The Most Terrifying Creature of Horror
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In the world of horror, there are many terrifying creatures that worm their way into our minds, where they make a nest and haunt us for the rest of our lives. The only real question you have to ask when it comes to these creatures of nightmares is, which are the scariest?
If you ask any horror fan what the scariest monster is and they’ll all have their own opinion, whether it’s a supernatural being like Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT or the human monsters in films like Halloween or Hush and maybe even they’ll say how regular people are the scariest like in The Purge franchise. Unfortunately, I don’t believe any of these “Monsters” can really claim the title of the most terrifying. No, that title belongs to the monsters created in the mind of the great H.P Lovecraft known as “The Great Old Ones.”
To keep the topic simple, we’ll talk about one specific Great Old One, the one that most people have probably heard of in their lifetime: Cthulhu.
Cthulhu is so synonymous with the works of H.P Lovecraft that it is also what the mythos for Lovecraft’s monsters is named after: the Cthulhu Mythos. The reason I believe the pantheon of gods in the Cthulhu Mythos are so absolutely terrifying is not only their horrific designs but also the effect they have on their world.
Cthulhu first appeared in Lovecraft’s short story The Call of Cthulhu, which was printed in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in the year 1928. The story follows a man who discovers notes written by his granduncle and is subsequently dragged into a conspiracy that involves the Great Old One and his cultist followers.
This brings me to another facet of the Cthulhu Mythos that is truly terrifying: the cultists. Human beings, who are also violent characters in the stories, dedicate themselves to the worship of the oceanic god. Their ultimate goal is to summon the creature they worship into our world as well as spread chaos in his name. Now there is an official cult of Cthulhu in the real world, complete with its own bible and website where you too can join the organization.
What probably contributes to Cthulhu being absolutely terrifying is his design and presence; there are many descriptions of what the creature looks like and the most common would be a mixture between a man, a dragon and an octopus.
In Call of Cthulhu Lovecraft does give a description of a statue, explaining what the being looks like. He stated that the figure was of “a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."
One of the other things that make this even scarier is the fact that Cthulhu is an ocean-dwelling being, meaning that if he was to exist, he could hide in the very depths of the ocean and never be seen. Just imagine, you’re on vacation swimming in the ocean, you decide to dive down further to explore the ocean floor, only to come face to face with a creature whose very existence is said to cause unease, discomfort and even insanity in the minds of humans. If this thought isn’t scarier than a killer clown, then I don’t know what is.
All in all, I think it can be said that the twisted creatures that were imagined by the mind of H.P Lovecraft are terrifying enough to drive some to insanity and haunt people to their core.
Andy Tworek
Andy Tworek is a second-year professional writing student with a passion for all things scary, abnormal and strange. Despite being a skeptic of most conspiracies and paranormal phenomena, his curiosity of the unexplained always outweighs his disbelief. Andy is an avid fan of fictional horror content. While he may not be the most investigative when it comes to real-life conspiracies, you can always be sure he’ll find the truth behind your favourite fictional monsters.
