Line #5 Main/CaveMouth


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4	[[quoteright:341:[[Webcomic/{{Erfworld}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cavemouth_7797.png]]]]
5
6	->'''Kidnapper:''' We'll be fine. Trolls run from fire.\
7	'''Rincewind:''' Yes, but... this one can't, you see.\
8	'''Kidnapper:''' And why's that?\
9	'''Rincewind:''' Well, because... you've lit it on his ''tongue.''
10	-->-- ''Literature/TheLightFantastic''
11
12	There's a good reason the entrance to any underground cavern is called a "mouth".
13
14	Consider that the mouth is a breeding ground for bacteria[[note]](both good and bad)[[/note]]; it's dark, and damp, too, and has a lot of sharp objects lining its roof and floor.
15
16	Now consider a typical cave: Dark, possibly damp, a breeding ground for all sorts of unsavory creatures, with stalagmites on the floor and sharp (and occasionally [[StalactiteSpite falling]]) stalactites lining the ceiling...
17
18	So is it any wonder that sometimes authors can't resist making a VisualPun out of the "mouth" to a cave?
19
20	See also BewareTheSkullBase, which often features this trope with the mouth being the dead jaws of a giant creature, and PoorlyLitPareidolia. Sometimes this goes beyond the visual metaphor and actually becomes a plot-relevant -- perhaps [[ThatsNoMoon That's No Cave]].
21
22	----
23	!Examples:
24
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26
27	[[folder:Anime]]
28	* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheTinLabyrinth'': The entrance of the titular labyrinth in the Hotel Burinkin's basement is a giant demonic face, whose mouth opens for anyone who tries crossing it.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Card Games]]
32	* The card Howling Mine from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' looks like this most of the time, DependingOnTheArtist.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* One comic of ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' has a rather literal example of this. In his efforts to steal two strangely eye-like (yet angled) gems from a greedy merchant, Conan and the merchant both go chasing after the gems when they start flying through the air, leading them through a strangely mouth-like cave (with irregular sets of "teeth" set the whole way through) to a large central chamber that is covered with deep piles of gemstones. The merchant immediately dives into the mixed array of rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and other gems, noting that it's extremely strange to see so many different types of gem in the same place, but too blinded by greed to care. Conan is more cautious, and thusly he survives when it turns out they're in the stomach/throat of some kind of mountainous earth elemental. The merchant is devoured.
37	* ''ComicBook/TalesOfTelguuth'': A brother and sister who are about to be offered as the final sacrifices required to resurrect an evil god run away from the priests and take shelter in a cave in the desert. When the brother climbs out it turns out that the cave was really the mouth of the god, who eats the sister so it can rise from its slumber and lay waste to the world.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
41	* ComicStrip/ThePhantom lives in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Skull Cave]], which is an obvious example of this trope.
42	* A ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' comic had a cave with an entrance [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2004-03-17/ that resembled a somewhat different orifice]]. The previous comic did say that Asok had to travel to "the bowels of the bureaucracy"...
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
46	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', the Cave of Wonders' opening is a big tiger's mouth with sharp teeth. It also talks. ("Who disturbs my slumber?")
47	** ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'' has a huge TurtleIsland whose mouth was like a cave.
48	* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', the front door of Ursula's lair is the mouth of a sea-dragon skeleton.
49	* Monstro's mouth in ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''.
50	* The Cave of the Beast in ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix''. Bonus points for closing after they enter.
51	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'', the [[FiveManBand gang of appliances]] is seeking shelter and Lampy discovers a hollow tree. He hops in, calls to his friends, then turns on his light. From the outside, the illumination creates a scary face like a jack-o'-lantern, and everyone else screams and vanishes into the bushes. Lampy can't see it because he's inside the tree itself, once he figures it out, hilarity ensues.
52	-->'''Lampy:''' [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl OOH-WAAH-OOH-WAAH-OOH-WAAH-OOH-WAAH!!!!!]]
53	* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePagemaster'', our heroes find a cave, which is full of stalagmites and stalactites. When Adventure accidentally breaks one, it's revealed that the "cave" is actually the mouth of a dragon.
54	* [[Creator/TimCurry Drake's]] island from ''WesternAnimation/ThePebbleAndThePenguin'', which for some reason looks like it should've suited Frankenberry more than an evil penguin.
