / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The Scourge of the Dark Multiverse. The Clown King Of Horror. The Darkest Knight.When the villain is a nigh-omnipotent sadist, you know there's gotta be a lot of those.
- In issue 2, the Batman Who Laughs has his brain transplanted into the body of a version Batman with the powers of
**DOCTOR MANHATTAN**, becoming **THE DARKEST KNIGHT**. Just think about that, a man with the Joker's sadistic love for chaos and violence, and Batmans genius intellect and vast knowledge, now has *nigh-omnipotent reality, energy and molecular altering powers* of Doctor Manhattan.
- In Issue 4, it has revealed that the Darkest Knight had modified the Mobius Chair enough to funnel that power to him, allowing him to create his "Last 52" multiverse.
- Just when you thought Dark Robin and the Rabid Robins weren't enough, we've got Robin King, a sociopathic version of Bruce Wayne who
*killed his own parents* before doing the same to the superhero community of his world, *all while he was no fewer than 10 years old*. Hell, this kid was born a psychopath and it shows when we see a flashback of him hitting Alfred in the face with a rattle when he was just a baby. And he got worse as he grew older: he stabbed his stuffed toys with Martha's knitting needles, tortured animals, burned a car and roasted marshmallows over it, pushed a worker off the roof while he was fixing it and bashed a kid over the head with a cricket bat. And he did it all with a sickening smile.
- In
*Infinite Hour Exxxtreme*, Lobo gets his hands on some Element X as part of a job from Lex Luthor but decides to have a little fun with it before he gets his pay. He learns that thoughts are all that are needed for Element X to create a new universe so he remakes the DC superheroes in his image in an effort to trap a Batman version of himself that's been chasing after him.
-
*Multiverse's End* reveals that Perpetua was behind the events of *Crisis on Infinite Earths*, *Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!*, *Infinite Crisis*, *Final Crisis* and *Dark Nights: Metal*, as each Crisis-level event cracked the Source Wall enough to allow her to escape.
- Previously,
*Trinity Crisis* showcased that after Batman, Superman, and Wonder Women were sent to those crisis worlds, they realised to their horror that The Batman Who Laughs *altered them to the villains' favour*. With the Anti-Monitor ripping The Spectre in two and obliterating those unfortunate enough to be near him in *Crisis on Infinite Earths*, Superboy-Prime defeating Connor while the other Supermen are seen unconscious or dead nearby in *Infinite Crisis*, and Darkseid looking like he's about to *pop Superman's head* in rage in *Final Crisis*. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkNightsDeathMetal |
Dark Nights: Metal / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Being a Superhero Horror comic centered on dark futures,
*Dark Nights: Metal* has no shortage of nightmares.
- The Dark Multiverse in general. Imagine a multiverse where unstable universes that
*shouldn't* exist *do* exist. A multiverse where the worst possible scenario that *could* happen *did* happen. A multiverse based off of a person's fears, hopes and regrets. A multiverse where these unstable universes eventually start to rot and decay. And the monstrous inhabitants of these universes serve a giant dragon under the false pretense of having their worlds restored. Worlds will live, worlds will die indeed...
- The origins of Barbatos' seven Dark Knights, all of whom are spawns based off Bruce Wayne's darkest fears:
- The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker's while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the first things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he could not allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and shoot them all down like dogs. A week later, he had
*all the Justice League massacred! Not just killed, massacred!* Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and Darkseid respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out **The Spectre** himself! With just precision, *and blood*. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. *And again.* **And again.**
- The Dawnbreaker's origin: A teenage Bruce Wayne who was given a Green Lantern ring immediately after the deaths of his parents, when his fear had been obliterated by grief and hate. Bruce overpowered the ring's law against killing through sheer willpower, enabling him to use lethal force and vaporize Joe Chill. After attempting to revive his parents only to put them down when they came back as zombies, Bruce went on a killing spree, eliminating all of Gotham's criminals and anyone who criticized what he's doing, including Jim Gordon. Bruce saw no real reason for anyone to live in the void left by his parents' death and "unlocked" a new ability, Blackout, which extinguishes all light by bringing that void into the world and slaughtering his targets with eldritch constructs; this is how he killed the Green Lantern Corps when they tried to reclaim the ring.
- The Drowned's origin: Bryce Wayne, a female version of Bruce Wayne who had lost her lover Sylvester Kyle (a male Selina Kyle) at the hands of metahumans, causing Bryce's suspicions towards metahumans to become full-fledged hatred and an intense paranoia that resulted in Bryce killing any metahumans she encountered as potential threats. When the Atlanteans tried to make peace, Bryce killed their queen Aquawoman (a female Aquaman) and started a war. Bryce painfully experimented on herself to gain not only Atlantean abilities as well as those of all manner of sealife but also the ability to corrupt anything she came into contact with into aquatic monsters. Finally, Bryce used the corruption effect of her "Dead Water" to flood the world and turn everyone into her thralls.
- The Murder Machine's origin: A Batman who was forced to watch Alfred die at the hands of Bane while under interrogation. He worked with Cyborg to create an artificial intelligence based on Alfred. The Alfred Protocol began killing Batman's enemies to keep Bruce safe, leading Cyborg to declare that it had gone too far; Bruce wanted to reprogram the AI, but when Cyborg insisted on deleting it, it forcibly merged with Bruce, turning him into a robot Batman capable of controlling nanotechnology and creating hardlight copies of himself and Alfred. Batman then killed the entire Justice League, leaving Cyborg for last. Cyborg begged him not to become this "Murder Machine" but "Batman" renounced his humanity as well as Thomas and Martha Wayne, claiming that as long as he remains as he is, he will never be separated from Alfred, whom he now considers his real father, again. And then he killed Cyborg by ripping his head and spinal cord out of his body.
- The Merciless' origin: A Batman who was in love with Wonder Woman and who fought alongside her against Ares. When Wonder Woman was apparently killed Batman stole Ares' helmet and became the new God of War, killing Ares but became corrupted by the power of the helmet. What he didn't know was that Wonder Woman had just been stunned and when she regained consciousness, she begged Batman to remove the helmet but he refused and killed her when she tried to take it by force, an act which he still seems to regret despite going on to wipe out the Amazons as well as the gods themselves. Later, he stole the coins required to enter the Underworld from the Amazons, turning them into restless souls under his command.
- The Devastator's origin: The Superman of his world went mad and began attacking everything, even killing Lois Lane. Batman attempted to stop him with a Kryptonite spear, only to lose his arm in an injury that would surely be fatal. With no other choice and with all hope lost, having seen the symbol of Earth's hope become its greatest threat, Batman injected himself with the Doomsday virus, regenerating his arm and turning him into a Doomsday monster with Bruce Wayne's mind. He killed Superman easily and then proceeded to infect everyone with the Doomsday virus, turning them into mindless Doomsday monsters, under the belief that doing so will protect them against the inevitable disappointment of hope. Oh, and while he was in Prime Earth he effortlessly took down Firestorm, Wally West, Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz at the Fortress of Solitude, and finally taking out Lobo by
**spearing him with his own hook and tossing him into the sun!** Regardless whether he has a Healing Factor or not, his predicament is not pretty.
- The Red Death's origin: A Batman who, after losing his entire family, kidnapped the Flash in an attempt to go back in time and save them while their whole world was collapsing around them. Flash told him to stop as he knows going back in time would result in horrible changes to the timeline, but Batman didn't listen and strapped him to the Batmobile to utilize the Speed Force, but instead of going back in time, Batman and the Flash fused into a single being with the latter reduced to an impotent voice in Batman's head. The Red Death then learned to use the Speed Force to age people to death, slaughtering all who cross him while what's left of the Flash can only watch and beg Batman to stop.
- And then there's Barbatos' himself. He is a giant dragon who was responsible for destroying unstable worlds born from the Forge of Worlds while the stable ones lived on. But he eventually turned on his master, the Forger of Worlds and allowed the unstable worlds to survive past their normal expectancy, creating the Dark Multiverse.
- Heck, just the fact that Barbatos had been manipulating all of Bruce Wayne's life for the sole purpose of freeing him is scary. How much of Batman's accomplishments and failures were of Bruce's own actions and how much of it were of Barbatos' manipulations?
- When the Teen Titans and the Suicide Squad get separated from Robin, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Killer Croc and Harley Quinn, Dark Damian captures them and turns them into Joker monsters just like him. With the exception of Raven, who gets placed in a pod attached to the Batman Who Laughs' Batmobile. Why? So he can make her give into her dark side and call upon the powers of Trigon.
- When Batman realizes he's trapped in the Dark Multiverse and tries to get out, Barbatos decides he's done playing and shows Batman all the universes in the Dark Multiverse. And from these universes comes a whole army of twisted versions of not just Batman, but of
*all the DC heroes and villains*. Then he shows him images of the Justice League fighting the Dark Knights and it looks like they're losing! Batman is so horrified that he *begs* Barbatos to stop and that he . Wow. It would have to take a **gives up** **lot** for someone to make Batman say, "I give up!"
- When the heroes finally start to get the upper hand thanks to the Element X/Tenth Metal, Barbatos decides to use his final contingency plan: have the Batman Who Laughs' dark matter mix with the Monitor's matter and the Anti-Monitor's brain's anti-matter, resulting in a catastrophe that will leave nothing except darkness and allowing the Dark Multiverse and Barbatos to rule all of existence.
- Post-
*Dark Nights: Metal* brings another evil Batman extracted by Batman Who Laughs in place of the others Dark Knights: **The Grim Knight**.
- His origin started off after when his parents were killed by Joe Chill in the alleyway, but instead of running away (or in some cases Joe Chill running away with the goods) he picks up the discarded handgun from Joe Chill while he was picking up his parents' fortunes and shoots him dead. His descent into Batman was later diverged from the usual origin stories of Batman, as instead of a vigilante who follows a Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, he later becomes Batman who vows to kill
who is suspected of crime (thus leading to several well-known villains being dead and Red Hood being killed at Ace Chemicals, thus preventing the rise of The Joker) and goes so far as to **anyone** . That being said, he later turned Gotham into a fortified city where citizens live in fear lest they get a Kill Sat right at their doorstep if they were to fall out of line. **kill Jim Gordon's police force for trying to take him down and takes down two GCPD-affiliated blimps into a crash collision course to Arkham and Blackgate**
- Kulls mere presence at Castle Bat is unsettling and sad when its recalled that in an earlier issue The Batman Who Laughs told Diana that he met and murdered the children they had together on other Earths, and remarked on their ferocity, even writing down their names to keep. What is it about Kull that makes her vicious enough to be worth bringing back to Castle Bat to take on Diana? | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkNightsMetal |
Dark Phoenix / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Dark Phoenix* proves to be far more terrifying than any of its predecessors (even moreso than *X-Men: The Last Stand*), due to the story involving a murderous force awakening inside one of our beloved X-Men heroines.
The next movie, however, turned out to be even scarier...
- The D'Bari are pretty frightening.
- They Kill and Replace a few humans right away upon arriving on Earth. It starts when Jessica Chastain's human character, Margaret Smith, is having a lovely dinner with her family and friends. But she leaves to tend to her repeatedly barking dog, where she sees multiple faceless, brown beings. All she can do is scream before they murder her and one assumes her identity. The alien with Margaret's appearance, now called Vuk, heads back to her home, with the family and friends chatter stopping as soon as they notice her unemotional appearance.
- Their habit to telekinetically twist the chest of humans to torture or kill them. Vuk notably does it to Jean's helpless father.
- Jean crushing Magneto's head with his own helmet. With two of its points being dangerously close to his eyes just before the object breaks.
- Jean telekinetically forcing Charles to stand up and "walk" on both legs, and him basically being at her mercy throughout the scene. If she hadn't read his mind and found out that he's always wanted to help her throughout her post-accident life and turned on Vuk, Charles would be done for just like he was in
*The Last Stand*. It's also pretty clear that Charles suffers throughout the ordeal.
- The Mook Horror Show with a Phoenix Force-empowered Jean disintegrating the D'Bari who attack her in the final battle (picture). It crosses into Awesome because she only targets the bad guys this time around (unlike in
*The Last Stand*), but still.
- Cyclops' hand starting to disintegrate when Jean is fighting the D'Bari, while every X-Men member and Magneto are watching. If she was literally hell bent on ending Vuk by force-feeding her all the Phoenix energy, her powers could have expanded everywhere and instantly killed the heroes we all know and love. Thankfully she is able to put Cyclops' hand back together and ensure her powers don't disintegrate them. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkPhoenix |
Dark Souls II / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*You will be one with us... for eternity...* *Dark Souls II* is shaping up to outdo its predecessor in terms of nightmare inducing elements found throughout the game, which is no small feat. **Unmarked spoilers ahead.**
- Enemies are able to break down walls and doors. Unless you have quick reflexes or are already familiar with the game, don't assume you're safe from a monstrosity just because you ducked away into a small room hoping that the thing chasing you would be too big to fit in the passageway.
note : Of course, Artificial Stupidity still comes into play, and you eventually find out that not all doors can be broken down, which gives a measure of relief.
- The bosses, once again, are Nightmare Fuel incarnate. Unlike
*Dark Souls*, where the bosses are somewhat empathetic, *Dark Souls II*'s bosses are often times nothing more than wailing monstrosities, begging to be killed, or purely malicious beings of hatred and contempt.
- The Last Giant is a massive, nearly dead creature burning with the desire to extinguish all human life. The way it moves, its resilience to kill you (including RIPPING OFF ITS OWN ARM in an attempt to kill you), and its ghastly wails all pale in comparison to one feature: its gaping, pitch-black hole where its face should be.
- Possibly the most disturbing part is its intro. The way it so desperately wrenches itself from debris its buried under/impaled on. Then, with a pillar still stuck in its torso, it comes at you in a crazed crawl. Its entire intro perfectly sums up how much it
*hates* you, and how it wants nothing more than to destroy you.
- The Pursuer is a mysterious Black Knight who travels by giant crow. He wields a BFS and levitates across the battlefield to stab you in the face. And according to the lore, he travels across the land hunting down Undead in an effort to relieve himself of some terrible curse. He will never stop hunting you and can materialize out of the freaking ground. Depending on how you proceed through your adventure, he can come after you
*outside* of his boss arena. And to make matters worse, there's more than one of them!
- The Lost Sinner is an overly tall woman, with a terrifying mask welded onto her face, and is handcuffed. Yet, she still manages to use a sword. She exhibits all sorts of horrors when you first encounter her; no person should move like that. The way she's chained up and her mask indicate that this was a person who did something very wrong, and is being tormented because of it. The reason for her "sin" is eventually revealed in the official FuturePress guide: she attempted to relight or recreate the First Flame, which some consider the "ultimate sin". This lead to yet another demon infestation which wiped out the kingdom she was in. She still carries the remnants of the Witch of Izalith's soul, which is obtained in New Game Plus as the Old Witch Soul. It's implied her prison's design and her residence within it is all of her own willing design.
- The Duke's Dear Freja looks like a giant spider, with long, hairy legs. It's actually
*two* massive spiders conjoined together at their abdomens, with A Head at Each End. Think Quelaag was bad? Meet a literal demonic spider. What makes this scarier is the name "Duke's Dear". Some person out there held this monster close to his heart. Worse yet, she lives on the *corpse of a dragon*, an Old One at that. Oh, and it is possible to encounter her *outside* of her boss arena in New Game Plus, which will likely give many players a good scare. What makes this beast scarier is that it's actually a reincarnation of *Seath the Scaleless*, as hinted by Manscorpion Tark and the Old Paledrake Soul it drops in New Game Plus.
- The Smelter Demon. The freaking Smelter Demon. It looks like the freaking devil himself, what with ginormous horns, metallic, inhuman face (more of a gaping hole almost like a Giant's, really), horrific screams of rage and torso filled with a burning blaze. Even better is this the damn thing wields an
**enormous** BFS, and is extremely good at using it. At a certain point in the fight, it will start constantly emitting fire, burning you if you get too close. And then it can stab itself with its own BFS, coating it in a molten blaze of fury to let it kill you faster.
- The Rotten. Everything about this... thing. It is a ginormous mass of bodies tied together with sacks and rope, all vying for control. You heard right. A massive
*living pile of corpses*. The moans it exhibits clearly show that the Undead inside it are in pain, yet it still fights you with unrelenting aggression. Even worse is the area you fight him in is so full of dinginess and filth it'll make the Valley of Defilement blush. The Rotten drops the Old Dead One Soul in New Game Plus, implying it is the reincarnation of Gravelord Nito, First of the Dead.
- The Final Boss, Nashandra, is a tall spectral figure, donning a large, ethereal cloak with a creepy skull-like mask (or is that her face?) and wields a massive scythe. Nashandra is as close to a depiction of death itself in a video game is going to get. Everything about this woman reeks of creepiness like she shouldn't exist. The unearthly way she glides across the ground, her unnatural summoning abilities, her cooing, gentle voice, and her massive scythe all give off the impression of unease. This is a monster that should be feared. Not because she's intimidating, but because of her sheer existence. The last time such an otherworldly impression was felt was with Manus, from whom Nashandra inherited a fragment of his soul according to the official guide.
- There's a portrait of her human form in Drangleic Castle, which, if you get too close, starts dropping curse on you at high speed. This is your first clue that there is more to her than it seems. There's a good reason why, when you first encounter her, she keeps well away from you: this woman is a literal anathema to all life.
- The Demon of Song is a giant frog-like monster that is actually the shell of the creature. Its true form looks like a rotting corpse with freakishly long hands and sunken eyes which emerges from the larger creature's mouth, which looks and sounds like it is being regurgitated. Perhaps the creepiest part, however, is the fact that the Milfanito that sing its song are all dead, yet you can still hear them sing. The demon is mimicking their voices. That beautiful, sorrowful singing? That's this thing.
- Vendrick could count too in an eerie sense. Through the entire game, he has been hyped up as the final boss and the toughest enemy. Yet when you finally find him, he's gone completely Hollow. The huge, imposing figure of legend is now nothing more than a skinny, gangrenous zombie, protected by legions of Undead to prevent anyone from finding out his secret. To see the man that was said to be so powerful simply walk around half-naked in a mindless daze, dragging his sword behind him and not even paying attention to you is unnerving. And when you
*do* pick a fight with him, he will likely one-shot you despite his sluggish movement.
- The Old Iron King, a molten abomination and a Big Red Devil reminiscent of the Balrog. Just when you thought no creature could live in a lake of lava, this huge monster emerges from one and proceeds to shake the arena with pure, unadulterated fury. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact it drops the Old King Soul in New Game Plus, implying that the Old Iron King was possessed by what's left of
*Gwyn's*' soul.
- While the Ancient Dragon is normally not hostile and welcomes those who show respect while at the top of the Dragon Shrine, attacking it one too many times triggers what is unequivocally the most brutal Bonus Boss in the entire game, forcing you to brave its unimaginable retribution or die incinerated beyond recognition. Even the soundtrack agrees that you made a horrible decision.
- The Darklurker, an angelic being with the ability to cast spells of untold scale. It's said to be born in the Dark Chasm of Old, which is stated to be the remains of a terrifyingly powerful beast. Paradoxically enough, the soul it drops isn't Abyssal in nature like the souls of the Children of Dark; it possess a
*light* soul despite residing in what's implied to be Manus' remains. This thing is truly incomprehensible given the nature of light and dark in this world; it looks positively angelic, resides in the Abyss, and has a soul uncorrupted by the dark despite being able to manifest the Abyss' power as beams of light and great balls of fire. Whatever this is, it is something that *should not exist* even by this series' standards.
- Even worse, in
*Dark Souls III*, the Winged Knights of Lothric are in service to Holy Mother Gertrude, who was said to have contacted some sort of angelic being, thus forming the foundations of the angelic faith of Lothric. Now, who exactly fits the description of an angel and has untold power that manifests itself as brilliant white beams? Oh right, the Darklurker! And, the Angels of *DSIII* are described in the plural, meaning that if the Darklurker is the type of being that contacted Gertrude, then there could be *more* of these things!
- Your dying animation. In
*Demon's Souls*, it was your character's spectral form fading away (which made sense; you were a ghost 75% of the time), and it was relatively the same in *Dark Souls*. Here? Your character collapses and turns to ash, blowing away into the wind.
- Several of the NPCs themselves deserve special mention.
- Melentia, the game's second unlockable item selling NPC. A little creepy with her unnerving laugh, hooded face, and darkness-oozing hands, but nonetheless kind. She sells two Human Effigies. Much like the first game, without being human, you become more and more crazy as you go Hollow. While Melentia neither goes crazy or starts attacking you, she instead becomes more desperate of you to buy items from her.
- Mild-Mannered Pate. A friendly, yet cautious man, he often points people in the direction of rare treasures. In short, he's a nice guy and there's nothing particularly nightmarish about him... or is there? Talking to Creighton about him will allow you to learn that Pate is a backstabbing knave who uses his kindness as a front to bait his 'partners' into setting off traps, so he could get the treasure himself as Creighton found out the hard way. Whether or not this is true, however, one cannot help but think about the number of people he possibly could have tricked into dying for his benefit...
- Creighton of Mirrah, also known as Creighton the Wanderer. A former partner of Mild-Mannered Pate, he is also a knight from the land of Mirrah, judging by the armor he wears... or so he wants you to believe. In reality, he is a knight in name only, and his armor set is an imitation he's actually a Serial Killer who escaped to Drangleic on the day before his execution, now hell-bent on getting his revenge on Pate, who betrayed him. Which begs the question: Just how many people did he kill before he finally got arrested?
- Darkdiver Grandahl. He's a mysterious yet very powerful old man in a wheelchair, obsessed with the Dark and quite eager to sway the Undead Hero into joining his covenant, as well as being able to open portals to the Dark Chasm. That said, the fact that he is able to do so at the cost of one Human Effigy suggests that he may not be even human anymore...
- Titchy Gren. He's a dwarf-like man in the service of Nahr Alma, the God of Blood. What's so unsettling about him aside from where he is standing at in his location is his appearance and personality. His clothing is caked in the dried blood of his victims, and he's so bloodthirsty it's just unnerving to hear him talking to you, let alone being anywhere near him. Try and get a peek under his hood? He has no face! Just a featureless form of a head!
- While Lucatiel of Mirrah is generally a kind and noble woman, her storyline shows exactly how terrifying the Undead curse can be. When you first meet her, she's happy to explain where she's from and even offers to help you in the future. But, eventually, it becomes clear that she's losing more and more of herself, until you find her in a shack outside Aldia's Manor, desperately clinging just to her name and begs you to remember her as she fades further away.
- The second time you meet her, she takes off her mask to show you the extent of her predicament. Half of her face is rotten, and it's actually her Dark Sign; for her, there is no hiding her Undead curse.
- The Embedded. He's a man whose desires spiraled out of control one day, now tied up to a door upside down in chains forever so that he could make up for his corruption. The worst part about that? He did that to himself. Knowingly.
- Royal Sorcerer Navlaan. He used to be a controversial part of the royal court in Drangleic, until, that is, he locked himself up for eternity in a magically sealed cell for a good reason. It turns out that he got possessed by a malevolent being, which is implied to
*be* Navlaan, *not* the man hosting him, who is fully aware of it and unable to do anything about it other than lock himself up for the safety of Drangleic. Should the player decide to free him, he will invade not once, but six times in different locations, using two powerful and unique Hexes guaranteed to end you for your daringness to free him.
- Licia of Lindelt. When you first meet her, she's friendly, if not a bit suspicious, actively trying to sell miracles to you in exchange for your souls. She sounds like a decent sort of person, though, right?
*Wrong*. Later in the game, she will invade you twice, once in Castle Drangleic and again in the Undead Crypt as the Nameless Usurper. The rewards for invading her with the Crushed Eye Orb include a miracle that was supposedly stolen from the Lindelt monastery and never recovered. The implication here is that Licia isn't a real cleric at all, but a murderous thief who robbed the monastery of its miracles and valuables. For all we know, the equipment she is using now might have once belonged to a *real* cleric she murdered at the monastery.
- The Undead Citizens. Sure, they're weak, but the way they move and look is so unsettling. Some of them are illuminated inside of their body, while others lack the light. Their running animation makes their first encounter worse, and it's initially hiding behind a barrel, waiting for you. If it doesn't succeed in getting an attack in on you, or chase you down, its buddies sure will. Of course, their method of attack might become Nightmare Retardant, but they can somehow cause a large impact. You have ones that only inflict normal damage, ones that explode, ones that inflict petrification, ones that can corrode your equipment.
- Mimics make a glorious return. This time, they crawl on all fours. And they're bigger. And they appear as
**both** regular wooden chests and special metal chests.
- While some say that area design in general for the game is less creepy, this is untrue. Several areas are downright horrifying in their nature.
- Aldia's Keep. This place could best be summarized as an Umbrella testing facility where everything went to hell. In the first chamber, you encounter cursed mirrors whose murderous inhabitants break their way out in violent fashion, and a serial killer kept locked in a magic prison. In the main hall, cages containing some of the worst abominations in Drangleic line the ceiling, and then inevitably shatter and fall unleashing the whole horde upon you. Worst of all, besides a mound of Giant corpses, the absolute worst excesses of the place remain unseen, resulting in Nothing Is Scarier.
- Forest of the Fallen Giants isn't really creepy until you learn more about Drangleic's history, courtesy of several NPCs. See those trees? Those are Giants corpses. You are literally walking on a field of dead corpses. Which adds a little bit of terror to the boss you fight there: the Last Giant. It's been trapped in that cavern, surrounded by its dead race, unable to die for god knows how long. You walk in and it awakens in an animalistic
**rage**. With the Updated Re Release, several items' lore reveal that its rage is justified, for it is what's become of the Giant Lord you supposedly killed in the past.
- Harvest Valley/Earthen Peak. A.K.A The land of the poisonous
*everything*. Everything is gray and drab and dull, and not many things survive. The valley itself is pumped full of poisonous gas, and the peak (an enormous factory or mill of some sort) pumps copious amounts of poison down and out the valley. What's scary is the fact that this place is heavily fortified, implying that it may, at once point, been some sort of military or civilian institution. The undead miners and Mounted Overseers give the impression that this was a labor camp of sorts. The Old Iron King seems to have been quite nasty, even before his death and transformation into a fiery demon.
- The Hunstman's Copse and the Undead Purgatory. A small forest full of bandits and tormentors who want nothing but to kill all undead, or at the very least hunt them for sport. Up the hill and across the pit, is the Undead Purgatory, a massive Colosseum, built for the exclusive need to torture the undead. The idea that someone out there thought that hunting what are effectively
*zombies* was fun is fairly messed up.
- It's worse than that. In the late stages of the curse, Undead become zombies, true. But in the early stages? They were hunting fully sentient
*people* for fun and sport, and since Undead can never truly die unless the fire is lit, all it did was make them go Hollow sooner.
- The Shaded Woods is one of the most unnerving parts of the game, simply because its a fog-shrouded forest where you can barely see more than a few feet in front of you, the largest trees have twisted, screaming faces growing out of their trunks that
*groan* if you hit them, and there's nearly-invisible ghostly soldiers roaming the woods who can't be directly targeted and who are all too happy to run up and backstab you.
- Once you get out of the fog and stumble upon ruins, you will be constantly plagued by evil spirits that raise your curse meter at an alarming rate. Sure, you can destroy the urn which houses the dark aura, but there are so many of them, some of which are even out of reach. What could have caused those spirits to harbor such a powerful hatred towards trespassers?
- The Gutter is nearly on par with the Shaded Woods, mostly because of how dark and quiet it is the first time you find yourself in there. It's also because the cavern walls have muck flowing down them, there are pillars made out of refuse and corpses, and the enemies there are all too eager to ambush you or knock you off your feet to your doom. Then there's the thoroughly creepy ambient background noise that sounds vaguely like a heartbeat.
- Black Gulch is a deep, dark pit, possibly as low as you can traverse into the entire game. It's dark with only the Sickly Green Glow of the poisonous statues to guide your way. It's quiet and it's nearly empty, save for some hideous worm-like
*things* that claw out of the ground when you get too close. Those are not the most horrifying things. That would be when you go just a little bit lower into a secret cavern. What you find in there will probably one of the last things you expected to ever run into: *two* Giants, remnants of the ancient enemy that attempted to conquer Drangleic. These guys are filled with just as much hate as your old buddy from the Forest of Fallen Giants, and they're much better armed.
- Brightstone Cove Tseldora. Everything in this area is really trying to murder you, from the giant spiders, deformed casters, spider-controlled undead, basilisks and even Vengarl's headless body.
- Actually let's talk about Brightstone Cove Tseldora a bit more, shall we? Especially since the place is essentially an
*arachnophobe's worst nightmare*. Up above isn't so bad, just some weird hollowed farmers and pigs, but the further down you go, the more of those damned spiders you start seeing, especially some of them fused to other hollows and manipulating them like a parasitic puppeteer. And then in the final area, just before the fight with the Duke's Dear Freja, you're walking around a huge darkened room with webs everywhere, clearly a nest for the spiders...of which there's quite a few lurking around just waiting to catch you by surprise since the little buggers do make noise when they drop but are otherwise *deathly silent when they move*. In fact, you may not know many of them are right behind you or nearby until they've already bit a huge chunk out of your HP, and heaven help you if they've ganged up on you without you noticing. Not to mention take a look at the bottom floor of the room as well. That's right...it's littered with piles of human bones covered in webbing! To say this place is a frightfest is an understatement what with the eerie scenery and literal Demonic Spiders.
- The backstory is fairly terrifying too. Duke Tseldora wasn't exactly that sane of an individual to begin with, having an intense adoration of spiders, but he made a living running the Brightstone mining operations. Eventually, the Duke found a massive hive of parasitic spiders living beneath the earth, and within, found the Writhing Ruin Keeper. He somehow tamed the beast, and gave it the title of his Freja. The spiders were kept at bay, and mining continued. To rouse spirits, Tseldora built a congregation for his miners, and for the most part, it worked. For whatever reason, the parasitic spiders one day turned on the miners, decimating the operation. The Duke simply stood by and watched as the entirety of his troops were overtaken and killed. The lucky ones went undead, and began to feverishly worship the spiders as deities. The unlucky ones were taken over by the spiders, and turned into Parasitic Hollows. It's heavily implied that the Duke let himself die, in order to be with the spiders forever. At the bottom of his mansion in Brightstone Cove, past Freja's chamber you can find his study, Vengarl's body, and the Duke himself, gone fully hollow. Yikes.
- Go ahead, try setting the music volume to 0 and go somewhere dark like The Gutter or the area before the Duke's Dear Freja boss area. Max out the volume and put on your headphones. Whispers can be heard every now and then. Woe betide to those who try to listen to the voices.
- The first DLC,
*Crown of the Sunken King*, gives us Elana the Squalid Queen. She appears as an emaciated, almost skeletal figure, and seems to be covered in gnarled roots and vines. Similar to Nashandra, mentioned above, everything about her is just wrong. If you read the description for her soul, you'll learn that the similarity to Nashandra is intentional. She's another shard of the Abyss, and she was planning something terrible before you came along.
- Two out of three voice clips, Elana's greeting is threatening, but delivered in a similar tone as Nashandra has. The last ("You... forever you shall
*rot*") has a masculine tone underlying it, hinting at her true nature as a piece of Manus, Father of the Abyss.
- Also in the DLC, we are greeted with the Imperfects, monstrous creatures with ridiculously proportioned bodies and gigantic mouths. What the hell are they? Well, from their drops (Petrified Dragon Bone and Dragon Scales) they appear to be an unsuccessful attempt to create dragons.
- Sinh. An everlasting dragon that long slumbered in the depths. An entire civilization was built around it, until one of the Drakeblood Knights attempted to slay the beast. The result? The entirety of Shulva was engulfed in the poison that was flowing through Sinh's veins, reducing the entire population to poisonous hollows in an instant. And even after poisoning an entire city, he's still got plenty of it left for any would-be challengers.
- Nadalia, Bride Of Ash. A fragment of Manus that found, to her horror, that the king she had come to meet was already gone, and the kingdom was now ashes. With no place left to go, she forsook her physical form, and essentially possessed everything there. Her only connection to the physical world are twelve idols hidden around Brume Tower. So she is trapped forever as a disembodied spirit in a kingdom with no contact with the physical world, powerless to leave. Even if she wasn't evil before, the nightmarish isolation would have been sufficient to drive anyone mad.
- If you listen to the babbling coming from Nadalia's idols, it is very difficult to make out what they are saying most of the time. It is could be cries for help, for you to be killed, for her to be killed... listening to the pure audio files extracted from the game (making her dialogue a bit clearer) seems to suggest that she thinks you're the Old Iron King finally come back, and she's
*flirting* with you. Which is creepy in a completely different way.
- Her corpse: After defeating the Fume Knight, and going to claim the crown, you find her corpse sitting upon a throne... one covered in ashes. It is clear that her body is long dead, and while she may have succeeded in sitting upon the throne, unlike Nashandra, the appearance of her idols, and her insane babbling, make it clear that what she got was in no way what she wanted...
- The Fume Knight: Raime the Traitor found the power he sought, strength enough to defeat his greatest rival... but chose instead to become the eternal servant and bodyguard of Nadalia. When we first see him, he's rising out of the ashes, ashes which covered both him, and the sword he wields. Was he sleeping under there? ...Or is he now an undead hollow, rising only when a challenger comes to try and harm his mistress?
- The final area of the
*Crown of the Ivory King* DLC is called the Old Chaos. It is... terribly familiar. Lost Izalith is still around, as is the chaos tainted flame... and it's still trying to break loose, to spread and cover the entire world. Ironically... the only one who holds this nightmare at bay is a child of dark.
- From
*Scholar of the First Sin*. Did you believe Lord Aldia became the Ancient Dragon? Well you'd be wrong. His twisted experiments actually transformed him into a massive Eldritch Abomination with a Voice of the Legion that looks like a heaped-together pile of wood, flesh, and fire. And he's the True Final Boss.
- Even worse: you get no souls nor
*his* Soul from defeating him. And even though he fades away as if he died, *he still talks to you*. Aldia truly took himself out of the cycle of Life and Death, Light and Dark.
- A new addition in
*Scholar* is that when you try to light certain bonfires, he'll burst out of the ground, knocking you back. It's especially unnerving because they're only bonfires right after or before especially terrifying locations.
- The Forlorn. They are outworldly spirits created through Aldia's obsession with the First Sin, torn from their own worlds and left to drift in and out of others, forever seeking home. However, the loss of their physical form has left them with no beginning
*or* end, leaving them to forever wander aimlessly...
-
*The Lost Bastille.* Essentially The Alcatraz, this prison was created to hold those afflicted with the undead curse. When the prison got too full, the Flexile Sentry was tasked with cramming them onto a ship and dumping them far away from Drangleic. Many of them failed to survive the journey, either starving to death or drowning along the way.
- Lost Bastille has some very creepy overtones in that, unlike everywhere else in Drangleic, the place is seemingly still fully functional. Deteriorating, yes, but still a working prison. Guards still patrol the halls, the mysterious Jailer is still sending out his creations to keep tabs on prisoners (an you) and the Varangians are implied to still be raiding the coast for prisoners to add to the cells. The whole thing feels like a place held up by sheer cruelty tinged inertia. Adding to the creep factor is the reason why of all things a Hellhole Prison is the last functional entity in Drangleic: to ensure The Lost Sinner is punished for her entire hollowed life. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkSoulsII |
Dark Souls / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Dark Souls* is a prime example of a Dark Fantasy video game; imagine a country past the brink of ruin with humanity cursed with an endless cycle of life and death that would eventually drive them insane. This once prosperous land is now dilapidated where horrific creatures beyond reasoning and the ordinary reside and are bloodthirsty.
Anything and everything in Lordan is out to get you so...
**PREPARE TO DIE.** **As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- Many of the NPCs are seriously creepy, speaking in the kind of tone-of-voice that you don't find natural. Yet they don't attack you...at first. You have to guess which ones are actually harmless, and which ones will kill you the moment you turn around. The ones that don't attack you immediately probably will when they go Hollow after you exhaust their dialogue choices.
- When Reah of Thorolund first arrives at Firelink Shrine, the Crestfallen Warrior describes her with a tone that implies that he's planning to do something to her. He eventually goes Hollow and attacks you in New Londo Ruins. And he's not even the bad guy of the bunch; it's
*Petrus* who will kill Reah later on if you don't take him out first.
- There's also the obsessive tone that Laurentius uses when he demands that you tell him where you found Chaos pyromancy and/or large pyromancy flame. If you do tell him where you found it, he will go Hollow and attack you the next time you enter Lower Blighttown. Perhaps it
*is* best not to tell him anything.
- After ringing one of the Bells of Awakening, you can hear
*something* snoring near the pool of the Firelink Shrine, but you can't see what it is. It's Kingseeker Frampt, who awakens once you ring the second one. Of course, a Primordial Serpent like himself is ugly and horrifying, and he suddenly appears out of *nowhere*...
- The Gaping Dragon, with its ribcage-turned-mouth.
- The Mimic◊, a Chest Monster with finger bones for teeth and making menacing giggles at every movement. You end up trying to open it, the Mimic responds by
*eating you alive*. The only way to uncover it is to attack it (or check which way the chain on the side is positioned, as regular chests have them coiled), and even then, you still have to stay out of melee range to avoid its Instant Kill attack, which is, of course, eating you alive.
- There are many unnerving enemies in the game. The Bloated Undead and Crow Demons in the Painted World of Ariamis for example, as well as most things found in Blighttown and Lost Izalith.
- Have a fear of giant bugs? Then you're gonna
*love* lower Blighttown, especially the massive Cragspiders whose bodies have an annoying habit of getting tangled up on your character model.
- Just Blighttown in general, really. Just when you thought "The Depths", a disgusting sewer located beneath the Lower Undead Burg is already the bottom-most region of this dying, decaying world, already
*immensely* terrifying with giant rats, disgusting sewer dropping on you, your introduction to curses as you *deform and die*, you enter the room with the entrance to Blighttown. The whole screen turns a sickly green as you ponder the MASSIVE gaping hole, and then you descend an extremely long ladder to meet some of the creepiest enemies the game has to offer. Just imagining that a whole town, presumably filled with people exist down here is both horrifying and saddening.
- Blighttown also has strong triggers for Acrophobia (fear of heights) and Arachnophobia (fear of spiders), among many, many others.
- The fate of the Witch of Izalith and her daughters. She loses control of the copy of the First Flame she created and is transformed into the Bed of Chaos. Only one escaped unscathed; one is dead, two are mutated into giant half-spider demons, another (the eldest) has gone mad/hollow and is protecting her mutated mother, and the final two make up additional parts of the Bed of Chaos.
- Gravelord Nito. He's literally a mountain of corpses with a magical cloak and a sword (also made of corpses) the length of a car. In one of his attacks, he stabs his sword into the ground, which comes up under you unless you dodge fast—and that's not the scary bit, although it is lovely Paranoia Fuel on its own. When he does this attack, you hear a disembodied woman's voice
*shriek in agony.* It's quite...disconcerting.
