What scares you?

In theory, a successful horror concept taps into a deep-seated fear and forms it into a tangible being with an intangible power over the person’s emotions. Horror ideas are compelling because you feel the anxiety at a subconscious level without you full understanding why. Your gut sends signals of alarm but your brain lacks the knowledge to do anything about it. That disconnect creates the engagement of horror.

For example: Victorian England was had conservative morals that emphasized purity, Christianity and morals of self-restraint. They in turn popularized an adulterating, carnal, demonic monsters that represented mankind’s predatory id: the vampire.

But I struggle with this topic – in part because that things that I find scary are not the kind of things that are easy to make into a horror film. For example: I am remarkably unafraid of germs, so ideas about bodily purity doesn’t resonate well with me. I am afraid of awkwardness and personal shame, which I struggle to find a theoretical monster for since, for most people, it’s just funny.

All the same, I promised 10 Horror Ideas by today, so here they are:

  1. Highschool Students in an inner-city school discover that their principal and other authority figures are vampires, all part of a longstanding scheme to groom their community for prey.
  2. A self-destructive writer unaccountably wakes up in a surreal quasi-utopian facility where cult-like ‘leaders’ in white robes claim that he is undergoing some mysterious therapy. He cannot leave on his own accord, they claim that he isn’t what he believes, and they constantly evade his questions. They offer him the ‘full treatment’, where his ‘incorrect’ identity and memories are taken away from him; after this, he will live a life of uncomplicated happiness. The only other way out is by convincing the guardian, who asks difficult probing questions. If he answers correctly, the guardian gives him the only key in and out of the place: his own blood…
  3. A software engineer, attempting to figure out the cause of a bug, accidentally discovers that an artificial intelligence developed by a data mining firm has become sentient and is manipulating people out of self-interest by controlling the information that they access. Upon being found out, the AI grows hostile and attempts to destroy his life and credibility in order to protect itself.
  4. A house in a neighborhood conceals a giant, monstrous machine in its walls that devours inhabitants and uses their souls to grow and become more appealing to potential residents.
  5. Angry young men looking for an outlet to vent their rage form an internet group that harasses groups and causes they don’t like as a joke. It spins wildly out of control under the leadership of a charismatic psychopath who pushes the men into increasing acts of destruction and violence.
  6. Unwitting guests to a charming Bed & Breakfast in smalltown Illinois discover all too late that it is designed by a serial killer to trap and slaughter guests.
  7. A private investigator is tasked with investigating supposed ghost sightings that are disrupting a construction project, only to uncover the horrifying history of a wealthy socialite who tortured her slaves. Based on the historical Delphine LaLaurie.
  8. Wax models in a Madame Tussauds-style Museum come alive, murder people, and use their flesh to near-perfect imitations of human beings.
  9. Kids come upon an old sewer system that creates an elaborate maze that they enjoy hanging out in. But when they go exploring too deep, they find a dying body who warns them to beware of a creature that lurks at the center. When they try to head back, they become lost, and when night falls the sewer entrance they use is locked. The only way out is through.
  10. A group of hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail wake up to discover that some of them have a mysterious mark upon their foreheads. When the enter into the nearest town, the townsfolk treat the marked hikers with strain. As time passes on, it’s revealed that to the townsfolk, they have been chosen for death.

Let me know which one of these sounds compelling to you; I will have to make a decision tomorrow!

Connor Raikes, a.k.a. Raikespeare