Board 8 > Snake Ranks Anything Horror Related Vol. 4 *RANKINGS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

jcgamer107 posted...

I think the pictures they found on one of the girl's phones that were taken 10 days after they went missing was the creepiest part of all that

I completely forgot to mention that!

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15. Daylight Horror (22 points)
Nominated by: Shonen_Bat (3/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdKlvjOQn-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbKAu272_bI

Importance: 8
Fear: 7
Snake: 7

A very underrated aspect of horror, daylight horror shatters the notions of what we think it means to feel safe and secure in a horror story. I'm actually glad it's underused, since it makes more scary when it does pop up. Some of my favorite examples include Resident Evil 5, The Devil's Rejects, and The Twilight Zone episode, "The Midnight Sun". In the Resident Evil series, practically all games before it took place either during night, or, if it did take place during the day, it was completely shrouded by the smoke rising from fires across Raccoon City. The advent of sunlight often meant the nightmare was over; in RE1, it's just rising as the STARS members fly home safely. In Resident Evil 4, Leon and Ashley escape on the jet-ski during sunrise in a similar situation. I still remember the reactions to the first ever RE5 trailer, which made the sun a starring character, blinding Chris as zombies appeared in a shrouded haze. There were rumors players would've had to battle against dehydration and hallucinations in a hardcore twist on the survival horror formula. The full game may have lacked these features, but still featured many daylight sections and it was refreshing for sure to see it in the series.

Rob Zombie is amazing at daylight horror. The Devil's Rejects, and indeed the follow-up 3 From Hell, take place almost entirely during the day, in a scorching heat that shows off the sweat & grime of basically every character involved. This is a great example of the scariest horror sometimes being the thing that is most visible. It creates a "fear of the light" effect; at least in the dark, you may not be able to tell someone or something is there. In the light though, there's no hiding it, and you got no choice but to confront it head on. In the infamous "devil's work" scene, you could even compare Otis to Lucifer, the "light-bringer"!

The Midnight Sun offers a different perspective. While the previous examples offer more physical observations, this TZ episode examines the psychological aspect as well. In it, the Earth begins to move closer to the sun, with no night to speak of, making things overbearingly hot every single day. It showcases how fragile our lives are, and our pure desperation to survive by any means necessary. It shatters our illusions of safety even further by taking place primarly inside an apartment room, and with the twist ending, offers a satisfying contrast with the main story.

There are plenty of other examples to draw from, but for me, these three cover it well. I guess if you're looking for more (and you should be!), The Walking Dead, Dying Light, David Lynch films, 28 Days Later, and especially Jaws all come to mind. Daylight horror is often some of the brutal and effecting horror there is, but probably not very suggestible if you say, have a bad looking rubber monster suit for example. Then, yeah, stick to the shadows! In the world of horror, you should never feel safe, and by continuing to examine the scope this trope provides, you can create terrifying memories that achieve this exact feeling.

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I like those segments in Fatal Frame 3 set in Rei's home. A modern home is a far departure from its usual deserted rural village settings, and some scenes even take place during the day but man the emptiness of the house itself is scary. And then the apparitions...appear.
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Another reason Midsommar is great - does daylight horror better than anything else I've seen

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I will definitely second that, Midsommars use of daylight horror is excellent
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14. Parasite Eve (22 points)
Nominated by: PumpkinCoach (0/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiUyK5YPyMU

Importance: 5
Fear: 7
Snake: 10

In the late 90s, two of the biggest video game genres around were survival horror, and RPGs, spurned on by the roaring success of Resident Evil and the continued popularity of Square's own Final Fantasy and various RPG franchises. You could say it was written in the stars, as with Parasite Eve, Square sought to combine the two-genres in a unique pairing that featured the best of both worlds. It featured an active time battle system which can be paused as needed, but also allowed players to move Aya around the battlefield to avoid certain attacks and reposition for a better advantage. Survival horror elements came into play with bullet counters and strategic use of your "parasite energy" and items, making the game much more of a mental and physical exercise that demanded a lot out of players. Outside of combat, the game was also very similar to a survival horror game, exploring tight, mostly abandoned, self-contained environments and finding key items to progress through. Parasite Eve's monsters are biological monstrosities, and there are several incredible CGs in the game that show off the body horror of the game, with absolutely disgusting transformations that only get creepier with age. The science behind the game has been widely praised as well-researched and accurate, and I'm sure this can be owed to the original novel, which the game is a sequel to, being written by Hideaki Sena, a pharmacologist (though he had no involvement with the game). Parasite Eve is also incredible for its melancholic depiction of New York City. Parasite Eve starts off taking place on Christmas Eve, and is a beautiful snapshot of the city around this time, with tranquil snow-covered streets & mostly empty areas drawn from real life locations; it captures both the peace Christmas provide, but also what it's like to spend Christmas away from your family or friends, either stuck working or just having no one to spend it with it all. I get so many weird feelings from this game that it's hard to describe really. I think the work of the haunting score adds a lot to this too, composed by Yoko Shimomura (of future Kingdom Hearts fame). And how did I make it this far without mentioning some of the wonderful, fully-realized cast? Aya Brea is initially your typical strong-willed police officer, but she has to come to terms with fighting her own body and also coming to grips with her deceased sister. Daniel Dollis, Aya's partner, is a struggling working father having issues connecting to his son. Their partnership feels real and supportive of each other, and their conversations with each other are just what you would expect from such a friendship.

