Line #209 Main/DevouredByTheHorde


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/DayOfTheDead1985 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dotd_torrezs_death.PNG]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:There's enough for everyone.]]
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7	->'''Mr. Krabs:''' Oh no! I've seen this on the late show. You ghoulish fiends hold me down and take turns nibbling on my innards. Then you eat my brain and leave my body for the buzzards!\
8	'''Smitty Werbenjägermanjensen:''' That's disgusting! We just want the hat back.
9	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E6SnowballEffectOneKrabsTrash One Krab's Trash]]"
10
11	Devoured by the Horde is when a characters gets eaten or torn apart by multiple parties. This is very common during a ZombieApocalypse if someone is [[ZergRush overwhelmed by zombies and they can't kill them all or escape from them]]. This can also happen outside a zombie apocalypse, other people, animals, or creatures can do the same thing with the right amount of numbers, regardless of size. This can also happen if a character is thrown into a SharkPool (or more commonly in this case, a {{piranha\|Problem}} pool) and actually gets eaten by the creatures. Sometimes when the body is devoured, [[StrippedToTheBone only the skeleton will remain]].
12
13	For this to count there must be at least a minimum of two people/animals/creatures devouring someone/something that is alive. They also don't have to be eaten, they can also have their body torn apart. This doesn't have to include literal zombies, any flesh-eaters will do. If the person or thing died ''very recently'' before being devoured or torn apart, it counts if the victim's body is still warm; especially if there are times where someone [[MercyKill will shoot the person being eaten as a mercy before the horde can get very far]].
14
15	A sub-trope of EatenAlive.
16
17	Compare TornApartByTheMob.
18
19	See also DogPileOfDoom, of which this is one possible result. This is usually combined with ZergRush.
20
21	'''Warning: This is a {{Death Trope\|s}}. Expect ''lots'' of unmarked spoilers.'''
22	----
23	!!Zombie Examples:
24
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26
27	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
28	* In ''Manga/{{Gyo}}'', Tadashi nearly becomes a victim of this when he lands on a huge group of undead tiny fishes. He's eventually saved offscreen.
29	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in ''Literature/JuniTaisenZodiacWar''. Boar, after becoming a zombie, is devoured by a horde of crows.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Comic Books]]
33	* Galactus' ultimate fate in ComicBook/MarvelZombies, after the Silver Surfer is eaten and his power absorbed by the surviving "heroes". Also happens to Magneto.
34	* In ''Comicbook/TheWalkingDead'', in the "Made to Suffer" volume, when Lily discovered that she shot Judith, a baby, she's furious at the Governor for making her shoot them, which makes her shoot him and shove him into the horde of walkers. His body distracts them while she leads the surviving Woodbury citizens out of danger into the prison.
35	* In the chilean comic ''Zombies en la Moneda'', on one occasion a Cult tried to sacrifice several children to appease the gods, who according to them were responsible for the zombie apocalypse. The heroes intervene and manage to save the children; the cult members are eaten by zombies.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
39	* ''Film/AngerOfTheDead'': While being pursued by zombies up a flight of stairs, Rooker shoots and wounds his number two so he can't move, then leaves him to suffer this fate.
40	* In ''Film/BigTitsZombie'', a sauna-owner is literally turned into a buffet for zombies as she is laid out on a table with her insides draped over her like BodySushi. The zombies all sit around and eat her with chopsticks.
41	* In ''Film/DanceOfTheDead'', when trying to escape the school, Jensen, one of the band members, gets caught by a horde of zombies and gets devoured by them just before he almost makes it to the next classroom.
42	* George A. Romero's ''Film/LivingDeadSeries'' movies will almost always have this happen:
43	** In ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'', several of the bikers get surrounded and eaten by the zombies during the shootout between them and the protagonists.
44	** In ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'', [[DrivenToSuicide feeling suicidal]], Miguel lures a large crowd of zombies to the underground base through the elevator and he bites on his dog tags as the zombies start devouring him and the elevator descends to the base. When the zombies have overrun the base, Torrez is torn apart while a zombie sticks two of its fingers in his eye socket and pulls his head off; Rickles is shown [[DieLaughing laughing]], which later turns into screaming, as the zombies tears him apart. The most iconic scene is when Rhodes has his lower body pulled apart by a crowd of zombies -- his last words to them are [[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner "Choke on 'em!"]].
45	** In ''Film/LandOfTheDead'':
46	*** While Mouse is waiting for the money drop-off, a group of zombies that Big Daddy is leading towards the city happens to be in the area and Mouse gets surrounded and devoured by them.
47	*** When the citizens are trapped trying to leave the city due to the electric fence, a huge crowd of zombies heads towards them. While fireworks were used to distract the zombies, the zombies no longer pay attention to the fireworks and continue heading towards the citizens. By the time Riley and his crew arrive at the fence, the zombies are already devouring them.
48	* ''Film/DawningOfTheDead'': This is the fate of a lot of characters in the movie, both background characters and main characters like Christian and Lewis.
49	* ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'':
50	** Subverted in ''Film/ResidentEvil2002''. At one point one of the Umbrella commandos, J.D., is pulled into an elevator and attacked by a group of zombies. However, when he turns up later on as a zombie he is almost completely whole, so the zombies just infected him with the T-virus and didn't eat him.
51	** In ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'':
52	*** When sent to find a child named Angela in a school full of infected children and dogs, Terri is surrounded by undead children and she's eaten alive.
53	*** Cain puts his gun to his head when he's surrounded by the zombies. Unfortunately for him, he's out of ammo and he gets eaten alive. Among the zombies is [[LaserGuidedKarma Dr. Ashford, who Cain killed earlier, and he gets the first bite.]]
