# Built to Scare.



## Stormcat (Jun 7, 2016)

I'm designing a robot henchman who is as frightening as he is functional. I have the "function" part down pretty well, thanks to several engineers in my life. All I need now is the Frightening part.

Now before you say anything, Yes, I am aware of the concept of the Uncanny Valley. But I'm looking for outright terror rather than deeply unsettled.

Yes, I have looked at pictures of the Terminator Endoskeleton, but those are too human-like for my liking. My Robot was inspired by the Xenomorphs from the _Alien_ series, not very human-like at all. I may make use of those glowing eyes though.

With that being said, the Robot only looks like a Xenomorph from the neck down. I have no idea what I'm going to do for this robot's head. All I know is, it has to be scary. Sticking a Terminator head on a xenomorph body just doesn't seem to work. The head of this creature is all I have left to design, and it's the only part that can truly strike terror into the hearts of men. Anyone care to help?


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## afk4life (Jun 7, 2016)

A freakishly large baby's head with goat horns and orange eyes?


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## Stormcat (Jun 7, 2016)

afk4life said:


> A freakishly large baby's head with goat horns and orange eyes?



No, No, and No.

I want it to inspire terror! Not confusion!


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## JustRob (Jun 8, 2016)

I think the makers of _Predator_ hit the spot with their alien's head being reminiscent of a crustacean's. In robotic terms that would involve multiple independently moving appendages, Gorgon-style almost. These could be manipulators for use close up, which create a foreboding about being close up to such a device, and also sensors, creating the impression that the device is alert to everything. Generally robotic devices seem scary when they are clearly multi-functional and capable of tackling more tasks simultaneously than a human. Many appendages create this impression visually, which is probably why crustaceans and insects affect us the way that they do.


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## Stormcat (Jun 8, 2016)

JustRob said:


> I think the makers of _Predator_ hit the spot with their alien's head being reminiscent of a crustacean's. In robotic terms that would involve multiple independently moving appendages, Gorgon-style almost. These could be manipulators for use close up, which create a foreboding about being close up to such a device, and also sensors, creating the impression that the device is alert to everything. Generally robotic devices seem scary when they are clearly multi-functional and capable of tackling more tasks simultaneously than a human. Many appendages create this impression visually, which is probably why crustaceans and insects affect us the way that they do.



Hmm... I've also heard that anything Skeletal creates apprehension, which is why the Terminators were so freaky looking. Still, it doesn't have to be a human skull to create the apprehension, and thus, fear.

The problem I see with your Predator/crustacean analogy is that this makes the robot's head far too complicated. Remember, I want to preserve the function of this robot in addition to making it unique and scary.

I just wish I could find some psychology paper on "what makes a face scary" or something like that.


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## Terry D (Jun 8, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> I'm designing a robot henchman who is as frightening as he is functional. I have the "function" part down pretty well, thanks to several engineers in my life. All I need now is the Frightening part.
> 
> Now before you say anything, Yes, I am aware of the concept of the Uncanny Valley. But I'm looking for outright terror rather than deeply unsettled.
> 
> ...



Dan Simmons did this sort of creature/device up quite well in his Hyperion Cantos. Meet, the Shrike:


  

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about this gentle cyborg:

Surrounded in mystery, the object of fear, hatred, and even worship by members of the Church of the Final Atonement (the Shrike Cult), the Shrike's origins are described as uncertain. It is portrayed as composed of razorwire, thorns, blades, and cutting edges, having fingers like scalpels and long, curved toe blades. It has the ability to control the flow of time, and may thus appear to travel infinitely fast. The Shrike may kill victims in a flash or it may transport them to an eternity of impalement upon an enormous artificial 'Tree of Thorns,' or 'Tree of Pain' in Hyperion's distant future. The Tree of Thorns is described as unimaginably large, metallic tree, alive with the agonized writhing of countless human victims of all ages and races.[SUP][13][/SUP] It is also hinted in the second book that the Tree of Thorns is actually a simulation generated by a mystical interface which connects to human brains via a strong and pulsing (as if it were alive) cord.


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## Stormcat (Jun 8, 2016)

Terry D said:


> Dan Simmons did this sort of creature/device up quite well in his Hyperion Cantos. Meet, the Shrike:
> 
> View attachment 14356 View attachment 14357 View attachment 14358
> 
> ...



Ooh! Very nice!

Pointedness most definitely means pain, and people fear pain. However, My robots most certainly don't have the ability to trap people in an eternity of pain, just kill them outright. Magic is not an option with my robots.

I also question if the pointy-ness might interfere with the function of the machine. That is, to hunt people down in an urban environment and either bring them back to a set location for torture, or just kill them outright. Remember, all I have left to design on this "xenomorphoid" robot is it's head.


