A-Z List of Scary Things

A page of scary things in AZ order with occasional illustrations and light humorous comment on the things we fear.

No prizes for guessing Z might mean Zombie.  Some other letters were not so easy.

Some things on the list are funny scary and others are more real.  

Rather than being out and out scary it is more Hammer House of Horror style - a simple selection of deliciously frightening creations.  Whether from Nature such as spiders, or Fiction and the Frankenstein monster, there should be something to suit all tastes.

People like being scared up to a point which varies depending on our fright tolerance level.  From a roller coaster ride to watching a spooky movie we play with the adrenaline rush that fear provides.

So come on in and check out this list of Scary Things.  If you dare.

Alien visitors travel through galaxies looking for unsuspecting folk to probe.

You can be hiking in a picturesque spot one minute, Area 51 is popular, and the next you have been caught in their tractor beam and whisked up to the Mother Ship.

​Fortunately most people are returned after a gentle probing and able to tell their story to the National Enquirer.

The disaster that means the end of the world, civilisation, education, society.  It could be the new Ice Age, a meteor hurtling towards us, the sun blowing up or a whole list of other areas to be scared of.

From Cold War nuclear threat, through Y2K computer bugs and on into the Mayan calendar - humans have a curious desire to believe in their own annihilation.

Many rational people discuss what they would do in the event of an apocalypse.  Where would they go?  What provisions do they need?  How to survive?

It is fun to think about the best places to hide out, hunting and fishing, and survival techniques.  There is a scary amount of money to be spent once you get into the prepper business.

The final battle between good and evil.

​"Armageddon out of here" - Spike Milligan

AI is either a threat or benefit to humankind.  Maybe it is somewhere in between.

Guess we'll find out when Skynet goes live.

Here is a link to an AI Horror Story written by me.

Young children can be a bit scared when they have their first haircut.  Visiting a proper barber salon, sitting in the chair, hearing the buzz of the razor and the click of scissors.

​As adults we know not to be afraid unless the barber is called Sweeney Todd.

​Don't forget to leave a tip.

A blind flying rat that you can't hear, gets tangled in your hair (in the movies) and may feast on human blood.

Nothing to be scared of here.  Move along.

In a social media age we love being followed.  Counting those oh so important follower numbers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on.  Top internet celebrities attract millions to read their latest puff piece selling overpriced tat you don't need.

Put them on a dark street with footsteps behind them and it is a different matter.  Being followed is one of the instinctive fears we possess and is used regularly in Hollywood movies.

It is also a stock part of hammy pantomimes where the handsome hero will ask the crowd where the bad one is.  "He's behind you" is shouted out by helpful members of the audience.  "No idea" is a less helpful thing to say.

Some people are scared of clowns.  There is a special sounding word for it - coulrophobia.  

Now clowns are different looking,  constantly loudly honking, and have custard pie weapons of mass destruction but are they really that scary?

I don't get it.  But that is the thing about fear.  It is a very personal matter.

Here's a catchy tune - Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right - Stealers Wheels

They're creepy.  They're crawly.  And they're everywhere.

You probably have one crawling on the back of your neck right now.

We lock and double check our doors, read the latest crime statistics and jump out of our skins when there is an unexpected noise somewhere in the house.

Yet there are many true crime fans, Murderinos, who enjoy nothing more than researching reports of grisly goings on.

How they sleep at night is also a mystery.

Another ancient fear - most children have a problem with the dark.  They need reassurance and a nightlight.  Eventually they overcome those fears and appreciate a total black-out for a good nights sleep.

​Don't forget to check under the bed.

It must be hard having one of the jobs that people are often scared of.  A good dentist provides an essential service and yet many people, including the writer of this, will do anything to avoid them.

Don't think about it.  Send your mind somewhere else.  It will soon be over.

Some famous dentist scare scenes feature in Marathon Man and the Little Shop of Horrors.  Not for watching the night before an appointment.

The Devil is scary because religion needs the worst of all bogey men to persuade followers into believing.

To some he is the ultimate baddie, the guy who wishes to do us harm and condemn us to eternal damnation.

Sheesh.  Lighten up a little.

