True Fear

As I write, there are two emotions that I think are the most important to convey. Wonder and fear. And fear is probably the hardest of the two to create. There are so many ways that you can go with it, but what really eats at a person's mind? What will mess with their sense of reality, bringing them into the story, and make them question? To me, fear is what makes a bad guy interesting. And a bad guy is what makes the story interesting. After all- the good guy's goal will always be to stop the bad guy. Always. The bad guy is the one driving the story though with what he wants, and how he gets it. So what can be done to make him really memorable?

I have seen one horror movie in my life. It was halloween of my freshman year of high school. I had joined my friends at a party after going to a church event. They had rented the only horror movie left, and they were pretty excited about it. I don't remember the name of it, but apparently it was supposed to be scary. It was about all of these people who had been invited to a "Haunted Mansion" for something. They didn't know this, but it was for an experiment. Some people wanted to know how people would REALLY act if they thought they were in a haunted mansion. Well, surprise surprise when the mansion IS actually haunted....by the children who were murdered by the grandfather of the main character. Quite honestly- I was unimpressed. Very much so. There was only one part that people screamed. And I laughed. And not just a little laugh, but a major LOL sort of thing. It was actually pretty funny, because right after that scary part happened, we paused  the movie to laugh at how silly it was that it was scary and that everyone screamed. Heck- even the two guys screamed. But after they stopped laughing, they paused. And one of the guys spoke up. "....And Emily LAUGHED through that whole thing." They proceeded to chuckle nervously. And then play the movie.

I wasn't scared. The whole movie was so predictable. I mean- people were dying left and right, it was quite honestly boring. I yawned when we suddenly saw faces in the wall moving, when some guy got his head chopped off for doing something stupid, and when any other "scary" thing happened. It's like, they were trying, but it wasn't done in the correct way at all. Or perhaps the wrong elements entirely.

For a while there, I thought that perhaps I wasn't scared easily. I mean, out of the things I've seen, I don't find many things scary or fear inducing. But I have found that my thoughts to be proven wrong. I have found a show that brings up terror that I can not explain. And it comes from a children's show.

Yeah, I'm going to talk about Doctor Who for a little bit. Sorry. I feel like I should be talking more about stuff that actually comes from me...buuuuuuut.....not right now. Because I really find this fascinating.

Since Doctor Who is a television show, there are multiple different writers, and it's pretty easy to tell the difference in the style of some of them. For instance, Russel T Davies used to be the head writer. He wrote brilliant, emotional episodes that made me cry and get attached to characters. However- he has a continuity problem, and many of his episodes don't make much sense ( but are still good! ). My favorite writer though is Steven Moffat. He is the current head writer, and he has messed with my mind like no other story ever has. Why? He has this amazing ability to create fear. Pure, real fear. I look up to this. A lot. The way he does it is incredible. He first takes something simple and innocent, twists it, and then includes the audience in the story. There is no fourth wall. You ARE there.

Children looking for their mother when they are lost. Are you my mummy? Mummy?

Statues that move when they aren't seen. Blink, and you're dead. Don't blink. Do not look away.

Every race has an irrational fear of the dark. But it's not irrational. Count the shadows. If you have more than one- you are their prey. You can not fight them, you can only run.

Silence will fall.


From the recent rumors- the Silence have this ability. ( They are a monster that has not actually appeared in the show yet. But they've been hinted at a lot in the previous season with "Silence will fall" stuff.) The moment you look away from them, you forget you ever saw them. I thought "oh, that's not scary at all!" and I was sad that I accidentally saw that spoiler. But then, I heard of people who went back and re-watched the previous season ( the first season Steven Moffat was the head writer). There are several points in many episodes in which the main characters look at something, and are terrified. They look like they're about to turn and yell for the Doctor to help, and then they look away- and their whole tone changes, and they are back to normal. And the thing that gets me about this- these parts are so out of place in the conversation. They should have been noticeable. When Amy yells "Hey!" to something, she is alone in the Tardis. The audience should have noticed- but we forgot. We forgot that anything weird or out of place ever happened. The Silence has been in the series already- and not one person remembered it.

This way of messing with a person's mind is incredible. A few weeks ago, I saw the words "Don't Blink" on a poster, and ...well, I didn't for a while. If I see a statue- I look at that thing. I count shadows- and when there is a place that has two different light sources, I don't like it when suddenly I have two shadows. This is the case for MOST Doctor Who fans I know. I know it sounds like it's just me and my obsession has gone a little too far that I'm actually scared by these things, but I'm not the only one. I have friends who like Doctor Who, but not nearly as much as me. And yet, if you say "Don't Blink" or "Count the shadows" or any of the other monster catchphrases Moffat has created to them, they jump. It's just Steven Moffat is REALLY GOOD at creating fear.

But why is this? How is he able to do that? I always want to know the why- why has this given such an effect? It's a little bizarre if you think about it.Yet, I still want to know why. And actually- how in this aspect.

The best explanation I can think of is the simplicity. You take a normal thing, and put it just beyond your sight. Take something horrible, something that you don't want to see, and say you have to look at it to survive. There is no blood, no violence, just stuff that is freaking scary.

And out of all of this, I can only think of one thing...... I feel so so sorry for Steven Moffat's children. He says he tries to write things that would scare them. Those poor kids. 8[

I hope to one day be able to do the some thing, gain this sort of talent and create stories like these. I don't think my writing is mature enough yet to do this. But, with practice, perhaps I will get there.


Don't believe that Moffat is that good? Go watch Blink. You can watch it here. The megavideo links are usually the best. I have yet to meet one person who hasn't been scared to blink after watching that episode.