Re: good examples of scary encounters?
- From: djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dorothy J Heydt)
- Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 17:00:04 GMT
In article <11fhmmr5cc9nv4e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pat Bowne <pbowne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>"R. L." <see-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:lu1gf117vhm1j9k3rqbvi21nus8anhlica@xxxxxxxxxx
>> On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 20:15:22 -0500, "Pat Bowne" <pbowne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Unfortunately, my 'bear' has to appear; the protagonist and another person
>>>have to recognize it later when it gets onto an elevator with them.
>>
>>
>> Smell? Sound?
>>
>
>As I conceive it now, the creature is a malevolent ghost. I think having it
>recognizable by smell or sound would be going in the wrong direction for the
>plot. But my problem is that while it is originally not solid enough to
>kill anyone, I need to make its initial unexpected appearance as eerie and
>frightening as possible. I need to establish the ghost as a Bad Thing in a
>universe where people call up demons before breakfast.
Perhaps at first you can barely see it? It's traditional for
ghosts to be translucent anyway, Maybe it begins as just a
really nasty-looking stain on the air, as ugly and malevolent
as you can possibly hint at: and then the next time your
characters see it it's a little more solid, and they can
extrapolate that eventually it's going to be solid enough to eat
them.
(Cf. the appearance of the Nome King in the film _Return to Oz_:
he starts out as a mere abstract face in a smear of minerals
(like all his subjects); as more and more of his adversaries are
put on ice, he becomes more and more humanoid, at some point
switching from a Claymation construct to an actor in heavy
makeup).
Hm. Just for the heck of it, get hold of a DVD of _Poltergeist_
(the first one) and watch that. You don't see the critter itself
till the penultimate reel, but its precursors are nasty enough
(the creeping beefsteak, e.g.) and when it finally appears, my
gosh it's awful.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx
.
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