Fear, Itself
By: Cameron King
Starting with the very bottom of the list, we have the option that got zero votes.
That trophy must be sadly awarded to the Skeleton. Since no one tried to even vote for it, let alone give me a reason as to why they voted for it, I instead asked some people why the skeleton would get so few votes. The answer was unanimous: The Skeleton Dance. The old Halloween classic animation changed the reputation of the skeleton, separating them from the terror and bringing them into a sort of goofy light. Skeleton fans can celebrate, as this lovable mound of calcium has at least won our hearts.
All right, now going up, we have the ones with one vote.
Up first is the living plant. Why would that be scary? All plants are alive. But no plants are sentient. Imagine watering your Venus Flytrap, and then it bites your hand off (It wouldn't, don't worry)! That would certainly be a core memory. Ms Leventhal, 7th grade ELA teacher, has a very logical explanation to her fear. “Plants are predictable and inactive, so if they were to suddenly act, then that would scare me a LOT.” (Leventhal)
Example: Audrey II: Little Shop of Horrors
Next is the Banshee. The Banshee is an Irish legend of a woman who screams when she senses death. That’s all there is to it. Maybe some people can’t take the suspense. Maybe if they heard it, they would be incredibly anxious for what might be the last hours of their life. Whatever the reason might be, the only one who voted for the Banshee, Tenzing P, said: “It’s the screaming that scares me.” It is true that the screaming might be scary, but apparently not scary enough to make more people vote for this.
The Mothman arrives! Okay, I’ll admit that I was the only one who voted for this. But how can you not be slightly creeped out? A giant flying shadow creature that can see the future and talk through disconnected phones? That is the basis of every cellphone-age horror movie. What scares me the most about it, was that it was fairly recent (in the 1960’s) and even the government was scared about it! There were reports of government agents in the area. Hey, if the government is scared, I am too.
Next, the monster with two votes.
The chupacabra is an interesting one, as there is great dispute as to if it is real or not. After goats in Central America were found completely drained of blood, people suspected a sort of animalistic vampire. When people saw a scaly dog running around at night, the “culprit” was found! However, scientists believe that the creature was just a coyote with mange. It’s just become so iconic that 7th grade science teacher Daniel Agosto says “It’s just an important part of my culture.” This may lead us to believe that culture plays a role in fear.
After that, the monsters with three votes.
The amalgamate is an odd monster, a glob of flesh that shuffles and slides and slithers around. Maybe it feels unnatural to look at something like that. Some amalgamates absorb who they touch, and that could be the reason why this was voted for. It’s an unholy matrimony of several organisms. Joaquin MC says, : “It’s unsettling. The fact that there are several anomalies in one just makes it creepy.”
Example: Brundlefly: The Fly
It had to be included. Of classic horror monster fame and modern romance monster fame, The Creature From The Black Lagoon! This amphibious thing was originally just a monster from a lagoon in the Congo who was minding his business when some scientists came to his home. Hijinks ensue. The creature from the Black Lagoon could have stayed that way, until Guillermo Del Toro reinvented the face with The Shape of Water, a romance movie about a woman who falls in love with a monster (not sure if it has a name.) obviously inspired by our creature. Some people can’t look past the origins of the character, however. Konnor F says “I do NOT like being drowned.”
Example: The Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Now, the monsters with four votes.
First, a mummy. Mummies were people embalmed and placed in sarcophagi upon their death. The embalming process shriveled the corpse and gave them a sort of zombie-like appearance. Fun fact, the British ate mummies believing that they would cure certain diseases. Perhaps a few people are scared of mummies, but one of the people I polled said “Mummies for sure. My mom terrifies me.”
Example: Imhotep: The Mummy
Next, evil robots, something that we come closer to creating (or at least being scared about creating) every day. Personally, I think that A.I will be completely fine as long as we know our boundaries with technology, which many people like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have advised people to do. Some people don’t trust humanity, I guess. Someone said “In today’s climate, evil robots seem so realistic.”
The Witch is the wildcard of the monsters on this list. Witches are unpredictable and almost as varied as the ghosts. When you meet a witch, you don’t know what to expect. Ms Nicholson says “They have wide arsenal of ways to torture you.”