55	* ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure'' is about Pooh and friends going on a quest to rescue Christopher Robin from the eye of Skull, a skull-shaped rock formation. The eyes are too high to climb up to, so they go into the mouth, which leads into a maze of caverns that eventually leads to the eye.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59	* The villaniness' lair from the fantasy-action kung-fu film, ''Film/TheDevilsMirror''.
60	* ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': The crew of the Millennium Falcon confuses a Space Slug's mouth with an asteroid cave.
61	* In ''Film/TheGoonies'', there is a skull-shaped cave entrance.
62	* The cave of Princess Dragon Mom in ''Film/TheSuperInframan'', which is modeled after a dragon skeleton.
63	* In ''Film/WildAmerica'', the cave where the bears sleep is shaped like a mouth, with icicles like fangs.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
67	* In the eleventh ''Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps'' book, ''Literature/DeepInTheJungleOfDoom'', one path has you entering a cave that is strangely damp, with soft pink walls. It turns out you're in the mouth of a giant rock monster, and your friend let it eat you in exchange for her own life. Naturally, this is a BadEnding, and ends with you being SwallowedWhole and waiting for death as you plunge towards the stomach...
68	* ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' often features caves resembling the maws of giant monsters, for instance the Mouth of Glund in ''Literature/SpectralStalkers''.
69	** The very first book, ''Literature/TheWarlockOfFiretopMountain'', references this trope in its very first page, where you enter the warlock's domain through a cave that "resembles the giant mouth of some infernal beast".
70	** In another book, ''Literature/ArmiesOfDeath'', you're given the choice of entering three different cave mouths as part of a trial to seek the Oracle. If you chose the wrong mouth (obtainable from a clue earlier during your adventure in Zengis), it will lead to a dead end, and as you retreat the mouth will seal itself shut behind you, leading to a NonStandardGameOver of being permanently trapped.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Literature]]
74	* In ''Literature/TheCatastropheOfTheEmeraldQueen''. The entrance to The Shores.
75	* In ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'' Twoflower's kidnappers inadvertently settle in the mouth of an enormous troll, mistaking it for a cave. They probably would have been fine if they hadn't lit a fire inside it, ironically to ward off trolls.
76	* In ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'' cavernmouths look like regular caves... except for gleaming red dots. These are tonsils, and if you stray too close to the "entrance"... the jaws come out.
77	* The gate to the Colony in the ''Literature/{{Tunnels}}'' books is called the Skull Gate, because it rests below an enormous stone skull.
78	* In the ''Literature/TheSprigganMirror'', the castle- presumably Derathon's- was said to have the only entrance carved like a gaping mouth.
79	* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, the cats call a certain cave "Mothermouth" because it resembles a mouth.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
83	* In ''Series/The10thKingdom'', the cave entrance is not just shaped like a dragon's head, it's an actual dragon's head. A dead, fossilized dragon (hence the name "Dragon Mountain"). This introduces a bit of Squick when the cast must take mining sleds down along the spine and ribs toward the actual mine and get tossed out the other end.
84	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Apple", you've got the mouth of Vaal, a cave mouth shaped like a dragon's head, complete with glowing eyes.
85	* The Cave of the Golden Rose from ''Series/{{Fantaghiro}}'' is actually a monster's mouth, and the rose is its uvula. The cave even gave its name to most translations.
86	* ''Series/TheGoodies'' go caving. They find a remarkable Cave Mouth. They note the curving rows of stalagmites and stalactites and treat the odd red thing [[note]]uvula[[/note]] like a punching bag. The giant dinosaur, naturally, closes its mouth on them.
87	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
88	** In "The Face of Evil", a giant face of the Doctor has been carved into the cliff by the mad computer. The Doctor indignantly rejects the idea that they enter the cave by climbing up "his" nostrils. "It's up over the tongue and down the throat."
89	** Similarly, the [[Creator/PaulMcGann Eighth]] Doctor encounters a creature who was a mountain, and its many cave entrances [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho055TheTwilightKingdom part of him]].
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
93	* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' supplement ''Fragments of Fear'', adventure "Valley of the Four Shrines". The entrance to the cave that leads to the valley has been carved in the likeness of Cthulhu's head.
94	* One of the vignettes in the second edition ''TabletopGame/DiscworldRolePlayingGame'' has a clacks operative reading a message about the Diamond King of Trolls to what he thinks is an empty cave in a hill. Then a voice comes from the cave and he thinks there's someone in there after all. Then the hill moves...
