Creepy Long Fingers



Characters and monsters (or both) have a little extra creepy added to them when they have longer than average fingers. They don't even have to be foot long, the Uncanny Valley can make even just slightly longer fingers off putting. This is one reason Femme Fatalons which lengthen the apparent size of fingers can invoke this effect, as can actual claws.

These characters are likely to use their big hands in subtle or overt expressive ways, and comparisons to skeletons and spiders are common. They'll usually gesticulate with surgeon like precision or herky-jerky motions. Outright inhuman Creepy Long Fingers may have extra knuckles or Freddy Kruger style finger attachments that can double as weapons.

The one big drawback to using this this trope in live action media is that human actors are unlikely to be able to handle extra knuckles or delicate motions, which is why animatronics and CGI fare better. Actors with these finger extensions are usually limited in their range of hand motions, being unable to make a fist, wield guns or more generally grasp thin objects.

When villains, these characters enjoy making Sinister Scraping Sounds and Finger Licking Evil.

Film

 * Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas has these, but of course, they are bones...
 * In the 1910 film version of Frankenstein the Monster has long fingers as part of his general unusual appearance.
 * Nosferatu's hands have long fingers.
 * Nosferatu the Vampyre is based heavily on Nosferatu even though the main character is called Dracula. He looks like Nosferatu, down to the long fingers.
 * And anyone else who Lookslike Orlock.
 * Zig Zag from The Thief and the Cobbler has long, thin fingers, accentuated by studded rings on each knuckle.
 * Jafar from Aladdin also has them.

Literature

 * The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
 * Bored of the Rings, a parody of The Lord of the Rings. Boggies (hobbits) "have long, clever fingers of the sort one normally associates with hands that spend a good deal of time around the necks of small, furry animals and in other people's pockets..."
 * In Harry Potter Lord Voldemort reborn is said to have long, thin fingers. His hands are compared to "giant pale spiders" several times in the series.

Live Action TV

 * Henry Tooms from The X-Files episode "Squeeze" can elongate any part of his body, including fingers, which he demonstrates when squeezing himself through a chimney into someone's house to murder them.

Video Games

 * The Longest Journey has several, even Abnaxus, who is one of the good guys.
 * Some subspecies (like Stalkers) of the Necromorphs from Dead Space have elongated, clawed fingers along with the rest of their mutations.
 * Edea in Final Fantasy VIII has either this or Femme Fatalons covered by long-fingered gloves, it's hard to tell..

Web Original

 * Salad Fingers makes creepy use of his long bony fingers.

Real Life

 * The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), a species of lemur. And as if just having long fingers isn't creepy enough, the third finger additionally is incredibly thin!