Trope Workshop:Horror Realism

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A brand of horror that also happens to be realistic. In fact, this may be part of why it’s scary. It may be used to warn people of dangers of taking a certain course of action.

This isn't always scarier than supernatural horror, but it can be because it can hit close to home.

This trope can overlap with Magic Realism and Psychological Horror. However, the first trope doesn’t have to be played for horror.

Note: On TV Tropes, this is known as "Realism-Induced Horror." The title was changed slightly to avoid potential copyright issues with TV Tropes.

Examples of Horror Realism include:

Anime and Manga

• Fullmetal Alchemist:You probably won’t have to worry about one of your parents or spouse using you as a Guinea pig for your experiments, but there are criminals who act like what they’re doing isn’t wrong even though their actions are clearly hurting others. Shou Tucker also looks like a normal human being, but he decidedly isn’t truly human.
• Rising of the Shield Hero: Women are humans, so they can be as evil, heartless, and/or manipulative as everyone. So don’t assume that a woman always have your best interests in heart. Motoyasu finds out that Malty is not as beautiful as she looks. And she did not truly love him, as she only loved his good looks.
• Berserk: Griffith's Face Heel Turn. Even though people are much more aware of it now, it's still terrifying seeing how a handsome, smart and strong man like him could turn out to be a cruel, heartless, manipulative rapist that would betray his friends in a snap once he reaches his Darkest Hour, which can happen in the real world. And even before his Face Heel Turn, there were subtle and not so subtle hints that there was something wrong with him...
• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Removing the supernatural elements, there still exist the sad truth of Satoko's home life. She is constantly getting abused in a multitude of ways. The horror realism is that the abuse is noticed and people do try to help but to no avail (made worse by Satoko herself being quite stubborn about it). It is an unfortunate accordance that even if child social services/police are called, that's no guarantee the child(ren) will be taken out of the bad household. Or, in the case of kids who already are in foster home-like services, that they won't be abused by the people in charge of them (like it happened to Miyoko Tanishi, now Miyo Takano)
• Demon Slayer teaches the audience that a serial killer can blend in society surprisingly well. Muzan has killed countless humans over the years yet he happens to be married with a wife and has a child.

