History Main / HellishPupils

* Many of the demons in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' have this. Rozalin of the second game [[spoiler: and other members of Veldime's Snow Clan]] takes it a step further by having ''white'' slitted pupils.
** (Human) Princess Sapphire has white star-shaped pupils. Seeing as she's conclusively [[AxeCrazy off her nut]], it would be safe to call them hellish.

* The Westfolk (elves) from Katherine Kerr's {{Deverry}} novels all have catlike eyes (big irises and slit pupils), though they aren't exactly harbringers of trouble... most of the time...

* The devil mating with Rosemarie in ''Film/RosemarysBaby'' is shown to have yellowish cateyes.

[[folder:Films]]

* The PlayStation game, ''TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' (loosely based on the movie) allows the player to control multiple characters throughout the game, including three dinosaur characters. The strength of the dinosaur characters' attacks are governed by an "Instinct" meter in the upper corner, which takes the form of an eye. The eye starts off as a green iris with a large, circular black pupil. The character can pick up items to change this, including a Full Instinct item, which makes the eye in the corner a blazing red, with a slit pupil. This Instinct boost causes the player's attacks to be significantly stronger, and the player must kill enemies in quick succession in order to keep the Hellish Pupil, otherwise the eye color begins to transit backwards through orange, yellow, and back to green, with the pupil changing back to a more circular shape. Obtaining Instinct and keeping it maintained is an important part of gameplay, as having full Instinct can make bringing down even the hardest of bosses a matter of only attacks hits, so it really pays the player to obtain the Hellish Pupil and keep it that way.

* In ''[[SpinOff More]] TalesOfMU'', a dragon is described as having "jagged diagonal pupils".

** And let's not forget the [[EvilEye Sharingan eyes]], which are possessed by Sasuke, Itachi, Kakashi and various other characters, and have three extra comma-shaped pupils.

* Poor [[Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth Thomas Jerome Newton]]; beneath the contact lenses he wears as part of his AlienAmongUs disguise, he has reptilian eyes with slit pupils. He's a TragicHero and a subversion of this trope -- but it doesn't keep his human mistress from regarding his true form as hideous.

* The Silicates ([=AIs=]) of ''SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' also had crosshair eyes.

* ''Series/{{The X-Files}}''. Seen at the end of "Terms of Endearment" [[spoiler:revealing that the supposedly 'normal' wife of the demon is actually a demon herself.]]

* Anime/InuYasha is a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-demon]] WhiteHairedPrettyBoy that has SupernaturalGoldEyes with slitted pupils. Considering what those tropes usually represent it is a little surprising that not only is he a good guy he's the ''hero.'' His brother, Sesshomaru, has them too.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Touhou Project]]'' offer Nue, who's missing her pupils almost entirely (they're just darker red spots). Despite ZUN being famously bad at character art, he does normally color eyes correctly, so much of the fandom accepts this as intentional.

* Justified in ''[[{{WesternAnimation/Rango}} Rango]]'': Rattlesnake Jake is a western diamondback rattlesnake, so it makes sense for him to have slit pupils.

* [[EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods Cuttlefish]] have W-shaped pupils that sense polarization rather than color. As for "channeling something nasty"... [[http://xkcd.com/520/ KiLL ThE PhYsIcIsTs]].
* Goats have rectangular pupils. Creepy, rectangular pupils. In fact, those are standard issue for many hoofed mammals. It allows them to see a wider field of view, and spot any predators sneaking up on them. Goats just tend to have lighter-colored irises that make their pupils more obvious.

* Cats, let us note for completeness, only have the slitted eyes when the lights are good. Their eyes, like ours, expand and contract the pupil as necessary - theirs are just slitted for most of the time. Look at your cat the next time the lights are low and you'll see a very round pupil.
** [[http://d3uwin5q170wpc.cloudfront.net/photo/58864_460.jpg For example.]]
*** Having VincentPrice laughing at some point would've made it less creepy...
* Reptilian humanoids comprise a common motif in mythology, folklore, science fiction, fantasy, conspiracy theories, ufology, and cryptozoology. If you type "reptilian shapeshifter" into Youtube, you'll stumble across a schizophrenic world of reporters, celebrities, politicians, and others who can't stop their eyes from becoming sinister-looking slits. For instance, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eaaubr3nnHI here]]. The shapeshifting doesn't stop with their eye shape, but also eye color, facial structure, and an occasional hissing sound.
* [[http://i.imgur.com/GXHJY.jpg Koalas]], oddly enough.
* [[PandaingToTheAudience Pandas]] are called a word that literally means "bear cat" in China, because they have slit pupils unlike the round pupils that are standard for bears.
* In general, venomous snakes are more likely to have slit pupils, and non-venomous snakes usually have round pupils. For example, vipers. This isn't always the case, however; cobras have round pupils.
* It turns out the [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Hypnotoad]] really does exist (minus the hypno-powers and "toad" part), in the form of the [[http://www.thefeaturedcreature.com/2012/05/watch-out-hes-got-crazy-eyes.html#axzz1xPj8TynK Centrolene ilex]]
* Like goats, sheep, octopuses and toads, mongooses also have narrow ovular pupils, evidenced by this [[http://woxys.deviantart.com/#/d5dohdy Yellow Mongoose]].
* Foxes have pupils very similar to cats.

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' has [[ChaoticEvil Kiria]]. Bonus for them being ''{{mismatched|Eyes}}]'' HellishPupils, specifically one vertical slit, one horizontal.

* Rikku and the Al Bhed people of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' have spiral-shaped pupils. They're not evil, though, just quirky and a tad ornery. Yuna has [[MismatchedEyes one eye like this]], as she's half-Al Bhed (Rikku is actually her cousin, in fact).

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'' has villians with hellish pupils but there's no time to explain them.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit?'' has [[spoiler: Judge Doom in his Toon form]] such scary eyes that they could count as EldritchAbominations.

** In fact, the [[spoiler: four]] [[BigBad Big Bads]] here so far all have jacked up eyes. Nightmare Moon, see above. Discord has red pupils, each a different size. Chrysalis has, not one, but ''two'' irises in each eye, accompanying the her viper pupils. [[spoiler: King Sombra]] has slitted pupils, red irises, ''green'' scleras and on top of all that, his eyes emit a purple mist.

** Goenitz also gets slitted pupils before fighting in ''The King of Fighters '96''; and in the Neo-Geo pocket games, the Heavenly King version of Yashiro and Chris also have these kind of eyes. Sheremie? [[HiddenEyes Who knows]].

** His eyes were always like that, even before he turned bad, presumably because of Jenova's cells. This is especially evident in CrisisCore.

* ''FinalFantasyVII'': Sephiroth has cat-like vertical pupils. Hard to see in the original game, due to the low resolution graphics, but much more obvious in ''AdventChildren'' and ''CrisisCore''.