Tropescilloscope: Adult Fear

Threats and fears that most adults would worry about in real life. (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

More Tropes Star-Crossed Lovers Naïve Newcomer Bloodless Carnage The '60s Action Girl The Sociopath Small Name, Big Ego Reality Has No Subtitles Black Dude Dies First Reasonable Authority Figure Villain Opening Scene Oh, Crap! Gorn Diabolus ex Machina Ambiguous Disorder Russian Films Film Series Hypocrite Those Wacky Nazis The Place Brutal Honesty Red Right Hand Irony One Steve Limit Parental Incest Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Martial Arts Movie Ambiguously Gay Blood from the Mouth The Bad Guy Wins Mistaken for Gay Historical-Domain Character Pimped-Out Dress Author Avatar Too Dumb to Live Smoking Is Cool Heterosexual Life-Partners Even Evil Has Loved Ones Adaptational Attractiveness Face–Heel Turn Bald of Evil Fat Bastard Green-Eyed Monster Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Sexy Discretion Shot Combat Pragmatist I Have Your Wife Frame-Up Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Those Two Bad Guys Works Set in World War II The Faceless Television Movie Index Creator Cameo Shown Their Work Anachronism Stew Biopic Evil Is Petty Fanservice Wham Line Dark Is Not Evil Not What It Looks Like Death Glare Stuff Blowing Up Adaptational Badass Jitter Cam Twist Ending Bittersweet Ending Villain Protagonist Curb-Stomp Battle Off-into-the-Distance Ending Bowdlerise Cool Old Guy Film Noir Index Dramedy Retirony Retcon Disney Death Meet Cute '80s Hair Break the Haughty Let's Get Dangerous! Italian Films Good Is Not Nice Intergenerational Friendship "Shaggy Dog" Story N-Word Privileges I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Video Credits Science Fiction Films Fanservice Extra Big Fancy House Mama Bear Exactly What It Says on the Tin Drill Sergeant Nasty Alpha Bitch Really Gets Around Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Did Not Get the Girl You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Agony of the Feet Loophole Abuse Body Horror Dying Moment of Awesome Double Entendre Hair-Trigger Temper Alas, Poor Villain Make It Look Like an Accident I Did What I Had to Do Jerkass Has a Point Humiliation Conga Line-of-Sight Name Empathic Environment My God, What Have I Done? Random Events Plot Brick Joke Have a Gay Old Time Well-Intentioned Extremist Credits Gag Adaptation Name Change Zombie Stories Arc Words Dirty Coward Actually Pretty Funny The Quiet One Jerk Jock Villain with Good Publicity Chewing the Scenery Extreme Doormat Not So Different Better to Die than Be Killed Bait-and-Switch Product Placement Ax-Crazy Throwing Your Sword Always Works Police Brutality Pay Evil unto Evil Expository Hairstyle Change Corpsing Hoist by His Own Petard Riddle for the Ages Big Bad Nice Guy Spell My Name with an "S" Posthumous Character Animated Credits Opening Obviously Evil Shut Up, Hannibal! Demoted to Extra Accidental Murder Breaking the Fourth Wall Catapult Nightmare Foregone Conclusion Hate Sink The Atoner Big Brother Instinct Naked People Are Funny Ungrateful Bastard Action Survivor Motor Mouth Stealth Hi/Bye Scenery Gorn Pragmatic Adaptation Famous Last Words Redemption Equals Death Animal Motifs Extremely Short Timespan Decoy Protagonist Stalker with a Crush Cassandra Truth Grey and Gray Morality Broken Aesop Drowning My Sorrows Maybe Ever After Rule of Symbolism Papa Wolf Setting Update Big Applesauce Major Injury Underreaction Christmas Movies Index Only in It for the Money Author Appeal Peek-a-Boo Corpse "Awesome McCool" Name Chekhov's Gun What You Are in the Dark Freeze-Frame Bonus Daylight Horror Mythology Gag Taking the Bullet One-Word Title After the End Straight Gay A.I. Is a Crapshoot Amusing Injuries Celebrity Paradox Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Badass Bookworm One-Man Army Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Villainous Breakdown Facial Horror Rasputinian Death Villain Ball Only One Name Gilligan Cut Not So Above It All Stealth Pun Evil Sounds Deep Camera Abuse The Vamp Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Woman in White No Name Given Early Installment Weirdness Drugs Are Bad Black Comedy Police are Useless All Girls Want Bad Boys Stylistic Suck 20 Minutes into the Future Auto Erotica Pragmatic Villainy Babies Ever After Action Genre Shipper on Deck Totally Radical Truth in Television Evil vs. Evil Poor Communication Kills Dropped a Bridge on Him Death by Adaptation Darker and Edgier "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Mr. Exposition