Do you like being alive? Reaping all of the benefits of life, like
eating food, laughing at funny jokes, being able to watch your choice of infinite media?
Well, if that’s the case, you probably don’t want to run into ANY of the five ridiculous
creatures we’ll be discussing today. Cosmic horror can be a lot of different things,
usually stemming from the style of the ever-present H.P. Lovecraft.
Many creators have taken the idea of cosmic horror and ran with it, mutating it in whatever
sick, twisted way they see fit. And in doing so, they’ve come up with some
fiendish monsters. Monsters that, if you enjoy being alive more
than the idea that death could be so much worse, you’d rather just disappeared.
Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos.
I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and today we’re going to be counting down the
Top 5 Cosmic Horror Monsters Too Dangerous to be Kept Alive.
I’ll be avoiding monsters made specifically by H.P. himself for the sake of variety, so
check out some of our other Lovecraftian videos if that’s your jam.
Before we get started, make sure to give this video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more
unholy abominations. Perfect, let us begin.
NUMBER FIVE: SUTTER CANE Ok. Sutter Cane himself isn’t an eldritch
abomination. He’s a writer. With the power to create
and bring forth eldritch abominations. But isn’t that so much worse than any one
monster? Whereas cosmic horrors usually don’t have
any regard for human life, and can’t be understood in explicit terms, a human with
the ability to summon these horrors is an awful prospect.
Cane commands great control over the minds of people through his writings, and in doing
so weaves a powerful web of brainwashed followers prior to triggering the apocalypse.
Masterminding his plan from the once-fictional town of Hobb’s End, Cane makes it clear
that the public’s belief in his books has awakened an ancient race of Lovecraftian horrors,
and that the delivery of his latest manuscript will seal the world’s fate.
In amongst the many other twists of Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, there is one that
reigns supreme: the entire world is one made by Cane!
Everyone you’ve ever known is just a character created by some uncaring God, fitting pieces
together to create stories. It’s kind of like how Azatoth created everything
in his eternal sleep, and by confronting him about it you could end the world.
It’s a concept that has been visited time and time again, the idea that we’re all
made up by something greater than us, but it’s extra disturbing in Carpenter’s love
letter to Lovecraft because this formless, shapeless being actually turns out to be a
man like anyone else. Something has given him power to create universes,
and to interact with the characters inside them.
If he’s human, though, shouldn’t somebody be able to stop him? Kill him?
Well, that’s also up in the air. If someone were to try, would anything really
happen? Or would greater horrors in less familiar forms appear?
NUMBER FOUR: WINTER LANTERNS If you’re looking for a videogame that embodies
cosmic horror one hundred percent, and isn’t just a “cult-mystery” puzzle game, hop
right into Bloodborne. Set in the fictional gothic London-esque city
of Yharnam, Bloodborne is full of insane, horrifying monsters.
Tentacles, tendrils, werewolves, brainwashed townsfolk, fleshy giants, accursed witches,
you name it. And these monsters aren’t just scary in
concept, they pack one hell of a punch throughout the game.
One wrong move against any of these beasties and they’ll kill your ass dead.
Some are a little more creative in how they do this, though.
One particularly harrowing monster is the Winter Lantern.
Compared to a lot of the other monsters in the game, these creatures are especially cosmic.
They look like giant, rotting brains with gigantic eyes sprouting from their lobes.
A mass of limbs pour from the bottom of their massive heads, allowing them to scuttle across
the ground like a mass of insects supporting a tumor.
Now, their appearance is enough to drive some people to madness, but they have a trick up
their sleeve for those not immediately incapacitated. Anyone in their line of sight will consistently
be harmed by forces unseen, and cause them to go gradually mad over time.
In Bloodborne, this takes the form of the player’s frenzy meter constantly rising.
If you were to encounter one of these in real life, this would likely appear as someone’s
sanity slowly being sapped away. It’s likely that Winter Lanterns are incomprehensible
to humans, and that only people with great resistance to cosmic horror can even be near
one without losing it entirely. Horrifying.
NUMBER THREE: THE BLACK SKULLS Usually I would say demonic biker gangs with
cosmic drugs are wicked cool. However, for the sake of this list, I’ll
say that they are definitely too dangerous to be allowed to continue living.
Hailing from the insane, psychedelic world of Panos Cosmatos’ MANDY, these are some
interdimensional people-eaters that you don’t want to face off against.
Not unless you’ve chugged a handle of vodka while scream-crying and done some of their
galactic cocaine yourself. See, the Black Skulls aren’t your average
biker gang. They have strange, unexplainable powers.
And in order to summon them, you need to provide a sacrifice. And blow on a special horn.
And provide them with some super-strong LSD. It’s a whole thing.
And even then, they’re not really loyal to you. They’re just here to get a job done.
