marshall banana on 25/4/2007 at 22:54
In your opinion, what makes a creature look freaky, disturbing, scary, creepy, or any combination of these?
CCCToad on 25/4/2007 at 23:06
A hideous distortion of something familiar usually works.
For example, the hybrids in System Shock 2.
Stitch on 25/4/2007 at 23:11
The more closely it resembles something that lives on the bottom of the ocean.
SubJeff on 25/4/2007 at 23:12
I'd go with both of those.
Where are those pictures now? With that thing that has those eyes!
Fingernail on 25/4/2007 at 23:12
The more closely it resembles your mum.
Yeah.
Dia on 26/4/2007 at 00:04
I agree with CCCT & Stitch.
Anything that triggers your primal instinct to run away screaming like a little girl.
Like earwigs and those hairy-kinds of centipedes.
DrK on 26/4/2007 at 01:18
It would be a creature we can't understand. It's acting randomly or without any kind of logic for us, totally unpredictable. Most of all it would be a creature we can't recognize/compare to any other kind of living creature.
Even better, a creature we can't see but we know it's here somewhere, maybe looking at us, maybe not. We don't even know what it looks like. Maybe there's nothing after all...
We are always scared by things we can't understand or see.
LancerChronics on 26/4/2007 at 01:23
Freaky: As said before, something that one can relate to that has been severely warped.
Disturbing: Generally a lot of gore. Blood, guts, broken limbs, and overall putridness.
Scary: It has to be something someone is not expecting, like an emaciated little girl with fangs that is covered in blood and jumping at you from out of a dark corner.
Creepy: I would say creepy is where at first glance everything looks normal. Here it would be the tiniest of details that people sense but do not notice. Like the eyes being a bit strange or dark. or the slightest peak at a blood covered knife under a jacket.
Spooky: I generally define spooky as being similar to creepy. However, with spooky, you notice it but it is untouchable(best word I could think of). Like smoky glowing figures, or shadows.
Phyre on 26/4/2007 at 01:50
Well that can be a subjective thing; a lot of people find mice and rats frightening, I just think they're cute. Someone else I know is afraid of bird feet (not birds, just their feet), something I find deeply puzzling.
As a general rule though there are some things most humans seem to find inherently disturbing:
* Heaving, squirming masses; maggots, tentacles, etc.
* An excessive amount of teeth, usually pointy; sharks are a good example of this one.
* Too many legs; spiders, centipedes and so forth.
OR
* Not enough legs i.e. snakes.
* Anything that appears to be decaying, such as zombies and their ilk.
* Naked bits on otherwise fluffy critters; generally people who are repulsed by mice and rats mention the hairless tails, and vultures are not real popular either (I hear that they smell like laundry interestingly enough).
* Slime and/or mucous generally ups the squick factor.
The way things move can have a big impact, anything that can have the adjectives scuttling, skittering or creeping applied to them are usually considered unsettling. Also broken, disjointed movements are freaky; the 'Falling Woman' ghost in Fatal Frame 2 gave me the heebie-jeebies just because of the way she moved.
Behavior also affects how we perceive creatures. For example a small, brown grub is not terribly scary, a small, brown grub that has just chewed its way out of a mouse's abdomen
Alien style is rather more disturbing.
Hope this answered your question.
For some freaky visual aides you can check out this list of deep sea critters that was on Digg recently: (
http://www.oddweek.com/item_79915.aspx)
Most of these guys are creepy looking customers, execpt the gaint isopods and the chimera which are adorable.
I want gaint isopod for a pet, don't you?
Also you can check out this video of a deep sea shark, which skeeves me out rather more than it should: (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8X6GKcLkdRE)
:p
