History Main / BeastInTheMaze

* Invoked in ''Manga/SoulHunter'': the penultimate floor of Chou Kohei's cruise ship Queen Joka is a massive labyrinth, infested by many Yokai Sennin including a giant earthworm-man with corrosive powers and a hornet-man who uses pheromones and a bee swarm to command a small army of mummies (which are actually hollow and animated by the bees).

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-432 SCP-432 ("Cabinet Maze").]] The inside of SCP-432 is an extra-dimensional labyrinth made up of a complex maze of corridors. It is haunted by an unseen monster similar to the Minotaur of Myth/ClassicalMythology.

** A good example of this is Lomei Labyrinth Island in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]''. Several walking [[BossInMookClothing Guardians]] are {{Patrolling Mook}}s for the center corridor of the maze, while at least one stationary Guardian can be found lurking around a corner and flying Guardians patrol the top of the maze in case you try to be clever and [[DungeonBypass climb over the walls]]. To top it off, [[spoiler: the end of the maze drops you into a vast basement with about a dozen Guardians, which all activate at once [[SchmuckBait when you open the treasure chest you land in front of.]]]]

* ''Webcomic/Trevor2020'': What [[spoiler: Trevor]] essentially becomes for the staff at the facility; between the ventilation system and multitude of corridors, part of the horror comes from the fact that he could be ''anywhere''.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-432 SCP-432 ("Cabinet Maze")]]. The inside of SCP-432 is an extra-dimensional labyrinth made up of a complex maze of corridors. It is haunted by an unseen monster similar to the Minotaur of Myth/ClassicalMythology.

* During the Gourmet Pyramid arc from ''Manga/{{Toriko}}, the titular hero and [[TokenEvilTeammate Zebra]] have to explore the huge maze-like Dungeon which is the Gourmet Pyramid (Which is actually the ''roof'' of a sunken tower belonging to a huge underground palace) and find it infested with many dangerous animals, all of which are classified as special ingredients and need to be killed and prepared in a certain way. The objective of the arc, the Mellow Cola, is the tears of the biggest and baddest beast in the maze, the Salamander Sphinx.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1468443878010302500
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

* In the Duelist Kingdom arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', [[TheHero Yugi]] and [[TheLancer Joey]] fight a three-part duel against the Paradox Brothers in a special labyrinth field. Because the Paradox Brothers control the labyrinth, they set up several hazards like a ghoul that attacks from the walls themselves and a GiantSpider that emerges from a booby-trapped square in one of the pathways.

* In ''[[Manga/TouhouBougetsushou Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth]]'', one of ''Franchise/TouhouProject''[='=]s manga stories, one chapter has Reisen and Tewi getting lost in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which is where the mentally unstable, highly dangerous Flandre happens to be locked up.

* Given the maze-like nature of the dungeons, this trope is unsurprisingly common in the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' series of gamebooks, with plenty of monsters roaming the labyrinths either by chance or by choice.

* The mysterious beast in ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' stalks the explorers of the house, which quickly reveals itself to be an EldritchLocation that twists and changes around them. What the beast is is left ambiguous, with various theories in and out of universe calling it a (or maybe ''the'') minotaur, a personification of the house, or an AnimalisticAbomination.

** "The Horns of Nimon" features an alien monster that lives in a maze where the walls shift around to prevent anyone escaping. The Nimon looks something like a bull-headed man, and is explicitly compared to the Minotaur.
** "The God Complex" features an alien Minotaur that lives in a hotel-like maze that abducts those who have different faiths and beliefs, it's endless rooms containing the greatest fear of its prisoners to break that faith, reducing the prisoner to uttering "Praise him", allowing the Minotaur to feed on them.
** In "Heaven Sent", the Doctor finds himself in a revolving castle with a mysterious veiled creature that slowly chases him, only pausing when the Doctor confesses one of his secrets. [[spoiler:The Doctor eventually makes it out by breaking through a wall of [[FantasyMetals a substance harder than diamond]] that took him ''[[{{Determinator}} over a billion years to break through]]'', [[CloningGambit having to constantly renew himself every time the monster caught him]]. After he escapes, the castle is revealed to have been his confession dial.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HuntTheWumpus'', the player hunts the titular monster (which can be distinguished only by its stench) within a cave whose twenty rooms are connected like the vertices of a dodecahedron.
* The ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series is made up of these, with the player character having to traverse labyrinth-like dungeons to find one of the BigBad's lead monsters.
** A good example of this is Lomei Labyrinth Island in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]''. Several walking [[BossInMookClothing Guardians]] are {{Patrolling Mook}}s for the center corridor of the maze, while at least one stationary Guardian can be found lurking around a corner and flying Guardians patrol the top of the maze in case you try to be clever and [[DungeonBypass climb over the walls]]. To top it off, [[spoiler: the end of the maze drops you into a vast basement with about a dozen Guardians, which all activate at once [[SchmuckBait when you open the treasure chest you land in front of.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/ThreeDMonsterMaze'' on the Sinclair [=ZX81=] deposits the first-person player in a labyrinth with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The objective: escape before you become Rex's lunch.
* Monsters wander five of the six mazes of ''VideoGame/EscapeFromTheMindmaster''. They're just trying to find their way out just like you, but if you bump into one, you lose a chance.
* ''VideoGame/{{Everhood}}:'' The Cursed Castle area has the Maze Monster, a GiantSpider who wanders the maze in the castle. If it catches you, it will throw you into a battle that you must escape.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bubbaruka}}:'' Several segments involve monsters stalking you throughout strange maze-like halls.

* ''Webcomic/{{TREVOR}}'': What [[spoiler: Trevor]] essentially becomes for the staff at the facility; between the ventilation system and multitude of corridors, part of the horror comes from the fact that he could be ''anywhere''.