54	* In ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'' MsFanservice Trash gets gnawed by a bunch of zombies and becomes a zombie herself, but unlike all the other zombies she's still reasonably hot as a zombie. And still naked.
55	** The paramedics and police repeatedly get attacked by the zombies every time they arrived at the mortuary.
56	* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Before he can apologize to Shaun for a rude comment after Shaun has just had to execute his zombified mother, David is torn apart by zombies reaching through the Winchester's glass windows. Attempting to pull him back in, his girlfriend ends up ripping off his leg and then uses said leg to beat her way into the zombie horde to rescue him.
57	* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'' does this three times.
58	** First time, one of the security guards is caught while the group is trying to get the downstairs generator back up.
59	** Second, when the group is escaping back to the Mall through the sewer tunnels, one of them breaks their leg in the jump down and, despite the other trying to drag him to safety, the zombies catch up and start devouring him, though the others MercyKill him so he won't suffer.
60	** And finally at the end when one of the heroes stay behind so the others can escape and lets the zombies eat him before he blows all them up, creating a firewall that keeps the other pursuing zombies back.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
64	* In ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'', "Vampires vs. Zombies", one of the vampires gets swarmed by a mob of zombies and gets eaten and torn apart while the other two vampires watch in horror.
65	* In ''Series/FearTheWalkingDead'', the season one finale, [[Recap/FearTheWalkingDeadS01E06TheGoodMan "The Good Man"]], when a large horde of walkers are invading the military base, the walkers knock down a watchtower with two guards on it. When the guards try to get back up, they were already surrounded by the walkers and they start eating them.
66	* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', season 5 "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS5E8Hardhome Hardhome]]", during the white walkers attack at Hardhome, Karsi encounters child wights, which horrifies her to the point that she's unable to lift her weapons at them as the children overwhelm and kill her.
67	* ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'': This is expected in a show that takes place during a ZombieApocalypse.
68	** Season One:
69	*** The first episode, [[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS01E01DaysGoneBye Days Gone Bye]], has a horse being EatenAlive by hundreds of walkers. Anyway, its death allows Rick to weasel his way out from the horde and hide himself in a tank.
70	** Season Two:
71	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS02E03SaveTheLastOne Save the Last One]]", when Shane and Otis are trying to outrun a horde of zombies, Shane shoots Otis in the leg with his last round and takes his supplies just before the horde surrounds and devours Otis.
72	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS02E09Triggerfinger Triggerfinger]]", when Rick, Glenn, and Hershel are attacked by a group from Philadelphia, Hershel wounds Sean and he gets mauled by a group of walkers that were attracted to the gunshots.
73	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS02E13BesideTheDyingFire Beside the Dying Fire]]", Jimmy drives the RV near the barn and allows Rick and Carl to safely escape the burning barn, but he's killed when the walkers overrun the RV. When Patricia attempted to escape to the car with Lori, Beth, and Carol, a walker grabbed her from behind a tree and bit her on the neck and is soon grabbed by other walkers who proceeded to bite her on the arm and other areas of her body.
74	** Season Three:
75	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS03E04KillerWithin Killer Within]]", knowing he's going to die soon, T-Dog sacrifices himself to a pair of walkers to allow Carol to escape.
76	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS03E07WhenTheDeadComeKnocking When the Dead Come Knocking]]", when Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Oscar are fleeing a herd of walkers into a shack, they encounter a hermit who threatens to shoot them. After being disarmed, the hermit tries to leave the shack but Michonne kills him before he could let the walkers in. They throw his body to the walkers as a distraction and escape through the back door.
77	** Season Four:
78	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS04E07DeadWeight Dead Weight]]", after the Governor knocks out Martinez while they were playing golf, he drags Martinez to a pit full of walkers and lowers him into the pit for the walkers to drag him down and consume him.
79	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS04E16A A]]", Rick, Carl, and Michonne run into a lone man desperately crying for help and they witness him being overwhelmed and eaten by walkers.
80	** Season Five:
81	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS05E01NoSanctuary No Sanctuary]]", Mary asks Carol to kill her, but Carol instead kneecaps her and leaves her to a horde of walkers.
82	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS05E14Spend Spend]]", Aiden and Noah both suffer through this. The former accidentally shoots a grenade on the walker's belt, which causes an explosion that causes him to be blown back and impaled on a broken shelf but still survive only for several walkers to descend onto him and tear him up. And the latter gets trapped in an revolving door along with Nicholas. Nicholas manages to escape, opening the side where Noah is resulting in a pack of zombies devouring him against the glass of the revolving door as Glenn watches in horror.
83	** Season Six:
84	*** In "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E03ThankYou Thank You]]", Sturgess, Annie, David, Nicholas, and, sadly and [[NeverFoundTheBody possibly]], Glenn dies through this. When dealing with the Walkers in the forest, Sturgess [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandons the group]] after [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shooting Scott in the leg]] and his body was later found being devoured by Walkers in a small town. Annie sprained her ankle after tripping in the forest and this gets her in trouble when she falls in front of an oncoming herd of Walkers in a small town. The others tries to save her but Annie [[IWillOnlySlowYouDown tells them to go on without her]] and the Walkers surrounds and devours her. While trying to climb over a gate, Michonne and David gets caught by the Walkers and while Michonne was able to make it David gets dragged down and gets devoured while the others watch in horror and there's a shot of his DeadManWriting to his wife getting stomped on by the Walkers. After being cornered in an empty alleyway, Glenn and Nicholas are on top of a dumpster surrounded by a herd of Walkers. Unable to deal with the vast amount of Walkers, Nicholas [[DrivenToSuicide shoots himself in the head]] and his body collapses on Glenn and they both fall into the horde and the horde starts picking apart their bodies but it's unknown whose body is getting torn apart. Revealed four episodes later to have been Nicholas.
