Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-34423991-20180511202529/@comment-4665292-20180530093050

Rambling ahead...

I don't really bother with game-related stories, but I get why a lot of people like them. Still, I feel like they're hyped way too much and their fans really make my brain hurt way more than any other kind of stories'. Glitches in games can be creepy and all, and I guess becoming obsessed with beating a cursed game or whatever can be a great source of horror in that obsession with anything is always considered creepy by default, but if it's just description of non-horror games glitching out to become horror games... I honestly don't get it. If there was more to them and the game was just a part of it, that'd be so much better, but I don't know of any pastas like that.

Like, maybe a part of it is that I haven't actually played any "proper" games myself in like a decade, but that can't be all there is to it because I can definitely relate to just about every other kind of story even if at times it can be difficult (like with stories where the protagonist does really stupid shit, like running towards a bloodthirsty anthropophagic monster of some kind and it's not even attempted to be explained why they do it, as if it was the most logical thing ever to want to get eaten).

Actually, it could be that one of the main reasons why game pastas don't really have an impact on me is that no game could ever not be quit; if it gets too much for you for whatever reason, you can just stop playing the game. If there's some kind of curse that all your loved ones will die if you stop playing or whatever, how about bathroom breaks? Or eating? Sleeping? It would have to be explained how that shit works for it to have enough scare potential to build an atmosphere or be shocking, but including a detailed explanation like that would almost certainly ruin the atmosphere or lessen the shock value.

If a story was about a game and how everyone who plays it becomes so obsessed with it that they neglect the real world entirely to the point where they stop eating and literally shit themselves (which does happen in real life), that could end up being creepy; I think there is at least one story like that, but I don't remember what it's called or any details. Anyway, I'd still feel like it needs more to it than that to be truly effective; maybe the protagonist had a baby and they neglected it as a result of playing the game or there was an evacuation due to a natural disaster that they missed or whatever.

Also, since ritual stuff was already mentioned. Ritual stuff in the form of directions to the reader like "if you do X and Y, Z will happen" do literally nothing for me because obviously Z will not happen; I get that religious people may find them scary and am not trying to insult their intelligence, but the level of suspension of disbelief required to enjoy them is so high that it really detracts from the story's quality. On the other hand, stories with rituals that actually have some other substance to them are different because they don't require the reader to turn off their mind, and I can definitely enjoy those.

As for the attacking of religions, I couldn't disagree more. I mean, I agree it's pretty lame if it's completely pointless, but if it's part of the story in any significant way, then it's not only pointful but also an important source of horror. The Abrahamic religions in particular are one of the primary causes of suffering for humans regardless of what you believe; they can act as roadblocks in a person's mind that keep them from living their life to the fullest (eg. coming to terms with their sexuality, getting a divorce from an abusive relationship, etc.) and are the motive for tons of murders every year, let alone historically with the Crusades, Inquisition and expansion of the Caliphates, etc.

Besides, if a story has an anti-religious protagonist, something supernatural happening to them is going to have a bigger impact than if it's stated that the character is a devout Catholic or whatever because it's established that they're harder to convince of the reality of whatever creepy stuff is going on. In order to do that, it has to be made clear that the character is not religious; if they're explicitly anti-religious, it's even more important to somehow point that out in the story as it's still the default for people to adhere to some religion (even if in name only and retaining a few cultural practices).

Actually, I think it's worth nothing how blurry the distinction between religious horror and horror about mental illness is. The distinction isn't made in real life either; if I went to a random shrink (or even a priest) and told them out of the blue that I kinda I believe was possessed by a demon when I was a kid, I'd still risk getting medicated out of my mind and/or locked up in a psychiatric hospital years after the delusion/possession ended because people just don't believe that shit anymore around here.

Maybe I'm in a minority about this, but I think there'd be a lot more potential for horror dealing with the secularisation of society in a way that doesn't end up coming across as religious propaganda. The uncertainty of things, you know? Not enough creepypastas deal with that, which is also interesting because mainstream horror does it so much more and so much better most of the time; I guess a part of it is that mainstream horror can survive the controversies while online stories only end up getting deleted when enough idiots get offended by them on sites like this. (And no, I'm not calling all religious people idiots. Only the ones who want to censor things they find offensive, particularly conservative Christians and Islamists.)

As for excessive gore and violence, body horror is one of my favourite subgenres or elements to incorporate in stuff. Without the gore, it simply wouldn't be the same, and it could even be argued that it's inherently gory. Stories that could be called goreporn in particular, if well-written, are particularly fucky and can make me squirm in my seat.

I feel like there's a lot of legit creepy potential in extremely violent and/or sexualised body horror instead of just shock value, too, although I understand why some people feel differently and are bound to see all of it as either immature attempts at being shocking or as fetish fuel. In the end, it all boils down to how different people are. I personally don't think there's anything wrong even with being shocking for the sake of being shocking, even though pretty much no one is actually shocked by it anymore...

Then again, I'm pretty much always an edgy contrarian when it comes to things like that and it could be argued that everything I write is "hurr durr shock value, wew pr0n XD" so my opinion on the matter can be discarded.

Something that's not only in creepypasta but in horror fiction in general that I just find laugable are werewolves. There has only ever been one horror story with werewolves in it that I found even a little bit creepy, Tranquility's Bounty. Also, it's been a long time since I watched it but IIRC the film Jack & Diane had a really strange and at times creepy atmosphere to it; I don't remember pretty much anything about it except that it was about lesbian werewolves or something and there was a scene in a basement or something that was kinda creepy? Also, Wer was pretty good, but not really horror.

But overall, I just don't get werewolves. Like, sure, if I saw one rushing at me from the woods at night, I'd be shitting myself, but I like wolves; since they practically never attack people and it's a fact that people are much more likely to get killed by other people than wolves, the idea of a person turning into a wolf and randomly killing people is kinda paradoxical. I get that it's at least sometimes and at least in part "being free from the shackles of morality results in people becoming monsters" symbolism and that werewolves were presumably originally believed in because of serial killers and rabies, but still...

Honestly, werewolves just aren't my cup of tea, so this isn't a criticim of anything that has them or anyone who loves them and can immerse themselves in stories with them and get creeped out. Something about them is also too reminiscent of furries, which are creepy in an entirely different way...

I absolutely love the Underworld films, though; it's just that pretty much anything that's supposed to be horror with werewolves ends up being hilarious.

(Second time trying to post this reply because it apparently didn't go through the first time. Is there a filter that stops longer replies, or are some words blacklisted? Or what?)