- After you drain New Londo and go down the lift, you'll be confronted with a
*vast* pile of bodies; the final resting place of all the poor souls the flood claimed in order to seal off the Darkwraiths. Even more disturbingly, the Darkwraiths are still alive, you're now in their territory, and they're coming for you.
- Don't look too closely at the walls in the Catacombs if you have a fear of insects. Failing that, the sheer amount of bones and skeletons carelessly lying around (even ones that spring to life and attack you) will do the trick.
- Oolacile Township. It's filled with ordinary townsfolk that have been completely warped by the Abyss and have their limbs hideously lengthened and contorted
*well* beyond what a normal human should look like. The screams in the background (which sound uncomfortably like a little girl who hasn't been corrupted... yet) don't help.
- The Pisacas - holy maidens turned into half-serpent half-octopi. If they grab a hold of you, they suddenly sprout a
*massive* spike out of what used to be their heads. They are made aggressive by horrendous dissonant music, played by some kind of clockpunk record player which was built solely to torment all who hear it. Even the man-serpents are afraid! They just *run* from the Pisacas, ignoring any attacks you do to them, until they make it to some safe high position.
- Two of the pisacas are not hostile; they cower in fear from the player and run away if attacked. If you listen closely you can hear them crying. This, as well as their miracle item drops implies that they are holy maidens who have recently been turned in to pisacas via Seath's "experiments".
- Knight Artorias, or rather, what's left of him when you meet him in the Downloadable Content. Once the player reaches him, the once proud knight has completely lost his sanity due to the corruption of the Abyss and howls at you like a raving beast trying to kill you. It's very disconcerting to see him act like that, after all the hype behind his lore.
- The Abyss is a likely contender for the scariest Eldritch Location in the game. In fact, the very first time you enter, it becomes a textbook example of Nothing Is Scarier: as soon as you land in the horizonless Abyss, there's seemingly nothing happening at all at first. A couple seconds later, one of the Four Kings makes its appearance by emerging from the darkness, triggering what is unequivocally the most nerve-wrecking fight in the base game. The spectral appearance of the boss comes with the
*absolutely oppressive chorus*, accompanied by panicking violins pressing you to hurry up before you're hopelessly overwhelmed by the respawning kings.
- Want to know what's in the Abyss once the boss is dead? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
*Endless nothing spreading out in all directions forever.* There's no light, no landscape, just absolute *blackness*. If a bonfire didn't spontaneously appear after the fight, *there would be no way out*. And the scariest part is, if Kaathe is correct, this nothingness is the fundamental nature of humankind. The Abyss is a reflection of, and created from, *us humans*.
- Pictured above is Manus, the Father of the Abyss and the Final Boss / Big Bad of the Downloadable Content. He is a terrifying Eldritch Abomination that curbstomped and corrupted Artorias, and spread the darkness over the land of Oolacile, turning its townsfolk into little more than mindless, grotesquely-deformed monsters. The way he fights is downright brutal, capable of making even veteran players shudder in fear with his crazy, unpredictable moves. As if it wasn't enough, he's heavily implied to be what would happen should one's humanity go on an uncontrollable frenzy. The horror doesn't end here, as his legacy carries on over
*Dark Souls II*, where the tiniest fragment of his soul dwells within Queen Nashandra, the game's true Big Bad.
- It gets worse. Manus is implied in the lore of Dark Souls 1 to be the Furtive Pygmy, the holder of the Dark Soul (or at least, one of the Furtive Pygmies). Manus was one of the ancestors of all humanity, possibly a kind and benevolent man who decided to gift his descendants with the power he discovered, who somehow escaped the Ringed City that Gwyn tried to imprison him in and died outside it; but who was somehow resurrected, simply to be tortured by the residents of Oolacile so they could take his power, until he went mad and transformed into Manus when the primeval power of the Dark Soul that he held inside of him went mad, his body twisting and contorting into the creature we see. In the area leading up to the Chasm of the Abyss, you see the torture chambers where Manus was created.
- Oolacile was clearly a thriving city, until they unearthed Manus and tried to take his power. When it went horribly wrong, everyone in the city was corrupted into horrifying monsters barely recognisable as human, their bodies horribly contorted, minds broken and their faces turned into bloated masses of eyes.
- Consider the story from Manus' perspective. He was seemingly a normal (albeit powerful and ancient) human, one who likely escaped the prison of the Ringed City Gwyn put him in for no fault of his own. Upon reaching the outside world, one day he was found, and tortured by the residents of Oolacile, with only a pendant reminding him of his past life to hold onto. One day, his torturers found the pendant, and broke the only shred of hope he had left, causing him to go insane and causing the sheer power within him to burst out and go mad, transforming him into a horrifying abomination, barely recognisable as human, and then destroying everything around him. In his rage, his pendant goes missing and all he can do is lash out and destroy everything around him trying desperately and futilely to find his pendant, to no hope. And when he finally finds what has it, it's the one thing powerful enough to kill him.
- Artorias fate, while tragic, is also horrifying. He was once a noble knight, a true hero of countless battles, fighting alongside his great wolf. Until one day, trying to save humanity, he encounters a creature beyond his understanding, of immense power, that he cannot hope to stand up to. Sadly, he is so noble and without dark that Manus power utterly consumes him. All he can do is give his shield to his beloved wolf in a feeble attempt to save her, before his arm snaps and his body gives into the Abyss. He tries to fight the power taking over his body, to fight the creatures of the Abyss but its too late. Cut dialogue reveals he futilely tried to avoid fighting you, but he could not resist the power of the Abyss utterly corrupting his mind and body and forcing him to lash out at whatever he sees. His only solace is that the Undead warrior he encounters from the future puts him out of his misery.
- Black Dragon Kalameet is Maleficent's One-Winged Angel
*on steroids*. A very dark and edgy design overall, creepy unique eye, and he's feared even by the most badass knights of Anor Londo. If this isn't enough to convince you, listen to his boss fight theme.
- Your first encounter with him, while not a cutscene, is played for all the looming terror it implies. As you cross a bridge, Kalameet lands on it, coldly stares at you for several seconds, then flies off, leaving a powerful impression.
- The Painted World of Ariamis is, in its entirety, extremely creepy. The entire purpose of the place is to lock away things that had no place in the world or were too dangerous, even towards Gods. Virtually every single enemy in the the Painted World is a unique brand of Demonic Spider, and those that aren't are just reused but equally hellish Demonic Spiders. Some of the more dangerous ones can't even be killed without poisoning yourself, while some others are hidden in the Creepy Basement. A surprising amount of loot that, from a story standpoint, only make your journey harder can be found there. Besides all of this, the whole world just gives a sense of overpowering wrongness, like you truly shouldn't be there. The area boss in particular, while actually being one of the more tragic and kinder beings in the game, has an unsettling Dissonant Serenity about her.
- Pinwheel. While many players berate him for being the easiest boss in the game, it's probably also the eeriest part of the game. After making it through the Catacombs, you enter a room full of bones and various weapons scattered on the floor, a number skeletons hanging from manacles, and battered, discarded books lying everywhere, that's only lit by a bunch of candles. You then see an odd robed figure standing over a desk with two lanterns hanging from its back operating on a skeleton. It then turns around, appears to have three masks, which then
*look at each other*, and seem to agree that you need to die.
- Then there's its boss music, which starts with an eerily dissonant melody, paired with an onslaught of whispers. Fans have speculated that the whispers are a man saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," a woman saying "It's all your fault," and a child saying "Help me."
- While not specifically stated, fans believe his backstory seems to be something like this: in a tragic incident, a man's wife and child dies. He traveled to Lordran to receive the power to revive the dead from Gravelord Nito. When he tries it on his deceased family, they come back to life, but it backfires and they become grotesquely fused into a horrid being with three faces and six arms. Apparently, it has retained its consciousness, and willingly toils to research a way to bring the dead back to life. This theory is supported by concept art and some interviews with the developers.
- The Kiln of the First Flame. After countless grueling battles against the bearers of the Lord Souls, you harvest all four of them and satiate the Lordvessel, opening the door to Gwyn's true resting place. As you descend the staircase floating in a white void, ghostly apparitions of Black Knights walk past you, making you cringe as to what happened down there. Then, after making out of the white void, you are treated to... a dark and empty desert of ash and cinder around a giant ruin. Said ruin being surrounded by stone pillars which look half-melted and half-glassed, quickly hinting at the events that must have happened there. Aside from a few Black Knights awaiting potential intruders in the wasteland, there is absolutely nothing else in the desert, emphasizing the ever-increasing despair of the scenery. And finally, after a long, tiresome march towards the very center of the furnace, you meet Gwyn, the Lord of Cinder himself; reduced to a husk of his former glory, attacking you on sight with little more reasoning than a Hollow's.
- Maneater Shells are dangerous foes, but only start getting properly scary once you realise that their mouths aren't filled with pearls, but
*skulls*.
- You're walking along a mountain passage in the Valley of the Drakes and you find a presumably dead dragon hanging from a cliff side, and close to its body is some loot. Being the curious person you are, you get close to start pillaging the corpse, then as soon as you pocket the items, the dragon rises from the ground and starts trying to kill you. Congrats, you just found an undead dragon. Bring my brown leggings.
- When you first enter the Demon Ruins and are visually assaulted with a bright ocean of lava as far as the eye can see and a horde of chanting Egg Carriers. It really does look like you just wandered into Hell.
- Speaking of the Egg Carriers, if they get a hold of you, one of their eggs hatches and the resulting maggot burrows into your head, which starts to take a form similar to the Egg Carriers. While infected, you can't wear helmets and your head itches. You lose some of your fire resistance, and half your souls go to the maggot whenever you kill an enemy. Then, once it gains enough souls, the maggot replaces your kick attack with its own acid vomit.
- Once you beat Pinwheel, you enter The Tomb of The Giants. And it's dark. So dark, in fact, that you're almost required to either wear a specific helmet, or replace your trusty shield with a crappy little lantern. Because of this, the player has about three ways to run into the most terrifying enemy in the tomb: giant, dog like skeletons. These skeletons, alongside being horrifying, are super fast, hit like a truck, and are nigh impossible to kill.
- Vagrants. What the hell are Vagrants? Not surprised you don't know, because they're
*incredibly* rare — which is why they will ALWAYS scare the piss out of you when you meet one of the evil ones. Basically, whenever someone loses a large amount of humanity by dying and failing to retrieve it, they create an Evil Vagrant in the world of someone else online. They're horribly little crawly things with bloated sacks on their backs that drop items or humanity when you kill them. The "good" ones (which spawn when a player drops an item and doesn't pick it up again) are harmless and will run away, but the evil ones are aggressive, with crab claws and the ability to shoot a hail of spines at you that can do *incredible* damage, often enough for a One-Hit Kill. Even people who think they know everything about the game (and you can easily have an entire playthrough without *ever* seeing one) will find themselves shouting "What the HELL is THAT?!" the first time one comes crawling at them. note : Incidentally, if you've read this entry, you're now a little less likely to panic if it ever happens to you. You're welcome!
- Chaos Eaters. They look like something out of a Cronenberg film. Their numerous eyes and hoses are so unsettling and even worse is what they look like from above. During Siegmeyer's questline, you'll come across a hole in the ground filled with five Chaos Eaters, their horrid tooth-filled cyllindrical insides serving as their mouths. You can be grabbed and tossed into their awaiting gullets to be munched on before spitting you back out through their hoses. Not to mention the awful noises they make and the disturbing undulations of their cup-like bodies.
**YOU DIED** | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkSouls |
Dark Chao Adventures / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
A comedy fanscript about chao, started when the author was ten? What could possibly be scary about this?
**Note: Spoilers will be unmarked.**
- Episodes 14, 15, and 16 make "Shade and Dark's Strange Journey into the Beyond." While not particularly scary, it's got a couple of creepy parts, like the Darks' first trip to the future Dark Garden.. with the bodies in the pool. And the shotgun.
- The epic "The Secret City" has its moments. There's all kinds of creepy secrets in the city of Chao Talk, and then there's the Tour Guide... and considering his true identity, you might wish you never found out who he is.
- "Pelottaa Scary Stuff," the first Halloween special, is actually pretty tame for the most part. But in future CPAK, in the restroom, you
*might* start to shiver.
- "Gears n' Roses," the
*second* Halloween special, is considerably longer and quite a bit creepier than the first. The future Mecha and the Tails Doll, and the scenes going in detail about the Instability are particularly unnerving.
- "Sinister Serials of the Dark." DCAHall3. DJay worked from
*March* to get this colossal story ready for Halloween, and he really pulled out all the stops.
- Tale One has potential Through the Eyes of Madness, and a creepy endless highway. Plus the Operator.
- Tale
*Three* has jump scares aided by Mephiles' commentary. It's intended as an intermission between every act of Tale Two, to calm you down. But it can still be creepy, in its own right.
- Tale Two, then. Act one has Daylight Horror, with the stranger in the woods, the strange village, the hole in the ground, the aisle of trees, the forest changing, and the Village Chief's warnings.
- Act two has more of the stranger, Scruple's back sections, the town of Tenebrosity.. and the first dungeon,
**Tenebrosity Factory.** Everything about that factory. The computer hall, the main room, the kitchen, the spider, the Operator... and the reveal at the very end of the act.
- Act three gives us the second dungeon,
**the Silent Woods.** The silence that *drowns out* all sounds. The leaves rustling. The trees that aren't trees. The mask running through the woods. Then we also get the caverns (with the grotesque beast and Dark's detailed dissection of it), "Forest Off-Limits," and the talk of the Birchmen.
- Act four. Oh boy. First, there's the Mind Screw that was finding out they weren't in the
*real* village. Then, going down the "rabbit hole." The subway. The Security. And **"Bound to a Stream of Consciousness."** **Captain Curator:**
Those bruises you have are yours and yours only. I didn't want to get so barbaric.
- Episode 85.
- Chapters 4 and 5. "Eggman's face is a mask." "The greater narrative is here, open up." In English, the chao are lost in Chao Talk and encounter creatures wearing the skin of the Veteran's Committee. But at the same time, they could easily be the actual Veteran's Committee, themselves. There's no way to tell for sure.
- Chapter 6 introduced a hooded figure who flat-out makes characters explode in a gory mess upon sight. And then it turns out he's the unexpected developments foreshadowed at since the start of Season Seven.
- The show is wiped. Twice. The 8 and the 5, IT eating everything in sight, forcing everyone to stick to octave pentameter.
- "AFTER THE END" and "Post-Epilogue," two "episodes" consisting of the Writing Writer telling the reader about DCA's legacy, the vague life of Ulysses, and the fact that
*Shade and Shadow are kept alive indefinitely.*
- "Kill me." "Ulysses wishes he could speak in class today."
note : Fridge Horror is that this is a reference to Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," whose chorus is "Jeremy spoke in class today." Jeremy is about a boy who shoots himself in front of his classroom.
''[ DJay32 explodes in a gory mess]
[Ulysses explodes in a gory mess]
[Jordan Dooling explodes in a gory mess]
[The boy lost of innocence explodes in a gory mess]
[everything is gone]
[all is gone]
[ DJay is wiped from existence]
[no matter how many times he writes it, it won't come true]''
- Episode 88, the final episode.
- The impossible world, a simple little seaside village with an eldritch abomination looming in the sea. Shade and Shadow are trapped here forever— oh wait no, they just sent EAT up into space in a rocket, EAT just infected the entire script, EAT is now looming in the background of every episode of DCA. Every episode is now a passion play put on by The Camper. Play, or be eaten. EAT is Instability is IT is Red Metal is 8 and 5. Multiple faces of the same creature.
- Shade is stuck spending thirty years shooting everyone he knows and loved indefinitely until it becomes time for Shade of the past to show up and put him through the entirety of DCA all over again.
- Shadow is corrupted and tortured and forms the Veteran's Committee with Levity Nite, who was once what's left of Shade Junior.
- Amphis is Red. This one isn't even explained. Amphis is corrupted and then smashes his face with a hammer, revealing Red underneath.
- Ulysses is to blame for all, trapped in the sea forever.
- When at least eight years have passed, "Future Shadow" is wiped from the show in Episode 85 by the protagonists. We're shown his dying soliloquy. It's nothing but laughter.
- The "good ending" is Shadow failing to collect all seven chaos drives and being overpowered by Metal Speedy, who then wipes the entire show. In order to prevent EAT from torturing the entire cast, the bad guys have to win.
- Metal Speedy, trapped in an absent DCA universe for eternity. No one but himself and EAT, who quickly engulfs him and vanishes into the dark eternal night. He won, alright.
- DCA ends to nothing but a mirage of eights and fives. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkChaoAdventures |
Dark (2017) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The time travel of
*Dark* not only broke the mold of science fiction television but also managed to include many horrific and dark moments.
## General
- As beautiful as Ben Frost's original musical score is, it inspires a feeling of dread due to its droning ambiance. It perfectly fits in with the show's dire settings and themes.
- The concept of children vanishing without a trace and a Serial Killer being on the loose is already unnerving on its own, but the idea that time
*predetermines* your choices in life, even to the point of your *thinking*, is a much more existential fear.
- The openings. All of them. As intriguing as Apparat's "Goodbye" might be for the viewer and the various mirror effects, there is no doubt that the openings can be unsettling in their own right. Although, this type of nightmare fuel can be subsided for the rest of the season once you see the opening many times. That is until you watch the next one.
## Season 1
- The series' opening moments. Well, the first episode leaves a significant impact, showing the viewer what they are in for.
- The first thing shown is the message "Der Unterschied zwischen Verganganheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft ist nur eine Illusion, wenn auch eine hartnäckige." In English, it means "The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." While not frightening, it can be unnerving that the show begins with that very quote from theoretical physicist Albert Einstein.
- The middle part of the opening is far unsettling too: We hear a man (arguably ||The Stranger||) who begins to discuss his theory about Time: That while we as humans interpret it as linear, it is actually a cycle and that eventually everything will repeat itself with no way of noticing it. While is being said philosophically, we see photos of what will be later on shown as the cast of the series, all connected in some way with threads to one another ala
*string theory*, before the narrator finishes with "Alles ist miteinander verbunden" note : "Everything is connected", one of the show's reoccuring Arc Words.....
- And how it concludes, dear God... A man is seen licking an envelope while tense music plays, giving the indication that something is not right. He sets a chair on the floor, gets up, and puts his head around a noose. Then he kicks the chair. What makes it work is that we don't know what caused this man to take his own life.
- Erik Obendorf's disappearance. He had been missing for two whole weeks, and Winden's police force has been scrambling for answers. The fact that he disappeared for that long and left behind no trace is very alarming.
- At a rest home, Helge is sitting in his chair in a catatonic position, repeating "It's gonna happen again." The camera even pans to one of his ears, which is only scar tissue. What happened to his ear? And what is he inferring is "going to happen again"?
- When Jonas and his group stumble upon the cave, rumbling and whooshing sounds are heard. Shattering branches and the flickering flashlights add insurmountable amounts of tension for both the kids and the audience. Everyone makes a run for it. Mikkel and Jonas run together, but Jonas trips and falls. When he gets up, Mikkel is nowhere to be seen. The fact he was right there with Jonas, then just disappeared into thin air like that, invokes pure horror and makes the children disappearance situation even worse.
- When a child's body has been found in the forest, it's a very sad scene. However, it turns into pure Mood Whiplash when the child's eyes have been revealed to be charred and destroyed.
- When put in context, this entire episode is an exercise in Nothing Is Scarier. ||The man committing suicide, Erik's situation in the episode's end, Helge's Madness Mantra and scarred ear, what lies beyond the cave's entrance, and why that boy's eyes are singed and charred||. To say that the entire series has started with a bang would be a gross understatement.
- When the episode begins, it has been 9 hours since Mikkel's disappearance. A mysterious man is walking in the forests, finding a dead bird. The man's raggedy appearance and the reason why this bird died can instill a sense of fear in the viewer.
- The boy's first autopsy. Aside from the eyes, the boy's eardrums have burst, and his entire inner ear is destroyed. The camera panning over his eyes and all the detail regarding what happened to him is horrific.
- At the halfway point, in what might be a throwback to the first episode, we see Erik again strapped to the chair. However, the screen doesn't cut to black, but the chair is heard whirring as Erik hyperventilates. Also, instead of a song, the television broadcasts what might be a documentary about black holes and how they can be used for traveling and distorting time and space. it's this bit of dialogue that really sets the tone for the entire series, and not in a calming way either.
**Host:**
And so at least hypothetically, because of this massive gravitational influx that occurs within a black hole, it appears quite possible that it can actually distort both space and time. So the question is, once we cross the event horizon, will we be able to travel through a black hole to see what lies in the beyond? And if we were to do this, what price would we pay? How far would scientists go?
- Poor Mikkel has been thrust quite a few years into the past, panicking as his key doesn't work on his home, and later being bullied by
*his own father*. Meanwhile as Present!Ulrich is getting into some illegal means to find out about what happened to his little boy.
- Jana manhandling Mikkel (her grandson) in 1986 in hopes for finding out if he knows anything about Mads's disappearance. Mikkel understandably never returned to the Nielsen home again.
- This episode can be this for claustrophobic watchers, as the possible Portal to the Past is an extremely narrow corridor fit for only one at a time, although properly ventilated.
- Ulrich bludgeoning young Helge with a rock. Not only is the damage to Helge's face shown in graphic detail, but the fact that Ulrich — who, for all his flaws, is still a loving father and chose to become a police officer out of a genuine desire to help people — would be desperate enough to resort to
*child murder* is extremely disturbing. And when Ulrich is done (he thinks Helge has died at this point), he takes the boy, throws him in the bunker and locks the door, leaving him to rot.
- The ending. When Jonas and 1953!Helge touch between the gap of time and space, Helge ends up in 1986, but Jonas? He is in a completely different world. Not 1953, not 1986, not 2019. As he wanders around this desolate land, he stumbles upon signs in various languages and apocalyptic camps. When a camp seizes him, Jonas spots a plane with a very futuristic look. His suspicions are confirmed when the group's leader says, "Welcome to the future.". This indicates that Jonas has been transported to futuristic Winden, in the year 2052. What the hell happened that plunged Winden in such a desolate state?
## Season 2
- The first episode of Season 2 shows the Crapsack World of 2052 after an apocalyptic event, with Winden in ruins, dead bodies hanging from trees, and a ruthless cult of survivors (under the leadership of a heavily scarred, middle-aged Elisabeth) who publicly execute everyone who tries to enter the "dead zone" surrounding the ruins of the power plant.
- The newly christened Noah kills his fellow miner when the latter loses his trust on Adam and not believing any of his stories of 'Paradise', and the latter takes it without any change in his expression. ||It becomes even more nightmarish when we reach the penultimate episode of the series...||
- At the end of the episode, we see Jonas entering the power plant and discover what exactly the survivors are guarding: an unstable wormhole that appears as a constantly shifting, swirling mass of dark matter, moves as if it were a living creature and emits an extremely unsettling roaring noise.
- Adam, the leader of the
*Sic Mundus* cult, has a frightening appearance: He dresses very elegantly — but his face is *horrifically* burned, which is later revealed to be the result of the endless time travel he once did. ||As Jonas Kahnwald.||
- Jonas
*getting hanged* for daring to sneak into the nuclear power plant. If Elisabeth didn't take pity on him at the last moment, it would have been the end of him.
- The God Particle, implied to be the cause of the Apocalypse, just... revolving on its own without anything to power it. Claudia even states the Particle simply breaks the laws of physics by simply
*existing*.
- Ulrich being tortured in the asylum when he is recaptured in the 80s. He is
*immensely old* at this point, yet being shown no relaxation.
- Egon's death is this and a Tear Jerker. 1986!Claudia was afraid that Ulrich would kill her father as retribution for Ulrich and Mikkel being separated again, and decided to be beside him to ensure that his death would not occur. However, when Egon becomes suspicious that she is hiding something, he tries to contact the authorities. This results in the two fighting for control over the phone, which results in Egon slipping and cracking his head open from blunt impact. His final words, "You're the White Devil" can send a chill down anyone's spine, and Claudia willing to leave her father to die to ensure the time loop remains stable is nothing but horrific.
- Holy crap, the ending, which is even more nightmarish than Season 1's ending. In it, all the conditions are fulfilled for the Apocalypse to take place. When Charlotte and Elisabeth touch hands between a rip in the spacetime continuum, that's what triggers the Apocalypse. The god particle forms in a dome over the power plant. When its transformation into a complete half-sphere is finished, it expands outwards, hellbent on causing destruction in its wake. Its rumbling and thunderous sounds during the process do not make things less unsettling. This plunges Winden (and possibly the world) into a desolate state.
- Not to mention Adam killing Martha to bring himself into existence, with her dying in Jonas's arms. Also doubles as a major Tear Jerker.
## Season 3
- Helge of this universe has
*his left eye region* burned off due to unknown reasons (possibly related to the kidnappings), which makes his loss of an ear in the first universe look downright tame.
- Tronte killing Regina, at ||Claudia's request||, which is nightmarish enough if Tronte is her father.
- The simple revelation that the strange man with his two counterparts are
*Jonas and Martha 2's son*, who are acting as Eve's Time Police and securing that the timelines stay intact. Oh, and the fact they *wrote* the Book that Noah has been using the entire time.
- The entire sequence with the burglar breaking into Peter and Elizabeth's trailer while the latter is alone.
- It already starts off unsettling, with Elizabeth being briefly knocked unconscious and having her hands tied behind her back. With her being deaf, she's unable to hear what the burglar is asking her, which results in an
*very* uncomfortable situation where Elizabeth, a young girl, is left helpless and afraid around the presence of somebody older and stronger than her. However, the scene becomes genuinely frightening when the burglar *begins grabbing at and pulling off Elizabeth's pants in an attempt to rape her*. The fact that Elizabeth is only *9*, and that she's entirely conscious during the attempt, makes this moment truly disturbing.
- When Peter comes back Just in Time to stop the rape, only to get stabbed in the throat and die, Elizabeth retaliates by brutally beating the burglar to death with a fire extinguisher in a long series of sickening crunches. While the burglar absolutely deserved it, it's still a gruesome scene, even in spite of it being a Gory Discretion Shot.
- Katharina stalking Helene to steal her keycard in an attempt to free Ulrich, while pretty nightmarish enough, ends in Helene brutally murdering Katharina once she turns the tables, on the belief that she's her aborted child from Hell to torment her. She then disposes of her by sinking her into the lake, which gave rise to the legend of the 'Lady in the Lake'.
- The Apocalypse in Eva's world. Unlike the Apocalypse in Adam's world which required many events to happen, the Apocalypse was triggered here simply with the opening of the barrels. Katharina, Mikkel, Magnus and Franziska who survived in the first world due to time-traveling before the Apocalypse all die here, with Magnus and Franziska even having moments to realize what happened before the dark matter killed them.
- Adam trying to destroy the universes by unleashing energy of
*two Apocalypses* down on Martha and her unborn child, as we hear her desperately appeal Jonas not to go through with it, as the Apocalypses swallows her whole.
- Jonas attempting suicide due to breaking down in despair, and the sheer defeated look he gives while he tries to hang himself. Made worse by the fact that as Adam exists, Jonas won't die, by his own hands or even by nature.
- Adult!Jonas in 1890 showing symptoms of becoming Adam, as he tries to threaten Bartosz into complying to destroy the worlds. Bartosz, having none of it, tries to leave him in order for a better life, only to fail due to Adam sending Silja back for the very purpose of stopping him.
- An old Jonas, now completely scarred into his future look of Adam, meets his mother and half-sister, who just wanted to reunite with her son. His reaction was to promptly kill Hannah and kidnap Silja so that Elisabeth gets to raise her, and Silja would later meet Jonas himself as a young boy in 2052.
- The sheer horror both Noah and Elisabeth experience when their baby daughter Charlotte disappears into the post-apocalyptic hellscape. Enraged, Noah tries to kill Jonas and fails, but not before parting with a snide curse to him. Worse, it was Charlotte herself who aided in her kidnapping, but only to maintain the Stable Time Loop and to ensure her, Elisabeth and Franziska's existence.
- We learn that
*Ulrich* was the one who actually gave the scar to Adult!Helge in Eva's World. Ulrich, having more success than his Adam's World counterpart, successfully follows Old!Helge into 1986, where he bludgeons the now-complicit Helge to near-death, despite being a police officer who wanted to help people. Even this is for naught as the older Helge himself kills Ulrich, continuing the Stable Time Loop.
- The adult versions of Jonas and Eva, not aware that the loop can be broken, just stare helplessly at their surroundings, as both of them are erased from existence. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Dark2017 |
Daria / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Proof that vanity is uglier than coke-bottle glasses.
General
- The vast majority of any nightmare fuel in
*Daria* is neatly imprisoned within the confines of the pilot episode. For one thing, there's Daria's disconcertingly toothy grin◊ (no wonder she rarely, if ever, smiles in the actual series), and for another, Brittany◊ ( *every* shot of her is that horrifying).
- It's the first and only time that Daria ever smiled with her teeth for a reason.
- Some of the Alter Egos can be creepy, such as, fittingly, one of Mr. DeMartino as a deranged and roughed up man biting the heads off animals. Other examples include Stacy as Carrie and Sandi as the Devil.
- Jake's father. Although we never saw a complete appearance of this character, what we hear about him is quite disturbing (indeed, the only character in the entire series showing sociopathic traits). He is largely responsible for Jake's fragile state of mind and neurosis as the result of an abusive upbringing. Despite never appearing onscreen, his influence is felt every time Jake goes off on a tangent about his childhood. It's stated he was dead by the time he was Jake's age.
- Regarding Mr. DeMartino, his two Evil Laugh moments are rather creepy, especially as both are directed towards the viewer and are shown in an ominous shade.
- And we haven't even gotten started on the part where his eye often
*bulges out of its socket* when he's really outraged.
- Allison, from
*Is It Fall Yet?* plied Jane with alcohol and tried to seduce her into bed. This was when Jane was still legally a minor and Allison was an adult. What's more, she showed zero concern for Jane's stated orientation, insisting that she never hit on straight girls. And when Jane saw her acting flirtatious with an artist she'd called "pretentious" just the day before, Allison blew her off by suggesting Jane was too serious about the whole thing. What would have happened if she'd gotten Jane just a bit more drunk? And is Jane the only underage girl she's ever pulled this sort of tactic on?
Season 1
- When vanity-obsessed Quinn goes to see a plastic surgeon, the surgeon waylays Daria into a 'change-your-features' session until the image on-screen becomes Quinn's. It's played for laughs and can't really deepen Daria's cynicism any more, but consider the surgeon's message: The only way to popularity is to spend tens of thousands of dollars to erase your identity entirely. Also scary: Even Daria's speech to Quinn, admitting that her looks are so great they make other girls, including herself, ill, cannot sway Quinn from her quest for Perfect Plus.
- The only thing that can is that the girl who just had her body and face madeover by Dr. Shar (the plastic surgeon), nose just collapsed and is being sent to the ER. They are informed by Quinn's friends, who are holding their new noses with their hands in a rush to a good doctor (nose jobs courtesy of Dr. Shar). Heck earlier Dr. Shar was seen telling a patient on the phone, that they're just not used to breathing with their new nostrils. Yes. Not only does the doctor prey on the insecurities and wallets of people, she could easily have them killed due to her incompetence.
- Dr. Shar even looks like a nightmare
- Daria's family, when they eat the psychotropic berries when they go camping...
*their eyes*...
Season 2
- It was Played for Laughs in context, but something feels creepy about Daria's nightmare in which she and Jane become as ditzy as the Fashion Club. Much of this feeling relates to the fact the nightmare showed Daria conversing with three girls who each had the same face and hairstyle as Jane, but spoke with a voice belonging to one of Quinn's friends. Also, none of them find this a strange sight because they spend so much time talking about
*pores*.
Season 3
- The "Hall of Mirrors" in Daria's nightmare in "Through a Lens Darkly". What starts off as innocent hall of mirror fare ends up with some of the most grotesque animations seen in the show (see image).
- The Sarcastathon 3000 intro to "The Lawndale File" features Daria and Jane in rather ridiculous alien getup. But then Daria comments "Enjoy it, because tomorrow, you will be our slaves" in a surprisingly ominous tone.
- While on the subject matter, another intro features the two in rather creepy Gothic attire in a graveyard with Daria holding a skull, setting up a creepy story about a strange knock at the door. Though it becomes Nightmare Retardant when Jane reveals that said knock at the door is a girl asking if the house's tenants would like a magazine subscription.
Season 4
- The situation in "The Antisocial climbers" in which everyone is stuck on a mountain in a storm with no food or water. Mr. De martino even falls
*off a cliff*.
- The Urban Legends told in "Legends of the Mall", particuarly the one which casts Mr. De Martino as a shop teacher driven to madness by the stupidity of his class, resulting in the loss of his teeth which he replaces with metal ones himself◊. The way he just takes a chunk out a door is especially disconcerting.
- Woe betide you if you enter the "Legends of the Mall" or Metalmouth pages on The Daria Wiki...
-
*The Rattling Girl* (the story of the girl from the 1960s who looks like Sandi who became so skinny that her bones rattled when she danced). *shudder*
- Worse one was the Grade Changing girl. It was bad enough Daria played the part in her own urban legend, what made it scarier was that she laughed evilly comparable to Mr. DeMartino.
Season 5
- While this is more of a Fridge Horror, in the episode "Fizz Ed", Ms. Angela Li demonstrates quite psychotic behavior, to the point of being Ax-Crazy; the Fridge Horror is that if you think about it, who knows what Ms. Li would have done with the ax if she had not stopped. Note that until she was transferred by ambulance.
- The substitute in Lucky Strike, Mr. Edwards, was flirting with Tiffany,
*a minor*. What makes him even creepier is the tone and looks he was giving to her *in front of the whole class*, while he talked nonstop and acted out scenes of his book, using words like "blossoming the budding flower of a woman-child" while stroking her hair. Thanks to God Helen did something about it.
- What makes the situation worse is that Ms. Li, after she fired him, was pissed off
*at Helen* for threatening the lawsuit. How long would she have allowed that?
- In "Life In The Past Lane", Upchuck's Houdini-inspired magic act in which it appears he's bound and trapped inside a locked box. Stacy, acting as Upchuck's assistant, is a sobbing mess, making it clear something is very wrong. It turns out that was the whole point: Upchuck appears alive and well outside of the box, while Stacy cries on cue to convince the audience of the potential danger. Regardless, much of the scene is played for dark humor.
- The sushi parasite that's pulled out of Jake's mouth in "My Night with Daria".
- The beginning of "Boxing Daria" is a completely black screen, followed by the sound of a car crashing and a voice asking "Miss? Miss? Are you alright?" We find out later that Daria's fine and nobody got hurt, but it's still scary. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Daria |
Dark Sun / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Forget about fighting dragons and finding treasure. On Athas, your epic quest is to simply
**survive.**
- Athas is a Crapsack World in every possible respect. The entire planet was devastated by genocidal wars of attrition using life-draining "Defiler Magic" that turned 99% of the world's ecosystem into a waterless wasteland. Even the
*sun* was forever tainted by the dreaded Sorcerer Kings, swollen into a dark red orb that scorched whatever the wars didn't destroy. It's surprising that *anything* survived this age of bloodshed, but extinction is probably the better option compared to the societies that would come after. And you can't even pray to save your life, because the gods were killed, too.
- Everyday life on Athas is an unforgiving hell that would make the nightmare worlds of
*Ravenloft* look cozy and inviting. Magic is something to be feared and abhorred, slaves outnumber free citizens, war is commonplace, metal is priceless, and the climate is so unbearable that you might — even if you're Lawful Good — end up killing a man without a second thought just for a mouthful of water. The only thing keeping the hated Sorcerer-Kings in power are their magical talents, their fanatical Templars and the many gladiatorial games they host that serve as the only source of public entertainment. Hell, even *reading* is a privilege held only by the aristocracy and forbidden from the commoners on pain of death.
- What's worse is that for the historically inclined, this is essentially the Bronze and early Iron Ages taken to the next level and run through a Crapsack filter. Cruel Gods, unaccountable God-Kings, inhospitable climate, slavery as an integral part of society, endemic war, natural disaster, fearful superstition, precious little in the way of life's necessities, and lack of learning for the masses? Check, Check, Check, and check. Babylonians, Egyptians, and the peoples of the Indus River Valley may not have lived in a world ruined by magic or under leadership quite as evil and unchanging as that of the Sorcerer-Lords, but Athas is so inhospitable and alien to modern audiences both because of what it fictionalizes, and what it doesn't.
- Millennia of carnage and devastation have warped even familiar D&D races into grim mockeries of their former selves. Elves are no longer mystical beings that commune with nature, having been turned into mercurial assassins, thieves, and raiders. Halflings have turned from short, jolly and humble folks that treasure wine, food and song into xenophobic cannibals that will slaughter anyone that trespasses on the last remaining forests. Dwarves gain a special focus ability... and the burden of becoming undead monsters if they should die with a focus unfinished.
- The Mul are an artificial species, with the stature of a Human and the strength of a Dwarf. That's not the scary part. The scary part is that they take twelve long, painful months to gestate and will more often than not kill the mother during labor. And because of their inherent sterility and popularity as slaves and gladiators, the Sorcerer Kings make sure that there's a steady supply of them.
- The Thri-Kreen. Mantis-like humanoids obsessed with hunting to the point where even a simple commercial transaction is seen as predatory act. And they are so accustomed to the scorching hot climate that it's almost a miracle that they haven't taken over the entire planet.
- One particularly unnerving aspect about the Thri-Kreen is that they have no biological need to sleep, even finding its very concept to be a strange curiosity. So much so that they will sometimes stand over their sleeping party members and just
*stare* at them for the rest of the night.
- The wastelands of Athas are perhaps even more dangerous than the bandits and monsters that roam it. Even experienced adventurers can find themselves hopelessly lost and fatally dehydrated after becoming lost in the most hostile regions. They're the
*lucky* ones. The less fortunate may be skinned and scalded alive by blazing sandstorms.
- The Mayincatec city of Draj is ruled by the feared and revered Tectuktitlay: a self-styled deity who demands sacrifice. And he does the sacrificing
*himself,* cutting out the beating hearts of his prisoners and throwing them down the pyramid steps like yesterday's news. The city-state is in a state of constant war with its neighbors, ensuring that there's always a steady supply of slaves and sacrificial slaves.
- The city of Gulg is fortified not by walls, but by massive hedges with thorned vines - enchanted to catch and bleed anyone stupid enough to trespass.
- The Dark Templars that police the city are known to be extremely secretive - masked, cloaked and almost always just out of sight. Just to keep the citizens in line through sheer paranoia. And according to rumor, they will gladly murder transgressors in their
*sleep.* And one of their punishments include sealing the offender's souls inside their own shrunken head.
- Water is so scarce on Athas that every oasis is viciously guarded by merchant houses, city-states or gangs of bandits for their control, charging hefty sums for a taste of the foul, brackish water that so many will kill for. Wars have been fought for the control of these meager pools and particularly cruel bandit gangs have been known to bribe merchants into giving naive city folk wrong directions to the next oasis.