85	*** In "[[{{Recap/TheWalkingDeadS06E09NoWayOut}} No Way Out]]", when [[TheLoad Sam starts panicking]], several walkers descend on and start biting him. This causes Jessie to scream, which attracts the attention of the other walkers, who proceed to start devouring her. Rick notices she's still holding on to Carl and chops Jessie's hand off. Angry at what happened, Ron tries to shoot Carl and Rick, but [[MamaBear Michonne]] stabs him in the back and the walkers descend on the corpses after he drops to the ground.
86	** In the webisode "[[Recap/TheWalkingDeadWebisodesTornApart Torn Apart]]", after Hannah gets bit by a walker and fires a gun at it that attracts more walkers, she tells her children to go on without her as several walkers approach her and [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe tear apart the lower half of her body]]. Some time later, she becomes zombified and slowly decays, and it turns out she's the [[DoomedByCanon "bicycle girl walker" that Rick Grimes will eventually meet in the park in season one of the TV show.]]
87	* This happens to Joplin, Patrick, Marky and Veronica in the finale of ''Series/DeadSet''. In Patrick's case, he quotes Captain Rhodes from ''Day of the Dead'' while comparing the zombies eating him to the consumers of the RealityTV garbage that he had produced before the ZombieApocalypse before he gets his head ripped off.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Video Games]]
91	* ''VideoGame/AnnieLastHope'' have numerous scenes of {{gorn}} where innocent civilians gets ripped to shreds by the zombie hordes. Though there's an AssholeVictim example with the Unhinged Shooter, a psychopath who tries shooting at Annie via machine-gun only to be bested in a boss fight. After the battle, the mortally-injured shooter actually had the gall to ask Annie to help him escape an incoming zombie swarm [[EntitledBastard despite trying to kill her earlier]], only for Annie to rightfully leave the Shooter to his (gory) fate.
92	* ''VideoGame/DaysGone'' has this with Hordes of Freakers roaming around Oregon. Early in the game, it's best to ignore them. It's recommended to plan out your attack against the horde, by making sure you have enough bombs, ammo, and traps so that you can start putting a dent into the hordes, otherwise you just end up playing it straight.
93	* ''VideoGame/DeadRising''
94	** In the first game:
95	*** If the survivors you're trying to rescue takes enough damage from zombies, a cutscene will appear where the zombies are eating the survivors. Some of the cutscenes includes the zombies devouring and pulling out the survivor's guts, the zombie dog-piling on the survivor and devouring them, and four zombies pulling on the survivor's limbs -- or if the survivor has a gun, they may shoot themself [[DefiedTrope specifically to avoid this]].
96	*** After an intense fight between Frank West and Brock Mason on top of a tank that's surrounded by a huge amount of zombies, Frank kicks Brock off the tank into the zombies and they all devour him.
97	** ''VideoGame/DeadRising3'': Albert Contiello sees his death as this, thanks to his drugs. In reality, it's him cutting himself open with his own surgical saw.
98	* ''VideoGame/DeathRoadToCanada'': If a character gets mobbed by zombies, they will take damage multiple times in quick succession. This can easily kill characters, even those with up to double the standard three HitPoints. A recently-killed survivor will continue to be mobbed and bitten until [[StrippedToTheBone only a skeleton remains]], which can be a handy distraction.
99	* ''VideoGame/IsleOfTheDead'' grants you a unique death animation, should you get hopelessly cornered by zombies. Cue an animated clip where several zombies pulls you apart and feast on your flesh.
100	* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'' have the Wall-Nut, Tall-Nut and other defensive plants whose sole purpose is to [[StoneWall take damage and impede the zombies]], who attack your plants by biting and eating them. In levels with high zombie concentration, this trope will eventually happen as a massed group of zombies will overwhelm the nuts' high health. Ideally, you ''want'' this to happen with the Explode-O-Nut, since it also [[TakingYouWithMe explodes on the zombies for massive damage when destroyed]].
101	* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadTelltale'', it takes place during a ZombieApocalypse and it's based on ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', so it's bound to happen. Some deaths will vary on who you choose to save.
102	** [[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonOne Season One]]:
103	*** In Episode One, "A New Day", when the drug store gets overwhelmed by the walkers, Carley or Doug will become the victim of this, depending on who you choose to save.
104	*** In Episode Two, "Starved For Help", Travis or David will suffer this fate depending on who you save. If Lee chooses to save David, who's leg is caught in a bear trap, Travis will be distracted and he'll be devoured by several walkers. If Lee doesn't save David in time, Travis will try to take Mark's hunting rifle but will get accidentally shot, forcing the others to leave David behind to be devoured by the walkers.
105	*** In Episode Three, "Long Road Ahead", while Lee and Kenny are searching for supplies in Macon, they see a young woman fleeing outside a building with her screams attracting the walkers which one of them bites her, Lee has the choice to shoot her to spare her from the walkers or let the walkers devour her and use her as a distraction.
106	*** In Episode Four, "Around Every Corner", when Ben is grabbed by a zombified Crawford Oberson who had been hung from the bell and Lee saves him from it, [[DrivenToSuicide Ben wants Lee to let him]] go because of all the trouble he caused. If Lee chooses to let him go, Ben will drop down the tower and break his legs while nearby walkers will devour him alive.
107	** [[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonTwo Season Two]]:
108	*** In Episode One, "All That Remains", if Clementine chooses to save Nick instead of Pete, he'll be surrounded by walkers and get devoured while Nick and Clementine watch helplessly.
