Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25326117-20180304103810/@comment-9041013-20180318083532

JohnathanNash wrote: BloodySpghetti, are you really going to say that bullying and becoming a killer aren't a good idea for a story? What about Firestarter? Granted that one has some supernatural powers to it, but it's the same concept, just like Carrie. Is Carrie bad as well? She had those powers, was bullied to the breaking point and killed a bunch of people, but that's not a scary story, or even a good one.

Let's find one that doesn't have any supernatural powers in it, okay? How about Lord of the Flies? That's a shitty story about a group of kids who end up killing another from bullying, and then another tries to get revenge. Oh, but they were trying to get his glasses, so maybe that doesn't count either. Or, maybe it's because Piggies friend is the one who tries to kill the other kid. Granted I didn't find this story scary, if you do a google search it's always on the list of scariest stories.

I don't know anything about Japanese Gorno movies, but I'm sure if they were written in a way that wasn't lighthearted, they could indeed be scary. But since I have no idea what these movies are, and that we're talking more about literature, I can't say.

Let's look at some stupid ideas that are scary:

Leiningen Vs the Ants - a story about a man trying to survive ants, absolute terrifying.

Godzilla - need I say more. In fact, any giant animal that was affected by radiation.

Abandoned by Disney - While I don't find this story scary, there's no doubt that many did. And it has a photo negative Mickey Mouse that pulls its head off and has yellow blood. How fucking stupid is that? I needed to throw in at least one creepypasta.

Snow - a bunch of people are attacked by snow monsters. That's monsters made of and are only snow. (I think that's the title, but because I'm not home I cannot look on my bookshelf to see.)

Very Low-Flying Aircraft - about a boy who flies like an airplane, picks people up who are stranded on an island, and drops them to their death.

As you can see, some really stupid ideas have made some really great stories. The idea that a story can only be scary, or good, because it has an idea that isn't stupid isn't a valid point. This is because scary, and stupid, are subjective. What might scare you doesn't scare others, and vice versa. So, to say that an entire sub-genre of stories aren't good because of the subject matter, is stupid in itself. Notice how all revenge stories are over the top? simply because the simple revenge is not interesting or really scary.

As for your list of dumb ideas, most of them appeal to something psychologically alarming. Godzilla, lets look at a real life example, you come across a wild bear, in the wild, what do you do? Try not to shit your pants and run or walk the other way because its a massive beast made up of claws, teeth and muscle. Here's the interesting thing though, unless its crazy hungry or has pups, the bear most likely wouldn't care for you.

The ants, insects are terrifying to people, for a reason. As are snakes, or are you going to say Anaconda has a silly premise too? Snow and VLFA do sound like dumb ideas, but they play on the fear of not having control.

So... yeeee....