Here be monsters!--Of course, because in the
hallowed halls of literature, nothing spells
resounding save-the-world triumph like lopping
off the head of the biggest, baddest baddie
in the valley, just before the clock ticked
midnight and the evil villain’s plan finally
came to fruition--yadda yadda yadda, you get
the picture, you know how it goes.
The point is, in horror--countless writers
have made it their lives work in an attempt
to waylay the archetypal evil villain, by
penning some of the most horrifying monstrosities
that the human mind can manage to muster.
Some of them have failed horribly--but for
the most part, the arsenal of Terrifying Monsters
in Literature is looking pretty damn full.
So, I guess we better take another look.
Hello horror fans, what’s going on--and
once again, welcome back to the scariest channel
on YouTube, Top 5 Scary Videos.
As per usual, I’ll be your horror host Jack
Finch, as today, we curiously take a look
at the Top 5 Most Terrifying Monsters In Literature--Part
2.
Roll the clip.
For the curious amongst you, that scene was
of course of The Losers Club facing down Bill
Skarsgard’s version of Pennywise the Dancing
Clown--which if you’re asking me is perhaps
one of the most terrifying monsters ever penned
in literature, particularly for coulrophobes
or anyone of a fearful disposition for All
Consuming Eldritch Entities.
Which should be all of us, really.
But it leads us to the same point that we
laid on in the first part of this series--we’re
trying to keep this list as fresh as possible,
so like before with the masters of monstrosities,
no King, no Lovecraft and no Barker.
Let’s jump into it.
Kicking off at Number 5 - The Dementors Harry
Potter
And while some of you may find umbridge with
this placement--see what I did there--there
is no denying the fact that for a series of
children’s novels, the incredible J.K Rowling
had a particular penchant for creating some
downright terrifying magical creatures--and
despite the very *human* horror that is present
in the series, the Dementors are at the tip
top of the all-evil magical entities pile.
And actually, when we look back at these villainous
wraiths with the eyes of an adult--there’s
surprisingly more horror to be found behind
their wispy form--particularly when we take
into account the recently expanded Harry Potter
universe.
For those of you that don’t know, in the
Wizarding World--a Dementor is a gliding,
wraithlike creature that feeds purely on human
happiness, draining them of all joy and life--and
only leaving behind emotions of pure depression
and despair.
If given long enough exposure, they can fully
consume a person’s soul--leaving them in
a permanent vegatative state.
In the Harry Potter canon, although featuring
heavily during the dark, dark times of Lord
Voldemort--the Dementors are inexplicably
tied to one location.
The Prison of Azkaban, and here’s where
the real world allegory makes things much
more terrifying from a different kind of perspective.
The desolate island prison in the North Sea,
Azkaban, was supposedly created by a wizard
named Ekrizdis--who practiced the most terrible
and evil kinds of Dark Magic--where he’d
lure Muggle sailors to his island purely for
the sake of torturing them and feeding off
their misery.
After he died--and the charms concealing his
torturous island wore off, the Ministry of
Magic eventually became aware of the place--where
they discovered all kinds of unspeakable horrors,
the main one being an entire colony of these
evil, wraithlike Dementors.
And what they did they do?
Shut it away, locked it up--and portholed
the key into space?
Nah.
They decided they’d cut municipal wizarding
costs and use the place as a prison.
Good job.
Coming in at Number 4 - The Yeerks Animorphs
And if you’ve read the Animorphs Series,
written by K.A Applegate and Michael Grant,
you’ll know that the insanely long run,
which consisted of 54 books--wasn’t exactly
the charming, body-morphing, Young Adult story
that it was made out to be, particularly at
the end of the series--where things just got
way, way out of hand.
And despite the subsequent murder and existential
crises that followed--the most vile and disgusting
foil to these young shapeshifters--were the
Yeerks, a grotesque, parastice species of
alien, slug-like creatures that infected the
most appropriate host-species to do their
bidding.
Over the course of the series, it’s revealed
that these otherwise useless slugs have pretty
much taken over the entire galaxy, and their
sights finally turned to the buffet of humans
that had no idea what was coming for them.
In their natural state, Yeerks resemble large
slugs and live in huge lakes of sludge known
as Yeerk Pools.
Which, you know, is pretty gross--and would
be a pretty unfortunate place to go skinny
dipping.
Yeerks have the ability to enter their hosts
body through the ear canal--where they subsequently
take over all brain functions, including basic
motor and speech control--and thus essentially
*become* that person.
Which, as you may imagine, comes into all
kinds of calamity for the Five Anamorphic
Heroes who are just trying to figure out how
the hell they can accidentally stop morphing
into an Iguana, whilst also getting forced
into an intergalactic war that would result
in the destruction of all mankind.
Yeah, Animorphs isn’t just a book about
kids with lizard tongues--it covers some incredibly
weighty themes, which are all orchestrated
by the evli, gross slug empire of the Yeerks.
More like Jerks.
Next up at Number 3 - The Nickelheads The
Dresden Files
Otherwise known as the hosts of the Denarians,
which are also otherwise known as the Order
of the Blackened Denarius--or the Fallen.
Yeah, although the Naagloshi of Jim Butcher’s
Dresden Files featured in our previous list,
perhaps the most prime evil of the entire
series are the thirty ancient coins that underpin
Harry Dresden’s save-the-world and ask questions
later kinda vibe.
And if you’re wondering as to why thirty
weird coins are terrifying, it may take a
little bit of explaining to do first, so--stick
with me.