109	*** In Episode Three, "In Harm's Way", when the group is trying to leave the store, Troy holds them at gunpoint, Jane will convince Troy that she'll lead him to safety. But once Troy is distracted, Jane [[GroinAttack shoots him in the groin]] and leaves him to be devoured by the herd of incoming walkers. While the gang is trying to navigate their way through the walker herd, Carlo is trying to calm Sarah down, a stray bullet shot from the people from the store hits him in the neck. The blood from his neck attracts a group of walkers and they attack and devour him.
110	*** In Episode Four, "Amid the Ruins", no matter what choice you make, Sarah will unfortunately suffer this fate. When she separates from the group and Clementine and Jane tries to find her, they find her with Luke trapped inside a trailer as walkers try to enter. After getting inside, Clementine tries to get Sarah to leave with them but she still hasn't recovered from her panic attack. If Clementine chooses to leave her in the trailer, the walkers will break in as Sarah cries out for Clementine and reaches out to her moments before being devoured. If Clementine chooses to save Sarah, later on in the game, the observation deck they're staying on crumbles when the group is moving a cannon and Sarah falls and is trapped under the rubble while Walkers are heading towards them. Regardless of your choice, Sarah cannot be saved at this point and she gets devoured.
111	*** In Vince's Story of ''400 Days'', when a chained Vince, Justin, and Danny need to escape the prison bus, Vince has to choose between Justin and Danny on who's ankle he needs to shoot because then the chain could slip out and they'll all be free. Depending on who you choose, the other will be left behind and get devoured by the walkers.
112	*** In Episode Three of ''Michonne'', after an exchange of prisoners goes horribly awry between Michonne's group and Norma's, a horde of walkers arrives, drawn by the gunfire and Norma's flare. Norma, enraged by the death of her brother, orders her gang to kill Michonne's group, breaking into the compound, closely followed by the walker horde. After engaging in brutal close combat exchange with Norma that results in Michonne cutting off Norma's arm, Norma finds herself surrounded and grabbed by several walkers. Michonne then has the option of either [[MercyKill shooting Norma in the head to spare her the pain of being torn apart]] or leaving her to endure her horrifyingly painful, grisly death.
113	* If you happen to die from multiple zombies in the classic/[=PS1=] ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games, you get to see said zombies devour your corpse as your character lets out a final death cry. Similarly, a few times you'll be able to slip past a group of zombies who are too preoccupied with devouring a fresh kill to come after you.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Webcomics]]
117	* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The counteroffensive at Grenzlan is started by [[spoiler:reanimating the piles of corpses to attack the Aldish soldiers]]. While several end up dying quickly before joining the mob of zombies themselves Mason is last seen alive screaming being swarmed by them, and is next seen as a zombie with most of his torso eaten and a crow still feasting on the mess.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Western Animation]]
121	* In ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', season 8 "Vampirus", Frylock tests to see if Master Shake's blood is the cure for the vampire-inducing virus when vampire zombies have taken over the city. When Frylock tests the cure on Carl, a lot of vampire bats starts biting Carl proving that Shake's blood isn't the cure. When Shake tries to splash the cure on Carl, the vampire bats transform into vampire zombies and they start tearing Carl apart to the point where we can see his skeleton.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124
125	!!Non-Zombie Examples:
126	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
127	* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', Mike Zacharius suffers a brutal one when the Beast Titan removes his 3D Maneuver Gear and leaves him to be eaten by several Titans of differing sizes and all he can do is scream as he's devoured.
128	** It turns out Eren has the power to invoke this when he used this odd scream to get a bunch of titans to gang up and tear apart the titan that killed his mother years ago.
129	* This is what usually happens to anyone branded for sacrifice in the world of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''. During the Eclipse, Pippin goes out this way, holding back a huge horde of demons while buying Casca and Judeau time to get away.
130	* ''Manga/CellsAtWorkCodeBlack'' depicts [[TruthInTelevision phagocytosis]] this way, showing the White Blood Cell team literally devouring a bacteria bite by bite.
131	* ''Anime/CrossAnge'': This can be the fate of any Norma pilot who gets knocked out of her [[HumongousMecha Paramail]] while fighting [[OurDragonsAreDifferent DRAGONs]]. Poor, ''poor'' newbie pilot Miranda Campbell goes out this way in ''horrifying'' fashion in Episode 3 when she is knocked off hers, flung into the air, then ripped apart by numerous hungry [=DRAGONs=]. She dies screaming for Ange's help as the latter is attempting to desert.
132	* The fate of Asuka and the EVA-02 in ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'', being torn apart and eaten by the mass-produced EVA series. [[UnexplainedRecovery She gets better.]]
133	* In ''Manga/OnePiece'' movie ''[[Anime/OnePieceFilmStrongWorld Strong World]]'', the Guntai Ari are a group of soldier-like [[AntAssault ants]] that can reduce their prey to bones in an instant as Robin, Franky, and Brook witness them do this to a giant shark monster.
134	* Subaru of ''Literature/ReZero'' gets eaten alive by a swarm of {{Killer Rabbit}}s in one of the most horrifying ways he's died so far.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Fan Works]]
138	* ''Fanfic/LovedAndLost'': [[BigBad Jewelius]] meets his end when [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Chrysalis]] orders her [[EmotionEater Changelings]] to eat him for double-crossing them, saying that since [[TheSociopath his]] heart has no love for them to feed on, everything else will have to do.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
142	* In ''WesternAnimation/The3LittlePigsTheMovie'', after waiting over an hour to eat something at the inn, the dinner guests come close to rushing the stage to [[CarnivoreConfusion “help themselves”]] to Wally & Beemo. Luckily for the pigs, [[VillainousRescue Rublad had other plans]]
143	* In ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', Hopper mistake the bird as a trick by Flik and tempts it until he realize the bird is real and the bird sees him as a treat. As the bird takes him to her nest, we see three chicks hopping to get their meal. Hopper rattles in fear as the chicks are ready to eat and [[EatTheCamera the camera lowers to one of its mouth]].