Film

• Enchanted: They likely won't turn into a dragon, thank goodness, but there are some women in the world that use their good looks to manipulate others and especially men into doing what they want, even if Narissa is part of a fantasy world. At first glance, Narissa legitimately loves Nathaniel, just as Giselle loves Robert. But as the story is unraveled, it's gradually revealed that she's trying to persuade him to murder Giselle so that she can have her own happily ever after. If Nathaniel hadn't caught on and succeeded in murdering Giselle for Narissa, he would not be living a happy life at all. (To put it in perspective, when Giselle gets angry at Robert for his innocent insensitivity, she immediately forgives him for it} And while he does have a happy ending, he does feel traumatized by the ordeal to some extent, if the book he writes about Narissa and himself is any indication.
• Fear: Your boyfriend (or girlfriend as the case may be) may look handsome on the outside, but that doesn’t mean they’re handsome on the inside. If your father tells you that you shouldn’t date them, he could be right.
• Jurassic Park: You won't have to worry about being eaten by a T-Rex in real life, given that they're extinct. But the character of Dennis Nedry shows us how dangerous people can be when they allow their greed to consume them. And employers should be careful that they hire somebody they trust, as while they might not betray you the way Nedry betrays Hammond, such things as embezzlement exist.
• Home Alone: As funny as Harry and Marv are, there are criminals who are willing to hurt and even kill children, regardless of whether these particular criminals were provoked or not. Kevin McAllister ends up being lucky, and it's no wonder that his mother feels absolutely terrible and blames herself for him being left behind.
• Oliver and Company: Sykes is a surprisingly realistic example of a Loan Shark. Fagin's life is in danger because he owes him money and hasn't had it paid to him. If he doesn't make the money he owes him within 72 hours, not only will he be dead, and his dogs would be ownerless. And it's implied that Fagin can't simply call the police because he has connections to the mafia. (He is also technically a pickpocket, but the police would probably be willing to overlook that.) And though he does decide to spare Fagin when he successfully honored his debt, he also decides to kidnap a rich girl named Jenny so that he can get the money that Fagin owes him...and then some.
• Scooby Doo on Zombie Island: There are serial killers who can blend in well in society, and they will invite their victims to their homes before killing them. By the time the victims find out their true intentions, it’s already too late. Though of course, chances are they’re not werecats in disguise that create zombies. But their actions will inevitably haunt those that figure out their true nature if they survive, just as Morgan Moonscar haunts Moonscar Island.
• The Muppets: Regardless of whether it was his first resort or not, Doc Hopper was ultimately willing to resort to murder to get what he wants. There are criminals in real life who will resort to murder to get what they want as well. And yes, even though it’s a kid's movie, the movie is not afraid to explain this.
• The Wild Thornberrys Movie: As Eliza finds out, while someone may act kind and loving and seem like they are a good person, they can turn out to be a sociopath who is willing to resort to horrible measures to get what they want. Sloan and Bree Blackburn may appear to be animal lovers, but they secretly intend to kill hundreds of elephants for money. And they will threaten the lives of children to get what they want.
• The Disney Animated Canon:
  • Lady Tremaine in Cinderella. She doesn't have any magical powers, not until the third film, but she's never shown as anything less than an unstoppable force. Everything about her abusive treatment of Cinderella or her biological daughters is Played for Drama and paints a disturbingly realistic picture of an abusive parent.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a contender for Disney's darkest film. And it's a film that has no supernatural elements (only some Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane moments). Frollo is a realistic Sinister Minister who has the very real goal of conducting an ethnic purge, unlike his more flamboyant peers among the Disney Villains.
  • Tangled: Mother Gothel (the main villain) is a realistic example of a gaslighter. In order to persuade her to stay in the tower indefinitely, Gothel showers her "adoptive daughter" Rapunzel with gifts and persuades her that the world outside is not one that she would survive in. She also lies about being her birth mother when she truly isn’t. And she also attempts to turn her against Flynn Rider, the first non-Gothel person that Rapunzel has interacted with, as well. And while it isn’t as scary, she manages to manipulate the Stabbington Brothers just as easily.
• Midsommar: The cult in the film isn't some creepy old fashioned prison (well it does get creepy but it's not overly obvious until later in the film). It's a well-adjusted somewhat modern society that encourages others to go into the world (not so that they can escape, so it'll be easier for them to seek out future victims/additions to the cult). Pelle comes off as a completely normal person before the group goes to Sweden. They have some sort of way to connect to people's phones and there's even a throwaway line about the children watching Austin Powers.
  • Even if it's not a cult, there are people who take people who are in a bad place (Dani in this case) and manipulate them into doing something bad and the person is so numb to the pain, they stop seeing it as bad.
• Wendell and Wild: While the movie features actual demons, the true evil in this film is not them, but two corrupt adults who wish to open an inhumane prison that offers no chance of rehabilitation so that they can keep the money rolling in. Such corrupt prisons do in fact exist.
• Everything in Heathers. It's all a disturbingly realistic depiction of your average American high-school. The Alpha Bitches, the Jerk Jocks, the disenfranchised weirdos like J.D. who have nothing left to lose and the people like Veronica; those who can clearly see what's happening but don't have the power to fix the system because far too often when it comes to bullies, Adults Are Useless.
• While it has a fair bit of Magic Realism, Last Night in Soho is ultimately about how the institutionalized misogyny in the entertainment industry can exploit Naive Newcomers whose only "crime" is excepting to be treated with basic human decency. What ultimately drove the murderer to kill so much? She broke emotionally after being pimped out (not metaphorically) one too many times when all she'd wanted was to be a singer.
• Though Donnie Darko has a lot of sci-fi unrealism, people like Kitty Farmer are all too common to find in the real world. An arch-conservative self-elected Culture Police who goes on a crusade against anything she deems "offensive", most often harmless classical literature, in the public school system and harasses those teachers, namely Karen Pomeroy, who encourage said literature that actually allows students to develop. And, like far too many who fit this mould, when push comes to shove, Kitty's morals are only surface level because she willingly goes to bat for a criminal, in this case a pedophile, because he aligns with her myopic worldview in every other way.

Literature

• Coraline: Child predators are known to target children who are unhappy with their lives, and the children the Other Mother targeted matched that description. She made them seem like she was a dream come true for them, as is the case with real world manipulators. And unfortunately for those children, up until Coraline's intervention, they were not able to see their parents again. Especially since she sewed buttons into their eyes.

Live-Action TV

• American Horror Story: Freak Show: While Twisty is scary, people don’t usually expect to meet a Monster Clown in real life. Dandy Mott, however, is a narcissistic serial killer. And people like him do exist in real life. He also demonstrates the horrors of what happens when the authorities accept bribes to look the other way from people like him. Fortunately, the freaks manage to put his reign of terror to an end.
• Criminal Minds is built around this trope, as it features terrifying yet realistic criminals. The Boston Reaper in particular turns out to look like a normal human being underneath his mask. And he's capable of acting like someone who is harmless. Luckily, Agent Hotch manages to figure out the Boston Reaper's true identity before he can hurt anybody else.
• Once Upon a Time: While Peter Pan at least is unable to turn Henry against his family, he nevertheless demonstrates to the audience that it is possible for children to be manipulated into doing what their predators want. And in Henry’s case, he gives up his life to Peter Pan, who never truly cared about him.
• The Children of Liberty in Season 4 of Supergirl. This is not an Alien Invasion or a Monster of the Week that Kara can easily open a can of whoop-ass on. They're just ordinary people who have been radicalized by a few anti-alien voices. When Kara first discovers their setup, one of the radicals is asking how to make a pipe-bomb. For use at an elementary school. The same school that the caller's child goes to, because that's how much she hates aliens existing. It's all disturbingly similar to conservative mom groups in the Southern United States who are doing it "for the children".
• The political strife in The Boys. While the real-world doesn't have evil Supes, all the political strife is Ripped from the Headlines. The fanatical support for Homelander and his supporters' mental gymnastics to excuse or downplay his obvious authoritarianism (and all enabled by those rich enough to profit from it) is all patterned directly after the political strife in the United States at the time of the show's airing.

