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"The nightmare begins."
Once Sam Raimi was confirmed to direct, it was to be expected for this movie to have a darker tone. And with a darker tone, comes a whole lot of scares. open/close all folders
Trailers
- The initial teaser itself is filled with an ominous atmosphere, invoking a sense of dread, mystery and eeriness reminiscent of his classic works.
- The teaser effectively shows off Sam Raimi blending his superhero and horror experience. We see glimpses of a frozen wasteland version of the mirror dimension, horrifying alien monsters rampaging through the streets of New York, a one-eyed raven, a bloodied, tied-up Wong staring in horror at something off-screen, and the appearance of Sinister Strange. Not to mention the narration suggesting that Strange's actions in Spider-Man: No Way Home (and by extension, Mysterio's actions in Spider-Man: Far From Home) may have triggered these events...Mordo: I'm sorry, Stephen. I hope you understand, the greatest threat to our universe... is you.
- In one instance, Strange exits the NY Sanctum, only to find a decrepit, dead version of NYC that looks like something out of a ghost story, with ruined buildings, no life to be seen and a dreary, hopeless vibe to it.
- Sinister Strange's introduction is awesome, but also very creepy.Sinister Strange: Things just got out of hand... [cue Slasher Smile]
- In a few trailers, Wanda appears in civilian clothing utterly drenched in what appears to be bloodnote and with piercing red eyes. It's no wonder that many initially assumed this was her Zombie variant from What If…? (2021).
- In one brief clip, she waltzes into a large open room with a futuristic design and tosses an Ultron Sentry head aside like it's nothing. The fact that Wanda is implied to casually charge into the headquarters of the freaking Illuminati, the same organization that seems to have a similar role to the TVA, is nothing short of chilling.
Film
- The Scarlet Witch, fullstop. The character itself in this movie is full-blown Nightmare Fuel from start to finish. Wanda Maximoff has proven to be one of the MCU's most powerful magic users and one of two combatants who came close to singlehandedly killing Thanos in Endgame. Seeing her go rogue proves to be just as horrific and tragic as it sounds.
- In addition to the feats detailed below, she singlehandedly lays siege to Kamar-Taj - a temple filled with countless sorcerers, including Strange and Wong - and not even America in full control of her powers is enough to stop her. As a result, the most they can do is buy themselves time and run like hell away from her. Had she not come to her senses, she likely could've wrought as much destruction as another magic user who travelled down a dark path following the loss of someone he loved.
- America Chavez's situation. Her mothers have gone missing (she outright says that she killed them), she's being chased by an interdimensional monster in the form of Gargantos, and if that wasn't already terrifying, it's soon revealed that Wanda Maximoff is hunting her for her power. Oh, and this is all while she's only 14.
- Strange traps Wanda in the Mirror Dimension. However, she swiftly finds a way to use the realm to her advantage, using reflections in the real world to drag other sorcerers to an Uncertain Doom. She ends up using a gong to return to the physical world, crawling out of it like if she's a mix between Samara/Sadako from The Ring and Kayako from Ju-on. To add to the gruesomeness, you can see her limbs and whole body being twisted in all the wrong ways, implying that she indeed had to squeeze through the tiny opening.
- Another scary implication added to her painful exit out of the mirror dimension is the amount of lacerations all over her body after she gets out. Strange modified the dimension to have protruding, long spikes to limit Wanda's movement. It didn't work. The implication here is that with Wanda's elevation to being the Scarlet Witch (and Darkhold usage), she either a) has developed a nigh-unlimited tolerance to pain, b) she's just that too used to pain at this point—taking into account all the psychological trauma she's already in, or c) she will endure anything if it means being together with her kids.
- During the dimensional travel montage, Strange and America are shown floating in another dimension with their faces and bodies being diced up, with some parts looking like they belong to someone else or were put in the wrong place.