144	* Zatanna, Batgirl and Bane are swarmed and devoured by the Paradooms in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar''. Shazam nearly suffers this fate, too, but he quickly summons a lightning bolt to [[TakingYouWithMe take the Paradooms with him]].
145	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', after Simba defeats Scar in the final battle for Pride Rock, Scar [[TheDogBitesBack gets surrounded by his former hyena henchmen]] and he gets eaten alive by them after they find out how little he thought of betraying them.
146	* ''WesternAnimation/WereBackADinosaursStory'': The villain Screweyes gets eaten by his (not-so) trained crows, which completely cover his body then fly away, leaving nothing at all.
147	* ''WesternAnimation/WestAndSoda'', an Italian AffectionateParody of its own SpaghettiWestern genre, features [[AntAssault deadly ants]] from the desert that turn an Indian warrior and his horse into skeletons in a few seconds.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
151	* ''Film/CountYorga'' movies love these as well.
152	** In the first, Hayes is caught by Yorga's vampire brides, who proceed to knock him to the ground and feed on him as he's still screaming.
153	** Happens twice in the second movie. The first time, Yorga sends his vampire brides to attack his target's family. While he makes sure they don't harm her outside of knocking her out, the rest of the family are fed upon with one of them even becoming a new bride. The second time, the boyfriend of said new bride is tricked into coming into Yorga's lair. He tries to run, but Yorga catches him and chokes him into submission before having him thrown to his brides.
154	* ''Film/DogSoldiers'': Spoon ends up being overwhelmed during his DyingMomentOfAwesome and eaten by not one but two werewolves. All that's left of him afterwards is a mess of guts, blood, bones and a wristwatch.
155	* Happens with vampires in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' when a bunch of them grab Scott and start sucking his blood. His sister Kate has to [[MercyKill put him out of his misery]] by blowing him and the vampires up with a crossbow bolt.
156	* In ''Film/HaloNightfall'', the cast spends most of their time on the Alpha Halo Shard being stalked by swarms of feral Lekgolo worms (the same species of [[TheWormThatWalks Worm That Walks]] which forms [[BossInMookClothing Hunters]] and [[HumongousMecha Scarabs]] in the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games, but gone insane from being trapped on a Halo for 100,000 years), and most of the group is eaten by them. In fact, there's only two deaths on the Alpha Shard that ''don't'' directly involve them[[note]]Arris Le is shot by Horrigan, while Randall Aiken manually detonates a Havoc nuke to achieve the original mission objective. Everyone else who dies got eaten[[/note]].
157	* The ultimate fate of Mason Verger in ''Film/{{Hannibal}}'', who is [[FedToPigs fed to his own pigs]] and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard subjected to the same horrible fate he intended for Hannibal]].
158	* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', when a ton of [[AntAssault man-eating ants]] appears, they take out several Russian soldiers. Dovchenko suffers the most when the ants first get inside his body through his mouth, then drag him into their anthill.
159	* In Peter Jackson's ''Film/KingKong2005'', Andy Serkis' character is eaten by several ''Carnictis'' worms inside the chasm.
160	* ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' likes this.
161	** ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' has a scene taken from the original ''Literature/JurassicPark1990'' novel, where a small child is attacked and nearly eaten by a pack of ''Compsognathus''. Later, Dieter Stark really does get killed by a compy swarm. Another character, Peter Ludlow, is eaten by a family of ''T. rex''; the father breaks his leg, and the juvenile finishes him off.
162	** Eli Mills' ultimate fate in ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom''. Rexy snaps him up and begins tearing him apart, and the nearby ''Carnotaurus'' and compies join in, squabbling over the limbs.
163	* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'', the orc pack who take Merry and Pippin to Isengard are starving, and one of them attempts to eat the hobbits. Under strict orders to bring any hobbit back in one piece, the leader of the orc pack kills one of his subordinates instead, who is then devoured by his hungry comrades.
164	-->''"Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!"''
165	* ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'': Scarab beetles were sacred creatures in ancient Egyptian mythology, so they appear in both of the first two films.
166	** In ''Film/TheMummy1999'', part of the curse inflicted on Imhotep involves being entombed alive with a swarm of hungry scarab beetles inside the coffin with him. In the modern day, Hamunaptra is guarded by swarms of scarab beetles that appear out of nowhere to devour intruders. One of the diggers is eaten by a swarm after Imhotep is first awakened. Later, [[spoiler:Beni Gabor]] is eaten alive by scarab beetles, which swarm over and inside of him.
167	** In the sequel, ''Film/TheMummyReturns'', several {{Mooks}} suffer this fate when they uncover Imhotep's Book of the Dead. At the end, Anck-Sun-Amun, Imhotep's lover, is trying to escape the golden pyramid of Ahm Shere and falls into a pit [[{{Pun}} crawling]] with these and about as many scorpions.
168	* In the climax of ''Film/TheNightOfAThousandCats'', [[SerialKiller Hugo]]'s cats gang up on him and finish him off.
169	* Near the end of ''Film/{{Slaxx}}'', the jerkass store manager Craig gets devoured by a horde of possessed [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever jeans]]. By the time they're through with him, they've stripped off over half the flesh on his bones.