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
98	* The Storybook Land boat ride at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]] begins by entering Monstro the whale from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''. The Disneyland Paris version of the ride swaps Monstro for the tiger-shaped Cave of Wonders from ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}''.
99	* The queue line for ''Ride/SkullIslandReignOfKong'' at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's Islands of Adventure]] goes through several cave caverns, which have mouth-like archways scattered throughout.
100	* Great America's roller coaster The Demon has featured a high-speed plummet into a Cave Mouth since its theming in 1980.
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	[[folder:Toys]]
104	* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': the entrance to [[http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/File:Roxtus.PNG Roxtus]], which isn't surprising as it's the head of a [[HumongousMecha Prototype Robot.]]
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Video Games]]
108	%%* ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'': Grunty's lair.
109	* ''VideoGame/BigKarnak'': After defeating Mutton Head - a gigantic robotic ram head - the boss then dissolves into a gigantic skull. Whose mouth hangs open, that you enter in order to reach the next stage.
110	* ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'': The entrance to the Sea of Black Tears is shaped like a giant skull.
111	* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': Snakemouth Den has an entrance shaped like its name suggests.
112	* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': The Tyrano Lair features doors styled after theropod maws which open and close depending on switch configuration.
113	* ''VideoGame/DarkFall: Lost Souls'': Amy's creepy drawing of Dowerton Station depicts the entrance to the train tunnels like this.
114	* ''VideoGame/DesperadosWantedDeadOrAlive'': El Diablo's cave resembles a skull.
115	* ''VideoGame/DustyRevenge'' have a stage leading to an AbandonedMine shaped like a giant cobra's mouth. No surprise, since after some twelve minutes of gameplay you confront the stage's boss, a giant tunneling cobra mech.
116	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'': The entrance to a cave not only looks like a mouth, but has a sense of taste as well and will spit you back out if your armor isn't tasty enough (it likes silver).
117	* ''VideoGame/GoldenAxeII'': One level takes place in "the cavern called Dragon's Throat". Guess what the entrance looks like?
118	* ''VideoGame/HeroCore'': Two entrances to the Annihilator Factory have a mouth design.
119	* Across the history of the ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series, two notable map objects have incorporated a rocky face with a gaping mouth into their design: the Daemon Cave from the earlier games, and several versions of the Subterranean Gate (the latter typically also [[SkeletonMotif skull-shaped]]).
120	%%* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': Almost all the dungeon entrances consist of these. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' also features a couple as a CallBack to the first game.%%ZCE. How are they examples?
121	%%* ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'': The cave you start in the beginning. [[spoiler:It turns out that it's an EldritchAbomination.]]
122	* ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': A giant monkey head serves as the entrance to the caverns of meat. The head itself is attached to a giant skeleton buried underground...
123	* The door to where the Warlock Lord is summoning the Behemoth in ''VideoGame/Shadowgate'' resembles a skull, with an inner jaw that lowers when the Bladed sun is put in the correct pillar and the Platinum Horn is blown. In the remake, however, the chamber with the door to the Behemoth's pit is much more visibly cavernous, and the door is a giant skull that raises when the Bladed Sun is inlaid in one of the five finger-like pillars in front of it and the Platinum Horn is blown.
124	* ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': The cave entrance to the [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Oubliette of Suffering]] is one with its "teeth" initially blocking the way. [[GeniusLoci It will only open its mouth]] to stinky ne'er-do-wells.
125	* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
126	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'': Every level's exit is a Mask Gate, shaped like a huge bird head.
127	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'':
128	*** The map icons for the first two Bowser levels in the original are shaped like Bowser's head.
129	*** The Bigmouth Galaxy's main planet is shaped like a huge stone fish, and entered through its gaping mouth.
130	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'': The map icon for Bowser's Galaxy Generator, the final level, is shaped like [[BigBad Bowser's]] head.
131	* ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': The entrance to Ridley's Lair is shaped like his mouth.
132	* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': Caves in [[MeatMoss Crimson]] zones are disturbingly mouth-like, an effect aided by the red Crimstone and stalactites that look like teeth.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Web Animation]]
136	* ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'': The cave in which Lewis was murdered has an eerie mouth like opening with four holes above it that looked like nostrils and glowing eyes due to the green entity in the cave.
137	* ''WebAnimation/RobosanAndWanchan'': When Robo-san is in a high up mountain looking for Wan-chan, he enters a cave with a very foreboding-looking entrance.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Webcomics]]
141	* Pictured above, in ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', the entrance to the caves leading to Gobwin Knob has a sinister resemblance to a mouth.
