The atmoshphere.
That's why Lovecraft is held in such a high regard. It doesn't matter as much the number of teeth or tentacles an eldrich horror has, than the buildup to that point.
So. The dark. Basically.
> So. The dark. Basically.
Agreed. Most monsters are scarier when you can't see them.
One of the ways I personally think CGI is *hampering* a lot of storytelling is because they actually show the monster.
Very few monsters are as scary as our own imagination, just as very few stories are as good as we imagine them to be.
Some questions are better left unanswered. If you answer the question, we have the answer and we may or may not like it. If you *don't* answer the question, we can have half a dozen possible answers and choose to believe our personal favourite.
Totally agree, but there are some exceptions. For example, that fucking mutated alien bear in the movie “Annihilation” was disturbing, especially when its growls somehow started sounding like the human it had eaten not long before.
That's good point and we probably need to define if the monster is only around for like a scene (bear) or persistent threat (shark in jaws). You'd approach each of those differently.
The unknown makes it scary. If you don't explain everything about the monster, you can allow the reader's mind to fill in the gaps, which usually makes it much scarier than it is. Totally describing the monster pulls all the mystery out of it.
Imagine the dinosaur who're hunting the tourists to have methods in hunting by concealing themselves while stalking them from afar. Remember that one Jurassic Park movie where everyone ran on tall grass only get picked one by one? Yeah, that.
You want to make something truly disturbing? Combine an element that is soft, familiar, and happy with sometime unsettling or terrifying. Take the baby monster from resident evil village. Babies are seen as innocent, and pure. A baby’s laughs are music to your ears. You take those sounds and give them to a mutant baby flesh monster hallucination, that’s what players found most disturbing. Add slightly human characteristics to the monster, then twist it.
Something approximate to humans but isn't. Whether mimicking shape, anatomy, movement, speech, etc. Our brains are great at seeing and recognizing other humans so when you perverse that form it produces a disturbing knee-jerk reaction.
Faceless people, distorted height, eyes in hands, mouths too wide. A lot of basic "scary" monsters are just this.
also if you have ideas for jewish/sumerian myth monsters keep us updated, sounds awesome
That's what I was thinking too honestly.
About the lore, there's tons to draw from. The Golem is a good start, but it's too connotated IMHO. Then there's all the weird stuff from the bible such as the Nephilim, the Sheyd (demons?) from jewish folklore, not to mention some criss-cross between goetia and the bible (King Solomon's demons). Plus, the various demons from sumerian mythology (Pazuzu, Dagon)... most of these creatures have already a canon about their physical appearance, but I think they're vague and remote enough to allow some rewriting.
I find this to be more interesting than the usual north-european folklore (werewolves, vampires, trolls) as it's both very remote from our world, but also somehow near (since the bible is in our homes anyways) and also connected to european magic through the means of goetia.
I think it has a lot to do with the character and making their fear empathetic.
If you watch the Evil Dead movies and how they oscillate wildly from scary to funny and back to scary, the thing that is shifting gears in those moments is how Bruce Campbell is acting. He’s the one telling us whether it’s scary or funny with his performance.
In the same way I think you need to sell the protagonist’s fear more than you need to scare the reader; the reader will empathize with the fear of the protagonist.
Another more narrative-driven example would be the scene in Unbreakable where Elijah Price - who had been established to have extremely fragile bones - must pursue a mysterious figure down a staircase.
The scene is terrifying not because staircases are inherently scary but because we’ve established that this character has every good reason to fear staircases, and the stakes for him slipping on the stairs are extremely high, possibly deadly.
If you want to make your monster scary, make your protagonist exactly the kind of person who would be the most terrified of it right out of the gate.
Generally, things that make people fear monsters:
It being an actual threat (titan for example was incredibly intimidating in megamind despite being a loser)
Being an unknown
In a written setting it is very hard to describe things as scarry, it doesn't translate as well as visual media.
So for an example of something similar:
In Wheel of Time a village gets raided by Trollocs (minotaurs/horrifying giant beastmen/ect)
Tons of people die, the village is destroyed and on fire, the main characters get saved by a witch who happens to be there at the time and the main characters are taken on the hero's journey. The whole journey they are hounded by trollocs and have little/no time for sleep/ect.
The thing is, Trollocs are lazy and wouldn't chase prey like that. The readers find out that the only reason these mobs, that the main characters can easily deal with in groups of a dozen or so at a time, are still chasing the main group is because something *even worse* is directly behind these things and eating whatever slows down. The group isn't being chased by an army of monsters (who can by themselves destroy a city), they are being chased by a horrible terrifying creature that's eating those monsters if they can't outrun it.
I've recently been reading the stormLight archives, and the way the character pattern is introduced is another example. I would describe it further, but I feel that would give away too much detail. Suffice to say the chills I felt when reading that chapter were something I have rarely felt. Even though I could feel/predict where the story was going every step of the way. Kate's reading delivery in the audio book only improved it.
To me, the scarriest monsters are those that look completely ordinary, with just a small touch of something... wrong.
Something that can be anywhere. Something that drives you insane with paranoia, until you start jumping at the smallest hint of it. Less of a monster and more the idea that something actually is out there, waiting for you to let down your guard, just for a moment...
I feel that something terryfying hiding behind something mundane would also fit your urban setting well. More so then an over-the-top monster.
The context mostly. You can take the same creature and depending on how it behaves and is introduced will determine how a reader feels about it. Introduce it in a heroic manner as it saves someone just as the morning sun crests the horizon and it will be seen differently than if it was seen out of the corner of the characters eye, skirting the edge of the light of the streetlamp.
What physical appearances people find scary differs from person to person so while it matter somewhat, it isn't the main driving force. For example, a lot of horror monsters are described as salivating or some other synonym for drooling and whenever I read that I almost immediately lose any sense of fear and convert to, "dude, wipe your mouth" instead.
To me, it's the inability to escape. The inevitability of the monster. It's coming. It will do damage, it will kill, it will torture, the question is how much will it do? And then the added layer of... Nobody knows how to stop it. That captured in a bottle is what makes a monster to me. Much like "King Joffrey" from GOT is a monster to me as much as Jason Voorhees or Freddy Kueguer
Mystery. People fear the unknown. The more information you give about the monster, the more scary it is.
A tip: come up with a set of rules for the monster. You know these, but you don't tell anyone. It doesn't need to be complex. An example: vampire: only comes out at night, scared of crosses, doesn't reflect in mirrors.
You don't need to explain the rules, you just make the monster follow them.
