request

[tigriswolf]

 Tell me at least one generic character that appears in monster movies.  (Like the lone surviving scientist, or the beleaguered law(wo)man, and so on).

Comments

[jujuberry136.livejournal.com]

the hassled scientist

the unconvinced military official

the beautiful woman who gets eaten by the monster

the rogue (usually a guy who is no good who ends up saving the day)

the child in danger

the military grunt called into deal with the situation (who is usually eaten)

Any of these help?

[tigriswolf]

Yes, thanks!

[cattraine.livejournal.com]

The mousey brunette who has the brains to survive.

[tigriswolf]

Ah, yes, can't forget her.

[vorpalblades.livejournal.com]

The "crazy" person who was right from the get go but no one believes.

[tigriswolf]

*hee* Usually one of my favorites.

[ravelqueen.livejournal.com]

the mob with torches?XD

the one guy who finds it all cool and fascinating (and probably dies in the second act)

[tigriswolf]

Thanks!

(Who is your icon? I feel like I should recognize her.)

[lizzie-marie-23.livejournal.com]

The criminal who helps save the days with his powers of killing

The scientist going through a messy divorce

The military man/woman who does something stupid that nearly gets them all killed

The naked couple

A representative of every race

[tigriswolf]

Ah, yes, mustn't forget the couple busy with sexytimes.

[gypsy-atavari.livejournal.com]

The dog that survives (while most of humanity dies)

The person (man/woman) who is trying to get to their loved one to make sure they're ok

The amoral corporate guy who makes things worse (and dies a gruesome death in the end at the hands of the very thing he was trying to make a profit out of)

Someone who gets infected and tries to hide it (in the hopes that he/she won't turn - and ends up turning anyway)

[tigriswolf]

I always like it when the amoral corporate guy gets what's coming to him. *hee*

[gypsy-atavari.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! It's one of life's small pleasures. Hehehe! :-)

[pprfaith.livejournal.com]

The token non-white guy and the busty blonde who dies first, the nerdy brunette who survives, the jock who dies in amusing ways, the skeptic...

I think the best way to figure out horror movie staple characters is to watch Scary Movie, parts one to three bazillion. If you survive the brain melt, they just tap every cliché at least once.

[tigriswolf]

I've seen the third one, I think. I'm not entirely sure I liked it. Are the others any better?

[pprfaith.livejournal.com]

Nope. They all suck. The first was tolerable, but everything after is bad. Very bad.

[taniapretender.livejournal.com]

i suggest tvtropes.com it's a gold mine !

[taniapretender.livejournal.com]

it's actually tvtropes.org and here are a few examples :
haunted heroine
dead all along
supernatural proof father
black dude dies first
creepy child
final girl

etc.

[tigriswolf]

I love tvtropes! I lose hours every time I go there.

[caffienekitty]

The expert who refuses to believe what's going on despite ample evidence right up until they get eaten.

The competitive sports enthusiast appropriate to the setting who refuses to let a little thing like monsters get in his/her way of training for the big tournament.

The scientist who knows how the monster came to be, has some part in its origin but refuses to believe any of this is their fault, and takes actions to destroy the evidence or otherwise protect their secret from being discovered, up to and including a bit of casual murder-by-monster in the third act, which backfires.

The big game hunter, who wants to bag this thing on his/her own for the glory and fame and doesn't give a crap about how much destruction is caused in the process.

The survivor of a previous attack/outbreak who warns away the hero, lives in paranoid fear of the monster coming back for them, and in the end is either killed randomly, sacrifices themselves to advance the hero's chances of catching the creature, or lives triumphantly free of fear (until the bit after the credits where the creatures unexpected off-spring macerate them, 50% chance).

Random party obsessed people who ignore the warnings, either do drugs or have pre-marital sex, then die messily.

[tigriswolf]

Thanks!

I'm thinking about throwing a megalodon into the mix. What say you?

[caffienekitty]

The more the merrier! Or messier! Plus with more than two there's a chance of more complex monster social dynamics.

[tigriswolf]

*hee*

I was talking with tigremere about how crocigator is the science experiment gone wrong and squidipus is the 'natural' mutant from the depths of the ocean, and she pointed out that those two wouldn't ever really meet. Gators and crocs both stick pretty close to the coast, when they're not living in rivers.

But megalodons can go wherever the fuck they want, so.

(And... I just really like 'em.)

[caffienekitty]

Without getting too far into cryptozoology which comes up with tales of freshwater octopi now and then as lake monsters etc, the Atlantic brief squid (Lolligungcula Brevis) has been known to hang out near river mouths and can tolerate low salinity levels. They're tiny, but that's what mutation is for, right?

A little outcast natural mutation squidipus hanging out in semi-freshwater to avoid it's violently intolerant squid and octopi relations and voila! Freshwater's where they can't get at it, so it pushes it's limits and adapts to freshwater, thriving in the river system where it finds a relatively unthreatened ecological niche or something and grows huuuuuge. Or does so over generations of squidipi. Or gets a little boost from runoff from a factory-farm if you aren't dead set against any human influence in its development.

What I'm wondering is how many legs a squidipus would have, since octopi have eight and squid have ten. Nine? EIGHTEEN? O.o

But of course, hell yeah megalodons as well! ^.^

[tigriswolf]

Oooh. I was conducting a bit of research earlier (okay, reading a kid's science book about mollusks, whatever) and some octopi do stick to the shallows (ish).

But the giants? I'm pretty sure they don't.

... but a small octopus getting hit by some sort of mutation, and then he (she? it?) heads out into the deep in a chemically induced panic and gets eaten by a squid. I dunno if it could even get that far, but what if a megalodon was chasing the squid?

And thus is born squidipus because a squid ate a mututating octopus. Yeah.

That works, right?

(I'm thinking 1800 legs. For fun.)

(Also, look at my newest icon! It's a kraken.)

[caffienekitty]

But the giants? I'm pretty sure they don't.

True, but if it's mutating anyway, why not mutate it into a giant too?

And thus is born squidipus because a squid ate a mututating octopus. Yeah.

Usually ingesting something doesn't result in combining DNA and mutations, but if the octopus had developed mutagenic ink or blood in the process of its own mutation, that would work. That is if you want to get into the technical bits of it. If not you can always have someone go "THERE'S A GIANT SQUIDIPUS THAT'S TRYING TO KILL US AND YOU WANT TO GIVE A BIOLOGY LESSON??!" and handwave all the mechanics.

(I'm thinking 1800 legs. For fun.)

Oooo. Like a big sea urchin, but wiggly and grabby instead of sharp. :-)

You could have it traverse short stretches of dry land like that. It could hold its breath and just roll along in a giant ball of legs, mashing things flat.

Kraken! Hee! Very appropriate

[tigriswolf]

"THERE'S A GIANT SQUIDIPUS THAT'S TRYING TO KILL US AND YOU WANT TO GIVE A BIOLOGY LESSON??!"

Yes, the mechanics will be totally handwaved. The scenes where civilians yell at the scientist who's trying to explain things are usually fun.


It was going to have 18 legs, but then I decided, dude, it's ginormous. So it needs more.


You could have it traverse short stretches of dry land like that. It could hold its breath and just roll along in a giant ball of legs, mashing things flat.

Like Devestator? Nice.


So, now I have a megalodon icon, a supercroc icon, and a kraken icon. Because I'm awesome.