Nightmare Fuel / The Phantom Menace

"There's Always a Bigger Fish."

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.

The movie

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• The Sea Monsters in the watery core of Naboo, especially the colossal Sando aqua monster. Geez...
• Darth Maul, especially on the Ultimate Edition CD cover.◊ Sweet dreams, everyone.
  • Interestingly, Maul's film appearance was based on his second design, as the original design was deemed too frightening. George Lucas reportedly asked a concept artist to draw their "worst nightmare". The artist showed him this◊, at which point Lucas shuddered and said "Okay, draw your second worst nightmare◊", which is what became Maul.
• Maul's Family-Unfriendly Death. Seriously, that image of him falling down the reactor shaft, his bright eyes and wide-open mouth visible the entire way down. It is made even worse that, as revealed in The Clone Wars, he survives.
• Darth Sidious. Just his very presence is enough to give one the chills. In a stark contrast to his Large Ham performance in Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, Sidious is very serious and no nonsense in this installment, giving the Trade Federation threatening messages and blunt orders of murder and mayhem upon Naboo. His hooded appearance makes it impossible to see the upper proportions of his head, giving the impression of an inhuman Eyeless Face. Not counting his public appearance or his one scene on Coruscant, Sidious only appears as a hologram for the entire movie, almost like a phantom. It becomes even more unnerving when one realizes that the cover identity of Sidious is the Senator of Naboo and newly elected Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, putting the seemingly kind and noble politician's actions under a new dark light.
  • Near the end of the movie, he's impressed by Anakin and seeks to watch closer after his achievements, eventually becoming friends. As we know, that won't end well.
• The battle droid regiment activating for the final battle. After the signal, there is a spooky echoing three-note tune, and then thousands of SkeleBot 9000's stand up as one, staring at the camera with their skull-like faces. Of course, being B1's, they don't last long.
  • When the battle droids begin marching towards the Gungans, you realize exactly why professional armies run marching drills: All those hundreds or even thousands of feet rising and meeting the ground in perfect unison gives you an idea of just how massive the Trade Federation's army is, even though only a few of the droids are in view at the time, and it'd be downright frightening if you were standing on the other side of the field from them. Stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp comes your doom.
    • To quote General Tarpals: "Ouch time..."
  • Not to mention that the droids show no fear or hesitation, calmly marching to close the distance between them and the Gungan shield even as their ranks are decimated by volleys of energy grenades (which take them out individually) and larger projectiles (which take out entire ranks of droids). Where organic troops might waver or seek cover, the droids simply close ranks and press the attack, allowing themselves to overwhelm the Gungans within minutes despite fierce resistance.
    • From a YouTube comment about the droids engaging the Gungans:
      "The prequels get a lot of shit, but people seem to forgot how scary the droid army really was. Here's a force of identical, emotionless soldiers, who probably outnumber you (likely by several times over), which does exactly two things. They march. They shoot. And they keep marching and shooting, no matter how many you take down, no matter if the soldier next to them gets messily blown up. They march and shoot, until they (or you) are no more. Give them self-repair capability, and they're practically Necrons."
  • Digging into the Fridge makes the battle droids more nightmarish In-Universe. The novelization introduces Jar Jar with a chapter following him, instead of Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan (in proper English, thankfully). He's walking in the forests of Naboo, contemplating his life, when he starts hearing noises unlike anything he's heard before. Suddenly, he's being shot at by what looks like a skeleton, flying swiftly on a strange platform...
    • The droids look markedly like Gungan skeletons, of all things.
• Sidious's answer to Nute Gunray's request regarding the Gungan Army amassing near the swamps:
  Sidious: Wipe them out. All of them.
• Mos Espa is not a friendly place in general, but the podraces are downright terrifying. The track sends racers through a series of tunnels shaped from jagged rocks, and racers are encouraged not just to outrun opponents, but force them to crash in a fiery death. At least one of the racers is a child slave who is made to participate by his owner, begging the question of just how many participants aren't racing of their own free will. Making things all the more creepy is the completely jovial crowd, sitting in the stands, eager for the excitement of seeing their fellow citizens blown to bits.
• One at the credits that doubles as foreshadowing. They reach the end, all is well and good, but then... Hooooooohhhhh... Khhhuuuuuuhhhh... Hooooooohhhhh... Khhhuuuuuuhhhh... in part due to it happening at such a quiet and mundane moment, and due to how unexpected it is.
  • A fan took it a step further and replaced the Vader Breath with a snippet of one of the pieces of dialogue that Maul has in The Clone Wars, with an echo filter applied. Not only is it terrifying, but it also implies Maul survived. Which, as it turns out, he did.
    Maul: Revenge... I must have revenge...
  • Even before the Vader Breath kicks in, the way Anakin's Theme (which is the last piece of music to play over the credits) gradually morphs into a slowed-down rendition of the Imperial March is highly disconcerting, especially since the change in music is done so slowly that you almost don't realise what the new tune is until the very end when the most famous part of the leitmotif kicks in. And then you get the sound of the breathing...
• Yes, there's a bit of Nightmare Fuel in the music in the ending scene, which is supposed to be that of a great celebration. Why is that? Because the ending theme is that of Palpatine's, albeit cheery and light-hearted. It's rather chilling, to see children laughing and cheering to what is ultimately, the theme of the one who would become the galaxy's greatest oppressor.

The tie-in game

• Captain Neg's monster, which has incredibly large and sharp teeth and claws, along with blank yellow eyes. Since it's fought as a boss, it also takes a while to defeat, and during this time can approach the player very quickly to attack.
• Jabba the Hutt's champion, a giant green muscular alien with piercing eyes and skulls attached to its belt, who carries a wooden stake. Like Neg's monster, it is fought as a boss who can approach the player quickly, and can also pull spikes from the wall and throw them.

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