The monster mash

[Conceptulist]

Since I write horror stories, I thought it would be informative to find out what truly horrifies the masses. Hence, I'm asking anyone and everyone: what character are they most afraid of? and why?

[NapalmKev]

Not so much a particular character, I'm more into horrors that explore Human thought/condition. The bogey man isn't half as scary as a mentally deranged nutcase that could be living next door.

If I had to chose a character I'd go with Pinhead, a dark evil fucker who was once Human.

Cheers

[Jim_Campbell]

Since I write horror stories, I thought it would be informative to find out what truly horrifies the masses. Hence, I'm asking anyone and everyone: what character are they most afraid of? and why?

Jeremy Corbyn, if the mainstream media are to be believed...

Cheers!

Jim

[TordelBack]

The fairies*.  There's nothing scarier than those malevolent, mischievous bastards lovely wee lords and ladies.





*Steady now.

[The Legendary Shark]

Anyone who desires power over other people.

[Greg M.]

Great big pigs that look in your window at night. And grunt.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

The unknown frightens people more than anything else. If you can't see/hear or even smell it you're at a great disadvantage. The fear of being eaten alive is another horror people have since predation was a problem for our ancestors in Africa.

Child snatching/murder is another evil. To have one's genetic legacy denied by an act of malice is deeply abhorrent to humans hence the contempt for ghastly peodaphiles. You could say it 's a form of predation too and it instills a sense of failure and hopelessness. If you can't defend the youngest members of the community against a ravening enviroment/monster/malicious human/ghost what hope is there for the future?

[ZenArcade]

That image of bear riding an inflatable shark that he uses as an avatar. Z

[Zarjazzer]

Tentacled horrors of cyclopean plasticity. I always liked dopplegangers aka The invasion of the Bodysnatchers or the Thing/Who goes there? though, they're cool and scary. You can't trust anyone these days!

[Mardroid]

The doppelganger thing leans towards something I find scary: the idea of people, particularly loved ones, turning wrong. That's one thing I find scary about zombie films. Zombies themselves aren't all that powerful as monsters go. Especially those slow moving shambling things.

But now imagine your sweet old granny, coming back and staggering towards you making a mewing sound, and trying to take a bite out of you. (Although she might need her dentures for that.)


A good example to my mind, are the [spoiler]monsters in the walls[/spoiler], in Stephen King's short story Jerusalem's Lot. Actually the vampires in the novel Salem's Lot are quite scary for much the same reason. [spoiler]With the exception of the head vampire Barlow (who is less scary to me, although he is the most powerful) these vampires are not the intelligent articulate beings with personality we see in most vampire films and stories. Neither are they quite as stupid as the way zombies are portrayed. They are just something hungry, twisted and wrong, but they have enough memory of their former loved ones and associates to target them first. Over time, they develop more cunning, but they remain inhuman.[/spoiler]

Brrrr.

While I like vampires, i generally don't find them all that scary. But written a certain way, they can be.

[Conceptulist]

Wow, this response is amazing.
I'm particularly happy to hear people dissecting their fears because this makes my next question a bit easier to shoehorn in.
So, pretty much whilst looking for a fear that prevails in everyone, I thought of one thing that is never (or as far as I'm aware of) used in horror movies, loneliness. This thought occurred to me because our entire media is based upon relationships, whether breaking or bonding, and the world's most unified theory amongst society (the theory that alien life exists) attempts to nullify an idea of loneliness. I mean imagine if you were just sat in an empty abyss, that only hosted yourself, what would you be thinking and feeling?

This is just a loose theory, so feel free to disprove or even argue against it.

[Conceptulist]

oh, and to respond to three fears at once (unknown, paranoia/corruption (the thing fear), and the mental status fear) , I'm glad people mentioned some of these fears because I've either written a story based on that fear or I am developing something based on those fears, though their probably extremely rough compared to the professional standard I am trying to achieve.
I also like the political joke  .

To Madroid:
Do you read many of Stephen King's novels? I only ask because I read 'IT' and I found it to be pallid after 300 pages, which was a shame considering it had a really tense atmosphere before hand, hence I was wondering if Stephen King tends to go into too much detail in a majority of his novels.

[sheridan]

I've either written a story based on that fear or I am developing something based on those fears, though their probably extremely rough compared to the professional standard I am trying to achieve.

Would it be bad to mention you should have used "they're" in that sentence?  Wouldn't normally do that on an online forum, but this thread is about writing and aiming at a professional standard.

[Jabberwocky]

I often find people who do nothing but stand and stare at you to be quite terrifying. I think the movie It Follows used that kind of thing very well in its story. The idea of being stalked by someone who says nothing and does nothing but walk towards you is very creepy in my opinion.

[shaolin_monkey]

Great big pigs that look in your window at night. And grunt.

That was one freaky book!