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There is a shadow lurking across cultures. An eternal struggle to depict ultimate evil. How can we, with our limited means of comprehension and storytelling, portray true darkness, make fear physical?
What is the face of the most terrifying monster we can fathom?
0:00 The Most Terrifying Monster
0:48 The Devil You Know
3:31 The Lich’s Oblivion
5:09 The Coldest Inferno
6:26 O’Dimm & The Strange Man
8:20 A Gentle Horror
9:47 Alas, Father of Darkness
12:12 Shadow of the Erdtree
13:46 The Pale Horseman
16:20 Absolute Darkness
18:07 Yeah, But…
20:09 The Answer to Ricky’s Riddles
Media Shown:
Adventure Time, The Witcher III, Häxan, Diablo II, Cuphead, World of Warcraft, Futurama, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, Mound, Ready or Not, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, Onibaba, Hellboy, Hellboy 2, Krampus, Psycho, Ferngully, Samurai Jack, L’Inferno, Faust, Dracula, Dragon Quest III HD, Tenacious D, Legend, Smiling Friends, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Animaniacs, Cuphead, The Simpsons, The Godess of Spring, Darksiders, Night of the Hunter, Dante’s Inferno, Fantasia (Night on Bald Mountain), The Emperor’s New Groove, Wizard of Oz, The Dark Knight, Deep Impact, Gods of Egypt, 2012, What If…?, Godzilla, Godzilla (2014), Satan’s Waiting, Sonic X Shadow: Generations, Game of Thrones, Thor Ragnarok, Red Dead: Redemption, House on Haunted Hill, Nosferatu, Wrath of the Titans, This is the End, The Legend of Korra, Diabel, Doom Eternal, Silence of the Lambs, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Elden Ring, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Coda, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Castlevania, Metropolis, The Void, Vemon: The Last Dance, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Berserk: The Golden Age, The Seventh Seal, Monty Python and the Meaning of Life, The Lord of the Rings, Elder Scrolls Online, God of War 3, Gravity Falls, Frankenstein, Clash of the Titans, Final Space, Super Friends, The Grim Adventure of Billy & Mandy, Time Bandits, XCOM
Thumbnail Image – Necro Mary by Billelis
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music Used – Gaunter O’Dimm Theme (The Witcher III), Burning Man (World of Goo), Your Body Betrays Your Degeneracy (Disco Elysium), The Saint of the Bud (Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree), Left 4 Dead (Left 4 Dead), The Timefall (Death Stranding), Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven), Main Theme (Sons of the Forest), The Path to the Door (Dredge), The New Century (Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs), Nameless Song (Dark Souls), Knight Gael (Dark Souls III), Promise (Okami), Die Toteninsel emptiness (Signalis), The One Who Craves Souls (Demon Souls), Sword Search on Koholint Island (Zelda: Link’s Awakening)
♫ Additional music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sources:
“The Concept of Evil” by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/
“Monsters and the Moral Imagination” by Stephen T. Asma https://www.storymagazine.org/monsters-and-the-moral-imagination/
“How Ingmar Bergman masterpiece ‘The Seventh Seal’ teaches us to accept death” by Jude Leese: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ingmar-bergman-the-seventh-seal-accept-death/
“The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology” by Arthur Cotterell & Rachel Storm
“Mythology of Typhon” by Liana Miate: https://www.worldhistory.org/Typhon/
“Mythology of Cronus” by Liana Miate: https://www.worldhistory.org/Cronus/
source
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No monster worse than the ones we make, what other creature do we know of that can even contemplate something like Death & amplify that concept in all sorts of art & expression
I thought of Mr. The Plague from The Fifth Element, and enjoyed how It devoured on a cosmic scale and instilled fear intimately as seen by interaction with Zorg.
I thought of Hannibal Lecter especially as depicted in the TV series. He is so self-assured, confident, skillful, gorgeous, and compelling it at times masks the extreme cruelty and sadism of his murderous pastimes. He elevates his evil to artistry and tries to make it disappear by equating his self with forces of nature or by making God seem just as evil. An agent of Death and torment who appreciates Life and doesn’t fear dying. Captivating and terrifying.