- The Sea of Silt. A dry seabed that has become a waterless parody of its former self. Situated on the very edge of the official map, attempting to cross it will almost always result in certain death. If the heat doesn't kill you, drowning in silt will. And if the silt doesn't kill you, then hungry pterodactyls will. And even if you are able to use a silt-skimmer to cross the sea, you will still be at the mercy of hungry giants that will wade waist-deep through the sands to devour you. And if the giants don't get you, then the Silt-Horrors will.
- Silt Horrors. Giant, fanged, half-kraken half-fetus-like monstrosities that sleep beneath the desert. As soon as you are ensnared by their tentacles, then you are already dead.
- Sink Worms. Little different from their inspiration and just as deadly.
- The Sand Vortex is a fanged, disk-shaped creature that will suck anything - even flying creatures - into its mouth with vacuum-strong winds. And, like Sink Worms and Silt-Horrors, it's
*impossible* to tell when you're walking over them until it's too late.
- The tembo. Believed to be a Living Weapon left over from some long-forgotten war, a tembo looks like a nightmarish exaggeration of a hyena, but has the intelligence of a genius and the personality of a sadist. In a world filled with cannibals, raiders and slavers, the tembo is the single most despised monster of all: they
*specifically* prefer to eat children, just for the grief this causes their parents. **Every** humanoid race on Athas will put aside their differences and team up if a tembo is reported hunting nearby. And there's more than one of them...
- The belgoi are a race of spindly, desert-haunting humanoid monsters who use little bells crafted from the bones of humanoids as a focus for their psychic powers, which they use to lure victims to abandon their campsites and wander out into the desert, where the belgoi are waiting to eat them. Worse, their "hypnotic chiming" is only audible
*to the victim*, so their closest companions have no idea what is happening when their friend gets up and says they're going off to relieve themselves or whatever excuse they instinctively make.
- Sligs are voracious humanoids whose mutated biology leaves them incapable of storing body fat, forcing them to hunt incessantly to survive. And since humanoids are the most common prey on Athas, they mostly hunt people.
- Anakores, as reinvisioned in 4th edition. They were already creepy as a race of monstrous mole people that attack victims by dragging them below the sand to eat them alive, but 4e makes them worse. In this edition, not all of an anakore's victims are eaten. Some are just Buried Alive in dark nests beneath the sands... where they slowly transform
*into* a new anakore.
- The hideous hej-kin are another race of burrowing humanoids who stalk prey from beneath the sands. In 4th edition, they also worship Eldritch Abominations and are often found working alongside aberrations. Worse, it's suggested that the hej-kin may be all that's left of the once peaceful and benevolent race of gnomes.
- Psurlons; giant worms with incredible Psychic Powers, descended from humanoids who destroyed their own world in a psionic ritual gone awry and survived by latching their spirits onto once-normal worms and mutating them into something more compatible. They come to Athas for only two reasons; to conquer, and to feed... | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkSun |
Dark City / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Meet Mr. Sleep
- Although this falls in line with Paranoia Fuel, given the oppressive atmosphere, the eldritch nature of the city and the machinations of the Strangers, there's still the true forms of the Strangers to contend with. Brr.
- The Strangers. It's not just that they're corpses animated by the squiddy aliens that live in their skulls, it's that with just a syringe or two, they can completely erase all your memories, your personality, everything that makes you
*you* and replace them with synthetically created false memories. And you'll never know the difference, or how many times they've done it.
- It may not be the most disturbing thing, but Dr. Schreber's first memory is of himself, removing all of his own memories from his own mind. Place yourself in the same position and realize the horror that is voluntarily destroying all of your identity. And you can only do this by
*sticking a huge freaking needle into the center of your brain*.
- Mr. Hand in general!
- Particularly after he starts thinking like a human.
- He gets given Murdoch's memories which were meant to make Murdoch a serial killer. Instead, Mr. Hand is a serial killer. He violently murders an innocent woman off screen.
- Mr.
. **Sleep** *All* the Strangers are creepy, but this one is a little boy, who's always smiling, and we never, ever hear him speak. And when he finally does say something? "Kill him!"
- When we see from Inspector Bumstead's perspective when he's thrown out the city, he - and the audience - realize with a certain nihilistic dread that this is just one small city in the middle of nowhere, in the grand vastness of space. Something about the crushing size almost renders his Heroic Sacrifice meaningless...
- Everything Bumstead's predecessor Walenski says is absolutely true.
- A lower class husband spends dinner complaining about his boss. Then things get changed to him being the boss, and he complains about his employees. What makes it so eerie is just how completely different they are in personality and speech. As if they were always like that before the change. It's very uncanny.
- The very nature of the story itself is utterly nightmarish, coming as it does from an actual recurring nightmare of Alex Proyas. One can see all the familiar qualities of a persecution nightmare in it: our protagonist, who at first can't even remember his own identity, is being chased through an unidentified city by unidentified knife-wielding shadowy men with unknown motives. He's also in trouble with the law for crimes he doesn't know whether he committed or not. The place he needs to go to find the answers to all his questions is perpetually just out of reach; no matter who he asks and what method he tries, he can never quite get there. Meanwhile, he doesn't know who he can trust, since anyone might be working for his persecutors, and he can't even be sure his most recent memories are at all accurate because everything around him keeps changing. Paranoia Fuel indeed! | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkCity |
Darwin's Game / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
I see you, pathetic little mouse...
- Imagine being trapped in a death game and if you die, those not in the game will have no way of knowing because your dead body
*disappears*. Many players who die were merely reported missing because their loved ones and the authorities don't know what happened to them and have *no way* of finding out *besides getting involved in the game themselves*.
- How a body disappears when losing the game. The player's body gets
*disintegrated* in blocks, with them being fully aware and awake while it's happening. The only thing remaining are odd, block-shaped holes in the form the player's body was positioned in.
- The ending of the first chapter. Kaname accepts the fight request, and then suddenly, his opponent was
*just there*. The costume also added greatly to the creepy factor.
- You've got a guy in a costume chasing you with a knife, and the police don't believe you because you jumped over a ticket stall while fleeing,
*so they almost arrest you, for filing a false report.* Then, while in the police station, when the police confirm, that yes, a guy in a costume is chasing you, the police officer gets slashed, and the guy in the costume is there, coming at you next!
- During his fight with Banda-kun, Kaname managed to separate his opponent from his knife, but Banda went invisible. Kaname decides to go for the knife but he sees the knife getting picked up and going invisible. His Oh, Crap! at the moment was very understandable.
- Invoked by Seigen, leader of the "Kuchinawa Assembly" when he opens his eyes. Just look at the page image.
- The Doume. Incredibly powerful monsters introduced during the Hunting Game event. Guns are useless against them because they have a sigil that negates all projectile attacks.
note : Though a large and slow enough projectile can faze them as Samurai Rick demonstrates by hitting one with a rock. You need to use close-combat weapons to fight them, but that puts you in range of *their* attacks as well. Few are the people who can reliably fight them. The Game Master later reveals that the Doume are a shadow of what mankind once was, and Ghislain independently confirms that they are a close genetic relative. The implications of this are unsettling.
- The Greed. Though the small ones aren't as powerful as the Doume, there are
*massive*, mammoth-like ones that can fire acid. And if that's not enough, the people they eat and kill are replaced by humanoid-Greed that are almost impossible to properly distinguish from a real human without the use of Sigils. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarwinsGame |
Da Suisa / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
"I can't believe how can they be so evil to that little piggy"
The overall tone of the series and how Da Suisa family acts is pretty unnerving.
- Laysi Vegetarian shows Da Homa and Bort dancing and having fun while cooking a pig ALIVE. It's not very scary until we see a first shot of the piggy and they are spitting on him.
- How violent and desperate gets Bort after losing his soul.
- The gangster from Mafia Bort are really menacing.
- Citizen Brugge is probably the scariest episode. It starts with Mr. Brugge having disturbing hallucinations with a creepy teddy bear.
- The sound edition from Bort losing his soul returns.
- The baby shots Brugge down on-screen. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DaSuisa |
Das Boot / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
This movie does a great job at capturing the terror of World War II naval warfare, making people never, ever want to set foot on a submarine (or at least a submarine of that era with none of the safety, air-conditioning and spaciousness of the more recent ones). Ever. The whole situation is basically this in-character for Werner, to boot.
There's one particularly bone-chilling shot: the Captain gently pivots the periscope, looking over the dark sea, knowing a destroyer is out there, the last wave laps and then... Wham Shot. It's almost on top of them.
The ASDIC, the Allies' proto-sonar, with its creepy pings heard through the submarine's hull.
One particular incident is this in-character for many of the characters; when the U-96 surfaces to behold its handiwork in torpedoing a tanker, they get to see many of the crew on fire and leaping into the sea, where they are guaranteed to drown, and U-96 is under orders not to render any aid (with all the burning petrol it's questionable if they could have gotten close enough to do so anyway - and they didn't have really any extra room or provisions to spare at that). They eventually watch the sea surface fire engulf the survivors and burn them alive. This shakes many of the crew deeply, even though they had intended to revel in their success.
There's a really good reason why the Captain-Lieutenant went easy on Johann after his breakdown. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DasBoot |
Date A Live / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
An off-kilter show about a lucky guy kissing and saving Spirits. Sounds tame, right? Think again. It holds nothing back as the story goes on, especially as it takes advantage at the very character-driven plot.
The very first scene of Date A Live was extremely dark and frightening for an anime has a reputation for being a very funny anime franchise. Anyone who first watched the first scene of the anime wondered if the franchise was actually a harem comedy due to this bizarre introduction. After all, the first scene of the anime has entire cities being eradicated and millions of people being killed in a second. Well... Koushi Tachibana gave all views an optimal introduction. To elaborate, the very concept of Spacequakes can send shivers down one's spine. Imagine a nuclear-blast level of destruction suddenly occurring out of freakin' nowhere, and annihilates you alongside everything around you. Luckily they can be detected In-Universe...
What the Spirits go through. Best described by Tohka, who literally has no idea why everyone she has ever met wants her dead. Even more so when you realize that most Spirits are just young girls at heart, and they are all hunted just for existing.
Shido's ||first death||, especially from Tohka's perspective. Up until this point, you have enjoyed yourself alongside a boy who not only does not attack you, but tolerates you and wants you to be around and safe. ||And suddenly he gets a large hole in the chest, due to protecting you from a sniper shot...||
Her popularity aside, there are very good reasons why Kurumi is codenamed Nightmare. Up to that point, Spirit is essentially invincible to anything humans can ever throw at them, with absolutely unstoppable power when they truly cuts loose. And then Kurumi is introduced, a Spirit who actively, regularly, and brutally murders people for both necessity and enjoyment. Everything about her in her arc becomes terrifying when you put yourself in the shoes of other characters.
Let's see... Shido watches a video in which Kurumi murdered a group of would-be rapists in a dark alley (pictured above). Then he gets a nice treatment as he watches AST and Mana (his Long-Lost Relative) decapitate Kurumi, onscreen. And then Kurumi comes back the very next day, like nothing happened. Even Origami is disturbed.
Then at the end of her arc, Kurumi reveals her true powers: Time Master. She has not been coming back from the dead, she has been using temporal clones. And all her power comes at the price of ridiculous mana consumption, which forces her to kill people to absorb and restore her life. The worst part? She claims to enjoy this.
Kurumi: Everyone unfortunately exists to be my food.
Kurumis shadow manipulation means that she can pop out of ANYWHERE. At any moment, she or her clones could be spying on someone, ready to suck out their lifespan.
The first appearance of Phantom on security cameras during the Great Fire five years before the series starts. When Kyuohei reproduced the local security tapes where Kotori was standing and looking at "something" in front of her that seemed to be "TV failures". Shido somehow knew that "thing" was a "person", and soon after he inexplicably passed out.
During the Great Fire again. Phantom ||turned Kotori into a Spirit||, and because of that, ||Kotori|| understandably lost control of her new unknown powers and caused a massive fire that caused terror and panic throughout Tenguu City. During the fire, a reporter even mentioned that the event looked like Hell on Earth.
Try to imagine your parents being vaporized right before your eyes. Horrible, isn't it? That's what Origami had to go through during the Great Fire above as well.
Although there was certainly an element of danger in each storyline, Shido's encounters with the Spirits between Volumes 1 - 5 were, for the most part, light-hearted and altogether adventurous. The exception of course is Kurumi. Miku's storylines in Volumes 6 and 7 however, were the unofficial introduction to the series' dark side and to all intents and purposes a major turning point for the franchise.
The tone is set perfectly during Miku's introductory scene. For the first time ever, Shido meets a Spirit that not only has absolutely no interest in him. Since Miku is a lesbian, who ||due to a past trauma|| doesn't like men, she, in contrast to all of the spirits that preceded and followed her, turns hostile at the mere sight of the human boy. Shido and his allies quickly realise that the former cannot befriend Miku, let alone seduce her in order to lock away her powers. If not for the timely arrival of the D.E.M. and Ratatoskr teleporting him out, Miku probably would have killed Shido right there and then.
To make matters worse, we later learn that Miku's angel grants her the ability to brainwash people into doing her bidding. ||It is also mentioned that Miku regularly takes girls from her school back to her house. Whilst it is never said exactly what she does to them, we get a very clear idea when she attempts to use her skill on Shiori (a crossdressing Shido). We can count herself lucky that she didn't do anything like this to the other Spirits later on.||
Later, when she loses what had up until then been a harmless little contest, Miku snaps and uses her power to brainwash the entire city. The only people in the area not affected are Shido (due to his powers), Kurumi (for unknown reasons) and Tohka (who was wearing earplugs). The rest of the Spirits and even the crew of the Ratatoskr are not so fortunate, leaving Shido without any support.
Thus, when Tohka is captured by Ellen, Shido is left on his own, surrounded by Miku's brainwashed minions. Having learnt that Shido deceived her, the understandably pissed off Miku orders Shido's own friends to attack him. Shido only escaped death a second time because Kurumi decided to step in.
The fact that Shido was forced to ally with Kurumi, who to all intents and purposes is a villain, shows just how desperate the situation was.
To make matters worse, when the D.E.M attack in full force, we see just what they and Kurumi are truly capable of.
Although it is more of a tearjerker, Miku's backstory does nevertheless qualify as nightmare fuel. To see such a caring, passionate girl who just wanted to make people happy with her singing have her whole life and career destroyed by the actions of one individual is really scary. The fact that she considered killing herself afterwards, shows just how badly she was affected.
Before his vow to always protect and support her, Shido says something that actually rattles Miku to her core. As she starts spurting off about she hates humanity (men in particular), Shido reminds Miku that she was once a human as well. In other words, whilst she may be a Spirit now, Miku is not only the very thing she despises but a Hypocrite as well.
The jump scare created when Mana beheads Kurumi's clone. It is just so unexpected.
Inversion is introduced to the story with ||Tohka, who crossed the Despair Event Horizon from being Forced to Watch as Ellen almost kills Shido. We're treated to a haunting remix of the Spirit theme as Tohka slips into another personality who not only doesn't recognize Shido but actively tries to kill him herself, going as far as gouging out a good chunk of the city with her Sword Beam just to get rid of him. The stark contrast between the cheerful girl we've come to know and love and her Inverse form is jarring to both the characters and the audience.||
Holding up your hand, realizing that it's not there because it got cut by a laser blade. ||Thank you for that, Westcott and Ellen.||
When Westcott mutilates the arms of directors of DEM after trying to dismiss him from the post of director. The scene was so horrible and gore that the author described it as a "painting of the hell of Pandemonium" after pints of blood covered the conference room where they were at the time.
And finally, ||as Kurumi's time travel bullet's effect ends, Inverse Origami returns to the present. Origami then shows us just how nightmarish Inverse Spirits can be, by unleashing her Demon King Satan to utterly demolish everything in Tenguu City with rains upon rainsof dark light. With the help of the other Spirits, Shido manages to approach her, but her condition is so bad that Shido even mistakes her for a corpse, attacking everything in sight without even being conscious. After swatting Shido away, Origami then shoots down the Fraxinus, presumably killing everyone in it. Even Kurumi finds this horrible, and decides to send Shido to the past to try and fix the situation.|| Kurumi puts it best in Volume 11:
Kurumi: I don't know how hell looks like... but it certainly cannot be much worse than this.
One of the first scenes of Date A Strike shows Tohka Yatogami as a Spirit killer without heart or soul. In the first few scenes of the spin-off, you can see Tohka destroying entire cities, killing thousands of people while she is sitting on hundreds of human skulls with a Slasher Smile. Of course, this is just a vision Mikie of how she sees the Spirits, but it is nonetheless something scary as hell for an innocent character like Tohka. Thenagain...
In Volume 15, Shido wakes up to find out that ||nobody remembers him due to Mukuro's powers. It ranges from significant, from the Spirits, to even everyday people like his classmates||.
In Volume 16, Ellen lives up to her threat as we see what happens when DEM takes things seriously. Shido would have been ambushed and killed numerous times while in his daily life if it weren't for Kurumi using her powers.
In Volume 17, it is revealed that Mio was the first Spirit ever to be asked on a date by Shido's previous incarnation. Then he was chased down and killed by Westcott during the date.
As if that wasn't enough, it also make her realize how fleeting Shin's lifespan was, giving Mio a disturbing resolve to restore him at all costs.
In Volume 18, we learn exactly how powerful Mio is, when she personally kills each and every single one of the spirits effortlessly. When Kurumi said she could never kill the First Spirit, she is not kidding.
In Volume 19, ||Westcott becoming the Second Spirit of Origin||.
In Volume 21, ||A strange white-haired girl starts appearing a year after the events of Volume 20. She is wearing what looks to be a tattered version of Tohka/Tenka's Astral Dress. She evokes an image-creepy battle-worn Tohka.|| | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DateALive |
Dark Matter (2015) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
And finally, a Future Badass version of herself, with one red eye, long black hair and a tight black outfit, meeting an aged Five, who tells her how to get back to her own time. Five makes reference to a bunch of ominous-sounding future events, but won't share any details with the Android. ||Because, despite how bleak things look, it's the best possible outcome for the galaxy and she doesn't want to give the Android any foreknowledge that would change the future||. (The last two predicted events happen before the end of the same season, though.)
"Dwarf Star's conspiracy. The Doubled Deception. Kryden. Carina. The Accelerated. The Fall of the House of Ishida. A meeting with your creator. The Black Ships..." | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkMatter2015 |
Dark Deception / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Dark Deception* could probably be best described as "Bandai Namco hired the creators of *Evil Dead* to direct a *Pac-Man* spin-off that mixes the gameplay of the original game with everything about the survival horror genre". That comparison should let you know what you're in for... **As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- Let's start with Malak, the one in charge of the nightmares you're running through, and he's not shy about what he wants to do to you. And don't get too ahead of yourself thinking he sits back and watches. From Level 2 onwards, he'll start hunting you down once you've got all the shards.
- If you're not put off by his
*"Demon in a suit"* or *"Giant eye peeking through the door"* looks, don't worry. He's got a special form just for chasing you, one of a bright-eyed, hooded phantom, with a Slasher Smile you get a good look at should he catch you.
- The game functions a lot like Pac-Man, with some obvious differences. One of these differences is the first-person aspect. Yeah, you've got a map of each area, allowing you to see where the shards are, but unless you find a power-up or unlock telepathy, you don't quite know where your enemy is until they're either in front of or behind you. Not that knowing where they are is that comforting either...
- The main collectibles of game, Soul Shards are described as
*"Remnants of those who have met their end here"*. Keep that in mind when you find loads of them in each area.
- A notable detail is when you find a secret area in any map, your screen starts glitching out, as if our protagonist is going mad from what he's seeing. Considering what we learn about him in these rooms, it makes sense...
- Doug, when his backstory is finally revealed, becomes this. He has been hinted to be a terrible person up until "Mascot Mayhem", but it finally gets revealed exactly
*why* he's here at all: He was an incredibly verbally abusive husband and father to his wife (who has bipolar disorder) and daughter Tammy (who is autistic), and also cheated on his wife with his secretary. That's already bad enough, but then he decides, rather than get a divorce and lose custody of Tammy, that it'd be better to *kill* his wife so he can run off with his secretary. Doug ends up also killing Tammy in the accident too, but whether that part was accidental or not is never cleared up, and the end result is the same regardless.
- These are your first enemies, Murder Monkeys. Their design involves blades in the place of hands, a huge mouth of mangled, gnashing teeth, and dead eyes to boot. If that look alone doesn't unsettle you, you'll learn to fear it when a whole bunch of them are rushing down the hallways after you like a mad horde of zombies.
- The thing's kill animations are a pretty good indicator of what you're in for if you're too slow. If you're lucky enough to get caught by one of these things, you get a close-up of its face, screeching like a crazed monkey, before killing you with its blades or apparently eating you. One animation even has the thing summon a bunch of its buddies to gang up on you. Lovely.
- Before you break those boards down and, in Bierce's words,
*"Get this party started"*, you get a run-down of the Soul Shards, what they are, and what you need to do. Then Bierce warns you that you aren't alone in there. That's troubling enough, but as she says it, you can hear one of those damn monkeys knocking on doors. **They already know you're there...**
- This last part is actually an intricate smart move. The Murder Monkeys are among the very few enemies who will
*always* know where Doug is and they will always chase after him. Did that make things more terrifying? Good.
- The noises the Murder Monkeys make can be pretty terrifying. You can hear their heavy footsteps moving fast as you run, meaning they're near you and getting close. You can't turn around for fear that they may be in front of you in the twisting halls. And the horrible high-pitched squeal they make when they're really close (or killing you) is just chilling.
- Bierce mentioned the previous guest at the start of the game. She met her end due to not being a fast runner. For those who are aware that they are slow at running, this can really frighten you. What's worse? She pretty much implies that the people she summoned before you are among the Soul Shards you find scattered throughout the place. And if you fail,
*you'll be one of them*.
- The first level takes place in a Hell Hotel, starting off with Nothing Is Scarier in full play. The Hotel seems quiet, and aside from some questionable decor and a Cat Scare, it seems normal...then you see the silhouette of a giant monkey with a big, bulging head in the elevator. Getting close to it causes it to freak out and close the door. When it opens, the monkey is gone.
- When you finally get all the shards and get the ring, you're treated to the lovely sounds of the Murder Monkeys going, for lack of a better term, ape-shit, and then you reach the elevator. Before it closes, you see a Murder Monkey, now with red eyes,
**rushing right for you.** The elevator door shuts before it can reach you, but once you reach the lobby, you better start running, because the other elevators open to show *hordes of frenzied Murder Monkeys rushing out after you!* Your only hope is to run for the portal to finish the level...
- Once the chase starts, the music changes to fit it. The music in question sounds like something out of
*"Halloween"* or *"The Shining"*. Fitting? Yes. Chilling? So very much.
- Ever wondered what the Weeping Angels would be like if they laughed more... and had axes? Say hello to the Gold Watchers, enemies that move only when you aren't facing them. What's worse? You can hear them...
- Your introduction to them is just as creepy. You walk into the empty courtyard, with a statue of a creepy looking prospector... that's
*laughing.* As you walk around it, you might look away, then hear it laughing, and turn back to face it on instinct, only to see it facing you. Then you reach the gate and if you turn back, you'll see the statue is gone!
- Then there's the face they make when they catch you. Dear mercy, that face...
- The music here? A demented harpsichord, with tracks that feel like ballroom music for psychos. It pretty much gives off the feeling that this is a mansion of crazy rich people hunting peasants for sport.
- While certainly not the most horrifying thing in the game, in this level, you can hear a wolf howling in the distance. It's really just to add atmosphere, but everything we come across in these nightmares is either a hellish monster or a trapped soul writhing in agony (Bierce comments on tiny screams coming from the Soul Shards), so that begs the question, which category does the wolf fit into?
- Like the last level, you get a glimpse of Malak watching you from a higher floor in the mansion. It's not as noticeable as his first cameo, so you may miss him the first time, which makes that laugh he lets out pretty creepy if you don't know where it's coming from...
- Speaking of which, while Agatha at least announced that Malak was mad at you, but here, there's no fanfare when he shows up, making it all the more frightening when you turn a corner on the way to the ring alter, only to be met with his smiling face attacking you...
- The secrets here feature a Room Full of Crazy, with things like
*"You didn't need her then, you don't need her now"* and *"You deserve better"*. What the hell did this guy do!?
- A notable detail in the manor is the roundabout rooms, featuring
*giant statues of Gold Watchers looming down at you.* Thankfully, they don't move, but we wouldn't blame you for thinking they will...
- Unfortunately, the spin-off
*"Monsters and Mortals"* says otherwise...and so does the Enhanced edition.
- Then at the end, when you've escaped the manor, Bierce urges you to make your way back to the portal,
*because the nightmare is collapsing.* You then have to make your way through the open courtyard to the portal... and the courtyard is full of Gold Watchers... and Malak is there... Have fun.
- You think that's bad? In the enhanced version, it's even worse. Just as you reach the courtyard, the aforementioned Titan Watcher rears its giant ugly head and starts chucking
*axes the size of cars* at you. Also, the gate to the portal is now locked, requiring you to lure the Titan Watcher into throwing its axes into it. And dont forget, you're still being chased by Malak AND regular Gold Watchers. So youll need to keep track of a horde of enemies that dont move while being watched, a hyper-competent demon from hell who will chase you no matter what, and a Titan Watcher that chucks car-sized axes at you. Manage to beat this, and youve earned that damn ring piece!
- The Dread Duckies are a lot more menacing than rubber duckies have any right to be, with human legs that pop out from below, and huge black, empty eyes. They've also got Nested Mouths that reach out and stun you, and if you're not quick enough to snap out of it, they'll catch you, and you get a good long look at their handsome mugs, complete with rows of teeth in their beaks.
- The new power you start this level with is telepathy, and how do you first use it? To see past the barrier Malak set up, which then treats you to a sudden scream from the Murder Monkey on the other side. Yeah, it runs off, but you'd be forgiven for jumping at the sight of that thing's silhouette suddenly appearing and screaming.
- While your introduction to the Dread Duckies is pretty tame, as you just see some inanimate duckies floating in the light nearby, you get one hell of a scare from a surprise attack soon after, with something with red eyes glaring at you from a dark hole in the wall! This is the introduction to the duck's stun mechanic, and the Doom Ducky.
- This comes complete with a long arm reaching out of the hole and grabbing you. It's a simple button mash to get free, but if you're not expecting it, it's sure to scare the hell out of you.
- Said red eyes can be seen throughout the level, gazing at you through sewer grates. You might wonder what the hell it is, considering the Dread Duckies don't have those eyes. Then you see what those eyes are attached to and wish you didn't.
- The main gimmick of the Dread Duckies is that they don't run after you like the others, not until you get close to them. The issue is that there are tons of Dread Duckies floating around this dinky sewer, and not all of them are real. This is why you have telepathy in this chapter, but don't let that get your hopes up, you
*need* to get closer to some of those menaces to get all the shards...
- While the rest of the Sewer looks pretty much like an abandoned sewer, Doom Ducky's lair is a great exception to this. When getting close to the door leading to it, a faint red light emanates from it. Entering the room reveals a room illuminated almost entirely by the red lights, with large pipes and a giant door surveying the room. Most disturbing, however, is the copious amount of fake duckies lining many parts of the room in piles, looking almost as if they're watching you. The entire room looks almost like a sewer version of hell.
- Not helping is the fact that a massive roar is heard once we pass by the ring altar in the room, shaking the room for a few seconds. Bierce jokingly dismisses this as nothing to worry about, yet it also gives us a very bad implication of just how big and angry the Big One (A.K.A Doom Ducky) is.
- The secrets in the level give us notes painting a picture of our protagonist. The picture isn't necessarily a pretty one...
- Relating to the above, we find a medical note in the level too. It has some... interesting details.
**The patient, Tammy Houser, is a 12-year-old caucasian female, living with parents, with a mental history that dates back to 1988. Patient was admitted by her father. The father says the daughter is prone to random severe mood swings & panic attacks. He also states that she acts impulsively, exhibiting risky and dangerous behavior in order to gain his attention. He fears that she will continue to harm herself or, eventually, others. There is a history of mental illness on the mother's side as well. Patient's self-esteem appears low, anhedonia, sleep disturbance, does not appear to be eating well, loss in body weight, does not report change in energy, no reported changes in concentration or memory. Patient does exhibit signs of depression & anxiety when asked about her father. She is convinced that he is ignoring her and is obsessed with his legal career. She believes that he wishes she didn't exist. Patient bears marks of past Self-Harm, with scars on her left arm. Sending recommendation that she is potentially suffering from early bipolar disorder. Advising further tests and observations. Medication will be prescribed for depression and anxiety. I'll start with Oxcarbazepine.** **-Dr. Angela Simons**
- Right after you collect all the soul shards and grab the ring piece, Malak will stop you in your tracks. After a moment of commending you for surviving this long, he decides to introduce us to his pet, the Doom Ducky, by slowly opening the door behind him, revealing a dozen arms protruding through the darkness. Malak then leaves us at the creature's mercy, thus beginning the game's first boss fight (or at least for the non-enhanced version).
- Doom Ducky itself. To put it simply, it looks utterly
*nothing* like the Dread Duckies, instead resembling an obese, plastic mass with a head, a pair of wings, and multiple arms sticking out of holes in its back. The arms themselves, despite having cartoonish gloves, are nonetheless long and shriveled up. As for the head itself, it has an extremely large bill full of human teeth, three nails sticking into its forehead, and red, bloodshot eyes staring at you. To make it worse, this head is also attached to an extremely long arm, allowing it to attack from afar if it really has to.
- Speaking of the eyes, they appear to be so bloodshot that the Doom Ducky has to regularly blink and keep its eyes closed just to keep them moist (something no other enemy does outside of cutscenes). Oh, and during its charge attack, said eyes will briefly pop out of its sockets if it misses you.
- You might think that being a boss, the Doom Ducky wouldn't show up again after being defeated, but you're not as much fighting it as you are shutting the door on it (and pissing it the
*heck off* if the roar afterwards is anything to go by). As you make your way through the sewers to the portal, the alarms blare and Dread Duckies block off all other exits near your path, while the Doom Ducky chases you down through the waters, and even when you manage to escape its range, it breaks through the wall near the portal for a last-ditch effort to kill you.
- The Reaper Nurses. They're perhaps the most humanoid of all the monsters shown, resembling cute nurses that, outside their somewhat revealing clothes and the bags on their heads, otherwise look like normal humans, This is in stark contrast to their behavior, being insane psychos that utterly dislike any man they meet that isn't Malak, the latter of whom they treat like a personal god. This bleeds right into they're hospitality methods, which they treat like actual methods of healing when in reality they're nothing but excuses to torture and kill men and anyone else they view as a threat.
- It's heavily implied that the nurses are also something else entirely. Aside from the fact that they can somehow "see" out of their bags, they also have the ability to turn invisible, something no human can do without powers. Even then, the nurses are also capable of moving much faster than vehicles moving at top speed through sheer will alone, and they're capable of conjuring different weapons very quickly to dispatch enemies despite the lack of space for them anyway.
- Then there's their boss, the Matron. She was actually shown in the teaser for Chapter 4 back then. Something neither the teaser, nor the development logs indicate is that she's
*massive*, towering over an ambulance, and if you don't believe that comparison, don't worry, you'll see for yourself late into the level.
- The room she resides is has both the ring altar and the main entrances to the Therapy Center, which is already a red flag. The room itself appears to be a massive security office, with cameras overlaying the walls behind the Matron while she oversees the room, giving us a good look at her sheer size. In front of her counter is an absolute maze of hospital supplies and equipment, all of which crudely protect the ring altar while acting as guard outposts for the Reaper Nurses. The entire scene forces you to go on a stealth mission of sorts, with one wrong move spelling death if you don't do something.
- At the start of the level, you treated to a lobby filled with Reaper Nurses either dancing seductively or looking at you in a non-threatening manner, together with a group of Gold Watchers drinking tea and funky music playing. Outside of the sheer question of why such a thing would be prevalent here, everything seems too good to be true until you enter the next set of rooms, most of which cut out the music and switch to an eerie atmosphere. You just
*know* something bad will happen, yet everything doesn't seem too out of the ordinary... until you get the hospital tests.
- In comparison to the first and third hospital tests, the second test starts you off with the room becoming silent, save for a timer audibly increasing in countdown like a bomb. The moment you do escape a loud click is heard behind you, and turning around reveals an absolute
*crap ton* of needles jutting out the walls into the spot you were just in.
- The first zone, despite looking very much like a normal hospital, seems very desolate and bleak compared to a normal hospital, which are normally bustling with activity. The only things here are you and the Reaper Nurses, the latter of which are invisible and could be anywhere.
- In stark contrast, the second zone - A.K.A the Therapy Center - is a decrepit prison filled to the brim with saws and consisting of dirty brick walls, again filled with nurses. Lining the sides are heavily-guarded torture rooms, all of which are used to brutally torture anyone at the nurses' "mercy." We only get to experience one torture room filled with needles, so we can only guess what's on the other side of each room.
- This also brings to mind both the Reaper Nurses' sole jumpscare (which involves stabbing Doug) and a comment made by one of them about bringing Doug there anyway. While the former does show him dropping on the floor afterward, it's likely that he just passes out from the wound, which is very much possible considering that humans can survive getting stabbed (or at least for a few minutes depending on the wound). If this were the case, then it's also possible that the nurses would have inevitably brought him to the Therapy Center and torture him to death at their leisure.
- The enemies in this level are the Joy Joy Gang, a team of demented animatronic mascots that take great joy in chasing you down and brutalizing you if they catch you. And they're not just soulless machines, they're very clearly lucid and they'll let you know it. Give Freddy Fazbear and his band some credit, when they talked, they at least sounded more stable than this (Funtime/Molten Freddy and Monty Gator not withstanding), but Lucky, Penny, and Hangry are not only alive, they're not only strong,
*they're bloodthirsty.*
- E's notes up until this point have done a good job detailing what these monsters Doug fights are supposed to be, murderers, liars, heretics, etc. But the Joy Joy Gang? She doesn't recognize them as human, they're feral and animalistic.
- The tone of this level is unlike every level before it, for just how dreary it is, despite being an amusement park. Yes, there's plenty of humor, mostly from the Joy Joy Gang, but the drained colors, foggy atmosphere, and desolate landscape differ from the macabre areas you visited before. At least levels like Agatha's and the Reaper Nurses' had some lively elements or traps, but this park is so lifeless that it's almost a (admittedly very small) relief when the cackling, blood-thirsty animatronics show up. And even then, the area where you're first introduced to Lucky and Penny looks more like a room where they do Police Lineups than anything that should be in an amusement park. The lower levels, while more colorful, look more like a mesh of an shut down office building and a deep-space horror film than anything else. The whole place just looks unwelcoming and designed to make you feel like something horrible is going to happen. And lo and behold, something
**very** horrible **does.**
- The effect above is highlighted when you're being chased to the second zone. You're being chased down the foggy road by a whole horde of Lucky's and Penny's, while more Lucky's block off the other roads, staring and smirking at you, all while Lucky's inane laughter peppers the background noise. Then when you finally reach the gate, they suddenly run up to it when you're back is turned - just staring at you - and it's enough to unsettle Bierce.
- Anytime the Joy Joy Gang start singing their Joy Joy Ditty, which pretty much involves them gaining faces that scream, "I'm dead inside" and usually dancing in very scripted movement pattern. It certainly doesn't help that their eyes
*always* track your location while their heads hardly move at all, the first clear sign that there's something off about them.
- Hangry is the most physically capable of the Joy Joy Gang, and he'll use that strength to break down obstacles. The problem? He prefers to hide in the walls first rather than always chase you outright. The walls he also hides in are random, so you can never be too sure on which walls he's hiding in or what time he chooses to strike.
- The part where you electrocute the Joy Joy Gang ends up exposing their metallic parts underneath, and the results are not pretty. Lucky's eyes have popped off to reveal red, mechanical, glowing lights and his buckteeth have been altered to more humanoid chompers. Hangry lost only one eye with a similar effect, but what stands out is his mouth, which now has a huge exposed maw of eerily organic teeth on a robotic jaw. Penny loses both her eyes too, but one still stays attached by a few wires, dangling out of her eye-socket, and she has a huge gash in her head, with an exposed metal skull beneath. After zapping the three to hell and back, they just freeze there, and you're forced to walk around them. They don't wake back up and attack you thankfully, but you can't be blamed for thinking they would, especially since their eyes
*still* follow you. And when they do start moving again, they catch up to you, and they are royally pissed off.
- Despite the obvious possibility of the Joy Joy Gang coming back to attack you, the lead up to it is rather off-putting. As you enter the Production Line Factory, Jocelyn (the facility AI) notifies you that she's dispatching the Joy Joy Gang to stop you... and nothing really happens. Even when you enter an area filled with soul shards, they are nowhere to be found, starkly contrasting other levels where the enemies pursue you the moment you enter. Just when you might've forgotten about them and open a door to go forward though, you hear Lucky call you out and turn back, only to be face-to-face with the entire Joy Joy Gang in a frenzied state.
- While the rest of their endoskeletons aren't fully shown in the level, their concept art◊ depicts them to the fullest extant, revealing them to look like gray skeletons fused to demonic monsters.
- As if the entire level wasnt bad enough, we get to the boss of the stage, Joy Kill. A horrific amalgamation created from the crushed up remnants of the Joy Joy Gang thats easily the freakiest boss in the game, and unlike said bosses, Joy Kill
*cannot be stopped or escaped*. Threw it in lava? Nope! Survived the lockdown and reached the elevator? Its still not done with you! Escaped the clone horde and are about to reach the portal? SURPRISE! Combine the fact that it has Pennys stunning ability, Hangry's brutal strength, Lucky's quick reflexes, and *Frickin' Laser Beams*, it easily makes for the most horrifying boss monster in the game.
- The music? Aside from the cheery Joy Joy Gang theme, we get an Ominous Music Box Tune version of it, and it pretty much captures the feeling of being in an Amusement Park of Doom with depraved animatronic mascots for company. The chase themes do little to help this, — yes, that's right,
*there's two* — especially not the ever-stressful and industrial track *"Luck Runs Out"*. Then there's the song *"Closing Time"* played at the end section, and it doesn't mean anything good.
- The ending. With Doug cornered by the Joy Joy horde, hes about to escape through the portal when Joy Kill suddenly leaps in, blocking the path. Cue our protagonist being brutally beaten by the entire Joy Joy Gang (to the cheery Joy Joy Ditty, no less), even throwing in a fake death screen for good measure! Thankfully, the beating stops... when Malak shows up and demands Doug be kept alive. Malak then forcibly enters his mind, bringing forth all his worst memories, including the reveal that he drove his wife and daughter off a bridge to their deaths, and implanting himself into Doug, which allows him to enter Bierce's ballroom.
- One of the many teasers for this chapter was a grainy shot of a bridge blocked off by police cars. Given what the game revealed about Doug before this chapter, it didn't take a genius to guess what this was supposed to mean. Many people guessed it would be part of the intro to the hospital level or something, but no, it's at the end of this level, but it's not a part of Joy Joy Land,
*it's in Doug's head.* And we get to see what fell off that bridge, or rather, **who** fell off... *Tammy Houser.* And she is ticked, so ticked that she is now *glowing red* with fury.