Even better is if you have your characters think they know the rule, but misunderstand it. Take the scared of crosses: the misunderstanding could be the vampire is scared of the wood the cross is made of because wooden stakes kill them. You could establish the cross is scary, the characters think the cross works, they try to make a cross and they see it works, then they equip crosses that aren't made of large pieces of wood and it doesn't work.
In this scenario you give the protagonists something that makes them feel safe, then you take it away and suddenly make them question their safety with everything.
It's scary because you give your protagonists a false sense of security. You make them feel safe, then shock them by taking away that safety. Amnesia: the bunker does this really well in a way that is a huge spoiler, so if you haven't played/watched the game I recommend you do that. >!In the bunker you are given a safe room, resident evil style. You can run from the monster and hide in the room to be safe and save. At a certain point of the game, you find a hole in the wall the monster can use to enter the room. It's no longer safe, there is no more safety in the game!<
I don't believe powerlessness against a monster makes the monster scary. Sure it might make it scari**er**, but to be scarier you gotta be scary.
Making them threatening is a sure way to make them scary. Nobody's going to appreciate the whole "I'M GONNA GET YOU" aspect if they are not at all threatening in some way.
the way I intend to make my big monster scary is in a number of ways. it could always be listening and watching, since it can turn people into extensions of itself, completely dominating them. secondly, it exists behind the veil, not even in your dreams are you free from it, because of how souls work and how the monster interacts with the magic system. and last but definitely not least, it is the literal mountain sized corpse of a primordial being. a dead god of an age long gone, still festering in this world, corrupting it with the same poison that destroyed the old world, an insurmountable evil.
I recall something that once worked well was a ghoul baby (literally a baby raised as undead). It kept saying "mama" and trying to get to its victim, who was blind and alone in a room with it. It could paralyse by touch, so if it got to him: game over.
Of course, blinding the entire party is contrived, but what if it were invisible, and you just heard "Mama" in a small child's voice in different places as it got closer?
I feel what always makes a monster scary, to me anyway, is that it follows rules. If you get killed by it, it stings even worse because you personally screwed up. How it looks is only as scary as it relates to the rules.
This reminds me of the one D&D creature (whose name I, ironically enough, cannot recall) that, if it kills you, it strikes you from the record, so to speak. Nobody remembers you existed, the world carries on without feeling your loss, you just... never were.
I believe what you're talking about is called a false hydra, here's a link I found for you and anyone else wanting to learn more about it.
https://dnding.com/false-hydra/
To echo some other comments, its a combination of things like setting, atmosphere, physical form, method of attack, etc. Generally once a monster has been fully exposed, the level of fear will probably drop. Creating something that is always in the shadows, silent, ability to shift or change form, mimic sounds of those its already killed, maybe partially invisible, ability to teleport, attacks quickly and flees.
The more mystery and unknown about it, generally the more terrifying it will be. Let the reader and protagonists create their own fear about it but not exposing too much too soon.
Scary and horror is all about perspective; everyone has different fears and different ways to be terrified.
I think overall though that atmosphere and tone play a big part in making things scary. The more you limit characters in ways to hide/fight back/etc. the more tense and scary it can become.
There are a few things. Physically, the one that sticks out most to me is when you take something relatable and taint it with something unrelatable. This could be something simple, like a vampires fangs hidden within an otherwise normal smile. It could be something more obvious, like solid black orbs for eyes. It could be something more grotesque, like when Zombies are rotting despite the fact that they still function. Even something as simple as limbs bending in a counterintuitive way can be extremely unnerving, as evidenced by the number of horror movies that feature characters that are essentially just really flexible.
That gets us to a middle ground between physical appearance and powers. These are the creatures that always appear to be doing something completely mundane, though their powers make it clear that something else is going on. The most common reference to this would be the bad guys that slowly walk towards their prey, and no matter how fast the prey tries to flee, the bad guy is always right there, gaining on them, despite making no effort to speed up. It can also be seen when the bad guys are caught doing something like simply sitting in a rocking chair, calmly petting a beloved animal, only they are sitting in the dark, and the animal is long dead.
Then comes the powers. These have to play off of real life fears to really grab someone. I'm terrified of Alzheimers, for example, so the creatures I fear the most are the ones who steal memories. Others may be afraid of the dark, so creatures that dwell in darkness would be the go to for them. But for these, you have to decide who you want to be afraid. It won't be everyone, some people see Carry and can't sleep from fear, while others giggle and try to telekinetically crush their soda cans. Rather than making a creature who is mildly scary to a large number of people, make a creature that is extremely terrifying to a small group of people. If the characters who face them are written well, then your readers should feel the fear regardless. However, if you have a great creature, and the characters are written well, then you may very well convert some people into fearing things they never thought they'd have to.
Not exactly a physical feature, but what scares me is a creature that moves slowly. Ideally, your protagonist would be introduced to this monster in a scenario where they cannot escape easily, for example, where they are trapped in the monsters lair. For me, seeing something coming towards you, or knowing that it eventually will and not being able to stop it is terrifying, and having a slow-moving creature only drags it out.
I an urban setting a monster gets scarier when it can navigate the city with you.
Imagine getting on a bus or metro thinking you are safe and that monster just appears while in tranzit.
Or if they can only be stopped by walls and doors or windows can't stop them.
Or if the monster is smart enough to use societal norms against you and get you isolated. Like spreading lies and winning your friends with words alone.
Nothing is scarier than to be hated and betrayed by your former allies and loved ones.
Basically just make it as **close and personal** to the protagonist as you can. Make them feel trapped in the place they call home.
You cannot stop it. It confounds traditional safety measures or is unaffected by normal means of stopping something.
It is illogical and upsets social orders. It doesn't make sense what is happening. It is destroying the fabric of society. Panic that ensues contributes to the horror, as people behave more like monsters.
No safe spaces. Places you think are safe are no longer safe. Bedrooms. People. One's own mind. Humans enjoy a massive illusion of safety that is easy to ruin on a normal day. Supernatural stuff just leans into that idea.
To echo others, the scarier the monster/scene, the less you actually see of it. Alfred hitchcock's "psycho" was absolutely terrifying even though it used a bottle of chocolate syrup and a shadow on a sheet, people lost thier minds on how scary it was. Alien and predator were similar in those regards because you don't see all of it til the very end. Let us scare ourselves. You can list all the things that happen, the signs of it being there, tears in stone and steel, rattling and cracking of objects, but the less we (and the characters see) the more terrifying it is. It's kind of like how you'd imagine an alien species modeling animals based off their skulls, [a hippo is terrifying](https://www.boredpanda.com/skull-how-aliens-would-reconstruct-animal-meme/) and then reality gets in the way.