142	* Invoked in ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup''; the party comes across a secret door that expands and contracts; Richard mistakes it for "A mountain that eats people".
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Web Original]]
146	* ''Felarya'' is another fictional setting where it is rarely wise to explore such cavern mouths, since the ambush predators tend to be of sufficient size.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Western Animation]]
150	* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Sandy goes into what she thinks is a big pink cave and punches out what she thinks is the [[SandWorm Alaskan Bull Worm]]. She had actually walked straight into its mouth and beat up its tongue.
151	* In ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'', the cave entrance is not just [[MonsterShapedMountain reminiscent of a dragon's head]], it's an ''actual'' dragon's head.
152	* Done in "In Search of the Dungeon Master", an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983''.
153	* In a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short called "The Mouse That Jack Built", a cat disguises itself as "The Kit-Kat Club," a night club with a cat-shaped entrance. Its tongue provides the red carpet.
154	* The entrance to Hell seen in ''WesternAnimation/PlutosJudgementDay'' is a large, cat-shaped cave (which coincidentally resembled the entrance to the Cave of Wonders seen in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' many decades later) in the middle of a volcanic area.
155	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'' had a giant cave turn out to be the mouth of a giant rhinoceros (who also had a RibcageStomach).
156	* Chase Young's lair from ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown''.
157	* In "Not Very Nice" of ''WesternAnimation/TheTrapDoor'', Berk drops one of the Thing Upstairs' eyeballs down the Trap Door and goes down looking for it. He finds it in a cave that turns out to the mouth of one very large creature;
158	-->'''Berk:''' Yech! There's that horrible smell again! Hang on, there's sommit funny about this place. [[ExplainExplainOhCrap The walls are slimy, and that green thing looks like a tongue, and them things over there look like teeth... Ohhh, globbits!]] I'm inside the mouth of some horrible thing!
159	* In the third season of ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'', Bully the would-be king rat lives and holds council inside of a rocky outcropping that [[MonsterShapedMountain resembles an upturned rat's head]]. Two caves at the bottom half of the outcrop heighten the resemblence by making it look like a giant stony rat screaming in rage or defiance, with the single column of stone between the openings looking like giant incisors plunging into the soil.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Real Life]]
163	* [[https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20170807-italys-mysterious-medieval-garden-of-monsters The Gardens of Bormazo]] in Italy, known by locals as the "Garden of Monsters", have various entrances modeled after gigantic stone mouths where visitors can step through ([[https://www.theitalyedit.com/bomarzo-monster-park/ and have their pictures taken]]).
164	* A chamber in Virginia's Luray Caverns has an entrance like this.
165	* Some ambush predators can do this to smaller, not-too-clever prey such as bait fish (For example, the alligator snapping turtle for one thing).
166	* The museum in Copan, Honduras (a major Mayan site) has an artificial mask-style carving of a head for an entrance.
167	* Be honest, this is how you ate Teddy Grahams or Goldfish as a kid.
168	* The royal citadel of UsefulNotes/SriLanka's Moriya dynasty was called the Lion's Mouth, because it could only be accessed through a gate that was carved to look like the gaping mouth of a lion. Enormous paws were carved below the gate. These paws still stand today, while the mouth is gone.
169	* The entryway to Gatorland in Florida is meant to look like a giant alligator mouth.
170	* One defunct restaurant chain[[note]]Not a ''big'' chain, mind you. At its peak in the 1930s and '40s, it had only three establishments.[[/note]] called "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_Chicken_Inn Coon Chicken Inn]]" designed its entrances to resemble the mouth of a smiling African American porter, represented as a BlackfaceStyleCaricature. The chain got a namedrop in ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'', and an old poster for Coon Chicken Inn became a plot element in ''Film/GhostWorld'' when Creator/ThoraBirch's character presents it to her art class as an ill-advised commentary on racism.
171	* The original entrance to the MGM Grand Las Vegas was a giant, gold-colored lion's head (representing MGM's iconic mascot). It was replaced during a later renovation, partly because -- to Asian visitors -- entering a lion's mouth is considered very bad luck.
172	* The [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Monster_in_Parco_dei_Mostri_%28Bomarzo%29.jpg/1280px-Monster_in_Parco_dei_Mostri_%28Bomarzo%29.jpg Orcus]], the symbol of the 16th century Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo, Italy. Inside the mouth there's a stone table and seating, so that people could eat while being eaten.
173	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CaveMouth