Fears to Fathom - TV Tropes

• Anachronism Stew: Even though most of the stories are set in the early 2000s, the developer makes no attempt to convey the technology or culture of the time other than having CRT monitors.
• Arc Villain: All of the episodes have at least one antagonist unique to their respective plots, and are some form of intruder or stalker.
  • Home Alone - The Intruder.
  • Norwood Hitchhike - The Stalkers.
  • Carson House - Cara.
  • Ironbark Lookout - The Cult.
  • Woodbury Getaway - The Rick Impostor.
• Cower Power: Each protagonist has to hide for a time before escaping danger to conclude the story. What makes it challenging is that they mustn't make noise to attract attention to their whereabouts; the game can also pick up noise coming from the player's microphone while hiding.
  • Miles in Home Alone has to hide in his room from an intruder until the police arrive on the scene.
  • Holly in Norwood Hitchhike hides in the motel closet while the intruder looks for her before the owner intervenes.
  • Noah in Carson House hides in the laundry room until Cara has moved elsewhere, giving him a chance to escape and call for help.
  • Jack in Ironbark Lookout hides under his bed then in the outhouse from the cultists before running for the park entrance.
  • Sydney in Woodbury Getaway has to hide from the guy who isn't Rick.
• First-Person Perspective: Each story told in Fears to Fathom is played in first-person from the viewpoint of the protagonist.
• Foregone Conclusion: Given that each story is narrated by the episode's protagonist, we know that they will all survive their horrifying ordeals to tell the tale (the player can still get game-overs if they make the wrong decisions, but this just takes them back to their previous save point).
• Genre Anthology: All of the episodes are self-contained horror stories with no shared characters; the main theme found in each episode is that the stories are ostensibly true tales of people who narrowly survived horrifying encounters.
• Good Samaritan: The games have opportunities for the protagonist to show concern and kindness.
  • The neighbor in Home Alone warns Miles of the strange man at his front door, notifies his parents, and goes over to check on him while the police search the house.
  • In Norwood Hitchhike Holly gets a ride to a motel from a relative stranger and repeated assistance from the desk clerk.
  • Noah in Carson House can help an elderly woman find an item at the grocery store.
  • Sydney in Woodbury Getaway can feed a stray cat. However, there's also an aversion: regardless of whether you try to be nice to the hitchhiker, Mike won't let you help the man.
• Meaningful Background Event: It is possible to see the stalker in each episode shadowing the protagonist in the background long before they make their presence known at the climax, which an attentive player can spot.
• Oh, Crap!: When the episode's protagonist realizes that the antagonist is creeping near or forced to confront them.
  • Miles when his mom sends a photo of the intruder stalking around the house, later when he hears the intruder breaking in, and then slowly creeping out of his parent's room.
  • Holly when one of the stalkers becomes hostile and tries to break down the door to her motel room.
  • Noah when he sees his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend wandering around the Carson house with a knife on camera.
  • Jack when one of the cultists runs up to the watchtower after he takes a photograph of their activities.
  • Sydney when she finds out the man she thought was Rick turned out to be a squatter posing as him and has an obsession with the rental house.
• Sequel Escalation: Both in runtime and each game's threat. The first game sees you playing a boy home alone for the night, who has to deal with an intruder. By the fourth episode, you play as a fire watchman who spends several days in the woods as things get increasingly creepy, culminating in him facing off against a cult who may be responsible for numerous disappearances. The fifth episode does dial things back a bit, having a comparatively more mundane threat compared to the fourth.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: All the plots are based upon supposedly true stories submitted to the developers. Although some details are altered or embellished so the stories can be fitted into a video game format and we can't be certain how accurate they are, for the most part, the plots feature fairly plausible scenarios, with the threats coming from dangerous people rather than anything supernatural.

14-year-old Miles' parents leave town for a work trip, trusting him to stay home alone for the night. However, Miles quickly finds himself in over his head when a stranger begins creeping around the house.

