Death & Disease (READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

Please note: as part of my essay into looking at what makes the perfect scary monster I have been looking at various forms of death and disease. This blog post features images of extremely deformed humans, human corpses, diseased human limbs, murder and other such material. It is neither pleasant nor pretty. Please read at your own discretion. Although nothing sexual or perverse is referenced in this post the images are regarded as NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Please keep this in mind, thank you. 

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As part of my research into what makes a truly scary monster I've been doing a lot of research into some things that monsters are generally based around, the two main themes being death and disease. For the past week or so I have spent every other day trawling through various online blogs of medical cases, criminal profiles and scientific research to find examples of elements taken from real life and applied to the film and video game monster. I've put them into separate categories for each piece of anatomy that I looked at and applied to my monster creation. FROM HERE ONWARD READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Limbs

When trying to build a monster one of the most important aspects to consider is what its arms and legs will look like, I found the following images while surfing a medical blog on Tumblr, these and others like it helped significantly in the building up of some of the beginnings of my creature designs:

Syndactyly - a condition that occurs when two or more of the fingers are fused together.

The fist image that I found interesting was a photo taken of a Syndactyly, a condition that occurs when the finger or toes are fused together from lack of development while in the womb. Instantly I thought of Silent Hill: Homecoming boss: Sepulcher who's hands are severely Syndactyly. Though this isn't a particularly threatening nor scary deformity it is still one that is interesting and a common occurrence in horror monsters. 

The hand of a woman who attempted suicide via self immolation.

Moving onto the little more disturbing we have here a woman who survived her own suicide attempt of burning alive. The texture and colour of her skin is something that is used frequently in various horror games and films, both to identify burnt monsters or simply rotting ones. If I were to reference this image in the creation of a monster, it would be for a monster that symbolises pain of wearing its own skin. The film Paranormal Activity used similar effects for makeup that are seen as a real life example here. 

A male with a severe tibial fracture

One thing that monsters are renowned for is the way they move, the way that their limbs and bones don't seem to fit correctly into their bodies. Its for this reason that I found the above picture to be so important. A monster that walks as a normal functioning human being is less likely to be as scary or unnerving as one that is able to walk despite its misshapen limbs, showing that it either does not feel pain or simply does not care that its bones are so deformed.

Face

Obviously when creating a monster or any creature for that matter, almost all the attention goes towards the face (if it even has one). The face of a monster can tell the audience an awful lot about the creature itself and its intentions. Is it meat eating? Nocturnal? Does it symbolise the death of a characters family member or lover? The following images are of what I found to be extremely interesting in the make up and design of my creatures initial sketches:

Real photo taken of a man who's face as been mangled, cause of injury not stated.

The first thing I noticed to be a reoccurring factor with monster faces is the lack of distinguishable features. Creating a monster who cannot express its emotions or intentions creates extreme anxiety and unease within the audience. Monsters with similar traits include the "Bubble Head Nurses" of Silent Hill.

Wet specimen of half of a childs head. 

A lot of the creatures that we see in games and films are often directly symbolic of disturbing events that have either happened to the character in their life or the characters own thought process. Many monsters utilise the shock factor of seeing a horrific monster in the shape of a child or infant. Dante's Inferno "Unbaptised babies" show similar characteristics, they are infants who have had their arms cut off at the elbow and replaced with blades.

Tertiary Syphilitic Ulceration of the scalp (19th Century)

Something that many creatures fall into in horror games and films is the Uncanny Valley. A monster may in fact look reasonably life like, only something is 'off' about them, something is amiss, it is this feeling of unease when looking at an object or creature under the influence of the uncanny valley that makes audiences so frightful. Such things are used in todays world such as realistic dolls and robots.


I will continue to do research into various elements used in the game and film industry for what makes up a good scary monster. The research itself has actually been quite enjoyable and interesting on a somewhat morbid level and has given me a new insight into how the human body works.
I will use this knowledge to my advantage as I sketch up creature designs.