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| "These classic monsters shall be "Sirs and Lady not appearing on this list." |
But being a Tokustusu fan via Power Rangers and Beetleborgs since I was a kid I’ve always loved creative, creepy and powerful monsters. So for this year I’m going to go over what I consider to be my favorite monsters in fiction. Now there will be some ground rules, only one monster per franchise if needed, they don’t have to be overtly designed to be monsters and their background has to be interesting to me. Also bonus points if they actually do scare me or creep me out which is kind of hard to do. Now keep in mind this is just my list and mostly tend to revolve around things that I’ve already seen or am familiar with so if you don’t see your favorite monster, spook or demon you know why. So let’s start with the fabulous #10.
#10 Kars from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Now while I know that Dio is the most famous villain in the series, is the main threat to the Joestar family and even caused the reset of the universe via his boy toy Enrico what people tend to overlook is how did he even set these events in motion? The stone mask that made him into a vampire that allowed him to live far past his era, and who was the one who created the Mask in the first place? Kars that’s who, so in essence without Kars there would be no Dio. But there’s more to Kars then just the unintended consequences of his actions, as the survivor/destroyer of The Pillar Men he, EsiDsi and Whamu began a campaign to find the Red Stone of Ajha which, combined with a special stone mask would allow the one who uses it to become the Ultimate Life-form without having to make a deal with the Black Arms or create an energy leach with the help of a literally twisted outer monster. Even when he wasn’t the ultimate life form his powers, intellect and skill were no joke. He could grow blades out of his arm which had a lightning fast chain running along it which could cut through anything, he could contort his body to fit in even the smallest crevice and could even survive in extreme temperatures with little to no outer protection.
But when he did become the ultimate life form he was unstoppable, shapeshifting, resistance to sunlight, and he could even use the Ripple to far more devastating effects then even Joseph could manage. Also the thing he did with the squirrel.
Hell he’s technically not even dead, the only way Joesph managed to stop him was to launch himself and Kars into outer space where Kars broke so far through the stratosphere he was sucked into space, becoming completely calcified and eventually stopped thinking only wishing for the death that will never come. Thus proving why I feel Kars is the best monster in Jojo and why Joseph is best Jojo despite him being Josuke’s absentee dad.
#9 The Animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy’s.
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| Yes another mention of FNAF, no still not playing any of them. |
Now that was just the backstory for the original Animatronics because it gets way more complicated from there. I’m talking about possessed puppets, zombies stuck in suits, hallucinations of these Animatronics (which still are my favorite designed versions of them) and even robots that have gone full sky net and stuffed themselves into a human skin just to escape the facility where they were experimented on, and I’m not joking about any of that. But just to make them even more creepy they may be based off of Yokai, to see how here’s a link to a video from Gaijin Goomba who can explain it far better then I could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMQQp7nvUtE
And since at the time of this article there’s talks of a movie about this franchise I doubt that our friends at Fazbears pizza or the Purple Guy will be going away anytime soon. So for those unfortunate souls who work the night shift, watch your step and make sure you don’t see the Golden one, if not you’ll be sorry.
#8 Freddy Kreuger from A Nightmare on Elm Street
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| The man of your dreams, the Springwood slasher, Pizza The Hut's satanic cousin whatever you want to call him you know him by his Christmas sweater, burnt face, dirty fedora and that classic glove. |
The bastard son of 100 maniacs Freddy was a notorious child killer/implied molester who was let off due to a mistake in police procedure. Thus was burnt to death in an act of vigilante justice by the parents of Springwood but survived by making a pact with dream demons to exact revenge by killing their children from the one place where their parents could never protect them, their dreams. So for 8 movies and several comics the Springwood slasher killed the children of Springwood in various sadistic, humorous and brutal ways. For the first two movies his spree was all business though he undoubtedly derived pleasure from his slow torture of his victims. But past Part 3 he starts to get more then a bit silly with an increasingly campy and goofy tone hitting a climax of not scary with Freddy’s Dead the final Nightmare, with such highlights as the Wile e Coyote homage, The wicked Witch of Elm Street, and lest we forget a more shameless plug in for Nintendo then the entirety of “The Wizard”.
