Fear Itself

What scares you?

There it is.  I asked the question.  I want an answer.  What scares you?  I don't mean having your cell phone battery die so that you can't get your text messages.  I don't mean realizing you forgot where you put your car keys last night.

What scares you?  I mean "makes you wake up in the middle of the night bathed in cold sweat, fumbling for a light switch' scared.  I mean "making chocolate in your trousers" scared.  I'm talking public speaking scared.  What does that for you?

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
          - H.P. Lovecraft

Since I've started trying to write down my ideas and force them to coalesce into semi-coherent form on this survival horror rpg I'm working on, this is one of the questions I've been asking myself:  "Self, what scares you?" More importantly, I've started asking, "Why does that scare you?"

Looking at lists of the most common fears, the same things seem to pop up on most of them.  On further contemplation, most of the things on those lists also seem to have one of two things in common:

• Loss of Control - Many common phobias are based on the loss of control over ourselves or our surroundings.  Flying is one of my greatest fears.   Sure, I've done it a few times.  I flew out to Las Vegas last August for a video game conference.  I arrived there safely and I arrived home safely.  However, I was terrified the entire time.  Hell, I was terrified for weeks before I got on the plane.  While in Vegas, I tried to think of ways to not have to fly home.  Every bump.  Every noise.  Every unexpected movement of the plane caused me to panic.  Of course, I had to build walls around that fear so that it wasn't debilitating, but it was there inside me the entire time.  I know, everybody tells me that I'm much more likely to die in a car accident, but when I drive, I feel more in control.  I don't like trusting my fate to machines that may or may not be in good repair (or to the mechanics that work on them), or to pilots who may not be having a good day.  Fear of the unknown definitely plays into the feeling of not being in control, because we have no idea what to expect.

• Isolation - Fears like Agoraphobia (not angoraphobia - I think that's fear of sweaters, or rabbits, or rabbits wearing sweaters) and Claustrophobia are, at heart, fears of isolation.  Even though an agoraphobe might be in a wide open, crowded space, he still feels isolated, alone, and unable to escape.  We feel stronger in numbers.  We feel safer when someone has our back.

Even if we are not directly scared of the these things (loss of control or isolation), I believe it safe to say that your fears are heighten when you are isolated and/or not in control.  For example, allow me to magnify my fear of flying for your entertainment.  This is a synopsis of a scene I wrote earlier today:

• I am on an airplane.  This is the first level of my fear.  I am terrified of flying, so this is one of my basic fears.
• The reason I am flying is that I had to rush home to be with my dying mother.  This adds the stressor of having to take an emergency trip and the emotional element of potentially losing my sick mother.  Since she has, in reality, been sick off and on over the past few years, this makes it more personal.
• I wake up suddenly during the flight and cannot remember having fallen asleep, nor can I immediately remember where I am.  Now I combine my root fear with the sense of helplessness that comes with suddenly startling awake in an unfamiliar setting.  As I wake up, I become reacquainted with the knowledge of the reasons behind the situation, making the fear and stress more fresh in my mind.
• As I regain awareness of my surroundings, I realize that I am alone on this airplane.  Now I am experiencing lack of control combined with isolation.  Also, this is where the element of unreality sets in.  Am I dreaming?  Where did everybody go?  And finally, who is flying the plane?

Did you feel that?  That's not even the actual scene.  That's just an outline of the major points.  That is a terrifying set of circumstances.  If I was in that situation, I think would immediately lose control of my bladder, at the very least.  In other words, I'd be so scared that I would probably piss myself.  And there wouldn't be a damn thing I could do about it.  But hey, at least there wouldn't be anyone else around to see it, right?  

I think that the best, the most terrifying horror fiction, whether it's novels, movies, or video games, tap into these themes to get under our skin and burrow deep into our fears.  Think about it.  What are some of the pieces of fiction that most effectively use these fears to scare the shit out of you?

Here is a list of what those are for me:

• I Am Legend - As far as Robert Neville knows, he is the last man alive.  I think that both the Richard Matheson novel and the movie adaptation both play upon our fear of isolation quite effectively.
• The Shining - Stephen King isolates the Torrance family by having them snowed in at an empty hotel.  Then Jack loses control as he falls under the influence of not only the supernatural entities, but his old mundane nemesis: alcoholism.
• It - Another King masterpiece.  A good portion of this book takes place when the protagonists are children.  And when children are victimized by monster clowns, nobody ever believes them.  This creates the isolation.  Besides, the fear of clowns all by itself is enough.  Especially if that clown is played, in the movie, by Tim Curry.
• The Mist - Does this prove that Stephen King does the fear of isolation better than anybody else?  This novella has long been one of the scariest things I've ever read.  The audio play, which in my opinion is even better than the excellent movie directed by Frank Darabont, is over the top.  If you haven't read this, go find a copy immediately.
• Under the Dome - Though not one of King's best novels, I think it is one of the best explorations of what happens when you take a group of people who have lived in close proximity of each other for years, tolerating each other and keeping up a nice facade because that is what we are supposed to do, and remove all of the reasons for them to play nice.  Isolation and lack of control all wrapped up in one nice little package.
• Alien - This Ridley Scott film was way ahead of its time.  Isolation?  We're in space.  It doesn't get any more isolated than that.
• Dead Space - In the tradition of the Alien movies, this video game again isolates us in the depths of space, taking the protagonist, engineer Isaac Clarke, out of his element and making him fight strange zombie-like aliens.
• Bioshock - From the moment I arrived in this video game's underwater anti-utopia or Rapture, I was strapped onto a fear roller coaster.  As the protagonist, Jack, we are isolated in the once-beautiful underwater city (being thousands of feet underwater is almost as isolated as being in space - have you ever seen The Abyss?) and we eventually realize that we are not in control ("Would you kindly...").
• The Silent Hill Series - With at least 7 video games and a movie so far, this franchise almost writes the book on scaring you through isolating you, disorienting you, and taking away your control.  The protagonists usually become aware of their surroundings after some strange event that leaves them searching for someone that they love.  They enter the mysterious town of Silent Hill, or at least its surrounding environs, and immediately become cut off from the rest of the world.  There is a persistent mist everywhere that limits vision and increases the otherworldly feeling of isolation.  This franchise makes it an art form.  I can only hope that Alan Wake, due out soon for the XBox 360, comes remotely close to doing what Silent Hill has been doing for years.

So, what scares you?  Is it spiders(arachnophobia)?  Snakes(ophidiophobia)?  Vomiting(emetophobia)?  Snakes that vomit out thousands of scurrying, hairy little baby spiders?  Sit down next to me and tell me your fears...