The Worthington is a horror webcomic by E. M. Carroll. It was posted online in 2018, and can be read here
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The reader is presented with six doors, which can be explored in any order. Each leads to a different room with a short tale, most of which are macabre.
Contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: In Room 1002, the mirrors show the character's face as grotesque and inhuman. The character wonders whether they are reflecting some hidden truth, but no answer is given.But is this what I look like? Is this what is true?
...are the mirrors just different in Room 1002? - Body Horror:
- In Room 21, the dead body has bright red snakes coming out of the gut, looking like bloody intestines.
- In Room 1002, the mirrors show the character's face as a twisted, dripping fleshy thing.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Unlike the other rooms, Room 223 is completely grayscale on a black background, creating a somber atmosphere.
- Don't Look Back: Someone is behind you in Room 504. You are told not to turn around, to act like you forgot what you came in for, and leave the room, keeping your eyes on the floor.
- Dutch Angle: In Room 504, when the POV character starts to look behind them despite the warning, their POV is shown at a tilted angle, both reflecting how they are mid-turn and conveying a sense of dread.
- Mirror Monster: In Room 1002, the mirrors show the character's face as a twisted, dripping fleshy thing.
- Nightmare Face: In Room 1002, the mirrors' reflections of the character's face are unrecognizable as anything human — for example, being made up of bundles of flesh stuffed with pods or being full of dripping orifices or small clusters.
- Nothing Is Scarier:
- Who or what is behind you in Room 504 is not revealed. All you catch is a partial glimpse, and all you are told is not to look.
- Room 223 is a more subdued example. There isn't anything to suggest that something supernatural or threatening is currently going on in the room, but the narrator's insistence that you "leave it be" and that there's "nothing to see" is rather suspicious.
- The Place: The doors are implied to be in some sort of hotel, which "The Worthington" is presumably the name of.
- Scenery Dissonance: Room 21 is a soft pink color, but the character on the right of the bed is staring off into space with a haggard look and on the other side is a bloody corpse that looks like the same character.
- Splash of Color: A variant in Room 504. Most of the comic is in a limited palette: white, soft pinks and purples, and some black shading. When the POV character starts to look behind them, the narrator screams "DON'T TURN". For that panel, the colors become much more intense and mixed with red, conveying a sense of danger and the narrator's panic.