Comments on: My Favorite Monsters: the Thing Without a Name

By: Rob James

Rob James — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:37:07 +0000

If you want absolute, sheer terror without a name, check out MR James ghost stories.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:00:08 +0000

I’ve always felt the true purpose of the TWaN is to create a universal fear. It’s difficult to describe something in a way that every single person will say, “Wow, that’s scary.” There will always be someone who just isn’t impressed. Rather, the author shifts the burden to the audience to imagine how terrifying the thing is or might be, and there’s something everyone can fear.

I think the concept of heaven and hell work the same way. One person explaining their concept of heaven might make another person never want to go there. Better to say that heaven is full of pleasures no person could comprehend.

By: Helenann

Helenann — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:01:18 +0000

At your suggestion (!) Alex, I just read The Nightmare Box. I thought the ending was sort of…not scary at all. Oh well!

By: tinkerschnitzel

tinkerschnitzel — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:39:26 +0000

Alex, that sounds suspiciously like the “Bucket of Truth” from Kids in the Hall. I’m sure there’s some connection there.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:04:22 +0000

There is a novel consisting of a collection of loosely bound short stories by Chuck Palahniuk called Haunted. Although Guts is the most famous story (ew…) the one that scared me the most was called The Nightmare Box. It was about a box that showed random people who looked in it things that they could not describe that sent them over the edge. I loved the twist of the story: not everyone sees it. It can be looked into by a thousand people and never be seen. But then there’s always that chance…

It is a great novel but a terrifying short story.

By: ian

ian — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:24:55 +0000

i find the TWaN incredibly fascinating, and at the same time incredibly scary. of course, the reason for that is because we fear what we don’t understand, but at the same time our curiosity drives us to WANT to know what the thing is.

By: Iris

Iris — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:05:46 +0000

Okay, I’m gonna be That Girl and bring up Buffy. But here is a textbook case. The villain in the final season is called The First- the first evil, which existed before existence and can never be destroyed. It has no form, and cannot physically interact with the world. But it can take the shape of anyone who has died, and use that appearance to manipulate people. This is a different kind of Thing Without a Name, a thing with the name and the face of someone you knew while alive, or someone you don’t even know is dead. Spooky.

By: Rappsui

Rappsui — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:44:46 +0000

How can you say Michael Myers and Jason are Zombies? There’s no comparison man. Zombies are society gone bad – that’s the metaphor, that’s the whole point of zombies – that they could be your friends and neighbors gone loco. Jason and MMyers are the “lone wacko” metaphor. VERY different.

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:54:58 +0000

In Greek myth, Zeus offers one of his lady friends (Semele, mother of Dionysis if I remember properly) any favor in the world, and she insists on seeing him in God form. He tries to talk her out of it, but finally takes off his mortal disguise, and she burns to a cinder.

Probably one reason Zeus needed so many girlfriends.

By: donner

donner — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:08:27 +0000

Of course a TWaN is the ‘most’ scary – because we are always more afraid of something we can’t see, but only imagine…our imaginations are always gonna be more powerful than watching a dude in a monster suit, even if Rick Baker did do the makeup…the worst kinds of monster w/ no faces are the ones we imagine we hear in our houses, late at night, after all the lights are out, we’ve just watched a scary movie and have to find our way from the living room to the bedroom by ourselves…that’s when i like to turn on EVERY light between here and there…