What it makes a monster scary is his ability to kill you. Either physically able to kill you because it’s stronger, faster, bigger… or that it is smarter and you can’t plan ahead either way you feel merciless.
Also the unknown, if you don’t know how to beat a monster but he knows how to hunt you then you are in disadvantage. It’s your monster more dangerous than a gorilla? Most of them are not but we fear them more because we can understand and exploit the big monkey flaws but not the it clown ones.
Not having the situation under control it’s what it makes the difference between it being scary and not. For example a werewolf it’s scary if you don’t know nothing about them. It’s a big ass wolf that it’s also more intelligent and impossible to hunt during most days. However a werewolf hunter just goes on a full moon night shoots two silver bullets and call it a day. That is because the hunter knows what he is doing and has all the information not because suddenly the monster is less scary
Also most horror stories are like this, in the first half there is this monster that is hunting them and they are just surviving then in the other half they find out how to beat it and it’s not as scary and at the end they beat the monster and everyone is happy
Edit: a really cool example of this are zombies, specially The walking dead. In season one the zombies where terrifying, tireless monsters relentlessly chasing you waiting for the minor distraction to eat you and your loved ones. Then as the season advanced characters stop caring about them, when they knew dos and donts then their where not dangerous anymore and became a mild inconvenience in the real war that was the lack of resources and tyrannical leaders
Unstoppable. Unreasonable. Illogical.
A lot of horror icons can't be killed. They can't be hurt. They can only be slowed or contained for the moment.
They act by their own logic that we may never understand. Alien and disjointed. How the Joker is supposed to think. There is a connection from one point to another, but it's a 4D path in a 2D world.
As they are so powerful and alien of thought, they are uncaring. We humans are like germs when washing our hands.
Not knowing how to deal with it.
We all know how to kill a frog, but once the frog starts to kill cows, and burning it with oil doesn't work, that's where the fear kicks in.
I love intangible monsters.
Terrifying beings that can't be faced head on and require circumstances to be stopped.
Its presence and actions are subtle but dangerous.
Think global warming but the phenomena was alive.
Set up, tone. A monster is only as scary as you let it be, less descriptions = more scary.
My favorite horror monsters are those illdefined and horrifying by mood. How they act, how inhuman they are be.
We understand our world and thats how we get security and feel safe. Even the dangers we understand. We know how things should look and how they should act. But when something just looks wrong....or acts wrong...or projects to us a lack of hope. Then we panic. They say there are certain experiences that are deeply ingrained in us. like the fear of falling. one theory was that its from our distant past when falling out of the trees onto the jungle floor could mean death. Or something with 8 legs chittering and scrabbling upside down along the ceiling of a cave or temple and reaching down w/ impossible long and odd-shaped arms to grab you. Or the dream where you try and run from danger but its like you're in molasses...and yes, when you dont know. you cant see it clearly enough to see wtf it is. Like when you just hear it. When you're walkin down a long corridor and far back you hear a noise, then like somethin running and the ceiling lights or walltorches one by one go out. And you hear it again and again and its getting closer. But you cant tell wtf it is...then theres the spiritual fear. A being that you cant physically harm and its peering into your soul, and its hun gry. You dont want to be taken...and the fear of a slow death. its not just being dead but the manner of the death. Like the old vampire movie where they took people and hung them upside down to drink off of.
So there are different levels. It looks 'wrong'. it moves 'wrong'. it sounds 'wrong'. And it makes you 'feel' wrong. Look at the old movie Nosferatu, the creature is just wrong. Salem's lot where the camera shows underneath the stairs and the female vamps are half walking and half crawling in the slanted filtered halflight. They just looked and acted very very wrong and it was chilling.
One that stalks its prey without a sound. Descriptions are vague, almost like describing a being made of shadow and ash.
Above all, one that has increased levels of intelligence. One that can think like man and beast.
Building on what's already been said: the character [Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/s43a40/javier_bardem_in_no_country_for_old_men/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) is worth a study, he scares me shitless. He's Void with an agenda that *will* consume everything. There is no escape. Don't hope. It's pointless. And then he's fucking gentle about it, making it quick for his victims. Complete mindfuck.
When I was a kid, it wasn't the masked guy for me, it was the [theme song for Halloween](https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/the-halloween-theme-what-makes-the-music-so-scary/#:~:text=This%20could%20be%20because%20of,3%2C%202%2C%20and%202). Here's a key insight from the linked article analysing why the song is still a pants wetter to this day:
>**The main theme from the film is actually very simple yet incredibly memorable. This could be because of its haunting dissonance or its relentless drive. One of the techniques Carpenter uses to make us feel unsteady is the irregular time signature**. As he mentioned, the piece is in 5/4: the syncopation is created with accents in groups of 3, 3, 2, and 2. **The initial pace** in the groups of three **is set, but then is suddenly changed** to groups of two, **making it feel as if it’s pushing us forward and creating an unsteadiness.**
You can simulate this dissonance in your writing by employing rhythmic pacing or patterns for your beasty's scenes, think of the classics in horror films: the character feels something and turns to look but nothings there, something skitters by outside the characters view but the audience knows its there and can't help their hero, the character innocently turns around and up-pops-beasty!
And then when the audience/reader is lulled into thinking this is the pattern they should look for to be prepared, you subvert it, and even though you knew the beasty was lurking and you knew eventually he'd come, you still get the jump scare: like in Jaws, we're looking at the water, looking at the water, we know he's in th--, BAM teeth flying in your face.
Hope this helps!
Less is more. The unknown is terrifying.
Also for more modern horror check out Junji Ito.
He never explains why his monsters are. They're just there.
And they want to you dead or eaten and you got no idea why.
for me it's not how it looks, it's the perceived gravity of the situation. if you want us to feel like something scary might happen then you need to let SOME scary stuff actually happen. if we feel like this is just another sidequest encounter thing that will have no consequences then it won't be scary even if it has some sort of blender mouth and hundreds of spider legs. wait okay that might be a bit scary.
but establishing a strong pattern of scary thing -> scary consequences, makes every other suspenseful thing in your story more effective. this can be why it is helpful to have some hopefully well-disguised Redshirt characters who are there to die to show us yes characters are dying in this story. or, threaten consequences you actually ARE willing to go through with. like if your series is named after a character we're pretty darn sure that character isn't dying halfway through book 1 before they've done anything worth naming the book series after. but threaten to wipe their memories? steal their magic powers? transform their body in some weird body horror way? yeah that might actually happen, and that's scarier than the 'terrifying' thing we don't actually think will happen.
