- 10 minutes ago
Filmmakers often hide their monsters in shadow to build suspense, but what if we could see them in full detail? Using original concept art and descriptions from the source material, we reveal the complete designs of beasts like the Djinn, the Dianoga, and other hidden horrors.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00There's something about the unknown that makes it that much more eerie,
00:03with only subtle hints given as to what monstrous reality lurks at the edges of the screen.
00:09Search long enough and you can find the true forms of your monsters beneath all their secretive
00:14flourishes, with everything from Lovecraftian lore to holiday horrors hiding behind the cinema
00:20curtains. Not knowing might have seemed like the scariest tactic a film can employ, but that is
00:26easy to say when you haven't seen what's really hiding underneath. Sometimes ignorance really is
00:30bliss, folks. Because I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture, and here are hidden monsters,
00:35and what they really look like. Arachne Lobster, The Mist
00:38Full of creepy crawlies and trans-dimensional space beings, there's all sorts dwelling in
00:44the mist that we never really get a good look at. Half the magic of having a world covered in
00:48a thick layer of cloudy white comes from not really knowing what's in it, and director Frank Darabont
00:53plays into that admirably with creations like the tentacle from Plant X and the Behemoth,
00:58but it's the Arachne Lobster that stands out as truly unknowable. Appearing only in silhouette to
01:05slice Ollie in half, we never get a good look at what's behind the pincers. Stephen King's
01:10source novella gives a better indication in the following passage, though.
01:14It appeared to be red, the angry colour of a cooked lobster. It had claws. I caught a nightmare
01:20glimpse of huge, black, lusterless eyes, the size of giant handfuls of sea grapes,
01:26and then the thing lurched back into the mist with what remained of Ollie Weeks in its grip.
01:30A long, multi-segmented scorpion's body dragged harshly on the paving.
01:35Even better is the concept art, where you can really get a feel for this thing's deadly set
01:40of weapons. Mostly a mouth full of hellish teeth that you'd have never guessed were there from the
01:46screened clips alone. Just look at those things. The Djinn, The Witcher.
01:50Technically, The Witcher unabashedly shows The Djinn in its entirety in the clip it appears in during
01:56the TV show's run. With the Netflix series following the titular Witcher, Geralt of Rivia,
02:01a mutated man that hunts monsters, we encounter a handful of the beasts that he's tasked with taking
02:07down, and a few that he bumps into on his perilous adventures too. One such creature is the Djinn,
02:13a magical entity that grants three wishes and takes loosely the form of swirling smoke,
02:19able to be bottled and imprisoned if captured correctly. But what does a Djinn really look like?
02:24Well, I'm glad you asked. If we look to the Islamic mythology that brings them to life,
02:29they can be perceived as formless humanoid fire. They're spiritual beings neither inherently good
02:35or bad, and often associated with demons. Of course, one of the most popular realizations
02:41of them comes in Aladdin's genie. But in real-world lore, they can take the form of animals,
02:47and are commonly associated with serpents, though black dogs also crop up often too.
02:52They can anthropomorphize into human-like creatures, but retain animal features too,
02:58making them malleable spirits that you'd soon spot should they be mixed up in human society.
03:03There's realizations of the strange, inhuman form of djinns in B-movies from Clash of the Titans to
03:10Netflix originals. And whilst the witcher's form is a different, secretive one, it's not necessarily
03:16wrong, it's just a different interpretation of the mythological beings. Dianoga Star Wars A New Hope
03:22Now, the Dianoga definitely does feel like a bit of a strange one to include here since we do actually
03:27see the creature in Star Wars A New Hope. But for those unaware, this that we see is just the
03:32tip of
03:33a far more perilous beast lurking under the surface. The Dianoga of A New Hope is a carnivorous,
03:40tentacled, sentient cephalopod looking for a snack on Luke Skywalker. But it's more than just a single
03:46eyestalk, folks. Revealed after the movie came out to be a female Dianoga named Omi. How lovely. She's
03:53actually 10 meters long, with a whole load of tentacles writhing away under the trash compactor's
03:58surface, joined to one giant, gaping maw lined with toothy spines. Lovely. She also had purple,
04:06chameleon-like skin that adapts to her surroundings, and that is useful. A full picture and breakdown of
04:12Dianogas was revealed in The Wildlife of Star Wars A Field Guide, with the species appearing
04:17continually amongst the canon in imagery and communications alike. Omi is the equivalent of
04:22a giant space squid, basically. And much more than what one pokey eyestalk suggests when we're
04:28first shown her in the movies. Thunderbird Lost Tapes
04:31Lost Tapes was a little cult TV series that delved into the dark world of cryptozoology.