The Black Skulls walk the line between human and monster, and that is part of why they’re
so scary. You can see their human forms, and their human
desires, but there’s something missing. And they’ve become involved with the Children
of the New Dawn, who seek power from another cosmic source.
It’s all very wild. NUMBER TWO: THE CRAWLER
If I have one complaint about the movie adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, it’s
that they left out the underground tower, and the weird creature dwelling within.
To me, that was the creepiest and most intriguing part of the novel.
Sure, there’s a whole world of crossbred monstrosities and lighthouse-dwelling mysteries,
but the blobby, scripture-writing thing in the tower that is most definitely not a staircase
endures. For reasons I don’t think I can explain,
the Crawler writes repetitive, quasi-religious text on the walls of the structure in plant
material. Get too close, and you might inhale some spores,
as the biologist did. What could be more unnerving than accidentally
breathing unknown bio-material while investigating an alien location?
Especially when it seems to have unpredictable effects on your body and mind?
Not much, that’s what. As the book continues, it’s never clear
as to whether the biologist has actually been changed, or if she assumes she is changing
and responds by acting differently. The secrecy of the initial mission doesn’t
help delineate between these two options. As more terrors in Area X are revealed, the
biologist becomes more curious, and less like herself.
Or whatever she thinks herself is. That’s what’s so scary about the crawler:
it would be impossible to know if it was really having any effect on you.
By the time the biologist comes face to face with it, she’s learned so much more about
what’s going on in this strange location, and probably understands even less.
I don’t want to spoil anything, because The Southern Reach Trilogy is a phenomenal
example of cosmic horror literature, so go check it out!
NUMBER ONE: MAHOGANY How can you have a conversation about non-Lovecraft
cosmic horror and leave out Clive Barker? I mean, I’ve done it in the past, but it
was ill-advised! So today the cosmic terror by Clive Barker
that we’ll be discussing is none other than the subway butcher himself: Mahogany.
Now, Mahogany comes with a few footnotes as well.
Like Sutter Cane, he himself is not exactly a cosmic horror.
But what he represents, and who he serves definitely is.
See, in Barker’s short story-turned movie The Midnight Meat Train, we follow the exploits
of a man named Leon. No relation to Resident Evil, unfortunately.
Leon accidentally stumbles upon some forbidden knowledge, and it changes him forever.
See, he thought the subway underneath New York city was scary because of how often it
ran late or was full of people eating their stinky lunches.
But the actual reason it was scary was that it often served as a lunch cart for a race
of hideous abominations that have been there since time immemorial.
He discovers this after encountering a terrifying people-butcher named Mahogany, who slices,
dices, and hangs folks from meat hooks in the underground tunnel system.
If the knowledge that all of this was going on wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse!
After getting into a fight with Mahogany, Leon actually manages to kill him, and ride
the train to it’s terminal stop. It’s here that he meets the conductor, who
cuts out his tongue so he won’t be able to relay this info to anyone.
And now, Leon is the butcher. Yup, he’s gotta kill innocent people and
feed them to the ancient lizard things. And if he doesn’t they’ll just start feeding
themselves during the day. So it falls to poor Leon to become a mystical,
murderous maniac in order to protect the world from the ever present threat.
Like, you definitely want a creature like Mahogany dead, but if you kill him you become
him. And either way, the knowledge of the secret
underground race is now your cross to bear. There’s no winning, here.
And no way out. OUTRO
So! Do you agree with my assessment of these cosmic horrors?
Are there any others that should take top prize? The prize being universally reviled?
Well, make sure you let me know down in the comments!
Speaking of comments, let’s take a look at some of your more holy ones from the TOP
5 SCP MONSTERS TOO DANGEROUS TO BE KEPT ALIVE: Koenraad Schoonjans says “Hey, you know
that peanut head SCP? Some people say it’s reproducing.”
What, like the Baby Peanut that Planters tried to make a viral icon? I’d rather have that
eliminated than any SCP. Berker Sayilgan says “Real number one is
Emperor Palpatine” Too dangerous to be left alive, huh?
Mr. Collins says “End of death one is basically Deadpool”
With less combat acumen, and a lower chance of toilet humour. Otherwise, pretty much.
Tiget2013 says “They should do an SCP card game like Yu Gi Oh or something”
I think a bunch of those are in the works unofficially. Check out the SCP reddit, I
always see people posting mockups in there. Plague Doctor SCP-049 says ‘My cure is most
effective and can cure everything, just it is in a progress.”
Yeah, your cure involves lobotomizing some corpses and leaving them catatonic, so I think
I’ll pass.” And that’s all the time we have for today!
Before I walk the plank over shark infested waters, make sure to give this video a big
thumbs up, and subscribe for more interesting ideas.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.