The Enigma of Amigara Fault
A short horror manga by Junji Ito, located in the back of the second volume of his fish-zombie-apocalypse book Gyo. A boy (Owaki) and a girl (Yoshida) meet on Amigara Mountain, where an unsettling discovery has been made. Human shaped holes are scattered across the mountain, and it soon becomes clear that the holes are "calling" to the people they are shaped like. So what happens when they enter the hole? Well, you can be sure that massive amounts of Claustrophobia and Nightmare Fuel are involved. Can be read here.
Should it seriously disturb you, counter with liberal application of this comic, or this one, or this one, or this one., or possibly even this one, this one, or this one. There's also a dramatic reading.
- And I Must Scream
- Body Horror
- Catapult Nightmare: Provides the trope page image.
- Claustrophobia: You will have it by the end of the story.
- Daylight Horror: Most of the creepy stuff happens at daytime.
- Dreaming of Things to Come
- Dying Like Animals
- Fate Worse Than Death
- Noodle People: Literally - when people enter "their" hole, they are stretched in every direction until their limbs are thin like tentacles, yet are still alive.
- Oh Crap: The ending.
- Primal Fear: This manages to hit isolation, darkness, the unknown, claustrophobia, and body horror all in one fell swoop.
- Schmuck Bait: A prime in-universe example.
- Shown Their Work: As per the dream, there were people in Japan as early as 50,000 BC. They also developed stone-carving technology remarkably early.
- Token Romance: It was really unnecessary for Owaki and Yoshida to get together. It happened so that we'd get a giant Hope Spot, before things get worse.
"It's slowly coming this way!!" DRR... DRR... DRR...