Before I do a dive into research next week, I would like to know… what scares you most?
I mostly mean what media has scared you the most? What is the most frightening film you’ve seen recently? What books have you read that have made you sleep fitfully in the weeks after reading them? What videogames have you played that have made you throw your controller in shock and fear?
What media has scared you? I am looking for some research material. What sort of scary experiences have you encountered that have sunsettled you?
The Weekly Thesis 
I’m not gonna count jump scares and things that rely on surprise as a method of scaring me. Mostly because I avoid them and am really easy to startle what with my anxiety. That said:
Soma actually left me with a lot of discomfort and unease that wasn’t wildly unpleasent some how. I really like the game, but maybe I’m just that kind of person who really bought into everything Soma had to offer. Yeah its monster scenes were basically like Amnesia and that part always annoyed me since I have difficulty playing thoose types of games. (removal of player’s ability to fight back), but thoose were never the parts that got me, mostly it was the Story. The human horror of what is life, do we have a soul, and Mortality. I’m still kind of distressed by that game’s really bleak ending and scared of some of its concepts, and I haven’t touched it in literal months.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only a few movies have ever given my a lasting sense of scariness… Slashers and “stupid violence” movies won’t do it, and most monster/ghost movies won’t even do it either. But for The Ring and the first Paranormal Activity movie, I felt creeped out for days after the movie when it was dark at night.
The Ring is easy to explain… Being haunted by Samara had very specific requirements in the movie, and by the time the movie ended you felt like you had fulfilled those requirements. The ending pulled this off quite well. Plus, at that time in my life I slept right next to a television.
Paranormal Activity is harder to explain. I suppose the threats in that movie were easy to project into my own life because I have a creepy attic and a dark hallway, and every night I leave myself vulnerable when I go to sleep (as we all do).
In both of these movies the threat was psychological, and not based on the specific kind of harm the victims would receive but instead the idea of being hunted and toyed with while there’s nothing you can do about it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Get Out” terrified me. The idea of the Sunken Place – being detached and removed from reality, being able to perceive it but not interact with it in any way. That actively terrifies me. It’s a recurring nightmare of mine, in fact. To lose oneself, to have no control.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent point, dopplegangers are kind of related to that idea of not being able to control oneself. Does that get to you?
LikeLike
The videogame that scared me last was Fatal Frame: Crimson Butterflies. It’s a Japanese Got to game that FREAKS ME OUT. My friend played it and had nightmares. I just watched.
As for me personally, stories tend to freak me out. Especially when you read them at night. All alone. With nothing but a small lamp on for light.
Movies scare me a little… But they don’t stick with me like stories do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fatal Frame is a great franchise, definitely one I need to play again sometime.
LikeLike
Deep water, mainly out in the ocean, as we really don’t have a clue on what’s down there, as well as the myriad of USO’s seen over the centuries.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, it’s not just the creatures down there but the fact the environment can lead to instant, crushing, freezing death.
LikeLike
Haven’t really found much things that scare me these days (in terms of media). But, I know the one game that still gives me the creeps is Silent Hill (PS1), even with the aged graphics, the damn thing a still knows how to make me feel uneasy because the atmosphere and sound design are fantastic.
To get into more detail, just being alone in a mostly desolate place that your hesitant to explore because you either get lost easily, the hellish atmosphere (soundtrack) is unnerving, the creatures sound, move or just look unnatural.
All of this make for great horror, but personally, only if you can actually interact with it. I find horror works best when the audience is forced to actually go through whatever terror awaits them, rather than be a bystander looking in at someone else’s story.
Though, I think books/fiction can also be a good source of horror if written well. More so if the writer omits some details from the story so the reader kinda builds up that expectation over what that thing behind the wall might be, or what creature/thing mangled the livestock in such unnatural ways.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It took me some time to come to proper conclusions for you in regards to this. I decided that a lot of things scare me but for different reasons. Some things, like the unknown or unsettling creatures in horror movies, scare me because they leave me wondering what is REALLY out there. I don’t meant the thrill of wonder. The dread of it. There are two sides to wonder, I think.
I’m also scared of… hmm. Let’s call it things that happened that I could not control. Things that other people have done. It has left a fear of certain types of people. A deep distrust that remains today as PTSD.
LikeLiked by 1 person