History EldritchAbomination / Film

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheMist https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_the_mist_giant_monster.png]]]]

[[AC:Animated]]

[[AC:Live-Action]]

* Gozer the Traveller in ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'', an interdimensional being who seems to have no fixed form of its own. It's taken the form of a "large and moving torb", a "giant sloar", and... the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Stay Puft Marshmallow Man]]. Zuul and Vinz Clortho, Gozer's demonic dog disciples, have magical powers, but aren't quite at the Eldritch Abomination level.

* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent The Angel of Death]] from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the last and most horrifying of the plagues of Egypt. It appears as [[AngelicAbomination a mass of glowing smoke that emerges from what appears to be a dimensional portal]] and kills the firstborns of Egypt with a touch that steals away their breath.

* The Heart of Atlantis in ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' is a gigantic hovering crystal that feeds on the emotions of dead Atlanteans, making it conscious, or in the words of the King, alive but only "in a way". It is largely benevolent, protecting the city and giving the Atlanteans long life and supernatural powers as well as powering their technology, but will also absorb and potentially kill members of the royal family to protect itself, and is responsible for sinking Atlantis beneath the sea when the King displeased it by using its power as a weapon of war.

* ''Film/GodsOfEgypt'': Apophis, based on the mythical deity of the same name, is a colossal worm/serpent beast, made mostly of smoke, that is locked in constant battle with Ra, who repels him from consuming both Earth and the afterlife every night.

* While seemingly more benevolent than most examples, he Black Monolith from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' qualifies. It's a thing of {{Alien Geometr|ies}}y, a perfectly-proportional inert black slab that may or may not exist across multiple dimensions. It's unfathomably powerful, capable of uplifting living beings to sentience [[spoiler: or helping them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]. It operates on [[BlueAndOrangeMorality a moral code that no mortal being can comprehend]]. And it's either incapable or unwilling to directly communicate its intentions to humanity.

* [[spoiler:The Ancient Ones]] from ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''. We don't know much about them, but it's said that their awakening would be the end of humanity, and [[spoiler:every horror movie ever made was secretly part of an ancient ritual designed to keep their bloodlust sated.]]
* In the film adaptation of ''[[Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]],'' the [[FogOfDoom malevolent green mist]] takes the form of Edmund's deepest fears in the form of a surprisingly Cthulhu-esque sea serpent. Earlier in the film, it's revealed that Edmund and Lucy read a lot of fantasy books, so this could potentially be interpreted as [[ShoutOut a suggestion that Edmund has read some of HP Lovecraft's work]].

* [[TheFilmOfTheBook The film version]] of ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' preserves the backstory of James's parents being killed by a rhinoceros...broadly speaking. In the original book, the rhino was just a random animal that escaped from the zoo and somehow ate James's parents despite being a herbivore; it was clearly just an excuse for James to wind up living with his abusive aunts, and it was more played for BlackComedy than anything else. The ''film'' version, on the other hand, takes... [[AdaptationalAbomination a rather different approach]]. The rhino in the film is an ''outright eldritch horror'', being a sentient mass of clouds in the rough shape of a rhinoceros, with glowing red eyes and lightning constantly crackling around and inside it. James is understandably ''terrified'' of the damn thing, and one of the ways his aunts torment him is by threatening that the rhino will one day come back to get him like it got his parents. [[spoiler:Which it does near the end of the film (although fortunately he's [[ImNotAfraidOfYou able to stand up to it]] by that point).]] We find out [[NothingIsScarier absolutely nothing]] about where the damn thing came from; it just...[[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere exists]], and it's ultimately left unclear whether it's a real entity, a figment of James's imagination, some kind of metaphor, or something else entirely. James [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] during his final confrontation with the Rhino:

* Found-footage movie ''Film/{{Borderlands}}'' is marketed as and initially appears to be "''Film/ParanormalActivity'' in a church". As the movie progresses it becomes clear that it's much more Lovecraftian than anything, with an {{Apocalyptic Log}}, [[ChildEater murals of something inhuman that feeds on children]] and [[spoiler:a tunnel that turns out to be a huge organic orifice for something huge, unseen and hungry, that painfully devours the main characters]].

%%* The thing in the tunnel in ''Film/{{Absentia}}'' is most likely one.
%%* The ''Film/AliceInWonderland1999'' featured "The Crow", which scared Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee.