170	[[/folder]]
171
172	[[folder:Literature]]
173	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': If [[HorrorHunger Taxxons]] smell blood, they'll be upon the injured in seconds and devour any piece they can grab. If a Taxxon happens to be said injured party, it will try to consume itself even as other Taxxons are ripping into it.
174	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': At the end of ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', which has made much of the fact [[GeniusLoci the Kingdom of Lancre itself]] despises the Felmets, Lady Felmet is trying to escape through the forest, when all the woodland animals converge on her. [[KillerRabbit Even the rabbits]].
175	* ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'': An unfortunate crawler is mentioned in passing to have been caught by a trap that injected him with "Finger-sized Flesh Weasels", which promptly ate him from the inside out. His companions fled from the necropolis.
176	* In ''Explorers of Literature/{{Gor}}'', Tarl exploits army ants' ability to eat anything and everything by luring them to a CannibalTribe's village, where his friends have been captured and are being kept to be eaten. Once the ants invade, the cannibals are too busy trying to avoid being eaten to stop Tarl's rescue. The cannibals end up eaten.
177	* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
178	** ''Literature/HaloBrokenCircle'': When one of the Ussans, secretly a Covenant spy, tries to kill Ussa himself, the other Ussans grab him and promptly rip him apart. Ussa is grateful for the lifesaving but wishes they hadn't killed the spy, as he could've been interrogated. A later Ussan who defects to the Covenant, Crecka, suffers the same fate from his former comrades, though the Covenant already expected that would happen after [[UriahGambit they sent him to fight]] [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves the Ussans in battle]].
179	** ''Literature/HaloEvolutions - Blunt Instruments'': After Spartan Black Two frees a swarm of enslaved Drones, a Hunter that was pursuing her ''panics'' and flees for its life. But it's too slow to escape, and the Drones swarm it and tear it to individual worms. Black Two at first thinks it's odd that the Hunter would flee, as it's a powerful foe and Drones are GoddamnedBats at most. But seeing this swarm's viciousness, and a few other clues, lead her to realize that these aren't ordinary Drones, but psychotic "Unmutuals" that were imprisoned to keep them from being a danger to others.
180	* ''Franchise/JurassicPark'':
181	** In ''Literature/JurassicPark1990'', Dr. Henry Wu is eaten by a pack of ''Velociraptor'', and John Hammond is devoured by a swarm of ''Procompsognathus'' after he falls and injures his leg.
182	** In the sequel, ''Literature/TheLostWorld1995'', Eddie Carr is devoured by the pack of raptors after he falls from the high hide, Lewis Dodgson's associate Howard King is eaten by the raptors while attempting to escape the island, and Dodgson is eaten by the three baby ''Tyrannosaurus'' after one of the adults breaks his leg and brings him back to the nest.
183	* ''Literature/LaughingJack'': In the mother's NightmareSequence, her legs walk her into a seemingly empty circus tent, then the lights suddenly reveal silhouettes of disfigured children approaching and surrounding her. She's unable to move, and the kids proceed to claw at her flesh and tear into her before she wakes up.
184	* ''Literature/{{Perfume}}: The Story of a Murderer'': At the very end, Grenouille, having lost all sense of purpose in his life, uses it to kill himself. As he approaches a group of beggars, he pours the last drop of the perfume on himself. The beggars are so enchanted by his smell that they swarm him and rip him to pieces.
185	* ''Literature/RaptorRed'' has several scenes where the Utahraptors hunt prey in this manner, much as they are thought to have done in real life.
186	* Literature/KittyNorville: ''Kitty and the Silver Bullet'' features a rare non-villainous example. When Kitty stages a coup against the abusive alphas of her pack, she shoots the alpha female with a silver bullet, then the rest of the pack kills and consumes the alpha male.
187	* "Literature/TheHareAndThePineapple": The story ends with the animals eating the (sentient and talking) pineapple, possibly because they were annoyed that it lost the race against the hare.
188	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': [[Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters "The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett"]] (ShortStory by Creator/DanielKeysMoran). According to Boba Fett, the New Republic has refused to admit Devaron due to considering its form of the death penalty, being torn apart by beasts in an arena, to be cruel and unusual punishment. This is the fate that awaits Kardue'sai'malloc, an Imperial war criminal, when Fett brings him in. (The event is also referenced in the entry on Devaronians in ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species''.)
189	* In [[Literature/BooksOfMaccabees 2nd Maccabees chapter 9]], King Antiochus Epiphanes was being eaten from the inside by intestinal worms when he attempted to destroy the Jews, leading to his HeelFaithTurn before his death. Another biblical example appears in [[Literature/BooksOfKings 2nd Kings chapter 9]] after Jezebel is [[RasputinianDeath thrown out a window and trampled by horses]]; stray dogs tear her apart before the body can be retrieved.
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
193	* ''Series/The100'' has two members of Jaha's pilgrimage to the City of Light get eaten by [[NuclearMutant giant sea eels/leeches/worms/whatever-you-call-them]].
194	* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' naturally features a few deaths involving this. To name a few examples:
195	** An escaped convict gets stuck in a pipe and has rats [[EyeScream eat through his eye]] and into his brain.
196	** A slavedriver is eaten by piranha that are attracted by blood from his penis after he rips a candiru fish out of it.
197	** A tourist who goes to sleep in Africa gets eaten from the inside out by driver ants.
198	** A man who hates bugs is devoured by them after covering his house in adhesive and getting stuck to it. Granted, he was already dead by that point…
199	* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'':
200	** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish The Wish]]", Cordelia wishes that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, so it becomes overrun with vampires. Cordelia is bitten, drained, and killed by vampire versions of Xander and Willow.