- You Escaped?
- Malak invading the ballroom. At first, it looks like Bierce makes short work of the demon, throwing him around the room like a rag doll before skewering him on soul shards. But when one Malak is killed, another enters the room. And another, and another... Only then most of them turn into the various horrors from the different levels.
- The whole entirety of Bearly Buried is pretty much a huge dosage of Nightmare Fuel and a reminder of what kind of situation you're in: trapped in a nightmare filled with horrid things. Only this time with a lack of powers at your disposal for the second time around.
- This is highlighted by the first segment, where you're forced to sneak around the cabin, powerless and surrounded by sleeping and wandering Trigger Teddies. You need to stay out of their sight. The ones sleeping aren't just for decoration. They can be woken up. Get caught by one of the little menaces and...well, bear go boom boom.
- Everything about Mama Bear and her "babies", the Trigger Teddies, are absolute nightmare fuel, the former especially so:
- Appearance-wise, Mama Bear is a towering teddy bear covered in blood and stitches running down her body, not to mention that said stitches lead into a large tear exposing her "guts" so to speak. Meanwhile, the Trigger Teddies are small teddy bears with oversized heads and are extremely dirty and torn, especially due to their mouths having human-like teeth and possessing sharp claws on their paws.
- Definitely
*not* helping in the latter's case is the fact that those aren't even their real heads. As you find out later, they're actually baby dolls; really *disgusting* baby dolls that look more like zombies than teddy bears.
- Mama Bear's voice is similar to that of a loving mother, usually saying things very placidly and heartfully. Unlike the other enemies, however, she almost
*always* talks that way, even when she's very clearly threatening you or wants to eat you, giving off a feeling that she's some sort of doll. From the way she speaks at times, she is either incapable of speaking any other way or she chooses to talk this way to unnerve her prey.
- The way both Mama Bear and the Trigger Teddies move like limp dolls a lot of the time, making them not seem very fast for the most part. Let them see you at certain points, however, and they will run you down and end your life in mere seconds.
- The whole gimmick of Mama Bear making the Trigger Teddies involves pulling them out of the tear in her stomach. And she can do this under at least
*6 seconds each*.
- Then there's the whole situation of them always knowing your location. In Mama Bear's case, her eyes always track Doug's location, never blinking once.
- The fact that Doug does not even get a breather before being tossed into the next level! Unlike the previous levels which start with you being somewhat eased into things, you start with Malak leaving you at the mercy of Mama Bear and her Trigger Teddies right off the bat. If not for the mysterious ball of light frying the surrounding teddies, Doug wouldve been on the menu.
- A moment before we enter the first zone, we enter Mama Bear's room, which has a set of suits uncannily similar to Mama Bear's normal appearance. The only thing missing are the retractable claws, suggesting that they belong to...
*something* underneath, *and yet we never find out what's exactly under there*.
- And mind you, the eyes are a part of the suit, likely meaning that they aren't even Mama Bear's real eyes (that is, if she even
*has* any), and the thing underneath is just controlling them somehow.
- Listening to the soundtrack for this level, especially the boss battle and incredibly fast-paced chase themes, it's little wonder that you can
*hear* Doug's rapid heartbeat and labored breathing, as if directly stating how dangerous and exhausting this level is going to be. Which, mind you, is joined by whispers of voices repeatedly saying things like "Keep it moving."
- When you get the first of the ring fragments back, you get the literal mother of jumpscares when coming back to Mama Bear's bedroom. Open the door— oh hi, Mama!
- Running from Mama and her babies is quite an ordeal! First off, Mama makes the screen start to glitch out with her mere presence and it's stated in-game it comes from her sheer bloodlust! As for the Trigger Teddies? Well, the reason they're called "Trigger Teddies" is that they're packing explosives, and will detonate if they catch Doug! If these little walking kamikaze attacks are so much as stunned with primal fear, they go off and can take Doug with them.
- Zone 3's appearance is... something to behold. To put it simply, it turns out that the foundation of the cave is a vast mass of souls clumped together to form the caves and walls. It's so big that the maze you walk through, which is already larger than it needs to be, is simply a small platform in the sky if one were to look at it from the outside. The only lighting you get is a reddish glow emitted by the souls, and the maze itself looks to be even older and more broken compared to the rest of the cave. It doesn't help that this is the first time you see the Trigger Teddies' true faces, which often comes as a shock for unwary players.
- This also brings to mind Mama Bear's status as Malak's executioner, and going by the sheer amount of souls on the walls, she and her babies have been eating people for a really long time.
- Certainly not helping is that the only ambiance present is the music, which consists of the souls breathing, groaning, and sometimes screaming in agony. Notably, it doesn't cease until you completely leave the area, even after you collected everything and the enemies disappear.
- Mama Bear's transformation! In the first boss battle, Doug comes to an arena riddled with pools of acid and out pops Mama's stretched-out claw while her oversized head pops out of another! And then comes the third act boss where we see her transformation in all its glory. Oh happy day... Imagine her main torso bloating up to giant size, her arms stretching into segments out with one claw getting bigger, her left hand becoming a fleshy mouth full of fangs, and her exposed innards are now a mass of Trigger Teddies! And on top of all that? She can transform into a giant ball of spikes to steamroll over her prey!
- The escape sequence. Thought you managed to finally kill Mama Bear? Nope! She pops her arm out of a wall with little warning and chases you down a bone-filled tunnel in fury. The whole ordeal, you're treated to the lovely sounds of her hand snapping and roaring at you while a chorus of voices start urging you to get the hell out of there.
- Once you get to the cabin, you get the first-hand experience of the level collapsing without the ring piece, and everything starts breaking down the closer you are to escaping. This escalates to the point where some of the Trigger Teddies, instead of attacking like usual, end up trying to escape up the walls for their lives.
- The monsters here were, unlike many before them, mostly unseen up until Chapter 4's teaser, the Mannequins, eerily twitching around with huge, pointed cones in the place of heads, hands, and feet. It makes for a disturbing image if you aren't familiar with how mannequins sometimes look.
- The music we got here is that of a Twisted Christmas, including a corrupted take on
*"Carol of the Bells"*, which includes what sounds like a chorus chanting *"Run for your life!"* | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkDeception |
Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The experience Vader has when he passes through the dark side locus on Mustafar. He sees himself as a child being frightened by himself as Vader, he cuts through apparitions of his former friends and teachers while basically destroying the Jedi all over again, and finally his meeting with Padmé which is nightmarish as she kills herself by auto-asphyxiation.
- Vader single-handedly slaughtering all the bounty hunters sent out to kill him. And it's then revealed that he did this just because he was
*bored*, since he didn't have any challenges anymore now that almost all Jedi were dead.
- Vader and the Inquisitors killing Eeth Koth and kidnapping his infant child for use in Palpatine's machinations. And in the following issue, Vader pursuing the romantically-involved Inquisitors and killing them just because no relationships are allowed in the Inquisitorius.
- The Mask of Momin is already very creepy, having outright told Palpatine about its past and possessing one of the Imperial architects, killing the other, and developing a finalized plan for Vader's Mustafar castle. But it also gives Vader a
*very* grotesque vision showing kid Anakin with a completely deformed face that resembles Vader's mask. We get further backstory and apparently Body Horror was a specialty of Momin's from childhood, when he cut up his rada cat in the name of art. If that wasn't bad enough, the entrails are actually shown on-page.
- When Vader finally makes his bid to resurrect Padmé, he's transported to what can only be described as a dark, twisted version of the World Between Worlds. Better still, this fanmade dub of the scene manages to expertly convey just how nightmarishly haunting and tragic his visit to this realm is.
- Out of boredom, Vader asked Tarkin to put together a group of hunters and try and kill him. The hunt is terrifying due Vader being just that formidable, but the end is even more terrifying when not only Tarkin
*takes down Vader by tricking him into getting hit by lightning*, it turns out *he had planned for that since the start* (if as a last ditch desperate plan), even taking into account Vader being taller than him.
- And then Vader gets more terrifying than ever when he musters just enough energy to Force Choke Tarkin to his knees. Remember the Force Choke scene in ANH and Tarkin's uncomfortable reaction? He's having flashbacks to this moment, when he learned just how powerful Darth Vader really is. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarthVaderDarkLordOfTheSith |
David Bowie / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Those eyes
David Bowie was a master of brilliant music and the like... but he was also a subtle master of creepy fuel. And
*trust us*, he truly knew how to scare people.
## Albums:
**David Bowie (1967):**
- While most of the album is incredibly lightweight and silly music hall, the final song on the record "Please, Mr. Gravedigger" is the exact opposite. A morbid, eerie performance piece with no music whatsoever, instead being accompanied with dozens of sound effects of pouring rain, rustling and shovels. David speak-sings a grim story of a lonely, bitter gravedigger whos only joy comes from the locket he found of a dead little girl who had been murdered. The narrator discovers this and admits to the Gravedigger that he was the one who killed her and that hes dug a grave for him too. Add in incoherent mumbling between the verses and the nasally, rambling performance and it comes off less like a song and more like the deranged ramblings of a Serial Killer.
**Space Oddity:**
- If you listen to the end of "Space Oddity", you'll hear a lot of dissonant noises increasing in pitch. If you take the song by its literal meaning, it could easily represent Major Tom's brain going into its death throes from anoxia. And that's just one possible interpretation; we never find out
*what* happened to the guy.
- When Mission Control is calling out desperately to Major Tom, completely unable to do a thing about it.
- Alternatively, the song could be about an astronaut who was given drugs by his superiors. In real life, the USAF makes drugs widely available for pilots, and it is a standard procedure to administer amphetamines to Air Force pilots, who are also informed they might be deemed unfit to fly certain missions if they refuse to take amphetamines. On April 17, 2002, Harry Schmidt and William Umbach were ordered to take amphetamines (which the USAF calls "go pills") to fly a mission over Kandahar, Afghanistan. Their altered state of mind caused them to open fire on Canadian soldiers, killing four and wound eight others.
- This is what the song is describing (which fits with the revelation that "Major Tom's a junkie" in the later song "Ashes to Ashes"). Before the launch, ground control orders Major Tom to take something his superiors call "protein pills", but which has distinct effects on his perception, effects you wouldn't expect from proteins. And it's when Major Tom leaves his spacecraft for the planned spacewalk, that he starts having altered perceptions.
- First, he realizes he is floating in a
**most peculiar** way, which means *unlike* the normal way he was floating inside the capsule.
- Then, he notices that the stars look
**very different**, which means he is not seeing points of light, he is seeing something else, something conjured up by his mind.
- Later, he becomes convinced that
**his spaceship knows the way to go**. Not only his perceptions are being affected: he is also losing his ability to think logically and starts experiencing delusions.
- Since he is now convinced that his spaceship can think for itself, he switches off the electrical circuits. Ground control warns him that his
**circuit's dead**, but he no longer cares about hearing them.
- Believing to be
**far above the moon**, and thinking **there's nothing he can do** about the predicament he put himself in, he eventually burns up in an uncontrolled reentry.
- Nightmare Retardant did occur twice on this one, though. The earlier example was the 1969 promo video, which seems to imply that Major Tom got to sleep with two sexy aliens. The later example is "Ashes to Ashes" which proves that Major Tom did survive and he does regain contact, though it's not ground control.
**The Man Who Sold the World:** **Hunky Dory:**
- This album is Lighter and Softer than the previous one as far as the music is concerned, but the lyrics of some of the songs are another story. For example, "Oh! You Pretty Things" starts with the protagonist having an ordinary day which is suddenly interrupted by the apocalypse:
*Look out my window and what do I see *
A Crack in the Sky and a hand reaching down to me
All the nightmares came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay
- And what's the cause of this madness? It turns out that "Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use" and are being forced to "make way for the Homo Superior" — in the form of their own children.
- "The Bewlay Brothers", one of Bowie's most esoteric songs, is a dreamer version of "Quicksand" with its spiritual leanings, with the ending being a Last Note Nightmare which ends on an unsettling bit. Needless to say, it's one of his more obscure songs, as nobody knows the meaning to it.
**The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars:**
- Bowie's flip-flopped on what the plot of
*Ziggy Stardust* specifically was over the years, but here's a particularly apocalyptic version mentioned (according to Wikipedia) in an interview Bowie conducted with William S. Burroughs:
*The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. "All the Young Dudes" is a song about this news. It's no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite... The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I've made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage... Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he writes "Starman," which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately... The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don't have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie, the Infinite Fox... Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make them real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide." As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible.*
- Most of the other interpretations aren't exactly a bundle of laughs either, mostly based on the lyrics of "Rock and Roll Suicide" or "Ziggy Stardust" — possibilities range from Ziggy being swarmed by his adoring fans, being swarmed by an angry mob, being murdered by his jealous band mates, dying in the apocalypse described in "Five Years," ending up a washed-up, no talent alcoholic or getting run over by a car.
**Aladdin Sane:**
- As per usual (and suiting a character who's basically an American Expy of Ziggy Stardust), there are hints at Armageddon: References to "fallout saturation" in "Drive-in Saturday," which might be about sterility / lovelessness in a dystopian future (not that they're necessarily linked IRL, mind you) — and was also a smash hit in the U.K., the distinctly Charles Manson esque vibe to "Watch That Man" and, of course, the aggressive, bitter, cocaine fueled boasting of "Cracked Actor," probably about a washed-up has-been using his remaining money to buy a blowjob, made even creepier by the live performances, which had Bowie perched on a stool singing to a skull held in his other hand — he'd generally end the performance by, well, tonguing it with a bit more vigour than probably necessary. If anyone wants to see that horror show, by the way, it's on YouTube. The way it's staged also amps up the weird factor — it's arranged cleverly to make Bowie look more like a popular actor with delusions of grandeur cracking up from stress, to the point where it's hard to tell if he's accusing the crowd ("The best they ever... I sold you illusions for a sackful of cheques / You made a bad connection 'cause you just want my sex") or still locked in his own world.
**Diamond Dogs:** **Station to Station:**
- The entire character of the Thin White Duke is disturbing, especially when watching live videos of him. There's a lot of times where he'll be singing and the camera will turn to his face, and he'll look completely emotionless. Like, dead behind the eyes Empty Shell level of emotionless. Brrr... No wonder Bowie gave up on characters after that guy. It would be Nightmare Fuel even without the whole Fascism thing.
**Low:**
- "Breaking Glass", with its eerie synthesizer bleeps and distorted drum sounds. It's obvious that Bowie was still dealing with his cocaine-induced psychosis in the lyrics of the song.
**"Heroes":**
- "Sense of Doubt," which is nothing but an eerie synth line, a constant descending piano, and what sounds like someone moaning in agony.
**Lodger:** **Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps):**
- "Ashes to Ashes" is already a bit eerie, beginning abruptly with that weird twanging rhythm and continuing with whispers and wails in the background, but the video veers even more sharply into Surreal Horror.
- "Scream Like a Baby", a discordant nightmarish song about a political prisoner being tortured in a vague 1984-setting. Throughout the song, Bowie's voice slows down and distorts as to imply that the main character is loosing his own sanity due to the brainwashing, which is unnerving to say the least. Not to mention, the off-key synth line which plays for the entirety of the song.
- On certain re-issues of the album, there's a scratching sound which plays at the very end of side B. While not necessarily noteworthy, It's entirely out of field as you'd assume that something went wrong with your record player, startling you.
**Black Tie White Noise:**
- The Limited Lyrics for "Pallas Athena" are the preacher-like "God is on top of it, that's all", followed by a mass chanting of "We are, we are, we are, we are praying". The two lines are combined and repeated in such a manner that the song starts to sound more and more cult-like as it progresses towards the end.
**Outside:** **Earthling:**
- "I'm Afraid of Americans" comes off as a sort of hooky, angry song until the end. Then, it seems paranoid at the realization that "God is an American," and he keeps repeating himself over and over, almost in disbelief. It's subtle, but it's there.
**'hours...':**
- The "Something in the Air" opening line: "Your coat and hat are gone" sounds quite mundane. But Bowie manages to distort his vocals to sound like the decidedly more chilling: "You're cold and had a gun" instead...
**The Next Day:**
- "Valentine's Day" is a cheery 60s-style song about a school shooting, with the music video showing Bowie making subtle references to gun violence, such as the way he handles his guitar to the almost demonic facial expressions he makes. The first chorus makes the shooting quite clear, with the students "Teddy and Judy" gunned down.
**★:**
## Films:
**The Man Who Fell to Earth:**
- The scene where Bowie reveals himself to be an alien (Pictured above).
*Those eyes!* | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DavidBowie |
Darkest Dungeon / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
"The twisted faces of the damned, piled high and cloaked in malice."
*And their screams will echo amidst the pitiless, Cyclopean stones...*
—
**The Ancestor** *Darkest Dungeon* is a Lovecraftian horror-inspired game that pulls no punches in the Nightmare Fuel department. As the Heir witnesses the terrors that lurk in and around the manor, perhaps they can begin to sympathize with their afflicted heroes a lot more easily. **Beware of unmarked spoilers below!**
- Watching the Hag throw one of your favourite heroes into her pot, and having to watch them being slowly cooked alive, deals heavy stress damage to the player. Likewise, the Fanatic can pick one of your heroes to be burned at the stake. Unlike the Hag example, however, your character is shoved in a sack, adding a certain claustrophobia element, visibly struggling whilst being engulfed in searing flames, and to top it all off, audibly screaming in agony. Furthermore, the background when fighting this bastard is filled with those who have suffered a similar fate, each clearly occupied sack perfectly still.
- The intensifying background noise as torchlight fades. The squealing of the swines in the Warrens takes the cake, although the roaring of the monsters in the Weald and the Cove or the hissing of the undead in the Ruins are not that comforting either.
- Many of the monsters are quite disgusting.
- The fungal artillery are piles of mushrooms that have grown into human corpses, forcing them to walk around like misshapen quadrupeds and spewing blight-filled fumes at their enemies. Fungal Scratchers are parasite zombies with irregularly-grown fungi for heads. Swine Wretches are horrendously deformed creatures with human skulls somehow attached to their chests. Ectoplasms, huge chunks of slime with human skeletons inside; just imagine how those poor bastards were melted inside them...
- The Formless Flesh takes this up to eleven because its name is rather indicative of what exactly it is and seeing exposed spines, pig faces with jaws like a shark, and multiple eyes and living hearts is probably the most horrifying thing you will find in this game. The stubby little legs atop one of its forms makes it clear that one of its attacks involves firing a fanged tentacle out of what used to be an anus. And it doesn't just stop at its visage: it can, thanks to random chance, transform into two heads and two butts, a composition not only intimidatingly large in size, but also exceptionally heavy-hitting both in straight damage and Damage Over Time.
- And now with the Crimson Court DLC, we have the Bloodsucker enemy type, but they're less inspired by Dracula and more by bloodsucking parasites. Manservants, Courtesans, and Esquires are all humanoid, but blood cakes their mouth, they no longer have lips to cover their teeth, and their eyes are those of Sychophants. If that's not enough, there is a man-sized insectile thing in a tattered waistcoat and disheveled wig, implying this is the ultimate fate of those corrupted by The Blood. Then we have giant, bloated fleas latched onto the heads (revealed to be reduced to skulls during their attack animations) of some unfortunate sod, but special mention must go to the Crocodilian. This creature is a crocodile whose legs have mutated and become those of a bug, it has the same blood-caked face and insect eyes as other Vampire-type enemies, and a horrifically swollen back full of holes, which is revealed to be a hive for mosquitoes. Suffice to say, what is faced in The Courtyard is no less disturbing than anywhere else.
- The Viscount deserves special mention, being a boss battle
*full* of Body Horror. From his already Bloodsucker mutations, his stomach is bloated with his lower body more flea-like, which can unfold to reveal dozens of eyes and victims fused within his own body. To say nothing of his meals, which he keeps hanging from the ceiling, still alive and screaming in terror as you fight him.
- The social dynamics of the Crimson Court are nothing short of awful. The bloodsuckers standing in the background? They are watching you fight and kill their friends for their own entertainment. The wizened hag? A junkie expelled from the aristocrats.
- The swinefolk, because they treat humans the same way we would pigs. Taking a closer look at the leather on the swine drummer's drum, you can see some poor guy's face on it; and the dinner carts clearly have an arm sticking out of them.
- In the Weald, you will frequently come across trees with dozens of severed hands tied to the branches. Caaaaarl!!.
- The Ancestor's own memoirs are quite a terrifying account into his life. And yet the unimaginably monstrous deeds he casually and calmly accounts to are only half of the horror. The other half being, just what was it that he found that could cause even
*him* to flee and atone? Also the fact that most of the monsters he created used to be people, and how he twisted them beyond repair for his own purposes, without remorse (at the time anyway).
- The Collector (pictured above) is one of the most nightmarish enemies in the game so far. He twitches weirdly, appears out of nowhere and he looks like he came straight out of a fever dream. He may have a human skull as a head but whatever he is, he's not from this dimension and definitely not from this world. He even appears relatively early in the game to show the heroes that fishmen, skeletons, and zombies are the least horrifying things they'll encounter.
- And then there's his "collection". Oh boy.
- He has collected the still living heads of a Vestal, a Highwayman, and a Man at arms. Worse, it's all but outright said that these heads belong to the default heroes of these classes.
- The best part is that the heroes can
*equip* those heads as trinkets! They're not too bad either, though heroes who carry them understandably gain stress faster.
- And either he doesn't die when you 'kill' him, or there are
*multiple* collectors going around the estate. To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke: Both possibilities are equally terrifying.
- Theres a third causality possibility: if Dismas is still alive in
*your* reality, that means the head you have is from a Dismas already dead in another reality. This would imply The Collector exists across infinite realities, and exists in all those realities. Killing him in your reality is temporary because he still exists in others, and all of them.
- The intro cinematic is full of these towards the end after the Ancestor and his workers open up whatever monstrosity was behind that door, not to mention the Last Note Nightmare, blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of some kind of monster emerging from the manor. And we've already seen a great many horrifying things... so what, exactly is in the manor itself? Entering the Darkest Dungeon allows us to finally find out, and boy is it not pretty. Writhing masses of tentacles, transforming cultists, and much more lurk around the dungeon which is practically what hell would look like when envisioned by H. P. Lovecraft.
- After completing at least one floor of the Darkest Dungeon itself:
- Things go very downhill in the Hamlet, very quickly. Reality begins to distort heavily, and you begin to see horrifying glimpses of all the people in town undergoing eldritch mutations. Your party members' icons also seem to get covered by warped flesh until you mouse over them, and an encroaching eclipse bathes the Hamlet in blood red light. All of this screams one thing. You have gotten the attention of the evil force within the Dungeon.
*And it is angry.*
- Then there's the dungeon itself. At first, it's a dark red, vaguely Gothic setting. The only clues you get to its true nature are the ascended cultists who briefly turn eldritch when attacking and the eldritch priests who are actually horrifying abominations under their cloaks. Then you go into the second mission and
*surprise!* The whole thing is covered in terrifying fleshy growths full of eyes and mouths while the Ancestor yells on about it being "madness made flesh". The third mission? The dungeon is alive. Literally a horrifying body with undulating organs in the background and antibodies trying to kick you out like you're an infection. The final mission? Nothing. Just empty space with a few glimpses of the Ancestor lamenting about his mistakes before the horrifying Final Boss.
- Heroes on low stress in the Hamlet will proclaim themselves ready for anything. Upon returning from their foray into The Darkest Dungeon, they make it clear just how shattered they are from merely
*glimpsing* the true horrors it holds, even at 0 stress. Repeated encounters with Sea Monsters, fungal Zombies, The Undead, Pig Man societies running on pure Nausea Fuel, and vampires none of it made these hardened heroes crack; but after one foray into the Darkest Dungeon, they are right on the path to cross the Despair Event Horizon and Go Mad from the Revelation.
"I paint all I see with the horrors burned into these eyes."
"We must seal the gates! Or we are doomed! Doomed I say!"
"A blade can be sharpened. Armor mended. The soul is forever shattered."
"That place still shapes my dreams..."
"The mind reels! My psyche splinters and cracks!"
"No one must discover what I have seen!"
"My body is whole but my mind is shattered."
"Nightmares surround this doomed hamlet."
"I would rest these bones in a cool, dark grave.
"
"Burn the trees! Salt the fields! We tilt into Hell itself!"
"Feather pillows! Hot baths! Ale and Victuals!"
"I need... help. Please."
- The Swine. Not so much for themselves (they're no worse than any of the other enemies, as cold a comfort as that may be), but for their type, and its implications. They were created by the Ancestor's marginally successful attempts to summon "outer things" into pig flesh. So in a game with the classifications Human, Beast, Unholy, and Eldritch, what would you expect them to be? How about Beast/Human?
- The final boss has one attack that is utterly nightmarish in every single aspect Come Unto Your Maker. First off: this attack is a literal instant kill. No Death's Door, no defending, no dodging, nothing. When it uses it, the battle freezes, and you are given four targets: your heroes. You have to personally choose who is instantly killed. Your characters are not oblivious to this fact, and react when you consider them (i.e. mouse over them). Some Face Death with Dignity, accepting your decision and making peace with it. Others openly embrace the prospect of their sacrifice. But others are terrified and plead with you not to do it. As a reminder, all of your characters will be level 6 at this point, so you've probably grown quite attached to some, which makes this choice all the more agonizing. And then, the death itself. Tentacles explode up from the ground and cover the character, which is gone in an instant with a distorted, echoing scream. It is not obvious what actually happens to the victim. After that, the combat starts up again as normal, and you continue onwards with the fight, terrified of the prospect of seeing that attack again.
*You do.* Thankfully, you don't see it a third time. The true horror of this whole thing only kicks in on your next time doing this quest knowing that that those two attacks are coming, you find yourself arranging a team with a new aspect in mind. Two people to take you to victory... And two lambs for the slaughter. However, if you're good enough, it's possible to win without anyone dying.
- The horrific implications of the ending. While you were able to put down the Heart of Darkness, it is implied that this is only a temporary defeat, and that when the stars are right, the horror that sleeps underneath the surface will awaken and hatch from the egg that we call the world and bring an end to humanity, and what it will do from there on is not mentioned. All you can do is delay it again and again so that humanity can live a short while longer, leaving no doubt that
*Darkest Dungeon* is a Cosmic Horror Story.
- The Crimson Court DLC delightfully subverts the classical vampire monster by mixing it with Big Creepy-Crawlies in the form of a everpresent insect motif. The Estate is now invaded by giant mosquitoes, you fight people that have their head swallowed by giant ticks inflated because of the blood they've sucked or other insectoid abominations. In addition, the insect motif is mixed with the unnerving Decadent Court aspect of the new enemies, particularly with the Bosses, each indulging in a particular form of excess mixed with typical insect behavior. For instance the Viscount represent gluttony and his boss room is full of living, moving people stuck in flesh sacks for him to feed on!
- The DLC's final boss, the Countess, is no slacker in this department. She usually attacks by implanting mosquito hives in your heroes' bodies with a very long, grotesque tongue. Then, once she decides she really needs to get rough, she transforms into a gigantic mosquito-like beast that's far more monstrous than any other Bloodsucker seen in the Courtyard. The cherry on top is that she also brings Interplay of Sex and Violence to the table: all of her attacks' names are horrific Double Entendres, even as she's mauling you in her mosquito-queen form.
- One of the worst aspects of the Countess is how she's a (near-literal) Giant Space Flea from Nowhere in terms of
*Darkest Dungeon* lore; the lore of every other area has at least some explanation of where they came from (Usually from the Ancestor doing questionable things). The Countess is the Monster Progenitor of all the Crimson Court creatures, but The Ancestor didn't summon her, or make a deal with her, nor created her in an experiment; she just turned up to a party one night and scared him badly enough that he tried to murder her, unaware of what he was getting himself into
- Just to really add to the fear factor of the Countess, it's
*heavily* implied that she and the Heart of Darkness are connected in some fashion, considering her blood was able to provoke the Court's nobility to Autocannibalism and reveal the Heart's existence to the Ancestor.
- The Fanatic is horrifying in his own way:
- His presence is announced via a town event, and you can even see him in town standing in front of the Ancestor's Memoirs. He doesn't really do much at first, but the real terror comes in when you start an expedition... and instead of the usual loading screen of the selected dungeon, it's his ugly, scarred mug giving you a particularly malevolent grin while the Ancestor describes him. He makes the Flagellant look like a sane person, given that he's out to purge the vampires by burning them at the stake, whether or not they're actually innocent.
- You never know when the Fanatic will decide to go on the hunt for you until the aforementioned visage of his face in the loading screen. And you won't know when he'll strike while you explore... and when he does, it's definitely a Jump Scare. For one, the background changes to his many victims tied to pyres and being burned alive, while the normal battle music is drowned out by the sounds of agonized screaming. Your heroes aren't immune to this fate either, as the Fanatic will happily choose a random one to tie onto the pyre and
*burn them alive for every action taken*. Make no mistake, the Fanatic is a vile psycho who will gleefully incinerate anyone in his path if he thinks there's a chance they're cursed.
- You might think you're free to wail on the pyre to free your friend, much like the Hag and her cauldron, but this comes at a cost: Destroy it, and you end up enraging him and having him use a party-wide stress and health damage attack on every first action he takes. This means you have a choice rush to free a party member and risk taking mounting damage and stress? Or focus on the Fanatic while letting your friend suffer the fate of countless innocents he's put to the torch?
- The new DLC, Color of Madness, has some disturbing implications. For all we know, The Thing From the Stars is a herald or an infant of something like The Heart that already took over its own planet and decided to spread to others like Lavos. The picture for the DLC is also creepy, it has the heroes standing behind some Green Rocks from the meteor, with the parts seen through the crystals looking corpselike and skeletal.◊
- Color of Madness enemies have been through the wringer even by
*Darkest Dungeon* standards. Farmhands are messes of ossified flesh, full of glowing gaps; the largest is pretty deep into the torso and reveals that they're basically hollow. Foremen are floating monsters with skull-like faces and a left arm that's in multiple pieces hovering in formation. The bosses are slated to be even worse. And all of this because the harvest failed and the Ancestor was asked to help.
- In general, the Color of Madness DLC lessens the Evil Is Visceral depiction in favor of the unsettling effects of things that are inherently
*unnatural*. Most prominent are the Alien Geometry aesthetic of the DLC, with the omnipresent crystals that have invaded the population and in fact *pulse as if they were alive*, but also the horrifying Timey-Wimey Ball aspect, as your party is effectively stuck in a time loop because of the Eldritch Location that is the Farmstead. It is primarily an excuse for the endless marathons, but it's also quite unsettling to see the party trying to approach the windmill time and time again, fighting through hordes of monsters and fighting bosses only to be sent back at square one, with the damage you've accumulated that way. There is literally *no hope* for you to defeat The Sleeper; Failure Is the Only Option, even for a team that's bested every other Eldritch Abomination that the Estate can throw at you.
- Theres a weird, uncanny element to this area as well. The background shows a world recognizable enough to know what it was before, but also radically different to where the rules of reality no longer apply as theyre understood. The farmhands also reflect this: All their attacks? Theyre pantomiming their jobs before the corruption. This is most visible with the farmhands with their seed sowing and basic attacks (same actions as digging a trench). It's as if daily life is still happening, though corrupted. This could mean anything between a reflection of The Sleepers interpretation of the world, or worse, all the enemies are incomplete conversions, trying to make sense of things while only half existing.
- The trailer for the sequel sets a terrifying tone
*right* off the bat, showing us a *frozen literal mountain of flesh*. Whatever awaits us in *Darkest Dungeon 2*, there's no doubt it's going to be just as bad, or downright *worse* than the horrors we've already seen.
- On a bit of player-controlled Nightmare Fuel, the Flagellant. An unarmored fellow, wielding naught more than a flail, he thrives off of pain and damage. Beat him, bruise him, watch as he bleeds more than a mortal man should take. He only becomes more powerful, cackling as the abominations wound him, and as close as he gets to death, he never yields, only hitting harder, stronger, this strange man from god-knows-where.
- The Butcher's Circus DLC. The entire point of it is Gladiator Games; for
*heroes to kill each other*. And all of this is being done for the Ringmaster's sick amusement. And in case you get a little too caught up in the fighting, every dead hero leaves behind a mangled corpse to remind you of its brutality. What makes it even more grueling and real is that heroes can also cause Stress damage to opposing heroes with some skills, and the characters on both sides act exactly how they do in the campaign, both in their barks and their erratic behavior when afflicted. And yes, you can kill your opponents by pushing them so hard that they suffer heart attacks.
- The Brigand Pounder, while not as horrifying as the other terrors of the dungeons, is a reminder that unlike other games where bandits are cannon fodder, these are a whole different story. These bandits have enough money, either stolen from the Hamlet or paid by the Ancestor to equip themselves with heavy artillery and a series of macabre trophies, and limitless reinforcements who will gladly throw their lives away to ensure the cannon can kill your party.
- The Siren's tale is pretty horrifying: once a young girl with a crush on the Ancestor, she was essentially sacrificed to the Pelagics to be forcibly remade into their queen; a fate which, if the Ancestor is to be believed, amounts to being turned into a glorified Breeding Slave. Just to add to the horror, it's not entirely clear if they destroyed her personality in the process, or whether there's still some part of her that's aware of everything the Pelagics have done to her.
- On a related note, one of the journals provides some insight on the fish-men's origins - at least a few of them were once humans bitten by the fishmen, with the journal lovingly detailing a wounded hero's slow physical transformation into a Pelagic Grouper and the accompanying Sanity Slippage. How many of those Mooks your heroes have happily been gutting were once humans? | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkestDungeon |
Dark Harvest / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Log Entry #7 - Alex comes home to find ||his electricity cut off, his bedroom covered in Operator drawings, and when he goes into the next room, he sees a human hand reach out from the closet door and close the door.||
- In Log Entry #10, the Slenderman actor is really obvious, but the guys are near a playground where we can hear and see children. At one point, the camera dips down, and when it comes back up, all the kids are gone, and it stays that way.
- Log Entry #12 - At first, everything seems totally fine with the Dark Harvest guys just hanging out with their friend. ||Until they decide to leave, finding one of the masked men standing on a driveway and when they try to approach him, he pulls a knife out and begins chasing them back to Greg's house. Then after they lock all the doors, they hide in the basement, only to hear footsteps walking around upstairs.||
- Log Entry #19-We haven't seen Slendy this confrontational in a long while. ||Then, as he leans out from behind the doorway at the very end... strange, ragged breathing can be heard.||
- Kind Von Der Ritter's video Rainwood.
- ||Greg's gouged out, mutilated dead body||, and the rest of Log 14-1 & 2
- The unresolved conspiracies pilot video has ||an image from the results of the princeton experiments (starts at 1:49|| Also it gets better when you realize ||that its just the results of ONE experiment and that they probably tried the same thing (albiet with minor modifications made to the procedure) with other people!||
- February 24th. Mother of God, February 24. Chris running upstairs to find ||himself faced with one of the masked men, only to run downstaris and out the front door to be faced with a
*whole group of them.*||
- Log Entry #25: The Dark Harvest guys meet with
*Tribe Twelve*'s Noah. It starts off relatively normal (well, normal for the series), they come up with a plan to have Noah infiltrate the cult so they could all get some answers. Then Noah ||comes back, being chased by the masked cultists, and says that Slendy showed up before he booked it.|| And that's when the car decides to stall, ||followed by a cultist ending up right in front of the car.|| The lights go out, ||then flick back on just in time for a cultist's dead body to be thrown on the hood of the car.|| Then the lights go out again, and when they flicker back on yet again, ||guess who's standing in front of the car?||
- YMMV on ||the body hitting the car.|| The guys' screams are kinda Narmy.
- Log Entry #26: After the events of the last video, the boys decide to try and get info out of Jesse. Unfortunately for them, ||Jesse takes this opportunity to lead them straight to his fellow cultists for their execution! The two almost get their heads chopped off, but manage to survive thanks to Jeff pulling off a Big Damn Heroes moment.||
- Greg's Final Log, ||the Slender Man shows up in Greg's house after he tells Jesse he wants to leave the cult. Then Jesse locks him in the basement for the Slender Man to come get at his leisure. Then there's that long, distorted shot of Slender Man looming directly over Greg, accompanied by creepy rumbling sounds that sound almost like vocalizations.||
- It's also one of only a few times in the entirety of The Slender Man Mythos that we see ||Slender Man walking around as opposed to just kind of standing there menacingly.||
- Log Entry #28: After months of inactivity, the boys find out that ||Jesse was found decapitated on a farm. A few days later they receive a tape showing the Order executing Jesse, with a warning: while the Order is personally forbidden from killing the boys (because it has been foretold that Slender Man will kill them), if either of them attempts to contact the Order again they
*will* find and kill everyone they love, and continue to torture them for years on end until Slendy finally comes for them.||
- Log Entry #29: Chris and Alex meet up with a very frightened Heather McComber, who reveals that ||she is an unwilling member of the Order, forced to join as a teenager. She informs them that the cult now has chapters worldwide, and is preparing to initiate "the Harvest": an attempt to open a rift to Slender Man's realm by murdering as many people as possible and collecting their Life Energy. Oh — and the boys' YouTube channel is directly responsible for the surge in cult members, as their videos have not only "proved" the existence of the Slender Man, but encouraged fellow victims to turn to the Order for answers.||
- ||As Chris leaves the train station, he passes a man in a black hoody; in the video's final frame, he states that the man was probably a member of the Order, adding that "a lot has changed [since the video was filmed] and a lot is going to change. These videos are all we have left..." Given the Order's previous threats, this doesn't bode well
*at all*.||
- Log Entry #30. ||The Order makes good on the first part of their threat: several days after the previous video, Chris gets a call from Alex, who informs him that he found his parents and sister shot dead in their basement. Chris returns home and frantically searches his house — and finds his father's bloodied body strung up in the shower.||
- ||We're also told that Chris's mother was murdered, but we never see (or hear) what happened to her. The jump cut after Chris finds his father's body suggests that some of the more graphic footage might have been removed; whatever happened to Chris's Mom, it wasn't very pretty.||
- Correction: ||Chris didn't see his mother's body. Several days later, however, the police found her beside a freeway, dead of multiple stab wounds. Not very pretty, indeed.|| | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkHarvest |
Dark Hole / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The prologue shows the city, apparently empty and covered with thick black fog. A Bloody Handprint is shown on a window. And then we see Do-yoon wandering alone through a factory while shadows move behind the machinery and
*something* slithers around.
- A child is trapped in a car. Tae-han climbs into it to rescue her, and then the car catches fire.
- One of the zombies presses his fingers into a man's eyes.
*On-screen*.
- Do-yoon is alone in her home when a monster comes to the door pretending to be her mother. Then it breaks the glass and chases Do-yoon, while her real mother can only watch in horror over a video call.