Really, this gets to the heart of why I love this game so much. The quieter moments and focus on the human emotions and even body image absolutely make this game as incredible as it is, and it's a frightening horror game and fun to master RPG on top of all of that. It's one of the most robust gaming experiences you'll find on the PS1, and this is one of those games you owe it yourself to at least experience once in your life. And with Christmas right around the corner, I think it's the perfect time!

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Just don't play the third birthday.
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I actually don't mind the 3rd Birthday.

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I really didnt enjoy the story or gameplay. I finished it out of pure stubbornness.
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13. Devil May Cry (22 points)
Nominated by: Shonen_Bat (2/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfMte3Q0pEM

Importance: 8
Fear: 4
Snake: 10

This was the first horror game I had ever played. I got it when I was nine for Christmas along with my very own slim PS2 (and Gran Turismo 3), my parents just bought it for me with me not even hearing it about it or even knowing it existed one bit! All the same, I popped it into my new PS2 the next day, and was blown away by it in several regards. One, the most apparent to me, was its horror aspects. I had only really played games like Gex, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Sonic up to this point, and though I had seen my share of horror movies, I was not prepared for the extra layer of interactivity that came with horror in gameplay. I almost didn't want to play anymore after the first level, as the haunting cracks of wooden marionettes stalked the rooms behind me, as what was supposed to be an action packed sword slasher became my first foray into the world of survival horror without me even knowing it yet. However, I stuck with it (on Easy Automatic since I died a bunch), eventually regaining my confidence to face these horrors head on and experiencing a pretty fun combat system on top of it! Still, it's always been the atmosphere and haunting music of DMC1 that has made this one of my favorite games of all time. The castle of Mallet Island remains one of the pinnacle centerpieces of atmosphere in video games, with dark lightning, Gothic-styled scenery, and twisted mangling of once normal areas that gave the game new life in a late stage playthrough. The enemy design is similarly incredible. There's the aforementioned marionettes, dressed like residents of the castle and adorned with graphic details of blood and gore. They have cruel weapons like throwing daggers and bladed hands and their movements are quite unnatural, floating towards the player like they're being controlled from another dimension. Shadows, cat-like in nature, are some of the toughest enemies in the game. They're appropriately named after their amorphous movements on the battlefield, and can alter their shape to attack Dante with nightmarish assaults. Sin Scissors are among the most horror-centric monsters in the game, looking like female Grim Reapers with spectral forms and deadly weapons consisting of their namesakes and even scythes; but one of the most horrifying aspects of their character is the haunting laugh they emit upon their death. DMC1 was such a one-of-a-kind experience that I sometimes unfairly compare to future entries in the series due to my love for this more horror-focused first step. It was the perfect alignment of a chaotic and scattered development and the desire for a bold new direction in gaming from Capcom, and I will forever be appreciative to this masterpiece for shaping my taste today.

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Also it's the only one with unique death animations for Dante.
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12. Doki Doki Literature Club (22.5 points)
Nominated by: Shonen_Bat (1/5 remaining)
https://ddlc.moe/

Importance: 6
Fear: 7.5
Snake: 9

JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA JUST MONIKA

Okay, no, we're not doing that joke again. And yeah, I could also try to hide the fact that it's a horror game the way it does so cleverly in its first hours, but this is a horror ranking topic so there wouldn't really be much point to that, would there? Doki Doki Literature Club is one of the most best horror experiences I've had in the past decade, and though I knew where it would eventually be headed when I first played through, it has so many unique tricks and jarring, unexpected moments that kept me clicking through, just dying to find out what was going to flash before my eyes next. The best thing DDLC does is keep stringing you along, and I think knowing the twist of the game only serves to improve the experience. For the first two hours, Doki plays the typical romantic VN card so straight and so deadly serious that honestly, you kind of forget that something scary is supposed to happen. I know I found myself legitimately drawn in to the literature club, and was surprised at just how much depth the girls all had, and how much I enjoyed reading all the girls' poems and even sort of putting together my own. Some of the more overtly romantic scenes have very creepy undertones, no doubt about that, but there still wasn't anything explicit that I would call "horror". Then, the game hits you like an anvil wrapped in a ton of bricks thrown by an elephant. The game did its job right then and there for me. It could've ended there and I would've felt a sense of emptiness, a victim of the game's trappings, kicking myself for not realizing the warning signs and writing on the wall that was there all along if I had just paid a little bit more attention to a friend in need. The game continues though, and after Sayori's suicide, it's even more relentless and brutal, and makes you feel horrible sometimes for even playing it. It has some of the best fourth-wall breaks I've even seen in a game, and the way it manipulates everything from the flow of story to character models to poems to the music is just fantastic. You're just not the same after playing it, and that's more than I could say for even some of my favorite horror games of all time. It deserves your attention right now, played through in one sitting, with much prep as you need because you never know how the game will fool you next anyway.