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## Terry D (Jun 8, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> Ooh! Very nice!
> 
> Pointedness most definitely means pain, and people fear pain. However, My robots most certainly don't have the ability to trap people in an eternity of pain, just kill them outright. Magic is not an option with my robots.
> 
> I also question if the pointy-ness might interfere with the function of the machine. That is, to hunt people down in an urban environment and either bring them back to a set location for torture, or just kill them outright. Remember, all I have left to design on this "xenomorphoid" robot is it's head.



Do what you want. You asked a question, I showed how a successful writer handled a similar issue. Oh, and the Shrike's ability to manipulate time isn't magic, it has to do with quantum mechanics.


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## Jay Greenstein (Jun 8, 2016)

Keep in mind that our medium is not visual. So no matter how many words you use to describe it, while the reader is plowing through that description not a damn thing is happening in your story. And as Jack Bickham put it: *“*To describe something in detail, you have to stop the action. But without the action, the description has no meaning.”

So nothing you say about it can frighten your reader. Add to that, if our protagonist is made afraid by it's appearance, it's because s/he sees things that are deadly. The protagonist isn't afraid of what they see, but what it represents. So unless the reader is deep into the viewpoint of your protagonist, and the description represents, to that reader, exactly what it does to the protagonist, the reader won't see it as threatening.

If we are in the protagonist's viewpoint we'll learn that it's frightening by learning what the protagonist notes about it that frightens, and our feelings will mirror those of the protagonist.


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## Stormcat (Jun 8, 2016)

Jay Greenstein said:


> Keep in mind that our medium is not visual. So no matter how many words you use to describe it, while the reader is plowing through that description not a damn thing is happening in your story. And as Jack Bickham put it: *“*To describe something in detail, you have to stop the action. But without the action, the description has no meaning.”
> 
> So nothing you say about it can frighten your reader. Add to that, if our protagonist is made afraid by it's appearance, it's because s/he sees things that are deadly. The protagonist isn't afraid of what they see, but what it represents. So unless the reader is deep into the viewpoint of your protagonist, and the description represents, to that reader, exactly what it does to the protagonist, the reader won't see it as threatening.
> 
> If we are in the protagonist's viewpoint we'll learn that it's frightening by learning what the protagonist notes about it that frightens, and our feelings will mirror those of the protagonist.



In the scene I am working on, I am introducing the robot for the first time. I need to take a moment to describe it, because this creature will pop up later in scarier contexts. All I really need is something other than "Glowing white eyes".


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## JustRob (Jun 9, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> I just wish I could find some psychology paper on "what makes a face scary" or something like that.



In nature eyes are scary because they create the impression that one is being observed. Think about creatures which have patterns on them that look like eyes, like some butterflies, just to look scary. In the case of the more sophisticated activity of the human brain paradoxically the absence of eyes in another entity can seem scary because one is aware that the entity has senses but can't tell where its attention is currently focussed. Apparently blind robots which suddenly lash out are probably the most scary. That's why many in fiction have just a constantly scanning visor rather than directional eyes. In other words what can make a device scary may be the fact that it doesn't have an obvious face. In fact one ought to ask what the purpose of even a head would be on a robot which does not resemble a human or animal, so perhaps that is your answer, no head at all, nothing on which to focus one's attention in fact except the device as a whole. That puts us a long way out of the comfort zone of our instinctive behaviour, not knowing its potentially vulnerable points, doesn't it?


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## Ultraroel (Jun 9, 2016)

To be honest. Most of the things here are "awesome scary"  instead of really scary. 

SO what makes scary?
In my opinion, the unusual and the unexpected is scary.

You say a large babyhead is not scary? Way more scary than the predator, alien or that Shrike.
They are all cool scary, not frightening scary. Go for something that is unual and unexpected. 

A robot, that has to be scary. 
How about a face that does not resemble any real face? Or that resembles a twisted, unusual face with features on the wrong places etc.

Scary and cool/awesome is absolutely not the same, though most people seem to think so.

No mouth, teeth sticking from the wrong places, eyes that are off, or not even there.. etc that's scary for most people. Not just like: oh no.. but like, deeply scary


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## Bishop (Jun 9, 2016)

One thing to bear in mind... the xenomorph was scary not because of how it looked. It was scary because you only saw it for about two full minutes of screen time. It was scary because when you did see it, you only see one part of its body. When you see it, you have half a second before death.

Unknown is scary. Spiky and glowing is not scary. That being said, scary is different for everyone... to me, the scariest thing I've ever encountered in anyway are the regenerators from Resident Evil 4. It's difficult to explain, especially since the game itself wasn't all that scary. This enemy, though, twitched, huffed short and grunty breaths, and crawled with awkward elegance. And it can't be killed, and its abilities are totally unknown on the first, creepy encounter. Plus, the added feeling of vulnerability because you're playing rather than just watching.


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## Terry D (Jun 9, 2016)

Nothing we write is scary. It's all just words on a page, and words on a page are not scary. What is scary is the threat, or implied threat our beasties have on the characters we care about. No written monster is scary, because we know it's not going to jump off the page and 'get' us. But, it might 'get' that lonely teenage girl we've come to care for, and her level of fear is what 'scares' us. It could even give us nightmares. So, no, Dan Simmons' Shrike doesn't scare me, but if Simmons does a good enough job of wrapping me up in his world, if he makes me care about the characters there, then the thought of running into that eight-foot tall pile of razor-wire is pretty damned scary.