I like dogs.  I think people who are scared of dogs are missing out.  However, there are some dogs that are more than a little scary.

I'm sure that people who share their lives with a Cane Corso have a great relationship with them.  Loyal and affectionate, people say.

My drawing doesn't do full justice to the power of these animals.  Good guard dogs.  The sort of dog I might cross the road to avoid.

Wrap a dead person in bandages and bury for two thousand years under a pyramid.

Throw in some mystical ancient Pharaoh business, a curse that means the Mummy will one day awaken and you have the makings of a terrifying creation.

Here are a couple of Mummy jokes.
​
Mummy, mummy - why am I going round in circles?
Shut up or I'll nail the other foot to the floor.

Mummy, mummy - what's for dinner?
Shut up and get back in the oven.

Exams are scary for some people.

​So good luck!

If the sport or activity you are thinking of has the word "extreme" in the description don't go near it.

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself".  Words most memorably uttered by Franklin D. Roosevelt when delivering his inauguration speech at the time of The Great Depression.

That's a great soundbite. 

On the other hand fear is a good way to control the people.  Now that really is scary.

For small children and pets, fireworks can be upsetting and scary.  Even an official firework show can be too much for a toddler or young child to deal with.

Before Covid there were occasional flu scares when a particularly nasty version was doing the rounds.

During Covid we split into two teams.  Team Covid who were scared witless by this new pandemic and Team Not Covid who didn't believe a word of it.

Each side scared the other with their opposing attitudes.

In some ways that was the most frightening part of the whole event.  How huge numbers of people could quickly become so angry with each other.

Thankfully it is now largely over.

​Until the next time.

One of the top things to be scared of is flying.  Take off and landing being the key moments when you can grip the armrests a little tighter which is guaranteed to help if anything bad happens.  

It is not really flying we are scared of. 

​It's crashing.

The monster is sometimes referred to as Frankenstein but that is the name of the doctor in the Mary Shelley book.

Using the new invention of electricity he recreates a person from body parts.  The bolt through the neck is one of the great monster props along with the bad haircut.

​Here is a collection of famous scary stickmen from the movies.

This guy is one of the great horror film creations that stick in the mind.   You don't need to have seen the Nightmare on Elm Street series of films to know about Freddy Krueger.

Freddy has a glove with sharp knives on it, is a ghost and kills people in their dreams.  

If you need to know more find a web page where the author was brave enough to actually watch the movie.

Many people are susceptible to the idea of ghosts, a person who is yet to pass between the worlds of the living to the dead.

A spirit of a person that can live on.  Some religions believe we come back as someone else, maybe ghosts are souls in waiting.

That is all suggestible nonsense of course.  Or is it?

The ghost below is doing his best to be scary by raising his arms.

A giant lizard destroys buildings.  A natural Japanese fear of nuclear weapons and availability of expert reptile model maker inspired this creation.

The 31st of October is Halloween when bad behavior is positively encouraged.  Now wrapped up in corporate plastic gifts and trick or treating - the original All Hallows Eve comes from a widespread pagan belief of a time when the souls of the dead came visiting.

Day of the Dead starts on the same day as Halloween but is not otherwise related.  It is pretty cool though.

A series of films produced by this company back in the seventies were schlocky horror movies.  ​Cheaply made with amateur laughable props the Hammer movies provided thrills for a susceptible audience.

Still recycled on digital channels they are an afternoon treat if you have nothing better to do.  In their favor they are only a little scary rather than some genuinely frightening movies which can stop you sleeping for a fortnight.

A UK initiative by the Scottish Police to highlight their new hate crimes legislation brought this scary monster onto the police Twitter feed.

​It is not clear whether that is the person we should be looking for.

Heavy Metal is designed to be scary.  From the screaming and the Spandex, through Alice Cooper to Ozzy Osbourne - Heavy Metal speaks loudly to those who dare to listen.

See also Spinal Tap, School of Rock, etc.

Also called vertigo, this means to get increasingly scared the higher you go.  A tall bridge, tower, ladder - all of these are designed to reduce otherwise grounded people to quivering wrecks.