- Hwa-sun distracts the zombies and lures them into a classroom. Then Jin-seok locks the door, trapping her in with them, and grins when she yells at him to open the door. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkHole |
Dawngate / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- While the introduction of the voiced biographies came with its fair share of laughs, some of them are absolutely horrifying. Take Vex, for example. His biography takes on the form of an experimentation log, as Petrus's cruel and twisted experimentation on the poor creature slowly gives him the ability to speak, but also leaves it in constant agony. It's clear from his mangled speech from when he can eventually form complete sentences that he would rather be dead than be experimented on more, and this continues... until he realizes that because he can't actually die, he has a way of escaping, and he ends up
*breaking several of his own bones, including his skull*, in order to escape. Now just imagine if *you* had to go through something like that... | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Dawngate |
Darkstalkers / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Darkstalkers*, being a series that has monsters and supernatural entities as fighters, should serve as no surprise that there's some legitimately terrifying stuff in this series.
- The moral ambiguity of the series in general. These games feature monsters varying from utter evil to hedonistic and self-centred to broken and nihilistic, battling it out against each other. There is no clear hero and the consequences for the human world should some of these characters win, would be dire. The closest the series ever had to a morally upright hero is Donovan, who is constantly battling against his own dark side. He loses horribly.
- Getting hit by a cutting attack (caused by Lilith, Donovan, and especially Bishamon) or Jedah's San=Passare move generally tends to bisect the character mid-match in the appropriate spot, only for the halves to rejoin themselves in a comical manner right away, such as the character's upper torso doing a swift backflip and landing to its original spot without any consequences.
*Vampire Savior* introduces vertical bisecting with Talbain's Moment Slice and the ES version of Bishamon's Kien Zan which shows the insides of the character once they hit the ground and slides both halves back together to continue the fight. However, continuing a tradition in Capcom games such as *Strider*, *Captain Commando*, *The Punisher*, and *Red Earth*, if the character is defeated by any of these attacks, the effect sticks until the next round. That is, if there even is one.
- Several of the character select portraits in the first game look genuinely creepy and chilling as a result of how detailed they look, more than likely to emphasize how monstrous these creatures are. Even
*Morrigan* looks uncanny, what with her gaunt face and bulbous, almost Tim Burton-esque eyes.
- The Kiss of Death Morrigan gives Pyron in her ending, which reduces him to nothing but a decayed skeleton. Thank the heavens that she isn't fond of feasting on humans...
- Lord Raptor's ending after he takes down Pyron. As his reward for defeating the Evil Overlord, Raptor is given ultimate power, enough to Take Over the World. We then see an unholy formation of Raptor being fused with what appears to be Pyron's corpse, in order to become a stronger demon. It ends with Raptor promising to take down his "ruling" master once he's done killing the humans.
- Pyron's Nightmare Face after defeating his opponents in a match. It's the only one that appears in all of the games he appears in.
- Pyron's victory theme. It gives a mysterious, eerily calming vibe along with a sense of dread - as if something very,
*very* terrible is about to happen. And technically, *you'd be right...*
- Pyron's ending, which involves enlarging himself to become the size of the solar system and bringing the Earth into his reach, which causes gravitational stress to increase and the planet's temperature to skyrocket. In short, he's pretty much bringing Hell to Earth and causing the death of all humanity by burning up the planet.
- The art direction for
*Vampire Savior*, in a general sense, is much darker and gothic than the previous two games. Not only are the new characters a whole new order of creepy (except maybe for Lilith), some of the new stages are also pretty frightening, such as Forever Torment (which is essentially a torture room with neat implements such as a guillotine for three and a meat-grinding wheel), Abaraya (a dark and run-down Japanese shack, complete with a lantern yokai hanging from the ceiling), War Agony (a bombed-out ghost town) and the infamous Fetus of God. And yes, they mostly have nice names like these.
- A Scare Chord has now been added anytime someone is KO'ed. Along with that is the updated KO screams of several of the returning characters (Demitri, Talbain, Victor, Raptor, Rikuo, and Hsien-Ko) sounding much more anguishing than their voice clips in the previous games (Sasquatch's scream is made to sound goofier).
- Several things about Jedah are
*very* disturbing, even for this series.
- After winning a match, Jedah will occasionally use his wings to split his opponent in half to absorb their soul. It happens at random and affects any character, including Donovan (who can't be bisected but still has his soul ripped out) and Pyron (whose normal animation while knocked out comes to a complete halt after being split this way), pretty much guaranteeing their death.
- His most common win pose has him laughing manically and rapidly shaking with what looks like blood pouring from his eyes.
- Jedah's Sangue = Passare, yet another bisecting example, has him grab his opponent and pump blood into their headwear or appendages with his arm, quickly enlargening them in the process. The most gruesome of these are possibly Demitri (pumped through his hands, which looks unsettling given how realistic and stoic he is compared to most of the other characters) B.B. Hood (pumped into her cheeks) and Victor (pumped into his cranium, which looks destroyed and distored).
- Most of Jedah's moves involve extremely bloody self-mutilation, and one of his counters even involves
*decapitating himself and growing his head right back after spraying his blood all over the opponent*. And he's almost always cackling like mad while he's doing these moves, too.
- Then, there's his ending. The villain successfully massacres all life throughout Makai, preparing to target the human world next, and his specially designed god awakens. We then hear a baby's cry as the fetal god looks straight at the screen.
- The aforementioned "Fetus of God" stage. Spoiler for the faint of heart: it's a rather realistic Womb Level, with a giant, horned,
*skinless* fetus floating in the background. You can even see some of its internal organs through its skin. And when the match ends...it *wakes up*, staring right at you and thrashing about.
- Demitri's Midnight Bliss move can change guys to hot girls, and hot girls to hotter girls in
*most* cases. But it's particularly disturbing to see that right afterwards, Demitri picks them up and literally sucks the life and blood out of them, leaving the girls a shriveled, skeletal corpse. The fact they explode and return to their normal forms even after being defeated can offset this, but the brief images are still a little disturbing, to say the least.
- In addition, after transforming the unfortunate victim, Demitri takes on his true form as he drains them. Said form is that of a horrific humanoid gargoyle/bat hybrid.
- B.B. Hood herself is ultimately one of the scariest characters in the series. While she may appear to be a innocent little girl, she is anything but. The development team themselves have stated that she herself is supposed to show how humanity can be much darker and frightening than any monster in fiction and it shows. She herself is an S-Rank Darkhunter whose heart and soul are so twisted and filled to the brim with malice and hatred that she was genuinely mistaken by Jedah Dohma to be a Darkstalker. In fact, her reasons for hunting the darkstalkers isn't out of atonement like Donovan or to make the world a better place like Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling. She is, in fact, a Sadist who is driven only by Greed and the sheer hatred she has for Darkstalkers. Not to mention, because of her heart being so dark in the first place, a simple gaze from her is enough to put fear into lesser Darkstalkers.
- Then there's B.B Hood's ending. The ending abandons the game's normal art style in favor of a Tim Burton-influenced aesthetic. We see that a family of wolves are watching the news about a psychotic murderer on a violent rampage. While the child and mother are rightfully scared, the father dismisses it as nothing. Then, we cut to outside their home, where BB Hood is standing, presumably prepping her gun or brandishing her knife, while preparing to march to the house.
- Her introduction trailer for
*Darkstalkers Resurrection* is terrifying too. All of the introductions are fairly ominous, with the castle and cemetery landscape, the arm of an undead rising from the grave, the wind effects and soundtrack, and the narrator's dark and ominous voice. All this is scary enough on its own. Hood's trailer? In addition to the above, the narrator is ceaselessly throwing warning upon warning, as if he's genuinely terrified of this new character more than of any other. The viewer (if unspoiled) is expecting the series' single most terrifying Killer Rabbit ever when traditional shadow is revealed... and a *human* shows up.
- Mixed with Squick, one of Q-Bee's moves has her grabbing her opponent and using her stinger, which squishes and deflates in a realistic manner, pushing a larva from her abdomen-like tail and injecting it into her opponent. The opponent turns into a giant cocoon or egg with their face sticking out while Q-Bee loses strength and dies off. What comes out of the egg? Another Q-Bee that takes over the fight, completely replacing the original and deceased Q-Bee.
- Q-Bee's ending involves her taking over Makai with a growing army of soul bees, with them rapidly multiplying to the point where they will eventually doom themselves due to overpopulation.
- Demitri's Nightmare Face in the first episode of the
*Night Warriors* OVA. It is full of more sharp, long, **ROTTEN** teeth than a vampire should have. On top of that, we even have a few scenes where the aforementioned true form is shown, while literally taking a huge bite out of Morrigan and later attempting to stab Pyron with his sharp-nailed hand. The English dub even follows it up with a soft yet creepy cackle.
- Lord Raptor uses his Death Voltage attack to suck out the souls of several monks, which makes their skin turn pale and more than likely kills them. The attack then wraps up with him briefly turning into a giant realistic skull.
- Donovan is introduced into the OVA by examining a dilapidated ghost town. Within it, he comes across the skeletal remains of several men who successfully killed a winged, two-headed darkstalker who supposedly managed to kill them all before dying itself. The sharp-fanged darkstalker is still rotting away with several spears pierced through its heads and necks, along with a sword planted in its stomach.
- The second episode is where things get rather graphic, as Bishamon effortlessly slashes two men to death seeking to take Hannya for themselves. The merchant who made the deal with Donovan to eliminate Bishamon in the first place finally claims the armor, but an explosion caused by Hannya rejecting him melts him alive, leaving only a cracking headless skull.
- The OVA reinforces how much of an absolute powerhouse and a living nightmare Pyron is.
- The aforementioned Nightmare Face he makes during his winpose returns, now covering
*an entire planet*.
- In the opening of the final episode, he effortlessly defeats and presumably kills Anakaris (who's bandages are mostly burned off, revealing the body, thin skeletal rib cage and exposed rotting feet and legs of his original self) Rikuo (his defeat is considered to be the most graphic, as his body appears to have completely
*disintegrated* by an explosion that is immediately shown to destroy of a huge chunk of the Amazon Rainforest), Sasquatch (in his only appearance in the anime, aside from the end credits), and Victor, who are all considered to be among the most powerful darkstalkers of the human world.
- He then proceeds to knock Demitri out cold, pushing him into his castle which collapses into the town it resides in. Demitri manages to survive the attack, but it's likely that there were other casualties as a result of the castle collapsing.
- He absolutely masscres Donovan and leaves him in a complete bloodbath. If we never got to see into his thoughts, you'd never guess that he was still alive.
- He also discovers that his influence on the Earth and its inhabitants was responsible for the darkstalkers evolving into what they are now, believing one will eventually come out on top as the highest order of the planet.
- Morrigan in the UDON comics is considerably more frightening due to her Adaptational Villainy. The comics portray her as a more traditional succubus, being genuinely malevolent and having no qualms about murdering humans for fun or draining their souls. She's also capable of shapeshifting, being able to appear as any woman that anyone might pass by, making her attacks much more surprising. Special mention goes to the aftermath of her attacks, as while Morrigan states that the souls she drains are allegedly in eternal bliss, the bodies left behind are much more terrifying due to appearing as nearly-skeletal husks that leave horrified expressions. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Darkstalkers |
Darksiders / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Considering this game takes place a century After the End in a Crapsack World full of demons and other monstrosities, there's bound to be some scary stuff.
- The Charred Council itself. Visually, it resembles three carved stone heads that absolutely
*tower* over whoever stands before them. Each one speaks in a voice as deep as the abyss, are absolutely *not* interested in mercy, and send War out only because he pointed out that whether or not he dies, *they still get what they want*. And that's not even considering they knew he was innocent. Oh, and fun fact? NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK THEY ARE. They just appeared in the middle of the war between Heaven and Hell and stopped it. And nobody questioned them at the time.
- The opening shows an angel and demon crashing to earth mid-fight. You see the angel lifting up and expect him to stand up with the demon dead beneath his feet, but no, it's the other way around. The demon has impaled the angel, and as soon as he sees the humans gathered around, he
*immediately* switches targets.
- How outclassed the angels were. Plain and simple, they're treated as full-on cannon fodder throughout much of the game; at almost no point is any rank and file Hellguard soldier anything more than target practice, and it's terrifying to see. Thankfully, the higher-ups are pretty badass, but that doesn't diminish things much.
- The Chosen are each nightmarish in their own ways. To elaborate;
- Tiamat. A giant bat-dragon hybrid that for some reason has human breasts on her chest. She speaks in a grating voice and seems to excel at striking deals. Too bad for her she wouldn't like War's terms.
- The Griever, a humongous insectoid creature that controls the already-creepy Swarm and rules over them. When fucking ULTHANE has no interest in actually killing the damn thing, it clearly means trouble.
- The Stygian is a giant(noticing a trend?) Ashworm, which is saying something considering normal Ashworms already dwarf the previous two Chosen in size. And for some inane reason, the demons in its territory have captured it and are trying to tame it. So by the time you reach it, it's huge, it's strong, and it is fucking
*pissed*.
- The last Chosen before you head for the tower, Silithia, is a piece of work. Not only is she a Mother of a Thousand Young and a ginormous mutated spider, she is also
*as intelligent as, if not more so than, Tiamat*, and attempts to turn War against Samael by telling him the true reason for Samael enlisting his help. Also, there's the fact she collects *people* who tell her things. The fact Samael defines the ones she feeds to her children as the lucky ones is... chilling. Oh, and if you thought Tiamat had an unsettling voice, Silithia's is even *worse*.
- Finally, the last Chosen period, Straga. Easily biggest and strongest of the Chosen, he looks absolutely
*demonic* and serves as a Hopeless Boss Fight in the intro sequence. That's right, for as badass as War is, this thing *beat the shit out of him, only losing an eye in the process*. Thankfully, he's pretty fucking stupid, but still.
- Samael. Is he Affably Evil? Yes. Does he help War rather extensively and makes him strong enough to take on the Destroyer? Absolutely. Does this make him any less scary? FUCK no. His voice rivals the Charred Council's in pitch and he carries a serious air of apathy and menace just by showing up. And when he gets angry, he also gets very loud. In fact, he's shaping up to be a Greater-Scope Villain, and considering his boast that it would take all four Horsemen to defeat him (and Darksiders 2 not exactly disproving this claim), he may very well prove himself to be nigh-unstoppable. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Darksiders |
Day Break Illusion / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
This magical girl show may have young protagonists and a cutesy art style, but it still wastes alarmingly little time in becoming disturbing as all get-out.
- In the
*very first episode*, right after her first battle against a Daemonia, one of the first things Akari sees when she regains her senses is her cousin's dead body in a spreading pool of blood.
- All those people possessed by the Diabolos Tarot to the point of losing themselves in the process.
- Episode 4 has the evil fortune teller devouring the victim with his/her Belly Mouth. Which opens in an eerily yonic fashion and bursts forth as a freaky serpentine creature that bears a certain resemblance to Charlotte.
- The fate of ||Seira's childhood friend Manami. Impaled with Extreme Prejudice doesn't even begin to cover it — she dies that way
*right in front of* a maybe-ten-year-old Seira. The horrible splattering noise that comes with it doesn't help.||
- It also brings up this. Akari at the very least had her mind wiped when she first encountered her first Daemonia and was with people who could keep her sane by the time she remember. Luna and Ginko at the very least were informed prior and knew what to expect when their powers manifested. Seira...from the looks of it had Zero preparation when this happened. One day she suddenly could see Daemonia and watched as her friend died horribly.
- Episode 9: Seeing Luna ||being possessed by the Emperor Card|| is pretty damn terrifying, and it's not help by the fact that she's in clear pain. ||Not to mention that afterwards, she's like a feral animal.|| | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DayBreakIllusion |
Day of the Barney Trilogy / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*As this is a Moments page, all spoilers will be unmarked, as per policy. You Have Been Warned.*
- To start: Unlike the canon version of Barney, this version of Barney actually manages to be quite terrifying, by committing cruel and inhumane acts to children, such as "The Great Act of Love" for an example, which was a genocide of everyone over the age of 13.
- The fate of the children right after the Great Act. More specifically what happens when they turn thirteen. The males get killed off, while the females get artificially impregnated and become mothers of the Loved Ones. The birth is unpleasant to say the least.
- The whole scene in the maternity ward. Baby Loved Ones in all their hideous glory, and the rotting corpse of a girl who was unfortunate to be the mother of a Loved One. While Fran DID get pregnant, her offspring, MacHazar, was a test-tube baby. The implications are no less horrifying, however. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DayOfTheBarneyTrilogy |
Day of the Dead (1985) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Nightmares? That's George Romero's and Tom Savini's specialty.
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- The nightmare sequence, ending with a thousand zombie hands from a wall grabbing for Sarah.
- There's one scene where Pvt. Torrez is ripped to pieces. His head is actually
**pulled** off his torso screaming all the while, but as his vocal cords are stretched to the breaking point, his voice gets higher and higher. **And his head is still alive even after it's ripped off.** Also, both his eyes have been gouged out by zombies digging their fingers in for a better grip.
- Rickles is freaking out as he's being surrounded, overwhelmed, and pinned down, laughing like a hyena before transitioning into screaming, then combining the two in sheer hysterics as the zombies
*tear his head open* (also with some Eye Scream).
- And Big Bad Captain Rhodes himself?
*Actual pig intestines* were used for filming his disembowelment. And to make things worse, the refrigerator the intestines were put in broke over a weekend, causing the intestines to rot. One can only imagine the smell.
- Early on during the ravaged town montage when the pile of hundreds if not thousands of dollars is sitting on the street undisturbed, along with the skeleton, which really hammers in the nail of society's collapse.
- The very first zombie we see in the movie. It looks like it's missing most, if not all of its lower jaw. Does a good job of setting the tone for the entire film.
- Zombie(s) with guns. And they won't kill you with the guns, just shoot you until you collapse and leave you to be eaten alive.
- While, in context, said zombie leaving a guy to be killed is actually something to cheer for, the first scene of Bub opening fire has its shock value. A zombie limps around the corner, sees a human... and
*raises a Colt .45*.
- Even the scene where Logan gives Bub an unloaded gun to use is scary, this is a zombie, the last few items he "played" with used in a very infantile manner, but when he get the gun, he uses it completely professionally, even holding it
*completely steady* with both hands, and pulls the trigger.
- Dr. Logan's experiments on Major Cooper's body, turning him into a zombie with the head completely removed but an intact brain and spinal cord, with just enough neck and skull to keep them from falling apart.
- He's also taken one of the soldiers' corpses after they've been bitten and removed the head, letting it mindlessly gnaw on air.
- During the opening, our heroes visit Fort Myers, a city in Southwest Florida that's swarming with zombies to the point that their collective moans manage to be audible over a helicopter engine.
- The scene where Captain Rhodes threatens to have Sarah killed if she doesn't sit back in her chair in the meeting hall, then emphasizes his point by forcing Steel at gunpoint to shoot her if she refuses Rhodes' order. The zombies are dangerous and frightening by themselves, but this scene once more illustrates that humans can be just as dangerous to each other, if not more so. Also, when Rhodes starts with his threats, William is shown putting his hand over his gun on the table, and then right before Sarah relents, John likewise reaches for his sidearm, clearly intending to protect Sarah should things come to a head. If she had not relented and sat down, a gun battle would have ensued right then and there, with who knows how many dead and wounded as a result.
- While the previous movies gave the zombies rather generic clothing, here they're seen dressed in a wider variety of colorful outfits - there's a woman in a marching band uniform, a man in a tuxedo, a ballerina, even a clown. It accentuates the Was Once a Man aspect of the creatures in a very unsettling way. Including the very visibly
*pregnant* woman in the blue dress at the very beginning, seen among the hoard of the dead in the city.
- Several of the zombies in the horde overrunning the facility at the end are dressed in combat uniforms, showing that they were soldiers or national guardsmen before their zombification. This has all sorts of fridge horror implications as to the fate that befell their units, as well as the fact that there was no one around to make sure that their corpses wouldn't reanimate. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DayOfTheDead1985 |
DC Animated Universe / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
<!—index—> Batman: The Animated Series Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Superman: The Animated Series Lobo Webseries Batman Beyond Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker Static Shock Justice League<!—/index—> | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCAnimatedUniverse |
Dark Tales / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
One would expect a series of games based on the work of the horror master himself to have a supply of nightmare fuel. And boy, do they deliver...
## The Premature Burial
- The whole concept of being buried alive falls into this, in the first instance.
- As the game progresses, you learn that somebody has been ||burying people - specifically, his wives - alive. Later, you and Dupin have to rescue one character from such a fate||. Think about it. ||She was sealed inside a mausoleum full of the dead with no food, no water, and no way to escape...||
- It gets worse if you play the bonus chapter of the collector's edition and realize that ||he's done it three times, all to women he specifically married because their deaths would be easy to fake||. You also learn that the sick bastard ||has a secret tunnel leading to the crypt. Why?
*So he can listen to each wife screaming and sobbing.*|| That's some top-grade psychopathy right there.
- Don't forget the fact that there is an accomplice ||who convinced him to do it in the first place. It's the groundskeeper at said cemetery. He works there, he knows that there are people being buried alive... and he does nothing about it.||
- ||Why would he?
*It was his idea!*||
## The Fall of the House of Usher
- The entire history of the Usher family is a blend of this and Tear Jerker. Imagine growing up knowing that your fate involves ||being a living sacrifice to a bloodthirsty house, which has
*already* consumed generations of your ancestors||. How old do you think the family members are when they learn about this?
- The man in the opening animation is ||the detective whose diary is found by Dupin. He's killed so his life-force could feed the Usher estate.|| That's bad enough, but as the game progresses, you learn that ||he's just the
*latest* in a string of sacrifices to save the last of the Usher line. To judge by the detective's notes regarding missing people, at least one of these was a child!||
- Arguably worse, in the bonus chapter you learn that ||the same sentient evil which led the house to demand sacrifices is killing
*everyone in the village*. By the time you reach the very end of the chapter, you and Dupin are the only confirmed survivors (although *Speaking With the Dead* indicates that Dr. Morris also escaped).|| Imagine how they must be feeling as they leave all that behind them.
## The Raven
- The entire philosophy of the Raven Society falls into this if one thinks about it. This ancient organization went off the rails somewhere along the way and started doing everything in their power to
*prevent progress*, on the grounds that "knowledge need not be shared." Instead of using their widespread influence to make the world better for people, they want to restrict humanity to a permanent Dark Ages where only they have any sort of power or capability. That's bad enough, but then you realize that to achieve this goal, they actively threaten and eliminate people who achieve scientific breakthroughs. According to one of the collectibles, they even targeted Nikola Tesla. Other collectibles indicate that they were responsible for the downfall of the Roman Empire, the destruction of the Aztecs, and even the disappearance of Atlantis.
## Morella
- Morella herself is just a walking bundle of nightmare fuel. She decided she wanted to live forever, and she found the means to do it. ||But if she wants to stay young while she does it, she has to possess new bodies, and it's implied that doing so binds the souls which actually belong in those stolen bodies to be trapped in her house.|| And she has
*absolutely no problem* with this. In fact, she seems to enjoy it!
## The Devil in the Belfry
- At the beginning of the second act, you find yourself in a prison cell. ||You and Dupin have been wrongly convicted - without a trial - of committing multiple murders, and are scheduled to be hanged in the town square. All you've done is respond to a call for assistance in a town where murder runs rampant, and your reward is to be hanged as a scapegoat.|| Obviously this doesn't happen or there wouldn't be much of a game, but it's chilling to imagine. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkTales |
Dayshift at Freddy's / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Phone Guy's chilling speech to you in his office after performing the above actions. You know you've done something wrong when he starts to swear at you.
**Phone Guy**: Employee, let me tell you something. I'm a very good boss. I run this place every single day. I usually see through bullshit quite easily. From the moment you've got here, every damn thing that could've gone wrong has gone wrong. You lured off kids and killed 'em with Dave. You've tampered with the robots and you've lied to me several times! I'm pretty sure you even had *something* to do with that suit going off in the show! It'd certainly explain why you arrived so late today... You didn't want to wear that suit. You *rigged* it to go off!
**Old Sport**: Bravo, Sherlock! *Bravo.*
**Phone Guy**: Yes, you dirtbag. You're a murderer. A killer. Nobody's denying that, except for *you*. Let me tell you something, employee. I can see right through Dave. Everyone can! That guy's *transparent!* He *screams* fake! "Old sport" this and "old sport" that! I mean... *who says "old sport"?!* He's artificial, and I can see that a mile away. But *you.* You've killed, tampered, lied and stolen! And the best part? **You've destroyed every lick of evidence.** All of the camera footage from this week is missing! I know you or Dave stole it just before the show! There isn't a *damn thing I can show to the police!* You're cunning, in a way that I've never seen before. Employee, I've gotta hand it to you... It takes the truth to fool me, or close to it. And you've played me for a **goddamned fool.** You're a wolf, employee. A suited predator. **A wolf in sheep's clothing.**
**Phone Guy**: I don't understand you, employee. You overslept this morning... ...but, *I can't understand how you can sleep at all.* Are you a father, employee?
**Old Sport**: No... I'm not a father.
**Phone Guy**: Well, I am. I'm going to let you in on something that you haven't considered. It's Christmas in a month, did you know that? It's a lovely time of year, **isn't it?**
**Old Sport**: Yeah, it's... Christmas is alright.
**Phone Guy**: 10 parents are going to wake up on Christmas morning this year. They're gonna walk downstairs, to their living rooms. And you know what they're gonna see? Unopened presents, under their Christmas trees. Those presents will *never* be opened. Those presents won't *ever* be touched. That's where they'll stay. *Under the Christmas tree.* Stagnant and untouched... those presents will remain **still** and **dead.** Doesn't *that* sound familiar?
**Old Sport**: Fine, fine, I get it.
**Phone Guy**: No, I don't think you do. Unlike you, employee... I had to meet those 10 parents. I had to look them in the eyes, and *lie to them.* I had to tell them that there's still hope that their kids can be found. I had to resist the urge to tell them to look inside the robots. So that they could see their kids again, one last time... That's right, don't play me for a fool! I can smell them, employee. They're **rotting,** *and I can smell them.* **Phone Guy**
: Oh, I'm
*so* sorry!
Am I turning your stomach? How do you think
*I*
feel, employee? Did you even find out what those five children's names were?
**I did.**
I've been hearing those names nonstop for the last three days. Those parents know what happened to their kids. There's been 2 funerals so far. I attended the both of them.
*They lowered empty caskets into the ground.*
You and Dave didn't even leave them anything to bury.
**Old Sport: We actually left the bodies scattered.** **Phone Guy**
: You think that matters
*now?* You murdered *small children,* employee!
Do you think they were even old enough to understand that you were murdering them? I hope not. I cannot
*believe*
you've been sleeping!
*I haven't slept all week...*
Employee, I need to know... Please... Be honest with me, for once in your life. Do you feel
*any*
remorse for what you've done? Any at all? Even a
*twinge*
of regret?
**Old Sport: We both know that I don't.** **Phone Guy**
: I thought as much. I see the truth now, employee.
**I can see what you are.** You're soulless.
I can see it, in your eyes.
*We all can.*
**Old Sport**: And you *are? Humans don't have phones for heads.* | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DayshiftAtFreddys |
DC Extended Universe / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Darkseid
**IS.** **Films**
<!—index—>
**TV Series**
<!—/index—>
**Comic Books**
# General
- The durability of Superman's suit makes it a pretty good measure of how powerful some forces can be. A nuclear blast doesn't so much as scuff his suit, but getting stabbed by Doomsday can pierce right through it. Later on, it turns out that the explosive force of three united Motherboxes is powerful enough to atomize Superman and his suit. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCExtendedUniverse |
dC/dt≠0 / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Chrysalis in general is very scary, delivering veiled (and unveiled) threats while saving Twilight's life and running Xanatos Speed Chess to an end we've yet to discover.
- The mob sets fire to an apartment complex in a paranoid frenzy. Despite Twilight's efforts, at least three die. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCdt0 |
Dark Water / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The film contains many such moments, but the biggest is the climactic scene in which Yoshimi, clutching a half-drowned Ikuko to her body, desperately tries to escape in the elevator, which, despite all her efforts, absolutely does not work, and shedloads of water begins to fill the elevator. Suddenly, the door to their apartment sloooowwwly begins to creak open. Yoshimi, still desperately trying to get the elevator to work and half-paralysed with terror, can only watch as the door eventually opens and out emerges the figure of... Ikuko? But wait, if that's Ikuko, then who is in the elevator with - AAAAAARRRGGGHHHOHGODDDDD.
- What makes the film work so well is the atmosphere: As the film goes on, you realize
*there is no one in the entire apartment complex*. It's just Yoshimi and Ikuko.
- In the remake, there's stated to be at least two other known characters: the janitor/illegal handyman calls them "Asshole Steve" and "Dumb Billy".
- In the remake, when Natasha gives Ceci a dead stare in the bathtub, and when you see Ceci trying to emerge from her drowning attempt.
- Dahlia's corpse. You see her dead eye, staring at nothing. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkWater |
DC Showcase Batman: Death in the Family / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Being a R-Rated expansion to
*Batman: Under the Red Hood*, and an interactive one no less, this is bound to have its moments of terror. **WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.**
- Jason meeting Talia and being stunned to learn that she gave birth to Damian, then agreeing to work with Talia for Damian's sake while he mentally monologues about how he's going to turn Damian against his own parents as part of his quest for vengeance against Bruce.
- Jason walking into a diner and having a friendly chat with a man who seems to know how Batman works. Then the man tells him a haunting story about two Arkham Asylum inmates, and as he goes on, Jason recognizes it as the same "killing joke" the Joker told Batman the night he shot Barbara. Cue the camera finally showing us the face of this mysterious man and - Jason shoving a knife into his eye.
- Just right before, you get a good long shot of the man's face. The comically wide eyes, the wide inhuman grin...that sure as
*hell* is the Joker, showing off one of his creepiest smiles yet. And once he gets stabbed in the eye, he just laughs off all the pain knowing that Jason's been had by his parting joke, dying with a relaxed grin, with a somber piano in the background.
- One ending has Jason as the Red Hood facing down a revived and broken Batman acting as "the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh", presented by Talia al Ghul. A short Single-Stroke Battle occurs before a dying Batman reveals he had a bomb, which kills the three of them. The last scene is of close-ups on all three of their charred, ravaged corpses. The sheer, visceral detail just makes it ten times worse.
- The implication that Talia raped Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, claiming he spoke "with his body" despite his limited speech capacity and clear mental problems. Jason looks disgusted and voices how horrified he is that Talia basically sexually violated his surrogate father.
- Black Mask's brief appearance during Red Robin's bloody crusade ends with his head being decapitated with a blown-off door. If that weren't enough, we get to see his head begin to melt from said door's flames. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCShowcaseBatmanDeathInTheFamily |
DC Super Hero Girls (2019) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Little Lauren's already had experience with dropping terrifying moments into seemingly colorful shows... and this one would be no exception.
## #MeetTheCheetah
- This episode introduces the Cheetah, and being a stealth villain, one can expect a lot of atmospheric scares.
- First off, the fact that the entirety of the second half takes place
*in the dark*. It more or less resembles a horror movie after a while.
- Each of the girls (except Wonder Woman) gets taken off one by one. Especially since it seems like the Cheetah isn't even there... until she strikes. Batgirl's tracker, for example, keeps showing a red dot approaching her. Everywhere she seems to come from, she's not there until she gets caught. Oh, and that's because the Cheetah lunged at her from the ceiling.
- How does Diana find Bumblebee in the climax? She sees Cheetah
*biting* her wings when in tiny mode. And if she didn't arrive, she would have *eaten* her! Yikes! If that doesn't show how bloodthirsty she is, what will?
- After everything seems said and done, we are given one last shot of Barbi washing her face in the bathroom.
## #ShockItToMe
- This episode as a whole is pretty disturbing, especially if you've been a victim of cyberbullying. To put this in perspective, the girls (sans Diana) were so embarrassed after their fights with Livewire that they were
*unwilling to even fight* (at first).
## #SoulSisters
- Katana, despite being a Well-Intentioned Extremist. Stealthy, ruthless, and comes with a magic sword that can steal the souls of anyone the blade hits. As demonstrated throughout the episode, starting with a criminal, all of the Super Villain Girls, and, within two minutes of Part 2, all of the girls except for Wonder Woman.
## #RageCat
- Even before Dexter gets his Red Lantern Power Ring, he's a dangerous and vicious cat who maims everyone. Once he
*does* get his ring, he becomes much more dangerous and willing to kill whoever he wants, with the only source of humor being him showing distraction to a string.
- In fact, this might be the most terrifying version of Dex-Star ever. When he coughs up his "hairballs", he makes the choking motion a real cat does, before it comes up as red lava destroying everything it touches. He doesn't so much fly as he stalks his prey on an invisible surface.
## #BackInaFlash
- The Bad Futures Barbara causes by fixing her mistakes. The entire city and possibly the rest of the world has been destroyed by Starro. And in another, the world is under the complete rule of General Zod. Barbara and Barry's reactions are appropriate enough.
## #PowerSurge
## #AllyCat
- You can see a corpse holding the Book of Destiny at the beginning. It can be quite disturbing in a kid show.
- Lex's gameplan after obtaining the book. A catastrophic meteor, said by him to be "extinction-level", was going to hit the city. And while everyone would be without any leadership or ways to live, Lex will be there, offering support in exchange for control over the city... and then, the world. This plan was so insane that even Catwoman was disturbed and disgusted.
## #Retreat
- The whole episode plays out like a zombie movie, thanks to Poison Ivy reanimating dead plants. And it's definitely
*not* for comedy, either.
- Those who have a vine from the Plant zombies turn into one themselves. Very slowly, as demonstrated with Hal.
- Just the whole fact that Pam was outright trying to murder them all. Including Jessica, who the two were briefly becoming friends in
*#Misgiving Tree.*
## #DinnerForFive
## #LivingTheNightmare
- The girls' nightmares, courtesy of Fuseli. Fuseli himself resembles and very well could be a demon, goblin, gremlin, or imp.
- Zee's worst fear is an all-blue version of herself that represents all she fears. Once unleashed by Fuseli, she almost gets defeated until she faces it head on.
## #AllAboutZee
- Casey Krinsky. She starts as a creepy and hyper-obsessed stalker to Zee, but then her true colors reveal themselves and it all goes downhill from there.
## #TheFreshPrincessOfRenFaire
## #HappyBirthdayZee
- The same blue magic that overcame Zee in "#IllusionsOfGrandeur" and "#LivingTheNightmare" returns here, and it's revealed to be fueled completely on negative emotions. We get another display of this power as she accidentally lets out a spell that hypnotizes her friends.
- Zee's friends in general under said spell.
## #WarriorandtheJester
## #NightmareInGotham | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCSuperHeroGirls2019 |
Darkwing Duck / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
## The cartoon:
- In his debut episode, Bushroot casually decides to make it look like the scientists who bullied him constantly had "an accident." When Darkwing and Launchpad show up to investigate, Bushroot decides to do the same thing to them. Considering that he's usually pretty meek, seeing Bushroot so calmly resort to murder is jarring; it makes you wonder if his experiment didn't just affect his body...
- Sometimes when SHUSH asked Darkwing to take over a case for them they showed him what happened to the guys they had who were looking into it before. The show outright confirms murders are being conducted in droves and deaths are ongoing. Like once Darkwing asked what happened to their last agent and J. Gander replied by
*taking a can of cat food out of his desk drawer containing the agent's remains.*
- Paddywhack from "The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain.". Monster Clown, feeds on negative emotions, beak filled with sharp teeth, evil beady eyes, spider-like limbs on a squat body, that deep scary voice...
*GAH!* (when isn't hamming up a scene at least). He's the Darkwing-verse version of It. Issue #7 brings him back. **And now..Paddywhack is coming to supper!**
- A couple of the e.t.-themed episodes revolve around the existence of a literal planet of hats. That means, a planet full of hat-like aliens who could possess Earthlings by jumping on their heads. And could disguise themselves by simply closing their eyes. They could be in the middle of an invasion any moment and it would appear as merely a strange hat-wearing fad...
- Posey, the vampire potato and Bushroot's "bride".
- "Time and Punishment":
- Behind the cartoonish slapstick comedy and the hammy over-the-top performance, you'll see a man who's become so consumed by his grief and madness that an entire metropolis has to suffer. If the big and scary-looking war machines he uses don't scare you, then his new and terrifying appearance, his red eyes and angry-looking face will do it, and if not even that, then the fact that he sends people to jail for years for such petty things as jaywalking will do it. And if his entrance wasn't enough to make it clear that something is wrong with his head, then Launchpad will make it clear when he tells his story on how he got fired from the sidekick job because he thought they "should arrest the crooks before giving them the electric chair". And then you'll ask where Negaduck went, or where the other heroes of St. Canard, including Morgana, went, or why the democratic government would allow one man having totalitarian control of a city inside their borders, Joseph Stalin style, without trying to take him out. And it ain't stopping there; when Darkwarrior Duck gets his hands on Quackerjack's time machine, he's planning to use it to go back in time so that he can rewrite the Code of Hammurabi so that even "being cranky in the morning" will be punishable by death. Or go back right at the time when the evolution of landwalking animals is getting started, and then delaying it until he'd get a "few rules straight". But the moment when his insanity hits the high point is when he aims a missile launcher right at his daughter's face, with a closeness enough to get himself blown up as well if he pulls the trigger, while angrily ranting on her past "criminal tendencies". Sure, he doesn't pull the trigger, but Darkwarrior Duck's Knight Templar personality was so great that it made the Justice Lords look like your friendly neighbourhood patrol police officers. They at least had the mercy enough to just lobotomize the supervillains, and not even Negaduck was this extreme when he found out his own daughter had turned against him in "Life, the Negaverse and Everything".
- Darkwing and Negaduck are polar opposites, but they also have similarities. DW can be as ruthless and vicious as Negaduck II if you push him off the deep end. Him losing his mind after Gosalyn "disappeared" is pretty scary. It's almost like he was becoming a third Negaduck. He was even shown using lethal guns and tanks. And to think, all it takes is for Gosalyn to run away for Darkwing to turn into a psychotic murderous maniac like his evil twin.
- Just to underline that Fridge Horror a bit more, there are points when Darkwarrior sounds exactly like his old self, despite being right in the middle of being a maniacal dictator.
- It's implied that Darkwarrior has killed people during his reign of terror. Keep in mind that we don't even see Negaduck II commit murder on the show.
- "Heavy Mental":
- Launchpad's future vision of Darkwing's death. Not only do we get to see Darkwing get crushed to death, but it's topped off by the villains of the episode standing over and suddenly laughing as their faces transform into grotesque abominations.
- Then there is the main villain's demise: being hit by the ray and having his head explode, just like the lizard earlier (whose head popped like a balloon). And then, even his ghost gets its head exploded.
- Taurus Bulba. Amongst the Rogues Gallery of wacky, comical, over-the-top Saturday morning cartoon villains, we've this ruthless, cunning, murderous, and downright psychopathic crime lord played by Tim Curry. He's one of the few villains besides Bushroot, Phineas Sharp, F.O.W.L. and Darkwarrior Duck who's confirmed to have committed murder, and his victim was none other than Gosalyn's grandfather. Later on, he attempts to do the same with Gosalyn, both to blackmail Darkwing Duck and For the Evulz, showing that not even children are safe from him. When he's rebuilt by F.O.W.L., he thanks them by destroying their base, declaring himself above them and threatening to kill them after he kills Darkwing Duck. When he seeks out Gosalyn for revenge, she gets a complete mental shutdown when meeting him. And while he has some hammy and comical moments, they're way outnumbered by his atrocities, making him the show's local Knight of Cerebus.
