Brainstorm: What scares you about the ocean?

[csufranco]

Hey! Time for my favorite pastime here in the forums... asking weird questions about comic books I probably will not make! SO some landlubbers out there are scared of the salty blue sea... why is that? What makes the ocean so scary!?

[ISNEKO]

If I can't see the bottom then there's probably something hiding in the darkness, ready to eat me.

[Amberday]

I'm helpless in water. It'll pull me deeper and deeper into the vast emptiness. I can move my arms and legs like mad but I can't cry for help. There's no way to escape and it's gonna take my breath. Nobody will ever know. I won't know where I am.

[csufranco]

thats a frightening thought... hmmm

[60Six]

Giant...things, in the ocean.
In a realistic sense, there is no greater fear to me than tidal waves. Like. Hands down, my #1 fear.
I don't care whether something like THIS

could ever actually happen or not, the imagination and disaster movies sure as heck make it a scary thing to think about, and when you DO hear about REAL events like the Japan tsunami happening, it just makes them even scarier (Though fun fact, I LOVE disaster movies, no matter how bad they are).

In a less realistic sense... I'm not saying I believe in sea monsters,
but sea monsters.

Am I the only one who doesn't find big Godzilla type monsters that scary, but the second they're in the water, they're terrifying? Maybe it's the idea you wouldn't see them coming like you would with Godzilla stomping down the street.

[csufranco]

what is scary about sea monsters? How can sea monsters be scarier than paranormal threats like demons and slenderman? I really want to squeeze as much horror out of that as possible.

[60Six]

For me, it's just that sheer size and inescapable fate. Like don't get me wrong, ghosts and paranormal things are...creepy? And scary, but, I dunno, I still feel like I'd stand a CHANCE against them. I could still run away, or depending on what it is, even fight back. There's still SOME hope there. But something like in the picture I posted above? That's certain death. There's no escaping that. Much like the tidal wave, if you saw that, you'd know you're moments from death. 0% chance of getting out of it. A creature that big is more of a force of nature than an animal, and THAT is terrifying to me.

[csufranco]

so size plays a huge factor... so like how people fear kaiju and cthulu maybe?

[60Six]

Kind of? I think it's more of a fear of no escape, not that I wouldn't be terrified if I saw a Kaiju stomping down the street towards me, but there's still just...SOME chance there! I could get under ground, or if I had a car, I could maybe even get away from it. But look at that picture. Like. What are you gonna do if you saw that coming? What would you do if you were on that boat? There is literally NOTHING you can do other than just sit down and accept your fate. And same goes for that tidal wave. You aren't gonna be able to run away from that. You're just gonna die and there is NOTHING in the world that is gonna change that.

I think that's maybe why people are collectively more afraid of sharks than say...something like a bear. Not that people wouldn't be afraid if they stumbled across a bear on a hike, but... if you had to choose to be stuck with a shark determined to kill you or a bear determined to kill you, and both of them were in their natural environments... I would hands down pick the bear. Because while my chances are slim, there's still some hope of getting away from the bear. But good luck getting away from a shark in nothing but open water if it actually wanted to hurt you.
(And insert an obligatory lecture about how sharks wouldn't actually do this because I love sharks more than any animal on earth)

[csufranco]

Ah I see... its the combination of size + the inability to escape.
So it's not really creepy... just threatening?
Is there a way we can make a sea monster... ambiguously creepy? SO creepy that even when you're safe at home you will feel scared of that sea monster?

[Mabinogian]

You can feel scared of such a sea monster if you knew that it had access or a way to reach you, that no matter where you are, you are not truly safe one it has you on it sight, you tend to feel safe when you remember something cant reach you, but it becomes scary when it can reach.

[csufranco]

ok how about this pitch... An underwater city with a sea monster lurking outside... sounds viable?

[60Six]

Yeah, make it look like this damn thing.

That thing STILL creeps me out.
Here's another that gives me some chills:

(Both real creatures, of course). They both have the intimidation of size, even if they aren't leviathans, like what I posted before, and they're both just...damn near alien. People fear what they don't understand and there isn't much we can relate these things to.

[csufranco]

Or maybe instead of an underwater city... maybe a claustrophobic research center?

[TheKawaiiGarden]

Research Facility definitely, something about a underwater research center is much creepier than a city.
Watch Season 2 episode 7 of the old cartoon series Jonny Quest (Undersea Urgency) if you need any inspiration, that episode scared the shit out of me when I was younger and still kinda does.

[StrangeVision]

Did you ever see that movie Sphere with Dustin Hoffman & Sharon Stone? There was an underwater research center...and a jellyfish attack...amid other increasingly odd occurrences. Creeped me out as a kid. Sea life is so alien and bizarre, I can see why Lovecraft modeled his creatures after them.

One of my biggest fears is just being out in the middle of the vast ocean with that immense volume beneath me. So deep and dark you have no idea what's there. The only way to conserve your energy is to just drift there limp, Can't see land in any direction...no control. Just you and a colossal amount of salt water. What's beneath is so huge and unknown, is it partially the possibility of a sea creature? Sure. I suppose overall, it's just the unknown and being powerless.

[ryoko]

Lamprey eels...and when kelp touches your legs while swimming....

[thoughtfulboxful]

There is no air. The marine life is secondary compared to this.

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

I think the biggest thing that's scary about the ocean, minus the wildlife, is the fact that it's so big. Currents are very strong. Getting swept up by one can be disastrous! The idea of struggling to get back to shore while slowly drowning is a very scary idea!

[csufranco]

would a shipwreck tale be scarier than a tale about undersea researchers