%%* Whatever it is that inhabits the shrine in ''Film/{{Byzantium}}''.

%%* ''Film/CastADeadlySpell'' climaxes with a cultist trying to awaken a Lovecraftian beastie. Luckily, the needed VirginPower turns out to have already been, um, depowered. Yes, yes, IncrediblyLamePun and all that...

%%* Galactus gets turned into this in the ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer''.

%%* Yog Kothag in ''Film/ForeverEvil''.
%%* The evil room in ''Film/FourteenOhEight'' is explicitly identified as never having been anything even remotely human.

* PlayedForLaughs with the giant alien at the end of ''Film/MenInBlack''. [[spoiler:The BigBad of the movie was looking for a galaxy which turned out to be a marble-like macguffin; apparently, our galaxy is like a marble compared to certain things beyond it. And no one is aware.]]

%%* Most of the hallucinations and creatures in ''Film/TheLordsOfSalem'' fit this description, most notably the [[spoiler:antichrist]].

%%* The tentacle creature from the 1981 film ''Film/{{Possession}}''.
%%* Although none directly appear in the Japanese version of ''Film/TheRing'', it's hinted that Sadako's mother had contact with such beings due to her psychic powers... and that one may have been Sadako's father, rather than the man who was believed to be. [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant Mr. Towel]] says he's from the ocean, in any case.
%%* [[spoiler:Behemecoatyl]] in ''Film/StarshipTroopers3Marauder'', the so-called "Bug God". [[spoiler:Their creators are even more so]].
* Korrok in ''Film/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'' is the source of all the monsters in the film and looks like a giant mish-mash of different animal parts with a giant red eye that is capable of reading minds and absorbing knowledge by eating people. Basically, it's a living computer created in an AlternateUniverse where humans have developed OrganicTechnology (by [[LegoGenetics mating different animals together]]) in the 19th century, which is why all those creatures look so weird. The during-credits ending implies that Korrok has attempted to invade other worlds as well. This is also mentioned by John at one point that Shitload (one of Korrok's creations) has once taken over a world in a matter of days. We are shown what looks like Earth being rapidly taken over.
* In the ''Film/FinalDestination'' series, Death's real form is never seen and it is treated as an inhuman force of nature, its motives in causing such cruel deaths are inscrutible to all beings except itself, and it is so powerful and omnipresent that it can claim whatever humans it wants before directing its attention to some other corner of the planet.
* The Omega Mimic from ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow''. It's utterly incomprehensible and alien (even the expert can't truly explain just what it is), its motives and reasoning are BlueAndOrangeMorality at best, and it can ''control time''.
* While seemingly more benevolent than most examples, he Black Monolith from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' qualifies. It's a thing of {{Alien Geometr|ies}}y, a perfectly-proportional inert black slab that may or may not exist across multiple dimensions. It's unfathomably powerful, capable of uplifting living beings to sentience [[spoiler: or helping them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]. It operates on [[BlueAndOrangeMorality a moral code that no mortal being can comprehend]]. And it's either incapable or unwilling to directly communicate its intentions to humanity.
* Found-footage movie ''Film/{{Borderlands}}'' is marketed as and initially appears to be "''Film/ParanormalActivity'' in a church". As the movie progresses it becomes clear that it's much more Lovecraftian than anything, with an {{Apocalyptic Log}}, [[ChildEater murals of something inhuman that feeds on children]] and [[spoiler:a tunnel that turns out to be a huge organic orifice for something huge, unseen and hungry, that painfully devours the main characters]].

