LogFAQs > #929539863

41. An Ancient Evil Awakens (18 points)
Nominated by: Anagram (2/5 remaining)
https://imgur.com/a/DrciOy7

Importance: 9
Fear: 5
Snake: 4

This is a pretty common trope in all forms of media. Like with all tropes, your variables for success will depend on how well you employ it, and when it comes to ancient evils, things can get pretty cliche fast. Now, I couldn't quite discern what the first use of this was, but one early work I think of, at least in the realm of horror, is The Mummy, or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, which sees an ancient mummy resurrected in the far future of 2126. Mummies may not be what we typically think of as "ancient evil", but it fits the bill perfectly and are more tangible threat than the amorphous beings that almost exist beyond our imaginations. (It also has the bonus of being the first Mummy story in English literature).

That's why what comes to my mind first are the Cthulhu Mythos, Cthulhu himself being one such example. Cthulhu is initially mentioned through pictures and texts, but built up as this ultimate entity of death and despair, and a cult attempts to summon him. Instead, its the mistakes of a group of sailors that ultimately leads to Cthulhu's release. I like this example a lot because it really points out the flaws of humanity and the pay-off near the end rather than the beginning leaves us a lot to chew on and imagine. One early example in film, and again mummy-related, is Universal classic The Mummy, which features the ancient Egyptian high priest known as Imhotep, buried alive and brought back to life due to the curse of opening his casket. King Ghidorah, of Godzilla fame, is also a great example in my book. In the original Ghidorah film, Ghidorah was an extraterrestrial from Venus, and arrived in a meteor shower taking place on Earth after being sealed away for quite some time. In this year's King of the Monsters, Ghidorah is also an ancient alien, encased in ice at Antarctica again being woken up by human intervention. Ancient evils can fit into any genre with aplomb, but it's not all fine and dandy.

Some examples can pretty derivative. The Djinn in Wishmaster gets awoken due to people messing around with his jewel, not much inherently different from the Mummy curse. Bughuul may seem unique with the focus on watching his movies, but it's just another case of messing with things you shouldn't be, and besides, have you never seen The Ring? But, speaking of, entities like Samara/Sadako may seem like ancient evils but those typically deal with curses with their own certain rule sets and are more often than not recent history rather than ancient. Cabin in the Woods excellently parodied ancient evils, pretty much showing them as the reason behind every horror film ever. It's an extreme example showing them as constantly poised to destroy the world on a whim, and really shows the futility of going up against one.

And that's really why I don't get behind this trope much. They're usually not very concrete and really too hopeless for my tastes. Seeing one of these especially in a horror story just bores me more often than not. Even the seemingly most-invincible killers like Jason and Freddy can be defeated with enough human ingenuity and spirit. Like I said though, some do it well, Cthulhu Mythos examples work especially because the monsters are basically allegories for the darkest parts of ourselves. But if I see another movie where the evil is just this big thing that rumbles under the Earth and bursts above to cause generic destruction, I will pass.
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I try in vain to slumber, my reveries gripped by violent terror. My only salvation, the shock of awakening. Something is very, very wrong here.