Radio

• "Clan of the Fiery Cross" in The Adventures of Superman. Superman is not fighting some comic book evil like Darkseid or fending off an Alien Invasion. He's fighting a very transparent expy for the Klu Klux Klan and trying to protect an innocent family of Chinese-Americans feeling the brunt of Yellow Peril in the 1940s. And as the Clan's Grand Mogul says, while the average Clansman may believe in the dogma of racial superiority, those in charge of racist grifts are in it for one reason and one reason only: cash, and stoking up hate and division will always be profitable and allow them to swindle low-information rubes.

Video Games

• Deadeus: If you take out the supernatural parts, you would get a story in which members of community will do anything, including murder, to save themselves from the end of the world, a coffee shop employee who carries out a murder-suicide at her workplace, a prisoner who intends to go on a killing spree the minute he escapes, and a cult that is not only willing to recruit a child as a member, but is also willing to convince the boy that he must jump down a pit and die to save everybody.
• Persona 4: Tohru Adachi might seem like a harmless, bumbling detective at first…but the thing about serial killers is how well they can blend in with society. You can’t tell they’re evil just by looking at them. And it’s understandable that Ryotaro never suspected him even though the culprit was under his nose the whole time.
• Persona 5: Many of the targets the Phantom Thieves go after look like normal people, but they’re committing criminal acts underneath people’s noises. Kamoshida in particular seems to be the hero of his school, but he turns out to be a dangerous sexual predator that threatens to have Joker expelled and sabotaged the lives of both Ryuji and Ann (using her best friend Shiho, in Ann's case). And if the Phantom Thieves hadn't taken action, Shiho might not have been the only person who attempted to commit suicide.
• Shin Megami Tensei V: Just as there are demons who feign kindness to prey on their victims, so too are there humans who do the same. (Aogami is wrong about Amanozako, but such advice shouldn’t be ignored entirely.) Though Lahmu is a literal demon, there are people out there who will manipulate people who are unhappy with their lives into doing what they want, such as high school students who are being bullied. And there are a surprising amount of similarities between Lahmu and a real world online predator. Likewise, while the former is still scarier overall, Sahori (Lahmu’s target) herself shows that people who are being bullied that allow their anger and hatred to boil inside of them can be driven to do horrible things.
• Wardwell House: Disregarding the (possibly) supernatural parts of the story, there is the idea that your spouse or parent could give in to their worst instincts and go so far as to murder you. On top of that, the idea of someone committing murders and never getting caught is something that has happened in real life. In addition, the idea that someone could get lost for over five weeks and end up dehydrated, starving, exhausted and delirious is something that can happen in real life. Not to mention the idea of someone going missing and their loved ones spending decades of lives trying to find that someone.
• Skullgirls: Wanna know how Big Band got to point where he needed an organization to fix him up lest he otherwise be in an iron lung for the rest of life? The very real danger of Police Brutality.
• Dead Rising: As sympathetic as he is, Cliff Hudson tells the audience all too well that participating in war can drive someone insane if they’re exposed to the horror of it for too long.

Web Original

• Helluva Boss: In between the horror being supernatural or being played for laughs, there are some real moments where the horror is more realistic. Stella's abuse of Stolas, Crimson's of Moxxie, and Blitzo's bone shaking mental breakdown and rage-filled tirade at Stolas in Season 2 Episode 8 being prime examples of this.
• Albeit an exaggerated example. In ALTER'S "Kalley's Last Review", several comments have said the scariest thing about this (not that the Facial Horror was slacking), but the fact they can see a down on her luck influencer purposely having a make up malfunction as well as blaming the make-up company for what happened to them. They've also said they can see the influencer milking their injuries for views/likes.