Example: The Wicked Witch of the West: Wizard of Oz
The Ghost is quite the classic monster. It’s so iconic because it can be interpreted in many ways. Is it friendly? Is it a little clown puppet that pulls you under the bed? Is it in your walls right now? Ms Kalin says: “You can’t understand or control them.” Ghosts are the basis of so many stories, and have gained popularity in the digital age, with ghost stories and urban legends being spread like wildfires.
The Giant Spider is self-explanatory. I’m actually confused as to why this isn’t higher on the list. Arachnophobia is one the most common fears in humans, especially children today. In fact, most people chose the giant spider because “I don’t like spiders.” (Leo McCormack) But why are we afraid of spiders? I think that their body structure and behavior matches up closely to other monsters, drinking your blood like a vampire, wrapping you up like a mummy… and also they have eight legs.
Five votes are up next, starting off with the Alien. Have you ever seen lights in the sky? Have you been abducted by little green or gray men who read your mind? If you said yes, you are among the 39% of Americans who think that aliens have visited earth. It is actually very likely that somewhere on the cosmic web of interconnected galaxies that aliens exist. Are they green and little? Probably not. The aliens we will meet in our lives are probably bacteria or other microorganisms. Ms Chimelis says: “They terrify me. I hate the idea of abduction.” I, too, would hate it if I was abducted.
Example: Xenomorph: Alien franchise
Next up, the Invisible Man. If you don’t know who the Invisible Man is, you can definitely figure out his gimmick. He’s a man that’s invisible. Can you imagine something sneaking around your house, rearranging your furniture, and watching you while you sleep? Georgie R says “I don’t often get scared, but I think it would make me very paranoid.” Yes, I think being stalked by something that you can’t always be sure is there would make you very paranoid.
Example: Adrian Griffin: The Invisible Man
The Kraken is a scary one. A giant squid that exists at the bottom of the ocean? That’s something I never want to meet. Tremell S says “I can’t swim and I have a fear of deep water.” Fun fact, that’s actually a recognized phobia called Thalassophobia. Squids are also interesting creatures, too. It’s easy to see why they seem so scary, with their tentacled bodies and their strangely intelligent behavior. Maybe we struggle to relate to invertebrates like the squids and spiders and flies of our world.
Last, the Boogeyman. The boogeyman is fear incarnate. The boogeyman is the creaky floorboard, the bump in the night. When you hear these things, or at least notice them, the Boogeyman is near. What’s so interesting about the boogeyman is that every culture has one. Some of my favorites are Mètminwi, a man with really long legs, Baba Yaga, an old woman who flies around in a mortar and lives in a house with chicken legs, and El Hombre Del Saco (sack man) who kidnaps bad children in broad daylight. There are so many examples, showing why the Boogeyman is so iconic.
With six votes, the Wendigo comes next. A monster from Native American Culture, the Wendigo is a cannibal spirit that is what happens to people who are too greedy. What’s really scary about the Wendigo is Windigo Psychosis, a culture-bound syndrome that makes people believe that they are possessed by the Wendigo, causing them to crave human flesh. A French explorer documented a case of it in The Jesuit Relations. “Those poor men (according to the report given us) were seized with an ailment unknown to us, but not very unusual among the people we were seeking… which affects their imaginations and causes them more than canine hunger. This makes them so ravenous for human flesh that they pounce upon women, children, and even upon men, like veritable werewolves, and devour them voraciously, without being able to appease or glut their appetite—ever seeking fresh prey, and the more greedily the more they eat.” It’s a terrifying thing to think about, eating people just because you thought you were possessed.
Now we have the one with seven votes.
Cthulhu is a name most are familiar with. Created by H.P Lovecraft, the creature is an eldritch being who lives in the ocean. It’s a monster with many tentacles on its face. Sound like another monster on this list? Lovecraft actually created a sort of interconnected universe around Cthulhu, but the one that mostly focuses on him is The Call of Cthulhu. With the ability to shatter sanity with a touch, he’s the most powerful monster on this list. Jael P.R says “He’s portrayed as a god, and that scares me.”
We’re entering the homestretch with the ones with eight votes.
The vampire is one of the first things one thinks of when they think of monsters. Dracula, Nosferatu, and Edward Cullen are all examples of this terrifying creature in fiction. A blood-sucking monster that can control your mind and transform into a bat is an incredibly common monster. The air of regality they have just feels wrong, even alien. And of course, there’s the blood and the fangs. Sara M says “Anything to do with blood scares me.”