• Big Damn Heroes: Mrs. Paula, Miles’s neighbor. She noticed someone outside of his house and alerted his mother before calling the police. Her going over to the house scares the intruder away.
• Dramatic Irony: The player will become aware of the intruder long before Miles does, which is used to enhance the horror. A keen-eyed player can spot the intruder sneaking upstairs in the background while Miles is eating lasagna on the living room couch. Since Miles doesn't know of the danger, he has no reason to be afraid and the player has no choice but to go upstairs for the story to continue.
• Evil Old Folks: While the intruder is covered in shadows, his model is known as "Grandpa" in the files.
• Imminent Danger Clue: A stranger is seen walking around the front of the house before disappearing. Said stranger would later break into the house when it gets dark, even try to trick Miles into opening the door.
• Sleepyhead: Discussed by Miles. He admits at the time the story takes place, his sleep hours became irregular but he was trying to fix that.
• Unseen Evil: The intruder is never fully seen, as he's always depicted in shadow, and his sinister intentions are also never fully defined. Miles can catch one glimpse of the intruder's face toward the end.
• Would Hurt a Child: Should Miles attempt to escape down the stairs, the stranger will catch him and likely kill him.

19-year-old Holly Gardner is driving back to her home state after visiting a gaming convention. To avoid bad traffic on the interstate, Holly travels along a backroad in the rural Norwood Valley, only for her car to break down. Forced to spend the night at a shady motel, Holly soon realizes that car troubles are the least of her problems.

• Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: Invoked in-universe. The cashier warns Holly not to pick up anyone because the area has the ghost of a teenage girl who died on her prom night.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: While it's not immediately obvious and can be easily missed, it turns out that Holly actually has two stalkers menacing her: a Caucasian man wearing a white shirt, and an African-American man wearing a gray hoodie, both of whom are trailing Holly with their white van. The man wearing the gray hoodie is the one who sabotages the tires on Holly's car so that it breaks down later, and is the tenant occupying Room 4 at the motel who presumably sets up the spiked coffee machine that incapacitates Holly before removing it. The white-shirted man is the primary aggressor who sneaks into the closet in Holly's motel room while she's knocked out, and later tries to trick Holly into opening the door before busting in, forcing Holly to hide from him until Joe intervenes.
• Big Damn Heroes: The motel owner, who manages to intercept the intruder trying to come after Holly.
• Closet Shuffle: When one of Holly’s stalkers tries to abduct her, she’s forced to hide in her motel’s closet until Joe shows up.
• Impairment Shot: This effect happens after Holly drinks a coffee from the vending machine. She initially chalks it up to exhaustion, but later believes her coffee was deliberately drugged.
• Inn of No Return: It's implied by Holly that unknown people use the motel as a hunting ground for potential victims, and the owner is terrified of them.
• It Was Here, I Swear!: When Holly leads the motel owner to the vending machine where she got the spiked coffee, she is alarmed to find the machine is not there.
• Karma Houdini: Holly states in her ending narration that the motel manager wanted to avoid getting the police involved and let go of the situation, which means that her stalker ultimately got away scot-free.
• My Car Hates Me: While driving down the road said to be haunted, Holly's car breaks down just as she clears away the logs blocking her path.
• Slipping a Mickey: Discussed by Holly. She suspects the coffee from the vending machine was drugged so that whoever was stalking her could have an easier time snatching her.
• Vehicular Sabotage: An eagle-eyed player can potentially spot one of Holly's stalkers sabotaging the tires on Holly's car outside the gas station before leaving in a white van.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The white-shirted man tries to get Holly to open the door to her room by claiming that he needs help. When Holly refuses, he quickly drops the act and starts to force his way in, forcing Holly to hide in the closet from him.

18-year-old Noah Baker agrees to housesit for his father's friend and client Roy Carson. What he anticipated to be an easy job soon turns into a growing nightmare, as Noah finds himself plagued by harassing calls and text messages, and suspects someone is trying to break in.

