Something scary

[Lee Chambers]

I know that the Halloween contest is still two months away, but I'm wanting to start on some ideas for my entry this year and I'm searching for a list of things that people find scary that I can incorporate in my story to make it more terrifying.

I'm not talking so much about phobias as I am about things that give you chills, leave you awake at night, make you pull the blankets over your head and cause you to check if your closet door is fully closed.

So would anyone care to share? It can be anything at all, not just things to do with reading.

 

[BedtimeStories77]

Maybe an adult twist on a childhood phobia? The boogeyman?

Hell, ever see Darkness Falls? It scared the heebie geebies outta me when i saw it. lol

 

[snooper]

... things that give you chills, leave you awake at night, make you pull the blankets over your head and cause you to check if your closet door is fully closed. ...

Some of the stories on Lit do that to me. Not the content, but the truly appalling grammar and spelling.

I do not include your writing in that class, Lee; by the standards of some of the writers on here you are Shakespeare, Dickens and Hemingway rolled into one.

 

[Nameless_Rose]

hmmm. Maybe a twist on an urban legend would be scary. A few that come to mind are the one where someone picks up a hitchhiker and they find their grave the next day, the one with the serial killer with the hook hand, and the one with the psycho in the backseat.

 

[Carnevil9]

A surprising number of people are afraid of clowns.

Fear of death, of course; public humiliation, loss of respect, the blowing open of a carefully guarded secret, perhaps about a shameful fetish.

Many people fear being seen naked, too; there's got to be an angle in there!.....Carney

 

[BedtimeStories77]

Yes, your av scares me each time i see it.

Not to mention, when hubby took me to Vegas and we stayed at Circus Circus.

 

[Carnevil9]

Yes, your av scares me each time i see it.

Good, then it's working.

By the by, yours gives me the heebie-jeebies!......Carney

 

[BedtimeStories77]

Good, then it's working.

By the by, yours gives me the heebie-jeebies!......Carney

 

[only_more_so]

I know that the Halloween contest is still two months away, but I'm wanting to start on some ideas for my entry this year and I'm searching for a list of things that people find scary that I can incorporate in my story to make it more terrifying.

I'm not talking so much about phobias as I am about things that give you chills, leave you awake at night, make you pull the blankets over your head and cause you to check if your closet door is fully closed.

So would anyone care to share? It can be anything at all, not just things to do with reading.

I'm afraid of tomatos. Seriously. They are like little gooey bombs. They seem firm, but they are just ready to coat your hands it goo. I hate goo.

But seriously... The most emotionally upset I've been recently was because of a sub-station getting hit by lightning. The power dimmed and then went out, and the sky started strobbing in a multitude of colors. I'm not talking just white then dark, I'm talking red and blue and green. On top of that the sound of the thunder didn't end, it just kept going and going, for what must have been close to a minute. It was something so strange and viscerally disturbing that a part of me wondered if it was the end of the world.

 

[cloudy]

Maybe an adult twist on a childhood phobia? The boogeyman?

Hell, ever see Darkness Falls? It scared the heebie geebies outta me when i saw it. lol

I've done this a couple of times with good results. I used "the boogeyman in the closet" for Hush, Hush, Sweet Carly

 

[TreeBeard42]

Edgar Allen Poe is the king of scares. One theme that he often uses is being buried alive.

 

[lovely_Lilly]

I'm an old fashioned girl ... how about an obsessive stalker?

 

[RawHumor]

I'm an old fashioned girl ... how about an obsessive stalker?

Like the guy in my av?

 

[BedtimeStories77]

Like the guy in my av?

You're a sick Man, Raw. Before You, never had i lusted for Michael Myers.

 

[RawHumor]

You're a sick Man, Raw. Before You, never had i lusted for Michael Myers.

I take that as the highest of compliments.

 

[BedtimeStories77]

I take that as the highest of compliments.

And now, back to perversely scary stories!

 

[Lee Chambers]

Some of the stories on Lit do that to me. Not the content, but the truly appalling grammar and spelling.

I do not include your writing in that class, Lee; by the standards of some of the writers on here you are Shakespeare, Dickens and Hemingway rolled into one.

Yeah, some of the stuff on here is pretty bad. But I'll take those words as a compliment, since I prefer compliments.

Something that I thought might be kind of funny is a story about an English teacher who has a bunch of students who have horrible grammar and spelling and she gets on them about it...then one day she finds herself cursed and unable to write properly anymore. "NOOOOO!!" Stupid but funny.

 

[Lee Chambers]

Maybe an adult twist on a childhood phobia? The boogeyman?

Hell, ever see Darkness Falls? It scared the heebie geebies outta me when i saw it. lol

I have seen Darkness Falls. Not too bad. One movie that scared the shit out of me, though, was Event Horizon, a sci-fi horror. Hearing a guy saying over and over, in Latin, "Save yourself from Hell" while holding his own eyes in his out-stretched hands...well, let's just say that an eighteen year old shouldn't be staring at his closet door while he's trying to sleep wondering if something is going to come out of it.

 

[Lee Chambers]

I'm afraid of tomatos. Seriously. They are like little gooey bombs. They seem firm, but they are just ready to coat your hands it goo. I hate goo.