And the less we talk about the TV series the better. Granted he did get better with New Nightmare and Freddy Vs Jason but too little too late. The Michael Bay remake certainly didn’t help matters. Hell at this point his most dignified appearance past the movies was Mortal Kombat 9 where it’s all but confirmed that he’s the ruler and master of the Dreamworld which is apparently a realm that’s on Shao Khan’s radar. Sadly the death of Wes Craven back in 2015 means that we may not be graced with the man of our dreams again on the big screen but you can always see him when you hear his ringtone.
#7 Walter Sullivan and his Victims From Silent Hill 4
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| Been a while since we've seen this guy, yes the serial killer with even more messed up Mommy issues then Norman Bates and Sephiroth combined along with his enslaved victims. |
In Silent Hill 4 Tommy Wiesau’s Revenge the main villain; ritualistic serial killer Walter Sullivan was brainwashed and abused by The Order since childhood to learn the 21 Sacraments ritual to resurrect his “mother” Apartment 302. These sacraments in question first consisted of the first 10 victims having their hearts removed after killing them, Walter himself via suicide and lastly the last 10 having to revolve around certain themes and “roles” that are required for the ritual. Oh and it gets better, see when Walter killed himself after his first rampage he was revived as a near invincible Ghost to finish the last of the Sacraments and resurrect his “mother” aka most likely The Order’s god Samael.
Oh and the characters that protagonist Henry Townsend encounters die and become Ghosts that serve Walter and desperately try to kill you. The worst one by far is The Twin Victims monsters, representing the two child victims of Walters first rampage Billy and Miriam Locane which become this horrific demon that walks on its two hands, has two heads that looks like crying babies and when they see you point and whisper “receiver” pointing to Henry’s role as the 21st victim “the receiver of wisdom”, nothing short of nightmare inducing.
The actual Ghosts are nothing to sneeze at either, Cynthia becomes something out of The Grudge, Jasper becomes a drunk Human Torch, Andrew (the only one you have to pin down but that’s for later) is a bloated, singing wrecking ball and Richard is a teleporting Electro. There’s other ghosts too but the ones Henry meets are the most unique and most troublesome. Not only can they all hurt you by just being near you but the only way to get rid of them is to pin them with a Sword of Obedience, and guess what? There’s more Ghosts then Swords in the game so you’re going to be stuck with some of them no matter what!
Not to mention Walter himself, when you first encounter him he does nothing but leave behind a cursed doll. Benign at first but when you start the second half of the game he occasionally pops up in a level and will chase you down relentlessly! And when he finds you he’ll duel wield guns and try to gun you down like he was Revolver Ocelot and as far as I can remember the only way to get rid of him is to warp back to Room 302. So an annoying invincible Ghost and his victims trying to kill you in order to resurrect a demon, Walter Sullivan definitely seems like a particular homeless guy that you may want to give a spare 5 bucks too, it may just save your life.
#6 The Heartless from Kingdom Hearts.
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| Never before have the legions of evil been so cute. Get the plushies now at your local Disney store/ Hot Topic! |
But there’s also the Nobodies which should really have their names switched but that’s what happens when what was supposed to be a one shot game becomes a massive success and the demand for sequels crops up, expanded lore tends to just be cobbled together and not everything is going to make sense. But back to the Heartless there are two types, The Purebloods which are naturally created Heartless, they show less cartoony and colorful designs and just look like pure manifestations of evil; save for the Shadows, they just look kind of cute. The second types are Emblem Heartless named after the distinct Emblems these Heartless have somewhere on their bodies. Emblems were the result of Xehanort’s experiments trying to artificially recreate the process by which hearts become Heartless. These Emblems are often themed around certain motifs related to a specific world, like for example Halloween town has spooky monster themed Heartless like the Wright Knight and Gargoyles while Agrabah has Bandits, Fat Bandits and other Arabian themed Heartless.
While these guys are not exactly what you’d call scary their variety in design and powers on top of their downright horrifying origin makes them an impressive menace to plague the world of the Kingdom Hearts universe. Though if you want to see creatures that do the “manifestations of pure darkness” thing with a more serious (and better executed) tone that’s what part two of this list is for. So for my honorable mentions and the rest of the proper list join me next time, if you’d be so kind?
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Five Nights at Freddy's is owned and created by Scott Cawthon.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is propriety of Hirohiko Araki, David Production, Tokyo MX, Warner Bros Entertainment and Viz Media.
Silent Hill 4: The Room is propriety of Konami Computer entertainment. #FucKonami
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is owned by Wes Craven, New Line Cinema, Media Home Entertainment and Smart Egg Pictures.
