Not-So-Sexy Monsters

Copperfox

Well-known member
Human imagination actually HAS come up with other monsters _besides_ vampires and werewolves.

For instance, in Japan, they imagined humanoid monsters called Kappa, which lived in swamps, and which might be anything from harmlessly mischievous to murderously cruel. Each Kappa had a hollow in the top of its head, which contained water from its home swamp. The Kappa (note, Japanese has no plural form of nouns) were both very strong physically, and able to use magic spells. In fact, they were virtually unbeatable... except for their one weakness: if they lost the water from their head-hollow, they instantly became powerless.

If anyone seeing this is familiar with the _Chinese_ legend of the Monkey King, the Japanese also love this legend. In it, the Monkey King "tames" several monsters and makes them join him on his spiritual mission to help spread Buddhism. The Japanese once produced a Monkey King television series (live actors, not animation), in which they featured a Kappa as one of the converted monsters.

Speaking of the Monkey King: the one movie I know of in which kung-fu stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li appeared _together_ was a fantasy which involved the Monkey King legend.
 
In Iceland Santa Claus is a monster. They have 12 thieving Santa Clauses that descend from the mountains and steal from you at Christmas time. I guess he's more or less like a troll in Norway. At least, this is what my Icelandic girl friend told me. On a related note, in the Netherlands (and Netherlands Antilles) Santa Claus has an assistant, Swarthe Piet he is called in Netherlands Antilles, and I am not sure how it is in the Netherlands, but Black Pete is what it means. I guess he is an elf, or perhaps more of a troll, and he arrives with S Claus on St Nicholas day, Dec 6, I believe. If kids are bad on that day, Black Pete grabs them and stuffs them in his sack, to drag back to the North Pole and force them to work for Santa. I guess these aren't exactly monsters.

There's a cajun monster in Lousiana, the Pere mal Fait (ugly dad?) that's like a swamp thing. Like a swampy looking Bigfoot. Very scary
 
There's a huge old piece of farm machinery in one of my fields. When I was little I could see it when I went to feed my cats and it always scared me. I named it the "Monster". I went out and explored around it today with my cats and found out its actually a big old rusted hunk of metal (I think its a harvester of some kind) sinking into the ground. Its not a very scary thing to most people, but to a little kid it definately was! I used to think that it would come alive at night to roam our fields and that it would eat me if it found me. That is certiantly a monster that MY imagination came up with.:D
 
Copperfox, when you mentioned Japanese culture, I immediately thought of Hayao Miyazaki. The monsters in his films are particularly un-sexy. In Princess Mononoke especially. I've never been so disturbed by a cartoon before! Many of them transform into horrible-looking masses of flesh that are quite chilling, especially to the young viewer.
 
Copperfox, when you mentioned Japanese culture, I immediately thought of Hayao Miyazaki. The monsters in his films are particularly un-sexy. In Princess Mononoke especially. I've never been so disturbed by a cartoon before! Many of them transform into horrible-looking masses of flesh that are quite chilling, especially to the young viewer.

"Oh, yeah." Japanime has some weird characters and odd monsters in it. I like Miyazaki's films. Also Japanese horror films have such scarier elements than some of the American Horror films. I thought Jackie Chan and JetLi acted in another movie together, too. I could be wrong. My favorite Japanese horror film would have to be "Stacy". It's about where these school girls become zombies, and people are warned to be on the lookout for them, and to kill them on site. There's also an underground operation ran by three girls who are trying to kill the zombies too. I would post the cover, but it might be too gruesome for some.
 
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If you search on Amazon, you may be able to find a certain author's name: Rob S. Rice. He is one of my RenFest buddies, and he is also a novelist. He has written at least two novels which are an offbeat, hard-to-explain blending of science fiction, fantasy, horror and historical speculation. I think one of them was titled "Archival, Most Secret." The reason why Rob's works come to mind is because one of them features the Cajun monster Inkspot mentioned.

And Mozart: some of the famous monster legends may have arisen in ways like what you describe.
 
Oh my goodness! A book about PereMalFait! That's tremendous.

Lila, that Princess Mononoke movie was weird, and you're right about the bizarre monsters.

What about sea monsters? There's the Kraken, he's a bad one. He makes and appearance in Clash of the Titans and Pirates of the Caribbean.
 
Rob's book isn't MAINLY about Pere-Malfait; he just has a guest appearance. But the superstition-laden Louisiana atmosphere is prominent in Rob's writing.
 
Oh my goodness! A book about PereMalFait! That's tremendous.

Lila, that Princess Mononoke movie was weird, and you're right about the bizarre monsters.

What about sea monsters? There's the Kraken, he's a bad one. He makes and appearance in Clash of the Titans and Pirates of the Caribbean.