Even Evil Has Standards The '90s Mind Screw The Musical Homage Genre Savvy Military and Warfare Films Disney Villain Death The Lost Lenore Real Life Translation Convention Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Idiot Ball Drives Like Crazy Death of a Child Everyone Has Standards Refuge in Audacity She's Got Legs All Men Are Perverts Toplessness from the Back Laser-Guided Karma An Aesop Sinister Minister Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Stepford Smiler The Dog Bites Back Henpecked Husband Femme Fatale Heroic Sacrifice Plucky Comic Relief Retired Badass Outrun the Fireball Grievous Bottley Harm Bare Your Midriff Time Skip Super Strength The End... Or Is It? Cat Scare A God Am I Title Drop Determinator aka: The Determinator No OSHA Compliance Last-Name Basis Jerk with a Heart of Gold Fiery Redhead Neck Lift Punctuated! For! Emphasis! La Résistance Vomit Discretion Shot Light Is Not Good Villain Song The Voiceless Kubrick Stare The '80s Married to the Job Malevolent Masked Men Heroic BSoD Cruel and Unusual Death Evil Plan Heel–Face Turn Kick the Son of a Bitch Heel Realization Slasher Movie Hollywood Law In the Back Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Epic Movie Fate Worse than Death Arranged Marriage The Power of Love The Oner Fun with Acronyms Betty and Veronica Dissonant Serenity French Films Punch-Clock Villain May–December Romance Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Manipulative Bastard Failed a Spot Check Bloody Hilarious Historical Hero Upgrade Needs Wiki Magic Love Slashed Throat Deadpan Snarker Easily Forgiven Daddy's Girl Improbable Weapon User Ambiguous Ending Rewatch Bonus Bond One-Liner No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Paper-Thin Disguise Call-Back Destination Defenestration Be Careful What You Wish For As Long as It Sounds Foreign Book-Ends Mad Scientist Ass Shove Downer Ending Developing Doomed Characters Cool Car Advertised Extra Does Not Like Shoes Never Found the Body As the Good Book Says... Put on a Bus Closed Circle Beauty Is Never Tarnished Mexican Standoff Properly Paranoid Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday The Alcoholic Canadian Movies Shirtless Scene Fingore Calling the Old Man Out Dogged Nice Guy Knife Nut Same Language Dub Laughing Mad Protagonist Title Noodle Incident Get Out! Adorkable Gratuitous English Five-Man Band Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Pyrrhic Victory folderlabel Broken Pedestal Expy Karma Houdini Flashback Animal Title Index Casting Gag Took a Level in Jerkass Obstructive Bureaucrat Woman Scorned I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Dumb Blonde Gold Digger And I Must Scream Establishing Character Moment Superhero Shoot the Shaggy Dog Affectionate Parody Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Madness Mantra Ripped from the Headlines The Dragon Danny Peary Cult Movies List Ironic Echo Captain Ersatz Wrong Genre Savvy Silent Movie Big Damn Heroes Fantastic Racism Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Contrived Coincidence Wham Shot Getting Crap Past the Radar Four-Temperament Ensemble Faking the Dead Manic Pixie Dream Girl Abhorrent Admirer Would Hurt a Child Documentary The Smurfette Principle Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Took a Level in Badass Knight Templar A Father to His Men Hong Kong Films Funny Foreigner Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Cowboy Cop Death by Irony How We Got Here Meaningful Echo Artistic License – Geography Storming the Castle Film Noir Adapted Out Improbable Aiming Skills Cain and Abel Beard of Evil Hooker with a Heart of Gold Reality Is Unrealistic Children Are Innocent Parental Substitute Punny Name Show Within a Show Only Sane Man Framing Device Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Broken Bird Gory Discretion Shot Novelization No-Sell Fan Disservice Armor-Piercing Question Very Loosely Based on a True Story Age Lift Cloudcuckoolander Horror Films Artistic License – Gun Safety The '50s Male Frontal Nudity Jerkass Sadistic Choice Visual Pun Only a Flesh Wound Ship Tease Abusive Parents Black Comedy Rape The Chessmaster Dwindling Party Worthy Opponent Flipping the Bird Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience The Ditz Fire-Forged Friends Car Fu Neck Snap Redshirt Army Aluminum Christmas Trees She Cleans Up Nicely Does This Remind You of Anything? The Stoner The Brute All Just a Dream Jump Scare Hope Spot Rich Bitch Enemy Mine Crazy-Prepared Bullying a Dragon Bury Your