04:38And what is cryptozoology, you ask? Why, it's a pseudoscience that looks at creatures from mythology
04:43and folklore, and argues their existence based on anecdotal evidence. So now you know.
04:48Creatures like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot are some of the most famous examples,
04:53with no local legend too strange to be snapped up by the mockumentary series and turned into schlocky
04:59entertainment. Creating fictional accounts of such monsters was Lost Tapes' speciality,
05:04with only a few never making a full appearance on screen in some horrifying, nightmare-inducing manner.
05:10The Thunderbird was one of the rare creatures to not get a physical feature,
05:15instead depicted as scooping up a young boy for a meal over a phone call with chilling noises alone.
05:21The reality is that Lost Tapes doesn't need to show the Thunderbird on screen.
05:26From the reports of the creature and Native American legend, we know it's a massive bird with a wingspan
05:31over 100 feet. That flaps so powerfully it's rumoured to create thunder. Or at the very least,
05:37thunderous wind. Thunder just sounds better though. Most commonly described to look like a pterosaur,
05:42but more feathered. It's bald head and massive size appears prehistoric. It's enough to make
05:48anyone reconsider heading into the woods anytime soon at the very least. There go my weekend plans.
05:53So obviously this list is talking about monsters that you don't really see. But you know what,
05:57I'm curious. I want to know right now in the comments section below what is the scariest monster
06:01that you have seen. Just throw it in there. We'll have some fun. The Thing. The Thing. Now I know
06:06what
06:06you're thingin'. The Thing from The Thing is hardly a hidden movie monster, is it? As we see it
06:12amargumate people to its little alien heart content as it rattles through an Antarctic research base,
06:19turning humans and dogs alike into fine fleshy pulp. But have you ever stopped to think about what it
06:24really started off as? Well, you have now. Yes, we witness its grotesque warping of everything around
06:30it. But the Thing never shows us where it started off. The monster we see is simply a warped disguise,
06:36at best, really. The Thing itself is actually based on a science fiction novella titled Who Goes There?
06:42And our good friend and author John W. Campbell Jr. is not as shrewd with his secrets as the film
06:48adaptations have been. In fact, here we get a pretty clear description of what the monster is
06:53outside of its adaptive abilities. Or at least what it was before humans found it.
06:57The broken half of the bronze ice axe was still buried in the queer skull.
07:02Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood,
07:08from a face ringed with writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue mobile worms that crawled where hair
07:15should grow. This idea was actually taken for the 2011 movie, and implemented in deleted scenes that
07:22implied the Thing had assimilated an alien life-form to fly its ship to our planet.
07:28That's pretty interesting.
07:29Cheers for checking out this list today, you hopefully not hidden monster you, yeah?
07:34Even if you are a monster, hit that subscribe button and enjoy more WhatCulture videos in
07:38your life. Now back to this one, Joyce Buffy the Vampire Slayer
07:42Many, many, many, many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer live permanently in the collective
07:47memory of its fans. But there is only one that can elicit such a hushed silence upon the very
07:54mention of its title. That is The Body. Yeah, see?
07:58Far from the high-kicking, pony-tailed action that the show was known for, the episode simply
08:03revolves around the discovery of Buffy's mother dead in her home. No dramatic murder, no heroic send-off,
08:10simply a woman found on her own couch. It's a TV moment that's still talked about today.
08:15However, unable to deal with the grief and the senseless feeling of loss,
08:20Dawn goes against the wishes of her sister and casts a spell to bring her back from the dead.