* While one of them is used as the page-image above, the creatures in ''Film/TheMist'' are only borderline examples; they are very lethal, both to each other and to humans, but they are ultimately biological entities that can bleed and die. One possible exception being the Behemoth, as no creature of such size could exist in Earth's gravity and atmosphere. It would be unable to move, and suffocate under its own weight.
* The ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' wasn't going to be a stranger to this trope for long, specially once its [[SpaceOpera cosmic]] and [[{{Fantasy}} magical]] sides started being expanded. Thankfully, the setting subscribes to LovecraftLite so there're ways to [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu trick, coerce]] or even [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kill]] them.
** ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'': [[spoiler:Dormammu]] is a MultiversalConqueror with [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm no clear shape]], older than [[TimeAbyss time]], and it's implied that it's ''part'' of the [[EldritchLocation Dark Dimension]] itself. Its power is outright infinite and, with the ''very arguable'' exception of Thanos (and even he would only be a match if he collects the Infinity Stones), the most powerful entity introduced so far in this universe. To make matters worse, the Ancient One implies that [[spoiler:Dormammu]] is only one of many such beings.
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'': Ego is a [[PhysicalGod Celestial]], a [[TimeAbyss primordial]] entity of considerable ImaginationBasedSuperPower, whose preferred form is that of a [[GeniusLoci planet]]. It's powerful enough [[spoiler:it can take a shot at assimilating the universe, albeit after millions of years of planning and a whole lot of [[DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu screwing]]]].
* The entity in ''Film/{{Resolution}}'' is never shown, reaction shots indicate that it's tremendously horrific and large (and pretty much appears out of nowhere), and it can apparently change reality at its whim including creating recordings of events happening in the past, present, or current future.
* "Calvin" from ''Film/Life2017''. Not only is his biology, well, [[BizarreAlienBiology strange]] but he is theorized to be responsible of the extinction of all life in Mars and grows more strange, intelligent and sadistic as it assimilates every living thing it can catch.[[spoiler:And, at the ending, is likely [[DownerEnding it will be responsible for the extinction of humanity]]]].
* The gigantic entity that lurks below the mysterious radio station in ''Film/AM1200''. The viewer can only catch a glimpse of a single eye and a hungry, gaping maw.
* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent The Angel of Death]] from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the last and most horrifying of the plagues of Egypt. It appears as [[AngelicAbomination a mass of glowing smoke that emerges from what appears to be a dimensional portal]] and kills the firstborns of Egypt with a touch that steals away their breath.

* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'': The "monster from the id" manifesting the unconscious evil desires of a [[TheSingularity vanished race]] as an ephemeral, super-powered crab-like plasma thing.

* The thing in the tunnel in ''Film/{{Absentia}}'' is most likely one.
* The ''Film/AliceInWonderland1999'' featured "The Crow", which scared Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee.

* Whatever it is that inhabits the shrine in ''Film/{{Byzantium}}''.

* ''Film/CastADeadlySpell'' climaxes with a cultist trying to awaken a Lovecraftian beastie. Luckily, the needed VirginPower turns out to have already been, um, depowered. Yes, yes, IncrediblyLamePun and all that...

** Allegedly? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK1debnXYlA&feature=BFa For your viewing pleasure]]. Maybe.
** And who's to say Hell can't be a place ''[[GeniusLoci and]]'' a creature?
* Galactus gets turned into this in the ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer''.

* The evil room in ''Film/FourteenOhEight'' is explicitly identified as never having been anything even remotely human.

* Godzilla:
** King Ghidorah, Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'s ArchEnemy, could be considered one at least in the Showa films and the ''Film/RebirthOfMothra'' trilogy. Sure, he may just look like a three-headed dragon, but considering that he is described as an ancient and powerful monster that travels through space [[OmnicidalManiac destroying everything it comes across]], he has the vibe of cosmic horror.
** Godzilla himself is this in ''Anime/GodzillaMonsterPlanet''. The film's protagonists spend the entire movie trying to take back the Earth from Godzilla after he and the other Kaiju forced humanity to abandon the planet 20 years before [[spoiler: which, due to relativity, turns out to be 20,000 years back on Earth. They finally manage to pull it off - barely - but they quickly learn that what they killed was only a juvenile, and the original is now a 300 meter tall Leviathan that swiftly decimates the survivors in a matter of seconds. What's more, unlike in some previous incarnations, Godzilla's origins are never made explicitly clear, and it's hinted that things like Godzilla have ravaged countless planets and civilizations throughout time and the universe.]]
** ''Anime/GodzillaThePlanetEater'', the finale of the ''Monster Planet'' trilogy, makes King Ghidorah even more explicitly eldritch. [[spoiler:He's an entirely extradimensional creature that can warp reality, the Exif are basically a culture-sized apocalypse cult, and he needs to be summoned - which leads to him fighting Godzilla by bending the laws of physics around him.]]