- The whole episode "Twin Beaks". This episode has Bushroot's "corpse", superficially innocent looking videos with puzzling details in the background, mysterious arc words, a Disney Acid Sequence, and an eerie atmosphere in general. Not too surprising, considering what show the episode is spoofing.
- "Dead Duck":
- Darkwing dies, visits the afterlife, comes back as a ghost, and has to deal with Death hunting him. He wakes up and is overjoyed, thinking it was just a nightmare, and then... it implies it's not just a dream.
- The citizens of his city not giving a hoot about him after he saved their tails a million times. Only three people in the world care about DW.
- Bushroot is able to regenerate, which leads to (or rather allows for) some nasty deaths, including once going through a woodchipper.
- F.O.W.L has plans that could literally destroy the world if they don't submit to their world-domination terms, including stopping the earth's rotation and dooming the earth to one half eternal winter and one half burning to the ground.
- In "Disguise The Limit", while trying to catch Negaduck so Darkwing can prove his innocence under the effects of a machine that can change his appearance to whatever he looks at, when Gosalyn suggests thinking like Negaduck in order to capture him, Darkwing looks at a "Wanted" poster of Negaduck and turns into him. Unfortunately, this ends up working too well, in that Darkwing starts acting like Negaduck and begins going after Launchpad and Gosalyn with a burner, while asking Gosalyn menacingly, "Wanna play Moth in the Flame, shnookums? before we cut to a perspective shot of Negaduck!Darkwing laughing maniacally as he gets closer and closer to the screen.
- Negatron Negaduck from the episode "Negaduck":
- He initially starts off as an Evil Knockoff of Darkwing, created via an accident with Megavolt's device. Whilst the majority of his evil tendencies are Played for Laughs, it's a good reminder that without his heroic qualities, Drake Mallard would be as bad as the villains he fights.
- This is followed up quickly with him getting "galvanised", when he tries to destroy Megavolt's device so he won't be merged back with his good half. During the struggle, he gets zapped with the machine again, transforming him into a supercharged, photonegative version of Darkwing with electricity shooting off of his body and a constant static screeching noise whenever he's on screen. It's no wonder that Megavolt's first reaction is to cower in terror as the new Negaduck delivers a terrifying variation of Darkwing's usual Badass Boast:
- Almost immediately afterwards, he decides that petty crimes are beneath him and that he's going to lay waste to St. Canard for the sheer fun of it, starting by throwing Megavolt through a wall with his powers. He then shows himself to be
*very capable* of carrying that threat out, as the ground cracks wherever he walks, his lightning destroys whatever he passes, and he has enough destructive power to lay waste to entire buildings. This leaves no doubt that the Negatron Negaduck is destruction incarnate - were it not for the galvanised Posiduck's ability to restore things, he could very well have destroyed a lot more than a single city.
- The sheer number of minor villains present in the show who plan to commit city wide or even universal genocide becomes unsettling in contrast to the Disneyesque setting. One villain known as Isis Vanderchill planned to melt all the gold of St. Canard, which she would then use to coat the entire city in order to reflect the sunlight and heat up the entire city, thus giving her the warmth she so longingly desired while killing all the city's residents with heatstroke.
- Another was an insane alien named Wacko who had explosives on him with enough power to destroy the universe if set off and wanted to do so For the Evulz.
## The comic:
- Darkwarrior Duck's reappearance in
*Crisis on Infinite Darkwings* is disturbing in a subtle way. In the episode where he appeared, it was implied that Darkwarrior was nothing more than a Bad Future version of Darkwing himself and that he would cease to exist in favor of the real Darkwing once Gosalyn got home. But he's present here again, which means that that *wasn't* exactly the way it was, and which further means that the horrific alternate St. Canard that Gosalyn encountered still exists.
- The Muddlefoots becoming tentacle creatures when under the influence of Duckthulhu in issue 10. It is
*not* a pretty sight to see such a (mostly) affable family be transformed into something out of H.P. Lovecraft. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarkwingDuck |
DC: The New Frontier / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Everything about the Center. From the way it enters minds and drives people insane, to the hideous mutant abominations it uses as foot soldiers, to its apocalyptic true form.
- There is one moment in the movie perfectly showcasing how twisted those foot soldiers are. Superman KO's a giant, yet seemingly normal pterodactyl with relative ease. In the middle of the final battle, the unconscious pterodactyl's body starts bulging unnaturally, before several other dinosaurs burst out as if the pterodactyl was just a flesh piñata.
- Hal Jordan killing a North Korean Soldier by accident due to a misunderstanding with blood and brain matter splattered on his face. Poor Hal gets PTSD from the event and gets labeled a coward and Communist sympathizer simply for not wanting to kill more people.
- Wonder Woman is considerably Darker and Edgier in the film considering she liberates a group of enslaved women and rape victims who then proceed to take the weapons of their oppressors and slaughtered them all with bodies left behind. She's seen partying with the women and she acts as if nothing is wrong while bodies are littered outside her shack much to Superman's horror.
- On a lesser note, Superman was pretty scary when he showed up to admonish Wonder Woman considering his eyes are glowing red when he bursts through the door. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCTheNewFrontier |
Daisy Brown / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- In Monster tries different Sugar sources for the First Time!!, we get what seems to be Alan's true thoughts about Daisy. Keep in mind, this is only Daisy's ninth video ever, and Alan is still practically a baby.
(This foolish child.)
(Frivolous and vain)
(This world was built for me not her.)
(And I was built for this world.)
(Bitch.)
(Entitled bitch.)
(Stupid. Ignorant. You are the blind one.)
- Full Face Alan Makeup Look! starts out as Daisy's mother, Rose, musing about the what the future holds for her and her unborn child, and suddenly feeling ill, followed by her water breaking.
(I can't wait to meet you.)
(I feel sick. Disgusting.)
(Is it normal to feel this ill?)
(My legs are wet.)
- I made dinner!! seems to be Rose's thoughts as she dies.
(Oh God, I'm dying.)
(It's too much blood... I'm gonna die here.)
...
(Oh Honey, please stop shaking me.)
(That won't make me survive.)
(Oh God, please watch over this newborn.)
- Plant Update!! seems to be Daisy's father talking to himself while creating a monster, occasionally speaking to Daisy and telling her to leave him alone while he's working.
Daisy, if you interrupt me one more time I'll pull your Goddamn hair out.
- Alan's thoughts in ALan update and new year. His growing process and very existence sound incredibly painful.
(Dear Lord I must have screamed myself hoarse.)
(My head is throbbing, my neck burns. Everything hurts.)
...
(God, I'm sore.)
(It's like my whole body is wrapped up in charlie horses.)
(Like a virgin in puberty.)
...
(The muscle must first be torn before it can be reformed.)
- In the otherwise adorable video, Meet Strawberry!!! The captions seem to be talking to US, the audience in a way they never have before, conveying a mysterious message from someone calling themselves, "The Author".
(You all keep asking,)
(Is it real? Is it fake?)
(Well of course it's fake. To you.)
(But I made all this. I couldn't unmake it if I wanted to.)
(Am I crazy? Yes. Definitely.)
- the basement in particular reveals that Curtis, Daisy's father, probably
*killed* a fellow scientist and harvested their body parts to use for his experiments. Even worse, he did it because the victim threatened to contact social services out of concern for baby Daisy's wellbeing.
- were back actually shows that confrontation between Curtis and the other scientist.
(Everyone back at the lab is worried about you.)
(How much have you told them?)
(Just that youre not leaving your house anymore.)
(So they dont know about my work?)
(No they dont. But thats actually what I came here to talk to you about.)
(You want to talk about my work?)
(Im only here because I care about you.)
(What youre doing is wrong, and the fact that you cant see that is disturbing to me.)
(Curtis, please just say something.)
(I find it really funny that you think I care about what you have to say.)
(Jesus Christ, do you hear yourself? Dont you realize youre sick?)
(My goddamn health is none of your business.)
(Well, have you thought about her health?)
(Youre a fucking father now, have you even considered what effect this could have on her?)
(My parenting is none of your business either.)
(You have a baby in the same house as that shit! This is now my fucking business!)
(Well why dont you get the hell out if I disgust you so much?!)
(Ill go, and Im coming back with Child Protective Services.)
(No you wont.) | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DaisyBrown |
DARLING in the FRANXX / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Red Eyes & Red Horns, Take Warning.*
After
*Kill la Kill* and *Ninja Slayer*, Studio TRIGGER seems to have decided to raise the stakes by producing an eerie Homage to *Neon Genesis Evangelion*.
## Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Nightmare Fuel pages. Proceed at your own risk.
General
- Child Soldiers. Who don't even know what a kiss is. Let that sink in for a moment.
- It may be worse than we thought. Zorome asks another Plantation's Franxx squad if any parasites from their squad have grown to adulthood. One member whispers to the leader "he probably doesn't know."
- The klaxosaurs are Eldritch Abominations, and their size and numbers warranted the FRANXX being created, as well as the above Child Soldiers being formed in the first place. They may
**seem** to not have a particularly scary ring to their name, but digging into the etymology reveals that they're made of combining two Greek words to get the meaning of "screaming lizard", and the suffix *-saur* is often used to form names of **dinosaurs**; considering the Dinosaurs Are Dragons trope, this makes "klaxosaur" a very decent English translation of the their Japanese name, kyōryū (叫竜), whose kanji translate to "screaming dragon".
- Also, the titular FRANXX can be seen as case of the Uncanny Valley. Let's just hope the parallels end there...
- The reason the kids are being made to pilot so soon? The previous squad was
*wiped out* entirely. And it almost happens to them in the third episode when a Horde of Alien Locusts gets ready to devour them since the robots they're piloting use weapons made with the same fuel as the klaxosaurs' favorite meal, making them also serve as bait.
- Papa is seen as the figure of good to most of the people, but his actions have shown that he is far from that image and has no problem sacrificing people to reach some unknown goal.
Episode 3
- Zero Two has one memorable moment. After allowing Mitsuru to pilot her, she held back enough to where he could maintain the connection enough to grow cocky. Then, when there was only one enemy left and he tried to proposition her to be her official partner over Hiro, she ignored orders to retreat specifically to go all out just to spite him. The look on Strelizia's blood-splattered face says it all.
Episode 5
- The young pilots learn they'll have to defend the two plantations from over a
*hundred* of klaxosaurs during a magma reserve transfer and that more will likely be coming... and there's only ten FRANXX among them combined.
- The growth on Hiro's body after piloting with Zero Two for a second time. It's a blue mass positioned right over his heart and looks like its spreading, while causing him intense pain. In the impending battle, it spreads, devouring his body until he's on the verge of death.
- When Ichigo slaps the headband off Zero Two and the latter's eyes are revealed to be burning red along with her horns against the black backdrop, outright terrifying Ichigo.
Episode 6
- The episode continues the proud tradition of Zero Two's being a good embodiment of Nightmare Fuel with a blood spattered, red-eyed, fangs bared Zero Two desperately trying to fight back against the Gutenberg class klaxosaur after Hiro fainted. Between her screams and clawing at the inside of the cockpit, you wouldn't be the only one crapping your pants.
Episode 7
- The little discovery of the abandoned modern city and Hiro's comment afterwards seems to imply that the reason humanity moved from normal but thriving cities into Plantations seems to be something far more sinister than just klaxosuars. The beginning of the manga itself explains that the barren wasteland of the planet is not the handiwork of klaxosaurs but rather the humans themselves who got too greedy extracting Magma Energy from the planet, letting everyone know what could have happened for real.
Episode 10
- The beginning of the episode has the Council planning to reward the team as an incentive to send them on an even more dangerous mission.
- The episode provides a insight of the lives for the adults which resides within the city of the plantation. Sufficient to say, humanity has been stripped clean of almost everything that made life worth living for, such as company, dreams, companionship, sensations, genuine joy and the purpose of life itself. It's very unsettling.
Episode 11
- It's revealed that there's a
*pruning* for pilots who can't keep up with the program when Mitsuru suffered a severe medical problem in the middle of a battle.
- And for some pilots there's a surgery they can undergo to improve their piloting abilities. The catch is that it has an
*85%* mortality rate and Mitsuru was younger than 10 when he underwent it.
- The same bedside scene also has Nana commenting on a "children's sickness" having a surprisingly early onset. Combined with an earlier Dark Secret about why Parasites never reach adulthood and children being biohazards, and the implication is Parasites are intentionally infected with an expiration date.
- The episode also has Kokoro activating Genista's stampede mode. The entire process looks absolutely painful.
Episode 12
- The entire episode is one long and painful look at Zero Two slowly becoming more bestial in her desire to kill and taking out her rage on mirrors or anything that shows her being less human than she wants to be. By the end, a manifestation of her desire to be human ends up strangling Hiro in the cockpit as he struggles to keep her from going berserk.
- The confirmation that children who fail to become parasites are killed. And it turns out Hiro had an inkling about this all along. He finally gets the proof to accept this when the team returns to the Garden and Naomi is nowhere to be found.
- Zero Two takes out several guards and has to be tranquilized just to make her go through medical tests. However, such tests are never shown. Just
*what* did she have to go through that made her so aggressively refuse?
Episode 13
- The children start wondering where the others go when they no longer show up. The adults don't tell them anything, and refuse to answer any questions. It's heavily implied they died while getting various injections meant to boost their parasite skills. They just barely tolerate Hiro giving the kids names so as to cheer them up with.
- There is something incredibly chilling about why the yet-to-be-named Ichigo is upset: she can't fit in with the rest of the other children, who have been reduced to Empty Shells from their medical treatments, while she thinks she's "weird" for being able to still feel emotions.
- Zero Two is shown strapped to a bed in a medical station. A targeting circle is shown around the palm of her hand, and a laser immediately fires, tearing a giant hole in her hand. Though it starts closing up right away thanks to her Healing Factor, her scream of pain still suggests that it hurt quite a bit. Hiro later accidentally witnesses her being electrocuted.
- Hiro overhears the guards chasing him and Zero Two that if he resists, they are free to kill him, as Zero Two is the only one they want back. When they eventually catch up to them, one of the guards hits Hiro so hard with the butt of his weapon that Hiro gets knocked out, and starts bleeding from his head. He's also subjected to some memory blocking as punishment, hence why he says he couldn't remember the promise he made with Mitsuru.
Episode 14
- Throughout the episode, we see Zero Two's patience slowly erode as she becomes more and more desperate to see Hiro until they agree and take her to the hospital, only to see that he's already gone. Zero Two, believing they tricked her, finally cuts loose and by the time Hiro arrives he sees his teammates unconscious on the ground while she's holding Ichigo up by the neck and calling humans weak.
- The Nines' re-appearance to welcome Zero Two back into their fold, complete with a dozen of male partners for her to devour and toss away... Given what you've known so far, inhumane doesn't even begin to describe what APE is doing.
Episode 15
- Carrying on from the last episode, we were told that dozens of male partners were rounded up to be used by Zero Two for the coming mission... but it's offhandedly mentioned at the start of the episode that Zero Two has
*already* killed off all of her stamen before the mission, devouring them en mass. It's given a little more than a passing mention by the council and Papa, with Dr. Franxx more disgruntled than horrified.
- When we get a glimpse of Zero Two piloting Strelizia in Stampede Mode, all we can make out is her glowing red eyes and growling, bestial noises. When we finally get into the cockpit, Zero Two's horns, which shrink when she feels and acts more human, have grown out of control, blooming into massive antlers that seem to have pierced the roof of the cabin and rooted her in place. She's gone completely feral.
- Some of the sentences that appear on the screen are broken, pleading calls for help. She begs for someone to get her out of Strelizia, and the words are haphazardly strung together and written in a basic form, like she's slowly losing what's left of her humanity. Hadn't Hiro arrived, it's possible that Zero Two would have been absorbed into Strelizia and become a monster for good.
- The leader of the Plantation 26 squad is told to execute protocol 32. The look on his face and his hesitation already show what this entails, but he is told "it is an honor" and goes through with it. The concept of just being commanded to die after years of training for a single purpose is chilling.
- Early on, video shows the klaxosaurs devouring a defeated plantation. That is the first time we have seen a plantation destroyed. Later, the klaxosaurs destroy plantations while the battle is going. Worse, the council sacrifices a plantation to use as a bomb against the Super Lehmann-class klaxosaur, with no hesitation. Worst of all, the plantation the main characters live on is wiped out - literally - at the end of the battle, by a giant hand from the underworld. This is a gigantic massacre.
- Then episode 16 reveals that APE let it happen. What kind of a plan justifies the destruction of
*all* civilian quarters?
Episode 17
- The confrontation with Klakosaur Princess. It's not her appearance that is scary, no. She killed one of APE officer and whacked his mask off, showing
*nothing* of his face beneath it. What the *hell* is wrong with APE?
- The scene where Lemur is begging and the snake klaxosaurs attacking can be unsettling.
Episode 18
- Zero Two's nightmare marks her as a full-blown Shell-Shocked Veteran. She sees the Stamens she killed in the past emerging from the floor of her room, bloodied and mindlessly reaching for her. She can't even fight back once they grab her and pin her to the floor because the giant Klaxosaur hand from Episode 15 emerges from the ground and squashes her. No wonder she buries herself in Hiro's arms when he snaps her out of it.
- She starts hallucinating after she hears some kind of call, which reinforces the speculation that she's connected telepathically to the Klaxosaurs. And she's probably keeping it from Hiro to avoid reminding him of her alien blood.
- All that happened to Nana and her former partner. Seeing her so cheerful on moment and then cutting to her FRANXX completely destroyed is already bad enough. Then we get to see her leaning over her partner, who's covered in blood and later she gets taken away by APE soldiers to have her mind wiped and her emotions erased. Hachi can only look on helplessly.
- Papa's rule is absolute, which Kokoro and Mitsuru learn the hard way when their makeshift wedding is crashed by Nine Alpha, the two are captured, and then have their memories wiped of eachother. Whatever APE is up to, it clearly devalues the actual relationships of natural humans and crushes it underfoot for the sake of effective and sacrificial pawns.
- It's worth mentioned that Hachi most likely watched Mitsuru & Kokoro "going at it" in previous episode. Although Hachi appears to have no emotion, this still count as underage voyeurism.
Episode 19
- Papa accepting Hiro's ultimatum regarding squad 13´s freedom and making their next mission their last. Considering what Papa's definition of "freedom" is, his stoic eagerness in response to Hiro's demands is vocally
*bone-chilling* to say the least.
- Seeing the Klaxosaur Princess rip off a younger Dr. Franxxs arm in lurid detail is bad enough, but the good doctors reaction to it is even more disturbing. Hes
*ecstatic*, even while writhing in clear agony in a pool of his own blood.
Episode 20
- Zorome and Miku's realization that the humanoid shape they saw falling out of a shattered klaxosaur core in episode 15 was
*a sapient being*. They weren't slaying monsters, they were *killing people*.
- The sheer realization that humanity was thoroughly suckered by APE. All that dystopian, 1984-style stuff and the destruction of the pre-Plantation civilization?
*VIRM did all of that to have a rematch with the klaxosaurs from their first defeat and are fully prepared to blow up the Earth out of pure spite if they lose.* Even the *rest of APE* are shocked at the sheer level of *pettiness* shown by Papa and VIRM for going that far.
- Possibly more horrifying is the implication that with the klaxosaurs having gone underground to prepare for the second war, to them humanity basically are no different than mold which grew on the walls of a house that's been left unattended for a while, mold that would have died off on its own if APE hadn't intervened first.
Episode 21
- Aside from Squad 13, all the other Parasites on the battlefield have no clue what to do. They can only desperately call for Papa's help, not knowing they're being slaughtered by the species of their protectors.
- Delta and Epsilon's deaths at the hands of VIRM. It's gruesome and terrifying, straight up looking like something out of
*The End of Evangelion* or *The Walking Dead*. And it just cements how high the stakes have become. **Epsilon**: **HELP ME! EYAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!** *(The VIRM tears apart Delta and Epsilon's FRANXX, with one of them crushing its head, killing them.)*
- 001 and Hiro are getting their life slowly sucked out of them. The Klaxosaur Princess gives up resisting after a while, but Hiro holds on at the cost of worse pain. By the time Zero Two reaches him, he's unconcious and has lost a lot of blood.
Episode 22
- Not only has Zero Two been reduced to an Empty Shell, her soul has fused with Strelizia Apus, which is currently in space fighting VIRM. You know how damaging a Franxx causes the feel to be carried over to the Pistil? Here,
*massive gashes open on Zero Two's skin where Apus is struck*, meaning she could die at any moment without being able to do anything about it.
- The Nines, more specifically how sickly they look. Their veins are bulging under their skin, they look like they haven't slept in days and their skin is a ghostly pale. They look more like corpses than anything else.
- The reamining Parasites are left stranded on a dying planet while an alien conflict carries on around them. There's shortage of food, the injuried are countless, people collapse of exhaustion on a daily basis, and they can only hope to find a way to survive.
- Imagine being told out of nowhere that you're expecting a baby, without having any idea of what that means or what you're supposed to do with it. Welcome to Kokoro's life.
- The level of indoctrination that the adult staff have gone under is disturbing in its own right. When Goro goes to the new Nana to ask for supplies, power, etc, she responds that she can't give it to them - because Papa hasn't given the approval. Keep in mind that this is
*after* the revelation that APE and Papa were agents of VIRM. She's so set and trained in her ways that even that wasn't enough to shake her out of single-minded obedience to "Papa." | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DarlingInTheFranxx |
DC vs. Vampires / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The general sense of unease and paranoia that permeates the series, due to not knowing who is already converted and who's not.
Some of the deaths can get pretty brutal, like Zan of the Wonder Twins getting blended in a Green Lantern construct, Superboy being split in half (vertically) by two of his turned friends or Anton Arcane having his spine ripped off.
Special mention of Flash's demise: Hal gets him to put his guard down and, under the pretense of having a normal conversation with his friend, has him sit in a Green Lantern construct that he later uses to immobilize him. Barry is unable to phase through the construct and unsuccesfully tries to plead with his friend, but in the end he can only watch in horror as Hal breaks his neck.
Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel's confrontation is one of the more heartwrenching and terrifying moment in the series, due to how it's build up:
Throughout the story, we discover that Mary and Billy's Shazam forms are separate from their human bodies, which means turning one doesn't necessarily mean turning the other.
They fight and Captain Marvel tells Mary to finish her journey and become a vampire in both forms so they can be a family again. She's having none of it. Meanwhile, Booster Gold asks himself if the siblings scould truly hurt each other.
Booster Gold: She could be okay, right? Even now, he wouldn't... She's his sister. She's his siter.
Captain Marvel was vampirized in his superpowered form, while Mary Broomfield was turned in her human one. While she uses her Mary Marvel form to sidestep the infection, during their fight Mary has no other option other than saying Shazam! which turns them both into their "normal" forms.
The thirst takes over her and she bites him. When she goes back to the group, she's got blood over her mouth and asks them to kill her as she admits she doesn't know much longer will she be able to fight the thirst. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCVsVampires |
DC Universe Animated Original Movies / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
This is not your parents' Aquaman.As a Darker and Edgier DC series aimed for older comic fans, going so far to have some of them even rated R, these movies have its fair share of horrors.Animated Films<!—index—> Superman: Doomsday Justice League: The New Frontier Green Lantern: First Flight Batman: Under the Red Hood DC Showcase Batman: Death in the Family Justice League: Doom Superman vs. the Elite Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Batman: The Killing Joke Justice League Dark Batman vs. Two-Face Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay The Death of Superman Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Justice League Dark: Apokolips War<!—/index—> | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCUniverseAnimatedOriginalMovies |
Dead Ahead Zombie Warfare / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
As much as the pixel artstyle and the subtle humor might mitigate this,
*Zombie Warfare* is still a game taking place After the End, with an unknown plague having wiped out most of humanity. So, scary moments are to be expected.
- The Paramedic's design. His entire lower jaw is missing, his head barely holding on to a few strings of bloody flesh still attached to the neck. No wonder they cause the Fear debuff on units on sight...
- It may be a gameplay feature, but some Units, and even one enemy, change
*immediately* after they die. This means, the infection is almost on par with World War Z's levels of infection rate, seeing how quickly it takes for the dead to change.
- The animations or outcomes of some of the units dying or turning can be considered disturbing due to the Body Horror that happens for some of them. Like Abbys, Lionhearts, and even Dr. Normans.
- Special mention goes to Choppers turning animation into Ram, as Ram has a lot of body deformations, and every transformation of his body is clearly animated in detail right in front of the players eyes. Which, comparatively, is something that happens to no other unit when they die. His stomach and arms become bloated and have visible veins inside, a bubble forms and immediately pops on his head, leaving behind a large chunk on the back of his head gone, and the area around his neck becomes swollen and forms sacks.
- Paramedic Nancy turning into EMT could be considered just as horrible, but for the opposite reasons. The animation of her trying to save herself with her own defibrillators is tragic and sad enough, but then theres what she turns into. EMT only exists for Nancy to die and turn into, they never appears outside of her death. So they were allowed to design EMT around Nancy. Unlike a majority of other units dying and turning into another vanilla or generic looking zombie with the same design as the others, EMT still looks exactly like Nancy. Theyre just a little charred from the lightning, and look completely dead and mindless on the inside.
- Putrid and Crank, the Beef Gates for Location 7 and 8. Putrid is an amalgamation of several zombies into a mountain of flesh with two heads, too many limbs, and many bulges of flesh. While Crank is a single zombie horribly mutated into their own pile of flesh. They have lots of blisters, 3 eyes, a large mouth, and using it's giant, long claw to pull themselves around, is surprisingly fast despite looking like it can't move at all.
- Warthog, a late game enemy that appears in Location 7. It's a corrupted zombie that's turning into an Egg, completely covered in yellow blisters with blue skin and eyes underneath. and a main part of the egg is bulging up the zombie's body, forcing their head backwards and looking up.
- The Cephalopods, the final boss of the game. A giant, alien looking device, with blue energy spilling out from cracks. The background heavily implies that whatever it is, it crashed right into the mission's prison, demolishing entire sections of it, as well as being the source of Stage 8's and 7's Demonic Spiders. And if you look closely, there's a skull like growth inside the mass of blue energy. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadAheadZombieWarfare |
Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- What happens to the students when they're impaled by the Fog of Doom. They shriek out in terror, their eyes mist over with fog, they claw at themselves and have horrific visions so painful that some of them are convinced that they're dying.
- Jessica's power allows her to command people with her voice, inspired by The Purple Man. It's not long before she performs the same sort of horrific act that he's known for, forcing a group of students to nearly rape each other. Even if it was in the heat of the moment, the other characters are understandably horrified at her capabilities.
- Benjy's power transforms him into a giant, horrific bug monster that can Hulk Out and lose control of its inhibitions. When the students come across Benjy after the empowerment, it's in an dark Abandoned Warehouse, where dozens of men (their faces frozen in terror) have been killed and cocooned in a style reminiscent of a horror movie. When Benjy himself appears, he's three times taller than the kids and oozing liquid from his razor sharp teeth as he lurks towards them.
- One of the flashforwards shows the kids being kidnapped and tortured by the Dark Dragon. Zia begs her guard to help her escape, trying to appeal to his humanity, only for him to calmly describe to her the many ways he's dreamed of killing her. The worst of their torture is shown through Hyeon, who tries to escape and gets his legs broken in response. They then put a shock collar on him, so they can electrocute him if he tries to use his powers again.
- When Simon uses his plasma power to explode the nurse's office,
*with* the nurse still inside. She awakens to the agony of burns all over her body and can't stop screaming from the pain. Edward comes across the scene and almost immediately throws up from the smell of burnt flesh.
- The drifter's transformation into a monster. His skin boils and melts off his body, revealing scales underneath. His legs twist into unnatural angles as they become more reptilian. His head contorts and then suddenly explodes, revealing bulging eyes and razor-sharp teeth underneath. What's left is a bloodthirsty beast that promptly tries to eat two elementary school kids alive. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues |
Daughters of the Moon / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The situation Tianna finds herself in during
*The Lost One*, as it begins with her as an amnesiac who quickly learns that there's a pair of followers trying to hunt down and kill her.
- Vanessa's fate if she had actually agreed to stay with ||Hector|| would be permanently fusing their combined molecules into a single cloud form and being stuck traveling through the vastness of outer space forever. And she would have gone through with it if she hadn't realized she still had the purified ashes with her...
- There's a lot in
*Possession*:
- Serena's whole situation involving a vengeful spirit trying to take over her body. During the times when Aura's hold on her is strong, she finds herself making advances towards her friends' boyfriends and understanding that this is a terrible thing to do, but can't stop herself because Aura wants them. It's kind of an interesting play on the captive date scenario.
- She also has memory lapses where she blacks out and then wakes up with no idea what has just occured. During one, she blacks out in the kitchen and then wakes up having sliced open the tip of her finger and written a threatening message for herself in her own blood.
- Jerome's complete inability to take Serena's "No" for an answer and the fact that he lies about how far he's gone with the girls he's dated definitely paints him as a sexual predator.
- The case of Ann Anderson, Aura's previous victim. She was a promising young starlet who began to claim that someone was stealing her body, which eventually led to her parents hospitalizing her. During this time, Aura took over her body fully and was discharged while the original Ann was left trapped in Aura's last body, that of an invalid eighty year old.
- During one of Serena's memory lapses, she wakes up in the middle of the night
*walking around a dangerous part of Los Angeles in a skimpy outfit*.
- ||Mary's|| true appearance.
- As mentioned on the YMMV page, the Atrox's plan with ||Tianna||, had it gone off without a hitch. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DaughtersOfTheMoon |
Dead Island: Riptide / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
## Other Dead Island Games:
## Dead Island Riptide
- In the ending, the survivors who decide to stay and wait for rescue on Palanai were last seen getting overrun by the zombies. After the heroes and the other survivors escape the island on a boat, the boat was last seen six days later drifting towards another island with no one on deck. And as the camera zooms towards the cabin's door, a growl can be heard and the door knob turns from the inside but it cuts to black and "The End" pops up before it reveals the fate of everyone but it's implied that the five immune heroes turned into zombies and killed the other survivors.
- The grenadiers, dear god the grenadiers. These new infected that
** RIP OFF THEIR OWN GODDAMN TUMOROUS SKIN AND THROW IT AT YOU!**
- The trailer pulls this off with the image of a couple who become shipwrecked, zombies are closing in and their only choice is to kill themselves before they become infected.
- No need to play the game for a dose of Nightmare Fuel. The
*Zombie Bait* edition included a little something...if you needed something to stop you from sleeping this should do the job nicely.◊
- The cover is bad enough but this is one that earns it's R rating, even the screen of it on the XBOX dashboard is disturbing. Seeing it in full booting up the Definitive Edition should only be done were you planning on not sleeping...ever.
-
*Modern Warfare* was cited as being disturbingly close to a American invasion to hit home for those in the United States. Well despite it's fictional setting Palanai resembles Australia, particularly up in Queensland, which can add a dose of Paranoia Fuel.
- The new Dead Zones are something like the abandoned houses in the first game, except the exterior and interior take the form of either a Vietnamese concentration camp with lynched bodies strung up or voodoo caves (as well as shrines dotted about the island) that would give Baron Samedi the heebee jeebies. Once you're done in them you'd be well forgiven for wanting to GTFO.
- John Morgan's personal recordings where he recalls air support bombing villages in lieu of the outbreak, the chain of command going to hell, a zombie woman
and his superior's answer to what to do about the infected if the orders need to be spelled out for him. **eating her own child**
- As the game progresses your character becomes more and more of a Blood Knight. Well when some criminals try to kill and rob them they completely and utterly lose their shit, flying into an Unstoppable Rage. The Infected, who are permanently locked in this mode? That's who you're playing as. When your character snaps out of it they are freaked, it turns out the Fury mode is just that, a combination of ice, psychosis, and roid rage, and they're scared it'll happen again. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadIslandRiptide |
Deadliest Catch / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- At the end of the fourth episode of Season 2, the
*Aleutian Ballad* takes a sixty foot rogue wave in the middle of a storm. It was a hard enough hit to knock the boat onto its side. The camera captured it all when the wave hits, knocking the camera loose, making interference. Then the camera pauses, the power goes out on the boat, while the camera lays there, the power flickers, and the viewer can hear numerous fishermen calling to each other constantly saying 'hello!' and 'are you okay!?'...and all the while it's during the end credits. It was a lot like something out of *The Blair Witch Project* or *[REC]*. Scary stuff.
- Even worse was the wave the
*Wizard* took in Season 5, especially considering most of the crew was severely injured. Captain Keith is seriously lucky he did not lose any of his crew, especially his brother, who was hurt the worst.
- Seeing Phil with a giant "divot" in his head where his skull was removed and his brains (or something) bulging out against the skin is squicky enough, and then you realize that despite the successful surgery and his chipper attitude, it ultimately didn't save him....
- Season 8 king crab season: Greenhorn Chris on the
*Wizard* suddenly going into convulsions on the floor inside the crab boat. It's strongly suggested that he's going into shock. He eventually has to be medivac'd out. ||Thankfully, he survived, as revealed on *After the Catch*.||
- ||To some people with medical training, Chris's condition might seem to be a simple case of hyperventilation. However, he had complained of numbness and tingling in his arm before the convulsions started...which indicates that it could have been a heart attack. In fact, Chris himself said on "After the Catch" that he came damn close to having one during this whole ordeal. Pretty shocking, considering he's only 20-years-old, but not unheard of. In any case, Chris revealed during that "After the Catch" that what happened was a "total body shutdown."||
- Season 8 opilio season had several:
- The
*Time Bandit* was listing badly while trying to pull into dock, and nearly tipped over. Had they been listing much farther, the ship would likely have collided with the dock and sank.
- The
*Wizard*'s pots, having been incompetently tied by Lynn, swaying and clanking ominously in the waves and looking about ready to crush the unfortunate soul walking by them at the wrong time.
- The
*Wizard* had a blackout in the middle of an ice floe, leaving them a sitting duck until they were able to fire up the backup generator.
- The
*Wizard* trying to get out of a harbor that's choked with ice a (apparently the result of *a freak tsunami*) when their engine overheats and giant waves are pushing them towards shore where the hulk of a wrecked ship sits as a warning. Keith, who put his brother in charge while he went home to rest, was *very* upset his brother didn't tell him about this immediately.
- The
*Northwestern* had an undetected slack tank (a tank partially filled with water) that compromised the stability of the vessel. They only avoided sinking because Edgar's intuition told him to look in the tank (which was about to be covered in pots). Eerily, this is what sank the *Foremost*, the *Northwestern's* predecessor captained by the Hansens' father.
- During the June 26, 2012
*After the Catch* episode, Keith Coburn revealed that the 2012 opilio season was *literally* Nightmare Fuel for him — he had post-traumatic nightmares for *three weeks* after he got home from it.
- Mike Vandervelt on the
*Kodiak* had the tip of his ring finger cut off when his hand got caught between the launcher and a pot after he slipped clearing ice off deck.
- The crewman on the processor "Alaska Junis" who got hit by a snapped cable in the head — to wit, that was almost a carbon copy of the hit Nick Mavar on the
*Northwestern* took to the nose a season ago. That guy wasn't lucky enough.
- Johnathan Hilstrand and the Time Bandit's crew at the start of Opies 2015, are dealing with a new hire, a salted veteran of the fishing grounds, keeps causing strife on board
note : Arguing with how the crew does things, making false accusations that some of the younger Hilstrands on deck are complacent due to the ship being part of their family, and generally wasting people's time with his antics.. After slapping a greenhorn in the face unprovoked, and causing more strife on deck, Johnathan gives him a dressing down. The guy decides to retaliate by making threats *on camera* about sabotaging the boat, such as throwing out of season crab into the tank to make the boat suffer a huge fine, to removing parts from the engines or causing an engine failure, generic "tear up this ship" threats, and even towards Captain Johnathan. It's bad enough that it forces the Time Bandit back to St. Paul harbor, and police are called keep an eye on things, if the now fired deckhand started getting violent as he's getting kicked off. The crew was clearly creeped out by the guy, whose clearly not all there in the head happily telling people he's going to sabotage their boat in the middle of the dangerous Bearing Sea, wondering how serious he was.
- In Season 12, Sig suffered a heart attack while heading out to sea and had to be medevaced to Anchorage. After some tests, his doctor tells him that he suffered a "widowmaker": a heart attack so severe that it could have killed him. As Sig is looking for some good news, the doctor cuts him off and says that the damage is permanent and that he will be seeing a cardiologist for the rest of his life. What makes it seem worse is just how matter-of-fact, almost cheerful, the doctor is in telling Sig just how bad everything is.
- Further more, viewers (and probably his family and friends) have to wonder what may have happened had he been stricken when farther out in sea.
- Three years later, he had a similar heart attack before the King Crab season. (One of his arteries, according to Sig, was completely blocked off.) He was barely given a clean bill of health before he started fishing. Image the crew of the Northwestern, including the captain's daughter, starting a brutal, stressful season knowing that Sig was—once again—close to death. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadliestCatch |
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Koba.
*Dear lord*, he's just one of the many examples of being a walking Nightmare Fuel.
- Murdering Ash in front of Blue Eyes.
- Koba killing Carver. As the man is alone in the truck, Koba's demonic face just comes right out of the darkness. Carver barely has time to comprehend before Koba rips him out of the truck and beats him to death.. . just barely out of frame.
- His nightmarish Slasher Smile upon killing two innocent guards...and after he shoots the first one, he leaves the other alive
*just long enough* to realize that the supposedly stupid ape had been tricking them all along, *then* shoots him. It's with that you *know* he's gone off the deep end. He didn't just kill them, he *enjoyed* it.
- Koba shooting
*Caesar*. His cold facial expression during the whole scene definitely sets the mood. He merely considers his former friend and leader a mere obstacle to eliminate.
- Koba's violent rampage during the attack on San Francisco when he's firing
*two* machine guns while on horseback, laughing and roaring like a maniac. Even the other apes are terrified of the sight.
- The page image shows Koba on horseback running through the flames in slow motion. The horrifying smile on his face is outright
*demonic*.
- Kobas backstory in the Firestorm prequel novel, doubles as a Tear Jerker. He lives with his mom and a few humans in a primate research facility, but his mom dies from abuse and the project funding is cut. Koba is then sent to a Jerkass TV producer named Tommy, who regularly beats and electrocutes him and another chimp, Milo. Tommy is responsible for Kobas facial scar, which he inflicts with a knife, and when that fails to blind Kobas eye, Tommy finishes the job by
*sticking a lit cigarette into it*. Koba also sees Milo bite an unruly child and then get his jaw wired shut. Tommy commits suicide with a pistol (perhaps out of despair, shame or both), and the two apes attempt to escape, but Koba is recaptured and sent to several laboratories, where he is subjected to all kinds of painful experiments; countless vivisections, multiple injections, including one which instantly causes him to vomit *while he is muzzled*, having long needles stuck into his stomach *without anesthetic*, and having his eyes sprayed with a substance that hurts worse than *tear gas*. Is it any wonder he hates humans so much?
