Fear: The Unknown

Movie: The Thing

(1982)
My chosen fear is the fear of the unknown. I chose this
as in my opinion, not knowing what is attacking you, or
not knowing what is infecting you, or especially not
knowing whether you’ll make it out alive.

I chose the film ‘The Thing’ to represent the fear of

the unknown, as it incorporates many elements of
mystery. The premise of the film is that there is a
virus spreading around an Antarctic research base, and
it is transforming the scientists into horrific
monsters. The catch is: nobody knows who’s infected, and
there’s no way of knowing.

A scene from this movie that I think represents the fear

of the unknown the best is the blood testing scene. The
protagonist, MacReady, thinks a blood test will be the
best way to find out who’s infected. The Thing is
smarter though and it manages to hide itself until the
last second and then it attacks them.
 Research
No
In various studies, researchers have found that 37.5%

the fear of the unknown directly links with shock.

Any element of unpredictability significantly
increases people’s discomfort. Out of ten people, Yes
62.5%
62.5% of people said that they were scared of the
unknown, whereas 37.5% said that they aren’t.

From my research, I can safely say that I could

use this for inspiration for my short film. I
think this because there is a majority of people
who have a fear of the unknown or something
Yes No
similar, so there would be a large democratic to
target the film towards. There is also a lot of
ideas for a film about the unknown, so I’d have a
lot of creative freedom.