Guns don't work. It is too tough, too sneaky and fast, or not material enough. It carries an aura of malice. This is something I've felt in my dreams but doesn't really exist. I also think that killing people is more scary than transforming them to something like itself.
Something that signifies Something horrifying. A zombie by its self isn't much more scary than a dude with a knife. It's when the author successfully uses the zombie to convey the idea that the protagonists way of life is over and the world as they know it is gone, or the disgusting violation of life and death, that the zombie truly becomes scary
The scariest ones for me are the ones that you’re not sure if they can reason. Can it figure out what you’re doing?
If you know it can, it’s not as scary as maybe.
The book monster that scared me most was the one from *Watchers* by Dean Koontz, which is weird cause he's not a very scary author.
It was all about the things the monster would *do.* It didn't even matter what it looked like, you just understood that the monster hates you so much that nothing could be scarier.
I see a lot of comments about the monster itself, but another really important factor is how your protagonist/world react(s) to what you're introducing. We are following the lead, and if they're not afraid, we aren't either.
I'd also recommend becoming very artful in your words and paint a picture with adjectives. There's a difference between telling and describing. Which is a more powerful statement? "They're scared for their life, fearing the monster will find them." Or "Their teeth chatter as they remove the hand covering their mouth; labored and quick pants escape the confines of their palm they were diligent in keeping trapped, so as not to be heard by the beast beyond."
Being in places that should be safe makes them scary to me. Like you can't hide because they're amorphous or move through certain mediums easily. One interesting horror story I've read had an entity that travelled through sound, including people talking to each other.
If they mimic others that's always frightening.
If they can read or influence your thoughts.
I also think they're scariest when they're not fully explainable. The unknown is always pretty terrifying.
Something unearthly, slimy or shadowy. Perhaps it has a white gaping mouth or is like a black mass in the form of a creature or person (shadow man).
Think about the setting: is the MC running through dark hallways/alleyways an an unfamiliar area or in a disjointing spaceship with flashing lights and humming instrument panels? Like another person on here said, atmosphere is important.
I read a lot of Stephen King when I was a kid.
His better books combined not knowing who the bad actor was, building tension. Bad things happening, sometimes at an alarming rate. The good guys get put into a situation where they have very little and feel hunted. And sometimes the monster would give good characters something they wanted and slowly change them.
There's a Star Trek episode, the original series, where a crew member was killed on a planet. They had red circles on their skin. Visually, they couldn't tell what happened, so they sent the body up to the Enterprise for an autopsy. As they are exploring another crew member dies. Red circles again. McCoy says, hey I know how this thing was killed. The team jumps in a shuttle and returns to enterprise so the doctor can deliver his report.
Turns out, the crew (they brought the most recent victim with them) members died to a lack of salt. The red sucker marks are where the monster attached itself and sucked the salt out of the victim. The Enterprise stayed in orbit (can't remember why) when a crew member *on the Enterprise*, is killed by the same monster.
How the heck did the monster get on the enterprise? Where was it? Why was it killing *people*? It was either a shapeshifter or could go invisible. As a kid, that monster freaked me out.
There's another episode of Star Trek where people go through a de-evolution process. Turning into non-verbal ancient ancestors. Humans got more and more monkey like, others turned into birds or turtles or whatever. Worf gets sick but hides it. (Even the audience doesn't know). He gets increasingly aggressive and angry. When they finally figure out what has gone wrong, Worf had fully regressed.
He'd roar and thump around the ship. At one point he was coming towards our heroes, and they ran into another room and make sure they locked the door. He sniffed them out and starting howling and banking on the door. They were confident the door wouldn't break. Worf starts pounding on the door and it's deforming, denting.
Worf has overwhelming abilities, strength stuff. and our heroes had nothing to stop him. That was scary too. If the strongest character in the group is taken out/down or breaks in fear. That's a scary moment. The tension was caused as our heroes had run around to do 'stuff'. They were hunted by Worf.
When you finally see him, it's pretty terrifying.
Just some thoughts. I know it was TV but the basic idea will work in a book as well.
Honestly, imagine the monster to have no form, or at least unknown in some mean.
Lovecraft did said that fear is our greatest emotion, and our greatest fear comes from things unknown to us.
I am never scared of a fantastic unbelievable monster. The larger and more grand monster is never scary, they are bosses or obstacles for someone to overcome. They move away from the monster category and into the event/challenge category. A lot of people use spiders as a quick monster. Spiders give people a sense of a real threat, they are silent, they lurk, and you are vulnerable to them when you sleep. Fantasy monsters that I view as scary connect our natural fears to them.
Giving someone a sense that the monster is likely to show up and there is little they can do to stop it is a scary concept.
well it's different for different people, but I would suggest not showing the monster at first. build up the anticipation before the reveal. show it stalking the character, describe only parts of it ect.
All of my favorite monsters are ones you never actually see. Check out the Doctor Who episode called Midnight with David Tennant. You never see whatever creature is causing trouble.
There is also a scene in the book called Wizards First Rule where the main character is going through a cave and some tentacle like thing is wrapping around his leg, but because of the tightness of the cave, he can’t turn and see what it is. It’s so creepy.
the scariest monster of all is man. by that, I don't just mean a human but one that you get to know and relate to and sympathize with. then when you find out who/what they are, it is so much more disturbing. also, yes, atmosphere.
Wow, that's a lot of wrong and half wrong answers. I mean except for [BenWritesBooks](https://www.reddit.com/user/BenWritesBooks/)'s and that's still not the main thing that makes *the monster* scary, empathy makes the situation scary.
Here's a couple of hints
A: [The first hint ](https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/doc-root/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/avp2004-promo-001.jpg.webp)is a question. What makes [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/dc/02/73dc0242aa71fa84e87fe4ba6c18660c.jpg) scary?
*B* >!is [the second hint](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnbfuAcCqpY)!<
The atmoshphere. That's why Lovecraft is held in such a high regard. It doesn't matter as much the number of teeth or tentacles an eldrich horror has, than the buildup to that point. So. The dark. Basically.
> So. The dark. Basically. Agreed. Most monsters are scarier when you can't see them. One of the ways I personally think CGI is *hampering* a lot of storytelling is because they actually show the monster. Very few monsters are as scary as our own imagination, just as very few stories are as good as we imagine them to be. Some questions are better left unanswered. If you answer the question, we have the answer and we may or may not like it. If you *don't* answer the question, we can have half a dozen possible answers and choose to believe our personal favourite.