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11. Little Boy and Fat Man (The nuclear bomb detonations over Japan in World War 2) (23 points)
Nominated by: paulg235 (1/4 remaining)
https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/little-boy-and-fat-man

Importance: 10
Fear: 10
Snake: 3

Little Boy was the first of only two nuclear weapons ever used in a war. It's also the biggest misnomer there may ever be. As I'm sure everyone knows, Hiroshima in Japan was devastated by this new advancement in technology, and its effects, far lasting. Fat Man was the second and last nuclear weapon ever used in a war, dropped on Nagasaki only three days after Little Boy. Total death count between the two bombings is estimated to be around 129,000226,000 people, a majority of which were merely civilians. The Atomic age had been rung in, and nothing would be the same ever again. Debate rages over the bombings to this day, some arguing that the bombing accelerated the end of World War II by causing a Japanese surrender, and possibly even saved more lives that would've been lost during war and in battles. And of course many claim it was entirely unnecessary, and even constituted a war crime for the United States. Simply put, it was an impossible situation, but from what I've seen and read online, there is more support towards the bombings than against it. The loss of human life should always be taken into consideration, obviously, and I'm personally of the opinion that it really did save more lives in the end, and not just in the short term. Seeing the real effects of a nuclear detonation taught us a valuable a lesson I believe, which I think has led to some careful "trigger fingers" so to speak throughout the following decades, especially during the Cold War. It's such a terrible thing to have to think about, but it happened, and there's no use trying to ignore it or its massive effects on history, with the mushroom clouds over Hiroshima & Nagasaki being our forever etched-in reminders of the power and dangers we wield.

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I've dreamt of dying in a nuclear blast several times. Must be one of the most utterly horrific things to experience, whether you're killed by it or are far enough away to survive but still witness the mushroom cloud. I remember reading a book in middle school documenting (perhaps fictionally) what various residents of Hiroshima were doing moments before the bomb was dropped. Really puts into perspective the suddenness and unpredictability of it - one moment you're going about your life, working your job, taking care of your family etc, the next moment everything's gone.

This short animated film I think captures the horror and suddenness of it very well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkhNED3-mnI

Jon Bois also made a video about the time there was nearly a third nuclear strike, that has sadly been taken down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

I'm dying to watch it but it might be gone forever :(

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Since I screwed up the numbering, we're actually in the top 10 right now! Well top 9, but you get the picture.

I wanted to do a little update as we enter the final stretch!

Shonen_Bat:
Silence

Johnbobb:
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
My cat Reaper: https://i.imgtc.ws/qzUYGHH.png

Paulg235:
Jaws (1975 Film)

OracleGunner:
Akira (anime OVA)

MetalmindStats:
Spiders (the order of animals)

Xeybozn:
The Thing (1982 film)
Night of the Living Dead (1968 film)

Ihatethiscpu:
Mimics. (If you need a specific one here: https://www.deviantart.com/vempirick/art/Corpse-Mimic-526526707)

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A book on the making of the atomic bomb (The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes) has a compilation of first-person accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima. It's a good book but very dense and science-heavy. Here's just the relevant bits (poorly formatted, sorry)

https://pastebin.com/CmGWqzHz

really a trip reading 900 pages about the dedicated effort of so many people to produce... this
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Oh, this is interesting, thanks for bringing this to my attention. Seeing it spelled out so scientifically and descriptive like this definitely brings the true horror of this to even more clarity. It's quite chilling.