• Addled Addict: Two months into her relationship with Noah, Cara began to use meth (with the implication that wasn't too stable before that either). When Noah attempted to get her help, she turned on him and felt he was trying to change her, culminating in their parting ways. Cara's character model is unhealthily thin, looks unkempt, and has dark circles under her eyes. It's confirmed at the end of the episode that she was drunk and high while stalking Noah through the house.
• Age-Gap Romance: Noah - who was 18 during the events of the episode - mentions that Cara is three years older than him, making her around 21 when they dated. He says he was initially a bit wary about dating her because she was older than his previous girlfriends, but he decided to give it a chance because they got along so well. However, the relationship doesn't last long because Cara turns out to be far more immature and reckless than Noah despite being older. Cara being an adult while Noah was still in high school when they dated also gives off some red flags, with Cara's later actions cementing their relationship as disturbing and unsavoury.
• Bowdlerise: An update quietly altered the ending to censor the word "meth", changing it to "hard drugs". The reason for this change has yet to be disclosed.^*
• Descent into Addiction: Discussed by Noah. Cara, who began taking meth, went down that path while Noah was dating her. He tried to sway her out of it, but she refused and became hostile, so he broke up with her.
• Double Standard Abuse: Female on Male: Completely averted. Cara's obsessive and violent behavior towards her ex-boyfriend throughout the game is Played for Horror all the way to the end; the police and courts also take it seriously, as she ends up being arrested and locked up for stalking and attacking Noah.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Cara is an unstable young woman with dark brown hair who stalks Noah, her ex-boyfriend.
• Harassing Phone Call: Noah gets numerous texts from his ex-girlfriend via an unknown number. She blows up when he doesn't respond and breaks into the house to attack him.
• If I Can't Have You…: Cara says this verbatim to Noah right as she attempts to kill him.
• Kill the Lights: In the final chapter, Cara shuts off power to the house after, presumably, seeing the security cameras.
• Loony Fan: A news article shares how Mr. Carson has fans of his wife who made death threats against him for his alleged infidelity. This winds up being a Red Herring. The intruder isn't a psycho-obsessed fan of the Carsons, but Cara, Noah's ex-girlfriend who's there for him personally.
• Mistaken for Prank Call: When Noah gets texts from an unknown number, he assumes it's his friend Turner pranking him. To his horror, he finds out from another friend that it isn't Turner messaging him.
• Not Good with Rejection: Cara. After her drug use drove Noah away and he began seeing another girl, Cara does not take it well at all, stalking Noah to the Carson house and breaking in with a knife. She will try to kill Noah if she spots him and in the ending, the police are convinced she had malicious intentions towards Noah despite her claiming otherwise.
• Police Are Useless: Averted. Once Noah's father calls them about Cara, the police review the camera footage and rightfully conclude that Cara's actions were unlawful and malicious, and promptly arrest her.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Cara. When she finds out where Noah is staying, she attempts to get back together with him, but quickly slides into threatening violence when he refuses and threatens to call the police. She attempts to kill him with a kitchen knife and also threatens to kill his new girlfriend Evelyn. She was heavily under the influence of meth and alcohol at the time, though it's implied she wasn't all that stable before that and the drugs just worsened her mental state.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Upon entering the Carson household, Cara grabs a kitchen knife as she stalks and attempts to stab Noah to death.
• Red Herring: It's implied that one the Loony Fans of Ray Carson's wife could be the intruder, with Noah being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The intruder isn't one of them and couldn't care less about the Carsons. She's after Noah himself.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: If Noah doesn’t leave the laundry room when Cara is out of range, his phone’s text message noise will alert Cara to his location and she will kill him.
• Surreal Humor: Both TV shows that Noah watches have bizarre animation, sound, and scripts.
• Useless Security Camera: Averted. The security cameras in the Carson house helped Noah spot Cara in the house trying to find him.
• Walking Spoiler: Strictly speaking, Cara is not revealed as the villain until the very last leg of the game, and several Red Herring potential suspects for the strange goings-on at the house are introduced throughout the story, including Carson's son Alec, Loony Fans of Carson's wife Alissa, and Noah's friend Turner. While it is possible to glimpse or run into Cara prior to the finale, a player going in blind can very easily miss these encounters. Tellingly, most Let's Play videos of the game prominently feature Cara in the thumbnail despite this.
• Yandere: After being ignored and rejected by her ex-boyfriend due to her unstable behaviour, Cara intends to kill both Noah and his girlfriend.
• Younger Than They Look: Noah's friends mention that Cara's drug habit has made her look older than her 20 years.

