The most frightening aspect of a character.

[FifthView]

A disease is scary because it might end you without you being able to fight it, but it isn't conscious about itself unlike humans. A wild animal will kill you if it sees you as a threat, but it does this out of self-preservation and will not try to mess with your mind. The same can not be said for humans.

For some time now, I've thought about the appearance of extraterrestrials in this way:

A lot of people imagine an ET-The Extraterrestrial or else advanced/benevolent/disinterested extraterrestrials and look forward to actually meeting them someday. My own opinion is that, depending upon how first contact happens, the vast majority of humans might be extremely terrified. This would be especially true for any instance of 3-4 ETs just appearing in a field beside your home or walking into view from a wooded area.

You can look at it like this. Imagine you are at home and up early for the day, with the sun just beginning to rise, with your spouse and children still asleep. While starting a pot of coffee, you glance out your back window at your backyard. Now imagine seeing one of these things walking about in your backyard:

• A familiar neighbor calling to his pet dog.
• An unfamiliar, stray dog of a large breed.
• A black bear. Alternatively, a mountain lion.
• A group of three unknown young men who look scruffy and are tatted up, walking toward your house.
• Three non-human beings walking toward your house, obviously intelligent—extraterrestrials.

To my mind, this is a list ascending in order from least scary to most scary. Familiarity plays a large role in determining scariness; but, so does knowing what to expect.

The neighbor is quite familiar and will probably head back to his house after collecting his dog (who probably got out from the fence.)

The stray dog will probably wander off and, in any case, can't get into the house. Even if you opened the door, it might be spooked and run away. Possibly, it could be rabid or just a mean dog, however. But it's a dog.

The wild predators (bear/mountain lion) can't get in the house but maybe could try if they spot you at the window, and you wouldn't want to open the door while they are there. You have less knowledge of how they would react to your presence—but, you know they are wild animals, so can expect some general types of actions/reactions.

The group of three unknown young men are where they don't belong—your backyard—at a time when they would have no reason to be there. Are they planning to burgle you, to break in and attack you? Any group of strangers, of a certain look, would be frightening under these circumstances. (Although a young mother and two young kids might have you thinking their car just broke down or something.) Not knowing what they are about or planning is frightening. They could easily break in, perhaps, and for all you know might be armed.

Now, if a group of three human strangers in your backyard, approaching your home, can be frightening, just imagine what it would be like to see a group of extraterrestrial beings in your backyard approaching your home. These are intelligent beings, so are capable of deciding to do anything. But because they aren't human, you have almost no real ability to guess what they might be up to.

 

[NerdyCavegirl]

I find it odd that so many people fear sociopaths. xD Then again, I'm about as close as you can get while having a few loved ones and not hurting helpless animals. Only individual entity I fear is sharks, which is because no other animal removes limbs as efficiently, and I have a major phobia of being paralyzed or losing a limb. At least ghosts can float around and phase through walls.

 

[Ban]

I agree with you mostly on that Fifthview, but it think that the unknown factor is not the only thing that determines how scary the situation is. I think that the anticipation of knowing that you will be harmed can make the bear, the dog or the humans scarier than the aliens. If for example i am a black man and the three figures in question are wearing klan outfits then i think i would be more scared of them than the aliens. Simply because i know that something bad will happen if they spot me. The unpredictability of the aliens would unnerve me a lot, but there is still the probability of them being benign. The Klan members don't have that.

 

[FifthView]

@Banten: That might be a case of familiarity being scary. Context plays a role, also. If my boat has capsized and I see a shark's fin approaching, that's a lot more frightening than seeing a boat with three scruffy, tatted young men approaching me, for sure!

My general point was to agree with your assessment that a self-aware, intelligent being can be quite scary precisely because of his/her/its intelligence and self-awareness. The combination of intelligence and self-awareness adds a layer to unpredictability. But I guess if you can predict certain danger, that's always going to be more frightening than situations where the danger is far less certain—and yet again, knowing one's own ability to counter that danger also plays a role in scariness.

 

[Creed]

I've always found loss of control to be the scariest thing I can think of. Thus the worst villain, from my point of view, would be one who uses mind control or other forms of control over other people. And then there's the whole trope of aliens that infect you and slowly take you over...eesh. Or the magic that turns you into a mindless slave...eesh again. Or hypnotism. Guaranteed to make my skin crawl.

Very, very rarely does a human character give me the heebie-jeebies in a book, or even in a visual media form. But I'm currently watching Jessica Jones and Kilgrave is intensely frightening. I think this is as much to do with his ability to control whoever he wants however he wants, as it is to do with the music and editing techniques, etc. There's a certain paranoia in the show that affects Jessica, knowing that any character might be following Kilgrave's orders and betray the good guys at any moment. Combine this with the fact that he's manipulating her life in ways she's only just realizing, the easiness with which he ruins peoples' lives, and his complete and utter obsession with her.

Mind control is very scary, especially when it's used by an antagonist so smart and determined as Kilgrave.

Also cannibals. And things related to body horror are pretty freaky too, which can include viruses.

