Welcome to the Heartland, a nightmarish realm where your own memories come back to hunt you — literally. Dragged into the Heartland by the terrifying Beast that lives inside it, Matthew must survive long enough to free himself and his best friend Kenma before the Beast consumes them both. Better run fast, Matthew, before the Beast can catch you.
— "Official Web Toon Description"
Beetle Hands is a horror Web Toon webcomic by herhumanist. Though first featured in Webtoon Canvas, the story was pulled and rebooted as a Webtoon Original. The first season is currently complete.
The story follows a young man named Matthew and his nightmarish journey through The Heartland in his attempts to escape with his friend, Kenma.
After an unexpected visit by his estranged (and only) friend Kenma, Matthew comes under attack by "the Beast". Following the creature after it captures Kenma, Matthew enters a surreal other world shaped like a massive house with each door leading to some distant memory. With Kenma trapped behind four different locks, Matthew must journey into his repressed past and find a way to both save Kenma and escape this horrifying land. All is not as it appears however, and it soon becomes clear that Matthew's life was plenty horrifying well before the story started...
WARNING: This story features horrifying imagery and gore aplenty and is not for the faint of heart. It can be read here
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Beetle Hands provides examples of:
- A Beast in Name and Nature: The Beast is a bizarre fusion of a spider, a centipede, and a goat with Too Many Mouths and a Nightmare Face hidden beneath long black hair. It's relentless, ravenous, and manipulative. There's really no better label on the table.
- Abusive Parents: Matthew's father is not a nice man. Long before he appears in person, we see that he's removed Matthew's bedroom door and is constantly spamming him with messages to get a job. Tellingly, the first episode uses these features alone to provide a Content Warning. Later episodes show him to be a homophobic and manipulative gaslighter.
- Anti-Hero: Befitting a horror story, Matthew isn't exactly your gung-ho action hero type. And it may go deeper, the more of his past we see...
- Ambiguous Situation: Given the surreal art style and how every question answered only raises further questions, it's hard to tell how much of what's depicted is meant to be taken literally.
- Bittersweet Ending: Matthew and Ayami (Kenma's mom) are able to escape Heartland, but the memory of Kenma's death would forever remain in their minds. Fortunately, they decide to move past this trauma, with Matthew attending therapy, taking care of Ayami, and finding a new friend. On the other hand, Amelia, now the new Beast of Heartland, is waiting for a new victim as the memories of her old life begin to fade away.
- Body Horror: The more of the Beast you see, the more you wish you hadn't...
- Bratty Half-Pint: Amelia displays shades of this, though the well goes MUCH deeper.
- Chekhov's Gun: Amelia's marbles.
- Crazy Survivalist: Amelia turns out to be this. Matthew himself starts displaying shades after the nightmarish situation starts to get to him.
- Eldritch Abomination: The full extent of the Beast's power isn't clear, but it's very clearly not of this world. It's hinted that anyone who stays in The Heartland too long becomes a similar creature, though it's unclear if this Beast was ever human.
- Eldritch Location: The Heartland is some bizarre fusion of this and a Mental World: anyone who goes there gets their own set of rooms with memories inside. There are also windows to the real world that people in the Heartland can look through, but cannot escape through, nor can unaffected humans perceive them.
- The End... Or Is It?: The webcomic ends with Amelia as the new Beast of Heartland, waiting for the next victim to enter the realm.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Beast eats its victims, who are all humans.
- Living Memory: The memory worlds that Matthew encounters seem to be more recreations of the past than a simple Pensieve Flashback. Attempting to alter the outcome causes the inhabitants to turn hostile as well. The Kenma trapped behind the doors turns out to be one of these.
- Mind Screw: EVERYWHERE.
- Plot Coupons: Matthew has to find four keys to unlock the door that Kenma is trapped behind. Subverted in that the keys and the door's actual functions aren't clear - they serve some purpose, but it's not the simple "easy way out" escape that it first appears.
- Sanity Slippage: Between running for his life constantly, the increasing enormity of saving Kenma, and the traumatic memories he must re-experience, Matthew is clearly not okay. Though later flashbacks throw doubt on how sane Matthew was even before entering the nightmare world. Season Two suggests he was at least The Mentally Disturbed due to his father's abuse.
- Self-Serving Memory: A flashback to the events of the first episode outs Matthew as an Unreliable Narrator. What actually happened isn't clear as of this edit, but it was not as that episode depicts.
- Wham Shot: In the final chapter of Season 1, it is revealed that there is a body hidden in a cooler in the basement of Matthew's house. Later chapters reveal that this body belongs to Kenma.
- Word Salad Title: The title "Beetle Hands" provides zero hints about the plot or content, and though Matthew has some as-yet unexplained scars on his hands and beetles do seem important to both him and Kenma, the significance remains unclear. It gives the right feel, though.
