Why So Scary? - Weeping Angels

[Foxy Boxes]

Weeping Angels. From Doctor Who. They scare me. They are practically the only thing I have observed in an art/media form that has scared me. And I mean seriously scared me. When "Blink" came out I was going to a school that happened to have an attached old Gregorian monastery. Statues everywhere. Of course, "Forest of Angels" ruined their scariness with the retcon from "Quantum Locked" where they where always stone when observed to only being stone when they think they're observed.

Now what brings this on now you ask? Fanfiction. They scared me enough that merely reading about them in an, albeit well written, Fanfiction still causes residual fear. But why? That is my question. Why are the Weeping Angels so scary?

EDIT: I mean real scary. As in I-Am-Now-Checking-Everywhere-Paranoid scary.

[Utterbob]

Well they are symbols of power, Gods rights hand and all that, though I'm not going to go into the various sources and/or religions they originate from. Whatever the source they are supernatural beings, inherently therefore, more powerful than us and they are typically on the side of 'good'.

If something makes a being like that weep, what chance have us mere mortals got?

That’s a very general (and brief) idea of where the use of them as a symbol of fear in media comes from and maybe that's also some of the effect it has on you but in your case it sounds more like they are triggering a memory of fear, some sort of very strong emotional reaction in the past that the symbolism is simply a reminder of. I don't want to go far into that as I will rapidly enter talking-out-of-my-arse territory since I'm not qualified in anything in the area of psychiatry.

Interesting though! Good luck finding a way to deal with it, can't be a nice thing feeling to have.

[MoRmEnGiL]

It's the primal fear of the unknown, it is a basic human instinct to be afraid of things happening outside of your sphere of awareness, especially if there is a vague hint of aggression and danger..

[SterlingRed]

Because the episodes of doctor who with weeping angels are brilliantly directed and shot in a terrifying way. Sometimes doctor who can have a bit of a cheese factor. But the weeping angels were done so well the viewer actually feels terrified. Its an amazing example of good directing and story telling.
And yes, I now find statutes of angels creepy and terrifying.

[The Lord of Brick]

They're coming for youuuuuu...

[DaveYanakov]

It is because the source of your fear is literally unknowable. Horror is always more effective when it is unknown and unexplained. Add to that the very primal fear of being stalked by something that intends to eat you and you're going to shit your pants. Think that you're being hunted, look around and see nothing that could be a threat while you still feel like you're being hunted? That's going to stick with you until you figure it out.

Most superstitions follow from this same instinct. Making these sorts of logical leaps served us very well in situations where a sound in the trees may have been just the wind or may have been a leopard. If you run and it's the wind, you look silly but if you don't and it was the leopard, you're dinner. Evolution has resulted in a species that is very good at looking foolish rather than being dead.

[dawnraider]

I completely agree with the OP. On the night that I saw Blink I did not sleep for fear of closing my eyes. I am still scared when I watch that episode. I believe that that fear comes from knowing that it will attack you if and only if you are not looking, which makes you want to pay attention to everything and makes you paranoid of everything you see, and especially of what you don't see. Not to mention that I would be pretty terrified if I looked at a statue, then blinked, and it was looming over me, sharp fangs bared and clawed fingers ready to kill me by making me live to death.

[Locke]

Indeed, I think a big part of it though is the idea that the darkness is dangerous, it plays off the classic fear we sight-based beings have, not being able to see.

Also some of us are scared due to being Satan. No names.

Edit: stupid mouse side pad thing...

[Andellmere]

This reminds me of a story:

Shortly after a friend of mine showed me the Weeping Angels episodes, I was on the phone with another friend(Telling her about the Angels, as a matter of fact) when she came home to an unlocked door and an empty house. Naturally, this made us both rather nervous. She entered her house ready for anything, save for what she found. There were angelic statues in her house. A lot of angelic statues.
This is where I begin to panic, folks.
I immediately told her to back (Not turn around! NEVER turn away!) out of that room and flee her home for her car and drive away. She listened and got to the car, only to discover that she'd left her keys inside. This made me curse, for obvious reasons. So, there we were, me listening to my friend as she faced down a house full of mysteriously appearing angels and her family being missing. And then the call dropped. And I couldn't get her to answer. I flipped the fuck out and was about five minutes from stealing the family car to check on her when she finally called back.

Turns out her family left to pick something up and the statues were from a local statuary. But goddamn, they did a good job with those episodes if it left someone who had only heard of them just as scared of the Angels as those of us who watched them.

As to the OP: They are terrifying for all the reasons that people mention. But one no one has mentioned is this: If a bear attacks you, you have a chance. If a panther sneaks up on you, you have a chance. If a serial killer tries to kill you, you have a chance. If a Weeping Angel attacks you, you have no chance. It will find you, it will get you, and you will feed it. Period. End of Story. That is why they terrify us so much. We know that we cannot win against them.

[Shengji]

This reminds me of a story:

Your story reminds me of a story,

I was watching poltergeist for the first time and honestly, it wasn't that scary. Still, the music swelled, the climax of the action approached, things started flying around the room then just as you see the poltergeist for the first time, my tv turned itself off!

Turned out it had a habit of overheating and that was what had happened, but I did not know that at the time, I was somewhat perturbed!