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Oh yeah nuclear explosions are scary for sure...I think I know which clip that is without even clicking it.
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nice, two in the top 9!
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also here's the image of the cat I submitted with the nomination since imgtc doesn't work anymore

https://imgur.com/AzZ9CmH

I also have literally thousands more
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Catposting is cheat
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9. Mimics (23 points)
Nominated by: ihatethiscpu (0/5 remaining)
https://www.deviantart.com/vempirick/art/Corpse-Mimic-526526707
https://www.deviantart.com/vempirick/art/Mimic-Ladder-526215153
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJbZ2thxCaI

Importance: 6.5
Fear: 8.5
Snake: 8

Originating from Dungeons & Dragons like many common fantasy monsters, Mimics no doubt have to be one of the scariest creations from D&D as well. If those pictures up above don't spell it out clearly enough, let me do it for you: mimics are able to imitate any inanimate object they choose, and they are able to do it so perfectly that it's impossible to discern the real from the fake. Most often, mimics will take the form of chests for any unsuspecting victim to fall prey to their ingenious and terrifying trap. Mimics have been used especially in many video games, ranging Super Mario 64 to Banjo-Kazooie to Final Fantasy to Dark Souls. This shows they're a versatile creature with no real ties to any one genre, however, their appearance almost always marks some of the scariest moments in these games. Just take a look at how the Mad Piano in Mario 64 has made such a mark on the childhoods of many gamers, maybe even being their first encounters with something horror-related like that. Their appearance in Dark Souls is particularly sinister, especially considering the already difficult nature of the game. They will grab the player and take a nice chomp out of them, the animation looking like a death scene out of a game over screen in Resident Evil. Then, when awoken, they look like what a Leprechaun would probably manifest in Silent Hill. In Chrono Trigger, mimics can appear as save points, meaning that all hope is lost and nothing is sacred anymore! When done right, Mimics can inflict just the perfect amount of psychological horror on the player and make them scared to open any subsequent chest and maybe even become wary of other things mimics may be lurking as. It's quite frankly an almost perfect horror concept that in a rare inverse, only gets scarier as you encounter more of them, and that's just something I love.

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mimics are a really neat concept that I HAAAAATE in games

looking at you Dark Souls
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Yeah I agree with that wholeheartedly. They can be so cheap sometimes.

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gotta love long FFXII dungeons with few save points and when you finally find one it's a mimic and one of the most difficult enemies in the joint
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Did you know that older editions of D&D had mimics that were intelligent and even capable of negotiating with the PCs before blades were drawn? I had listened to a YouTube video titled What they dont tell you about mimics and its pretty fascinating. Theres a nice brief history of them here as well:

https://themackenzieblog.com/2018/09/10/monster-monday-mimics/

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8. Silence (23 points)
Nominated by: Shonen_Bat (0/5 remaining)


Importance: 10
Fear: 5
Snake: 8

In the documentary "The Making of Silent Hill 2", Akira Yamaoka was quoted as saying "...selecting moments of silence is another way of producing sound." This has always been one of my favorite quotes regarding the craft of horror, and how silence is such an overlooked but very important of creating an effective piece, in any medium. There are so many ways to utilize silence. You can craft an instant sense of danger by having a normally bustling place, like say, a busy city street or active jungle, be suddenly hushed by the presence of an imposing figure. One of the most common ways is cutting out all silence and dialogue and simply focusing on a steadily rising tension that will more often than not lead to a jump scare. In the inverse, let's go back to Yamaoka, and how he uses silence to craft his scores in the Silent Hill series. Yamaoka typically uses harsh industrial sounds that makes the player panic and their heart-pound, creating a sensation of adrenaline that relies on the player's instincts and blinds them from rational thought. When the horror fades, Yamaoka's score does as well, with a decline in tension that serves as a time to reflect on what the player has just experienced, and emphasizes how isolated the player truly is. The silence in Silent Hill isn't about making the player feel comfortable, per se, but rather creates a contemplative feeling that compliments and represents the often introverted protagonists' inner thought process. Just as sound can be distressing, it can also be quite the comfort. There's a reason so many people sleep with white noise machines at night, or use music to stop bad thoughts from creeping into their minds. When things are quiet, we become more alert and more aware of our surroundings, and thus more susceptible to being frightened. There's nothing to stop our minds from racing, to stop our negative thoughts entering our cranium, we just think and think because our bodies crave sound to let us know we're not alone. Knowing how to use this your advantage can instantly make your work of horror better, and you can easily prey on the fears and insecurities that we all share. Horror continues to embrace silence more and more, not only with whole films like A Quiet Place based around the concept, but also in shows like The Walking Dead. I'm really excited to see how far we can push these concepts, and create truly terrifying visions that embrace the silence as much as they can.

