Series I, Part XI
SCP-056 - A Beautiful Person
This is one of those that I feel works well for just how…vague isn’t really the right word, but it’s the best one I’ve got. It’s the subtlety of it. The way it appears as just a better version of whatever’s around – a better camera if left alone, a more attractive person than anyone in the room, a better specimen of dog when exposed to the pet of one of the doctors. There’s no explanation for what it is, it has no stated goal beyond wanting to be seen and apparently adored, but it still manages to be creepy.
7/10
SCP-057 - The Daily Grind
This one’s kinda fun. It’s both weird (creepy underground chamber that forces you to play along until it crushes you to death) and delightfully without explanation or apparent purpose. It’s just a room that kills you. I feel that the lack of explanation makes it better (this is a theme), because once you explain the why it stops being scary. That reminds me, I should do the “explained” SCPs some day, too.
8/10
SCP-058 - Heart of Darkness
I feel like this one suffers from a bit too much redacted info. The basic idea (evil cow heart that kills and eats you) is fine, but the notes section just redacts a bit too much. Worse, it’s info that isn’t really necessary in the first place, so redacting it just makes less sense. Combined with that it talks (but apparently just says nonsense?) and it’s just underwhelming.
4/10
SCP-059 - Radioactive Mineral
As a premise, this one’s neat. The idea of extradimensional radioactivity is actually really fun. But then it gets into weird fungus stuff and, to me, feels like it loses the thread a bit there. It definitely feels like it’s trying to do too much.
4/10
SCP-060 - Infernal Occult Skeleton
I just want to start by saying that this article is called “Infernal Occult Skeleton,” and opens with a picture of a tree. It’s a whole mood.
This is another one that I feel works well because of both how much information it gives (evil skeleton appears if the tree is burned, skeleton is on fire and attempts to spread fire and also murder people) and how little it gives (skeleton is a relatively recent phenomenon, potentially summoned by the previous owner of the house, no one knows where said owner is or if he’s alive). Nothing in the article is redacted (this is a big one. A well placed redaction adds a lot, a poorly placed one ruins an entire article), they just state plainly that they don’t know. It’s a much better way of writing these, I think. “We know but won’t tell you” isn’t nearly as scary as “yeah we’ve got no clue.”
9/10
