Cosmic Horror Story: Difference between revisions

A '''Cosmic Horror Story''' doesn't just scare you with big, ugly monsters—though it can certainly have them—it depresses you with the fatalistic implication of being insignificantly powerless before such vast, unknowable and fundamentally alien entities. On the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], it sometimes lies near the cynical [[Despair Event Horizon]].

* Is the [[Big Bad|antagonist]] evil or uncaring on a cosmic scale? We're talking a [[Big Bad]] who is capable of destroying humanity, planet Earth, the universe, or all three and doing so with very little or no preparation and/or intent, and with about as much effort as it takes to swat a mosquito that's landed on your arm.

* Is the attitude of the antagonist towards humanity disregard, simple pragmatism, or incidental hatred? (A godlike antagonist that actively hates humanity and its works is more in line with [[Rage Against the Heavens]] or [[God Is Evil]].) Does the antagonist have a worldview and motivations that doesn't really seem to take humanity into account? Are the motivations of the antagonist [[Blue and Orange Morality|difficult to explain using human terms?]]

{{examples}}

* ''[[Hellstar Remina]]'', features an enormous sentient planet coming to Earth and wreaking indescribable horror upon it. {{spoiler|Then it '''''EATS''''' the Earth as if it was an appetizer before continuing on its way, presumably to eat more celestial bodies.}}

** Also ''[[Uzumaki]]'', by the [[Junji Ito|same author]]. A town is built {{spoiler|on top of an impossible spiral structure}}, which proceeds to cause increasingly horrible things to happen before absorbing the entire town. {{spoiler|It has done so countless times before and will do so countless times again.}}

* The whole ''[[Berserk]]''-verse is supervised by the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Godhand]] who are themselves servants of {{spoiler|[[God Is Evil|The Idea Of Evil]], a godlike entity that manipulates destiny [[Lawful Evil|through the rules of Causality]] in order to give the people of the world what they wish for. However, the Idea isn't about making people happy, it's about being responsible for their suffering. Because humans ''want'' something to be responsible, and [[The Heartless|it's actually that desire made sentient]].}}

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': While it mainly focuses on Existential crisis, the setting has archetypes of cosmic horror stories in it. A post-apocalyptic [[Crapsack World]] where{{spoiler|, because man meddled with the underlying order of creation and other [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]],}} half of the population has died and the remainder are in the process of being annihilated by the [[Eldritch Abomination|Ang]][[Mind Rape|els]] (Quite a few old super robot shows did feature mysterious, alien villains with very lightly defined motivations; cue the relentless attacks of the Angels, alien (or not) assailants on whose motives, constituents or psychology we have a little idea of, simply malevolent [[Mac Guffins]] to enable the story to [[Genre Deconstruction|play]] with 'giant robot' tropes. They also happen to get progressively creepier, and more unexplainably eldritch as the show progresses. Most importantly, there is an emphasis on showing the fear and uncertainty that comes with fighting an enemy that is just plain undefinable).

* ''[[Bokurano]]'', a [[Deconstruction]] of different focus than Eva, yet similar to it: ''Something'' is making you fight in its super robot against other super robots, to decide the fate of the world {{spoiler|and infinite numbers of other ones}}. Why? You will never have the slightest idea.

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'': Oh, boy... Long story short? {{spoiler|Aliens with [[Blue and Orange Morality|Blue And Orange Psychology]] harvest magical energy created from [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|the suffering of magical girls]] in an attempt to stave off the impending death of the universe via the Second Law of Thermodynamics (see Real Life section below), and they can't even comprehend why only this [[Industrialized Evil]] works out.}} [[Gen Urobuchi]] wrote both ''[[Saya no Uta]]'' and ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''.

** ''AMON'' makes it even worse - {{spoiler|God has put the entire world on a time loop so all humans and demons live and die for nothing over and over, [[God Is Evil|just to make Satan suffer the loss of his beloved repeatedly for all eternity]]}}.

* The [[Myth Arc]] of [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]], {{spoiler|which leads to the heroes going into all-out war against a race of beings known as the Anti-Spirals, who are intent on destroying mankind to prevent further use of Spiral power}}.