I thought of The Enigma of Amigara Fault — the notion that we may be compelled, mysteriously to do something that leads to our inexorable torment and almost complete annihilation of our self and yet we somehow persist in our agony. A terrifying metaphor for the depths of suffering available to us in this world and hinting at the possible lack of reprieve even unto death.
Which brought to mind Stephen King’s novel Revival, where we discover a plane of existence where the curtain of the afterlife is drawn back, we peer in, and see endless agony for all. No salvation. No escapes. Torment. Forever. So enjoy life now if you can.
Some thoughts and visions of evil and fear that came to mind listening to your video essay.
this video is just about donald trump and elon musk
Not to get philosophical, but the face of the most terrifying monster one can fathom will always be the one looking at you from the mirror.
The one entity with which you always struggle, that haunts you when you're alone, that conjures your greatest nightmares.
The arbiter of your actions and agency, yourself. Everything you fear most deeply, is born from the human mind to begin with. We are a factory to our own worst nightmares.
EDIT: Similarly, I would argue "choice" is the greatest evil.
1.Unknown
2. Dopplegangers
3. Almost humans
This was an awesome video! I enjoyed it! Thank you!
I think Todd from Breaking Bad did it really well. Looked completely normal, always talked calmly, and did inanely evil things with the exact same delivery as he did everything else on screen. He killed people the same way he ate a sandwich or said hello.
if you ask me the scariest monster of all is you,us,we who can imagine such horrors it is mankind it is humans they who do horrors beyond words to there own
I think it would be the darkness, as immense as it is, because of the fear of what could be or be within it and because it will always accompany us even in the death of all things. Darkness will always come before light.
The ultimate evil is the idea of cosmic dictatorship ran by a genocide commiting, stone age blood sacrifice wanting, gods of the fantasy religions people make up and their disgusting ideas of infinite suffering for finite crimes. There is no monster in any book or movie that comes even close to the monsters of religions widely ironicaly viewed as the good ones 😆🤡
Crossed.
The infected are the most definitive depiction of evil ive seen. A total loss of humanity. The ability for a human to USE another human, like meat or a toy, not out of malice but out of a sense of I want this so I do this. I HATE Crossed.
To me the most scariest thing I have ever read about is Mr Mole from the book the underbody.
Most terrifying death is from puss in boots the last wish
I've had a lot of oddly based anxiety recently (without going into it, I'm having problems sleeping due to an event in 2021 which gave me PTSD).
I believe this anxiety is due to me taking some new medication for a neurological issue I have.
Anyway, I've tried a few times to have a nap during the day (I'm sleeping very lightly for maybe 4 hours a night right now, so in that constant state of exhaustion).
What I've seen when I close my eyes has terrified me. I'm not seeing single images, but rather a collection of rapid fire images that shape shifts multiple times a second.
Imagine the biblical accurate image of an angel, followed by hundreds of other images (gargoyles, horned creatures, faces that are half eaten) every few seconds, all flying towards me, constantly.
Every time I close my eyes I'm confronted with this at the moment.
You know that uncomfortable feeling in your body and you have to physically shake to get the sense of dread away, only for it to return immediately? That's my experience right now.
Hopefully, this will ease as I'm more than sure it's some hideous side effect of this medication I've started (and now stopped taking).
A personal ideal of what is the most terrifying "monster" I can imagine is what lays just outside the realm of imagination. Over the last nearly 5 decades of television, film, comics, and video games, it has become harder and harder to view something that is that definitive monster of terror. I know my answer sounds like a cop out type answer. However, think of the things that you personally would not do. Things you wouldn't say. Things that successfully remove you from your comfort zone and place you in a dark and foreboding state that shivers you to your bones. A state that becomes a long trek back to what you would call a state of mind that is balanced and comfortable. That is what terrorizes me. That is what I fear. That is the monster that represents true terror. The facelessness of our deepest fears and horrors that help define us as "good people". The thing that we give shape in our various forms of media.
Admittedly reading this prior to hitting "comment", it comes of as what this video has discussed. For that, I thoroughly enjoyed the video.
human…its human…us….its us
By the end of this video, I was hoping you were going to show a photo of Rosie O'Donnell in a two piece bathing suit.
Bruh
î see, you don´t know my ex-wife or my boss.
