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What do you fear?
8 years ago
Whew. I am finally back home from my adventures.
I've been thinking about my next projects, and what I want to build. I have a few designs lined up, but something occurred to me and made me curious.
I want to make monsters..... and Halloween, while pretty far away, is coming. In order to be ready, I should start exploring the scary monster factors that I want to create.
SO!
What monsters or creatures scare you? WHY do they scare you? Are they mostly human? Are they completely unrecognizable? Do they move in an odd manner? Is it the sharp teeth, and scary claws, or is it the knife in his hand? Does it have pupils, or is it blind, or does it even have eyes at all? Is it symmetrical? Does it have a name? Is it from something we've seen before, or is it one of your personal nightmares?
I want to figure out what would be popular, but also interesting. What qualifies something as horror? Blood? Missing parts? The creature itself, or the props it has?
I want to dissect what makes a monster scary. What makes you run up the basement stairs a little faster towards the end?
-K
I've been thinking about my next projects, and what I want to build. I have a few designs lined up, but something occurred to me and made me curious.
I want to make monsters..... and Halloween, while pretty far away, is coming. In order to be ready, I should start exploring the scary monster factors that I want to create.
SO!
What monsters or creatures scare you? WHY do they scare you? Are they mostly human? Are they completely unrecognizable? Do they move in an odd manner? Is it the sharp teeth, and scary claws, or is it the knife in his hand? Does it have pupils, or is it blind, or does it even have eyes at all? Is it symmetrical? Does it have a name? Is it from something we've seen before, or is it one of your personal nightmares?
I want to figure out what would be popular, but also interesting. What qualifies something as horror? Blood? Missing parts? The creature itself, or the props it has?
I want to dissect what makes a monster scary. What makes you run up the basement stairs a little faster towards the end?
-K
For the topic at hand- "Uncanny" is something that has always scared me. More specifically, familiar things, like a person's face, with features removed or altered.
Examples from Jacob's Ladder: http://sta.sh/01b776luszwx
Another (more personal fear) is creatures lurking among rivers and lakes and oceans, wether parially obscured or lurking at even-level , face to face underwater.
So, ultimately, my personal suggestion is to take something familiar-then subvert the easily identified comforts people take in knowing this thing or person. I think anything you do will be cool as hell, though. And more fodder for "uncredited creepypasta threads". ;)
and I have not seen this before, this sort of thing really is terrifying! Its like you know it's supposed to be human, but the deformities make you wonder, is it only messed up on the outside? Or the inside as well?
GOOD suggestions, man!!! I LOVE dissecting horror and monsters, it's fun to find the foundations of fear!
Also i have never feared monsters really, mostly humanoids. (so anything that WAS human once... like ghosts, the ring girl, witches, zombies etc)
I have never been thinking about it that much before but i can tell that im not about fangs and stuffs.
The listed above are scarier to me.
You have given me something entirely new to work with, and I'm really liking this. I don't know if I could ever actually build this, but I might give it a go as far as sculpture is concerned.
It IS interesting that you point out humanoids, or things that WERE once people. I really really like that. Something that clearly IS still human, but there's something wrong with that, and thats' where we step into Disturbing, and have to be careful not to cross the line of Disgusting.
Reminds me of the making of the Silent Hill movie, where Patrick Tatopoulos was talking about the thin line that separates the two. Love that!
Will watch that if i can find. :)
Its a 6 part, and, its a short blurb. But I love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQn.....OFzzX_B22lZzIe
Totally agree what was spoken!
Ghosts and spirits also send chills up my spine but honestly I'm not entirely sure why.
Also less direct, but one of my all time biggest fears is being lost in a strange place. Doesn't matter where. Could be a big city, or a forest, or the middle of the ocean.
That said, I'm not sure how well those things lend to making cool monsters. Going to agree with Blarm and go with Uncanny Valley. The face on the menu screen of the game Power Drill Massacre makes me reeeeaaaally uncomfortable, as do oni in Ao Oni, and the horses from Parasite Eve 2. Just to give some examples
And yes, I'm finding that the most fearful thing that makes people most afraid of SOMETHING is that it's not tangible. It's not something physical, most times, it's an aspect of the physical. Which seems like it would be a dead end for me, but it actually gives me a LOT more wiggle room to be creative, than if it were specifically teeth and claws, for instance.
I like that I have all these categories to work off of. A lot of them are repeated in all the responses which gives me a good range of things that most of my audience fears. So hopefully I can tap into that with my upcoming projects.