Whatever induces fear in a person, which is different for most. Same for every genre.
/bleh
How Can a Vid Be Scary?
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Pie Row Maniac
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SuperFusion
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SarahtheBoring
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"Scary" is a really, really, really vague word. You're going to have to be more specific than that if you want to figure out how an AMV can capture it.
Do you mean surprising/shocking? Gory? Unsettling? Disturbing? Creepy? Dark/evil? People have given examples of pretty much all of these already.
Sudden/unexpected things can be surprising or shocking. Doesn't have to be "BOO!" - in some cases if a character is unexpectedly killed I'll jump. Granted, I am then spoilered all to hell, but I usually don't mind that.
Gory is, well, gory. duh. Same with dark and evil. These usually come from the series. VHD:B videos, Hellsing videos, that's that kind of effect.
Unsettling/disturbing/creepy is what I would call "scary" - this tends to come from the source too, though not always. It seems to come from tension and not knowing what will happen or what's happening now. This is why ghost stories are scary (not dumb urban legends, I mean stories about ghosts/hauntings) - because there is something happening, but you don't know what it is, where it is, or what will happen next. It's like mystery + vague threat of danger.
That kind of thing isn't all that popular these days in movies, which is why the others have become what most people think of as scary.
In AMVs, as I said this probably comes from the source. I haven't seen them yet, but Boogiepop Phantom and Paranoia Agent come to mind, from the descriptions I've read. In an AMV, show us that something is Very Very Wrong, but don't tell us exactly what's going on, and most likely bring us into the story through some narrator/focal character who we're not sure is going to make it through. Just as an example.
It's not easy.
...but my answer is, be more specific than "scary," which is kind of a generic second-grade word that really doesn't describe anything.
Do you mean surprising/shocking? Gory? Unsettling? Disturbing? Creepy? Dark/evil? People have given examples of pretty much all of these already.
Sudden/unexpected things can be surprising or shocking. Doesn't have to be "BOO!" - in some cases if a character is unexpectedly killed I'll jump. Granted, I am then spoilered all to hell, but I usually don't mind that.
Gory is, well, gory. duh. Same with dark and evil. These usually come from the series. VHD:B videos, Hellsing videos, that's that kind of effect.
Unsettling/disturbing/creepy is what I would call "scary" - this tends to come from the source too, though not always. It seems to come from tension and not knowing what will happen or what's happening now. This is why ghost stories are scary (not dumb urban legends, I mean stories about ghosts/hauntings) - because there is something happening, but you don't know what it is, where it is, or what will happen next. It's like mystery + vague threat of danger.
That kind of thing isn't all that popular these days in movies, which is why the others have become what most people think of as scary.
In AMVs, as I said this probably comes from the source. I haven't seen them yet, but Boogiepop Phantom and Paranoia Agent come to mind, from the descriptions I've read. In an AMV, show us that something is Very Very Wrong, but don't tell us exactly what's going on, and most likely bring us into the story through some narrator/focal character who we're not sure is going to make it through. Just as an example.
It's not easy.
...but my answer is, be more specific than "scary," which is kind of a generic second-grade word that really doesn't describe anything.