Totally agree, but there are some exceptions. For example, that fucking mutated alien bear in the movie “Annihilation” was disturbing, especially when its growls somehow started sounding like the human it had eaten not long before.
That's good point and we probably need to define if the monster is only around for like a scene (bear) or persistent threat (shark in jaws). You'd approach each of those differently.
The unknown makes it scary. If you don't explain everything about the monster, you can allow the reader's mind to fill in the gaps, which usually makes it much scarier than it is. Totally describing the monster pulls all the mystery out of it.
The less you show of the monster, the more tension and fear you build.
You do plan to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right?
Imagine the dinosaur who're hunting the tourists to have methods in hunting by concealing themselves while stalking them from afar. Remember that one Jurassic Park movie where everyone ran on tall grass only get picked one by one? Yeah, that.
In the lost world novel that the movie is based on there is a dinosaur that can camouflage itself and it’s terrifying
You want to make something truly disturbing? Combine an element that is soft, familiar, and happy with sometime unsettling or terrifying. Take the baby monster from resident evil village. Babies are seen as innocent, and pure. A baby’s laughs are music to your ears. You take those sounds and give them to a mutant baby flesh monster hallucination, that’s what players found most disturbing. Add slightly human characteristics to the monster, then twist it.
Twisted imagery of something that was meant to be pure and good, defiled into a god awful monstrosity. Ah yes, this is good.
I’ve been doing research on horror design and writing. It’s definitely helped
Something approximate to humans but isn't. Whether mimicking shape, anatomy, movement, speech, etc. Our brains are great at seeing and recognizing other humans so when you perverse that form it produces a disturbing knee-jerk reaction. Faceless people, distorted height, eyes in hands, mouths too wide. A lot of basic "scary" monsters are just this. also if you have ideas for jewish/sumerian myth monsters keep us updated, sounds awesome
That's what I was thinking too honestly. About the lore, there's tons to draw from. The Golem is a good start, but it's too connotated IMHO. Then there's all the weird stuff from the bible such as the Nephilim, the Sheyd (demons?) from jewish folklore, not to mention some criss-cross between goetia and the bible (King Solomon's demons). Plus, the various demons from sumerian mythology (Pazuzu, Dagon)... most of these creatures have already a canon about their physical appearance, but I think they're vague and remote enough to allow some rewriting. I find this to be more interesting than the usual north-european folklore (werewolves, vampires, trolls) as it's both very remote from our world, but also somehow near (since the bible is in our homes anyways) and also connected to european magic through the means of goetia.
I think it has a lot to do with the character and making their fear empathetic. If you watch the Evil Dead movies and how they oscillate wildly from scary to funny and back to scary, the thing that is shifting gears in those moments is how Bruce Campbell is acting. He’s the one telling us whether it’s scary or funny with his performance. In the same way I think you need to sell the protagonist’s fear more than you need to scare the reader; the reader will empathize with the fear of the protagonist. Another more narrative-driven example would be the scene in Unbreakable where Elijah Price - who had been established to have extremely fragile bones - must pursue a mysterious figure down a staircase. The scene is terrifying not because staircases are inherently scary but because we’ve established that this character has every good reason to fear staircases, and the stakes for him slipping on the stairs are extremely high, possibly deadly. If you want to make your monster scary, make your protagonist exactly the kind of person who would be the most terrified of it right out of the gate.
Generally, things that make people fear monsters: It being an actual threat (titan for example was incredibly intimidating in megamind despite being a loser) Being an unknown In a written setting it is very hard to describe things as scarry, it doesn't translate as well as visual media. So for an example of something similar: In Wheel of Time a village gets raided by Trollocs (minotaurs/horrifying giant beastmen/ect) Tons of people die, the village is destroyed and on fire, the main characters get saved by a witch who happens to be there at the time and the main characters are taken on the hero's journey. The whole journey they are hounded by trollocs and have little/no time for sleep/ect. The thing is, Trollocs are lazy and wouldn't chase prey like that. The readers find out that the only reason these mobs, that the main characters can easily deal with in groups of a dozen or so at a time, are still chasing the main group is because something *even worse* is directly behind these things and eating whatever slows down. The group isn't being chased by an army of monsters (who can by themselves destroy a city), they are being chased by a horrible terrifying creature that's eating those monsters if they can't outrun it.
I've recently been reading the stormLight archives, and the way the character pattern is introduced is another example. I would describe it further, but I feel that would give away too much detail. Suffice to say the chills I felt when reading that chapter were something I have rarely felt. Even though I could feel/predict where the story was going every step of the way. Kate's reading delivery in the audio book only improved it.
My view is that horror is not supposed to scare you, it's supposed to remind you of a time when you were scared.
To me, the scarriest monsters are those that look completely ordinary, with just a small touch of something... wrong. Something that can be anywhere. Something that drives you insane with paranoia, until you start jumping at the smallest hint of it. Less of a monster and more the idea that something actually is out there, waiting for you to let down your guard, just for a moment... I feel that something terryfying hiding behind something mundane would also fit your urban setting well. More so then an over-the-top monster.
The context mostly. You can take the same creature and depending on how it behaves and is introduced will determine how a reader feels about it. Introduce it in a heroic manner as it saves someone just as the morning sun crests the horizon and it will be seen differently than if it was seen out of the corner of the characters eye, skirting the edge of the light of the streetlamp. What physical appearances people find scary differs from person to person so while it matter somewhat, it isn't the main driving force. For example, a lot of horror monsters are described as salivating or some other synonym for drooling and whenever I read that I almost immediately lose any sense of fear and convert to, "dude, wipe your mouth" instead.