As far as the OP goes, I don't give a crap what head you put on your robot, the design of that head isn't going to make, or break the story, the writing will. Pick something that scares you and write it well, your readers will 'get' it.


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## Stormcat (Jun 9, 2016)

JustRob said:


> In nature eyes are scary because they create the impression that one is being observed. Think about creatures which have patterns on them that look like eyes, like some butterflies, just to look scary. In the case of the more sophisticated activity of the human brain paradoxically the absence of eyes in another entity can seem scary because one is aware that the entity has senses but can't tell where its attention is currently focussed. Apparently blind robots which suddenly lash out are probably the most scary. That's why many in fiction have just a constantly scanning visor rather than directional eyes. In other words what can make a device scary may be the fact that it doesn't have an obvious face. In fact one ought to ask what the purpose of even a head would be on a robot which does not resemble a human or animal, so perhaps that is your answer, no head at all, nothing on which to focus one's attention in fact except the device as a whole. That puts us a long way out of the comfort zone of our instinctive behaviour, not knowing its potentially vulnerable points, doesn't it?



Hmm... I never thought about having no head at all, But there is a slight problem. These Robots are not in the purest sense "Robots". They are Cyborgs. People have been captured, lobotomized, and then force to turn into these things. You cut the head off a human being and it doesn't do much. 

That being said, the general populace doesn't know these things are Cyborgs, they just know that people disappear. I need something to cover up the Human head so it can be revealed as a cyborg later.


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## Terry D (Jun 9, 2016)

Stormcat said:


> Hmm... I never thought about having no head at all, *But there is a slight problem. These Robots are not in the purest sense "Robots"*. They are Cyborgs. People have been captured, lobotomized, and then force to turn into these things. You cut the head off a human being and it doesn't do much.
> 
> That being said, the general populace doesn't know these things are Cyborgs, they just know that people disappear. *I need something to cover up the Human head so it can be revealed as a cyborg later*.



I'm going to be as respectful as possible here. Do you realize how irritating it is to keep redefining the parameters of your question, when people are trying to help? Not just in this thread, but most threads you have started, there is always an exception, or a facet of your story which you only reveal after someone kindly suggests a solution to your question. People come to this site looking for help and to give help, where possible, so they see your questions and attempt to answer them. But when they do, you usually respond with, "That's a good idea, but..." or something similar. 

For heaven sake, you are just looking for a 'scary head' here. That's something, IMO, you shouldn't need help with, but you posed the question, so here we are trying to give the best suggestions we are capable of, but none of them are going to be good enough for you, are they?


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## JustRob (Jun 9, 2016)

Using a human brain as the intelligence within a robotic device doesn't mean that its interfaces with the world, even eyes, are its own originals necessarily. In fact it might be necessary to delude the brain into believing that it was doing something else entirely to make it cooperate as in _The Matrix._

Your idea reminds me of what the _shadows _did with human telepaths in the TV series _Babylon 5, _incorporating them into their spacecraft as the control mechanisms. They incorporated the entire person though, not just a part, and it was their natural telepathic ability that gave the craft the advantage in dog-fights. _Babylon 5_ was a great series with some good ideas for alien races totally beyond human comprehension.


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## Ultraroel (Jun 10, 2016)

Yoiu need to cover up the face.
A hood would do, a Smooth metal cap that doesn't show anything. 
If it's electronical, it doesn't need it's human senses to see or whatveer.


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## ppsage (Jun 10, 2016)

The scariness of cinema is a sensual effect created by sound and vision. There is no sensual component to a written text. An emotional reaction must therefore be a sympathetic one, which, as Terry noted, is most easily accomplished by identifying with a character. If you write a character who is convincingly apprehensive, the reader will follow, in a way which objective description will never accomplish.


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## Terry D (Jun 10, 2016)

ppsage said:


> The scariness of cinema is a sensual effect created by sound and vision. There is no sensual component to a written text. An emotional reaction must therefore be a sympathetic one, which, as Terry noted, is most easily accomplished by identifying with a character. If you write a character who is convincingly apprehensive, the reader will follow, in a way which objective description will never accomplish.



Precisely. I remember reading William Peter Blatty's, _The Exorcist_ long before it was a movie. There is a scene in that book where the old exorcist Fr. Merrin first walks through the front door of the McNeil house. The demon screams his name from the upstairs bedroom. That scene was so well set-up that I actually jumped while reading it, like a startling scene in a movie. It's the only time that has ever happened to me.


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## Makili (Jun 16, 2016)

Well, if I were faced with a robot from which I can't run away, what would freak me out the most would be the lack of features on its face and the lack of mouth. Because it would mean there is no communicating (and reasoning) with it, and it certainly won't show anything remotely resembling emotions and empathy...


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