Can you suggest any material as inspiration for dark/psychological/horror art?

[KyriakosCH]

I am looking for stuff I haven't seen/read/watched
Reading some collections by Ito (horror manga), but I can't say they are very impressive. I knew of Ito before, although (imho) apart from a couple of stories (such as Spiral and The Enigma of Amigara Fault) his story-telling isn't that great, and the art can varry quality-wise. Although he is the only horror manga artist I actually have read...
You can also suggest books/movies/short films/paintings!

[Matagot]

I'm not sure which horror films you may have seen, but I'm guessing you're seeking more on the 'art' side of horror? The ones I can recommend are Eraserhead, Alien, The Thing (1982) and The Shining (1980).

I like Ito as well, if you like anime in general I recommend the following anime: When They Cry, Perfect Blue, Corpse Party and Tokyo Ghoul (the manga for this one is really good!)

To add another category of horror media, I would like to recommend the following youtube channels that do some pretty good (and scary!) short horror tales: Wansee Entertainment, Nightmare Tales, Animated Horror Flicks, Mr. Nightmare and Llama Arts.

[KyriakosCH]

Thank you!
I will check some of those out. Have seen the movies and some of the anime (Satoshi Kon was great).

[heltenjon]

I can recommend Stephen King's nonfiction book Danse Macabre about the horror genre. It includes long lists of recommended books and movies, as well as in-depth analysis about tropes and selected works.

[Danvzare]

Well if you're looking for inspiration, I recommend internet creepypastas as well as children's TV shows. The latter of which should give you some great ideas.
I tell you, if you've ever had to sit through one of those mind-numbingly boring little kid's shows as an adult, you'll quickly come up with a horrifically dark backstory for it just to survive the ordeal. I still remember the messed up backstory I came up with to explain the events of In The Night Garden. And to this day, I think there's a chance it might be canon.

[KyriakosCH]

Thanks, I will have a look!

Tokyo Ghoul

Watching it now. I certainly wasn't expecting Jason, from Friday the 13nth 

[KyriakosCH]

So, any other show/art else to suggest? 

[KyriakosCH]

[Danvzare]

Very interesting. Almost reminds me of the (alleged) Don Bluth quote "kids can accept anything as long as there's a happy ending."

Have you ever read some of the original Grimm's Fairy Tales?
Some of them are really messed up (both in violence and weirdness), but contrary to what people seem to believe, most of them do still have a happy ending.

[KyriakosCH]

^Yes I actually create literary seminars (although up to now only in Greek), and my second seminar was on fantasy literature, where one of the chapters deals with fairy tales. I did mention that almost all of the Grimm stories have a happy ending. In general, fairy tales have a happy ending (outliers like Heinrich Hoffmann do exist), but only for the human characters; the non-human beings can and often do get obliterated.
Sometimes "evil" humans can get ruined as well, if the protagonist regards them as corrupt in some way. The version of the Pied Piper by the Grimms also has the town people suffer far more (arguably) for their relatively anodyne behavior (they could lose their children, just for refusing to pay the piper).
In contrast, you don't see anything happen to the human who tricked the Rumpelstiltskin out of his own pay (although that pay itself was sinister, the human still agreed to it and then tricked him).

[Blondbraid]

I say grim fairytales and stuff like struwwelpeter served a very important role of keeping kids from doing stupid and annoying things, and I personally find it sad that those kinds of morality tales have all but vanished from western culture, and instead we see parents fruitlessly trying to placate kids throwing a temper tantrum instead of dicipining them. To share a true story, when I was on the subway, there was this tiny girl who started crying because her mom wouldn't let her run around on a crowded subway willy nilly, and I finally had it with her crying and just quipped at the kid that "Hey, you know fairies feel immense pain whenever children cry. Do you really want to torture poor Tinkerbell?" and she went quiet immedeatly, and her mom even thanked me for stepping in.
Long story short, kids can't grasp concepts like actions having consequences or other people suffering from their crying, but they can grasp fairytale horror stories.


Anyways, I posted here because I also wanted to share this short film, because it has a really interesting take on the horror genre,
but be warned that there is a rather gross closeup image towards the end of the film.