201	** ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In the Season 5 episode "[[Recap/AngelS05E03Unleashed Unleashed]]", a women turned werewolf is hunted by an exclusive club specialized in exotic meals, who hope to serve a werewolf for their next banquet. And since werewolves by default revert back to their human form upon dying, they will have to eat her alive. She is narrowly spared this fate when the protagonists rescue her.
202	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
203	** "[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride The Runaway Bride]]": The Racnoss Empress throws [[spoiler:Lance]] into a pit to be eaten by her spider-babies.
204	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]": The Vashta Nerada hide in shadows and can eat you in an instant. Hey, at least they make it quick.
205	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway It Takes You Away]]": In the antizone, the mysterious Ribbons is devoured by the [[MothMenace flesh-moths]] when he tries to run away from them.
206	* ''Series/Extraterrestrial2005'': Once the stalkers incapacitate a skywhale, they tear it to pieces and eat it while it's still alive.
207	* One of the many ways that someone overtaken by the Reavers of ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' can be less than lucky.
208	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
209	** In "The Old Gods and the New", when the riot breaks out in King's Landing after Myrcella is sent to Dorne, the High Septon is ''literally'' torn apart by the angry smallfolk, and it's heavily implied they'll cannibalize him to stave off starvation.
210	** [[Characters/GameOfThronesRamsayBolton Lord Ramsay Bolton]] inflicted feeding people to his rabbit dogs on other people and eventually and deservedly became a victim of this from one of his victims who fed him to his own dogs that he starved so they would feed on more victims.
211	*** In Season Six "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E2Home Home]]", after Ramsay kills his father when they learn that his wife, Walda, gave birth to a baby boy, [[InheritanceMurder not wanting to lose his claim]], he lured Walda and his baby brother to the kennels to have his dogs devour them.
212	*** In Season Six "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E9BattleOfTheBastards Battle of the Bastards]]", before their battle, Ramsay brags that he didn't feed his dogs for a week so he can have them devour Jon and his men after they lose, but in the end it was Ramsay that lost. After losing the battle, Ramsay is tied to a chair in the same room where his dogs are and Sansa reveals that the cages of his dogs are open. Ramsay is confident that his dogs won't hurt him because they are loyal, but Sansa notes that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he starved them in anticipation of feeding them Jon and his men]] so the dogs are more hungry than loyal. Ramsay orders his dogs to stand down but they don't listen and they start devouring him, [[KarmicDeath while he screams in agony]].
213	* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Trumbo's World", Trumbo's native assistant is devoured by the swarm of army ants that overwhelm the plantation.
214	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS14E19JackInTheBox Jack in the Box]]", Jack causes Pastor Ings, the leader of the prayer group he drafts the new angels from, to be eaten alive by worms. He survives long enough for Sam, Dean, and Castiel to interrogate him, but the worms are still infesting him.
215	* PlayedForLaughs on ''Series/TopGear''. One segment involves a combination of fox hunting and greenlaning. Jeremy drives an SUV with a fox inspired paint job and gets chased by a hunting party with dogs. The segment ends with the SUV getting stuck in a ditch and Jeremy getting swarmed by the dogs. In the host segment immediately afterward, Richard says that Jeremy was eaten by the dogs.
216	* In the first episode of ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'', a Gastornis chick is devoured by flesh-eating ants - while it is still hatching from its egg.
217	[[/folder]]
218
219	[[folder:Multiple Media]]
220	* Franchise/MonsterVerse: In ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' and the spin-off graphic novel ''The Birth of Kong''; the Leafwings and their relative the Psychovultures on Skull Island, being as small and swarming as they are, tend to do this, as do the Death Jackals also on Skull Island; in Kong: Skull Island and The Birth of Kong.
221	[[/folder]]
222
223	[[folder:Theater]]
224	* In ''Theatre/SuddenlyLastSummer'' the death of Sebastian is described: a large group of underprivileged kids from the Caribbean island he was visiting descended upon him and ate him. Or so his companion at the time insists.
225	* In the Broadway production of ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', Veruca Salt ends up decapitated and torn apart by Mr. Wonka's Nut Room squirrels.
226	* Implied to have happened to Chagal in ''Theatre/TanzDerVampire'', whose frozen corpse is discovered covered in ''dozens'' of vampire bites, in a show where every other victim (including [[spoiler:Magda, whom Chagal himself turns in the very next scene]])) is only bitten once.
227	[[/folder]]
228
229	[[folder:Video Games]]
230	* In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', the rats in the game are capable of doing this to their victims. Corvo even has the ability, "SwarmOfRats", to summon a swarm of rats onto his target to devour them.
231	* In the arcade version of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong3'', losing a life results in Stanley falling to the floor and being eaten alive by a swarm of bugs, leaving behind nothing other than his spray bottle. Home console ports tone this down by removing the devouring part, having only the fall kill him.
232	* This happens to Vulcan Raven in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' after his second defeat, being devoured by his ravens. Unlike most examples, Vulcan Raven willingly allows this to happen as his philosophy is that ravens "simply return to the natural world that which is no longer needed".
233	* In ''Videogame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'', Princess Kenny has the ability "Swarm of Rats", in which he summons a huge wave of rats to attack his enemies, but if he fails the prompt, then the rats will devour Kenny.
234	* A frequent fate for Hector and Troy of ''VideoGame/{{Struggling}}'' is being eaten alive by the hundreds of thousands of rats that infest the laboratory they were created in.
235	* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': After Sylvanas betrays Garithos, his body is instantly jumped on by ravenous ghouls (to add insult to injury, heroes normally don't leave corpses behind).