- Charles reveals that the Infinity Saga also played out on Earth-838, and unlike the Thanos variants of What If...?, their Thanos was every bit as terrifying of a threat as the Sacred Timeline Thanos. Not even the leaders of the X-Men, the Inhumans, the Fantastic Four, or even this universe’s Captain Marvel (who was intentionally kept out of most of Endgame due to being too powerful) were able to win the war with this Thanos, who was able to get four out of six of the Infinity Stones despite their efforts. It took the Book of Vishanti, something hitherto unheard of due to being so powerful it was deliberately kept a mystery to all but the Sorcerer Supreme, to finally stop this Thanos.
- When the Scarlet Witch is in the middle of her possession, Sara attacks and stabs the Darkhold with a knife. While she succeeds in destroying it, as it's disintegrating the book retaliates by burning the sorcerer to a crisp, slowly. In any other Marvel film, it'd easily be the most brutal moment, were it not for...
- Wanda vs. The Illuminati. To call it a Curb-Stomp Battle would be generous; it's not even a fight, it's an outright massacre.
- To start, Wanda eerily asks Reed Richards if the mother of his children is alive after Reed tells her he has children of his own as a way of trying to sympathize with her. After he says yes, she simply replies with:
- Black Bolt's death. Wanda removes his mouth (which is already quite terrifying on its own) so he's forced to unleash a sonic shout that implodes his skull. This is shown onscreen.
- The exchange prior:
- After this, we cut back to Black Bolt, who has no choice but to yell as he drew in a breath before Wanda erased his mouth. Either that, or he outright screams in shock and horror at what has been done to him. Considering that he needs to keep his emotions in check to prevent any unnecessary destruction, it would be no surprise that Wanda managed to have him freak out. With that, the back of his head collapses in on itself and his eyes roll into the back of his head, bloodshot. His tuning fork emits a hum that trails off as he falls to the ground, dead. Talk about Bloodier and Gorier!
- If one looks closely, you can not only see blood shoot out of his nostrils and his eyes bulge out of their sockets, but also his liquified brains sliding down the back of his head and neck. Since his outfit is more durable than his skull was, the back of his cowl just has a sack of pulped meat moving down.
- When Reed tries to retaliate, Wanda uses her powers to pretty much turn him into nothing more than blue string cheese. However, she starts with his limbs, meaning Reed barely gets to let out a horrified scream before getting stretched out into nothing. Oh, and the icing on the cake? His head pops like a balloon. Even creepier is that this is similar to what Thanos did to Mantis (one of the Guardians of the Galaxy members) back in Avengers: Infinity War. The difference? He let Mantis live afterwards.
- Captain Carter gets cut in half by her own shield when Wanda uses her powers to fling it into her torso. Thankfully, this time we're spared the sight, but we focus on Peggy's horrified reaction as she falls to the ground dead, followed by a shot of her shield soaked in her own blood smashing into the wall.
- Maria Rambeau fares only slightly better than her allies, but in the end, is crushed to death after Wanda pulls a statue down on top of her. The scariest thing about this, however, is the fact that it's implied that Wanda stole her powers during their duel. Remember, Captain Marvel is meant to be one of the strongest heroes in the MCU, and Wanda stole her powers and killed her like it was nothing.
- Xavier's death. The Professor is drawn in a psychic battle with Wanda that ends with a demonic version of her Scarlet Witch form jumping out from a cloud of red mist behind him (looking like, for some reason, her zombified Variant from What If…? (2021)) and snapping his neck ruthlessly.
- It gets worse as the neck snap only happens in the real world. In fact, if you look closely and watch this part in slow motion, Wanda doesn't just snap his neck. She rips his head in half at the jaw.
- The way Wanda-838 is represented while under possession in the mindscape. She's trapped under the rubble of her family's destroyed apartment.
- And the worst part of this? Wanda massacred them through a weaker version of herself. Only The One Above All knows what Wanda will be capable of if she confronted them in person.
- Zombie Strange. Doctor Strange possesses Defender Strange, a deceased variant that he'd buried away safely. The body rising from the grave is A-grade horror movie material, resembling a scene from the director's own The Evil Dead (1981).