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7. Jaws (23.5 points)
Nominated by: paulg235 (0/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1fu_sA7XhE

Importance: 10
Fear: 6
Snake: 7.5

Jaws is a movie you're pretty much born knowing. Whether it's the iconic Jaws theme, "we're gonna need a bigger boat", or just the simple fact of how movie releases work nowadays, Jaws' influence is widespread and issued catastrophic changes on the entire film industry. If you told me Jaws was the most important film of the past 100 years, I would honestly believe you. It changed the entire game, creating the monumental idea of the "summer blockbuster" as we know it today. By using heavy TV advertising, instead of relying on mere word of mouth or print reviews, hype was built up for Jaws leading up to its eventual release, thus creating an explosion of revenue when coupled with Jaws wider-than-normal theater release at the time. If it had just been this though, Jaws would've been remembered, sure, but maybe as just a footnote or interesting piece of trivia. Jaws had to be something greater, and so it achieved just that, by injecting the public consciousness with enough shark-fueled paranoia to last a lifetime, and I do mean on almost every front. This was a film regarded at the time as possibly even scarier than The Exorcist, and completely recolored public perception of sharks, particularly great whites. Jaws perpetuated the stereotype of the "killer shark" that still hang over sharks to this day, and unfortunately perpetuated hundreds if not thousands of shark hunts in effort to curb the population and keep humanity safe. It made people scared to go in the ocean, and was responsible for lower beach attendance that year. Try to make a shark movie, or any natural horror film in the ocean, without having it compared to Jaws. You can't do it. Hell, try to make a movie where there's a singular monster in a singular location slowly picking people off, and don't have it compared to Jaws. Even if you're friggin' Alien, you'll still be called "Jaws in Space". You just can't escape the long and wide shadow this film casts! Most importantly though, Jaws is just a damn good film.

It's a pretty simple film, kind of like a slasher, and really is just as much an action-thriller as it is a horror film. You have three main protagonists, Quint, Brody, and Hooper. Each protagonist is distinct in personality, and work towards the common goal of eliminating shark in different ways. Quint represents our animalistic and naturalistic side, with determination to prove himself in a classic battle of man vs. nature. Hooper is more thoughtful in his approach, relying on technology and science to hunt the shark down. Lastly, Brody is more of an everyman type, just concerned with keeping people and his family safe and doesn't really care how it gets done, as long as it does. Much like Godzilla before it, Jaws is also way more than just a killer shark. He has been read into as representing a lot of the fears of American society at the time, most notably communism, the slow decay of the American dream, and even the general concept of Satan and the eradication of evil. While I don't necessarily agree with all of this, I totally think it's an interesting way to re-contextualize the film for sure.

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Jaws approaches horror in very cool ways. It shows us two perspectives, one from the hunters' point of view, and the other, from the shark's point of view. When it casts us in the role of the shark, like in Chrissie's scene, we feel almost filthy and deadly, poised to do something horrible and nasty to someone else. It's also a very intimate, voyeuristic shot, casting uncomfortable sexual overtones to the viewer. Forget Jaws for a moment, this has just become Peeping Tom in the ocean. When we're in the perspective of the hunters though, Jaws drops the thriller act for a more in-your-face approach, utilizing jump scares and an unrelenting drive to kill its prey. it makes you feel like Jaws is intelligent enough to change its approach if needed, and that makes him an overall much scarier antagonist to go up against.

Whether you appreciate Jaws for its thrilling approach to horror, or its terrific main cast, or its larger impact on pop culture history, Jaws is an undeniably fantastic film. There aren't many films like this that come around, that completely change how we think things are supposed to be while still being universally appealing to a massive audience. We may never get another like, and we don't need to either. Jaws exists, you should absolutely watch it no matter what you're in to, and you should let its thrills sink in like so many audiences before you.

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It's amazing to think that Jaws was once the summer blockbuster. Can you imagine it coming out today next to things like Avengers: Endgame?
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It is hard to imagine. It would probably end up something like The Shallows or 47 Meters Down, which posted huge financial numbers but definitely not Marvel-tier numbers.

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I didn't even mean financially, I just meant culturally. The idea that a small town is scared of a shark, so a couple of normal dudes go out to kill it in a boat is the entire movie is so completely unlike modern blockbusters. Aside from Star Wars, I can't think of any 70s movies that would fit in the modern market.
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Oh I see what you mean. Jaws feels like such a larger than life film now, but really it's more comparable to maybe the A24 line or Blumhouse, something like that.

I think Close Encounters could maybe fit in today's market, or even the original Superman, even if it's a little cheesy.

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Anagram posted...

I didn't even mean financially, I just meant culturally. The idea that a small town is scared of a shark, so a couple of normal dudes go out to kill it in a boat is the entire movie is so completely unlike modern blockbusters.

It was more concerned with story than constant visual bombardment. Insane.

