Shortform Horror

A place where you can chat about anything that isn't to do with games!
Post Reply
User avatar
XoPachi
Posts: 1300
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 8:01 pm

Shortform Horror

Post by XoPachi »

I found two manga by the same author a few years ago. Fuan no Tane and PTSD radio. I really enjoyed the style. 2-4 page bite size horror stories. Normal, random people that just have horrifying encounters. Very anxiety driven brief stories.

No one really dies or is hurt in these stories. They'll be doing something mundane or talking about a strange recurring event. And then you are treated with bizarre visuals as the character has the shit scared out of them by something incredibly strange. Some stories connect but most dont. The author is really good at freaky faces. His stuff reminds me of things I used to spook myself with as a kid. Just irrational imaginings of an overly fearful little kid.

I also used to love the better, less grandiose SCP entries that aren't over explained to Kingdom Fuck. Like the inconspicuous key that takes you to the forest clearing with that freaky cat demon. Or the creepy owl graffiti that claws your eyes and tongue out without moving from the wall. Then both it and your corpse vanish.

These things dont really scare me but I love the small thrills they provide.

Got anything similar?
User avatar
BryanM
Posts: 6116
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:46 am

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by BryanM »

The Local 58 guy kind of started the entire analog horror thing.

The internet is a culture acceleration engine, and I think that horror is particularly interesting aspect of it. Naturally it quickly dispels the phony-baloney bullshit of magic and the supernatural, so all this creepypasta/OG Slenderman content tries to create a thin veneer of plausible suspension of disbelief. Something closer to "realism". Which involves showing much less. Here's a creepy photo.

SCP stuff is presented as documents, you'll note many of the worst of them attempt to tell a conventional "fiction"-narrative type story we can smell the BS a mile away. (My own head canon, is these entities are from another dimension, and the supernatural elements they possess are simply a glob of their home dimension and its laws passing into ours.)

I always mention Confinement whenever I can. People might not have heard of it. Made by one guy. Completely free. SCP stories. Professional Adult-swim quality. Less than an afternoon to consume it all.
User avatar
Mischief Maker
Posts: 4802
Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 3:44 am

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by Mischief Maker »

There's Kane Pixel's ongoing liminal space horror series bringing The Backrooms meme to life.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
User avatar
BIL
Posts: 18989
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 12:39 pm
Location: COLONY

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by BIL »

While not shortform per se (they're generally 20min episodes), have you tried out the old 1960s anthology horror/sci-fi series? There's The Twilight Zone, of course, but also The Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and getting into the 70s and 80s, Hammer's House of Horror and Tales From The Dark Side. All of them have lots of stuff in the vein you mention, spooky moreso than splattery. Easy to torrent up en masse nowadays too (or even purchase legally I guess but bad habits die hard, yarr! Image)

Several had 90s-onward revivals, but I can't speak to their quality. Except for a couple episodes of The Outer Limits we got on our jank-ass rabbit ears, like the one where a terminal cancer dude receives experimental super-soldier gene therapy, with Faustian results! I mostly remember jacking it furiously to the rumpy pumpy sex scene with his hawt bird - brother man shoulda rubbered up! - but it packed some genuinely OhHellNo spooks, too.
User avatar
XoPachi
Posts: 1300
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 8:01 pm

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by XoPachi »

Mischief Maker wrote:There's Kane Pixel's ongoing liminal space horror series bringing The Backrooms meme to life.
God I love Kane Pixels.
BIL wrote:While not shortform per se (they're generally 20min episodes), have you tried out the old 1960s anthology horror/sci-fi series? There's The Twilight Zone, of course, but also The Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and getting into the 70s and 80s, Hammer's House of Horror and Tales From The Dark Side. All of them have lots of stuff in the vein you mention, spooky moreso than splattery. Easy to torrent up en masse nowadays too (or even purchase legally I guess but bad habits die hard, yarr! Image)

Several had 90s-onward revivals, but I can't speak to their quality. Except for a couple episodes of The Outer Limits we got on our jank-ass rabbit ears, like the one where a terminal cancer dude receives experimental super-soldier gene therapy, with Faustian results! I mostly remember jacking it furiously to the rumpy pumpy sex scene with his hawt bird - brother man shoulda rubbered up! - but it packed some genuinely OhHellNo spooks, too.
The original Twilight Zone is my favorite television series. I used to watch it constantly with my mom as a kid. I haven't watched much else thrilling or psychological from that era.
User avatar
Lander
Posts: 848
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2022 11:15 pm
Location: Area 1 Mostly

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by Lander »

Twilight Zone is really effective at getting under your skin. The episode with the avid reader who becomes the sole survivor of a nuclear apocalypse has stuck with me through the years.
Spoiler
The silver lining of silence and unlimited time turning to utter despair after accidentally breaking his glasses - will to live all but evaporated along with his passion. A cracking mix of human flaws with existential dread :(
User avatar
BIL
Posts: 18989
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 12:39 pm
Location: COLONY

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by BIL »

Burgess Meredith, superb... two more old favourites in the show's masterful "Daaamn!" vein are "The Little People," featuring me old mucker Claude Aikins (reliable fellow!), and that Rip van Winkle gold heist, with its especially zingy payoff. Hard to go wrong with classic TZ, that was solidly-built television.

Image
XoPachi wrote:The original Twilight Zone is my favorite television series. I used to watch it constantly with my mom as a kid. I haven't watched much else thrilling or psychological from that era.
The Night Gallery (also featuring Rod Serling) has some crazy shit, highly recommended! I see now it was actually 70s; 1970-73, to be precise.
Last edited by BIL on Sat Dec 31, 2022 8:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
XoPachi
Posts: 1300
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 8:01 pm

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by XoPachi »

Lander wrote:Twilight Zone is really effective at getting under your skin. The episode with the avid reader who becomes the sole survivor of a nuclear apocalypse has stuck with me through the years.
Spoiler
The silver lining of silence and unlimited time turning to utter despair after accidentally breaking his glasses - will to live all but evaporated along with his passion. A cracking mix of human flaws with existential dread :(
Time Enough at Last, Masks, and The Rip Van Winkle Caper are my favorite episodes.
User avatar
BIL
Posts: 18989
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 12:39 pm
Location: COLONY

Re: Shortform Horror

Post by BIL »

XoPachi wrote:The Rip Van Winkle Caper
Haha, that's the one! I thought the title might cite RVW. Great stuff. :cool: And Masks, hell yeah... that's the sort of spooky, uncanny direction Night Gallery leans more towards. Masterful sleight-of-hand, reality vanishing from underneath you.

Oh! There's also Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected; truly inimitable. Tales of bee men and screaming trees. He may be best-known for his children's stories, but the man could spin some formidably weird n' dark yarns after the kids had popped upstairs to bed.
Post Reply