Western Animation

• Batman: The Animated Series: The episode "Mad Love" explains that there are romantic partners that try to make their lovers sympathize with them so they can abuse them later. This is what Batman more or less tells Harley Quinn. Sadly, she does not learn her lesson, since the Joker gives her flowers after he defenestrates her.
• South Park: In order to win at the Handicap Olympics, Jimmy decides to take steroids. The side effects of doing so are made all too clear when he proceeds to beat up his girlfriend and punch his mother.
• Teen Titans: The episode "Spellbound" teaches us that not everyone is who they say they are. Though in Malchior’s case, he lies about who and what he really is. But nevertheless, there are criminals who target people (including teenagers) who are feeling lonely, as is the case of Raven, and manipulate them into doing what they want. And just because someone claims they love you, doesn’t mean they truly love you.
• The Simpsons:
  • "Homer's Triple Bypass". Unlike every other time, Homer's appalling work performance and health is not Played for Laughs. Mr. Burns loathes Homer for his slacking off and Homer's poor eating habits put him in serious danger of cardiac arrest.
  • "Halloween of Horrors", the first canon Halloween episode, this episode is (mostly) realistic with three masked men (three employees Homer accidentally snitched on for stealing) breaking into the Simpson' house while Homer and Lisa are home. Homer spends the whole A-plot trying to get himself and his daughter to safety. However, Lisa leaves Tailee (her implied to be supernatural, hence the mostly part, clutch) in the house and goes to back in the house to get it, much to Homer's chagrin. Unsurprisingly, this leaves them to the masked men's mercy and this forces them to hide in the attic. Lisa tries to reassure herself it isn't real but Homer has to unfortunately tell her that it is. Thankfully, they are able to escape to the roof and get help.
• American Dad!:
  • The Big Bad of "The American Dad After School Special"? Stan developing anorexia. Most of the episode is delivered Through the Eyes of Madness, showing Stan as getting ever fatter when he's in fact downright skeletal. There's no wacky shenanigans. It's just the disturbing mental decline of a loved one and a family doing their best to help.
    • And to drive it home, the episode won American Dad! an Annie Award for its realistic portrayal of such a disease and how it showed that not only teenage girls are at risk.
  • "Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls". While the lead-up is typical American Dad! shenanigans, once the a-plot really starts, Stan, Francine and Roger have to flee from their lives from serial killers. Their Perverse Sexual Lust towards Francine is disturbingly realistic.
  • "Between A Ring And A Hardass" has the Smiths fear that CPS will take Steve away from them. Yes they're unconventional but they're still a loving family who risk losing their son. And then it's compounded by the fact that the inspector was actually Elijah Wood who abducted Steve, meaning they know have no idea where their son is.
• Family Guy:
  • "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q". The episode has less than ten funny moments. And the bad guy isn't some cartoonish villain that Peter can defeat with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown or an inspirational speech. It's Domestic Abuser. There is some Artistic License but it's all too easy to find someone like Jeffery Fecalman.
  • "Quagmire's Quagmire". The Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male) is averted hard. Sonja is a Domestic Abuser whose abduction of Quagmire is played disturbingly seriously to the point of Peter, Joe and Ida having to organize a serious search for Quagmire.
• Amphibia is set in a Fantasy Kitchen Sink but everything about the setting can be found in the real world. The real world may not have Interdimensional Travel Devices but the austerity politics and military-industrial complex that keep alive dreams of colonialism and hegemony that the Core and Atlas embody are all too real.
• The Owl House:
  • Like Amphibia, the setting of the show, the Boiling Isles, is a magical place. But the system that led to it becoming a Crapsaccharine World is all too real. All it takes is one charismatic hatemonger to dupe the low-information citizens with a gaggle of rich citizens smart enough to see what's happening but don't care at all because it lines their pockets.
  • Odalia Blight. She's most openly an abusive parent to Amity but there's no Black Comedy. It's all played straight, showing how much sway she has not over just Amity but the rest of her family. As much as the Blight children want their father to step up and save them, Odalia's sheer force of personality keeps him down and them trapped. And the kicker? Odalia is a Plot Irrelevant Villain, being at best, a way to not resort to Offscreen Villain Dark Matter. That's how toxic people like Odalia are.
  • Emperor Belos. What sort of person could be so hate-filled towards anything and everything other? A puritanical Christian witch hunter from the earliest days of Colonial America. When he found the Boiling Isles, a realm full of self-identified witches, Belos took his mission to its logical conclusion and began devising a Final Solution against what he saw as an unholy "perdition".
• Rick and Morty:
  • King Jellybean's Attempted Rape of Morty in "Meeseeks And Destroy". In a show full of cosmic horrors, King Jellybean is portrayed as a full on Knight of Cerebus and nothing is played for laughs. Even his nature as a jellybean is only done to emphasize how child rapists lull their victim into a false of sense of security. Morty is clearly traumatized by the whole affair.
  • Rick Prime's murder of his wife Diane and all her Alternate Selves. Such was his Awful Wedded Life that he became consumed by jealousy at the idea that alternate counterparts of his were Happily Married and wiped out Diane across realities. It has many shades of a jealous ex murdering their once partner for daring to be happy with someone else.