08:25From there, we see a pair of legs, they stagger back to the Summer's family home,
08:30a silhouette passes by the window, and the doorknob slowly begins to turn. The refusal to show us
08:36Joyce reanimated still fills viewers with this sickening dread though. A woman whose normality
08:42and strength had been the steady rock the show had built its supernatural elements around,
08:47now herself transformed into… something. It was not knowing precisely what she had become
08:53which terrified fans. It was a question that, either mercifully or tragically,
08:58depending on your viewpoint, looked like it would never be answered, as Dawn comes to her senses and
09:03breaks the spell before we get a look at her. However, the heartbreaking truth of the matter is that,
09:09after Buffy herself returns from death without any major issues, we can assume that Joyce 2 would
09:14have been absolutely fine. That door would have opened, and standing behind it would have been
09:19the mother we all knew and loved. Just a little soily, that's all. Blair Witch, the Blair Witch Project.
09:26And now for something a little bit different, because why not? Instead of an outright look at what
09:30this monster really is, this is an entry that rules out what she isn't. Since the confused mythology of
09:36the films and wider lore has given quite the false impression of who the Blair Witch appears as.
09:42Never physically cropping up in the original movie, the later 2016 sequel decides to upend the unspoken
09:48rule of invisibility, and deliver a monstrous look at what the Witch could be. A stretched out,
09:54pale, impossibly tall creature, more akin to films like Wreck and The Grudge than A True Witch. Or at
10:00least that's what audiences initially thought. It turns out that writer Simon Barrett wanted his
10:05iteration of the Witch to utilize her victims' bodies to terrify those that came into her woods.
10:11With the long-limbed monster a direct play on Ellie Kedward's body, but not necessarily
10:16indicting her as the Witch. Barrett believes that the Witch came before Kedward, stating the mythology
10:22predating her was a part of his construction in the film. The Blair Witch uses her victims as puppets,
10:28then. And there's been no true form actually revealed in any of the movies, and likely none ever to
10:34be discovered thanks to this devious ability. Who she is, and what she is, will forever remain a
10:40mystery then. Spooky stuff.
10:42Reavers Firefly
10:43We really never did get to see the Reavers of Firefly in their full form whilst the series aired.
10:49Stifled at 14 episodes and never to be seen again on the small screen, the crew of the Serenity were
10:55Joss Whedon's baby lost to the evils of Fox. Like so many pure things in this world, Reavers in the
11:02truncated Firefly TV series where a presence felt far more than they were seen. We get to witness
11:07their ships and one victim turn insane after being captured by the space cannibals in the third
11:12episode. But seeing these terrifying monsters up close does not happen until the movie fans
11:17demanded when the show got axed. Zoe's line is the closest we really get, and even that was too close
11:22for comfort. If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins
11:27into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order. Geez.
11:33Serenity does not hold back on its depiction of them then, crafting a story with the Reavers at the
11:38center, and pitting River Tam against a horde that she carves through with animalistic ease.
11:44Covered in blood with sharpened teeth jutting out, and hulking powerful frames to tear their prey apart
11:50with, it is no wonder that these creatures were bloody kept in the dark. Mothman, the Mothman
11:57A mythological creature that has been adopted into urban legend, the Mothman got his own
12:02movie made in 2002 that explored his prophetic appearances across West Virginia back in the 60s.
12:09Appearing physically only in scrawled drawings and describing himself when asked what he looks
12:14like as it depends on who's looking, there's plenty of mystery surrounding the winged menace
12:19of Point Pleasant without much to actually witness. But the legend had to be born from somewhere, right?
12:24The quote-unquote true accounts of the Mothman all agree that he's a giant man with wings and
12:31glowing red eyes. Described to the local paper as being about 6 or 7 feet tall, having a wingspan of
12:3710 feet and red eyes about 2 inches in diameter and 6 inches apart. Very specific.
12:43He's also widely agreed that he's averse to light, wanting to get away from headlights and other sources
12:48as much as he seems to want to bother strangers on winding roads at night.