Jack Nelson, a 24-year-old fire lookout with a passion for the great outdoors, is transferred to a new post, Tower 11 in Ironbark State Park. Although the area seems peaceful, Jack quickly learns there have been several strange sightings and mysterious disappearances in the park. As the days pass, Jack begins to suspect he's being watched.

• Anachronism Stew: The game is set in 2002, but Jack uses a modern-day smartphone to text his sister.
• Cassandra Truth: After Jack flees the park and tries to warn everybody about the cult, neither the authorities nor his own family believe him. It's implied that the park staff and the local townsfolk do have some knowledge of what's really going on, but they're reluctant to back up Jack's account and look the other way.
• Cult: A cult is revealed to be operating in Ironbark State Park. Not much is known about them and their activities, but they're definitely not benevolent; they stalk, threaten, and try to attack Jack when he gets too close to revealing their activities and they're likely responsible for at least some of the disappearances of hikers and campers in the park. Silas is strongly implied to be a cult member and indicates that they believe some events, such as forest fires, are nature's way of restoring balance and shouldn't be interfered with.
• Foreshadowing: "Silas" can be spotted as one of the diner patrons at the beginning. He says nothing if spoken to, but observant players will notice that he has a shovel and a set of dark, baggy clothes lying beside him, the same kind of costume that the cultists are seen wearing later. By the time Jack is done with his meal, he's vanished, and Jack's RV is left with a mysteriously open door and a jammed shut bathroom...
• He Knows Too Much: How the climax starts. Jack sneaks a photo of some cultists ritualistically burning something at a restricted area. But they see his camera flash and make a beeline for the tower.
• Implied Death Threat: Silas's parting words. It's soon revealed he was lying about his job; indirectly confirming he's a cultist, and retroactively making this a Shame If Something Happened. And in the Cower Power sequence, it almost comes true.

  Silas: Have a good night, Jack. Hope you sleep well. but remember.. ... ... curiosity can lead to places you'd rather not go. ... ... Farewell, Jack.

• I Never Told You My Name: A retroactive example. Jack initially doesn't think much of it that Silas knows his name without Jack having told him, because Silas claims to work at the park and says his co-workers have talked about Jack. However, Jack gets a lot more worried when he mentions it to Connor, who says that no one named Silas works with them.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The posters at the park entrance are for Brit Knee Spheres, Sanita Williams, and Hugh Jassman.
• Police Are Useless: Despite getting photo evidence of cult activity in the forest, his fellow park rangers insist that everything Jack saw was just a prank or delusion and don't take any further action. However, it's implied by their behavior that the veteran park rangers are well aware of the cult's presence and turn a blind eye to their activities out of fear, so they have every reason to cover up the incident.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: The rumors of the park's creatures, "entities," etc. It's inhabited by a cult whose uniforms make them look like Grim Reaper Horned Humanoids.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Once Jack evades the cult's initial attempts to catch him, he makes a run for his RV and drives straight out of the park, immediately quitting his job afterwards.
• Sinister Whistling: The cultists seem to draw in their victims by whistling. While Jack doesn’t fall victim to them, he quickly realizes that anyone whistling in the woods is bad news.
• Sudden Soundtrack Stop: When Jack takes a picture of the cult at their campsite, the soundtrack cuts off once the cultists turn towards the direction of the camera flash, i.e. Jack’s tower.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: All of the park rangers and camp staff caution Jack not to wander too far north, especially at night, ostensibly due to the presence of dangerous wildlife. The way they say it gives Jack the impression there's something else going on they don't want him to know about.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • One of Jack's first calls is to investigate a campsite in an off-limits area. He comes across a campsite that seems to have been abandoned in a hurry. Jack finds no sign of the campers, and can only report what he finds.
  • During one night, Jack gets into radio contact with a lost hiker and tries to guide him to safety. The last thing Jack hears is the hiker finding someone else in the forest before he's pulled away to accept a supply delivery from another ranger. Afterward, Jack doesn't hear anything more from the hiker.
• Workplace Horror: In a first for the series (unless one counts Noah's housesitting duties in Carson House), this episode heavily revolves around the player carrying out Jack's duties as the new fire lookout in a state park. This includes recording the wind speed, temperature, and weather each night before turning in, communicating with other lookouts, investigating problem campers, and assisting a lost hiker over the radio. Over the course of about a week, Jack starts to sense there's something sinister going on in the park, but the other staff are either dismissive or give only cryptic warnings.