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6. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (23.5 points)
Nominated by: Johnbobb (1/5 remaining)
https://open.spotify.com/album/3nJnyDV8fwFpffo0EyHQto

Importance: 7.5
Fear: 7
Snake: 9

The Downward Spiral is one of those sound-defining for both a band and the decade it's from. It fit perfectly in the era of sad, heavy grunge, but NIN went for a more industrial sound, while infusing ambient atmosphere with a conceptual story depicting the weakening and fragile mental state of one particular person, usually nicknamed "Mr. Self Destruct" after the title of the opening song. Mr. Self Destruct represents the inner being in all of us however, and the song is written from the perspective of the first-person, and is extremely critical of the fears, anxieties, and hedonistic tendencies we as people tend to get all too caught up in. The verses get worse and worse, starting with love and ending with drugs and even implied suicide by gunshot. It's not a pleasant song by any means, but it's a song that perfectly gets you into the type of the mood the rest of the album seeks to provide. Musically, it's one of the more chaotic and metal-focused tracks on the album, enveloping the listener with a wall of noise that feels as relentless as the voice in our head. The Downward Spiral is an album all about making the listener feel trapped and claustrophobic, and to make them doubt their own sanity as the main protagonist of the album similarly does, becoming disillusioned by the world Mr. Self Destruct is so critical of in the first song. March of the Pigs examines consumerism and idolatry, and how we so eagerly line up at the trough to buy whatever the next shiny thing on the market is, or to revel in the personal anguish written by our favorite musicians. Closer, often mistaken as a party anthem about sexual deviancy, is in reality about how we let our inner thoughts consume and take over our actions, and how sometimes we can feel powerless to stop it. The whole first half of Downward Spiral is about the main character's eventual suicide, and then living on still as those bad thoughts inside all of us. It's one of the darkest concepts for an album, but the way NIN alternates being ambient calmness, head-banging industrial, and introspective lyrical writing still makes it incredibly accessible which is why it connects to so many people on so many different levels. The lyrics are conceptual in nature but can fit whatever interpretation you need to maybe help you out in life and avoid the downward spiral of depression the album so deftly portrays. I love this album, and it's definitely an essential listen for any type of music fan, in my opinion.

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oh no just out of the top 5!

The Downward Spiral is easily one of my favorite albums, and among the best examples of any concept album (and this, along with American Idiot and The Wall, cemented my absolute love of well-thought out concept albums)
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Snake5555555555 posted...

9. Mimics (23 points)
Nominated by: ihatethiscpu (0/5 remaining)
https://www.deviantart.com/vempirick/art/Corpse-Mimic-526526707
https://www.deviantart.com/vempirick/art/Mimic-Ladder-526215153
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJbZ2thxCaI

Importance: 6.5
Fear: 8.5
Snake: 8

Originating from Dungeons & Dragons like many common fantasy monsters, Mimics no doubt have to be one of the scariest creations from D&D as well. If those pictures up above don't spell it out clearly enough, let me do it for you: mimics are able to imitate any inanimate object they choose, and they are able to do it so perfectly that it's impossible to discern the real from the fake. Most often, mimics will take the form of chests for any unsuspecting victim to fall prey to their ingenious and terrifying trap. Mimics have been used especially in many video games, ranging Super Mario 64 to Banjo-Kazooie to Final Fantasy to Dark Souls. This shows they're a versatile creature with no real ties to any one genre, however, their appearance almost always marks some of the scariest moments in these games. Just take a look at how the Mad Piano in Mario 64 has made such a mark on the childhoods of many gamers, maybe even being their first encounters with something horror-related like that. Their appearance in Dark Souls is particularly sinister, especially considering the already difficult nature of the game. They will grab the player and take a nice chomp out of them, the animation looking like a death scene out of a game over screen in Resident Evil. Then, when awoken, they look like what a Leprechaun would probably manifest in Silent Hill. In Chrono Trigger, mimics can appear as save points, meaning that all hope is lost and nothing is sacred anymore! When done right, Mimics can inflict just the perfect amount of psychological horror on the player and make them scared to open any subsequent chest and maybe even become wary of other things mimics may be lurking as. It's quite frankly an almost perfect horror concept that in a rare inverse, only gets scarier as you encounter more of them, and that's just something I love.

I'd like to give a shout out to one of the amalgamates in Undertale. When the save point smiled, you know you're screwed.
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Made it to top 5? I'm honored.
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I might try to finish this up today so be prepared!

