I've always thought about the difference between Trolls and Humans when it comes to their culture, and more specifically, I have thought about how Humans have made monsters in horror films specifically based around fears that we have as a species, or used to have, because they're common fears in nature.
For example, Zombies in modern media, while they do not originate from nature or whatever, are heavily modeled after the idea of things like Rabies and illnesses that completely take control of the body and force you to do things you wouldn't want to do at all. It plays into a very human fear that lies in actual nature, and we have just made it into something different and removed from what those illnesses do to people.
So, is there something similar but for Trolls? I have always wondered if Troll monsters are more akin to just monsters that can't be controlled. I would imagine that if Trolls are a bug-like species that have grown to be used to working as a team, a natural fear would be some other alien creature that causes chaos in a way that disrupts everything they've ever known. Which, IMO, is kind of showcased in the comic with the fact that the Horrorterrors, while not widely known about, are still terrifying for the average troll because it's a big scary monster that's so much larger and powerful than they are.
I imagine Monster movies like Godzilla would be scary to a Troll, whereas for Humans, kaiju movies aren't exactly "horror" because Humans are kind of used to fighting off larger beasts that are far deadlier than they are (that, and Kaiju movies were more or less stand-ins for environmental horror or man-made catastrophes. The fear is less "holy shit big lizard" and more so "holy shit humans MADE that big lizard". It is other monsters like a Xenomorph that can camouflage that scare humans, or the Predator from Aliens that is smarter than it appears to be, with bloodlust.
What other kind of Monsters do you think Trolls would be afraid of? Do you think they'd have different ideas on what constitutes as actually scary or not? Would some things only be scary for Trolls of certain castes too which is also an interesting topic.
Ooooohh, that's a really interesting topic! I do quite like the idea of more action/camp/symbolic monsters being more straight-up scary to trolls than humans.
To expand on that, while lusii can be pretty terrifying, they are in an overall comforting and positive relationship with trolls -- I may be forgetting something, but do trolls have to deal with *any* openly hostile fauna other than the occasional wild or rampaging lusus? So, yeah, a giant rampaging lizard bent on destruction that has no familial instincts towards them whatsoever would probably be pretty terrifying!
And considering how horror often revolves around the things that make us (un)comfortable, and how much trolls care about and trust their lusii, I imagine that "suddenly violent lusus" of various origins would be a common start for troll horror.
The only other thing that comes to mind immediately is that your typical Scary Murderer Films would be common horror for highbloods. While violence is an accepted part of Alternian society, those higher up on the hemospectrum generally enjoy a sense of safety. We do see lowbloods killing highbloods, but it's not as common and certainly not as legal, and most highbloods can rest at least a little easy in their physical capabilities and social status protecting them from random murder (most of the time).
So, again with the horror-reflecting-our-discomfort thing, I'd reckon that there'd be a lot of low-budget thoroughly classist horror flicks that boil down to "lowblood/person outside the hemospectrum who's unnaturally strong going around killing highbloods for sport/revenge/whatever". Exposing them to a theoretical situation out of their control where the things that normally allow them to protect themselves suddenly fail... a quick recipe for horror! For the same reason, I imagine zombie movies or something similar would be as popular with trolls as with humans. Probably even more popular, actually, as societal collapse would be a much more potent threat!
Oh yeah. And rainbow drinkers. Those guys too.
iirc trolls do have a zombie equivalent! shadow droppers... we dont know much about them but kanaya mentions them in a similar vein as rainbow drinkers. they come out of the sand during the day to eat trolls which is why kanaya has a chainsaw, to fight them off. i think they're kinda buggy though as opposed to like, normal trolls. or. well. More buggy comparatively.
i dont remember what they were called but there are the monsters that are like daylight zombies mentioned in the comic
when kanaya was talking about rainbow drinkers with rose i believe
i could also imagine a troll horror movie about grubsauce being not fully processed and little grubs clawing their way outside of you?
idk if hemospectrum stuff would be that used in trollian horror, tho i could see that in the way that id think there are two distinct strains of horror on alternia one from highbloods as an actual studio production and one from lowbloods as more of an indie thing
bc iirc karkat had mentioned that troll movies are a high art but ie the thresh prince is more of a looked down on thing (tho it might just have been that its a tv show instead of a movie)
i think cosmic horror still works either way since the horrorterrors are an everpresent threat
the only question is whether the respective empress would allow them to exist
also im not quite sure but i think the apocalypse buff thing was mentioned to eb a "strange pasttime"? so maybe apocalypse stuff is still a thing for horror its just that our specific trolls are v chill about that specific topic