Base jumpers climb to the top of these places, balance on the edge and jump off.  They share these exploits via social media so you can achieve a similar dread without leaving the sofa.

A job or college interview, anything where your future hangs in the balance, is a potentially scary event.

One way to prepare for interviews is to ask a friend to help you practice.  They can ask ridiculously difficult questions and you can get into the swing of bluffing your way through them.

Waiting for the right J to come along.

A giant ape is brought to New York where he falls in love, climbs the Empire State building and is destroyed by fighter planes.  

​As we come to terms with our Colonial past, the exploitation of slaves and our treatment of the world, there may be less to fear from the ape than ourselves.

A legendary sea monster from Scandinavian folklore, a giant squid capable of taking down a sailing ship.  A true, or nearly true, horror from the deep.

Who knows what lurks beneath the surface?

​Enjoy your cruise.

Fun to watch out of the window on a dark night and marvel at the power of Nature.

​Also frightening for some.

For lockdown also read quarantine, solitary confinement and curfews.  It is people being isolated from society for their own good or that of others.

Many prisoners suffer ill effects when separated from human company.  We need to exchange a few words daily for the good of our souls.

Some people cope better with it than others.  Hermits thrive on it.  Celebrities cope less well. 

An internet scare, Momo was a challenge dare meme targeted at youngsters.  Susceptible types obey challenges set by Momo until they face the ultimate task.

Those people who said the internet is dangerous were right.  Banning stuff only makes it more popular.

Fortunately most crazes only last a short while.

I didn't have an "N" on this page. Until I came across the term Neurospicy.

​Neurospicy is not scary. But it is different. And different sometimes scares people.

Neurospicy is a cool affirmative way to described neurodivergence, ADHD or similar.  Those spicy thoughts sparking off each other.

​A fun and positive design.  Not scary at all.  Unless you're scared of spices.

A board 'game' where an alphabet layout is used to contact the dead.  Occult pseudoscience in the hands of the gullible can make for a scary experience.

"Shall we get the Ouija board out?"

​No.  Stick to Monopoly.

The sailing type of pirates have largely disappeared.  We don't do so much sailing these days.

​But they did leave us with the coolest flag on the oceans.

The idea of prison is scary.  Locked up, sharing a cell, prison guards.  The showers.

Try to avoid crime or not get caught.  Being rich helps.

Queuing is the scariest thing beginning with Q I could think of.  In a disaster situation you need to be able to escape quickly without spending four hours in a queue for the exit.

​Work with me here.

Fairground and amusement rides are designed to scare, thrill and relieve you of money.  We pay to be scared and say to our friends afterwards "That was great - let's do it again".

A scarecrow is some old clothes stuffed with straw and stood up against a pole in a field.  The purpose being to scare the crows and stop them eating the crops.

On a dark night after a few drinks and walking home alone a glimpse of one looking over a hedge could be pretty scary.

Screaming is a natural reaction to scary events such as your team losing by a slim margin or a medium sized insect appearing unexpectedly.

The screamer in the picture is based on a famous artwork.

Art can also be alarming as it often means a thousand words of critical analysis which is enough to make your head melt.

The Slenderman is a scary internet creation.

Beware or be wary if you stumble across it on the web.  It is a fine example of horror being a story or image that takes you to an uncomfortable place in your psyche.

Best avoided.

Some people have an aversion to snakes even the non-venomous ones.  They slither and slide and are embedded in our consciousness as evil thanks to a bad press over the Garden of Eden thing.  In newer times they would have called it EdenGate and given the snake an interview with Oprah.

Medusa, an ancient Greek lady, wore snakes as cool hair extensions.

​Snake charmers go out of their way to show how unscared they are.

Eight-legged insect - sometimes hairy, poisonous or both.   Builds webs, hides in corners and moves places when you are not looking.

Spiders are brilliant of course.  The web building is amazing.  Spiderman comics were great.  The movies not so much.

There is a beautifully accurate quote from Sir Walter Scott.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive".

A flash of lightning followed by a crack of thunder is a standard feature of all the best horror films.  A real life weather event which can be scary for children, animals and a few people. 