12:52Whilst he doesn't have a definitive form, there's definitely enough to go on to get an idea for
12:57what this secret movie monster really goes around looking like. And he does in fact have his own
13:02statue to honour this legendary status too. Replete with half-man, half-moth features of course.
13:08How majestic.
13:10Midnight Entity Doctor Who
13:12Doctor Who is full of mysterious, interdimensional creatures and aliens beyond most people's wildest
13:19imagination. And when it veers into full monster territory, it really knows how to hammer the
13:24scare home. In episodes like The Empty Child and with creations like The Silence and The Ood,
13:30Doctor Who really does shine. But it's midnight that has haunted fans' dreams long after watching.
13:36The entity of the episode is never named, never known, and has not since been revealed. It takes
13:43over a passenger named Skye and makes her repeat anything she hears, before slowly talking at the
13:50same time and then eventually stealing the Doctor's voice and using it to convince the others that he's
13:55possessed and must be killed. It is simple psychological horror done at its finest. But that still doesn't
14:02tell us what we're dealing with. Truthfully, we have no confirmed knowledge of what it looks like,
14:06but a popular fan theory is that the Midnight Entity is actually a TARDIS. That's right,
14:12just like the police box that Who is famous for. Except this entity would be one that has had its
14:17outer casing destroyed by the radiation of Planet Midnight, and was attacking the Doctor in an
14:23attempt to get someone capable of piloting it away from the surface of the planet it was stuck on.
14:28Now of course, TARDISes are able to change their appearance at will, but their default state is
14:33actually a simple silver cylinder. So just imagine an oversized deodorant pulling the
14:37strings next time you're feeling a bit unnerved by midnight. Ah, that's better.
14:41COSMIC CREATURES BIRDBOX
14:44Netflix's Bird Box tells the story of Mallory, a pregnant woman caught up in an apocalyptic
14:49event caused by hidden cosmic creatures, as she tries to survive violence and suicidal tendencies
14:56taking over anyone that accidentally peeps at the mysterious monster's true form.
15:01Of course, we never know what that is, knowing only that they appear as the individual's own
15:06worst fear, and can be glimpsed in various Lovecraftian shapes drawn by an illustrative
15:12madman. But as you already know from the title of this list, that wasn't always what we were going to
15:16get, folks. Director Suzanne Beer was pushed by a producer to film a scene that gave the creatures a
15:21tangible look, resulting in Sandra Bullock filming against a green man with a horrific baby face,
15:28which was revealed in its full glory in an Instagram post by the SFX artist.
15:33The idea was for Mallory's personal brand of scares to originate from her pregnancy,
15:38but the snake baby made Bullock laugh far more than it made her fear for her life.
15:42Taking the L, the producers let up and allowed Beer to craft her film,
15:46with its mysterious entities remaining a secret. Still, knowing what's actually haunting the characters
15:51on screen is a bit of a boner killer for the scares, to be honest, despite how well made it
15:56is.
15:57EXTRATERRESTRIALS AMERICAN HORROR STORY
15:59Appearing throughout Season 2 of American Horror Story, the extraterrestrials aren't given a name
16:04during their tenure as television antagonists. Now, to be fair, it's not even certain that they
16:08are antagonists. Instead, they're seeded as a quote-unquote metaphor for God, and used to enact
16:15mysterious happenings as a subplot that we never really get a grip on the full extent of.
16:19Strange motives aside, however, these alien beings are experimental scientists that love taking
16:26babies out of people and sticking them back in, amongst a whole host of other unknowably
16:30weird pastimes that freak the inhabitants of Briarcliff Asylum out. They have to look at least
16:34a bit weird to match up with this otherworldly horror then, which we see in part with their
16:39distinctly genitalia-like faces. Whether that slit on their face is a mouth or a nose, we do not know,
16:45nor do we want to, really. The rest of the alien form is left in the shadows, though,
16:50with only silhouettes and light play revealing small parts of the whole. Until artist Jurad S.
16:56Marant revealed the concept for the creatures on his blog, at least. The actual image of what these
17:01monstrous interplanetary fellows look like is far scarier than simple slots and tentacles, folks,
17:07with four arms and a body looking like it was crafted from pulled chewing gum. No wonder everyone was so
17:12on
17:12edge around these oddballs? You ain't unseeing them.
