Afraid of Monsters/YMMV


 * Hell Is That Noise: Sound is Terrifying to the point that players sometimes feel forced to turn it off completely, because the game manages to make every noise from a object scary at least once. Doors that close behind you when you are twenty feet away, random TV static, breaking windows, white noise, explosions, a whistling teapot... Everything.
 * Zombies manage to pull this off often. The Zombies emit a disturbingly unusual string of high-pitched gibberish upon seeing David. But when they are damaged, they instead let out a louder, darker, slower, and more human scream. The contrast between the two in-game is very Disturbing.
 * Even worse, the zombies in the forest that let out a very low laugh sound, this actually makes them scarier and more harder to hear
 * One Zombie in Director´s Cut's hospital is different however. He is completely covered in bandages. He cannot scream because of this, and the only noise he makes when seeing the player, is the squeaking coming from his wheelchair as he slowly attacks you.. Very slowly. But his head twitches as much as the others.
 * The Ghosts that can be spotted from time to time? Their screams are from actual Screamers made by Liquidgeneration. Used for maximum effect, obviously.
 * Can you hear children laughing? If yes, you have been spotted by a literal Giant Flickering Nightmare Face.
 * Memetic Molester: David Leatherhoff in Sven Coop.
 * Nightmare Retardant: Not the mod itself, which managed to make Houndeyes terrifying. In Sven Coop, it's a popular server, but obviously, having a buddy with you mowing down hordes of twitchzombies lessens the impact a bit. The official server works to make this less effective (players are often split up and cannot speak to each other unless near each other, they bleed out, as in real life, and ammo and weapons are as scarce as ever), but the snark of your fellow teammates and your laughs at their anguished screams kinda dumb it down a bit.
 * Originaly, there was supposed to be zombies with big white eyes. They did not look frightening as much as weird, and were cut.
 * Porting Disaster: The Sven Coop port of the original.
 * That One Level: The Hospital after the blackout. People tend to quit playing the game when they get lost too much.