 

[WooHooMan]

But they do not just exist sans people. Indeed, the scariest idea or concept you can imagine would be absolutely, 100%, without exception impotent if people weren't going about enacting that idea or having their actions informed by it.

By that same logic, I could say that a serial killer is only scary if there are people around them who could be killed.
Of course an idea is powerless without people. But as you said: there has to be people.
I don't think the fact that ideas are man-made (and culturally enforced) in any way diminishes the potential threat. In fact, I think that makes it more frightening.

And I think it's easier on a person-by-person basis to confront and combat an idea than it is to counter some biological corruption

Yeah, I agree with this to a point but I guess it boils down to philosophical corruption vs. physiological corruption. It's sort of the same idea. They're both scary on the same basis of being an inhuman, non-sentient threat that destroys a person internally.

 

[ascanius]

I've been reading this thread with interest. For me the most terrifying character would be one who is ruled by chaos, completely unpredictable in the literal sense, and who seeks to inflict pain and suffering in others simply for its own sake. What I mean by that is there is no goal save for causing pain and suffering in others. In my WIP, that I've been neglecting, I'm basing my protagonists off this idea. I think the joker in the dark night came close to the idea, but I want to see what happens when it's pushed farther.

 

[Jackarandajam]

...Only individual entity I fear is sharks, which is because no other animal removes limbs as efficiently, and I have a major phobia of being paralyzed or losing a limb. At least ghosts can float around and phase through walls.

I'm going to say sharks marks high on my list, because of the invisibility factor.
Sure, psychos are scary, but you have the comforting thought that "hey, I have a sword, I'll just chop their heads off."

Sharks aren't like that. No, sir, they are not.

When you're in the water,
water that's too murky to see into at all,
and there's that part of your mind, pushed all the way to the back,
screaming
that there is something that exists in there that could come
from any angle,
at any time,
at incredible speed,
that you can't see,
that will tear you apart with it's teeth,
underwater,
where down is up and there isn't any air...

I swear I'm not as scared of sharks as I sound, but the IDEA of them, when put into perspective...
probably embodies what I fear most.
helplessness...
weakness...
being assaulted in an environment that deprives me of speed, senses, strength, and protection, by a creature that not only thrives in that environment but far surpasses me on the food chain in it.
No, sir. No, thank you.

A human characteristic?

Someone, in a position of power, that doesn't understand or accept consequences,
or has lived without them for so long that the idea doesn't exist to them at all.

 

[Ban]

And still only very few die by shark attack every year and so many by human hands. Be it intentional or accidental, humans killing humans dwarfs sharks killing humans.

Why i am not scared of sharks is because i know that if they want you dead they will do so quickly. A shark won't torture you unlike what most serial killers often do, which to me is scarier than death itself i would think. A shark won't force you to live by its laws and ideologies unlike humans. A shark won't kill you for fun or just because. Again unlike humans.

No humans are far more evil and dangerous, because they will not stop at taking your life. Humans can ruin your life, your mind, your body and if you believe in it, your soul.

 

[FifthView]

It's easy to say sharks are no big deal. Until you are in the water with a great white.

Sometimes we think in the abstract. In the abstract, some things may seem more or less scary–less, because abstraction literally points at distance from the thing. Sitting here now, I'm not at all scared of sharks. I'm about 700 miles away from the nearest shark in the wild, supposing one is near the shore of the Gulf of Mexico right now. Any sharks closer than that are safely inside an aquarium.

Things that seem scarier in abstract might be a) things that don't really exist, and b) things that turn out to be manageable, like losing a leg in a car accident and other physical ailments.

I've been wondering if the same considerations apply to human characters in a novel. They are really abstract for readers. Can such characters be truly terrifying? I've wondered if this is why some in this thread have said humans don't seem all that scary–fictional humans. Put one in a room with a cannibalistic psychopath, tied to a chair, with various saws and knives and so forth on a roll-out table, and he might change his mind about scary humans. But this really does bring up the interesting question: whether any fictional character can truly be scary, or do we just fool ourselves into enjoying the idea of scariness that fictional characters inspire.

 

[Ban]

You are completely right that it depends on the istuation. If i'm on a boat out at sea in notorious shark territory than sharks become a lot scarier than any human. But considering that i am currently not under threat of either shark or human (i hope you nver know with those guys) i think i can safely say which one objectively scares me the most.

Can a fictional character be truly terrifying? That depends on the reader's ability to feel for the character and immerse him/herself in the character. I am pretty good at immersing myself in a character so for me people like Joffrey Baratheon or Ramsay Bolton were legitimately scary. Not scary enough to make me stop reading or even come close to that, but certainly frightening enough to unnerve me. I think that is the best that we writers can strive for. Unless we create a terror that goes beyond mere character such as, Cthulhu or Big Brother. These can make us think about our own lives and in Cthulhu's case of how small and insignificant we are. That, i believe, can stick with us for the rest of our lives. Also as i have said i have read a lot on criminals and i think that their horror stories will stick with me, even though i was luckily never affected by them personally.