- Speaking of the Firestorm novel, the collapse of human civilization, something what we saw only briefly in the prologue, is given more attention in that novel. Highlights include:
-
*Many* various civil wars breaking out across the whole planet (Serbians vs Croatians and North vs South Kivu for example).
- Indonesia placing a hard quarantine after getting fewer cases than other countries.
- China violently suppressing the riots of ethnical minorities.
- Muslims being beaten to death in Tennessee and Christians being burned alive in Egypt.
- A nuclear power plant undergoes a meltdown in Belarus due to lack of staff.
- The Ganges river is set ablaze due to a chemical spill and many people, seeing this as a sign, immolate themselves in its waters.
- Blaming the apes for the Simian Flu, people across the planet start breaking into zoos and brutally killing not just apes, but other simian animals like tarsiers and sloths.
- But the worst of all is the rise of many anarchist groups across the world. Alpha-Omega in particular attacks a lot of public buildings, including a hospital in San-Francisco and a quarantine zone in Alameda Point. Their reason for commiting such atrocities? They believe themselves to be immune to the disease and thus happily help to wipe out those deemed unworthy to rule the world. Except one of its leaders, who's been put behind the glass, finds out the hard way that he himself is not safe from the Simian Flu when Dreyfus points out that no one comes in the military zone without screening, resulting in a man having a Villainous Breakdown.
- And the main antagonist human faction in the next movie bears the same name.
- Dreyfus pulling a Taking You with Me. What makes this moment particularly chilling is that he didn't do it out of malice, but out of his misplaced belief that he's protecting humanity. There are humans with him that do
*not* want to be blown up, but he genuinely does not even seem to notice them or remember they are even there.
- Angry apes with guns, Koba in particular.
- What with their fur, scars and white paint, it's hard not to see the ape army as Uruk-hai.
- In the eyes of Caesar and Blue Eyes, seeing a human with an extreme dislike towards their kind attacking Cornelius (Caesar's second son and Blue Eyes's brother), a loved one being attacked by said person.
- The scene where Malcolm is trying to get the surgical kit, only to be trapped in the house as it quickly turns into a scene from war-torn Iraq or the Gestapo raiding the ghettoes in 1940s Germany.
- Though well deserved, Koba's death. His scream as he falls and plummets is just nerve-wracking, as is the fact that he doesn't just fall but crashes into several things that cause bodily damage along the way.
- The battle between the apes and humans is horrifying. Brave and strong apes are cut down by the hundred, because the one who leads them has no place directing war. They only win because they have more bodies to throw at the enemy. Koba deserves the comparison with his namesake.
- You can see blood stains on the windows of the bus that the apes that disagree with Koba's views are left prisoner in.
- It was rather unfortunate that the film just so happened to have been released at the time of the worst ebola outbreak in history, since simian flu causes similar symptoms.
- On a philosophical level, there is the deeply disturbing concept that sentience and sapience may be more of a curse than a blessing, that the creatures achieving it are universally doomed to commit the same mistakes, and that violence is inevitably the endgame.
- Defusing this somewhat is that chimps are notorious for being among the most aggressive apes in existence. If bonobos, who are notorious for a far different reason, were the ones to be uplifted, that issue may not exist. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DawnOfThePlanetOfTheApes |
Dawn of the Dead (2004) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The opening credits alone are incredibly chilling. After Ana crashes her car, we cut to scenes of societal collapse and the chaos that reigns as the undead overrun cities within the span of only a day. The black background of the credits sequence with the red, animated, bleeding text that sweeps across desolate pitch dark canvas is probably more spine tingling than most of the gorn that ensues throughout the rest of the film. All this playing to Johnny Cash's grim rendition of his already solemnly apocalyptic "The Man Comes Around".
- It's worse when you find out that most of the scenes of society coming unglued are actually archival news footage. Yes, including the out of control dump truck.
- Add that the final part of the opening credits shows zombies attacking a news crew before intersplicing with static and black screens and the ending with the
*chilling* final line of Cash's song, taken directly from the Book of Revelation:
*And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts*
*And I looked, and behold a pale horse*
*And his name that sat on him was * **death**, and **hell followed with him** | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DawnOfTheDead2004 |
Deadly Class / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- The various tortures devised by the cartel and the Yakuza are all nightmarish.
- Petra's betrayal and murder of Billy, and her completely calm reaction to watching him die in agony.
"Die for me, Billy."Mirror People
Saudade
- The sudden arrival of the Yakuza assassins. One minute, the kids are ramping up for a stupid stunt. The next moment, Jaden's hand gets cut off and Petra and Viktor get stabbed.
- Petra's horrifying origin is revealed: Originally a devout Christian girl, her parents suddenly fell under the sway of a Satanic cult, and when her father took over the cult, he murdered her mother, tore out her eyes, and
*forced Petra to look at them.*
Stigmata Martyr
- Marcus has to fight an enraged Chico while he's stoned out of his skull. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
The Clampdown
- Maria goes off her meds, swinging between hypersexuality, severe depression, and murderous paranoia, eventually reaching the point where she becomes convinced that Marcus is cheating on her and tries to kill him.
Kids of the Black Hole
- Cooped up in their dorm rooms with several bad influences, Maria and Saya each become convinced that the other is trying to kill them.
- Master Lin interrogates Marcus by coldly beating him across the face with his cane. Repeatedly. He also lays out just how fucked Marcus will be if he doesn't reveal who killed Yukio - he will be kicked out of Kings Dominion, thrown back into the street, and lose the family he has created for himself.
Sink With California
- Madame Gao sends Diablo after Master Lin's wife and daughter. Lin and Shu put up a hell of a fight, but Diablo's got several men, and Shu ends up with her brains splattered on the wall.
- Lin and his daughter are reduced to desperately holding their breaths in the hope that the cartel hitmen won't find them.
- Chester's entire family is terrifying. Highlights include Sue Ann, a screaming lunatic who is so high on PCP that she's virtually immune to pain, and the gigantic minion whose sheer size enables him to shrug off most attacks and who goes on a rant about being a god. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadlyClass |
DC Comics / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
<!—index—> All-Star Superman Arrowverse The DCU<!—/index—> | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCComics |
Dawn of the Dead (1978) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
One that applies to real life: Peter is absolutely correct, even if his demonstration goes too far, that aiming a gun at a person, even if you are trying to help them, is extremely dangerous. He aims his rifle right at Stephen to give him a taste. **Peter**: Scary isn't it...? Isn't it? | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DawnOfTheDead1978 |
Deadly Creatures / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- From the point of view from the animals, the Humans are really strangely presented, with foreboding giant footsteps, and points of view from safe hiding spots.
- Mainly for arachnophobes, and other people uncomfortable with insects and smaller animals.
- One of the first things that happens is the Scorpion plodding along, then suddenly the Tarantula jumps out of nowhere.
- The first major encounter has two beetles fighting each other, when all of a sudden one of them
*launches the other into a cactus spike, instantly killing it by impaling it through the abdomen*.
- A common sight when progressing through a spider's nest is to see insects and other prey cocooned in webbing and hanging from the ceiling. This in itself is horribly creepy, but it's upped tenfold when some of those cocoons start wiggling around at random intervals, indicating that a lot of the prey encased inside are
*still alive*.
- The game uses abandoned human artifacts encountered from a bug's-eye view to great effect. Standouts include exploring a dollhouse full of black widow spiders, an abandoned cellphone bathing a spot of desert in an eerie artificial blue, and encountering a severed doll's head that is bigger than the character you're playing as. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadlyCreatures |
DC Rebirth / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Wouldn't be DC Comics without a nice healthy dose of Nightmares, eh? Let's count some of the best:
In the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad comics, we find out all about Eclipso and how dangerous he is. Especially in ''Justice League #15, where we see it almost like zombie plague.
Apokalips adorned with the Superman S-shield.
Maxwell Lord captures the Eclipso Diamond in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. A seriously disturbed Amanda Waller tries to talk some sense into Lord, recounting how dangerous the diamond is and the atrocities it's responsible for. For a brief instant, Lord fondly talks about one such massacre... then snaps out of it and resumes talking to Amanda, who realizes Lord's starting to lose it and that she's Alone with the Psycho.
The effects of the diamond turn everyone they touch into literally the worst version of themselves they could ever be. Even Superman is twisted by the thing's power into a monster better suited to the Injustice world.
Lord as Eclipso uses his powers to corrupt and enslave Wonder Woman as a lover, which knowing their comic history, just oozes with Nausea Fuel.
The new version of Lady Shiva in Detective Comics, who is even more terrifying than usual, in one scene showing Black Eyes of Evil and threatening to torture a regiment of Colony soldiers to death in a horrific fashion, offering them only a quick death if they give her what she wants.
League of Shadows as a whole - an organization designed to be a gigantic Paranoia Fuel, that managed to sneak into Gotham without Batman even having any proof they exist.
In Batman Bane is back to being portrayed as imposing, ruthless and terrifyingly competent and quickly shows how much danger to people around Bruce someone like that knowing his secret identity is.
Superman #21 is creepy from beginning to end, including a giant squid, ink men, demonic possession and a creepy girl with superpowers.
The aesthetics surrounding Manchester Black's hideout are really creepy as well, with weird, organic-like technology that even gives some Alien vibes. And then the jackass himself forces Jon to see how his father cauterizes his mother's leg stump. All wanting to create a Superman who will do what Superman won't.
Jon turned into Superboy Black is all kinds of creepy.
PARALLAX IS BACK. AND HE'S POSSESSED SUPERMAN.
DC Rebirth introduced a new multiverse set in the DC Comics: The Dark Multiverse. It's essentially an Evil Counterpart of the main DC multiverse that most comics have taken place, where worlds are made out of the fears and bad decisions that people make there, and when people from the main multiverse overcomes their fears, those worlds in the Dark Multiverse ultimately rot apart into oblivion. That said, seven evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse escaped from their inevitable fates from the Dark Multiverse and try to take over the multiverse as servants of Barbatos himself, with some of them trying to save their own worlds in the process.
You know what's possibly the worst kicker that the DC Rebirth has to offer? There is a possibility that the whole DC multiverse is shaped and rewritten by some being treating the prime DC Universe like a petri-dish, with several characters mentioning from that they're being "watched", to outright fearing about facing the "being" themselves (with in one case Reverse-Flash coming to said being for the sake of power until he sees it in person, or another when Mr. Mxyzptlk stating that even with his Reality Warper powers, he would not dare to face 'Him' in person). Hell, it is even indirectly mentioned all the way back since the end of Flashpoint. That's right, at somehow and somepoint, Doctor Manhattan has arrived to the DC Universe and has managed to rewrite and retcon several characters in AND out of existence, along with tampering the overall history of the DC Universe itself. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCRebirth |
Days of Wine and Roses / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Kirsten's father decides to get his daughter to the shower after a drunk night to appease her. What makes this scene terrifying is Kirsten's point of view. She starts to scream as soon as her father showers her and the camera shows from her POV how hellish this is to her. The music helps too. It's as horrifying as another classic shower scene.
- What follows is another disturbing and heartbreaking moment. Joe is desperately struggling in an asylum cell until some personnel come in to sting him. Joe grunts and struggles in horror while he attempts to avoid being stinged.
- The owner of the liquor shop mocking and spilling alcohol over Joe after his attempt to steal a bottle. Like with Kirsten's shower scene, it's seen from Joe's point of view in a very surreal and blurry way as the owner cruelly laughs at him. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DaysOfWineAndRoses |
Deadman Wonderland / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Just the whole concept of it. It's like
*Oz* meets *Elfen Lied* meets more insanity.
- The Slave Collar that a prisoner has to wear is nightmare inducing for a reason. It produces a constant flow of poison that injects into their body on a daily basis, which is lethal if enough is accumulated in three days. The only way to get rid of the poison is eating special candies that contain an antidote. Keep in mind that even after taking it, the collar is
*still* injecting poison into an inmate, meaning that they either have to take one candy within the three day period or take the death, which overall makes sense if you are a death row inmate. Ganta witnesses firsthand an inmate dying from the poison after desperatly demanding candy.
- Episode 1: Exactly
*three* minutes into the first episode you get to see a classroom of middle school kids mutilated into shredded corpses covered in glass, concrete, and their own dismembered bones and blood. And *then* you see ||Mimi's|| bloodsoaked head clutched in the Red Man's hand like a trophy... with the most horrified look on her face. What does that imply? *She saw the whole thing and begged not to be killed.* But the Red Man found it more pleasing to his sick gullet to just put her out of her misery.
- And then comes the trial. Not only is Ganta a helpless little kid under the mercy of an iron-fisted court, he has
*nobody* with any moral fiber to defend him. On top of that, he's seamlessly impersonated *and* incriminated with evidence that he's an insane killer. After panicking at the sight of everyone ready to convict him, he looks like he's lost his mind... which of course, causes the grief-stricken parents of the victims to think he has no remorse (for a crime that wasn't even his doing), and beat the hell out of him. Next, his corrupt bastard lawyer deserts him and he gets a life sentence. Then, of all things, he gets egged. Finally, he's placed in a jail that can only be described as Satan's playhouse. Think *you're* having a bad day?? Like *hell* you are compared to this shit.
- It gets worse when it is later revealed that ||Shiro|| was the one who set up Ganta to go in prison. Not only that, but ||Shiro is the Red Man||. So, Ganta ||befriended Shiro and arguably loved her, just to find out she liked him back|| enough to ruin his life and put him in Deadman Wonderland.
- ||And it turns out that Shiro knew exactly what she was doing.||
- The dog race from episode 2 has Ganta and other inmates forced to run through a deadly obstacle course as part of the theme park's attractions. The audience, that are watching real people die, are convinced it was all an act.
- In the anime, a woman asks her boyfriend how he can watch it. He replies that it isn't real, BUT EVEN IF IT IS, IT'S STILL PRETTY COOL, "'cause they are criminals."
- Shiro as a little girl ||having her arm fall apart and trying to put it back together.||
- If you have a little sister, niece, daughter, etc. do not, do NOT watch Shiro's backstory.
- Hibana's backstory was sick!!! And also the image of her dead hanging mother.
- The stuff that happened to ||Shiro in her youth||. She was infected with all manner of extremely dangerous, extremely potent diseases, viruses, and chemical weapons, repeatedly and without treatment. It left her in constant agony that she tried hide when she attempted to have some normal happy playtime|| with Ganta||. That is, until her body literally started rotting apart, and she could feel every second of it. After her regenerative and blood controlling capabilities were revealed, she was vivisected repeatedly, without anesthesia and had large chunks drilled or gouged out of her body, again without anesthesia.
- Even worse, they did try to give her anesthesia, and her body's effects
*degenerated* it. So they just went ahead without it.
- Are you a Knight in Shining Armor? Thinking of white-knighting? Do
*NOT* ever, under any circumstances, try to help someone in Deadman Wonderland this way...you'll end up dead due to the seemingly moe but really Ax-Crazy ||Minatsuki||.
- Ganta being tortured by being forced to watch the Carnival of Corpses. He has a breakdown as a result.
- Speaking of the Carnival of Corpses, the entire idea is similar to the dog race, except that it's a one-on-one match between contestants. The preview shows a woman
*having her arm ripped off as she screams in agony.* This is directly followed by a man having his face stomped flat. Also, if you lose, ||you are tortured simply for losing. Specifically, you're forced into a punishment game where you have a random body part or organ removed, with absolutely no anesthetics used (It *is* called a Punishment Game after all. Crow has his right eye gouged from his head after losing to Ganta.||
- On top of that, look at the machine! ||It spins around like a gambling machine, flashing several options such as hand, tongue, stomach, etc.
*Do they remove those, too?*||
- In the manga, ||Minatsuki claims to have lost a kidney to the Punishment Game. So yes, they take those, too.||
- In episode 11,|| after Genkaku captures Shiro and Karako he sends a video to Ganta.|| ||In the video that he sends to Ganta he threatens to have his guards rape both Karako and Shiro if Ganta doesn't show up to fight him.|| ||After Genkaku says that, he moves the camera to where we can see Shiro and Karako being held down by a few of the guards as the rest of the guards tear at their clothing. (A few of the guards even push the barrels of their guns into Karako's breast and other patches of already revealed skin.)|| Remember that ||Shiro is only 15-17 years old when she is being sexually harassed in the video (her exact age is never mentioned but she is somewhere in that age range.)|| ||The video ends soon after that.||
- The entire show is based off the manipulation of your own blood as a weapon, for starters. And then, we have ||Shiro, the wretched egg|| who maniacally goes about slaughtering people: their remains take the form of decapitated bodies, mutilated half forms, with blood everywhere, and random body parts, vividly drawn with accurate detail. Let us also recall ||Toto, who mimics others' Branch of Sin by eating/sewing on body parts to take on their blood!|| Or how about when Toto took someone's head, and then proceeded to jam his arm up it, and make it a puppet.
- Not to mention that ||the Mother Goose system, which exists to prevent Shiro from killing herself, is largely made up of cubes full of her body, the collection of which is largely to blame for her insanity.||
- Chapter 53: ||Hagire's death. He totally got what he deserved, but boy did La Résistance brutally curbstomped the
*crap* out of him.||
- Speaking of which, ||the Wretched Egg returns by stealing and destroying the heart (key to keeping the Mother Goose system operational). Her chilling smiles and laughter don't help at all.||
- Chapter 55: All the remaining questions regarding ||Shiro's backstory|| are answered. As the Wham Episode trope on the main page says, the answers are as bad as you think it is.
- Not least of which is the truth behind ||Shiro. There is no Split Personality, never was. The real Shiro still loves Ganta, but she is also livid and resentful toward her childhood friend for being able to live the happy life she never had. This not only adds loads of complexity to Shiro, but also makes her a rather disturbing character to watch in hindsight.||
- The true purpose of the Mother Goose system. ||Yes, it does limit the powers that Shiro could muster. However, the real purpose of the system is so that Shiro will always regenerate and thus never die (as the aftermath of the Great Tokyo Earthquake reveals). Because Sorae (Ganta's mother) grew too attached to Shiro to see her die, Sorae had condemned the poor girl to continue being used as a lab rat for even more dehumanizing experiments.|| | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadmanWonderland |
Danganronpa / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Do not let the visual novel style fool you, as for a series that has torture, murder, and gruesome executions, Danganronpa is bound to have a lot of moments that will be etched in your head for a while.
<!—index—> | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Danganronpa |
Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
A story where Spider-Man's dead loved ones come back to life has got to have some nightmare fuel, right?
What happens to the clones if they don't take their pill is pretty horrifying: ||they break down into Carrion zombies and eventually crumble to dust.||
Prowler ||actually describes this happeneing when he's being hunter by Electro. Needless to say, it's not pretty.||
The true identity of the person behind this all should be a nightmare on its own; ||Ben Reilly, the one man who should understand Peter better than anyone, has become so broken and warped by what he's been through that he was willing to basically turn everyone on Earth into immortal drug addicts with him in complete charge of life and death||.
When ||Doc Ock|| activates the siren that ||makes all of the clones turn into Carrions, Haven becomes a living nightmare with people turning to dust, trying to Zerg Rush the people with the pills and screaming in agony. Then Ben sends out the signal to the '''entire world'''. What he says while this happens is also... disconcerting.||
Jackal: Think about it. We'll all die and be reborn on the same day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
After the whole thing has played out, Lizard whisks his family away and cures them of the Carrion virus... ||by injecting them with the Lizard formula. Curt seems to be blissfully unaware of this, which is even more terrifying seeing everyone (including Peter) assumed he'd made a HeelFace Turn and become sane||. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadNoMoreTheCloneConspiracy |
deadmau5 / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
-
Even if it was Joel trolling people who believe that songs pitched down to 432 Hz have magic properties, it is nonetheless **432.** *horrifying* to listen to.
- That voice from "Sleepless" sounds utterly disturbing.
- The mau5heads, when not Ugly Cute.
- The very end of the music video for "Professional Griefers". After the robotic version of Deadmau5's cat Meowingtons causes a giant robot mouse to crush the dome containing the audience, we see the cat standing on debris eyeing the camera before pouncing on it.
- Of course, one entry had to come out of a song titled "Terrors In My Head". At 2:35 a distorted sample from a video by GentleWhispering supported by depressing piano. Original video.
- While performing "Maths" live, the music suddenly starts skipping and the big shape that Joel's behind (sorta like Daft Punk's pyramid) displays a Windows error prompt and "logs off". Joel's mau5head then lights up and repeatedly chants the phrase
*"Sometimes things get complicated..."* in an extremely creepy voice, not to mention the layering that it receives.
- "Take Care of the Proper Paperwork" is pure Nothing Is Scarier. The distorted instrumentals and dark ambience are already unnerving, but the fact that there is no real drop or even kick drum at any point in the song leaves a really empty, hollow feeling, especially since the song abruptly cuts off by the end. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Deadmau5 |
Dead Poets Society / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The entire buildup to Neil's suicide certainly counts. One night, in the depths of despair after his father has withdrawn him from Welton in order to prevent him from pursuing his passion for acting, he gets up and slowly trudges over to a nearby window, noticing the wreath that served as his crown in the role of Puck — his happiest moment and greatest pride. He then opens the window and puts the crown on his head... and then just stands there with his eyes closed, contemplating for a while. As he does this, you can see him very slowly lowering his head. With a haunting synth drone playing all the while, he then begins to move slowly and silently through the darkened house... almost as if he were a ghost. He briefly inspects the key to the drawer where his father's gun is kept, before putting it in the lock, turning it, and opening the drawer. He then takes out the gun, wrapped in a white cloth, and puts it on the table; again,
*slowly*. Then we see him just sitting there... very silent... very still... nothing but an empty shell completely resigned to his fate, focusing only on the gun in front of him and what he is about to do as the camera slowly zooms out. Then it quickly cuts to his father being suddenly woken up by something... and you can probably tell what it was. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadPoetsSociety |
Dead Like Me / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The Gravelings. An entire race of spiky, fanged gremlins whose sole purpose is to set up accidents which inevitably end in the random, senseless and usually gruesome death of some unwitting soul? Brrrr. ||The regular gravelings were never explained and appear to just be agents of chaotic death with no particular hatred toward humanity... just amused by the "accidents" they make happen. But when reapers actually committed the murder, they become a far more deadly one. Because they weren't supposed to die, you get little balls of rage that want nothing but revenge against the living.|| And they're invisible and silent to almost everyone!
- We never actually see it happen, but Rube's description of how a soul goes bad if you leave it in the body when it should have died brings very unpleasant images to mind.
- George fails to reap a man's soul before his death occurs. He's trapped inside his body while his autopsy occurs. It's exactly as disturbing as it sounds.
- Pet reapers, who are children. And apparently aren't organized into supportive groups like our team, at least none with adults, judging from the appearance and demeanor of Charlie.
- "Why has no-one ever loved me?" is pretty much most of our worst fears summed up..... | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadLikeMe |
DC Universe Online / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The game's universe as a whole is very bleak. Branaic has footholds in both Gotham and Metropolis and other locations aren't much better. Khandaq is in ruins and full of zombies, Bludhaven is freshly nuked, Smallville is under assault by Doomsday clones, Toyman has taken over Styker's Island prison, Oolong Island is besieged by its own creations...it's all terrifying.
- The Eldritch Location Trigon's power has turned Gotham's park into. There's pillars covered in demonic power crystals just floating in the air hundreds of feet up in odd formations and some parts of the ground look like hell itself.
- Toyman's takeover of Stryker's Island involves creepy robot dolls. Including giant ones.
- Playing in the Arkham Asylum Alert can be quite creepy and the voice that sometimes blends in doesn't help either.
- Ace Chemicals is eerie too, and there you have Morrow over the PA system, constantly screaming for security to stop and/or kill you.
- Oolong Island. You don't know what, but
*something* has gone wrong on this secret test island for villains. The sunny tropics do not make the attacking robots and screaming scientists less creepy.
- Ellsworth Memorial Hospital: fleshy red globs dangling from the ceilings. Mind-controlled doctors and patients indulging in the worst impulses the Seven Deadly Sins can bring out of them, under the watchful eyes of demonic overseers. Random altars full of blood (take a guess where it came from). Piles of unidentifiable flesh with giant eyeballs
*that are constantly looking around and blinking, as if panicked about what they are now.* Have a nice day.
- All those Exobytes are from future versions of the League and Legion. They have infected thousands of people, enough that there's a hospital full of experimented-on NPCs, and Power Girl giving speeches at the university on how to use your new powers responsibly. And there's nothing saying a single people has one set of Exobytes
*or* that they stick to their original's alignment. So let's put together a scenario: Kryptonian Exobytes mixed with Joker Exobytes infect an arsonist in prison, producing a superpowered firebug essentially trained by Superman and the Joker. And his powers are still growing...
- In play, one of the first missions that Lex Luthor puts his prodigies to is to infect university students with a mutagen which turns them into junior versions of the Parasite, with no indication that long term infection can be cured. Per the entry for Deadpan Snarker, Calculator sarcastically comments that there's no way he can see
*that* going wrong, and that's without considering the welfare of the students (because Calculator, Luthor, and the player villain certainly don't). He later combines the Parasite DNA with Doomsday DNA and lets it loose in Smallville KS.
- Lex
*really* gets his Mad Scientist on in this game. It's *terrifying*, as are some of his employees like Dr. Psycho.
- As said in the YMMV page, the player character is quite possibly a total villain. Some of the villain missions are pretty messed up for a T-rated game, including: car-bombing police, lighting injured police officers on fire, summoning demons, giving people lethal doses of venom (which is shown to be a visibly painful way to die), poisoning drugs, knocking random people off of tall buildings (killing them)...the list goes on. Worse is that your body-count will also likely include various DC superheroes (ok, they're usually not
*killed*, but still).
- One sidequest of the Revival of Isis story arc has you defuse Joker Venom from a break-in a few days back, inside a warehouse filled with zombies. The very last one is in a hidden back room that has more in common with the Joker Missions than the current one. And then you see the Zombie Joker Goons.
- The way to the room is indicated by a red arrow painted on the floor... and it's very easy to mistake it for something other than paint.
- In Metropolis, heroic characters are often tasked with saving citizens before they turn into apes, fish men, or some other suitably Silver Age chicanery. In Gotham, when dealing with the Joker? Victims are strapped to huge blocks of C4 with a timer where your failure means their death, end of story.
- Not that the Metopolis guys have it any easier. Getting turned into gorillas or beastmen usually is accompanied by terrified screams of pain. It's worse with the gorillas, since as soon as they turn Grodd's mind control kicks in and they instantly calm down with a "Hail Grodd!"
- Black Lanterns are coming to the game. You know all that wonderful nightmare fuel from the comics? From raising the dead into Black Lanterns, to possession by a Black Lantern Ring? Its now in the game with visuals and audio to match. Sleep tight!
- The Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons. All black humanoids with weird, unnatural, janky movements (likely lag due to the sheer number of characters on screen at the time).
- The cinematic trailers take everything up to eleven. The battlefield where Lex and his team are fighting what remains of the Justice League is nothing short of a city practically leveled with only a handful of buildings still standing. The fighting between heroes and villains is brutal and not everyone survives. Special note goes to Superman. First, he is summoned by a screaming Wonder Woman being tortured by Lex Luthor. His appearance is frightening for just how
*different* he looks. A five oclock shadow coupled with a torn cape and constant burning red eyes. This Superman Black Adam by blasting his head with heat vision, then begins to tear at Lex in a rage. This Superman has been driven off the edge. ** kills**
-
*And then* theres the cinematic where Lex escapes to the past. Cornered and out of options, the remaining heroes in a last ditch effort make a time machine with the plan to send someone in the past. Only that someone isnt Luthor. Oh no, Luthor purposely kills the one that was to go back. Even when working for the betterment of others, he cant help but be selfish.
- After you beat Ultra-Humanite, we see a cutscene of Gorilla Grodd as he watches Ultra-Humanite have his gorilla load supplies as Grodd says that Ultra-Humanite's no true gorilla. We then get a
*very* disturbing Imagine Spot from Grodd as his forces turn everyone in a flaming, ruined Metropolis into gorillas, *including Superman!* Then, we see Grodd's gorillas forcing the gorilla-fied heroes and citizens to load supplies onto ships, a gorilla-fied Batwoman frantically shaking a wire fence and the Ultra-Humanite *about to be torn apart* as Grodd watches the spectacle from a throne atop The Daily Planet accomponied by some chained up gorillas. Jens Andersen (the casting director)'s voice acting sells the whole scene too with his deep, almost demonic voice for Grodd. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DCUniverseOnline |
Deadpool 2 / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
**Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Moments pages.**
It's another R-rated gorefest, what do you expect?
- During the attack on the convoy, Deadpool's hand gets shot by a mook, leaving a nasty hole in it... and then he proceeds to grab the gun
*through said hole* to shoot in the mook's head.
- Deadpool's healing factor and gruesome injuries, while Played for Laughs, have large quantities of Body Horror involved, as expected.
- In the beginning, where he blows himself up with propane tanks, bits and pieces of Deadpool scatter everywhere (complete with close up shots of Deadpool's head and severed limbs flying everywhere), and Colossus has to drag the pieces back to the Xavier Institute.
- While imprisoned, Deadpool loses his powers (courtesy of the power-dampening collars inmates are supposed to wear), and his cancer starts to spread again. Thankfully, the cancer halts when the collar is removed, but his death would have been much worse had things gone differently.
- Although it's Played for Laughs (again), seeing Deadpool regenerating his lower half borders on Body Horror, with his legs regenerating as small baby legs. Even Cable and the rest of Deadpools team, despite getting used to Deadpools healing abilities, find this unpleasant.
- One of the deleted scenes was going to feature Deadpool going through a whole suicide montage of using different methods to kill himself. Given how touchy the subject is and the large quantity of Body Horror that would have been involved, its likely that even the film crew decided to scrap this idea.
- They bring it back for the Super Duper Cut.
- During his time as a vigilante, Deadpool has become a Mook Horror Show and The Dreaded amongst criminals due to his healing factor and high body count. Granted, his victims (gangs, criminals, and the like) deserved it. However, when Wade Wilson wants someone dead, they die... horribly. Beware the Silly Ones indeed.
- Take a former mercenary who fell in love with a stripper with basically the same brain as his, diagnose him with cancer, send to a mutant workshop for treatment, torture him into having said cancer envelop his entire body to the point of driving himself insane to the point of making said girlfriend think he's dead, have him kill the man responsible for said torture, and finally, have him and the girlfriend live Happily Ever After. Sounds good, right? Then why is this on the Nightmare Fuel page? Welllllll... what if, we add some Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome, mix in some Back for the Dead, and then stuff the girlfriend into the fridge? Yeah. If a man who's defined by insanity is no longer tethered by anything or anyone, God help
*everyone*.
- Deadpool is ripped in two by Juggernaut in very graphic detail. Unlike the other times he's been injured, he reacts by
*completely freaking out*. Granted, it becomes funny immediately afterwards (mainly due to the requisite "I can't feel my legs" joke, which is quickly smoothed over when he grabs his discarded lower half), but from a guy like Deadpool, its kind of disturbing.
- The deaths of the X-Force members, barring Deadpool and Domino. In particular, Shatterstar gets shredded by helicopter blades, Zeitgeist gets sent through a wood chipper, and that's only after he accidentally pukes acid on Peter and burns off most of the right part of his body, and Vanisher gets electrocuted and burns to death. Bedlam probably got off the lightest, as he was "only" hit by a bus.
- The headmaster's abuse of the orphans, which includes Russell and Domino, essentially created Cable's Turdtastic Bad Future. That Holier Than Thou attitude makes him all the worse.
- There's something very... off-putting about Dopinder's increasing thirst for bloodshed. Keep in mind, the guy wants to
*become a contract killer*. By the time he kills the headmaster, he seems outright disturbed in the head.
- In a way, Dopinder is Cable's Exhibit A for the idea that killing one guy would cause someone to become a future mass murderer.
- Keep in mind that even
*Deadpool* seems put off by Dopinder wanting to go full hitman, at least at first, and firmly shuts him down whenever he brings it up for most of the movie. That should tell you something.
- Who's Dopinder's role model? Deadpool. Who wants a kid? Deadpool. Who doesn't want their child to grow up like themselves? Deadpool. Uh-oh...
- Three words: the Juggernaut, bitch.
- While the original Juggernaut was more human in appearance, the New Timeline Juggernaut looks much more grim, with his helmet looking more rusted and grittier, and his height being more true to his original comic book counterpart. Apparently, the years have not been kind to him.
- Then theres the fact he can easily destroy a bridge in seconds, causing massive amounts of destruction on a freeway bridge. Cable and Domino had very good reason to be cautious around him.
- While the Ominous Latin Chanting chorus is Played for Laughs, hearing it while Juggernaut is charging at you can lead to a tense atmosphere. Holy shitballs, indeed.
- It says something that Cable, a seen-it-all grizzled soldier from the future, seems to think that freeing Juggernaut is crossing the Godzilla Threshold.
- The Russell we know, while angry and violent, is also funny and sympathetic. The Russell of the future is downright terrifying. Cable says he went after his family because he was angry that Cable kept almost catching him. We see a face utterly devoid of emotion; not just of guilt or sorrow, but even anger or joy. He's killed so many times that even doing it out of spite doesn't garner a real emotional reaction.
- Although Domino herself seems perfectly nice, her superpower of luck seems to have a
*nasty* mean streak. This is most evident when she's chasing after the prison convoy, as what's good fortune for *her* tends to be really bad fortune for anyone *else* who happens to obstruct her path. Car crashes, collapses, explosions... the chaos left in her wake is more than enough to make you wonder if she's more of a luck *leech* than a luck beneficiary. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Deadpool2 |
DDD / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
The first page starts with the protagonist waking up one night to discover his arm has been eaten by his sister. He describes the crunching of bones as "the beautiful sound of life". | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DDD |
Dead Silence / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Beware the stare of Mary Shaw...*
- Every scene with that damn doll.
- Of particular note are the scenes where time seems to slow down. It's hard not to feel an underlying sense of dread every time it happens.
- Mary Shaw herself, who manages to be creepier than any of the movie's dolls.
-
*The freaking ending.* The entire interaction between Jamie and his father becomes infinitely creepier on a second viewing, now that you know that he's a long-dead human puppet, and that his *wife* is none other than Mary Shaw. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadSilence |
Dead Rising / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
*Dead Rising* lulls you into a false sense of security with its over-the-top premise. You are a reporter (he's "covered wars, you know") who gets stuck in a shopping mall full of zombies in search of the ultimate scoop. Sounds safe, right? **As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- Once you start investigating the actual plotline, everything goes to hell. The army attacks you, led by a General Ripper hellbent on covering up the incident by murdering everything in the mall (undead or not), your quirky teammates from the Department of Homeland Security are both zombified before your eyes, it turns out that the zombie plague is transmitted by genetically-mutated wasps that inject parasitic larvae that devour the host's brain, and all the people you worked so hard to save are most likely disposed of to keep the mall's dirty secret under wraps, (except for Otis, who is quite possibly the only other survivor in the end). Even after a climactic escape involving you and Isabella using a jeep with a machine gun to fight a tank, a knock-down, drag-out brawl-to-the-death against the deranged special forces commander, and getting the truth out about the zombie outbreak, the protagonist remains infected by the incurable zombie plague, a walking time bomb that may go off at any moment. And, of course, our villain (despite being quite dead by this point) has already set things in motion so that zombie uprisings will occur all over the country .
- Adam MacIntyre the Clown. Wielding two chainsaws (and also
*juggling* them), who also happens to laugh while said chainsaws cut open his stomach and lets "all the little children go on his fun, killer ride?" Said laughter also gets mysteriously deeper until it's little more than a demonic grumble. It almost makes one wonder if he's even *human* at all...
- Shell-Shocked Veteran Cliff Hudson, who believes you and the zombies are Viet Cong after he went nuts when his granddaughter was Eaten Alive by zombies? While ultimately tragic, Cliff's intro is pure Nightmare Fuel. When you walk into the room, you see bloody bodies hanging upside-down from the ceiling with their heads chopped off, and the floor smeared with blood. While you're busy taking in all the Gorn, Cliff sneaks up on you, and yells "NAME AND RANK, SOLDIER!!!" When you can't answer him, he interprets you as a Dirty Communist, and takes a swipe at you with his machete. When you get back up — he's gone. Then you hear his voice calling out to you, claiming he's ready to beat on you until you tell where the (nonexistent) guerrillas' hideout is, and you'll be begging for death to take you away by the time he's done. The cutscene closes with Cliff's footsteps on one side of the store, before suddenly going to the other]... Then, unless you're fast enough, the start of the fight has him impaling you In the Back and hoisting your body a good three to four feet off the ground! Frank only survives by being Made of Iron, and even
*then* Cliff is easily the hardest fight of the whole game.
- Psycho Lesbian Cop Jo Slade, who keeps four innocent women as her prisoners, and makes not-so-subtle threats to them. Jo had held several more woman held hostage... Janet mentions that she had already killed a couple of them. The timer for Jo's boss fight mission seems pretty long. However, as it shortens, the number of living prisoners Jo has dwindles down from four to one.
- Steven Chapman is scarier and more unsettling than Adam: While Adam is creepy because of his costume and weapons and has a "good" reason for being insane now, Steven... doesn't. He's slaughtering and killing everyone on simple paranoia, and the fact that he screams at the top of his lungs with nasty close ups of his face with those crazy eyes and all.
- And in the grand tradition of ground zero zombie outbreaks, only you and one other person survive the opening scene in the mall... and by the end of the game, that number may be too high.
- Late enough into the game to have rounded up too many survivors to keep track of, there's a detail about one of them that's nagging and inexplicably disturbing. When you meet the guy, Frank notices that he has a neck injury and he very anxiously insists that it's "just a scratch." Three guesses what it most likely is, and even though it's obvious, after you get him to the security room, it's unsettling when you notice him
*vigorously* scratching his neck through the window of the room he's in, only for him to stop as soon as you walk in. Sometimes the women in the same room start yelling at him, open for interpretation, also. And if you're waiting for a call from Otis telling you it may not have been a great idea to leave your survivors alone with this guy, nothing actually happens with him. There's an incredibly chilling piece on the first day. Frank comes across a traumatized survivor called Leah hiding in a Jewelry Store. When you talk to her, she grabs Frank and asks if he's seen her baby, but then she lets go and breaks down, confessing that her baby was killed by zombies, and that she sprained her ankle running away. That isn't the scary part. It's when she begins to *explain in detail about the zombies eating her baby*. **Leah:** "They ate her. Those damn zombies ate my baby! Right in front of me...oh God, I've never heard her cry like that! Please... Just leave me alone..."
- If you leave the main menu idle long enough. A cutscene of a mother and her daughter are driving down the road, desperately trying to get away from the zombies, only to end up stranded alone and helpless as a mob of zombies surround them while they scream. Imagine seeing that at around midnight after returning from a quick bathroom break or midnight snack.