[Mouth for war]

Oh I remember reading that thumb story as a small kid...i thought it was really creepy back then

[KyriakosCH]

Oh I remember reading that thumb story as a small kid...i thought it was really creepy back then

The one with the child that refuses to eat, and gets reduced to a hair-thin being, is also memorable 

Spoiler

[close]

[KyriakosCH]

What a grand and intoxicating innocence... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR-K2rUP86M

[KyriakosCH]

Ok, here I go again 


Walls (my translation, original by Konstantin Cavafy)


Without caution, without shame or regret

they built extensive and high walls around me.


And now I lay here in despair.

Reflecting on this misfortune. It’s all I think about;


because I did have many things to do outside the walls.

Ah, how could I be oblivious, when they were still being built.


And yet, I never heard builders clanking or making any other noise.

I was shut out of this world all too subtly.

[Blondbraid]

Ok, here I go again 


Walls (my translation, original by Konstantin Cavafy)


Without caution, without shame or regret

they built extensive and high walls around me.


And now I lay here in despair.

Reflecting on this misfortune. It’s all I think about;


because I did have many things to do outside the walls.

Ah, how could I be oblivious, when they were still being built.


And yet, I never heard builders clanking or making any other noise.

I was shut out of this world all too subtly.

All I'm thinking of is The Wall by Pink Floyd reading it... 

[KyriakosCH]

Ok, here I go again 


Walls (my translation, original by Konstantin Cavafy)


Without caution, without shame or regret

they built extensive and high walls around me.


And now I lay here in despair.

Reflecting on this misfortune. It’s all I think about;


because I did have many things to do outside the walls.

Ah, how could I be oblivious, when they were still being built.


And yet, I never heard builders clanking or making any other noise.

I was shut out of this world all too subtly.

All I'm thinking of is The Wall by Pink Floyd reading it... 

It is similar, in that certainly in both cases it is a metaphorical wall, and the person blames others for being diminished 

[KyriakosCH]

You only see the Brood once.

[KyriakosCH]

Meh, I wasted a couple days watching two gamble anime (Kaiji and Akagi).
At least Kaiji was more fun - although he cries so much that many call him Cryji ).
Akagi is less realistic, along with having a rather despicable protagonist.

Anyway, neither anime series was resolved, and they both ended many years ago.

[Danvzare]

Anyway, neither anime series was resolved, and they both ended many years ago.

Looking them up, they're both based on Manga, both of which have long since finished.
Gambling Heathen Kaiji finished in 2004, and Mahjong Legend Akagi finished in 2018.
So if you want to see how they're resolved, just read them, like I would. It's quite uncommon for an entire manga series to be adapted into an anime.

Most anime is treated as another way of consuming that media, think of it like a game based on a movie, but with actual effort put into it. From my experience, they rarely have the intention of adapting more than two seasons worth of episodes, even for the most popular of anime. Of course there are obvious exceptions, Pokemon, Naruto, One Piece. But those make up a very small percentage.

[milkanannan]

I remember as a kid my friend’s family had an original copy of this book (I think it was in German?) In my family we had something similar: a bunch of random English nursery tales but I remember on one of the pages was a picture of a witch that had flown into a child’s bedroom window and was scooping them up as punishment for …I think not listening to their parents or something? Was terrifying.

Edit: I just read the wiki, and it looks like the book that image is from was published in 1845, so obv my friend’s family was reading a reprint and not an original. Still, a creepy roundabout way to teach basic lessons to children.

[KyriakosCH]

Fear/threats seem to work on children, particularly if they think that if something is in a book, it must have been regarded as important 

[milkanannan]

Fear/threats seem to work on children, particularly if they think that if something is in a book, it must have been regarded as important 

Yeah it gets the job done quickly and easily, but as a parent and teacher I know for a fact that if you just take the time to explain to kids, even very very young kids, why they should/shouldn't do something they will understand and respect the rule (the majority of the time). If you can't give them a good reason, then your rule is stupid and shouldn't exist.

[KyriakosCH]

I agree, of course. Fear can create monsters