 

[Daughter of Hell]

What does the daughter of hell find scary?

WHAT DOES THE DAUGHTER OF HELL FIND SCARY?

It's a good question. You need to think hard about it. For me, I connect to horror easiest by grounding it in humanity and things easily related to. Readers who cannot empathize with a villain probably won't be scared by them. In order to be scared, like, truly scared, you need to look in a mirror and see something that isn't yourself, I think.

So here's a chapter I wrote from my own series. People should read it. Magni is a giant, you ought to know, as is Halli. They're 3 metres tall; something which the reader would know before this chapter. Elsewise, this is Magni's first chapter, I think. The sense of smell is what will scare the reader. When you read this, you will know that the girl who smells like sheep is the main protagonist. She's hiding, and you don't want her to be found. His sense of smell is freaky, but also the way he looks at things. He enjoyed a trip to the beach too. It isn't unrealistic, but he's immediately got something in common with the reader. Little things like that help make the important connections.

Please note, the below has adult themes/sexual references. Not for pansies, okay. Ye be warned.

Edited by Sheilawisz:

Hello Daughter of Hell, and Welcome to Mythic Scribes.

I have removed the Scene that you posted here because it goes against the Family Friendly section of our Forum Guidelines, which you can find here: Forum Guidelines.

Scenes like what you posted (and worse) have been shared at our community's Showcase Forum, where they are tolerated if you warn the readers first. However, posting material of this nature is not allowed in the regular Forums of Mythic Scribes.

Thank you!

Sheilawisz

 

[valiant12]

Three non-human beings walking toward your house, obviously intelligent–extraterrestrials.

I think at least some people with be happy in this situation.
if i have to choose between having 30 aliens in my backyard and 3 suspicious people i would pick the aliens.
Unless the aliens are dressed like neo nazi /communist.

 

[CupofJoe]

Unless the aliens are dressed like neo nazi /communist.

SPACE NAZIS!!!!
I'm ready for them...

 

[Ban]

Now that we've thought about general things we find scary in individuals and groups of humans let us get down to specifics. Unless someone wants to add to the afore mentioned general characteristics, which i appreciate as well.

Are there any specific characters you can pin point as being frightening, literary or non-literary. The example that i can think of right now is Ramsay Bolton from George R R Martin's work. The guy is charismatic when he wants to be, but revels in inflicting harm onto others. He is the prime example of a serial killer, but is also blessed with the political status to get away with nearly anything.

 

[Tom]

I find those people who can effortlessly switch between different demeanors very unsettling. Not necessarily frightening, but they do make me nervous. It's like...non-physical shapeshifting. The way they can do a complete 180 to fit a certain situation or person is frankly quite creepy. It's like they're "turning off" one half of themselves and turning on the other.

 

[Velka]

Are there any specific characters you can pin point as being frightening, literary or non-literary.

Leland Gaunt - Needful Things, Stephen King: seemingly grants the greatest wish of each person in town, but is really manipulating everyone into a homicidal, batsh*t crazy froth

Captain Ahab - Moby Dick, Herman Melville: crazy obsession at its finest, leaves you asking who is the bigger monster

Jack - Lord of the Flies, William Golding: take all the primal childlike desire for control and justice, combine it with no adult supervision or moral compass, and give it a conch shell

Alex, A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess: UGH

Mary Maloney - Lamb to the Slaughter, Roald Dahl: very creepy short story, she kills her husband out of the blue then very cooly determines how to cover it up (bonus points for serving the murder weapon to the police for dinner)

 

[Creed]

I find those people who can effortlessly switch between different demeanors very unsettling. Not necessarily frightening, but they do make me nervous. It's like...non-physical shapeshifting. The way they can do a complete 180 to fit a certain situation or person is frankly quite creepy. It's like they're "turning off" one half of themselves and turning on the other.

Okay, question: Would you generally find it more creepy if they were actually one person and one mind (i.e. psychopath playing nice and then wants to kill you), or if they were actually two minds in one body (i.e. a demon taking over the host at will)?

 

[arboriad]

For me independent of what I've been convinced is scary in a story, plenty of things are scary. I think i fear things like mafia, probably because it's so close to home, and once ripped on, inescapable.

But I also read 'Hostage to the Devil' years ago, and the concept of a being able to possess you, to float through your skin, past your will and rape your soul, ignoring any defences youthought you had, that is truly scary. At least with other scary things, you don't lose your sense of identity.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Tom]

Okay, question: Would you generally find it more creepy if they were actually one person and one mind (i.e. psychopath playing nice and then wants to kill you), or if they were actually two minds in one body (i.e. a demon taking over the host at will)?

I would definitely be more unnerved if it were just one person. If it was two minds in one body, at least there'd be a reason for the person's behavior. Something solid. But with just one mind, that duality in the personality is harder to pin down. There's no easy way to figure out how and why it's there. I don't remember whose it was, but I heard a quote somewhere that said something like, "The things that frighten us the most are the things we don't know." That kind of uncertainty and unease makes for a damn scary villain in my book.