http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/RebuildofEvangelion

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

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And you thought Giant Rei was scary in the original.

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It wouldn't be Eva without an appropriate amount of this. Frankly, this time it gets really horrifying and especially when the Angels are involved.

Note that ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED to prevent a wall of white. Consider yourself warned.

Examples

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You Are (Not) Alone

First and foremost, Lilith. She is scarier than the original . Its worse when you realize the little things protruding from Lilith's lower area look like human legs. They even shake around a bit. Oh, and those red lights in the holes of her mask aren't eyes, they're giant bolts the SEELE ordered to drill into her skull.

. Its worse when you realize the little things protruding from Lilith's lower area look like human legs. They even shake around a bit. Oh, and those red lights in the holes of her mask aren't eyes, they're giant bolts the SEELE ordered to drill into her skull. This ◊ version of the deformed Rei in Rebuild. It does not help matters that it brings back memories of End of Evangelion.

version of the deformed Rei in Rebuild. It does not help matters that it brings back memories of End of Evangelion. The first quarter of the movie copies the first few episodes of the original series nearly scene-for-scene, and it's all very familiar... until the Sixth Angel, Ramiel, shows up. Like before, it tries to melt EVA Unit-01's face off with its laser. However, we see that while the officers are discussing a change of tactics, Shinji is continuously screaming in pain because Ramiel's laser is still boiling him alive . And the fact that he begs Gendou to rescue him while said 'father' continues giving orders coldly, completely ignores him and is actually the one responsible for this — almost as if he were torturing him to death. Ramiel in this movie is redesigned, and now it's this morphing, singing monstrosity that screams inhumanly whenever its about to fire its Wave-Motion Gun. And when it gets hit by Positron Cannon? Screams as loud as it possibly can as it shifts into a star-burst pattern, and lets hundreds of gallons of blood. Then it reveals that it is not dead yet, charges up another shot, and melt through a mountain.

. And the fact that he begs Gendou to rescue him while said 'father' continues giving orders coldly, completely ignores him and is actually the one responsible for this — almost as if he were torturing him to death.

You Can (Not) Advance

You Can (Not) Redo

3.33 DVD starts off with... a Studio Ghibli production?! And it's live-action?! And before your mind can fully comprehend the weirdness, you get a narration from someone who sounds suspiciously like Megumi Hayashibara about life in Tokyo until a humanoid giant suddenly appears over Tokyo. The people don't even scream at first as the giant lands and begins to walk around curiously, before opening its many-toothed mouth and shooting laser blasts that level Tokyo to the ground in seconds. Supposedly this is a Kyoshinhei from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (which was animated by none other than Hideaki Anno), but the design, the gangly arms, the slouching walk, the shape of the head, the teeth, the eyes, the wings, and the spears, it looks horrifyingly like an Angel. And just when you start to think that the giant might be Adam, more of these things fall from the sky and annihilate the planet, as the narrator talks about how God created the world in seven days, and how it might just be ended in that amount of time, and if there is another world where she might have escaped the apocalypse. Was this what happened during the third impact? Did we just see an Alternate Universe where the Angels were terrifyingly efficient? Was this completely unrelated to the Evangelion franchise? Or did Hideaki Anno once again troll the fans with a 'Live Action' Evangelion adaptation? Thankfully, it's been confirmed that it's actually a preview for a movie directed by Studio Ghibli and Hideaki Anno called "God Warrior Appears In Tokyo". Doesn't stop it from being terrifying, however, and sets the tone of the movie...

When Shinji is retrieved from Eva-01, the way they refer to him first is as "Test Subject BM-03", he is no longer considered as a human being. That's not quite the case. They call him BM-03 because they're not sure if he really is Shinji or human at all. They stop that once Ritsuko confirms his identity, but it's nightmare fuel on its own because it suggests they may have retrieved other things from Unit 01 beforehand that were not. Although even after Ritsuko confirms his identity, Sakura stills refer to him as "Test Subject BM-03, Tentative Name: Ikari Shinji", meaning that even then, they're at best giving him a tenuous benefit of the doubt.

There are two separate incidents where an Eva pilot's synchro rate goes too high, followed by Ritsuko proclaiming that they need to remove the pilot immediately, because if they remain in that state, they won't be human anymore. Well, we get to see just what it means in this movie...they will get stuck in 14-year old bodies. It's an unnatural, physical, irreversible consequence of them tampering with Gods, they're never gonna find partners, and then there's the factor of what this means for their mental states and developement.

Shinji's situation in the third movie. Imagine waking up to find that everyone in the world, including the closest thing you had to a parent, hates you. It gets WORSE.

When Shinji looks at the new world, we can see a vast fissure that's lined with enormous red human teeth, going on for miles. No, it's not just a case of a certain infamous male fear, it's the fact that this fissure is apparently large enough to be visible from space. That's right, Third Impact gave Earth a fucking mouth. And it's implied that this is just the beginning. Just what will the planet look like when it's finished? Do we even want to know? There's a very good hint in the previous film. Pay attention to Unit 01's mouth when it Awakens at the end of 2.22. Do those teeth look familiar?

teeth, going on for miles. No, it's not just a case of a certain infamous male fear, it's the fact that this fissure is apparently large enough to be visible from space. That's right, Third Impact gave Earth a fucking mouth. And it's implied that this is just the beginning. Just what will the planet look like when it's finished? Do we even want to know? The mere possibility of Fourth Impact .