Distance from God
That’s the answer
i think that "kenjaku" from JJK is a good choice, he isn't the MOST terrifying but hes pretty damn creepy and evil
Something like werewolves, or the xenomorph. Creatures somewhat human, and yet so different at the same time. Like human intelligence in the mind of a beast.
One that can't be reasoned with.
It moves in the dark, and does so unpredictably, stalking you. Figuring out your patterns while you struggle to do the same.
It preys firstly on your psychology, and then punishes you for the mistakes you make out of fear.
I love how he's using Romina's theme from Elden Ring as background music, took a like from me
John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a good choice. It can be anyone you love or any horror it shapes itself to be. Even its freaking blood is scary. Just one cell can convert you to it.
The ones who afraid of death, never encounter love and lost it
You were having sleepovers at 5 or 6 years old?
The flood from halo is pretty scary
This is definitely a topic I've debated with myself a lot over the years, but to finally have a concrete discussion with other ideas of an ultimate evil. It really does. Like you said, come down to a matter of perspective. Personally, the scariest things to me growing up as a kid were zombies. And I think the reason why is aside from their flesh eating tendencies, because they represent the force of nature that you described, and yet they are given a veil of humanity. But the difference is that zombies, much like natural disasters, are impersonal and without thought behind it. In some ways, I think that my biggest fear is the indifference of nature. There's no malice or hate, just unfortunate circumstances of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And while it may be my biggest fear, it is not evil. What evil is to me is someone/something that plans to cause harm on a personal or massive scale, all the while doing it in a manner where the actions of the individual or the group lead to the desired outcome of the perpetrator all within their machinations and if they do it beneath a shroud of divinity then it makes it all the more vile. The best example of this is from one of my most beloved franchises in gaming. The Legacy of Kain series. Voiced by Tony Jay, the Elder God encapsulates this idea perfectly. It is a truly wonderful franchise that I highly suggest anyone check out. Especially with the remasters of it having just been released not too long ago.
What's the pretty guys?!
Before I finish the video, I really hope it mentions Tomie from Junji Ito's works. It wouldn't be complete without it.
the smile monster does it for me, or the boiled one. its just… horryfying
For me I think of creatures like IT or Freddy Krueger being the most scary cause you can´t run away from them once they start hunting you. They are going to be with you forever, torturing you with the things you fear the most, playing with you until they feel you are ripe enough to become their "meal". Even if we translate this to the real world, one of the most fearful enemies we can get is the obsessives narcists one that could have been a good friend or love interest.
While I understand this video focuses on the "form" of a monster, fear outside of primordial fear is the product of imagination. A lack of control and a lack of understanding causes the mind to attempt to fill in the gaps and generates personal fear. Horror games do a great job of this with uncanny imagery, withholding of information, and strategic removal of control. I am a little surprised to see such few references to horror in this video. Good horror, bridges all levels of fear, from existential, to primal, to personal. I cannot say what the most terrifying is, but pretty much any competent horror game (many of which are indie) has a candidate within them, which is why I don't partake.
Some time ago when I had an interest in game design I remember reading two articles on the subject that I'd recommend to anyone trying to elicit that in a game.
* "Fear of The Unknown" (3 parts) by Luis Guimaraes
* "Revival Horror: New Idea in Fear Making" by Michael Thomsen
Even these though I'm sure merely touch the surface. I suspect you are right in that there is no 100% universal conception of fear. I do have friends that react with disbelief to a lack of understanding rather than fear. Convincing someone to engage their imagination may be a critical piece of the process.
SPOILERS:
The Man in the Wall/ The indifference from Warframe is definitely up there. Imagine, if you will, that a functionally immortal scientist, in a quest for both purpose and recognition, creates a doorway. Beyond the door he finds a realm that appears to be almost a photo negative of our own. Space is blinding white with twinkling black stars. The Void. Unbeknownst to him, one of the properties of the void is "conceptual embodiment" The void manifests thoughts and emotions into reality. As he steps through to explore the void from the safety of his glass "diving bell" it touches the edge of the doorway and shatters. Suddenly overcome with panic, the void begins to manifest all his worst fears as one being. He looks up to see a creature that looks identical to himself, but with an impossibly wide, rictus grin on its face. He flees back through the doorway, but then remarks that he can never be sure whether it was him, or the entity that came back through.