- And once he gets hold of the Souls of the Damned, he repeats the Multi-Armed and Dangerous pose of the Images of Ikkon spell (like in Infinity War against Thanos), only the black and ghostly arms make him look like a monster straight out of a movie like Insidious or Sinister (the latter of which, coincidentally, executive producer Scott Derrickson was the director for).
- Zombie Strange is incredibly decayed and rotted considering it's been about a day since he died, if that. Then you watch the opening scene again, and see that the flesh where he's been struck by the demon is already dark and rotting while he's still alive ...
- The concept of dreamwalking can be this mixed with Paranoia Fuel. You're minding your own business, living your everyday life, when without any warning (and without your consent) an alternate version of you decides to take possession of your body. The scene where Wanda-838 is getting possessed by Wanda-616 shows that the process is unpleasant, as she has to go through weird and surreal hallucinations (or visions of alternate realities, maybe). When Professor Xavier has a mind battle with the Scarlet Witch later on, we can see that the original spirit is then trapped inside its own mind, unable to do anything to stop the invader from doing whatever the hell it is doing. Thankfully it's said to be temporary, but when it's over, good luck explaining to everybody that it wasn't you who did everything that your possessor did.
- It's also shown that dreams are in fact visions of other universes. All your worst nightmares are real.
- The first time the Scarlet Witch dreamwalks into her variant's body, everything plays out like a pure Raimi horror film. It starts with a POV shot of Wanda peering at her alternate self from behind the stairs, then she goes all-in with the Mind Screw: the kitchen distorts, the lights flicker, a photo of Wanda suddenly peers at her with malicious intent, and when she sees her reflection in the window, she comes face-to-face with the Witch, who swiftly takes over her body. Just when things couldn't get any more chilling, she then gives the audience a glance.
- The Scarlet Witch-possessed Wanda-838 looks like an unhinged Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl with red eyes while implacably going after America Chavez and Strange.
- 616 Wanda may be implacable, but it's obvious Wanda-838's body can't keep up. After facing the Illuminati, 838 is limping and her postured is oddly slumped. The Illuminati did some serious damage, but 616 doesn't care and would likely work 838's body until it died to get what she wants.
- There's even a sequence where Wanda pursues Strange, Chavez, and Earth-838 Christine into a tunnel, with Strange doing everything he can to keep her at bay until he seals her off with a giant door. Once he does, there's nothing but eerie silence with water dripping being the only sound, with Strange clearly expecting her to burst through the door. Instead, Wanda appears right out of nowhere, moving into view with eyes aglow.
- Sinister Strange and what he represents — namely, Doctor Strange as the greatest threat to the Multiverse, a dark mirror of both Earth-616 Stephen Strange and Scarlet Witch.
- Like Earth-616 Strange, his life was identical up until the wedding afterparty, then he read the Darkhold like Wanda and became corrupted by it. Ultimately, he caused an incursion which destroyed his universe, minus a tiny part of landscape which his Sanctum is on.
- Sinister Strange's version of Earth, in general. Its version of NYC is plunged in an endless blizzard with occasional floods of water, as buildings and cars haphazardly float around, with not a living soul in sight. The idea of what happened to all the city's innocent residents is horrible to think about. And then Strange's mansion suddenly looms over an empty plain just a short distance away. There are also horrible, metallic grinding noises coming from the air itself, and strange pairs of red lights flitting about as though they were mere road traffic - this universe is broken in ways that will probably never be understood.
- And look at the ground as Strange and Christine walk across the plain and approach it. The ground's littered with human bones.
- There's also his motivation. Like Wanda, Sinister Strange sought a reality where he could find happiness with the loved one(s) he lost out on in his home reality. After not finding what he was looking for, he ended up murdering other versions of himself across the Multiverse (which 616 Strange was having dreams about) because their lack of success in keeping Christine reminded him of what he'd lost.