Thor is the god of thunder from Norse mythology.  Zeus is the Greek equivalent.  Now we have the Marvel / Disney version.  That's called progress.

​See also Lightning.  I can't draw thunder.

Trolls are part of the internet, particularly on social media.  They search for targets to attack and get pleasure from their victims reaction.

The expression "Don't feed the trolls" is about not giving them any response.  No satisfaction for them if their jibes are ignored.

A wise friend once said "They are only pixels".  In internet world they exist as a few letters and words on a screen.  They are less than nothing.

​On the plus side, being a troll can be a whole lot of fun.  So I am told.

I couldn't think of a "U" so I labelled this section "Unknown".

Fear of the unknown is a genuine scary thing.  It is a natural response in our psyche causing us to be aware and ready with our fight or flight reaction.

You can see this fear particularly well in dogs, instantly suspicious of anything they do not understand.

​Clever dogs.

A vampire sleeps in a coffin.  He flies out at night to suck the blood of young maidens who seem to get a bad deal in fiction.

To destroy a vampire you must drive a stake through its heart.  

There are other important vampire hunting elements too.  Cloves of garlic to ward them off and a crucifix.  A mirror may come into it and silver bullets of course.

The most famous vampire is Count Dracula.

Such is the strength of these myths that we accept all that as fact.  Blame Hollywood or a natural fear of bats.

Voodoo is practiced by witch-doctors.  Take some hair or skin from a victim and make it into a doll.

Hurt the doll and the victim feels the pain.

That is the traditional view of voodoo but as with witches there is room for a lot of grey in that thinking.

​From spiritual healers and wise men the art of voodoo can be used for healing and beneficial spells.

Here is a voodoo poem thing for two people, probably children, to repeat to each other.

I know a man.
What man?
The man with the power.
What power?
The power of voodoo.
Who do?
You do.
What?
Know a man...

Repeat endlessly as fast as you can.  The quicker you say it - the more powerful the spell.

A werewolf is a human that can shapeshift into a wolf.

One reason for mentioning that is to link to this favorite track - Werewolves of London

To be fair that is the only reason.

The witch in the Wizard of Oz is scary.  

​Witches had a bad press during the Middle Ages when the Church went on a mission to get rid of them. The idea that a wise woman knew secrets of medicine and science was bad news for the Church.  ​So they turned them into monsters and killed many of them.  

Disney continued the tradition in cartoon form.

Fun fact.  The witching hour is regarded as being 3am - the time when we are most susceptible to this stuff.

Wolverine, one of the X-Men characters, is sort of scary.  Sure, he is good and all but you would not want to get in his bad books.

Wolves have a bad press in horror stories which as they are not far removed from Man's Best Friend (the dog) seems unfair.

Wolverine has nothing to do with Little Red Riding Hood.  Although that is not for want of trying.

As an interesting side note the picture below may be the worst drawing on this site.
ed: it isn't.

OK, it was tough finding the X word for this list. But X-Rays can be scary and not in a fun way.  They are used in medical diagnosis and it is a time when you don't want them to find anything.

That's a downer.

​X-Men might have been better.  But they are not scary.  And no one is scared of Xylophones.

Note:  If anyone is scared of Xylophones, perhaps having a condition of Xylophobia, then let me know.  I can rework this section at some effort and include a Xylophone marketing opportunity.

Yeti is a contender.  The mythical and elusive human like creature similar to all those others like Big Foot and Sasquatch.

Zombies are dead people who have risen again.  They are a bit moldy from being in the ground for so long and their clothes are last year's fashion or even the year before.

Imagine!  Last year's fashion.  Terrifying.

They have terrible injuries which may be what killed them in the first place or they got hurt again when they were converted from human form by the other Zombies.

​Despite their good fortune at being brought back into the living world they always seem angry.

That is the end of the scary list.  We finished on Zombie which is one of the best of all.  On other lists finding the "Z" word can be a bit of a stretch.

Maybe it made you think or gave you some good ideas for playing practical jokes.  Perhaps adding a pun or doodle to a Halloween card or hiring a dressing up scary costume.

There will be more items added because we never stop finding new things to be scared of.

Thanks for reading.

​Sleep well.