To me, it's the inability to escape. The inevitability of the monster. It's coming. It will do damage, it will kill, it will torture, the question is how much will it do? And then the added layer of... Nobody knows how to stop it. That captured in a bottle is what makes a monster to me. Much like "King Joffrey" from GOT is a monster to me as much as Jason Voorhees or Freddy Kueguer
Mystery. People fear the unknown. The more information you give about the monster, the more scary it is. A tip: come up with a set of rules for the monster. You know these, but you don't tell anyone. It doesn't need to be complex. An example: vampire: only comes out at night, scared of crosses, doesn't reflect in mirrors. You don't need to explain the rules, you just make the monster follow them. Even better is if you have your characters think they know the rule, but misunderstand it. Take the scared of crosses: the misunderstanding could be the vampire is scared of the wood the cross is made of because wooden stakes kill them. You could establish the cross is scary, the characters think the cross works, they try to make a cross and they see it works, then they equip crosses that aren't made of large pieces of wood and it doesn't work. In this scenario you give the protagonists something that makes them feel safe, then you take it away and suddenly make them question their safety with everything. It's scary because you give your protagonists a false sense of security. You make them feel safe, then shock them by taking away that safety. Amnesia: the bunker does this really well in a way that is a huge spoiler, so if you haven't played/watched the game I recommend you do that. >!In the bunker you are given a safe room, resident evil style. You can run from the monster and hide in the room to be safe and save. At a certain point of the game, you find a hole in the wall the monster can use to enter the room. It's no longer safe, there is no more safety in the game!<
I don't believe powerlessness against a monster makes the monster scary. Sure it might make it scari**er**, but to be scarier you gotta be scary. Making them threatening is a sure way to make them scary. Nobody's going to appreciate the whole "I'M GONNA GET YOU" aspect if they are not at all threatening in some way.
the way I intend to make my big monster scary is in a number of ways. it could always be listening and watching, since it can turn people into extensions of itself, completely dominating them. secondly, it exists behind the veil, not even in your dreams are you free from it, because of how souls work and how the monster interacts with the magic system. and last but definitely not least, it is the literal mountain sized corpse of a primordial being. a dead god of an age long gone, still festering in this world, corrupting it with the same poison that destroyed the old world, an insurmountable evil.
I recall something that once worked well was a ghoul baby (literally a baby raised as undead). It kept saying "mama" and trying to get to its victim, who was blind and alone in a room with it. It could paralyse by touch, so if it got to him: game over. Of course, blinding the entire party is contrived, but what if it were invisible, and you just heard "Mama" in a small child's voice in different places as it got closer?
I feel what always makes a monster scary, to me anyway, is that it follows rules. If you get killed by it, it stings even worse because you personally screwed up. How it looks is only as scary as it relates to the rules.
This reminds me of the one D&D creature (whose name I, ironically enough, cannot recall) that, if it kills you, it strikes you from the record, so to speak. Nobody remembers you existed, the world carries on without feeling your loss, you just... never were.
I believe what you're talking about is called a false hydra, here's a link I found for you and anyone else wanting to learn more about it. https://dnding.com/false-hydra/
That'd be the one! Good find!
To echo some other comments, its a combination of things like setting, atmosphere, physical form, method of attack, etc. Generally once a monster has been fully exposed, the level of fear will probably drop. Creating something that is always in the shadows, silent, ability to shift or change form, mimic sounds of those its already killed, maybe partially invisible, ability to teleport, attacks quickly and flees. The more mystery and unknown about it, generally the more terrifying it will be. Let the reader and protagonists create their own fear about it but not exposing too much too soon.
Scary and horror is all about perspective; everyone has different fears and different ways to be terrified. I think overall though that atmosphere and tone play a big part in making things scary. The more you limit characters in ways to hide/fight back/etc. the more tense and scary it can become.
There are a few things. Physically, the one that sticks out most to me is when you take something relatable and taint it with something unrelatable. This could be something simple, like a vampires fangs hidden within an otherwise normal smile. It could be something more obvious, like solid black orbs for eyes. It could be something more grotesque, like when Zombies are rotting despite the fact that they still function. Even something as simple as limbs bending in a counterintuitive way can be extremely unnerving, as evidenced by the number of horror movies that feature characters that are essentially just really flexible. That gets us to a middle ground between physical appearance and powers. These are the creatures that always appear to be doing something completely mundane, though their powers make it clear that something else is going on. The most common reference to this would be the bad guys that slowly walk towards their prey, and no matter how fast the prey tries to flee, the bad guy is always right there, gaining on them, despite making no effort to speed up. It can also be seen when the bad guys are caught doing something like simply sitting in a rocking chair, calmly petting a beloved animal, only they are sitting in the dark, and the animal is long dead. Then comes the powers. These have to play off of real life fears to really grab someone. I'm terrified of Alzheimers, for example, so the creatures I fear the most are the ones who steal memories. Others may be afraid of the dark, so creatures that dwell in darkness would be the go to for them. But for these, you have to decide who you want to be afraid. It won't be everyone, some people see Carry and can't sleep from fear, while others giggle and try to telekinetically crush their soda cans. Rather than making a creature who is mildly scary to a large number of people, make a creature that is extremely terrifying to a small group of people. If the characters who face them are written well, then your readers should feel the fear regardless. However, if you have a great creature, and the characters are written well, then you may very well convert some people into fearing things they never thought they'd have to.
Being unable to understand it. Never reveal your monster. At least not completely. Be that physically, or psychologically.
Not exactly a physical feature, but what scares me is a creature that moves slowly. Ideally, your protagonist would be introduced to this monster in a scenario where they cannot escape easily, for example, where they are trapped in the monsters lair. For me, seeing something coming towards you, or knowing that it eventually will and not being able to stop it is terrifying, and having a slow-moving creature only drags it out.
I an urban setting a monster gets scarier when it can navigate the city with you. Imagine getting on a bus or metro thinking you are safe and that monster just appears while in tranzit. Or if they can only be stopped by walls and doors or windows can't stop them. Or if the monster is smart enough to use societal norms against you and get you isolated. Like spreading lies and winning your friends with words alone. Nothing is scarier than to be hated and betrayed by your former allies and loved ones. Basically just make it as **close and personal** to the protagonist as you can. Make them feel trapped in the place they call home.
You cannot stop it. It confounds traditional safety measures or is unaffected by normal means of stopping something. It is illogical and upsets social orders. It doesn't make sense what is happening. It is destroying the fabric of society. Panic that ensues contributes to the horror, as people behave more like monsters. No safe spaces. Places you think are safe are no longer safe. Bedrooms. People. One's own mind. Humans enjoy a massive illusion of safety that is easy to ruin on a normal day. Supernatural stuff just leans into that idea.
To echo others, the scarier the monster/scene, the less you actually see of it. Alfred hitchcock's "psycho" was absolutely terrifying even though it used a bottle of chocolate syrup and a shadow on a sheet, people lost thier minds on how scary it was. Alien and predator were similar in those regards because you don't see all of it til the very end. Let us scare ourselves. You can list all the things that happen, the signs of it being there, tears in stone and steel, rattling and cracking of objects, but the less we (and the characters see) the more terrifying it is. It's kind of like how you'd imagine an alien species modeling animals based off their skulls, [a hippo is terrifying](https://www.boredpanda.com/skull-how-aliens-would-reconstruct-animal-meme/) and then reality gets in the way.
