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[Grakelin]

Agree.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I still wonder about The Thing, in that it's never clear if Things are aware of their status as Things untill they get outed.

[Il Palazzo]

I love the cheesy computer simulation. It scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Now, when I think about it, I can only see the cheesiness, which seems to be suggesting that my high regard for The Thing is mostly nostalgia-driven.

[Grakelin]

I first saw it in 2009, and some of the scenes terrified me.

[RedKing]

"Flowers for Algernon", or rather the second half of the story. It's a perfect window into what I think it would be like to have a degenerative neurological condition like Alzheimer's or dementia, and to be cognizant enough that you know you're losing your intellect and you can't stop it. That shit scares the f**k out of me, because it's a very real-life threat, and one of those things that's a personal nightmare of mine.

The other things is the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The stories aren't that scary, ranging from humorous to campfire ghost stories to urban legends, with a few genuinely disturbing tidbits mixed in. But the illustrations...ye gods, the illustrations....those things burned holes in my brain when I read it in elementary school. And it should be stressed -- these are children's books.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I started reading The Road today, and uh....holy fucking shit is this the most depressing thing I've ever read. I'm not even a quarter through it and it's reaching Warhammer 40k levels of depressing! And with none of the awesome! Everything is grey! It also feels somwhat like Fallout if Fallout were a book and less funny. Given that The Road was written in 2006, this may be a justified feeling on my part.

[Il Palazzo]

The other things is the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The stories aren't that scary, ranging from humorous to campfire ghost stories to urban legends, with a few genuinely disturbing tidbits mixed in. But the illustrations...ye gods, the illustrations....those things burned holes in my brain when I read it in elementary school. And it should be stressed -- these are children's books.

Ugh, dear me. It's like putting H.R.Giger's or Beksinski's illustrations in a book for kids. A troubled childhood and a lifetime of morbid fascination guaranteed.

[RedKing]

The other things is the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The stories aren't that scary, ranging from humorous to campfire ghost stories to urban legends, with a few genuinely disturbing tidbits mixed in. But the illustrations...ye gods, the illustrations....those things burned holes in my brain when I read it in elementary school. And it should be stressed -- these are children's books.

Ugh, dear me. It's like putting H.R.Giger's or Beksinski's illustrations in a book for kids. A troubled childhood and a lifetime of morbid fascination guaranteed.

No shit. They *still* affect me. When the Google result page came up, there was a part of me trying to avert my eyes.

Some of the poems and songs were the most disturbing, either because they're so cheery-seeming or slightly demented.

Spoiler: Example 1 (a song) (click to show/hide)

Did you ever think as a hearse goes by
That you may be the next to die?
They wrap you up in a big white sheet
From your head down to your feet.
And the worms crawl in and the worms crawl out,
In your stomach and out your snout,
And your eyes fall out and your teeth decay--
And that is the end of a perfect day.

Spoiler: Example 2 (a poem) (click to show/hide)

There was a man who lived in leeds;
He filled his garden full of seeds.
And when the seeds began to grow,
It was like a garden full of snow.
But when the snow began to melt,
It was like a ship without a belt.
And when the ship began to sail,
It was like a bird without a tail.
And when the bird began to fly,
It was like a seagull in the sky
And when the sky began to roar,
It was like a lion at my door.
And when the door began to crack,
It was like a penknife in my back.
And when my back began to bleed,
I was dead, dead, dead indeed!

Both of those, like most all of the stories, are taken from earlier works and folklore (the song was recorded in Brooklyn in the 1940s and the tune is well-recognized in cartoons as being a "spooky" music, and the poem was first published in 1975). But there's still something disturbing about them, and the accompanying NightmareFuel artwork kinda furthered that. Some of the illustrations are seriously HighOctaneNightmareFuel.



Incidentally, thanks for the name-drop. I'd never heard of Beksinski and after a quick Google, I'm intrigued. Love Giger's stuff and this looks promising as well.

[Il Palazzo]

Beksinski is the person (at least partially, heh) responsible for my twisted mind, just as S.Gammell appears to be for yours. Luckily(or sadly?), I only discovered him when I was already an adolescent. I'd be probably twice as weird had it happened earlier.

[SalmonGod]

"Flowers for Algernon", or rather the second half of the story. It's a perfect window into what I think it would be like to have a degenerative neurological condition like Alzheimer's or dementia, and to be cognizant enough that you know you're losing your intellect and you can't stop it. That shit scares the f**k out of me, because it's a very real-life threat, and one of those things that's a personal nightmare of mine.

Something I'm almost guaranteed to be faced with eventually.  All the men on both sides of my family are either killed in adulthood by stress-induced illness or live in great physical health well into their late 80s/early 90s but with crippling alzheimers setting in somewhere in the early 70s.

[Cuppsworth]

I still wonder about The Thing, in that it's never clear if Things are aware of their status as Things untill they get outed.

Maybe they were just disguising themselves until they didn't have to?

I love the cheesy computer simulation. It scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Now, when I think about it, I can only see the cheesiness, which seems to be suggesting that my high regard for The Thing is mostly nostalgia-driven.

I didn't know they even used computer animation in the Thing.

[ChairmanPoo]

In the novel it wasn't very clear to what extent the infectees knew they were not human anymore. In fact, the guy who came up with the base concept as to how to tell the humans from the alien was an alien.

[Il Palazzo]

I love the cheesy computer simulation. It scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Now, when I think about it, I can only see the cheesiness, which seems to be suggesting that my high regard for The Thing is mostly nostalgia-driven.

I didn't know they even used computer animation in the Thing.

Oh, I meant the simulation one of the scientists runs on his computer in the movie. The silly thing with purple blobs of pixelated "cells" eating the blue ones or something. He watches this animation, that he coded himself, with that extremally worried expression on his face, as if seeing exactly what he programmed gave him some profound insight into the whole thing(i.e.Thing).
I mean, he was like if he had written <print "hello world">, and then went all "Holy crap this is some powerful shit I made".

So that's what I meant, and not the monster effects which were most probably all animatronic.

[Cuppsworth]

Oh, I meant the simulation one of the scientists runs on his computer in the movie. The silly thing with purple blobs of pixelated "cells" eating the blue ones or something. He watches this animation, that he coded himself, with that extremally worried expression on his face, as if seeing exactly what he programmed gave him some profound insight into the whole thing(i.e.Thing).
I mean, he was like if he had written <print "hello world">, and then went all "Holy crap this is some powerful shit I made".

So that's what I meant, and not the monster effects which were most probably all animatronic.

Oh, okay. I guess it makes sense that you would find it weird.

[Darkmere]

The other things is the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The stories aren't that scary, ranging from humorous to campfire ghost stories to urban legends, with a few genuinely disturbing tidbits mixed in. But the illustrations...ye gods, the illustrations....those things burned holes in my brain when I read it in elementary school. And it should be stressed -- these are children's books.

Oh man... I have a boxed set of 3 of those... somewhere... thank you for bringing me back a piece of my childhood. I must find them...