Imagine being in a situation like this....
- Although Gilliam has expressed dissatisfaction with the fight scenes, Sam facing the huge samurai in his dreams is still pretty unnerving. Especially due to how that 10 feet tall nightmare giant can disappear and Jump Scare right next to you all while being a Screaming Warrior who makes all sorts of inhuman and piercing screeches.
- Torture with a scalpel and electric saw, by someone wearing a baby-face mask. Especially if that man in the baby mask happens to be one of your closest friends, who is apathetic to your pain simply because he is doing his job.
- Speaking of baby-face, what is up with those hunchbacked creatures in Sam's dreams? They appear again once Sam gets arrested and interrogated, with one of them getting its face all up in the camera. Not too long after, when Jack walks towards Sam in the torture chamber, he stops and looks around after turning to stare directly at us (pictured at the top of the page), giving an unsettling The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You effect.
- The heavily dystopian future depicted in the film overall. The sheer Paranoia Fuel that one must face having to live in this world is pretty frightening, with something as small as a bug falling into a typewriter determining whether you are going to die or not.
- Jack Lint in general, simply because he's a Punch-Clock Villain who sees torture as just part of his job. Casual, systematic evil can be far more disturbing than being straight-up cackling evil.
- Michael Palin is considered the 'nicest' Python, is described by many women (and men) as "cute", and in general is considered one of the most pleasant people in the world. Say, you know what sounds like fun? Watching him get his face blown off.
- Mrs. Buttle, still living in the utter wreck of an apartment that the SWAT raid of the prologue left behind, completely torn to pieces from the shock and in tears:What have you done with his body? He was good! What have you done with his boooooddddyyyyyy!
- In the aftermath of Mrs. Buttle's husband being taken for no apparent rhyme or reason she's gone catatonic, her son has become psychotic and her daughter has gone to some kind of Happy Place and is constantly waiting for her father to come back... which he won't because he's been tortured to death and his body destroyed. One of Sam's nightmares includes flashing back to Mrs. Buttle's screaming. And the truly scary part? This kind of collateral damage happens all the time and nobody gives a damn because of apathy, stupidity, or worse yet, the (pretty unfortunately well-founded) fear that if they try to protest they will be labeled "terrorists" and dragged off to Information Retrieval themselves.
- Mr. Kurtzmann manifesting himself in Sam's dreams as a Humanoid Abomination fused to the brick floor, like some sort of twisted Ben Grimm done in the style of The Wall, who grabs him by the legs with Creepily Long Arms telling him not to go in a Dissonant Serenity tone.
- Lint's personal secretary, who casually and cheerfully transcribes verbatim the statements of the people Lint tortures as she hears them, including their agonized shrieks.
- Alma Terrain's addiction to plastic surgery is shown to have liquified her body when Sam knocks over her casket in the funeral scene.
