Deform is a an 11-episode Claymation horror web series made by Shigeru Okada, also known as nariomarudarkside,
who is also the creator of Deformed Gecko.The plot concerns 10 college students who, as part of a personal project, investigate an abandoned building that was recently seen with a mysterious white, glowing pillar on it. However, things rapidly get out of hand, because whatever is in there has... Plans for them.
A playlist of all the episodes can be viewed and found here.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's ambiguous as to if any of the victims are remotely conscious or if it's just their dead bodies being controlled by the parasites. The fact that their hearts still beat, along with how Toadstool Chest's head-spot makes noises, implies the former.
- Body Horror: Primarily concerning Transformation Horror, as while the creature designs are somewhat quaint by most standards of Body Horror, the fact that we get to see each of the students being deformed in graphic detail makes each monster all the more grotesque.
- Cosmic Horror Story: It's revealed that the thing causing all of this is actually an egg, deposited by incomprehensibly massive spacefaring Eldritch Abominations. On the plus side, they don't seem to be all that malicious at least.
- Despair Event Horizon: 2 out of the 10 students meet this.
- Yui who becomes Hip Pot is left in a shocked state after seeing that Ring Face was imitating her mother's voice over the phone, to the point where she just starts walking away in a haze. When she is infested, she continues walking and curls up in a fetal position.
- Ayaka who becomes the Nine Arms Beauty is rendered speechless as she sees that her friend really isn't in control of Backbone Shot in the slightest, with it merely being the parasite tendril making it seem that way. Complete with Single Tear.
- Dwindling Party: Each of the students are slowly assimilated by the parasites as the episodes go on. Not a single person makes it out alive.
- Eldritch Abomination: The thing causing this is utterly alien to say the least. Scarily enough, it's just an egg. Some of it's traits include:
- It hatches from it's egg and ascends into the cosmos by consuming 10 human hearts, which it acquires by sending out parasites that turn people into inhuman monstrosities that offer their hearts to it.
- It possesses psychic powers that can drive people to madness.
- Somehow, despite being an alien, it's egg has human teeth and arms.
- Weirdest of all, it spawns 10 human heads from the remaining parasites that start singing in very human voices for seemingly no reason.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The old man in the fish costume named Tadashi seemingly received psychic signals from the egg, driving him mad. It rendered him homeless and, in a haze, ran into the abandoned building. He then started drawing all of the murals that are shown throughout the series in his madness.
- Hope Spot: Multiple, in fact, to the point of bordering on Once per Episode. Usually by one of the Deformed ruining a planned escape or counterstrike.
- In Limbs Shell, Haruki manages to properly evade the parasite-launching tendrils, only for Tongue Head to come along and hold him in place to give the tendril a clear shot.
- In Shin Throat, Ema avoids getting hit and it seems that she might be able to escape it, only for Limbs Shell to swallow and spit the parasite back out, allowing it to infest her.
- In Organ Muscle, Arm Antler seemingly meets it's match when Tsuyoshi acquires a weapon, only for it to reveal later that it wasn't even phased by the attacks, and was merely giving the tendril behind it a direct shot.
- Hip Pot has Yui seemingly managing to call her mother, potentially giving her a source of help. Unfortunately, it was Ring Face imitating the voice of her mother.
- Backbone Shot has Naoki managing to actually harm Toadstool Chest and almost contains a parasite. However, Toadstool Chest releases an incapacitating gas that allows the parasite to infest him.
- Nine Arms Beauty has two brutal ones in rapid succession. The final student Ayaka was almost out the door, with the car mere meters away, only for her to accidently fall on a weakened piece of wood that sends her into the basement. Afterwards, she is attacked by Backbone Shot, only for her to, seemingly, reach through to Naoki inside. Yet it was a ruse, as the parasite tendril was merely hiding inside him, which then infests her.
- Human Sacrifice: What this all amounts to in the end. The egg that sent out the parasites needed to hatch, so it took 10 people, lured to the abandoned building, turned them into monsters, and then used said monsters as a way of getting the hearts it needed to hatch.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: While still going mad fit, Tadashi trips and accidentally falls on a broken sharp piece of metal through his forehead, killing himself.
- Monster Is a Mommy: More like Monster is a baby. The creature that was causing all of this is merely trying to hatch from it's egg, and it just so happens that human hearts are the fuel it needs.
- Not Worth Killing: Or transforming as the egg creature requires healthy, pure hearts and was about to shoot a parasite into Tadashi only to sense his heart is corrupted and retracts the parasite back from its tendrils and moves away.
- Transformation Horror: The focal point of the series, and good lord, does it make use of it. Each of the transformations is inconceivably brutal and horrific for the unfortunate souls who experience them. Commonly, the victims are subsumed and covered by a multicolored substance while transforming. The stuff that isn't that, however, is quite disgusting to look at.
- The first victim, Tongue Head, has Kaito's tongue grow so large it covers his entire head and then some. His arms elongate and become covered with tongues, the same going for his legs and the rest of his exposed flesh.
- The second student to deform, Arm Antler, has Rin's arms fuse to her head and her hands elongate into well, antlers. Her ribcage splits open, revealing her lungs, and forms into sharp, insect-like legs, with her actual legs becoming more of the same.
- The third one to get caught, Ring Face, has Osamu's arms elongate and curl into a ring, which then impales his head and stretches it to the center. His legs also divide into 4 insectoid appendages.
- The Toadstool Chest transformation involves Mao's entire upper body and shoulders flaring up into a spotted mushroom cap, with one of the spots being her face.
- Limbs Shell's transformation involves Haruki's entire body being turned into a turtle-like shell, which then sprouts legs from it's underside. His head then falls off, which is then picked up via tendril by the shell.
- Shin Throat's change is rather simple compared to the rest, being primarily Ema's neck being stretched out and her waist being rotated 180 degrees. Then we get a look at what remains of her head, and it's basically been scalped.
- Organ Muscle is likely the most horrific of the transformations involved, as Tsuyoshi's intestines expand into massive tendrils that wrap around and fuse together into a mouth with arms and legs attached, which then eats him and effectively flays him alive. Also it breaks Tsuyoshi in two.
- Hip Pot depicts Yui's curled legs being fused to her torso, and her arms extending into flipper-like appendages. Worst of all, however, is how her head becomes attached to a lid-like structure that opens up like a vase.
- Backbone Shot involves Naoki's arms and neck being transformed into tube-like structures that hold his head and hands. The real Body Horror comes in how his spine elongates so much that it can be used as a chain, inserted into the tubes and allowing the appendages inside to be used as biological grappling hooks.
- Nine Arms Beauty's deforming, true to her name, is the least drastic of all the victims, as it merely involves Ayaka growing extra arms, two on her chest, two on her hips, and one on the back of head, with her already existing arms being forced into an "X" position behind her head, which then splits open to reveal a orange mass of... Something.