Gays Costume Porn The Chick Creepy Child Deal with the Devil Romantic Comedy Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! The Cavalry Adaptational Heroism Canon Foreigner The Casanova Adult Fear Defiant to the End Face Death with Dignity The Reveal Only Known by Their Nickname Character Development Hell Is That Noise Pet the Dog My Beloved Smother Double-Meaning Title Berserk Button Fake Shemp The Un-Reveal Loads and Loads of Characters Determinator Meaningful Name Nothing Is Scarier Our Vampires Are Different Mooks Fatal Family Photo Dark Action Girl Men Are the Expendable Gender Red Eyes, Take Warning It's Personal Bi the Way Eagleland Bunny-Ears Lawyer Those Two Guys Genre Shift Covers Always Lie Creative Closing Credits And Starring German Films Unreliable Narrator Suddenly SHOUTING! Driven to Suicide Eyepatch of Power Nice Hat Historical Villain Upgrade Made of Explodium The Cameo Together in Death All There in the Manual Vitriolic Best Buds Rated M for Manly Market-Based Title An Axe to Grind Cluster F-Bomb Coming-of-Age Story The Starscream Hidden Depths War Is Hell Dressing as the Enemy Not Quite Dead Arch-Enemy Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Wretched Hive Non-Indicative Name Not Using the "Z" Word Handicapped Badass Ascended Extra Parental Abandonment Narrator Re-Cut Big-Bad Ensemble And the Adventure Continues The Dreaded Vomit Indiscretion Shot Made of Iron MacGuffin Awesome, but Impractical Tempting Fate Tranquil Fury Pre-Mortem One-Liner Back from the Dead Adaptation Distillation Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Bound and Gagged Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Friend to All Children timeperiod Silence Is Golden Dutch Angle Undying Loyalty Suspiciously Specific Denial Butt-Monkey As You Know Blatant Lies Large Ham Race Against the Clock Hypocritical Humor Bavarian Fire Drill Bond Villain Stupidity Groin Attack Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Genre Throwback Beware the Nice Ones Heroes Want Redheads Spiritual Successor Epic Fail Guns Akimbo Our Zombies Are Different Cold-Blooded Torture Kill 'em All Evil Is Hammy Token Minority Bottomless Magazines Guile Hero Composite Character Interrupted Suicide Defrosting Ice Queen Badass Boast Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Psychopathic Manchild Half the Man He Used to Be Kill It with Fire The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Artistic License – Physics Unusually Uninteresting Sight Country Matters Adults Are Useless Vampire Fiction Gainax Ending NO INDOOR VOICE Catch-Phrase Dies Wide Open Becoming the Mask Dirty Old Man Attempted Rape Logo Joke Call-Forward Death by Sex Japanese Films Bar Brawl The Lancer Australian Movies Break the Cutie Badass Longcoat Insult Backfire Killed Mid-Sentence Your Head A-Splode Final Girl Tagline Leitmotif Trailers Always Spoil Gone Horribly Right Taking You with Me From Nobody to Nightmare Badass in a Nice Suit Sanity Slippage Shower Scene Chase Scene Funny Background Event Sequel Hook Disguised in Drag Deliberately Monochrome The Hero Parental Neglect Early-Bird Cameo Apocalypse How Accidental Misnaming Real Life Writes the Plot Batman Gambit Deliberate Values Dissonance Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Action Prologue Up to Eleven Mood Whiplash Red Oni, Blue Oni Card-Carrying Villain Stock Footage Freudian Excuse Due to the Dead Bilingual Bonus Rule of Cool Once More, with Clarity! Instant Death Bullet Slap-Slap-Kiss Sassy Black Woman Department of Redundancy Department Plot Hole Mugging the Monster Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Spared by the Adaptation Reality Ensues Spanner in the Works Eureka Moment Man on Fire Death Seeker Blood Knight BFG Suspiciously Similar Substitute Anguished Declaration of Love Black and Gray Morality No Celebrities Were Harmed Asshole Victim No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Despair Event Horizon Insane Troll Logic Antagonist Title Deconstruction Cat Fight Chiaroscuro Crazy Jealous Guy Unwitting Instigator of Doom Whole Plot Reference Overly Long Gag I'm a Humanitarian More Dakka Air-Vent Passageway Beta Couple Dirty Cop Based on a True Story From Bad to Worse Sci-Fi Horror He Who Fights Monsters Bolivian Army Ending Running Gag Unusual Euphemism Revenge Insistent Terminology Love at First Sight Artistic License – Biology Mercy Kill Dark and Troubled Past Wounded Gazelle Gambit Important Haircut No Antagonist Ghost Fiction The Mafia Precision F-Strike Didn't Think This Through Evil Counterpart Honor