What would scare modern people?

[sneakgun]

Going to run a modern Cthulhu campaign and was wondering what would scare people enough to try their sanity? We are immersed in blood, guts, gore tv and movies; we've seen all kinds of outer space/other dimension horrors; what is actually scary? An invisible thingy?

thanks,
Brian

[mondria]

inspects the smaller the better for spiders for others the bigger the better

[Christian]

Something more subtle than blood and guts?

[Bungle]

darkness....real pitch black darkness.. we hardly ever experience it. with the unknown in it.

Unexplainable things.... ghosts poltergeists.

The feeling of not being in control in some way -precarious heights

danger to loved ones...

[jnr]

Meeting my mother inlaw

[Christian]

 

[dreamingleopard]

Frankenfoods, badly done gene therapy, toxic waste dumps, dumpsters and sewers (and what lives in them, and anything to do with radiation (Colour out of Space) or plague that affects the mind (like rabies)?  How about sewer caving or skyskraper climbing, a subway excavation uncovers some ancient evil, or... maybe the mall really crawls!

[bc99]

I think blood and gore. Reality is much worse than fiction. I think just how you conjure it up is the hardest. You have to find that image, or description, that will really make it hit home. Realism is not fun. Sure we're used to lots of gunfire and stuff, but something really gruesome AND believable will leave your player's stomachs churning.

What that is? Not sure, depends how intense you want to get.

[P_Clapham]

I wager this would.

[gauntman]

Ah the horrors.

Delving into places long forgotten scorned and untrodden.

Discovering something very significant and pervasive in your life is far more alien and blasphemous than you can imagine and which the public officials would never believe  (A whole population of a town is no longer human, your family and friends are members of a secretive corpse eating cult bent or reawakening a alien hour to walk the land, or you slowly enbark or a mystereous investigation only to uncover your own ancestry is linked to some inhuman breed of ghouls of which you are the last living heir.  That a complex agorithm has been computed by a now mad genius that will bend open a doorway into another space and that men intent on using the computation have begun work on stealing the code and putting it to use. )

  Stuff like that.

Hey good luck and have fun....

I always enjoyed keeping the menace heavy and the unspeakable horrors just out of sight beyond the door.  Most of the serious threats came from people who would be called lunitics by the policeor would be explained away in some other logical fashion.  (Example... The police ruled the fire a case of arson but it was a fire vampire.  The police are at a loss why a rotting corpse was found dumped in the alleyway with post mortum bulletholes.  )  Sometimes it takes a lot of forethought to keep the menace high without resorting to using monsters but most good campaigns can be had with very supernatural. 

[DowVooVoo]

Drums in the deep..... boom......boom......boom....

[Col.Stone]

darkness....real pitch black darkness.. we hardly ever experience it. with the unknown in it.

Unexplainable things.... ghosts poltergeists.

The feeling of not being in control in some way -precarious heights

danger to loved ones...

i agree, just look at what the scariest  "horror" movies are about, the ring, Rec, Blair Witch project, Saw etc
Evil ghosts, loss of control and weird happenings, and being helpless.
regular zombieflicks,, seriously, does anyone get scared by those anymore, everyone knows, aim for the head and if they're bitten they're dead, it's natural by now

Blood and gore is also very much dependant on who's being subjected to it..

[Hammers]

The TeleTubbies

[Col.Stone]

yes, those aswell

[former user]

I can talk only for myself

"I see dead people"
Usually what You don't know about scares You

in an RPG campaign You have to establisg the atmosphere

make it dark, candleleight, maybe start with a sceance - try their imagination