Current Events > Is there such a thing as Halloween monsters?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've tried to discus this in the past and even on a few other websites. Mostly due to a project I've been working on based around typical Halloween archetypes, like the vampire, wolfman, mummy, etc. Basically something akin to Darkstalkers.

But after some comments in a recent few topics I need to ask... am I going about it wrong? Do these "archetypes" I'm desperately clinging to even exist? Or are they just needlessly limiting me?

Should I just ignore the archetypes and go for what I personally believe fits the Halloween aesthetic I'm trying to accomplish? Should I go with the idea of "if it's a monster, it's fair game" and start considering shit like dragons and Medusa and angels? Or should I continue with my thought process of "is a goblin even a Halloween monster" and weigh each on whether they're generally accepted as part of the holiday?

...I don't know. I'm honestly starting to think I started from a faulty premise.

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Personally when I think of Halloween I think of witches and spirits from western folklore, not vampires, wolf men and a mummy.

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Gorgon can work but angels and dragons are pushing it.

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I feel halloween monsters is whatever monster got pretty popular in the media they usually come from, i.e. the really old movies and books about dracula, nosferatu, frankenstein, werewolf, etc.

Which means, you can really expand that list a lot, don't need to limit yourself to just really old stuff, you could add newer-ish stuff that is also i guess variations of old halloween monster tropes, like the killer clowns like pennywise, the killer slimes like the one from The Blob, the flyman from the movie The Fly, Jason vorgees, Freddy krueger, etc.

Medusas and dragons and angels fill more fantasy than halloween to me and not really halloween monsters in the same sense.

You could take inspiration by folklore too

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Dreamscissors posted...

Personally when I think of Halloween I think of witches and spirits from western folklore, not vampires, wolf men and a mummy.

Which proves my point. It's so subjective that is there even a point in attempting to categorise it?

If it helps though, a ghost and a witch are part of my lineup. I consider all five of them part of "the big eight" Halloween creatures.

ForsakenHermit posted...

Gorgon can work but angels and dragons are pushing it.

Okay but why? How can you say that with such certainty? What is it that I'm missing that allows me to know where the line is on what counts and what doesn't?

Cookie Bag posted...

I feel halloween monsters is whatever monster got pretty popular in the media they usually come from, i.e. the really old movies and books about dracula, nosferatu, frankenstein, werewolf, etc.

Which means, you can really expand that list a lot, don't need to limit yourself to just really old stuff, you could add newer-ish stuff that is also i guess variations of old halloween monster tropes, like the killer clowns like pennywise, the killer slimes like the one from The Blob, the flyman from the movie The Fly, Jason vorgees, Freddy krueger, etc.

Medusas and dragons and angels fill more fantasy than halloween to me and not really halloween monsters in the same sense.

You could take inspiration by folklore too

See, this confuses me a bit. You say "they're more fantasy than Halloween" and then the very next sentence, "you could take inspiration from folklore". What's the difference?

The rest of this is interesting as that's generally what I've been doing. I'm just concerned that even THAT may be limiting me. And then there's the opposite, where do things like an evil clown, a slasher villain, etc. even COUNT as Halloween or are they just horror? Is there even a difference?

And then there's the concept of non-monster archetypes. For example one of the characters in the lineup embodies a vampire hunter archetype; does that then open the floodgates to OTHER non-monster characters? What other "good guys" could fit?

And more importantly... am I just overthinking this whole thing? These are ALL the questions running through my head lately.

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Oh no i wasn't excluding one to the other, that was mostly a personal statement and then a suggestion, sorry if i worded it weird, you could just take from folklore and fantasy if it helps whatever setting you're trying to build, but my mind is pretty set on that stuff related to halloween is mostly like, movie monsters and shit these days.

Gotta consider that what halloween is, and what halloween is sold as is completely different too, since we turned it from being an actual thing to some sort of thing to package, advertise and sell, like christmas, so in the end if you want to do a "halloween" setting, you can really use any angle that you feel like it fits whatever you're doing.

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Devils Night = demon

Also, Salem-style witches.

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Yeah, modern Halloween is so centered around whatever is mainstream/popular at the time that I feel like trying to classify them like how you currently are could very easily end up with you writing yourself into a corner.

It really depends on the context/what your premise is, but I'd say don't try to limit yourself; go with whatever you think will fit into your story; if you want to include dragons and angels in your line-up, I think you absolutely can. Again, I don't know the world you're trying to build here, but as long as you establish the "rules" of the setting early, you can include or exclude whatever you want to pretty much. Even if a certain type of monster may be questionable on a mainstream level, if you personally think that type of monster will fit well with your world, just work it into the setting that in this world they ARE considered a mainstay, or work in that they're maybe a "forgotten" monster in the context of Halloween. I think there's a lot you can play with here, just go with whatever you think will work most cohesively with the setting you're trying to establish.

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I don't think so. Every time I catch one, it turns out to just be a kid in a costume. Im sick of this scooby doo shit.

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My immediate reaction was this Mr. Show sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP1bg1R5XQc&pbjreload=101

As far as I'm concerned, I'll always think of horror type monsters like Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, etc. Personally, I think of creatures that could be in horror movies, not just shit that people might wear as a costume.

Maybe?

Gorgons have horror movies based on how they can sneak up on people and turn them into stone.

Dragons aren't really horrory and angels have too much of a positive connotation to work.

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Bump in the night.

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The monsters were the excuses the religious nuts trotted out to scare people away from the Pagan event Halloween is derived from. Dressing up as Vampires and slutty witches just became the thing to do much much later.

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