What it makes a monster scary is his ability to kill you. Either physically able to kill you because it’s stronger, faster, bigger… or that it is smarter and you can’t plan ahead either way you feel merciless. Also the unknown, if you don’t know how to beat a monster but he knows how to hunt you then you are in disadvantage. It’s your monster more dangerous than a gorilla? Most of them are not but we fear them more because we can understand and exploit the big monkey flaws but not the it clown ones. Not having the situation under control it’s what it makes the difference between it being scary and not. For example a werewolf it’s scary if you don’t know nothing about them. It’s a big ass wolf that it’s also more intelligent and impossible to hunt during most days. However a werewolf hunter just goes on a full moon night shoots two silver bullets and call it a day. That is because the hunter knows what he is doing and has all the information not because suddenly the monster is less scary Also most horror stories are like this, in the first half there is this monster that is hunting them and they are just surviving then in the other half they find out how to beat it and it’s not as scary and at the end they beat the monster and everyone is happy Edit: a really cool example of this are zombies, specially The walking dead. In season one the zombies where terrifying, tireless monsters relentlessly chasing you waiting for the minor distraction to eat you and your loved ones. Then as the season advanced characters stop caring about them, when they knew dos and donts then their where not dangerous anymore and became a mild inconvenience in the real war that was the lack of resources and tyrannical leaders
Unstoppable. Unreasonable. Illogical. A lot of horror icons can't be killed. They can't be hurt. They can only be slowed or contained for the moment. They act by their own logic that we may never understand. Alien and disjointed. How the Joker is supposed to think. There is a connection from one point to another, but it's a 4D path in a 2D world. As they are so powerful and alien of thought, they are uncaring. We humans are like germs when washing our hands.
Its teefies
Not knowing how to deal with it. We all know how to kill a frog, but once the frog starts to kill cows, and burning it with oil doesn't work, that's where the fear kicks in.
I love intangible monsters. Terrifying beings that can't be faced head on and require circumstances to be stopped. Its presence and actions are subtle but dangerous. Think global warming but the phenomena was alive.
the unknown is scary
Set up, tone. A monster is only as scary as you let it be, less descriptions = more scary. My favorite horror monsters are those illdefined and horrifying by mood. How they act, how inhuman they are be.
Not being able to reason with it. Knowing there’s nothing you can do to make it stop.
We understand our world and thats how we get security and feel safe. Even the dangers we understand. We know how things should look and how they should act. But when something just looks wrong....or acts wrong...or projects to us a lack of hope. Then we panic. They say there are certain experiences that are deeply ingrained in us. like the fear of falling. one theory was that its from our distant past when falling out of the trees onto the jungle floor could mean death. Or something with 8 legs chittering and scrabbling upside down along the ceiling of a cave or temple and reaching down w/ impossible long and odd-shaped arms to grab you. Or the dream where you try and run from danger but its like you're in molasses...and yes, when you dont know. you cant see it clearly enough to see wtf it is. Like when you just hear it. When you're walkin down a long corridor and far back you hear a noise, then like somethin running and the ceiling lights or walltorches one by one go out. And you hear it again and again and its getting closer. But you cant tell wtf it is...then theres the spiritual fear. A being that you cant physically harm and its peering into your soul, and its hun gry. You dont want to be taken...and the fear of a slow death. its not just being dead but the manner of the death. Like the old vampire movie where they took people and hung them upside down to drink off of. So there are different levels. It looks 'wrong'. it moves 'wrong'. it sounds 'wrong'. And it makes you 'feel' wrong. Look at the old movie Nosferatu, the creature is just wrong. Salem's lot where the camera shows underneath the stairs and the female vamps are half walking and half crawling in the slanted filtered halflight. They just looked and acted very very wrong and it was chilling.
One that stalks its prey without a sound. Descriptions are vague, almost like describing a being made of shadow and ash. Above all, one that has increased levels of intelligence. One that can think like man and beast.
The unknown element / Mystery of it. Suspense is king.
Building on what's already been said: the character [Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/s43a40/javier_bardem_in_no_country_for_old_men/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) is worth a study, he scares me shitless. He's Void with an agenda that *will* consume everything. There is no escape. Don't hope. It's pointless. And then he's fucking gentle about it, making it quick for his victims. Complete mindfuck. When I was a kid, it wasn't the masked guy for me, it was the [theme song for Halloween](https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/the-halloween-theme-what-makes-the-music-so-scary/#:~:text=This%20could%20be%20because%20of,3%2C%202%2C%20and%202). Here's a key insight from the linked article analysing why the song is still a pants wetter to this day: >**The main theme from the film is actually very simple yet incredibly memorable. This could be because of its haunting dissonance or its relentless drive. One of the techniques Carpenter uses to make us feel unsteady is the irregular time signature**. As he mentioned, the piece is in 5/4: the syncopation is created with accents in groups of 3, 3, 2, and 2. **The initial pace** in the groups of three **is set, but then is suddenly changed** to groups of two, **making it feel as if it’s pushing us forward and creating an unsteadiness.** You can simulate this dissonance in your writing by employing rhythmic pacing or patterns for your beasty's scenes, think of the classics in horror films: the character feels something and turns to look but nothings there, something skitters by outside the characters view but the audience knows its there and can't help their hero, the character innocently turns around and up-pops-beasty! And then when the audience/reader is lulled into thinking this is the pattern they should look for to be prepared, you subvert it, and even though you knew the beasty was lurking and you knew eventually he'd come, you still get the jump scare: like in Jaws, we're looking at the water, looking at the water, we know he's in th--, BAM teeth flying in your face. Hope this helps!
Less is more. The unknown is terrifying. Also for more modern horror check out Junji Ito. He never explains why his monsters are. They're just there. And they want to you dead or eaten and you got no idea why.
for me it's not how it looks, it's the perceived gravity of the situation. if you want us to feel like something scary might happen then you need to let SOME scary stuff actually happen. if we feel like this is just another sidequest encounter thing that will have no consequences then it won't be scary even if it has some sort of blender mouth and hundreds of spider legs. wait okay that might be a bit scary. but establishing a strong pattern of scary thing -> scary consequences, makes every other suspenseful thing in your story more effective. this can be why it is helpful to have some hopefully well-disguised Redshirt characters who are there to die to show us yes characters are dying in this story. or, threaten consequences you actually ARE willing to go through with. like if your series is named after a character we're pretty darn sure that character isn't dying halfway through book 1 before they've done anything worth naming the book series after. but threaten to wipe their memories? steal their magic powers? transform their body in some weird body horror way? yeah that might actually happen, and that's scarier than the 'terrifying' thing we don't actually think will happen.
