Generative Horror

Introduction

For some Spooky Day delight, I decided to try and create some terrifying images.

Now, it's worth noting that tools like MidJourney and DALL-E purposely make it difficult to generate anything triggering for those with traumatic experiences. There are lots of things like gore and violence we just can't generate using standard language. As a result, you can rest assured this post won't have anything that would break those filters.

However, that doesn't mean we can't make things that are spooky, scary, or disquieting. We can do all of those and more.

TL;DR

In this post, I'll share some of the thousand-plus images I generated for Halloween, along with the prompts used to create them in MidJourney.

Images & Prompts

In this post, I will run through various images using a scale from least to most graphic. The scale is as follows:

• Rated E - For Everyone
• Rated G - For General Audiences
• Rated PG - Parental Guidance Warranted
• Rated PG-13 - Parental Guidance Warranted (13 and Under)
• Rated R - Restricted Audiences

Check the last section of the post for more lighthearted Halloween images of costumed children and other festive images.

Rated E - For Everyone

To start, let's look at some images that won't make it into the SAW movies. Something playful or spooky but not frightening.

Rated G - For General Audiences

The following images represent the deformation of beloved children's experiences. Staples of childhood, such as LEGO, dolls like Rainbow Brite, or cartoons like My Little Pony, can be turned into spooky or creepy equivalents.

Rated PG - Parental Guidance Warranted

I continue to adulterate well-known properties in this PG section. I particularly like the results for the Darkwing Duck and Batman images here.

Rated PG-13 - Parental Guidance Warranted (13 and Under)

PG and PG-13 are an odd balance. A few of these could fit into the PG category, I think, because they're not overwhelmingly fear-inducing. Still, all these are scarier than those that landed in the PG category.

The following images of Smurfs, a cartoon from my childhood, would fit in the PG-13 realm for how creepy they look compared to their usual selves.

Rated R - Restricted Audiences

The following images are the scariest I think I've generated this Halloween. Do let me know in the comments or via LinkedIn comments if you agree.

General Halloween Fun

The images above are from general Halloween topics I prompted in MidJourney this year. I'm not providing the prompts here, but you're more than welcome to request the prompts for any image you like in the comments.

Conclusion

You can tell I relied on one or two main prompts for the images that made the cut for this post, and I mostly enjoyed small tweaks to a standard prompt to get some very creepy results.

I generated literally over 1100 images for this Halloween. Not all were intended for this post. Many were part of MidJourney community festivities, including the Sunday Prompt Battle event.

I enjoyed stepping out of my lighter fare for a few days and playing with more torrid and unfriendly imagery.

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