What would scare modern people?

[Christian]

I was reading something interesting about Lovecraft's technique, and I suppose it is shared with a few authors around that time, that "what is actually scaring people" wasn't ever described in detail. The reactions of utter horror were, though.

And this led readers to imagine for themselves how an essentially incomprehensible, other-worldly creature *might* look like.

But it's essentially up to the readers/players to take it there.

What's scary for some isn't for others, so I wouldn't get hung up on the details too much.

In a recent Dark Heresy campaign I introduced a sadomasochist under the guise of a night club owner. It came out of the blue, though... none of the group were expecting it and I think that is when it had the most effect. He started enjoying himself as the assassin PC was "interrogating" him (rather violently). They then revealed a chaos shrine in the club. The game mechanics took care of the rest, really: transfixing the PC in terror and causing insanity.

So, maybe work off what your PCs do?

I hope this helps. It's a rather dodgy place to venture into, and I don't find uncomfortable situations in roleplaying all that enjoyable :/

[meninobesta]

nowadays, virus, bacteria and all sorts of diseases are the main cause for general public panic (the recent case of the flu is a good example)

besides that, Amy Winehouse

[cdm]

General hysteria can be whipped up by any number of media peddlars regardless of whatever may be out there, even nothing at all. Other people is the usual fall back for slow news nights. Somewhere down the track they'll make us fear coffee, then it will all be over.

[supervike]

I was reading something interesting about Lovecraft's technique, and I suppose it is shared with a few authors around that time, that "what is actually scaring people" wasn't ever described in detail. The reactions of utter horror were, though.

Good point.  I recall reading something about how Lovecraft has said, (paraphrasing here) "if i  a describe a monster as 20 feet tall, the reader gets a reference point, but if I describe the monster as unfathomably huge, the reader makes it as big as it needs to be scary."

Fear of the unknown and a rampant imagination are big keys.

[Viper]

Technology turning on people, would probably be a pretty obvious one considering how much we rely on it.

The film The Signal which is a lot like Steven King's Cell theme wise springs to mind.

Another really interesting concept that I loved was that shown in Tony Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything, and the film adaptation he did just called Pontypool.

The basic idea is a virus of sorts, present in certain spoken words that basicly cause the person who speaks the "infected" word to get stuck in a loop and then become a slave to the words, mindlessly repeating things they hear.

It gets very weird and pretty messed up, probably one of the best horror/mystery/thriller type things I've seen in many years, I really need to read the book.

[dreamingleopard]

Anything you'd find on the X-Files or perhaps on CSI.  Or superhuman mutants a la X-Men.  Or alien invasions, including the ones that infiltrate your neighbourhoods by taking over the bodies...  Something invisible that is monitoring you.  Something that lives in the angular corners of your home?  Patches of space where the rules of relativity don't apply? (black holes caused by an alien perhaps?)  How about unseen aliens utilizing natural forces to terraform our planet?  A new species of monstrosity, born by a nuclear power plant that rapidly evolves and has a taste for human flesh?  A creature that modifies the environment of an office building to feed on the anger caused by the heat and humidity?

[ancientsociety]

Another really interesting concept that I loved was that shown in Tony Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything, and the film adaptation he did just called Pontypool.

The basic idea is a virus of sorts, present in certain spoken words that basicly cause the person who speaks the "infected" word to get stuck in a loop and then become a slave to the words, mindlessly repeating things they hear.

It gets very weird and pretty messed up, probably one of the best horror/mystery/thriller type things I've seen in many years, I really need to read the book.

Pontypool was simply excellent! I highly recommend it, the entire movie really turns the 'zombie genre' on its head. Stephen Mchattie's (who plays the main radio DJ character, Grant Mazzy) performance was really really good and its a shame none of the major studios have caught on to him - he'd make an excellent villian.

I'd say that, without spoiling anything, the very first encounter Grant has with an infected early on in the movie, was one of THE scariest scenes I've seen in ages, simply because it's so weird and unexpected but could really happen...

[D@rth J@ymZ]

Clowns (and assorted carnies and circus dwellers)

Anything to do with disease, plague, viruses etc.

Hollywood

George W. Bush

[Onebigriver]

Good discussion this. I think one of the omst frightening things is having things around you that remind you of normality as things have gone crazy - think The Crazies, The Mist, zombie flicks etc, occurring in places you associate with safety, comfort even. One effective film is Society, with a young lad finding out that not only did his parents adopt him but they and the neighbours are, well I can't describe it, just check it out if you haven't seen it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098354/

With those type of films you also have the horror of friends, families and neighbours becoming homicidal maniacs bent on your destruction. Zombies have become less scary to us over time, but films like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and even Shaun of the dead have people you know and love become intent on eating you, which is when zombies are as distressing as they are frightening.

Technology gone mad has been mentioned, I think a good example is the film Pulse, where exploring new bandwidths for internet use has resulted in ghosts and demons being able to access our world and destroy us.

The government up to no good and trying to hide it from us is another modern fear. Again see the Mist and the Crazies for examples.

Anything to do with science gone mad has frightened us since Frankenstein and done well can still frighten us.

[Puuka]

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

It's one thing to be immersed in it in our media. I think it would be quite different when confronted with it for real. I'm not talking about murders and other "human" terrors (Silence of the Lambs is still one of the scariest horror movies to me because the monster in it could be/is based on something real).

For example, the TV series V with a giant space ships coming to earth and parking over major cities. First instinct would be to hide and seek shelter. Who knows if they are going offer to help our planet with their advanced tech or blow it out of the universe because we are too close to breaking free and getting out there and being a pain in their behinds (however many they may have) and we know it would end up with any exploration outside our solar system being more military in nature with governments running things).

[General Roos]

A dead world like in the book/movie "The Road".



Or mass hysteria accompanied by riots, lynchings and mayhem. 

[Bako]

In regards to the blood and guts comments: truly experiencing it; seeing and smelling mutilated bodies are truly quite gruesome. Surely, we can find more interesting and less cliche sources of horror though.

Perhaps more space-related material, given how people still fear the unknown, and as we all know, there's still so much we don't know about space. Perhaps the somewhat old game Area 51 game for the play station 2 and a small text file you can find would be of some interest. The file says something about how the moon landing was faked simply because Man is not ready to really know what lays on the moon.

Psychological horror is always fun. Ever seen those druggies that are absolutely terrified of seemingly nothing in particular?

Child-killing has always been disturbing, and certainly not an interest for most involved here, but I think that as the example I've given it is the effect of the action. It's not a monster running amok, nor something prodding the characters, but something shocking. It is the deed that is horrendous, not necessarily the executor.

Regardless, the media is pretty good at this. See swine flu for details. Mass hysteria seems to work.

[dreamingleopard]

This would frighten me:
http://papercraftparadise.blogspot.com/2008/08/futurama-refreshing-crack-vending.html   

[P_Clapham]

That which must not be named.  Especially if you own a computer.

http://www.shub-internet.org/

[Christian]

Post-modernism?