17:14Santa Claus, Rare Exports, A Christmas Tale
17:18Whilst Rare Exports might claim to feature good ol' Saint Nick as its central MacGuffin,
17:23THAT Santa Claus is not the jolly holiday maker we're familiar with, people. Despite being the
17:29motivating force for the Sub-Zero company to start up their dig in Lapland, Santa Claus is not seen
17:35throughout the movie, instead relegated to a block of ice with only his horns peeping out when we finally
17:40get a sight of him. Now of course, this is actually Yolupuki, the original pagan figure taken and
17:46moulded into the legend of Santa Claus as we know him today, and known as the Yule Goat in Finland.
17:52So with all this in mind, and with his penchant for whipping and placement of naughty children in
17:57cauldrons that is discussed in the movie, our Rare Exports Santa bears many similarities to classic
18:03Krampus. If that's the case, it's a good job we don't have to look at his evil presence in the
18:07movie,
18:08lest he strike fear in the hearts of kids and adults like myself the world over.
18:13Krampus is most often said to have cloven hooves, large curving horns, fangs, and a rolling tongue,
18:20as well as a hairy body. He carries chains or a whip to dish out punishment to naughty children,
18:26and carries them off to hell when he's not stuck in a giant ice cube. Basically he's a big ol'
18:31nasty
18:31goat with a Christmas coat on. Now there is an image.
18:33Mysterons, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
18:37Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often just known as Captain Scarlet in later years,
18:42was that puppet helm TV show your dad loves that came after Thunderbirds,
18:46using super marionation to depict the big bad captain and his pals as they defend against
18:52Martian warfare. The titular Mysterons are the inhabitants of Mars, threatening to get their
18:57revenge for human attacks on their home planet, appearing throughout the series as a disembodied
19:02voice and occasionally an ominous light. Their true form was decided to be kept a secret,
19:08for reasons unknown. Perhaps they were better utilised as an invisible threat. Perhaps there
19:13wasn't budget for big bad aliens from light years away. Or perhaps they were just too damn terrifying
19:18to ever let audiences cast their eyes upon them, for fear of never being the same again.
19:23Or perhaps they were giant crystalline sugar cubes that bounced around like the testicle aliens from
19:28Futurama. The Mysterons appeared in their full physical glory in a comic strip in the 60s,
19:35adapted from the television series into dodecahedrons of doom. Appearing as nothing more than sentient
19:42dice in the comic, it suddenly makes a whole lot of sense why we never saw them on TV. Mysterons,
19:47keep your mysteries. The Long-Clawed Alien The X-Files
19:51The X-Files, despite ostensibly being a show about aliens, very rarely actually featured any,
19:58you know, aliens. Across its 218 episode long run, the monster of the week trope saw us tangling with
20:05boogeymen, poltergeists, werethingies, reverse vampires, and all manner of beasties that go bump
20:12in both the night and overcast Washington afternoons. The overarching narrative about the apparently
20:18trivial alien conquest of Earth, though, was reserved for special occasions. In fact,
20:23even when we did get a visit from the show's little green men, or in this case, little grey men,
20:28we weren't exactly afraid of taking the spotlight. If anything, ruining the mystery that normally
20:32accompanies visitors from other worlds. But making even rarer appearances still were the colonists'
20:38ancillary guises slash cocoon forms. The Long-Clawed Alien, featuring prominently in only a solitary
20:45episode, The Beginning, which was the premiere of season six and immediately followed the first
20:50movie, one of the creatures is barely visible as it hides out in a nuclear power plant, killing an
20:56employee named Homer just for good boy-popping easter egg measure. We get a solitary silhouette,
21:02as seen here, and a few glimpses of its claws. But production shots from the movie reveal the beast in
21:09all of its grisly extraterrestrial horror. Piercing black eyes, thick reptilian skin,
21:15and a permanent facial expression of I'd like to see your space manager.
21:19That is some creepy stuff right there. Yep, good luck going to sleep tonight.