Example: Dracula: Dracula
The werewolf is next up. Jaylen D says “It could be anyone you know,” and that is true. When the sun is up, or the moon is not full in the dark sky, we can never tell if what we see is a werewolf. When it reaches beyond the clouds, when the moon strikes the skin, it doesn’t matter who the werewolf is. You are nothing but a meal to them. The werewolf myth has origins in Greek myth, where King Lycaon (as in lycanthrope) feeds Zeus human flesh, and Zeus turns him into a wolf as revenge.
Example: Larry Talbot: The Wolfman
We’re jumping up to the top contenders with eleven votes.
Kyle M says “Dolls are just kind of creepy,” and to some, that is true. Who else is scared of living dolls? Many people, actually. We are most likely unable to relate to dolls, therefore finding them creepy, because of something called the uncanny valley. There’s a drop in the relatability of characters when they look like humans, but not really. This is what makes dolls and the Cats movie so horribly… creepy. Maybe this uncanny valley is what makes the bugs and the octopi monsters seem alien? Their behavior, like humans, but not enough to relate.
Example: Chucky: Child’s Play
Zombies are one of the scariest things the human mind has come up with. Another example of the uncanny valley, they are just so far from what we call “normal.” Zombie apocalypse movies also have a nihilistic view on death. Everyone dies, and the zombie movies make the denial of death seem unnatural. So many people fear death, and the portrayal of death as natural, as merciful scares some people. It’s eye opening, not to mention really, really scary.
At fourteen votes, we have gotten to 3rd place.
Demons are a part of almost every religion, so it makes sense that they’re up here. Treyvon W says “Demons can possess you, haunt you, and do anything that any of the other monsters can.” Demons are the jack-of-all-trades of monsters. There was a giant period of time where people thought that people around them were affiliated with the devil, called the Satanic Panic. Looking back on this era now, we can see the paranoia that got the better of us, and feel bad for the people still in jail for something they might not have even done. Authorities weaponized the children, even though they were trying to protect the children. Just like Wendigo psychosis, we acted because of what we thought about those around us, and made some questionable choices, robbing children of parents. Depending on who you ask, monsters like demons may not exist, but their impact is real.
Seventeen votes have decided second place.
La Llorona has been given the honor of second place. A woman who walks around banks of rivers at night, if you hear her close, she’s far away. If you hear her far away, she’s right behind you. She’s a woman who drowned her children so that she could have a chance with a man who rejected her. Now she searches the banks for her children, and nothing will convince her that you are not one of them. Alex M says, “If she sees you once, you can’t escape.” Popular in Hispanic culture, I noticed that mostly Hispanic students picked her, more evidence to the fact that culture affects your fears.
With eighteen votes, it’s finally time to see what got first.
Across this list, we’ve had monsters who bend reality, infect every cell in the body, and can turn us into monsters of our own in a single bite. Isn’t it oddly poetic that they aren’t as scary as something we encounter every day? Humans, or The Slasher is the scariest monster we know. The capacity to do such horrible evil exists in every single one of us. We can endure hardships throughout our lives. Maybe there is a straw that breaks a camel’s back. We know that we can do bad things, and the nihilistic view the slasher brings to our attention is that we are getting closer to those bad things every day. In the end, fear has the potential to shape us, but when the straw breaks the camel’s back, we have the potential to shape the fears of others.
Example: Micheal Myers (Halloween)
But what does it mean? Why are we scared of things? Here’s my hypothesis. We are scared of what our culture and what our human nature sees as unnatural, uncanny. If you are brought up by people who hate peanut butter and tell you that peanut butter is evil, you may imagine that the monster under your bed is a lump of peanut butter. You may see a person holding a jar of peanut butter in a dark alley, you may act the way a normal person would act if that person were holding a knife. Our mind takes information on what is right and wrong, and creates guidelines to process what scares us.
So if we can’t control what we fear, why do we let what we fear control us? Maybe there’s something you’ve wanted to do for a long time. Maybe you’re scared about what you or others might feel. Face your fears, face your monsters, and then you’ll find something new about yourself that you would have never known. In the end, it doesn’t matter about which of your fears is scariest, because everything is only as scary as you let it be.
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