But seriously... The most emotionally upset I've been recently was because of a sub-station getting hit by lightning. The power dimmed and then went out, and the sky started strobbing in a multitude of colors. I'm not talking just white then dark, I'm talking red and blue and green. On top of that the sound of the thunder didn't end, it just kept going and going, for what must have been close to a minute. It was something so strange and viscerally disturbing that a part of me wondered if it was the end of the world.

Something like that happened not too long ago here. We didn't have all the light show, but the thunder was non-stop for like an hour. It was really weird and I was afraid that something nearby was going to get struck.

 

[Lee Chambers]

Edgar Allen Poe is the king of scares. One theme that he often uses is being buried alive.

Hmm, not bad. I could use that concept.

 

[Lee Chambers]

I'm an old fashioned girl ... how about an obsessive stalker?

The thing is that I want to have an element of the supernatural in the story. Personally, I've never found movies with crazy stalkers to be that scary because you KNOW the person is a flesh and blood human being and it all comes down to blowing them away with a shotgun. It's just that, in the movies, the shotgun thing is never written into the script.

Yet, how about a stalker that you shoot with the shotgun...and the bastard doesn't even flinch? Maybe the bullets go right through him? At that point you're like "What the fuck are you?" and he gets all <insert Psycho stabby music here>.

 

[emap]

Bad Lee bad.

OK, if you want to do a horror of a stalker and actually scare the pants off people, there is one very simple little thing to do, don't say it's a person, just have things happen or find stuff.

So instead of say talking about how he is staring in at her through the window, instead she see's something out the window, when she gets closer there is nothing there. Make it a fast stalk and toss in some sex, or more fun, attempted sex/masturbation before the stalker reveals himself for a little forced fun.

For an example, she is babysitting, gets there at 6PM parents leave 5 minutes later there is a knock at the door, she assumes the parents came back it's a rose. Kids are in bed at 7PM, young kids here and then the real fun begins. After coming down the stairs she sees something out the window goes to the window, nothing there. She puts a porn in watches, puts a hand in her pants starts to enjoy the movie and then someone knocks. Nobody is there, goes back to movie and somebody knocks again, this time it's her boyfriend. So they go and start enjoying the movie then a vase falls over, after the vase they go back to the movie and there is a knock. Nobody is at the door so they go back to the movie again and a window opens. Boyfirned leaves because it's to weird, she wants to go with him but has to watch the kids, gets a call from the parents and they say not to worry, weird things happen there sometimes but nothing else.

Of course more things happen, ball bounces down the stairs the kids are asleep and so forth until hopefully everybody is freaked out and then she gets grabbed by the stalker and fucked.

 

[Lee Chambers]

Bad Lee bad.

OK, if you want to do a horror of a stalker and actually scare the pants off people, there is one very simple little thing to do, don't say it's a person, just have things happen or find stuff.

So instead of say talking about how he is staring in at her through the window, instead she see's something out the window, when she gets closer there is nothing there. Make it a fast stalk and toss in some sex, or more fun, attempted sex/masturbation before the stalker reveals himself for a little forced fun.

For an example, she is babysitting, gets there at 6PM parents leave 5 minutes later there is a knock at the door, she assumes the parents came back it's a rose. Kids are in bed at 7PM, young kids here and then the real fun begins. After coming down the stairs she sees something out the window goes to the window, nothing there. She puts a porn in watches, puts a hand in her pants starts to enjoy the movie and then someone knocks. Nobody is there, goes back to movie and somebody knocks again, this time it's her boyfriend. So they go and start enjoying the movie then a vase falls over, after the vase they go back to the movie and there is a knock. Nobody is at the door so they go back to the movie again and a window opens. Boyfirned leaves because it's to weird, she wants to go with him but has to watch the kids, gets a call from the parents and they say not to worry, weird things happen there sometimes but nothing else.

Of course more things happen, ball bounces down the stairs the kids are asleep and so forth until hopefully everybody is freaked out and then she gets grabbed by the stalker and fucked.

Not a bad idea. I'm currently working on a list of things that I find scary or creepy. This is not just items that can be the main focus, but things that help set the tone and create an air of suspense and terror.

Lee’s Notes On All Things Terrifying

- Watching a movie or video clip that has the grainy, old time footage. The white spots that appear in the film, constantly making the picture appear to jump and shift randomly.

- Creepy ass banjo music (like in Silent Hill)

- Technology acting up, making loud, nails-on-chalkboard-like noises. Lights flickering or going out. Lights flashing in strange patterns. Computers or TVs displaying strange and evil images or symbols. Giant monsters in the fridge.

- Snow, giving the impression of serene beauty before evil strikes. Giving the sense of anticipation, the frozen world where surprises happen.

- Loud drums and gongs. Church bells. Sirens, alarms, air raid sirens.

- Zippo lighters in the dark. A single, flickering flame that could, and usually does, go out at any moment plunging the hero or heroine into darkness…where evil strikes.

- Having no way to defend yourself, no weapons, no protection, against whatever evil is threatening you. This can also be no way to stop an invisible foe (i.e. ghost or poltergeist) or having a weapon that has no effect on the enemy.

- Illusions and mind games

- Things dealing with religion

- Harsh, orange lighting


This is just a partial list. I'm adding things as I find them.

 

[snooper]

... Yet, how about a stalker that you shoot with the shotgun ... Maybe the bullets go right through ...

Weird stalker, but even weirder shotgun - one that fires bullets?

 

[Lee Chambers]

Weird stalker, but even weirder shotgun - one that fires bullets?

Do not question me, mortal!