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5. Akira (OVA) (23.5 points)
Nominated by: OracleGunner (0/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_MONOV1_sc

Importance: 9
Fear: 5.5
Snake: 9

Before I had watched Akira, I had never really watched anime or gave it even half a chance. I had always written it off as cheesy and over-exaggerated, but Akira changed my entire viewpoint on the medium. For the first time, I saw that anime could be as tense and exciting as any other medium, and had influences from stuff I had already loved in the past. As an example, let's take the most overtly horror aspects of Akira, chiefly the body horror of Tetsuo's transformation, not only clearly inspired by the body horror of David Cronenberg. However, Akira transcends these films and themes in a way that speaks almost exclusively to Japan and it's past, especially in relating to its nuclear fears and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki incidents. Akira takes place 31-years after the start of World War III, which wrecked the original Tokyo, but now stands as the futuristic, gang-ridden, corrupt Neo-Tokyo in 2019. The main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo, two members of a Tokyo motorcycle gang called the Capsules. They're friends but are also rivals, and Tetsuo is eager to escape from under the shadow of Kaneda. When Tetsuo is injured in a motorcycle accident, his hidden psychic powers awaken, and thus he's taken as a test subject by the government. Tetsuo does escape, but he's unable to control his powers, and he begins slaughtering his old gang and eventually turns into a huge mass of fleshy matter. There's plenty of other stuff going on, but that's pretty much the gist of it. This is all, of course, rendered in some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen. The city skyline of Neo-Tokyo is so wonderfully realized and lit so realistically, you'll feel like you visited there yourself. Likewise, Tetsuo's blob mutation, is rendered as a completely biologically-monstrosity, every vein and nuance in muscle is given life through insane detail and an emphasizing an ever shifting and painful sense of being. More than ever before, this gives Japan's fears and struggles with escaping the shadow of nuclear power a fully-realized personification that simply makes you sick to your stomach. Akira similarly portrays a culture of youths in a directionless state purely defying authority, while criticizing Japan's rampant economic growth post-war as losing its national identity due to a desire to become bigger & greater than it once was just to prove they could. Akira is a film that deserves many rewatches to truly grasp everything the film is trying to get across, but even just one viewing can open your eyes to not only some great character drama and excellent horror, but also a snapshot of the culture of Japan at a particular point in time. It's truly a masterpiece of anime and one of the most influential works there is, particularly in the realms of cyberpunk with films, games and shows like Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, The Matrix, Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher, and Final Fantasy VII just to name a couple. If you're one who used to be like me and wrote anime off because of a few pre-conceived notions, Akira begs you to give it a chance and you damn well should.

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Akira so damn good

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4. Spiders (the order of animals) (24 points)
Nominated by: MetalmindStats (0/5 remaining)
https://imgur.com/a/hk9Dzi8 (DO NOT CLICK IF AFRAID OF SPIDERS)

Importance: 10
Fear: 8
Snake: 6

Why are we so scared of spiders? Is it their myriad of legs? Their alien-like appearances? Their potentially dangerous bites? Or is it even getting caught in their web? Whatever the reason, spiders have persisted as a horror monster for humanity and insect alike, associated with Halloween and many horror movies perpetuating the stereotype of the killer spider. I wouldn't say I'm afraid of spiders per se, but at the same token, I definitely like to keep them at a healthy distance, especially with some of the ones in the gallery above. I'm sure you've seen horror videos or gifs of people killing spiders only for millions of babies to spread everywhere, or huge spiders just chilling in empty corners of people's houses while everyone freaks out. I personally appreciate spiders for keeping the much more unwanted bug population in my apartment down, and would never in a million years dream of killing one. They're like our rarely seen protectors and unsung heroes in my book, and don't really care about directly harming us. But it's easy to see where our fears stem from on a purely instinctual level to survive. They can sneak up on us (kind of like the one behind you right now), are small and fast enough to evade capture, and they're equipped with more defensive mechanisms than you're average beast. So, it's easy to see why so many movies are made about them, like Eight Legged Freaks or Arachnophobia, and why they're very common in video games like Resident Evil or Limbo. Personally, I think they deserve more respect and maybe, even if you're afraid of them, you can try to see them in a different light too.

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it's 100% their legs
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NFUN posted...

it's 100% their legs

Obviously you need to watch monster Musume in order to get over the legs.
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Spiders CAN be excellent in horror, but they're also horribly overused and often used poorly.

I'm glad you mentioned Limbo, because that's easily my favorite spider in horror. The way it's body blends into the black background, the way the legs strike quickly and mercilesssly. It's a terrifying presence throughout.

But on the other side, I hate seeing generic "big spiders" as horror enemies in games and I REALLY hate spider jumpscares because they just feel so uninspired
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3. Night of the Living Dead (1968 film) (27 points)
Nominated by: Xeybozn (1/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d68kyNY0jI

Importance: 10
Fear: 8
Snake: 9

Whether you love or hate the over-abundance of zombies in horror today, there's pretty much one man you can thank/blame: the legendary George A. Romero. While Night of the Living Dead wasn't the first film to feature zombies how we know them today (that honor goes to Plague of the Zombies, released two years prior to NotLD), it is by far the most well-known and influential early use of the shambling, brain-dead reanimated corpses with no purpose but to feed. Before these films, zombie would refer to someone under voodoo or mind-control, such as in White Zombie, Revolt of the Zombies, or I Walked With a Zombie. While there are certain similarities to those voodoo zombies, Romero actually drew more from the vampires featured in Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, which too were infected with a virus but still were portrayed with typical vampire tropes in that story. Particularly, Romero was interested in how the outbreak initially started, leading into humanity's downfall, rather than the in-media res start of I Am Legend. Thus, the idea for Night of the Living Dead was formed, and the rest is pretty much history.