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Cthulhu Tales]]'', also by [[BOOM Comics]]; however, being an [[Anthology Comic]], a lot of individual stories fell into [[Lovecraft Lite]] instead.

* Both [[Marvel Universe|Marvel]] and [[DC Universe|DC]] have elements of this. For Marvel, anytime Galactus shows up, and for DC, anytime Starro shows up. Many [[Crisis Crossover]] events are this.

== Fan Works ==

* The ''[[Touhou]]'' fanfiction ''[[Imperfect Metamorphosis]]'' moves further and further into this trope with each chapter. Not even the most powerful denizens of Gensoukyou, working together and using their most potent attacks, do more than inconvenience either Yuuka or {{spoiler|the Shadow Youkai}}, some of them barely surviving the encounter, with retribution being swift and terrible. Furthermore, Yukari casually notes that she deals with similar - though not quite as bad - situations on a regular (for her) basis, and several characters, including Yuuka herself, states that there are ''far'' worse things out there.

* [[John Carpenter]]'s "apocalypse trilogy" (''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'', ''[[Prince of Darkness]]'' and ''[[In the Mouth of Madness]]'') is an escalation of the trope over the 3 movies: first, a [[Shapeshifting|protean]], [[The Virus|invasive lifeform threatening to subsume in itself every living thing on the planet]] in [[Mysterious Antarctica|a desolate antarctic setting]] reminiscent of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s ''At The Mountains Of Madness''; then a liquid [[The Corruption|corruption]] that turns out to be [[Satan]], and whose goal is to bring to our world its ''true'' father, [[Ultimate Evil|the Anti-God]], in an old church being investigated by academics from an establishment similar to Miskatonic University; and finally, [[Eldritch Abomination|ineffable, unreal horrors]] attempting to find purchase in our reality through the writings of a [[Mad Artist]] and his previously-fictitious [[Town with a Dark Secret]] in the middle of [[Lovecraft Country]], all the while [[Mind Screw|screwing over the protagonist]] in such a way that it was formerly the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Through the Eyes of Madness]].

* ''[[Event Horizon]]'', in which {{spoiler|"[[Hell]]"}} is the easiest way for the characters to describe [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|hyperspace]], but some elements suggest it just might be far, far worse. Then you consider the fact that ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' fans like to think of it as a ''prequel''...

* The ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' 'verse was originally one of these, despite the fact that xenomorphs aren't actual [[Eldritch Abomination|eldritch abominations]] (few will dispute the fact that they are [[Nightmare Fuel|just as horrifying]]); many of the sequels and [[Expanded Universe]] works severely diluted the formula -looking at you, ''[[Alienversus Predator]]''- [[Ridley Scott]] himself set to bring back the [[Original Flavor]] of the franchise with the semi-prequel ''[[Prometheus]]''. Since the xenomorphs [[Badass Decay|have arguably become too much of a popculture icon]] to feel menacing enough, he'll simply used another, as yet mostly unexplored but very well-known part of the franchise: the [[Precursors|Space Jockeys]], who it's implied [[Ancient Astronauts|created/uplifted humanity]]... [[Abusive Precursors|and the xenomorphs]]. [[Oh Crap]].

* In ''[[The Cabin in the Woods]]'', {{spoiler|The entire horror movie was orchestrated to appease the "Ancient Ones," eldritch abominations who require specific ritualistic human sacrifices or else they will destroy the world. The movie ends with a giant hand bursting out of the cabin and the [[The End of the World as We Know It|world ending]].}}

== Literature ==

** The works of [[Arthur Machen]] were also a huge influence, particularly his 1894 novella ''[[The Great God Pan]]'', which gives us the eponymous [[Eldritch Abomination]] and was the basis for Lovecraft's own story "[[The Dunwich Horror]]". Machen wrote other works of this kind, though ''The Great God Pan'' stands out as the most significant.

** [[William Hope Hodgson]]'s ''[[The Night Land]]'' and ''[[The House on the Borderland]]'' are also notable forerunners.