Sydney Harper, an employee at a consultant firm in her early 20s, decides to take a break from her hectic life by booking a weekend getaway with her two college friends, Mike and Nora. Sydney rents a cheap house in the small, rural town of Woodbury for her and her friends, but after a number of odd and creepy occurrences, it becomes clear this getaway is going to be anything but relaxing.

• Affectionate Nickname: Mike regularly calls Sydney “Harp” and Nora calls Sydney “Harpie”.
• Anachronism Stew: The game is clearly meant to be set in the mid 2000s, with CRT monitors displaying Windows XP and Mike talking about getting his new Nintendo DS, yet everyone has a modern-day smartphone and uses 2020s lingo like "this pizza slaps!".
• Antepiece: Playing hide-and-seek with Mike comes in handy when you're being chased by the guy who isn't Rick, as it shows you exactly where you'll need to hide.
• Alone with the Psycho: Syndey realizes she let an Ax-Crazy squatter posing as the host into the house when the real Rick texts back that he hasn't been at the rental cabin for weeks and lives elsewhere.
• Blatant Lies: When Sydney and Mike catch Rick inside the cabin with a hammer and ask him what he's doing, he claims that he's fixing a leaking faucet. Both Sydney and Mike are obviously skeptical of this claim and demand Rick to leave.
• But Thou Must!: Despite the obvious danger Sydney is putting herself in, she must confront “Rick” for not being who he claims to be, especially since all other attempts to dismiss him from the house fail.
• Compromising Call: While Sydney is hiding from the Rick impostor, Nora will attempt to call Sydney and the ring tone will give away Sydney's location, forcing her to find another hiding spot.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • By the end, Mike and Nora come to Sydney's rescue by breaking down the front door of the cabin. The Rick impostor flees in response.
  • Credit also goes to the real Rick, who immediately calls the police and warns Sydney's friends when he learns about the impostor.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Mike acts like this towards Sydney, obsessively sticking close to her and insisting they do various activities together. It’s also implied that something happened with them during their trip to Oregon, which is probably why Mike is acting the way he is. Sydney, however, isn't interested in hooking up with him.
• Faux Affably Evil: Rick seems to be a Cool Old Guy, but he has creepy vibes when shows up unannounced at the rental home. That's because he's an imposter, and he has ill intentions.
• Foreshadowing: "Rick" never mentions his name. The other characters merely assume he's Rick, and he doesn't fight because he insists he's the owner anyway.
• Hostile Hitchhiker: Played with the hitchhiker Sydney and Mike meet at the pizzeria. He seems friendly at first, but he becomes aggressive if he’s denied help. He claims that he’s not threatening anyone when rejected at the pizzeria, but he proves himself to still have a temper when Sydney refuses to let him in the cabin while she’s all alone. While it’s unknown if he planned to get back at her for refusing to help him, his angry reaction was enough to scare her into contacting Rick.
• It's All About Me: The hitchhiker is quick to get angry when rejected.
• Meaningful Background Event:
  • While fishing by the creek, it’s possible to see a silhouette on the bridge. That figure turns out to the hitchhiker who followed you from the pizzeria.
  • While playing hide-and-seek, you can look through the tool shed’s windows. If you look through the window facing the house, you can see someone walking inside the house. It’s “Rick” who’s entered through the downstairs floor.
• Mini-Game: While in Sydney’s office, it’s possible to play a short game called “Type Invader” on her computer. You have to type one or multiple words, which appear on the aliens. If you don’t type fast enough, the aliens will attack you.