Before Reason Mr. Fanservice Scenery Porn Manchild Training Montage Happily Married You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Slasher Smile Never My Fault Crucified Hero Shot The Remake Distracted by the Sexy Big Bad Duumvirate I Need a Freaking Drink As Himself Historical In-Joke Smug Snake Improvised Weapon Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy There Is No Kill Like Overkill Depraved Bisexual Big "NO!" Dual Wielding Darkest Hour Wicked Cultured Serious Business Monumental Damage Bad "Bad Acting" Exact Words Adaptational Villainy This Is Gonna Suck Hollywood Darkness Boom, Headshot! Artistic License – History Kids Are Cruel Actor Allusion Informed Ability It Will Never Catch On Crapsack World The Ace Implacable Man Red Shirt Brainless Beauty Never Trust a Trailer Badass Grandpa Pretty in Mink Manly Tears Dramatic Irony Skewed Priorities Roaring Rampage of Revenge Amoral Attorney Ominous Latin Chanting Music Stories Curse Cut Short Sir Swears-a-Lot Imagine Spot The Ghost You Have Failed Me The Bully Bloodier and Gorier Bring My Brown Pants Romantic False Lead Humans Are Bastards Domestic Abuse British Films Alliterative Name Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Hero of Another Story Sports Stories Your Cheating Heart Corrupt Corporate Executive Red Herring Central Theme Camp Gay Room Full of Crazy The Big Guy Evil-Detecting Dog The Stoic Anyone Can Die Kick the Dog Continuity Nod Soft Glass Bland-Name Product My Greatest Failure Rousing Speech Yandere Dramatic Gun Cock Playing Gertrude Vacation Films Spiteful Spit What Happened to the Mouse? O.O.C. Is Serious Business Blackmail The '70s What the Hell, Hero? Award-Bait Song The X of Y All There in the Script Almost Kiss Mystery and Detective Films Scare Chord The Hero Dies The Great Depression Eye Scream No Ending Conspicuous CG Left the Background Music On "The Reason You Suck" Speech Intrepid Reporter For the Evulz Fainting Cool Shades Recycled IN SPACE! Artistic License – Law Shell-Shocked Veteran The Load Fourth Date Marriage Anti-Villain Unspoken Plan Guarantee Gender Flip Faux Affably Evil Deus ex Machina Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Offscreen Moment of Awesome You Killed My Father Big Eater Obfuscating Stupidity Evil Brit Sealed Evil in a Can Lighter and Softer Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Names to Run Away from Really Fast Public Domain Feature Films Fish out of Water Fatal Flaw Cool Guns In Name Only Demonic Possession Lampshade Hanging Foreshadowing Race Lift Leaning on the Fourth Wall Chekhov's Gunman Black Best Friend Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Morality Pet Offscreen Teleportation Take That! For Want of a Nail Rape as Drama Index of Film Westerns Thriller Here We Go Again! Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Would Hit a Girl Evil Laugh Damsel in Distress Horror Comedy Ms. Fanservice The Mole It Can Think Every Car Is a Pinto Badass Normal Meaningful Background Event Scary Black Man A Date with Rosie Palms Disappeared Dad Match Cut Belligerent Sexual Tension Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Victoria's Secret Compartment Comically Missing the Point Psychological Thriller Greater-Scope Villain Moment Killer Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Captain Obvious Authority Equals Asskicking Cool Old Lady Missing Mom In Medias Res Adaptation Expansion Mighty Whitey Karmic Death The Stinger Chekhov's Skill Eiffel Tower Effect Leave the Camera Running Annoying Younger Sibling Mundane Made Awesome Tap on the Head Sole Survivor Self-Deprecation He Knows Too Much Eldritch Abomination Take a Third Option Love Triangle It's All About Me Earn Your Happy Ending Serial Killer World of Ham Not So Stoic Immune to Bullets Disproportionate Retribution Sequel Escalation Psycho for Hire Not Even Bothering with the Accent True Companions Say My Name Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Overprotective Dad Fantasy Films Rule of Three Word of God Off with His Head! Dark Reprise Sacrificial Lion Shout-Out Reckless Gun Usage Foil "Well Done, Son!" Guy B-Movie Brother–Sister Incest Unresolved Sexual Tension Lock and Load Montage Older Than They Look Bad Boss Affably Evil A Minor Kidroduction Politically Incorrect Villain Soundtrack Dissonance Hero Antagonist Anachronic Order Artistic License – Military Adaptation Dye-Job All for Nothing The Alleged Car Rule of Funny Male Gaze Dull Surprise Aside Glance The Film of the Book Pretty Little Headshots The Smart Guy An Arm and a Leg Anti-Hero