Prank flash
From Free net encyclopedia
A prank flash is a Macromedia Flash movie in the spirit of a shock site. The term usually does not include clips that are simply humorous with surprising jokes near the end, but that are specifically designed to startle the viewer and induce a 'jump' in their seat. The qualities of any shock flash may vary, although most have basic similarities. Other popular terms are screamers (which vary in length of time and contain a scream within the movie near the end) and ambush flash or sabotage flash (flash movies that deceive the viewer into interacting or watching intently before scaring them).
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Screamers
Usually the movies begin innocuously, sometimes with a mundane image or even a simple game or quiz designed to keep the viewer's attention on the screen (such as the infamous "What's wrong with this picture?"). Sometimes the image is accompanied by audio which is kept at a deliberately low level, so as to persuade the viewer to turn up the volume on their computer. The image itself may be small to force the user to maximize their browser window. Another technique is to play a song, prompting the user to turn up the volume, with the lyrics of the song scrolling up the screen. In pranks that are disguised as games, there is sometimes a spurious recommendation on the page itself to turn up the volume, in order to hear a clue for the game.
After grabbing the user's attention, the movie is abruptly interrupted by an unexpected image, usually accompanied by a burst of sound, such as a scream or roar. The picture can range from a crude cartoon to an explicitly gruesome image, in which case the shock comes partially from the content of the picture. In most cases, the picture itself, upon further viewing, is not in actuality very scary. Therefore, in almost all of these animations, the shock comes primarily from the startling, unsettling scream, which transmit and magnify the scariness of the image and the shock itself in whole.
Prank flash movies sometimes finish with a suggestion not to follow mysterious links from strangers. On many large message boards, it is against the rules to post links to a screamer without explicitly flagging it as such. Some people nonetheless still follow such links through curiosity.
Although Flash is the most prevalent medium for shock animations, there are others; there is an animated GIF showing a picture of an uncleaned room, and a ghostly lady walking into the room every 40 seconds [1], and there is a prank video that pretends to be a car commercial, used by the German firm K-fee for advertising purposes.
![[1]](http://www.castleofspirits.com/hoax2.gif){kind=link}
Also, parodies of such movies exist. One such uses a perfectly innocent smiley face as the shock object, another involves an unmanipulated photograph of Michael Jackson, and another has a poorly drawn monster accompanied by an annoying and weak voiceover.
Notable screamers
Kikia
Links:
This is the first prank flash to be widely spread and thus provide inspiration for other similar creations. It originated on Taiwan's Kimo webhosting service from a person with the online username "Netspooky."
Summary
- Frame 1 (4 sec): In a cartoon, a boy sits on a lawn gazing at the sky. Two lines of Chinese text appear. A rough translation is "Hasn't it been a long time... / Haven't looked at the sky closely..."
- Frame 2 (4 sec): Shows the boy walking down a city street lined with buildings. A rough translation of the Chinese text is "Walking on the street... / You see..." (The first two scenes are accompanied by Utada Hikaru's soft rock pop ballad "First Love.")
- Frame 3 (2 sec): Shows a screenshot of the game Fatal Frame during a piercing scream. It is a grayscale photograph of a ghost woman.
- Frame 4: The yellow text "Kikia" appears. The animation does not loop.
Subliminal Messages
Link:
Caution: Also contains suggestive sexual images.
This animation, sometimes known as "Subliminal Music and Images," is considered by many to be the scariest flash animation on the Internet (compare with Rubber Johnny). It has been distributed to many websites since 2002.
Summary
After loading, an advertisement for gin is shown. After a few seconds, part of the image is highlighted and the word "SEX" is visible. An image for a flooring company appears, with a woman appearing to be touching her shoulder. The image is then flipped, so it appears the woman is masturbating herself. Then a song, Cradle of Filth's "Dinner at Deviant Palace" begins to play backward. The Lord's Prayer is heard along with faint noises. In the middle of the prayer, a loud scream is heard, along with a flurry of pictures; some of a harlequin baby, and Rotten.com pictures. It ends with a message, "Never trust flash animations talking about subliminal stuff!"
Urban Legends Series
Link: http://www.jkcinema.com/
A popular series distributed on the internet, which show mini documentaries providing evidence of the paranormal. Most, but not all, of the movies usually stop for 5 seconds, then an image of a ghost appears suddenly, accompanied by a very loud scream. Urban Legends 3: Ghosts, is considered to be the scariest out of the series, and indeed one of the creepiest movies on the internet, but the Urban Legends series are more like documentaries than screamers. It is considered the scariest because of the ghost photography: the image of the girl in the hallway, and the "Karma Ghost," the name attributed to the woman's ghost that pops up in the cluttered room.
Summary
It starts off normally, with a warning, and goes on to show ghost photography, ghost videos, and ITC. The first screamer hints to the viewer that ghosts may be haunting their computer monitor. 10 seconds later, a ghost girl pops up very briefly and is usually unseen. The movie continues with ghost EVP, then ends with a picture of an uncleaned room. The author tells the viewer to "LOOK CLOSER!!!!!" and then a loud scream and another ghost girl pops out from the door (this is actually derived from the animated GIF mentioned above - when using a Flash seek bar bookmarklet, the girl doesn't pop up).
Non-screamers
Not all prank flashes are designed to shock the viewer with a shock object and scream. The following examples either use other things to provide the shock, or do not shock at all.
Notable non-screamers
You Are An Idiot
Link: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/youare.php (the actual Flash file; does not cause popups)
Albino Black Sheep is one of the many sites hosting the popular "you are an idiot" prank, in which pop-up windows saying "you are an idiot" bounce around the screen; the windows continuously spawn and it's impossible to close them all using the mouse. These pranks are usually not functional in browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer and are impaired by the presence of a popup blocker or a virus scanner. The popups can be avoided by pressing the 'back' button on the browser rather than closing the window. Ending the IEXPLORE process in Windows's task manager via ctrl-alt-del also effectively quashes the pop-ups. It is also possible to end the popups by holding Alt-F4 until all the windows are closed, but this risks accidentally closing one or two windows too many.
Red Room
Template:Main Link: http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley/4358/red_room1.html
Red Room is not a prank as such; there is no real "shock" as defined in this article, it is simply a horror story, albeit one with an unexpected ending. It is a Flash video, entirely in Japanese, about an urban legend called "the Red Room," a popup window that allegedly will result in the death of the viewer if closed. The protagonist in the video searches on the internet for proof of its existence, only for the results to go horribly awry. The "shock" comes after the movie ends, when the Red Room popup appears on the user's desktop and begins acting as depicted in the video.
This Flash is said to be the favorite of "Nevada-tan," the 11 year-old girl who slit her classmate's throat on 1 June 2004 in Sasebo, Japan.
Note: ensure you have Flash player version 7.0.19.0 (click here to check your version) or higher, or you will receive an error page in Japanese.