• Mundane Horror: At the beginning of the episode, Sydney is apparently working an all-nighter at her office, which is now abandoned and mostly dark, which gives it a very oppressive and foreboding atmosphere. This isn't helped when she goes to the bathroom and hears someone walking around outside her stall, only to be accidentally jump scared by the janitor.
• No Sense of Personal Space: When they first reunite, Mike complains that the hug Sydney gave him was too short and insists on her giving him a longer one. Also, throughout the game, Mike and Rick have a tendency to get uncomfortably close to Sydney when talking to her.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever happened in Sydney and Mike's trip to Oregon, it resulted in both of them getting drunk and things getting "awkward", with Mike harboring romantic feelings for Sydney afterward.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Played with Mike’s reaction to the hitchhiker at the pizzeria. He worries that the guy might be potentially dangerous, which is why he turns him down when he’s asking for a ride. The guy also reacts negatively when turned down and makes a subtle threat, but he claims that he’s just tired and not violent. Considering the hitchhiker’s freak out later in the game and how he "coincidentally" knocked on the door of the exact cabin Mike and Sydney were staying in, it’s safe to assume that Mike was right to be concerned about him.
  • Sydney and Mike being leery of Rick. Sure enough, he's the Episode's villain, an Ax-Crazy squatter posing as the real Rick.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Mike can give off this impression at times. Some of the things he does are innocent enough, such as watching immature animated shows or insisting on playing hide and seek with Sydney. However, there are other creepier moments such as him insisting they play board games in the basement with the lights off, or jump-scaring Sydney as a prank after tricking her into thinking there is an intruder in the house.
• Red Herring:
  • Mike's lovesick, obsessive behavior towards you isn't the cause of your misfortune.
  • The creepy hitchhiker has nothing to do with the plot.
  • Derelict school bus, that attracted Sydney's attention on their way to Woodbury.
• Snowed-In: The events of the game take place during a serious blizzard, forcing Sydney and Mike to stay inside their cabin. This also ends up delaying police response.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: Sydney decided to go on vacation to Woodbury with her friends to get away from her boring job as an office worker.
• Stalker with a Crush: It's clear Mike has had feelings for Sydney for quite a long time, but it takes an unsettling turn when after he finds Sydney in a hide-and-seek game, he offhandedly mentions how easy it was to find Sydney in the cabin compared to trying to find her in her home city, implying he has been stalking her for some time.
• Stalker Without A Crush: The hitchhiker from the pizzeria that tried to get a ride from Sydney and Mike. He apparently followed them to the cabin they were staying at and was watching them as they fished out by the creek. It’s unknown what he wants when he pesters Sydney to let him inside when she’s alone, but she doesn’t trust him to open the door for him.
• The Unreveal: By the end of the episode, the Rick imposter flees the cabin before the police can arrive. The authorities believe he was a squatter who was planning to rob Sydney and her friends. However, the Rick impostor's claim that he owns the cabin and the implication the real Rick knows the impostor's identity indicate there's more to the story but Sydney never finds out.
• Wham Line:

  Rick: I haven't been to the rental in weeks

• What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of the hitchhiker remains unknown after Sydney refuses to let him into the house, though it's implied that he attempted to break in and was caught and murdered by "Rick".
• Would Hit a Girl: After “Rick” is revealed to be an impostor, he will try to attack Sydney with his hammer.