History Main / ToServeMan

* Weird sci-fi flick ''Film/Lifeforce1985'' has an unusual spin on vampire mythology: vampires are actually aliens who visit humanity from time to time to suck us dry of LifeEnergy.

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/BerenAndLuthien'', wolves and werewolves raised by the Dark Lords eat people. Morgoth hand-feeds Carcharoth with Elvish and Man flesh until he becomes the biggest wolf ever; yet the most chilling example has to be the werewolf that comes back again and again to drag away and eat Beren's companions, one by one, until only he and Finrod are left in the Sauron's dungeon.

* In ''Literature/TheSilverChair'' (the fourth book published in Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', and the sixth book chronologically), the children are invited to stay in the giants' castle, where they will be "part of the great Autumn Feast in their honor." The older female giants fawn and tut-tut over their charges. Then the kids stumble upon a giant-sized cookbook that lists Man as a delicacy, albeit with very little actual meat. The cookbook goes so far as to list [[FishPeople Marsh-wiggle]] (the species of the children's NonHumanSidekick), claiming that while edible, they are very stringy and have a "muddy flavor."
* {{Subverted|Trope}} a bit in one of Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/TheDracoTavern'' stories, "Assimilating Our Culture, That's What They're Doing!": A minor character tells the (protagonist) bartender his tale of being in the first diplomatic mission to the Glig, where they're given standard DNA testing among other things. And then cloned as a meat source. To make matters worse, if humans don't allow this practice, and accept royalties for it, the Glig will just eat bootlegged clone meat.
* ''Literature/DustDevils'': The vampires in this book don't just consume blood, but also eat human flesh. In the novel, they are first seen roasting an old man on a spit and eating pieces of him.

** (Briefly) played straight in ''Three to a Given Star''. "Cackle, gabble, eat!"

* The immortals from the Creator/CliveBarker short story ''Film/TheMidnightMeatTrain'' have to eat human flesh to survive, though they claim not to enjoy it. The EldritchAbomination that leads them [[GodIsEvil and is implied to be the original source of all myths of gods]] doesn't seem terribly interested in eating much of anything during the brief time we see it, though.
* A number of aliens in Creator/JohnScalzi's ''Literature/OldMansWar'' universe like to eat humans, most notably the Rraey. This tends to be the main issue with human-Rraey relations.

* In Anne Rice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'', vampires usually feed from humans, but have no problem whatsoever with existing on animal blood if they have to. Lestat even explains this to Louis in ''Literature/InterviewWithTheVampire'' when he points out that if Louis doesn't want the (at the time) still-superstitious humans opening his coffin while they're at sea, Louis "damn well better keep that ship clean of rats." Additionally, Lestat's mother Gabrielle lives almost exclusively in the wilderness, and subsists on wild animals.
* ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' series has an invading alien ecology [[{{Terraform}} transforming Earth]] into a world where humanity will not only serve as food, [[LesCollaborateurs but will welcome it]].

* This trope is one of the main themes in Michel Faber's ''Under the Skin''. The book plays with the reader's perceptions as [[spoiler:the aliens call themselves "humans" and refer to Earthlings as "vodsels". The protagonist's job is to pick up human hitchhikers while disguised as a voluptuous human female and deliver the meat to a farm to be processed and sent to the home planet for the rich to eat as a delicacy]].
** The [[Film/UnderTheSkin movie adaptation]] makes it far more ambiguous, but we do see [[spoiler:a red paste sliding down a chute after the victims are killed, reminiscent of processed meat]].

* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' [[TheVerse Verse]] plays it straight ''and'' [[AvertedTrope averts it]] for different species. The kzinti used to eat humans during the Man-Kzinti Wars but had to give up the practice during peacetime. On the other hand, one of the main characters tells a story of being attacked by a native predator on the planet Gummidgy. It tore a chunk out of his side, then stopped chasing him to eat the strip it had in its grip... and then dropped dead on the spot, from biochemical incompatibility.

* Played with in ''Chess with a Dragon'', in which humanity is in danger of becoming food to any of a number of predatory alien species if we can't pay off a massive debt owed to one of them. In this case, it's not that humans are particularly prized as food: it's that ''every'' newly-spaceworthy species gets conned into the same position, and it's become routine for carnivorous races at the top of the galactic pyramid-scheme to eat whichever species are indentured to them.
* In the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanters'', people are reported as missing around Halloween in a fairly background event. The protagonists meet two new friends who help them scare a couple of bullies and aren't particularely phased when the duo turn out to be aliens. As they escort them back to their spaceship, the aliens reveal that [[CruelTwistEnding they ate all those people and that they will continue to return to Earth to do exactly that, before taking off in their spaceship]]. (And they warn the protagonists that if [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor they don't try to lose weight by then, they might go after them]].)

* In Robert Asprin's ''[[Literature/MythAdventures Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections]]'', Skeeve is in disguise in a Pervish restaurant and asks for "something from [his home dimension of] Klah" and is brought what appears to be a cooked Klahd/human; it turns out it's a fake constructed out of other kinds of meat. (The chef's explanation that 'you need a license to sell sentient beings' is ''not'' reassuring.)