Throughout the events of The Dresden Files,
Harry deals with some pretty powerful entities,
but the most powerful of those--are the denarii,
a race of fallen angels that are contained
within thirty ancient silver coins, which
are said to be the silver pieces given to
Judas Iscariot in exchange for his betrayal
of Jesus.
Which is an awesome concept, but hey--that’s
Jim Butcher for you.
Whoever touches these coins with their open
flesh, is forever tainted and given the power
of the Fallen Angels within, consuming them
as their host.
Usually, the Fallen will lead their chosen
mortal deeper into its influence through whispered
promises of greatness, slowly corrupted both
their soul and their mind and bestowing incredible
power of various phenomenon.
In the series, perhaps the most iconic and
equally terrifying Denarian, is Anduriel--who
has taken the villainous Nicodemus Archleone
as it’s host for over two thousand years,
orchestrating the chaotic Order of the Blackened
Denarius by sowing discord in the mortal world,
using all other denizens of the world as his
playthings--to seemingly play dice with the
ultimate fate of humanity.
Yeah, the Denarians are an awesome and unique
horror concept--and they’re equally terrifying
because of it.
Swinging in at Number 2 - Slake Moths Perdido
Street Station
Which, for those of you that don’t know--is
an awesome novel, as well as the set up to
the equally awesome Bas-Lag series, written
by China Mieville--who created a world of
such strange intrigue, in a hodgepodge of
sci-fi, fantasy and horror--filled to the
brim with more strange bird-men and giant
brain slugs than any horror fan could ever
hope for.
But, all of them pale in comparison to the
horrifying mechanics of Mieville’s most
terrifying creation.
The Slake Moths, a species of insectoid creatures
that are first given birth to in Perdido Street
Station--and serve to be the worthy evil,
mind-bending, cosmic horror force through
the novels duration.
I’ll try not to spoil any of the plot points,
because Perdido Street Station is really worth
the read--but the first slake moth is inadvertently
created by the novels protagonist, Isaac,
a scientist who stumbles upon a strange species
of bulbous caterpillar stolen from the criminal
underworld--which inadvertently seems to feast
on all manners of hallucinogenic drugs.
In particular, the larvae has a hunger for
a substance known as dreamshit--which turns
out, is exactly what it says on the tin--and
soon enough, the gross pupae transforms into
a horrendous cosmically horrifying giant moth
that quickly reveals all manners of terrifying
truths--particularly involving the world of
underground drug smuggling.
Mieville’s prose is reason enough to read
why the Slake Moths are as terrifying as I’m
making out--but for a creature as unassuming
as a moth, he really turns up the cosmic horror
dial--and these creatures are more akin to
Lovecraftian Fiction than they may first seem.
And finally, coming in at our Number 1 spot
-- The Shrike The Hyperion Cantos
And many of you guys called for this terrifying
monster of literature to appear on our list,
and rightfully so--making its way to our number
one spot--in a temporally insignificant manner,
just to impale us all on its Shrike Tree.
Now, The Hyperion Cantos, written by Dan Simmons
and first released in 1989--is an incredibly
worthy entry into the halls of legendary science
fiction.
Believe me, these books are *weighty*--and
they cover some of the most grandiose themes
in the whole of the genre, most of which I’ll
try not to bog you down with--because there’s
all manner of time-travel and galaxy spanning
Hegemonies of Mankind--but just know that
all of those these pale in comparison to the
terrifying creature, known only as The Shrike.
A being of such incredible power and strength,
daunting stature and all-consuming evil--that
it’s more akin to the legendary folktales
of old than it is to the world of science
fiction.
Although, for those of you that haven’t
read the series--the true nature of The Shrike
is uncontested spoiler-territory--but there’s
just so much to this monstrosity that we’d
perhaps be better off trying to find why it
*isn’t* terrifying.
The exact origins of the Shrike are unclear,
but it appears as a roughly humanoid entity--over
three meters in height, covered in a spiked
carapace of chrome steel.
It has four violent arms, and four equally
violent hands that are tipped with scalpel-like
finger blades, of which even Freddy Krueger
himself would be weary of.
Essentially, The Shrike is as if Shelob was
somehow genetically blended with The Terminator--and
then mutated over millennia into every Doctor
Who villain imaginable, where it then decided
to live in the Grim Darkness of Warhammer
40k to cut it’s teeth on all of the unimaginable
horrors of the Void.
Oh, and speaking of Voids--not only does The
Shrike want to impale you on it’s Tree of
Pain--it can also travel through temporal
space to do so, appearing out of thin air
to slaughter you in a swipe of razor-sharp
steel.
And that’s without us even talking about
the narrative significance of The Shrike.
Yeah, it’s our number one spot--easy.
Well, there we have it folks--our list for
the Top 5 Most Terrifying Monsters In Literature--Part
2.
What did you guys think?
Do you agree?
Disagree?
Have any more entries to add?
Then let us know your choice picks, or your
own Top 5 List--down in the comment section
below.
Before we depart from today’s video though,
let’s first take a quick look at some of
your more creative comments from over the
past few days.
Chips and Dip says --
If your insta is twocoatsjack--where are your
twocoats?
-- Well, it’s summer!
What the hell--I can barely wear a t-shirt
in this heat, let alone two coats.
Gareth Pendlebury says --
Just downloaded The Name of the Wind on your
recommendation.
Best be good!
-- And well, that is sweet Edema Ruh music
to my ears Gareth--trust me.
You’ve made a solid investment.
On that note horror fans, unfortunately that’s
all we’ve got time for in todays video--cheers
for sticking around all the way until the
end.
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As per usual, I’ve been your horror host
Jack Finch--you’ve been watching Top 5 Scary
Videos, and until next time, you take it easy.