* [[TheFilmOfTheBook The film version]] of ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' preserves the backstory of James's parents being killed by a rhinoceros...broadly speaking. In the original book, the rhino was just a random animal that escaped from the zoo and [[FridgeLogic somehow]] ate James's parents despite being a herbivore; it was clearly just an excuse for James to wind up living with his abusive aunts, and it was more played for BlackComedy than anything else. The ''film'' version, on the other hand, takes...[[AdaptationalAbomination a rather different approach]]. The rhino in the film is an ''outright eldritch horror'', being a sentient mass of clouds in the rough shape of a rhinoceros, with glowing red eyes and lightning constantly crackling around and inside it. James is understandably ''terrified'' of the damn thing, and one of the ways his aunts torment him is by threatening that the rhino will one day come back to get him like it got his parents. [[spoiler:Which it does near the end of the film (although fortunately he's [[ImNotAfraidOfYou able to stand up to it]] by that point).]] We find out [[NothingIsScarier absolutely nothing]] about where the damn thing came from; it just...[[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere exists]], and it's ultimately left unclear whether it's a real entity, a figment of James's imagination, some kind of metaphor, or something else entirely. James [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] during his final confrontation with the Rhino:

* A humorous example; how about that that giant alien at the end of ''Film/MenInBlack''? [[spoiler:Remember how the alien invader was looking for a galaxy which turned out to be a marble-like macguffin? Apparently, our galaxy is like a marble compared to certain things beyond it. And no one is aware.]]
* Dionin, the D'Ampton Worm from ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm''. It seems to be killed easily for an E.A., but it always gets better. It also has a race of vampire SnakePeople feeding virgins to it so it stays well fed and hangs out underground a lot.

* Most of the hallucinations and creatures in ''Film/TheLordsOfSalem'' fit this description, most notably the [[spoiler:antichrist]].

* The tentacle creature from the 1981 film ''Film/{{Possession}}''.
* Although none directly appear in the Japanese version of ''Film/TheRing'', it's hinted that Sadako's mother had contact with such beings due to her psychic powers... and that one may have been Sadako's father, rather than the man who was believed to be.
** Well, [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant Mr. Towel]] says he's from the ocean, in any case.
* [[spoiler:Behemecoatyl]] in ''Film/StarshipTroopers3Marauder'', the so-called "Bug God".
** [[spoiler:Their creators are even more so]].

* In ''Film/{{Altitude}}'', the giant tentacle monster (nicknamed "Skythulhu") that lives in the clouds is a terrifying creature from beyond and periodically shows up to eat one of the helpless main characters.

* The Black Monolith from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey.'' Think about it: it's a thing of {{Alien Geometr|ies}}y, a perfectly-proportional inert black slab that may or may not exist across multiple dimensions. It's unfathomably powerful, capable of uplifting living beings to sentience [[spoiler: or helping them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]. It operates on [[BlueAndOrangeMorality a moral code that no mortal being can comprehend]]. And it's either incapable or unwilling to directly communicate its intentions to humanity. Although it's more benevolent on the whole than most examples, strictly speaking it does qualify.

* "Calvin" from ''Film/Life2017''. Not only his biology is, well, [[BizarreAlienBiology strange]] but is theorised to be responsible of the extinction of all life in Mars and grows more strange, intelligent and sadistic as it assimilates every living thing it can catch.[[spoiler:And, at the ending, is likely [[DownerEnding it will be responsible of the extintion of humanity]]]].
* The gigantic entity that lurks below the mysterious radio station in ''Film/AM1200''. The viewer can only catch a glimpse of a single eye and a hungry, gaping maw.
* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent The Angel of Death]] from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the last and most horrifying of the plagues of Egypt. It appears as [[AngelicAbomination a mass of glowing smoke that emerges from what appears to be a dimensional portal]] and kills the firstborns of Egypt with a touch that steal away their breath.
* ''Film/TheVoid'': Discussed by [[spoiler:Powell]]. Some amoral entity from the other side gave him the means to bring people back from the dead, though certainly [[CameBackWrong not the way they wanted]]. But while the tentacled monsters summoned from the Void are certainly creepy, the actual godlike Eldritch Abomination is revealed at the end [[spoiler:to be [[SinisterGeometry a giant floating pyramid]] (the symbol of the cult), or at least that's the form that Daniel and Allison perceive it as.]]