** ''Army Of Terror'' has [[spoiler:Eppon]] turning people into goo and absorbing it, leaving EmptyPilesOfClothing everywhere. He was designed to be able to do that. In fact, he was the first member of a planned ''army'', apparently designed to infiltrate military groups or population centers as [[spoiler:adorable cuddly children]].

* ''Literature/TheCulture'': In "The State of the Art", a soup made from human flesh is served up to the human crew by a practical joker. No-one is really squicked out by this -- the meat has been cloned on the ship, using a few cells taken from various world leaders of the time, ranging from Richard Nixon to Kim Ill Sung -- so the whole thing is treated like a joke.
* The novel ''Literature/TheSpaceVampires'' has a group of space traveling aliens planet-hopping and stopping by Earth from time to time to suck the, well, lifeforce from their victims. Apparently, there is just something special about humanity.

* In the German SF series ''Maddrax'', animals and plants have mutated into huge monsters [[AfterTheEnd after a comet hits]], and the predators among them frequently hunt humans as well. It's probably easier to list the animals (and even plants) that don't humans.
* The Ra'zac of ''Literature/TheInheritanceCycle'' quite happily eat any humans Galbatorix doesn't specifically tell them not to. Oromis says they come from the same continent as humans and were likely what forced King Palancar to move his people to Alagaesia. [[FridgeLogic It's unknown how the Ra'zac followed, since one of their only weaknesses is a crippling terror of deep water]].

* In the Creator/RobertAHeinlein juvenile ''Literature/HaveSpacesuitWillTravel'', the Wormface aliens are said to want to take over Earth and use humans as food animals.

Humans seem to be the universe's top delicacy and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame a desired hunting trophy]]. On a planet covered with millions of animal and plant species, [[FridgeLogic it seems that humans are the only thing here worth eating]], apparently because they are sentient.

** Played straight in the original trilogy's sequels -- the ''T.rexes'' in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' defend their offspring by tearing apart and devouring any humans unlucky enough to get caught, while the raptors play the trope even straighter, if anything, and the compies are pretty much piranhas on land. And the ''Spinosaurus'' and ''Pteranodons'' in ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' are absolutely [[SuperPersistentPredator relentless]] when hunting the humans. The raptors in J.P.3, on the other hand, are simply trying to recover their stolen eggs and don't even bother eating the one guy that they kill.

The planet Earth in fiction seems to be a magnet for every hostile alien, monster, demon, trans-dimensional being, and human-created atrocity known for a very simple reason.

The planet Earth in fiction seems to be a magnet for every hostile alien, demon, trans-dimensional being and human-created atrocity known for a very simple reason.

Named for the classic ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan episode]] (itself based on a short story by Creator/DamonKnight) that dramatically shows you [[SubvertedSuspicionAesop cannot judge a book by its title]]. See ImAHumanitarian or TheSecretOfLongPorkPies for plain old cannibalism, and JustForFun/HowToInvadeAnAlienPlanet for additional reasons why this doesn't work so well. May lead to PeopleFarms. Related to HorrorHunger and, for less intelligent hunters of humans, SuperPersistentPredator. Contrast MonstrousCannibalism, when creatures cannibalize members of ''their own'' social group, not somebody else's. ConsumingPassion is for when this trope has sexual undertones. Also see LiteralManeater for when the alien or monster is an attractive female that specifically eats male humans.

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is the word-for-word title of [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan an episode]] of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''. The story begins when seemingly benevolent aliens come to Earth bringing solutions to the world's issues of war, hunger and poverty, and eventually offer humans rides back to their home planet. Said aliens are carrying a book instructing them on how to aide humans, entitled "[[TitleDrop To Serve Man]]" (that is, presumably, to be of service to man). However, as more of the book is translated, its true nature is discovered, leading to the reveal: [[ItWasHisSled "It's a cookbook!"]]

** And oh ho boy! This came again in Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019. It came in the form of [[BigBad King Ghidorah]] who ate Dr. Graham when she was about to run away from the scene in Antarctica. Then again when Rodan came to fight the U.S. Air Force when Monarch lured him to fight King Ghidorah. Rodan was absolutely overpowering the U.S. Air Force along the way and then when one of the pilots ejected, he devoured the pilot, sending him into his fiery bowels.
* ''Film/JurassicPark1993'': Played both ways by the two predators, the ''Tyrannosaurus'' and the raptors. The former doesn't appear to be specifically hunting humans, and in fact generally appears to be attacking the cars they travel in -- which are in fact of a similar size to hadrosaurs or ceratopsids, which would have been prey in real life. The one person she does nom on is more of less spat out afterward as opposed to being swallowed whole, which she could easily have done (and had just done to a goat). The velociraptors on the other hand very much ''do'' seem to have a hankering for human meat, but then a human would make a pretty decent meal for a raptor and they've learned that humans are easy prey...

* The novel ''Space Vampires'' (adapted as ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'') has a group of space traveling aliens planet-hopping and stopping by Earth from time to time to suck the, well, lifeforce from their victims. Apparently, there is just something special about humanity.

* Weird sci-fi flick ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'' has an unusual spin on vampire mythology: vampires are actually aliens who visit humanity from time to time to suck us dry of LifeEnergy.