** It's made particularly explicit when the protagonist of the A-story says that the eponymous {{color|blue|house}} [[Eldritch Location|actually is]] [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|God]].

* ''[[Sapphire and Steel]]'' took place in a universe threatened by formless evils. The (presumably) non-human "Elements" Steel and occasionally even the more sympathetic Sapphire, could, on occasion [[Humanoid Abomination|seem alien themselves]].

== Tabletop Games ==

* Some years ago, a short-lived CCG called ''Hecatomb'' had this as its premise - each player was an [[Omnicidal Maniac|"Endbringer"]], someone who, whether [[Mad Scientist]], [[Evil Sorcerer]] or what-have-you, competed with other Endbringers to be the first to [[Your Soul Is Mine|gather enough souls]] to bring about [[The End of the World as We Know It]] to fuel their powers, then move on [[All the Myriad Ways|to the next alternate reality]] to start over. You fought each other by summoning/creating monstrous minions (many of them [[Eldritch Abomination|eldritch abominations]] in their own right) and [[Fusion Dance|fusing them together]] to form [[Hybrid Monster|Abominations]], calling down [[God of Evil|evil gods]] (including [[Great Old One]]s), and similar dirty tricks, all to get the requisite 20 soul tokens at your ennemies' expense. And since every player gained a soul token at the beginning of his/her turn...

* ''[[wikipedia:Noctum|Noctum]]'' has such a premise (mixed, like others on the list, with splatterpunk), but with the caveat that {{spoiler|The reason the [[Big Bad Ensemble]] abominations were attracted to our world is because [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]}}.

== Video Games ==

* The primary antagonists of the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series are a human cult who worship bizarre supernatural beings with inscrutable motives (assuming they have any at all). The plot of the first and third games involve said cult {{spoiler|trying to birth their God into our world from..... [[Dark World|somewhere else]] through a human vessel}}. It is implied that this [[Apocalypse How|wouldn't be a good thing]]. The games involve a hefty dose of [[Psychological Horror]] and how much of this is being generated by the character's own minds isn't clear.

* ''[[Saya no Uta]]''. That's the main theme.

* ''[[Muv-Luv]] Unlimited'' (though only informed, not seen) and ''[[Muv-Luv]] Alternative'', where we see the things and eventually learn the [[Awful Truth]].

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Actually, [[Word of God]] just said that the comic will have a "lovecraft ending"; take that as you will.

* ''[[Necessary Monsters]]'' could be considered such, since while the comic itself takes a more [[Spy Fiction]] approach, the fact remains that the world is actually controlled by an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] of every type of monster possible, from [[Slasher Movie]] and [[Urban Legend]]-style [[Serial Killer|serial killers]] to outright [[Eldritch Abomination|eldritch abominations]], with a vested interest in preserving humanity—because when you've got a self-perpetuating all-you-can-eat buffet with everything you and your pals like to eat in it, you don't want anybody to go around thrashing it.

== Web Original ==

* This comes up now and again in various [[Creepypasta]], most notably [[The Holders]] series.

** And one of the strangest has to be the fast-food themed [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Burgrr_Entries Burgrr Entries], along with its accompanying [https://web.archive.org/web/20150113012736/http://bogleech.com/burgrr-walkthrough.html incredibly elaborate ARG] and the ongoing webcomic [http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/archive.html Awful Hospital] set in the same universe.

== Western Animation ==

* The premise of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' is that an unstoppable, endlessly malevolent force of literal evil (the [[Start of Darkness]] episodes reveal that Aku is simply a ''tiny fragment'' of a creature that formed in the first moments of the universe) has conquered the world and is spreading its influence throughout the stars, and that a lone warrior wielding the only thing in existence that can even harm it embarks on a hopeless quest to defeat the evil and [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]].

* The short-lived 80's Cartoon Show ''[[Inhumanoids]]'' was heavily influenced by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. It pushed towards this trope as hard as was possible for a [[Merchandise-Driven]] cartoon from [[The Eighties]]; even the comedy episodes had more than their share of [[Nightmare Fuel]]. One can only imagine how they would have upped the ante had it been successful enough to get more than one season (and toy wave)...

== Real Life ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]