What I think is horrific in novels and movies is when something pops out of the human host (ala Alien) or say when spiders come out of a dead body's mouth. This may sound silly, but the thing that spooks me the most is when you have an antagonist levitating. Examples of this are the girls in "The Craft" and Gary Oldman in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." I was also reminded of this a while back while reading Stephen King's "Cell."
I read mostly blogs of people that write horror stories, and I know a few of those same horror people drop in here. Let's have an informal poll of sorts. I'm all for giving the reader what they want, so let's figure out what people find spooky. What creeps you out?
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14 comments:
I think I'd have to go with things crawling out of the mouths of bodies. Eeekkk! Makes me cover my eyes.
Incidentally, Alan, I've answered your Cannot Tell a Lie tag today and am passing it on.
Helen
Straight From Hel
Razors. You bast---. ;-)
To a lesser extent knives and scissors.
In movies, they can hack someone to bits with an axe or a chainsaw and I'm fine with the gore. Have someone pick up a knife and just wave it around for a while and I have to prise my fingernails out of my palms. It's the anticipation that kills me.
Icky knife moments for me include Pan's Labyrinth and Old Boy.
What really creeps me out is what human beings are capable of doing to each other, regardless of whether speculative elements are involved or not.
Small things creep me out, be they insects or monsters. Give me something scurrying and I'm out of the room.
Rats... I know they are clever and intelligent and if we weren't such dirty creatures they wouldn't hang around with us, but I don't like them.
How can anyone keep them as pets?
Fingers getting chopped off *shudders* Or teeth getting pulled out!
Helen - Thanks for the plug on your blog!
Anton - You're a scary dude...I like a lot of things about Pan's Labyrinth.
Jeremy - You're exactly right. I worry that we're all getting de-sensitized to that...
Cate - We had a small bat problem in the old Victorian house we used to live in...
Jarmara - I wouldn't want one as a pet, and mice sort of bother me as well (I'd be the guy up on the chair shouting "Kill it, kill it!")
Nat - The teeth thing has got me thinking about the "Marathon Man." Do you guys ever get that sort of thing 'uncut' on TV in the US?
That picture of Oldman licking the blood off of the razor pretty much did it for me. Also, children who are wrinkled and old looking--bizarre like the "Humpty-Dumpty" fellow in the Kinder surprise video. Anything that makes a small, whispering noise in the dark.
I had a pet rat when I was a teenager.
I came home from school one Saturday (yes, school six days a week.) and there was a cage in my bedroom, well a new cage but we'll not go into that, with a rat hanging off the bars.
"There's that rat you've always wanted," my mother said.
Now, this was after the salamander and gerbil incidents. I didn't want them either. In fact, I devoted a good part of my life to making sure things like them didn't get into the room through the cracks in the floorboards and the ill-fitting windows. I had to hunt for live food for those damn salamanders for two years, until one had the good grace to die and the other tried to eat it and died shortly after. At least with the gerbils I just fed them gerbil chow. Until one had the good grace to die, and the other tried to eat it. By this stage if anyone in my house died, there was a good chance I was going to prison for cannibalism, but it wasn't my fault - I'd been indoctrinated.
So me and that rat I'd always wanted, apparently, spent about three days getting to know each other, to the point where she would take food from my hand. Wily b*tch was just reeling me in and first chance she got she bit me. I draw the line when pets draw blood.
After a heated discussion with my mother, which consisted of listing all the other animals I did not want as a pet (including spiders, tropical fish and cats)(but not including dogs, monkeys or a pig)(pigs are tasty pets), my sister took over rat duties. And about two weeks later she gave birth to almost a dozen baby rats. The rat, not my sister.
Meat, particularly meat cut into neat little pieces and left in refrigerated bits for cooking later. I don't mind TV shows like Dexter showing hacked up bodies, but the butcher case at Whole Foods gives me the creeps. Real vs. Fake, possibly?
Also, I agree with you about the things coming out of people. The facehugger/chest 'splody aliens freak me the hell out. Big time. That and Oompa Loompas. WTF is up with those things?
And Mirrors. Ugh.
Hm, this is turning out to be a long list!
Aaron - It's funny that you mention the small, whispering noise in the dark...we just watched Aliens the other night, and it was kinda creepy every time that little girl "whispered" her lines.
Gully - I'm really growing to enjoy your dark sense of humour. I think that you've got a horror story there...the young Irish lad seeking revenge on his family for burdening him with these evil cannibalistic pets...
Katey - I see what you're saying about the meat-in-fridge thing. And I don't know where this Oompa Loompa thing came from! Somebody labeled me an Oopa Loompa lover at another blog and it just keeps croping up! Actually, I kind of liked the little guys in Gene Wilder's version of Willie Wonka...
For me it's maggots. Even the word makes me feel sort of ill. I had a lamb once with flystrike (where blowflies lay eggs in a fleece and the maggots burrow into the lamb and start eating it alive), and while I caught it early and rushed the lamb to the vet's and he was fine, I have never been so horrified in my life. In fact, I've now made sure that I won't want lunch. Bleah. Anyway, that part of Poltergeist with the maggoty chicken? I can't watch any part of the movie because of that.
*shivers* I will now add maggots to the list of things that creep me out.
"the young Irish lad seeking revenge on his family for burdening him with these evil cannibalistic pets..."
More like the cannibalistic pets seeking revenge on the family for burdening them with the young Irish lad.
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