Can be used in a TrappedWithMonsterPlot, as well as complicating a DungeonBypass. Similar to a DragonHoard if the beast is guarding a vast treasure within the labyrinth. Similar to AbandonedMine, especially if the beast's presence is a result of DugTooDeep. Can be a variation of SealedEvilInACan, especially if the beast itself is searching for a way out. If the beast within the maze is a KingInTheMountain, be careful not to invoke AwakenTheSleepingGiant. If the maze in question is a PipeMaze or AbsurdlySpaciousSewer, see SewerGator. If the maze is a CreepyBasement underneath a house, that makes the creature a BasementDweller. For beasts that ''are'' mazes, see MobileMaze and LivingStructureMonster. Similar to IsleOfGiantHorrors where monsters reside on an island instead of a maze. For a wider range of monster dwellings, see HomeOfMonsters.

** A good example of this is Lomei Labyrinth Island in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]''. Several walking [[BossInMookClothing Guardians]] patrol the center corridor of the maze, while at least one stationary Guardian can be found lurking around a corner and flying Guardians patrol the top of the maze in case you try to be clever and [[DungeonBypass climb over the walls]]. To top it off, [[spoiler: the end of the maze drops you into a vast basement with about a dozen Guardians, which all activate at once [[SchmuckBait when you open the treasure chest you land in front of.]]]]

The types of monsters to reside in the labyrinths vary. It can be the classic [[ALoadOfBull Minotaur]], a being of [[BigCreepyCrawlies the giant insect family]], something reptilian like a giant serpent or dragon, and even a sea monster if the lair is underwater. The beast is almost always an AnimalisticAbomination or DireBeast, but can be an EldritchAbomination as well.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: The TropeCodifier is the legendary [[ALoadOfBull Minotaur]] of King Minos, who kept him within a gigantic labyrinth.

* ''/VideoGame/Castlevania64'' featured a hedge maze with "The Gardener" a [[WhatCouldHaveBeen a scrapped playable character based on]] Ash from ''Franchise/EvilDead'' [[note]]What with the chainsaw arm and the shotgun[[/note]]. As soon as you meet up with Malus he chases you relentlessly with two unkillable hellhounds until you are both safe.

* One level of ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'', appropriately titled "Lair of the Beast", involved Sly sneaking through a swamp where one of the Fiendish Five was housing a giant serpent, with Sly [[AdvancingBossOfDoom needing to keep ahead of it]] once it appeared onscreen.

Can be used in a TrappedWithMonsterPlot, as well as complicating a DungeonBypass. Similar to a DragonHoard if the beast is guarding a vast treasure within the labyrinth. Similar to AbandonedMine, especially if the beast's presence is a result of DugTooDeep. Can be a variation of SealedEvilInACan, especially if the beast itself is searching for a way out. If the beast within the maze is a KingInTheMountain, be careful not to invoke AwakenTheSleepingGiant. If the maze in question is a PipeMaze or AbsurdlySpaciousSewer, see SewerGator. For beasts that ''are'' mazes, see MobileMaze and LivingStructureMonster. Similar to IsleOfGiantHorrors where monsters reside on an island instead of a maze. For a wider range of monster dwellings, see HomeOfMonsters.

%%* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', the three-part duel with the Paradox Brothers is all about this.

* Two ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' modules have a minotaur with its lair inside a maze.
** B2: Keep on the Borderlands. The minotaur has a cave complex inside the Caves of Chaos. Its caves have a spell on them that causes intruders to lose all sense of direction.
** S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Somewhere in the Caverns is a teleportation trap that sends victims to other planes of existence. One possible destination is a giant labyrinth with two minotaurs riding bulls. They will hunt down and kill anyone inside the maze.

* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' (generally {{NSFW}}, though not this one): In the comic "The Labyrinth", a royal advisor is obsessed with [[SomedayThisWillComeInHandy building the King a labyrinth]], which the King just gets annoyed with, [[TemptingFate citing he has no reason to need one]]. Then a guard walks in to inform the King that his wife has birthed a monster, [[CrazyPrepared much to the advisor's delight]].

* In ''[[Manga/TouhouBougetsushou Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth]]'', one of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''[='=]s manga stories, one chapter has Reisen and Tewi getting lost in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which is where the mentally unstable, highly dangerous Flandre happens to be locked up.

* One of Creator/AndreFranquin's ''Comicbook/IdeesNoires'' comics is about a prisoner sent to a maze that [[spoiler:turns out to be a planetoid]]. In a sequel comic, penitentiary officials appear in a helicopter, tell the perp that his sentence has been worsened, and proceed to airdrop a live leopard into the labyrinth.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Gamebooks]]
* In ''[[Literature/GoldenDragonFantasyGamebooks Keep of the Shadow Lord]]'', you must enter a stone maze where a massive minotaur prowls, looking for a prey... then it's subverted when the beast proves harmless if you [[DeliciousDistraction throw him a bone]] and his human master is the real threat.
* Given the maze-like nature of the dungeons, this trope is unsurprisingly common in the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' series of gamebooks, with plenty of monsters roaming the labyrinths either by chance or by choice.
[[/folder]]

* In ''[[Literature/GoldenDragonFantasyGamebooks Keep of the Shadow Lord'']] you must enter a stone maze where a massive minotaur prowls, looking for a prey... then it's subverted when the beast proves harmless if you [[DeliciousDistraction throw him a bone]] and his human master is the real threat.
* Given the maze-like nature of the dungeons, this trope is unsurprisingly common in the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' series of gamebooks, with plenty of monsters roaming the labyrinths either by chance or by choice.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* The ''Franchise/LegendOfZelda'' series is made up of these, with the player character having to traverse labyrinth-like dungeons to find one of the BigBad's lead monsters.