. The scene where Shinji and Fuyutsuki are playing Shogi in a pitch black room. From a psychological standpoint, the multiple revelations Fuyutsuki gives Shinji, including a brief shot of an angelic-looking Yui with tubes coming out of her, is bad enough. Then he turns the lights in the room on. What do we see? Dozens of severed Rei heads lined up on the wall behind him.

Shinji's mental breakdown about two-thirds into 3.0 is terrifying. One dreads to think of what it was like seeing it in a theater - the background is rendered in an Uncanny Valley-inducing, realistic way. The background starts to sway and spin dizzily as Shinji sways uneasily in time with it, his pupils vanishing. The scene then Jump Cuts to Shinji alone in his room. The reason for his breakdown? He finds out that most of humanity died due to Shinji's actions at the end of 2.0. The Rei that Shinji came to know and care about, the one he saved? She isn't in the movie. As far as Shinji can tell, she doesn't exist anymore. He accidentally destroyed the world, and the person he did it to save doesn't even exist. And walking around, wearing her face but having none of her identity or personality, is her clone. It's harder to say if Shinji or the audience found this more horrifying.

When Shinji and Kaworu descend to Terminal Dogma, we see that countless gaping skulls cover the floor now. And let's not even get into Lilith's decayed husk..

Asuka and Kaworu begging Shinji not to release the spears and him doing it anyway. Its what triggers the Fourth Impact, by the way.

Unit-13's transformation into the instigator of Fourth Impact. Which has the Twelfth Angel be a giant creepy Rei head before turning completely into a core that Unit-13 devours. It doesnt help that he giant core is lined with small pulsating Rei heads.

The giant, decaying Rei's head in the NERV headquarters and the further Body Horror it goes through as the Fourth Impact starts.

The so-called failed moments/aspects (depending on translation) of infinity. Yes, they're giant, and they look like EVA, but they're indistinct. Mass-Produced EVA? A strong possibility, but there are thousands, if not *millions* of them, forming spires and city-blanketing masses. NERV and SEELE never had those resources, especially not post-third-impact. You know what there were millions of? People. Who aren't around any more. Then, FOURTH Impact starts, and the shapes begin getting blown around in the wind/wonky gravity, and they're noticeably less like EVA...

Kaworu unfortunately has to sacrifice himself to stop Fourth Impact. How does he die? He explodes. Right in front of Shinji, and bits of him and blood are plastered on the walls of the double entry plug. Try to imagine yourself as Shinji, unable to act, watching as your friend just blows up in front of you. Seconds before Kaworu's collar explodes, you can briefly see his skin ripple.

At the climax of Fourth Impact we are treated to an unimpeded view of the tear in the fabric of reality that is the Door of Guf. Floating in the black void beyond, there is what looks like a glowing black hole speared by six long tesseracts slowly being pulled towards the Door of Guf. We see the object looming ever closer as the portal closes. What the hell was that thing? Even scarier, what would have happened if it had reached Earth?

The landscape after the Fourth Impacts been stopped. Look at the red parts very closely. There's a pattern swirling around beneath the surface. The same one associated with cores, as a matter of fact. Everything has been turned into core material! Unit-13 starts turning Unit-08's arms into core as well.

If you thought Shinji's situation was already horrible by the end of this movie, then what awaits for him in the next. Not only did he lose his very last friend in a rather gruesome way, he's already tormented by the guilt of killing the whole world and nearly repeating the deed and most of the people that remain are shown to have a strong hatred or grudge at him.

Oh, and most importantly, the possibility of Fifth Impact; a.k.a. FINAL IMPACT .

Impact; a.k.a. . This trailer for 3.0. Including of Let's Get Dangerous! look from Kaworu and some horrifying destructive shots of Unit-02.

for 3.0. Including of Let's Get Dangerous! look from Kaworu and some horrifying destructive shots of Unit-02. In a recent interview, Anno revealed that humanity's population after Third Impact was around ten million. Shinji's actions in 3.33 reduced that to mere thousands and destroyed what was left of the biosphere, meaning that humanity is now at serious risk of going extinct . All because Shinji decided to screw inaction in direct defiance of his characterization in the original series. He just can't catch a break, can he?

. All because Shinji decided to screw inaction in direct defiance of his characterization in the original series. He just can't catch a break, can he? Even after the sheer devastation engulfing the entire Earth, Gendo stays mostly the same as he was or perhaps even colder... Worse still, we don't see his eyes anymore. He now wears a visor instead of shades. He has become Keel Lorenz. NERV, now a shell of its former self, is still capable of producing an EVA that can easily toss EVA-00 and EVA-02 around. Think about that.

The "Curse of the EVAs". While we have no clue about the specifics, we can safely assume that a combination of being EVA pilots and the Third Impact has really screwed over Asuka, Mari, and Shinji(?). They're permanently stuck as young teenagers. They'll never finish maturing physically or mentally and it's possible they're functionally immortal. And the real kicker is how Asuka refers to humans as the Lilim, implying that they're no longer human, or at least that she no longer views them as such..