- Also, Sinister Strange wants any version of Christine he can get, whether they want to be with him or not. He offered Strange-616 his copy of the Darkhold if he'd hand over Christine-838, with little regard for the fact that she'd likely refuse.
- Unlike Wanda, he seems to have no remorse or guilt over his actions. Either he doesn't realize that his intentions have become so warped, or he doesn't care.
- The fact that he destroyed his universe due to being corrupted by the Darkhold corruption implies that (unless circumstances were different enough that she never came to possess the book) he killed his universe's version of Wanda Maximoff. If so, that would imply that at the height of his magical potential/power, Dr. Strange could be even more powerful (and dangerous) than even the Scarlet Witch (who, despite all the damage she causes in her rampage, doesn't even come close to the body count of Sinister Strange, even if he didn't necessarily do it directly).
- Lets piece all of this together; Sinister Strange and Doctor Strange had the exact same history. Both had to deal with their ex-girlfriend getting married and both are still fixated enough to hope that they could start over with an alternate Christine. In a moment of desperation Sinister Strange turned to the Darkhold, which corrupted him and gave him a third eye, which Doctor Strange also ends up doing. Could Sinister Strange possibly be Doctor Strange's fate?
- All of this suggests that Mordo-838 and the Illuminati might've been right when they claimed that Stephen Strange was a greater threat to the multiverse than the Scarlet Witch — unlike her, more than one version of Strange has destroyed universes due to being corrupted by power note .
- When Strange-616 uses the Darkhold to possess the dead Defender Strange to try and save the day, he beforehand says to Christine-838 that the Darkhold doesn't have any rule explicitly stating that he can't possess his dead self, just that the Souls of the Damned will interfere. However, when Zombie Strange reaches the mountain, the Souls inform him that possessing a dead body via dreamwalking is forbidden and that Strange will pay an eternal price for doing this. Let this sink in: in the previous movie, there was a joke about reading the warnings before casting the spells, but the Darkhold apparently holds no such warnings, and will actively trick its own user into a Fate Worse than Death.
- The Souls of the Damned themselves count. They look like Raimi plucked them straight out of his Evil Dead franchise, being skeletal monsters made of black smoke with Creepy High Pitched Voices that grab with their withered hands to drag their victims into an abyss. When Christine-838 looks too closely into Strange's eyes, the swirling demons in them suddenly come screaming straight out of his eye at her. Our Strange turning them into Defender Strange's Cloak of Levitation is as creepy as it is awesome.
- What seems to cement Wanda's Heel Realization when confronted with "her" children from Earth-838 is when they won't stop screaming in fear and she yells at them to stop in her most hysterical, Scarlet Witch-y voice, after which the children do stop screaming and are reduced to trying to cry silently. In other words, this is where Wanda realises she's one step away from turning into an Abusive Parent, one with terrifying powers of destruction.
- In the final shot of the movie, Strange walks down the street, cheerful and ready to move on with his personal life. Then he suddenly collapses, clutches his head and throws his head back to the sky, screaming as a third eye appears on his forehead.
- The first Stinger has the revelation that an Incursion is already on its way. Sure, Stephen and Clea seem confident that they can handle it, but considering what it did to Sinister Strange's Earth even with the power of his Darkhold...
- All of this is built upon one realization: this is the first time in MCU history where the main villain is a former hero. The actual hero acting all on her own. No evil variant, no direct mind control, no accident acting on high emotions, it's Wanda. It's all Wanda. The same Wanda who was playing the lovable sitcom housewife just a year and a half ago. The sole saving grace is that the Darkhold had corrupted her to become this.
- The revelation that there is a Greater-Scope Villain in the form of Chthon, who created the Darkhold and Mt. Wundagore's fortress for the Scarlet Witch to conquer the Multiverse from, and is implied to have had a hand in Billy's creation given the statues of Wiccan in the throne room. Worse is the likelihood that Chthon is the all-powerful ancient Multiversal demon that America and Wong note that Gargantos was the servant of, given Wanda summoned the Eldritch Abomination using the Darkhold.