236	* In ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', Annabelle was a noblewoman whose family was slaughtered by peasant looters. Using a potion given to her by her family's mage she managed to avoid their wrath by FakingTheDead, but when she comes to she's still paralyzed and eaten alive by a swarm of rats the mage kept for his experiments. The violent nature of her death and a {{curse}} accidentally placed on the island by her bereaved boyfriend led to her spirit turning into a plague maiden.
237	* ''VideoGame/{{Writhe}}'' have the cutscene should you be overwhelmed or hopelessly outnumbered by gigantic, oversized sago worms, where a dozen or so of the worms them swarms above you and chew you to shreds.
238	[[/folder]]
239
240	[[folder:Web Animation]]
241	* ''WebAnimation/CampCamp'': Three seasons after he stabbed their king through the heart, the squirrels come back with an army and devour Quartermaster. He survives thanks to some form of ResurrectiveImmortality (he cleans up his own headless body towards the end of the episode), but still loses the subsequent fight to them.
242	* In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', this is the fate of Super Kami Guru. He is torn apart and eaten by the Namekians after it's revealed that the massacre of the albino Namekians he led was solely because he drank all the planet's water and blamed them. The Namekians were not pleased.
243	[[/folder]]
244
245	[[folder:Webcomics]]
246	* In the roleplays of ''Webcomic/WhiteDarkLife'', the DeathByOriginStory of Annie Belnades's parents was like this -- they were eaten by coyotes while Annie watched in horror from the safety of tree branches. Then the coyotes turned their attention to Annie and chased her relentlessly for ''[[SuperPersistentPredator six years]]''. Annie has developed [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes a severe phobia]] of both coyotes and being EatenAlive as a result.
247	* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Given a choice between being torn apart and eaten by a mob of enraged amorphs, or a lengthy court proceeding, Schlock's human 'grandmother' [[EvilLawyerJoke chose being eaten]].
248	[[/folder]]
249
250	[[folder:Western Animation]]
251	* In the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', "The Last One Forever and Ever (For Real This Time) (We Fucking Mean It)", Master Shake performs a HeroicSacrifice to save Meatwad from the clams so he can get Frylock a new jewel by getting himself devoured by the clams.
252	* In ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', season 5 "The Gayle Tales", in Louise's ''Series/GameOfThrones'' inspired story, Lindaryen (Linda) unleashes the Mort-ain (Mort) to fight in the duel against Louise but she wins the duel by slapping him with her sword and making him fall into the pit of ravenous porcelain babies that eats him alive. When Bobdor (Bob), who is Lindaryen’s fool, is insulted when Lindaryen mentions that she should get a new fool as he isn’t skinny or hot, he throws Lindaryen into the pit, too.
253	* A bizarre non-lethal version happens to K'nuckles in the ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' episode "Hand It Over": when Flapjack angrily insists K'nuckles stole his wooden hand, a mob become convinced that ''all'' of his body parts are stolen from him, even the real ones, so they strip him down to nothing but [[EyesAreUnbreakable a pair of eyeballs]]. Then the one who first accused K'nuckles of stealing his hands admits he was wrong, so he gives the hand back and leaves K'nuckles as a pair of eyeballs and a hand trying to strangle Flapjack in anger.
254	* In ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', season 7 "Terror Tales of the Park V", in the story "Chocolatude", when a witch gives Mordecai and Rigby chocolate that slowly turns them into chocolate on Halloween, Rigby escaped from the witch but by the time he got out of the witch's house his entire body has turned into chocolate and he can't move. Several trick-or-treaters surround Rigby and start eating him.
255	* In a rather shockingly FamilyUnfriendlyDeath, in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' an Insecticon is killed this way by a swarm of [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily Scraplets]].
256	* One of the most chilling scenes in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' was the scene in "Marabounta" where Yumi was devoured by the out-of-control Marabounta, a colony of NanoMachines. Fortunately, it was only her Lyoko Avatar (her true self survived, just like was often the case for anyone who "dies" on Lyoko), but that didn't make the scene or the episode in general any less frightening (especially since it was after Aelita who, at the time, ''could not'' have survived if it happened to her.)
257	* Nearly happens to Jack and Ashi in Episode XCIX of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''. they manage to turn on the weapon designed to destroy [[TheWormThatWalks Lazarus-92]] right just as the swarm starts to cover them.
258	* In ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends'', when a demon shows up to terrorize a party everyone thinks that [[MistakenForRacist he's a guy in blackface]]. The partygoers then proceed to tear him apart and devour his flesh.
259	* [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "One Krab's Trash". After Mr. Krabs steals Smitty Werbenjägermanjensen's hat off of his skeletal remains, he's surrounded by a horde of skeletons. After Mr. Krabs goes into graphic detail on what they plan to do to him, a disgusted Werbenjägermanjensen elaborates he only wants his hat back.
260	[[/folder]]
261
262	[[folder:Real Life]]
263	* Packs of small predators will often eat their prey alive in order to finish their meals as fast as possible. [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle African wild dogs, hyenas, and red dogs will make you scream for several minutes, if they manage to catch you]]. Ironically, being caught by larger predators such as lions or tigers is a less painful way to die, for [[SlashedThroat they'll "just" open your windpipe up]] if they don't choose to close it up.
264	* Ants will swarm over their unfortunate prey, and tear them apart bit by bit.
265	* Sharks such as oceanic whitetips are infamous for this, as are piranhas in a feeding frenzy. To be fair, their reputation for this far exceeds the reality, although both really will attack wounded prey ''en masse'' when starving.
266	* At least one theory about the death of Amelia Earhart is that she was injured in her crash onto a Pacific island, and survived long enough to be consumed by a horde of [[GiantEnemyCrab coconut crabs]]. This would have most likely happened after she was already dead, though.
267	[[/folder]]

Context Main / DevouredByTheHorde