The script for Living Dead was extremely satirical and progressive for its time. Notably, the film features a black lead character, portrayed by Duane Jones, the first of only a few roles he would in. Though the part was originally written as a white character, Jones gave the best audition and thus was chosen by Romero pretty easily, and he refused to rewrite the script to conform to any stereotypes common in film at the time. Having a black lead was unheard of at the time, especially in horror, and it's a trend that very honestly continues to this day. Romero simply saw his characters as real people and that's the real x-factor for a lot of zombie films, and why you see so many that use zombies as a conduit to tell relevant, socio-political stories focusing on the human element instead. To me, that's Romero's real mark and influence on the zombie genre. Night of the Living inadvertently transformed into a film that deftly dealt with racism, its ending eerily mirroring the deaths of MLK Jr. and Malcolm X even if Romero never intended for it to be that way. What is more prevalent is a heavy anti-war message, tying into the Vietnam War and portraying the military as brutish, boastful brutes who think they have the answer for everything whilst in reality knowing nothing. Living Dead pushed boundaries in both horror and social commentary, and I think that's the key ingredient that made this film the lasting classic it has become.

NotLD is in the public domain, so you can watch it pretty much anywhere. It's also why it's almost always the number one choice to show in movies when a character needs to be watching something scary on television. I notice it so much it honestly has become somewhat of a minor pet peeve to me! There are other public domain horror movies, give them exposure instead! Okay, "thing only Snake cares about" rant over, obviously give this film a viewing if you somehow haven't, and give appreciation to where The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, Zombieland, World War Z, and so much more get their inspiration from!

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Somehow to this day I still haven't watched Night of the Living Dead. It's been sitting on my shelf for like a decade.

It's up there alongside movies like Goodfellas and Full Metal Jacket that I really just have no excuse for not seeing by now
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Saying this as a horror fan, watch Goodfellas and Full Metal Jacket first!

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Akira definitely has one of the all-time horror endings. Iconic body horror.

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2. The Thing (28 points)
Nominated by: Xeybozn (0/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ftmr17M-a4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9JbK7slrk

Importance: 9
Fear: 9
Snake: 10

One of my top all time favorite horror films ever, The Thing is undoubtedly a classic. Directed by John Carpenter, the man knows how to build tension in a small area among a close, tight-knit group of people. He has way of making the audience feel isolated even when surrounded by friends and others, and nothing exemplifies this more than The Thing's freezing-cold antaractic base, which may as well be a character in and of itself. It gives the film a sense of hopelessness, making you think there really isn't any way out of the main characters' tough situation. And tough situation is underselling it. Just try to imagine yourself in the shoes of these people, for just one moment, and you'll be glad to be anywhere else but there. So what is The Thing about? Basically, a group of researchers at an Antarctica facility, encounter an alien being of unknown origins, who can assimilate and appear as any other living organism, including dogs and of course, people. It is an adaptation of Who Goes There?, a pretty short novella written by John W. Campbell Jr., and The Thing is technically a remake of the 1951 film, The Thing from Another World, which is a proper chiller in its own right. As if you needed me to state it, Carpenter's adaptation is easily the best. It's the amazing and charismatic cast, led by Kurt Russel, that really sells the whole ideas of paranoia and mistrust among the group. My favorite scene representing this will always be the blood test, a pure microcosm of isolated fear and how we let it take over and cloud our judgment in the most stressful of times. What also makes the Thing scary is its amazing use of practical effects. The dog-thing is possible the best practical effect of all time, with so much detail put into individual tongue and teeth, I will praise it every time no doubt. The practical effect sells this idea that this is really happening, and its so disgusting and horrifying to see happen to such a cute animal, and the whole time you're just wishing it would just end and be put out of its misery. Of course, if you weren't exhausted enough at this point, you have the ambiguous ending, just for one last gut-punch before the film leaves you with much to ponder about.

I just adore this film. Every viewing just leaves me completely mesmerized and enthralled by both the character drama and the pure nightmare fuel of the Thing alien. Surprisingly enough, this film was lambasted at the time, which is crazy to think about considering its long-lasting legacy. It was even listed as the most hated film of all time! Of course, history has a way of making things right, and now the Thing enjoys time as one of the most influential and most referenced films ever, with a sprawling franchise forever etching its place in the pantheon of top horror films.

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