* King Ghidorah, Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'s ArchEnemy, could be considered one at least in the Showa films and the ''Film/RebirthOfMothra'' trilogy. Sure, he may just look like a three-headed dragon, but considering that he is described as an ancient and powerful monster that travels through space [[OmnicidalManiac destroying everything it comes across]], he has the vibe of cosmic horror.

*** Taken a step further by ''Anime/GodzillaMonsterPlanet''[='s=] threequel ''Anime/GodzillaThePlanetEater'', which features the most terrifying and intelligent version of Ghidorah yet. See his entry on the EldritchAbomination/AnimeAndManga page.

* ''Film/XTheManWithXRayEyes'': Dr. Xavier's eyes develop such powerful XRayVision that he can see straight to the center of the universe, where there is an eye that "sees all." The preacher who hears his vision interprets it as Satan.

* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'': The 'monster from the id' manifesting the unconscious evil desires of a [[TheSingularity vanished race]] as an ephemeral, super-powered crab-like plasma thing.

* The Heart of Atlantis in ''[[Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'' is a gigantic hovering crystal that feeds on the emotions of dead Atlanteans, making it conscious, or in the words of the King, alive but only "in a way". It is largely benevolent, protecting the city and giving the Atlanteans long life and supernatural powers as well as powering their technology, but will also absorb and potentially kill members of the royal family to protect itself, and is responsible for sinking Atlantis beneath the sea when the King displeased it by using its power as a weapon of war.

* A humorous example; how about that that giant alien at the end of ''Film/MeninBlack''? [[spoiler:Remember how the alien invader was looking for a galaxy which turned out to be a marble-like macguffin? Apparently, our galaxy is like a marble compared to certain things beyond it. And no one is aware.]]

* [[TheFilmOfTheBook The film version]] of ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' preserves the backstory of James's parents being killed by a rhinoceros...broadly speaking. In the original book, the rhino was just a random animal that escaped from the zoo and [[FridgeLogic somehow]] ate James's parents despite being a herbivore; it was clearly just an excuse for James to wind up living with his abusive aunts, and it was more played for BlackComedy than anything else. The ''film'' version, on the other hand, takes...[[AdaptationalAbomination a rather different approach]]. The rhino in the film is an ''outright eldritch horror'', being a sentient mass of clouds in the rough shape of a rhinoceros, with glowing red eyes and lightning constantly crackling around and inside it. James is understandably ''terrified'' of the damn thing, and one of the ways his aunts torment him is by threatening that the rhino will one day come back to get him like it got his parents. [[spoiler:Which it does near the end of the film (although fortunately he's [[ImNotAfraidOfYou able to stand up to it]] by that point).]] We find out [[NothingIsScarier absolutely nothing]] about where the damn thing came from; it just...[[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere exists]], and it's ultimately left unclear whether it's a real entity, a figment of James's imagination, some kind of metaphor, or something else entirely.

* The Rhino in the movie version of ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'', appearing as a gigantic dark ghostly rhino with glowing eyes that charges through storm clouds. James even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] during his final confrontation with the Rhino...
-->"You're not even a real rhino! You're just a lot of smoke and noise!"

* The first ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'' film featured the Ogdru Jahad, depicted as a group of ginormous be-tentacled crustaceans inhabiting The Void outside the universe, as well as a tentacled monstrosity (referred to as Behemoth in the supplemental materials, though it was obviously based on the Ogdru Hem from the comicbook) that burst out of Rasputin's body and grew from man-sized to warehouse-sized in minutes.

* If titular monster from ''Film/TheThing'' doesn't count it's certainly very close.

* The Black Monolith from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey.'' Think about it: it's a thing of AlienGeometry, a perfectly-proportional inert black slab that may or may not exist across multiple dimensions. It's unfathomably powerful, capable of uplifting living beings to sentience [[spoiler: or helping them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]. It operates on [[BlueAndOrangeMorality a moral code that no mortal being can comprehend]]. And it's either incapable or unwilling to directly communicate its intentions to humanity. Although it's more benevolent on the whole than most examples, strictly speaking it does qualify.

[[quoteright:240:[[Film/TheMist https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Mist_monstert_5405.jpg]]]]
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