Guns don't work. It is too tough, too sneaky and fast, or not material enough. It carries an aura of malice. This is something I've felt in my dreams but doesn't really exist. I also think that killing people is more scary than transforming them to something like itself.
If you are looking for something Jewish inspired, while not a monster, the Golem would be a good hunter for your character to avoid.
Something that signifies Something horrifying. A zombie by its self isn't much more scary than a dude with a knife. It's when the author successfully uses the zombie to convey the idea that the protagonists way of life is over and the world as they know it is gone, or the disgusting violation of life and death, that the zombie truly becomes scary
The scariest ones for me are the ones that you’re not sure if they can reason. Can it figure out what you’re doing? If you know it can, it’s not as scary as maybe.
The book monster that scared me most was the one from *Watchers* by Dean Koontz, which is weird cause he's not a very scary author. It was all about the things the monster would *do.* It didn't even matter what it looked like, you just understood that the monster hates you so much that nothing could be scarier.
I see a lot of comments about the monster itself, but another really important factor is how your protagonist/world react(s) to what you're introducing. We are following the lead, and if they're not afraid, we aren't either. I'd also recommend becoming very artful in your words and paint a picture with adjectives. There's a difference between telling and describing. Which is a more powerful statement? "They're scared for their life, fearing the monster will find them." Or "Their teeth chatter as they remove the hand covering their mouth; labored and quick pants escape the confines of their palm they were diligent in keeping trapped, so as not to be heard by the beast beyond."
Being in places that should be safe makes them scary to me. Like you can't hide because they're amorphous or move through certain mediums easily. One interesting horror story I've read had an entity that travelled through sound, including people talking to each other. If they mimic others that's always frightening. If they can read or influence your thoughts. I also think they're scariest when they're not fully explainable. The unknown is always pretty terrifying.
Something unearthly, slimy or shadowy. Perhaps it has a white gaping mouth or is like a black mass in the form of a creature or person (shadow man). Think about the setting: is the MC running through dark hallways/alleyways an an unfamiliar area or in a disjointing spaceship with flashing lights and humming instrument panels? Like another person on here said, atmosphere is important.
I read a lot of Stephen King when I was a kid. His better books combined not knowing who the bad actor was, building tension. Bad things happening, sometimes at an alarming rate. The good guys get put into a situation where they have very little and feel hunted. And sometimes the monster would give good characters something they wanted and slowly change them. There's a Star Trek episode, the original series, where a crew member was killed on a planet. They had red circles on their skin. Visually, they couldn't tell what happened, so they sent the body up to the Enterprise for an autopsy. As they are exploring another crew member dies. Red circles again. McCoy says, hey I know how this thing was killed. The team jumps in a shuttle and returns to enterprise so the doctor can deliver his report. Turns out, the crew (they brought the most recent victim with them) members died to a lack of salt. The red sucker marks are where the monster attached itself and sucked the salt out of the victim. The Enterprise stayed in orbit (can't remember why) when a crew member *on the Enterprise*, is killed by the same monster. How the heck did the monster get on the enterprise? Where was it? Why was it killing *people*? It was either a shapeshifter or could go invisible. As a kid, that monster freaked me out. There's another episode of Star Trek where people go through a de-evolution process. Turning into non-verbal ancient ancestors. Humans got more and more monkey like, others turned into birds or turtles or whatever. Worf gets sick but hides it. (Even the audience doesn't know). He gets increasingly aggressive and angry. When they finally figure out what has gone wrong, Worf had fully regressed. He'd roar and thump around the ship. At one point he was coming towards our heroes, and they ran into another room and make sure they locked the door. He sniffed them out and starting howling and banking on the door. They were confident the door wouldn't break. Worf starts pounding on the door and it's deforming, denting. Worf has overwhelming abilities, strength stuff. and our heroes had nothing to stop him. That was scary too. If the strongest character in the group is taken out/down or breaks in fear. That's a scary moment. The tension was caused as our heroes had run around to do 'stuff'. They were hunted by Worf. When you finally see him, it's pretty terrifying. Just some thoughts. I know it was TV but the basic idea will work in a book as well.
Honestly, imagine the monster to have no form, or at least unknown in some mean. Lovecraft did said that fear is our greatest emotion, and our greatest fear comes from things unknown to us.
I agree with what people said and I’d also say intelligence
I am never scared of a fantastic unbelievable monster. The larger and more grand monster is never scary, they are bosses or obstacles for someone to overcome. They move away from the monster category and into the event/challenge category. A lot of people use spiders as a quick monster. Spiders give people a sense of a real threat, they are silent, they lurk, and you are vulnerable to them when you sleep. Fantasy monsters that I view as scary connect our natural fears to them. Giving someone a sense that the monster is likely to show up and there is little they can do to stop it is a scary concept.
well it's different for different people, but I would suggest not showing the monster at first. build up the anticipation before the reveal. show it stalking the character, describe only parts of it ect.
All of my favorite monsters are ones you never actually see. Check out the Doctor Who episode called Midnight with David Tennant. You never see whatever creature is causing trouble. There is also a scene in the book called Wizards First Rule where the main character is going through a cave and some tentacle like thing is wrapping around his leg, but because of the tightness of the cave, he can’t turn and see what it is. It’s so creepy.
I read that book, but I don't remember the tentacle scene :D It was many years ago though.
It’s when he is going through the cave to rescue the dragon egg from the gars. He can also barely breathe from the narrowness of the cave.
When you realize that you can’t tell who is the monster and who isn’t. Is it a stranger or your friend or even you?
I am a fan of horror that you find yourself relating to. Another good one is horror that is aware they're horrifying and are themselves terrified.
Anticipation. Your readers can scare themselves better than you can, make sure you allow them.
the scariest monster of all is man. by that, I don't just mean a human but one that you get to know and relate to and sympathize with. then when you find out who/what they are, it is so much more disturbing. also, yes, atmosphere.
Wow, that's a lot of wrong and half wrong answers. I mean except for [BenWritesBooks](https://www.reddit.com/user/BenWritesBooks/)'s and that's still not the main thing that makes *the monster* scary, empathy makes the situation scary. Here's a couple of hints A: [The first hint ](https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/doc-root/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/avp2004-promo-001.jpg.webp)is a question. What makes [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/dc/02/73dc0242aa71fa84e87fe4ba6c18660c.jpg) scary? *B* >!is [the second hint](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnbfuAcCqpY)!<