- Speaking of the main menu, it manages to be a little scary itself. Showing a bunch of zombies slowly trudge their way to the mall, while out in the distance, zombies have surrounded the entrance already. Cap it off with the eerie ambience to show the loneliness, and slight idleness to the situation. It's a small reminder that despite the game being a little silly, this is still a horror game of some sorts.
- Sean and the True Eye cult are quite freaky. The way the cultists move just isn't natural (a very slow, shambling crawl which is changed when they suddenly rush forward) and they also have distorted voices that are very eerie sounding. Really, Sean is quite unsettling as well, with his penchant for public executions and his demonic tone of voice. And then, there's his death. Really, if you haven't seen the cult yet, the curious player who explores the movie theater may be unnerved when they wander into Theater 4 and see the bloody eye symbols, the torches, and mannequin idol and wonder exactly what the hell went on in there. You just can't help but wonder: Exactly how long have they been doing this? Also, they're able to somehow bypass the zombies and not get attacked by them, even if they deliberately take a swing at one that gets too close for their liking.
- The eventual appearance of the army, while spectacularly epic, is also rather terrifying due to their sheer efficiency. Also knowing that they're here to kill you, if you're replaying, doesn't help matters.
- The look on Brock Mason's face as he falls backwards into the zombie mob, and is Devoured by the Horde. Even the fact he clearly deserved it doesn't help much. It's even worse in that, while his mouth is wide open, Brock doesn't scream or even gasp — he just wordlessly falls to his demise by being devoured. He smiles shortly before he falls into the horde.
- Larry is pretty much
*every* horrifying butcher archetype all rolled into one ugly, cannibalistic package. The other scary part about Larry is the ambiguity of his sanity; was he in the meat packing area for the entirety of the outbreak, or did he go there looking for safety and got trapped in there because of the zombies in the maintenance tunnels? Either way; being trapped in one area, surrounded by monsters trying to eat you, while being completely isolated and being forced to eat nothing but meat for days on end would drive anyone to sheer madness.
- Most endings other than Ending A or S have a pretty sinister tone to it.
- Ending B has Frank, Otis, Jessie, and potentially Barnaby, Isabela and Brad escape with the survivors Frank saved. Despite all this, Frank fails to find out the mystery behind the Willamette outbreak, and zombie outbreaks soon break out all across the United States.
- Ending C has Ed, on another building, looking through his binoculars to see if Frank made it. Ed can't find him and suggests he's dead. A zombie suddenly appears beside him as Ed screams in terror and the scene fades to black before we see anything more gruesome, but we do hear some rather disturbing crunching.
- Ending E has Ed arrive at the helipad and help save the survivors, but with Frank nowhere to be found they soon take off, with Frank's fate unknown.
- Ending F has Carlito's bombs detonate and blow up Willamette, spreading the zombie virus all across America while the government is helpless to stop the ensuing zombie outbreaks. A quick look at the Survivor chart reveals that
*everyone is dead*, with most of them dying in the explosion.
- Letting a survivor get eaten by zombies (which
*is* tempting due to their Artificial Stupidity) triggers a cutscene of said survivor getting chowed down on, which is obviously horrific to watch, but the one that sticks out the most is when a zombie forces the survivor to the ground, but instead of just taking a bunch of bites out of them, the zombie will *jam their arm down the victims throat* and pull their **esophagus** out, and munch away at that, as though there is some kind of reasoning cruelty towards the victim.
- While their fight is usually undermined by their broken A.I., nobody denies that the Convicts are one of the most memorable fights in the game. There are plenty of jokes online about classical/pavlovian conditioning since
*Gone Guru* by *Lifeseeker* still invokes both fear and annoyance as soon as they step outside the relative safety of the mall
- The way they introduce themselves is pretty unsettling, they try to kill Frank in a drive-by attack but Frank gets out of the way. They laugh this off before noticing Sid and Sofie, they quickly speed up to them as Miguel hangs out the passenger side of the jeep and he fatally hits Sid on the back of the head, killing Sid instantly and traumatizing Sofie. Reginald even jokes about "snatching his old lady", implying they intended to rape Sophie before she could get away.
- In the fight against them, the Convicts can quickly decimate groups of survivors and force Frank to abandon them so he can fight the Convicts alone. When you first fight them, Frank has to find Sophie and get her out of the park before the zombies devour her and before the Convicts can kill her. Considering that and Frank can be as low as level 5 at the time of this fight, and this fight more often begins at night while the zombies are stronger, it makes the fight much more stressful for unprepared players. Then there's the other fact that the Convicts respawn at midnight every day until 5pm of day 3. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadRising |
Dead End: Paranormal Park / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The mascot costumes that have come to life in the second episode. Even though they mean no harm, they're creepy thanks to being broken down and filthy as all get out.
- In "Trust Me," all the employees are exposed to their greatest fears by a fear-eating demon named Harmony/Harm-Many. Barney's fear (his parents not standing up for him against his trans-phobic grandmother) is hard enough to watch, but then there's Norma's fear. Since she's autistic, in her own words, her "fear world" is the
*real world*, with every single stimuli around her (sights, sounds, touches) immediately overwhelming her. Harm-Many ends up absorbing so much of Norma's anxiety that he *explodes* into yellow goo.
- The fourth episode has the Night Hag, who steals people's sleep to render them her feral thralls. There's a reason the scenes with said thralls ape Jurassic Park and its raptor scenes, they're on the hunt for more victims and are terrifying.
- Pauline Phoenix's scheme to stay young forever: she hires young, beautiful impersonators for her theme park in order to possess their bodies, and once they became too old, she moves on to the next one, trapping the poor girls in a place Norma dubs "the In-Between." As for the previous women she possessed, they are forced to continue working at the park and threatened into silence.
- How Pauline originally died. She was shooting a life insurance ad which involved her swinging on a swing over a sheer cliff; she swung out too far and fell off, much to the horror of the crew, including her stuntwoman/friend, Barborah. And considering Pauline's above-mentioned plan, and the fact that she immediately possesses Barborah when the latter climbs down to check on her, there's a chance Pauline did this
*on purpose*.
- Everything about the Watcher is not only terrifying but depressing. As we learn it's a brainwashed alternate future version of Pugsley whose spirit was broken by Fingers and became a tool for a war between demons and angels.]]
- Finger's death. After he kills the two Pugsleys, the Master realizes there isn't much use for Fingers as making Pugsley the Watcher was the plan. So He makes a scissor motion with his hands and causes Fingers to slowly shrivel up into a withered decaying hand, the Master is pure Dissonant Serenity in a truly cathartic Kick The Son Of A Bitch moment. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadEndParanormalPark |
Dead Of The Brain / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
"So this is what it's like to stare into the face of death."
Schrodinger's first appearance; the cat literally lunges at you to kill you...and that's just one of many jump scares in the game.
Just look at the zombie in the page image... Cole is just looking through some lockers in the hope of finding something, with no weapons in hand, only to be met by that. The worst part? In order for him to have ever survived that encounter, he had to literally poke its eyes outin an effort to reach its brain, which still didn't impede it. Imagine how many players must have been horrified with this on their first encounter, not knowing what to do. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadOfTheBrain |
Dead Beat / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Corpsetaker in
*Dead Beat*, a psychotic necromancer who specializes in stealing the bodies of victims. Before Harry meets her, she was impersonating ||a professor of antiquities||, and while we don't see it onscreen (thankfully), we see the bloody aftermath of her last Body Surf: ||Corpsetaker swapped bodies with a probably-innocent grad student, who suddenly found herself trapped in an unfamiliar body, and was kept alive as she was gutted and tortured *by her own body*. Her fellow "assistant" turned out to be a ghoul who took the opportunity to carve himself some steaks.||
- A low-key but damn disturbing moment is when Harry is briefing Butters on the supernatural situation of the world. He points out that the rate at which people go missing, as in flat out disappear, is roughly equivalent to the rate at which herd animals in Africa are killed by large predators.
- Even worse - that was a
*real-world* statistic that Jim Butcher quoted.
- The scene in the museum. (||
*No one is coming to save you, Harry.*||)
- The Red Court hitting a
*hospital* with Sarin gas.
- And on top of that, the fact that they also gassed everything else in a six-block radius of their target to be at a safe distance from retribution, and this was in the heart of a bustling city.
- Result:
people died. And their targets were **Forty-five thousand** *less than *. A terrifying example of the results of being The Unfettered. **two-hundred** people
- The comic adaptation
*War Cry* makes *it worse by showing it*, and its aftermath - **streets littered with corpses**. See here.
- Pretty low-key compared to all of the above, but Chicago that Halloween night-with all those zombies and the Wild Hunt running around, who knows how many people were killed. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadBeat |
Dead Space 3 / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Taking place on a frozen planet, it's not that hard for *The Thing (1982)* to come to mind as well, what with all the paranoia...
## Awakened DLC
The
*entire DLC* counts as this. The developers said that Awakened was intended from the start to hark back to the terror of the first 2 games, and even surpass it.
With 3 chapters chock full of Mind Rape, Body Horror and self-mutilation, they succeed to quite an extent. And you thought the Necromorphs were scary.
- For starters, the main menace of the game: a Necromorph-worshiping Unitologist cult, a cult hit with a final, pure dementia signal from the fallen moon right before its demise. The insanity of the cult as a result is so horrific and ungodly that even devout Unitologists think they are batshit insane. One Unitologist, who had already witnessed all the horror of the main game and maintained his religious beliefs, outright
*lost his faith* upon witnessing the cult for himself.
- Their main religious practice is the main source of the terror. They cut off pieces of their body
*voluntarily* as a mad symbolic offering of dead flesh to the Necromorph moons. That isn't even the worst part: they use their body parts to *decorate the ship*. They string up their dismembered limbs on strings like *Christmas lights*. At one point, you discover mini towers made up of *human hands* made to hold candles.
- To matters worse they replace their human hands with grafted on Necromorph limbs, fresh Necromorph limbs. Considering how most of the Necromorphs on Tau Volantis are two hundred years old this suggests that the Unitologist cult made these fresh Necromorphs to feed their insanity.
- The ending. The Brother Moons are attacking/devouring Earth
*now*. For the first time, it appears that Isaac has outright *lost*.
- The lead-up to the ending: Isaac and John shock into Earth orbit, elated that they've finally returned home. They signal the planet to get in contact, but no response comes. Confused, they try radio channel after radio channel, wondering if their ship's ancient equipment might be the problem... until they switch to a channel that is broadcasting nothing but bloodcurdling screams and the sounds of tearing flesh. Then we pan to a shot of Earth, revealing Brethren Moons slowly cresting the horizon, reaching their tendrils down to the planet's surface; but this is quickly superseded by another Brother Moon that rises into view right in front of Isaac and Carver's viewport. The duo cry out in terror and lose control of their ship, marker iconography chaotically flashing on-screen before abruptly cutting to black. Cue credits.
- Not an exaggeration. Unless there is a sequel, humanity is literally
*done for.* Even after the desperate struggle against the Necromorph scourge of the last 4 years of games, books, and movies, The Bad Guy Wins *effortlessly*. This really is the darkest the series has gotten.
-
*"They are hungry. They are coming."*
- The combined moons emit a signal strong enough that it can make pretty much anyone insane, even from light years away, and even if they have overcome Marker sickness. They can move so fast that they can even outrun shockpoint drives. There is no way of escaping them. Just their active presence in the galaxy can destroy civilization. So unless there is an actual sequel or a new DLC release, it's game over. The bad guys have won. There is absolutely nothing out there that can stop them.
- Making that even worse, Isaac and Carver get hit with a massive blast of Marker signals, before a Brother Moon flies right in front of their ship. The last thing we see of them is them being just a moment before crashing into the side of one of the moons, cockpit first, full speed, with no time to get away from the impact.
- Think about just how many people or organic beings died via being killed by Necromorphs or Marker/Brother Moon induced violence over the entirety of the Dead Space universe by Dead Space Awakened. Just think about it for a second.
*Millions* died in the Sprawl Outbreak back in Dead Space 2. Hundreds upon hundreds died in the Ishimura, and Aegis 7 back in the original Dead Space. Hundreds also died in the old Sovereign colonies on Tau Volantis. By Dead Space 3: Awakening, the death count is likely in the billions or maybe even the *trillions* at that point, as more and more stations and colonies are being butchered by Necromorphs, Unitologists, and Markers. The New Lunar Station was just doomed to a Necromorph outbreak at the very start the game, and it's very likely no one could stop it either, as most of the armed forces were killed (in fact, the dead soldiers are the *very first* Necromorphs that you see). And this isn't even getting into the other alien civilizations that were consumed and used to birth new Brother Moons....
- There is strong evidence that the reason humanity hasn't yet encountered any alien races is because
*everything else* was consumed by the Brethren Moons. Just think about how many species could evolve in a galaxy as big as our own in the last 13 billion years. The true body count may exceed numbers we can comprehend. **NEVER**
- Dead Space 3 interpreted "make us whole again" as a plea from the Tau Volantis moon to finish its convergence, however the completed Brethren Moons keep chanting it. Are the Moons not in fact the final Necromorph phase? Are they themselves going to be made whole again into something larger?.
- Or it could be worse - it's not just "Make us whole." It's "Make us whole
*again*."
- The Necromorph that formed of Captain Robert Norton. For some reason, the infection didn't remove the skin of his face like it does for most of the creatures leading to some pretty horrific Uncanny Valley feelings. It's clearly Norton with the bullet hole in his forehead and everything, but the eyes don't look right and the head twitches and moves unnaturally.
- The Pack inexplicably shows up in this DLC with disturbing mutations that make them look alien in contrast to their pale forms in the second game. Considering the Pack we previously saw were human children the implications of where these Pack Necromorphs came from are unpleasant to say in the least. Either the soldiers on Tau Volantis did actually have children who were turned, the Unitologists brought these children with them for likely disturbed reasons, or these actually are alien children that were turned into Necromorphs. Every option is both disturbing and tragic. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadSpace3 |
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- The initial procedure that causes Deadpool to descend into his rampage. In particular, seeing that whatever it's doing is causing Deadpool and
*both* inner voices to react in complete and utter agony, with a new, monstrous voice emerging and claiming to have *eaten* the other two.
- Dreadpool's monstrous rampage has many scenes worthy of this, such as when Sue Storm witnesses Dreadpool decapitating The Human Torch and is caught by the assassin when Johnny's blood splatters on her.
- There's also the final panel of the comic where Dreadpool looks directly at the reader and says he'll come for them next. His "shush" gesture doesn't help.
- Lets just say Dreadpool's murderous rampage in general.
- Deadpool Killustrated. What happens to Tom Sawyer. Crosses over into really sad territory when one of his friends calls out "TOM! TOM?!"
- The idea of classical literature characters being the archetypes for Marvel heroes and villains, and that by killing them, all derivatives of them are wiped out.
- The entire premise of
*Again* falls into this territory: Deadpool has been brainwashed by an alliance of villains led by the Red Skull, and they're using him to murder every single one of the heroes. It gets even more nightmarish when it turns out that part of Deadpool's mind is aware of what's happening, but is *completely helpless* to stop himself from committing any further atrocities.
-
*Again* also gives us the deaths of Ms. Marvel, Power Pack, and Moon Girl. Deadpool hallucinates the entire encounter as a cartoonish game of hide-and-seek... before we cut back to reality, where we see a horrified crowd staring at whatever it was Deadpool did to them all.
- The cover to the first issue of the first series, featuring Deadpool holding the decapitated head of the Hulk, much to the rightful horror of Captain America, Spider-Man, Storm, and Iron Man. It could also be interpreted as their final moments in terror and agony as Deadpool deals the finishing blow, which could be even worse. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse |
Dead West / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
- Sometimes, if you piss off the Porcelain Doctor, he will not be satisfied by merely stabbing you. Ruining his books may result your face being grinded into embers. Mercifully, we don't get a long description, but our narrator finds it disturbing.
- The part with Mordechai showing the world he sees to Gervas also qualifies.
- Niall berserkering. Gervas gets a quick glance at the end results, and promptly throws up.
- To a lesser extent, Louis' colourful depiction of a raid on a Native village.
- Toeing into Fridge Horror, but Gervas only realizes exactly how dangerous the Porcelain Doctor's "episodes" are, when the doctor burns him
*very deep* (as in "I have your hands' outline *fused into me* " deep) after a bad move, and at dawn, he kills the kitten our narrator got him, when the kitty accidentally claws him. Then he calmly resumes petting the dead kitten. And later he doesn't remember anything.
- Another part when even Gervas is horrified: the Porcelain Doctor killed/chased away a tentacled river monster by boiling it alive. Apparently, under the fight it managed to catch the doctor's arm, but that is not a scary bit; Gervas understandably freaks out when he returns to find his friend sitting on the deck and calmly cutting and burning his own arm, to get rid of the nonexistent tentacle. Our narrator manages to stop him, but he describes the results as "something pulled out from beneath a steam-powered trasher after the last minute".
- The manner Cedric kills his best friend ||because he molested his baby brother and told him that the Beast himself ordered him to do that.|| He beat him blue and black, let him an hour to flee, then sicced his best blood hounds after him. Then after they caught up, he let his dogs play with the bastard for a while. Then he got a knife, and started to work on the guy. On the next day the army found the fool, dismembered and emasculated, and so horribly tortured that they thought that the enemy got him. This is also what Cedric tells his general.
- Generally, when Cedric shines as a Knight Templar Big Brother. One memorable example is dropping a Jerk Jock into a steam-powered meat grinder, feet first (granted, he brought that to himself via Attempted Rape), another is gutting and skinning a Pedophile Priest, then burning the temple, then the next few ones when the priests said something suspicious (he might have been a tiny bit frustrated). Or dangling another Jerk Jock from a tower to find out why he throw a javelin at Niall. Or... you get the picture. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadWest |
Dead Island / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
## Other Dead Island Games:<!—index—><!—/index—>
## Dead Island
- Some of the zombies are rather disturbing. Specifically the Butcher, who has gnawed all the flesh from his arms and scraped the bones into crude blades with his teeth. Nice.
- What's possibly even scarier then any zombie is the people caught in-between. There's murders, sociopaths, and depraved people in general all over the island.
- An early game example of this is the named zombie Nenja Samejon. Bungalow 4 in the Hotel Bungalows area has a zombie woman handcuffed to a bed with pink mood lighting and multiple cameras aimed at her. Also in the building are two zombies who seem to have been a film crew of sorts. Neither implication is a pleasant one.
- Although a third possibility is that it was a legitimate porn shoot - especially when you take into account that Nenja Samejon is an anagram of Jenna Jameson, a famous porn actress.
- Which, in itself, can wheel right back in to disturbing, did the woman turn during the shoot infecting her costar? or did the crew turn, and she had to watch, helpless, as they turned and attacked her?
- The sewers. Tight hallways and murky water lurking with zombies just waiting to pounce on you. There are also zombies there that just happen to shoot acid at you.
- Unlike the Infected then, who are faster than you and will chase you like Determinator personified, as if their life depends on your death.
- Besides the trailer (which is both this and Tearjerker), the Infected Zombies are
**made** of this trope. Those horrible screams when they charge you, the fact that they usually come in packs, and the fact that they can take away half of your health before you can even see them.
- Some of the zombie's cries and roars are actually quite unnerving, particularly the Infected and Thugs. Here, enjoy.
- Suicider zombies are basically more ghoulish versions of Boomers. Instead of spreading bile on you, they explode on you, and while the Boomer only leaves behind its lower torso and legs upon death, this thing leaves behind its legs, lower torso... and its bloodly mangled upper skeleton.
"Help me..." *BOOM!*
- Wanna know whats worse than that, Word of God is suiciders are still fully conscious and aware of what they're doing, those tumours are actually parasites forcing them to seek out the living.
- Outrunning most of the zombie types are fairly easy. Outrunning infected can be nerve-wrecking. Unlike the others, they don't stop coming after you until you reach a safe house or area. And how fast and how long you can run from the infected depend on your stamina. And you have low stamina.
- During the City map, there are times when you find yourself climbing for safety. You think it's all over, but sometimes, and it does happen, the infected climb up to kill you.
- The sewers can become fairly unpleasant. Trapped in tight spaces with walkers is one thing. Trapped in tight spaces with infected on your heels while you're trying to reach safety is a whole other matter.
- Early on you come across a man slumped in a literal pool of blood with floating, mangled corpses all around him. Talking to him reveals he had to kill his wife, father, and brother in self-defense after they turned.
- Hasn't anyone posted the game menu soundtrack? Just listen to this, and don't feel creeped out! Just imagine walking around in the destroyed and ravished cities Zombie Apocalypses bring!
- Returning from the Super Market to the Town Hall. When you enter, you find ||barricades that have obviously failed, fire, and blood, guts, and dead bodies everywhere. Completely overrun by zombies. Absolutely no one is alive anymore. Every inhabitant in the Town Hall is now either a corpse or a zombie. Every police officer. Every civilian. Even the Mayor. And it's implied it's all your fault||. Sweet dreams.
- It actually ||isn't your fault, if you pay attention to the details, none of the zombies are floaters, There is a Ram in the main hall, and the front doors are wide open, it's clear this Ram succeeded where the one in front of the church failed.||
- Installing on the PC sets the tone nicely with a blood chilling scream when you click setup.
- Guess what? The virus is hinted at being caused by Kuru, right? That's not the Nightmare Fuel part. Kuru is a
*real* disease, that's not it either. Kuru stems from cannibalism, even that's not the reason this counts. The real reason is that Kuru really can turn people into zombies, the game only exaggerates it through the disease mutating. *We could well be just one adaptation of the virus away from the events of the game.* You're welcome. Thankfully as of 2009, the disease has all but dropped off the face of the earth thanks to the Fore people of Papua New Guinea wising up and dropping the cannibalistic rituals that helped the disease to spread and become known.
- Kuru does not turn people into zombies. Once symptoms appear (which can take anywhere from 5 to 50 years from initial exposure), the victim usually dies within three months to two years, often because of pneumonia or an infected ulcerated wound. There are three stages:
- 1. The infected individual may exhibit unsteady stance and gait, decreased muscle control, tremors, difficulty pronouncing words (dysarthria), and titubation. This stage is named the ambulant because the individual is still able to walk around despite symptoms.
- 2. The infected individual is incapable of walking without support and suffers ataxia and severe tremors. Furthermore, the individual shows signs of emotional instability and depression, yet exhibits uncontrolled and sporadic laughter. Despite the other neurological symptoms, tendon reflexes are still intact at this stage of the disease.
- 3. The infected individual's existing symptoms, like ataxia, progress to the point where they are no longer capable of sitting without support. New symptoms also emerge: the individual develops dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, which can lead to severe malnutrition. They may also become incontinent, lose the ability or will to speak, and become unresponsive to their surroundings, despite maintaining consciousness.
- In addition, the 'virus' has no DNA, and therefore can
*not* mutate, because *Kuru is NOT a virus*. It is a prion disease, meaning it is caused by a misfolded protein. Mere contact with a prion can cause other proteins to become misfolded. And as stated, it takes 5 to 50 years for the initial symptoms to appear.
- While Kuru doesn't turn people into zombies, consider this; prion diseases (not just Kuru, but CreutzfeldtJakob disease, Familial spongiform encephalopathy, and other prions only humans are affected with) have no actual treatment, they are a
*certain* death sentence, it's just a matter of time. Meaning that someone that has a prion disease might be still alive, yet dead at the same time, just like zombies.
- Considering that in the game and real life, if you're infected with Kuru, you may be well aware of it all, but your brain is deteriorated by the prion that you can't even respond properly. With all the sporadic laughter, the holes in your brain, the tremors, and the neurological effects of such deterioration,
**And I Must Scream doesn't begin to describe how horrific a fate this is**.
- Koritoia Ope, really, once you find the grisly details out. He
*worships* the infected, regarding them as holy individuals who walk between the real world and the Dreamtime, and is then shown attempting to beat a girl to death because she's an "evil spirit". After he gets shot, he's made out to be even *worse*: the girl in question? *His own daughter*. Who also comments that she ran away from the tribe originally because he *sold her to another man as a slave to pay off his gambling debts*. Plus, he's responsible for the initial outbreak of infection in the first place, by using his position as medicine man to make his people eat the brains of zombies, causing them to all be infected.
- The novelization makes him even worse by filling in the blanks the game left: the first zombies? They were men he had
*beat and rape his daughter* when she came back to the tribe to try and make peace with him. They caught the disease from her, then he had her sealed up in the tombs to starve to death because he blamed the "immortals'" comparative mindlessness on her "being an evil spirit".
- Quarantine. Dear God Quarantine. It's a sealed-off part of Moresby, designed to keep the sick away from the healthy. Unfortunately, it's also a place where Infected spawns every fifteen seconds, essentially making it the deadliest place on the island. You only have to go there during
*The Third Head Of Cerberus* quest, but it's terrifying. You get ambushed by horde after horde of infected, and any solo player will most likely die within thirty seconds of entering the zone.
- One of the scariest parts of Banoi, is that the place was a hellhole even before the outbreak. The place was rife with crime, so bad the
*military* had to be called in to supplement the police, the surrounding jungle was home to a tribe that practiced cannibalism (think back to the Fore people and Kuru) and saw women as nothing more than property, to the point Koritoia sold his *own daughter* to slavery by another man *to settle a bet*. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadIsland |
DEAD Tube / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Look out behind you...
Being a manga about a website where people can post videos of torture and/or murder, DEAD Tube is bound to have heaps of Nightmare Fuel...
- The whole concept, for starters. Imagine a website that would be a cross between Youtube and a Red Room. And the people who make the best videos get money from whatever twisted mind created and manages said website.
- On the other hand the participant who gets the least views is charged with all the fees and crimes of all other participants. Surprise-decorating the target's home with 10000 roses, each worth 500 Yen? And breaking into their home in the first place? That's not even the beginning. If you lose, you may be easily framed as a mass-murderer or terrorist. Oh and if you happen to die before that? The punishment is transferred to your family. Have fun.
- You think the loser is the one who should be worried most? Wrong. It's the target.
*Anyone* can be designated as the target. They *don't need to participate* in Dead Tube at all. Hell, they *don't even have to* **have a slightest idea such thing as Dead Tube exists**. Imagine - one day, out of the blue, completely anonymous people just begin to rile you up in every possible way. Once this begins, you may as well call your life quits. Nothing's going to save you. You're screwed.
- The first chapter has any horny guys worst nightmare come to life: ||having sex with an insanely attractive girl, only for her to out of nowhere
*brutally* murder you in the midst of coitus.||
- Towards the end of the Film Director arc when ||when it is revealed that Mashiro is not dead and she appears behind Oushima. Her face, all covered in blood and rushing towards the reader makes for a very unsettling image.||
- The end of the Betsuki arc with it being barrage of extremely disturbing events and images. ||After being raped by several of her students, her insane side starts to kick in and pulls out a pistol and proceeds to kill all of them. She then proceeds to try to have sex with Machiya (and presumably kill him as well), only for Mashiro to take her gun and shoot her in the head at point-blank range. To top it all off the arc ends with Machiya, covered in blood and sporting a Slasher Smile staring creepily towards the reader.||
-
*Dead Tube Neo* is even more depraved than the original one. If you've seen so much as a single video or maybe : even if you just installed the app and didn't watch anything at all, you have to "pay" by uploading a video yourself. Every single day. If you don't, a "Happy Evangelist" is going to come for you and submit you to whatever depraved shit they want. Oh, and each video you submit *has to be* **more extreme** than your previous one. Which means that unless you're a warzone reporter, very soon you'll simply run out of extremities to upload and the Happy Evangelist comes for you anyway. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadTube |
Dear Children / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
It should be no surprise that a horror comic should have some really dark and scary moments.
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
## Horrors that will haunt your dreams include:
- The spectral image that nearly causes Cail to crash when she's driving herself and her dad home from school. Whether or not that thing was tangible (there's some reason to think it wasn't) it could have resulted in a serious car wreck, in which among other things Cail or her father might have been hurt or killed. This possibility is obviously in her dad's mind, as
*he* didn't see the image and nevertheless was severely shaken.
- The way in which the Shadow Under Hearthbrook enters its victims' dreams. We've seen some of these from the POV of the dreamers (and some of those dreams are Nightmare Fuel all by themselves), and we have read about the particularly-nasty recurring dreams that afflicted Wesley Perkovitch before he turned into the Wesley-Thing. The worst of these are the sort of experiences you'd be assessed Sanity losses for in the
*Call of Cthulhu* tabletop RPG, and Wesley was definitely suffering some Sanity Slippage there.
Now consider that the Shadow attacks you in your dreams, making its attacks unavoidable, and that in particularly bad cases can slowly drive you mad, inflict
*physical damage* on you, or even pull you into its world through a portal.
But the worst of it? Based on what happened to Wesley and at least one other person, if you Go Mad from the Revelation, you will begin to transform into one of the Shadow Beasts. And there is some reason to believe that some of your original personality and memories will go on, trapped in your new form and under the control of the Shadow.
Pleasant dreams.
- Emma's dream. The implication of the way she was screaming in that dream was that she could
*feel the pain* of the chains fused with her leg (probably drawing on her suppressed memories of her agony recovering from the real plane crash).
- Josh's dream. Not just the creepiness of being chased and attacked by a Shadow Beast, but the fact that he was
*physically pulled into the dream through a portal* and *bore the marks of the attack after waking.* Was it a dream? Another spacetime? Who knows?
- Wesley's dreams. Especially horrific because of the way on which they attacked the sexual discomfort of a shy young virginal boy and started turning him against even his beloved twin sister. And they end in his
*actual* Monstrous Transformation into a Shadow Beast.
- Everything about the Crooked Saint. An incredibly murderous Serial Killer who terrorized a rather small city for many years, killing women in gruesome ways. Given the size of his body count and the likely population of Hearthbrook in the 1950's, it is likely that he scarred a whole generation (almost everyone would have at least casually known a victim). He was very likely a victim of the Shadow's dream-sendings himself, and it's quite possible that there were
*multiple* "Crooked Saints."
- What's worse is that there's strong reason to believe that the human who
*became* the Crooked Saint was himself (or herself, or themselves) merely a victim of the Shadow.
- Still worse — there's
*also* strong reason to believe that Leroy Whittaker either wasn't the Crooked Saint at all, or at least *wasn't the only one.*
- In other words, the Crooked Saint may well be alive and well, and even if he isn't, the Shadow can probably create another one — or a whole
*squad* of them — as required.
- The confrontation between Cailin and Chelle and the Wesley-Thing. Why was it so terrible?
- It's the first time in the comic that any viewpoint character runs into any unnatural creature definitely real, tangible in the present-day waking world.
- They encounter it in an alien tunnel warren, a thousand or more feet from the entrance. There's no one else to help them. No one else even
*knows where they went*. (This is Cailin's fault). Then Cail suffers some sort of psychic contact with the creature, gets a *severe* nosebleed, and faints (note that this is similar to the earlier stages of Wesley's own Monstrous Transformation. And now Chelle is alone with the thing. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DearChildren |
Dear Brother / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
For a very melodramatic shoujo originally from The '70s, the animated version of Dear Brother (from 1991) gives some REALLY creepy scenes.
Rei Asaka's apartment, which only has mirrors and Creepy Dolls aside of two/three furniture pieces. And this is without counting a certain spot in school, with the knife holes on the walls... Room Full of Crazy, indeed. Doubles as a Tear Jerker, considering the circumstances in which we find out about it.
The boxcutter deal came to a head in Episode 27, when Aya's bullying crosses a line too many and thus provoking Mariko to enter a Tranquil Fury and slash Aya with said boxcutter.
The scene where Rei, after being overloaded on drugs and with a high fever, mistakes Nanako for Fukiko and tries to kill her. And herself. Then turns into a Tear Jerker when Nanako barely manages to snap her out of it, and Rei collapses in tears.
While comparatively mild, after Nanako runs out of her birthday party, Mariko grows depressed and refuses to eat anything. Kaoru notices and tries to cheer her up, but Mariko angrily rejects her, saying "What good is health? Who cares about health!". The usually level-headed Kaoru becomes so infuriated that she lifts her into the air, shaking her and screaming into her face.
Rei was already making horrible, half-dead faces by the first episode. After Fukiko tosses an umbella at her and refuses to give her a ride, she takes some pílls and looks like a ghost while doing so.
Fukiko herself. When we first meet her, Fukiko seems like the perfect young lady that every other girl at the Seiran Academy wants to be: gorgeous and well dressed, admired by all for her composure, grace, fine manners, intelligence and leadership skills. In reality, she's an obsessive, petty, scheming, self-centered and sadistic bully who likes to emotionally and physically torture her younger sister. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DearBrother |
Death Becomes Her / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
"I HAVE A
**HOLE** IN MY STOMACH!" *Death Becomes Her* is a Black Comedy with some extra emphasis on the "black", directed by Robert Zemeckis...though you'd be excused for thinking it was Tim Burton, given the film's content.
- Many of the Amusing Injuries throughout the movie.
- Madeline's shockingly violent fall down the staircase, complete with a closeup of her neck snapping on one of the marble steps.
- Madeline blowing a massive hole in Helen's chest with a shotgun... and an
*incredibly* pissed-off Helen rising up, moments later, from the bloody fountain she was blown into.
- Helen hitting Madeline on the head with a shovel, crushing her head and neck
*completely* backward. Not to mention the gurgling noises Helen makes afterward. *Damn, I just fixed this.*
- At least the final cut of the film has the two women making themselves "presentable" in the aftermath of their feud. In the original script, Mad and Hel stand unseen in the doorway to Ernest's room, casting "horrible, misshapen shadows".
- The emergency room doctor (played by the late Sydney Pollack) examines a post-Neck Snap Madeline, and announces (after taking a swig from Ernest's flask) that Madeline's neck, along with wrist, is broken in multiple places (with bones protruding from the skin), her body is room temperature, and she has no pulse. In shock, he steps away for a minute to get a second opinion. Minutes later, Ernest finds him flatlining on an operating table, with doctors frantically attempting to revive him. The shock of Madeline's condition was overwhelming enough to put him into cardiac arrest. We don't know if he was brought back or if he died, though it seems the latter likely occurred.
- As Ernest runs around trying to find another doctor to help Madeline, he runs into the lobby of the emergency room, which is devoid of medical personnel — and occupied by people with bizarre, disturbing injuries (including a tennis player who looks like he had fragments of a racket
*shoved into his knees*). Nightmare Fuel or Black Comedy, it's unsettling all the same.
- Helen's Stalker Shrine. Her vanity is covered with candles and mutilated photos of Madeline, defaced with red marker. And then we pan back, and see the words "NEVER AGAIN" written on the mirror in lipstick.
- Goldie Hawn's glassy and literally-lifeless eyes after her death.
*Brrrrrr.*
- The concept of being forced to live for eternity in a body that has been dead for decades and is literally held together by bandages and spray paint is
*pretty* horrific when you stop to think about it. Especially the state they are left in at the end of the film. They're stuck like that forever!
- And spiteful egomaniacs that they are, they seem more annoyed than horrified.
- And how about the good folks that would soon be proceeding out of Ernest's funeral, only to find two disfigured corpses on the steps of the church talking to each other?
- Also, it's inevitable that each and every one of the people who have taken the potion will eventually get killed somehow and find themselves in Madeline and Helen's shoes. Ernest was right to refuse Lisle's potion.
- The eerily floating, crying nuns that pass Ernest as he makes his way to the morgue. The scene comes completely out of nowhere, and is never explained (it was meant to tie into an unreleased Deleted Scene, which was only uncovered through the original script). The result is rather unsettling, even in a movie full of Black Humor and Body Horror.
- One proposed ending for the film had Madeline and Helen stealing a car at Lisle's and chasing after Ernest, only to drive off a cliff and crash with a fiery explosion (just like in the staged "accident" Helen had planned for Madeline earlier in the film). Madeline and Helen would've emerged from the wreckage of the car as
*charred, smoldering skeletons* — who are still alive and fully conscious. Yikes. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeathBecomesHer |
Dead Reign / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes
Don't think that just because survivors don't have to deal with alien horrors, psycho robots and otherworldly beings that things will be any less scary in Palladium's new Zombie Apocalypse RPG. Unlike the fantastic sci-fi universe of Rifts the world of Dead Reign is one of a constant struggle to survive against overwhelming odds while trying to avoid becoming prey to dozens of different types of ravenous zombies and human predators... and there are no M.D.C. weapons, superpowers or cybernetic suits of armor to save you here....
**As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.**
- The artwork really stands out in this title, particularly the work of artist Nick Bradshaw who drew most of the zombies in the first book. You really have to hand it to the guy, each and every type of walking corpse that appears has a gruesome and disgusting design. You can actually see the maggots and shredded muscle tendons on the twisted half ripped off faces of each walking cadaver and every single wound and sign of damage on their body is rendered in exquisite detail... and that's all before getting into the super zombie types that have all manner of disfiguring Body Horror that will make players wonder how they even got to that state. Zombies with broken jaws, zombies with crushed bodies, zombies covered in bugs, zombies with bits of scrap metal jammed into their flesh to serve as makeshift armor... this game has no shortage of grim content for even the most diehard Zombie Apocalypse fans. Sweet dreams...
- The Undead Child trope is in full swing here with plenty of nightmarish artwork to go with it. Highlights include a picture of a little zombie girl in a blood splattered dress walking down an abandoned street at night carrying a balloon and an illustration of a person vainly attempting to feed an obviously undead baby in a crib.
- As if all the zombies weren't bad enough the game goes to great lengths to show that Humans Are the Real Monsters in many scenarios and provides plenty of cruel NPC villains for the players to encounter. From insane death-worshipping Terror Cults to crooked backwoods Retro-Savages the base game already has plenty of nasty baddies to offer, but later sourcebooks add even more to make the lives of the remaining survivors complete hell on earth. You've got depraved serial killers, raiders, slavers, zombie tamers, torturers, kidnappers, psychopathic freaks and much
*much* worse. It really goes to show that the worst scum humanity has to offer didn't entirely perish when the apocalypse came and has in fact found many ways to thrive in this grim new world of death and devastation.
- The Walking Grave... where to even begin with this thing? It's a massive undead abomination made up of dozens or perhaps even hundreds of corpses that ended up fused together into a shapeless inhumanoid blob of decayed flesh and scattered limbs and heads. Even weaker Walking Graves have SDC in the hundreds while the biggest of them can easily reach the lower thousands, essentially giving them the same amount of health as
*a minor Mega-Damage creature.* Oh, and to fully kill one **all** of its many heads has to be **destroyed completely.** Miss *even one* and it'll keep coming and regenerate with each new survivor it kills and adds to its mass. Brad Ashley's advice for dealing with one? Run. Get the hell out of dodge or be prepared to go down swinging. Of the five times his group encountered one of these horrid things they only managed to put down two and suffered heavy losses accomplishing it. The other three times they flat out ran away and didn't even try to put up a fight... and they don't feel a bit of shame for having done so. If the survivors are ever given a choice between going into battle with a Walking Grave or a full sized zombie horde... go with the horde. At least that way it will all be over comparatively quick.
- Bug Boys and Worm Meat will have anyone with a fear of insects, germs or Body Horror scratching their own skin in revulsion. Definitely not something the GM will want to bring into a game with squeamish players... unless they're "that" kind of GM. | https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/DeadReign |
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