He comes from the Norse legends. They also have such beasties as Fenrir the wolf, Hel, and the Midgard Serpent. They were the children of Loki.

Though he was no monster Hephestus or Vulcan was said to be so ugly that Hera through him down from Mount Olympus.
 
Not sure if this is the thread for this, but it's about monsters & thought this was a cool little article.


themummy007_1.jpg


Read more: http://socyberty.com/social-sciences/universal-digs-up-the-mummy-again/#ixzz1tV5fFoWd
 
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Jayce I see you've been a member for 3 years, and this is your 8th post. Welcome, anyway, I didn't remember seeing you post before. I think the Mummy can be pretty scary; but the first one with Brendon Fraser was the best of the Mummy movies to my mind. Some people like the classic ones, but they just seem funny to me. Or, well, the Brendon Fraser one was funny, too. But yah, the Mummy is another kind of monster besides your run of the mill vampire and werewolf.
 
Jayce I see you've been a member for 3 years, and this is your 8th post. Welcome, anyway, I didn't remember seeing you post before. I think the Mummy can be pretty scary; but the first one with Brendon Fraser was the best of the Mummy movies to my mind. Some people like the classic ones, but they just seem funny to me. Or, well, the Brendon Fraser one was funny, too. But yah, the Mummy is another kind of monster besides your run of the mill vampire and werewolf.



Yeah, I've been here a while actually, just started coming back again, thanx for the great welcome!

Yeah, it sounds like they might bring back the old version of the Mummy. At least that how the article makes it sound. Kinda exciting.
 
The mummy himself in the Brendon Fraser versions was pretty scary looking. But I preferred the light-heartedness of those films to some of the real horror movies they make now days that are gory and scary. I guess I want something like those old Sinbad movies -- scary but not too gory or terrifying. Sinbad ran into some pretty nasty monsters. I'm remembering some kind of thing with a lot of arms and a sword in most of its hands ...
 
Perfect thread for some posting! ;)

The old tales in Norway talks about Nøkken (Or Nykken). A male type of vette (supernatural being ... Also used to describe orcs and goblins). It lives in Norwegian lakes, and usually lure people into the water with gold or other treasure in it to drown them. Nøkken likes pregnant women and un-baptized children the best, and though an evil creature, he is usually lonely and complains he cannot get to heaven.

He can actually shift his form, but usually he is a log in the water. Sometimes he appears with yellow glowing eyes, seagrass hanging down as his hair. Sometimes he shifts into a horse to lure people to the water with him.

As a child, Nøkken was probably the creature I looked out the most for! ;)
 
Thanks for joining in, Doffen! I wonder whether JRR Tolkien, who was familiar with Norse folklore, got the idea for Gollum from the creature you describe?
 
Thanks for joining in, Doffen! I wonder whether JRR Tolkien, who was familiar with Norse folklore, got the idea for Gollum from the creature you describe?
That's what I was thinking, too, sounds like Gollum. And welcome back dear Doffen! Guess what? My book is almost ready for publication! You will be famous. If anyone reads it! XO

So shape-shifters turn up in different folklore -- in Native American folklore they're called Skin Walkers which is kind a creepy.

In India there's snakes that can sometimes assume human form, Naga, and one is reported to have done this in order to become a Buddhist monk. But Buddha recognized him as a snake and refused to ordain him. (But kindly gave him directions about how to be reincarnated as a man so he could become a monk.) Not sure that qualifies as a monster, but that snake of Voldemort's was Nagini, and she could shift shapes, too. Remember she turned up as Bathilda Bagshot.
 
The zombie craze appears to be a diametrically-opposed reaction against the sexy-vampire craze. People watching movies about, or dressing up as, disgusting rotten zombies, are like "indie" teenagers who deliberately dress differently from the styles favored by the in-crowd. Monster preferences are thus like a fashion statement!
 
The mummy himself in the Brendon Fraser versions was pretty scary looking. But I preferred the light-heartedness of those films to some of the real horror movies they make now days that are gory and scary. I guess I want something like those old Sinbad movies -- scary but not too gory or terrifying. Sinbad ran into some pretty nasty monsters. I'm remembering some kind of thing with a lot of arms and a sword in most of its hands ...

Yeah, I love those movies too. I think that's why the first two were certainly sucessful.
 
Thanks for joining in, Doffen! I wonder whether JRR Tolkien, who was familiar with Norse folklore, got the idea for Gollum from the creature you describe?

I've never actually thought of that :p ... That might be right; at least from the description I give he sounds very ... Gollumish!


And Inkspot ... Seriously?? :eek:
Congratulations!!!
 
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