Fetus Terrible: Difference between revisions
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'''Kim''': I was scanned. The woman in the waiting room...
'''Cameron''': She scanned you?
'''Kim''': No, not her. Her child. Her unborn child scanned me.
|''[[Scanners]]''}}
The only thing creepier and more dangerous than the [[Enfante Terrible|Enfant Terrible]]. The Fetus Terrible hasn't even been born yet, but will become [[The Antichrist]] or a demon [[Apocalypse Maiden|prophesied]] to bring about [[The End of the World as We Know It]] once it escapes from its womb. The woman carrying this (often literally) hellborn spawn is almost always an innocent, unwittingly impregnated by the Devil himself, and the other characters have to race to prevent the birth or stop the child from becoming the ultimate [[Enfant Terrible]]. Occasionally this can result of a perfectly normal pregnancy [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] pre or post conception, where the issue can be a [[Mutants|mutant]], [[Hybrid Monster]], [[Undead Child]] or some other abomination. This trope can also overlap with [[Body Horror]], especially if the mother knows what's actually growing inside her.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* {{spoiler|Envy}}'s true form in the manga and Brotherhood version of [[Fullmetal Alchemist]] is one, though borders on [[Ugly Cute]].
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** A very short story in the same series had a fetus carve its way out of its laboring mother ''with a knife'', kill the attending doctor, and attempt to crawl ''into'' Cassie Hack while she was waiting for a gynecological exam. Hack promptly squashes it, but still... ''where did it get the knife???''
* In ''[[Fables]]'', Snow White gets pregnant by the Big Bad Wolf and gives birth to six babies. {{spoiler|What she doesn't know at first is that she actually had seven babies. The seventh child was a invisible being made of wind and wound up killing some people to feed itself.}} Things got better after that, though.
* The end of ''[[Bio Apocalypse]]'' involves an epic showdown between {{spoiler|a 50 mile high fetus and a space fleet armed with nuclear weapons.}} Really.
* In an ''[[X-Men]]'' story, Kitty Pryde wakes up and finds she has become pregnant - and is eight months along, despite not being pregnant the previous night. An obstetric examination confirms this is not a normal pregnancy - it's much worse. She's been implanted with Brood drones attempting to kill her from the inside out. The X-Men have to start a [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]] to save her, but it gets worse for Kitty when she has to fight off a horde of ''adult'' Brood attacking the Institute, seeing as infecting Kitty [[Infraction Distraction| was used a distraction]] set up by the true villain - an alien scientist named Xanto Starblood - to kidnap Broo, a mutant ''and'' alien living at the school.
== Film ==
* ''[[Alien]]'', obviously. There's a ''reason'' why the newlyborn is called a chestburster. It's made all the more horrible in
* ''[[Rosemary's Baby]]''; the general plot involves the protagonist impregnated by [[The Devil]] and becoming the mother of [[The Antichrist]].
* ''[[The Seventh Sign]]''
* ''[[The Fly]]'': Both films.
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* A particularly creepy example happens in ''[[Ju-On]]: The Grudge 2''. The protagonist, Kyoko, is pregnant at the beginning of the film, only to lose her unborn child in a car crash {{spoiler|caused by Toshio}}. However, later in the film, after a visit to the hospital, she discovers that her baby is ''somehow still alive''. How can this be? All is revealed at the end of the film, when she {{spoiler|gives birth to some dreadful, unseen thing, the sight of which causes all the present doctors to go insane and die horribly}}, while it shrieks inhumanly. Shortly after {{spoiler|the adult spirit of Kayako ''crawls out of her womb''}}, and, when Kyoko awakens from passing out, she sees {{spoiler|her baby on the floor, tightly wrapped in a bloodstained piece of plastic}}. The finale of the film subsequently reveals that the child is {{spoiler|Kayako reborn (or a child simply possessed by Kayako, depending on which fan theory you believe).}}
* The direct-to-DVD movie ''Born'' revolves around this trope, where the pregnant protagonist's demon fetus causes her to kill people so that she can give birth. Then when the baby is born (looking just like a human baby even though her ultrasounds show it as a gremlin-like creature), she's told that she has a chance of saving it- when it's said throughout the movie that its birth would bring hell on Earth. The moral of the story: do not watch this movie.
* The movie ''[[Grace]]'' is about one of these. A mother survives a car crash
* ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street
* ''It's Alive''. The first thing the baby does when its born is slaughter the attending medical staff. And in the sequels, the creatures get even more horrific...
* The God of Machines in ''[[The Matrix|Matrix: Revolutions]]'' has the shape of a baby's head. Any similarity ends there.
* A movie made in the mid
* Oskar from ''[[The Tin Drum]]'' never committed any acts from the womb but he did have the very eerie ability to understand everything going on outside ([[No Infantile Amnesia|as well as remember it years later]]) and hate the world for it.
* In ''[[The Astronaut's Wife]]'', Jillian becomes pregnant after her husband returns home from a questionable space expedition, and it's suggested that the fetus isn't entirely human. At the end, we learn that she had {{spoiler|[[Creepy Twins]]}}, and {{spoiler|they're possessed by aliens, as is she, after the being inhabiting her husband's body transferred into her when she killed him.}}
*
* ''[[Prometheus]]'' picks up this trope from the previous Alien films and has a ball with it: {{spoiler|Elizabeth Shaw recognizes right off that her pregnancy is abnormal, since she can't have children in the first place. Plus, it's grown far too quickly in the available time to possibly be human. ''Then'' she learns exactly what's growing inside her and immediately performs a Cesarean section on herself ''without anesthetic,'' she's that desperate to get it out of her. The resulting baby/squid/facehugger hybrid proceeds to face-rape the Engineer, and begin a ''very'' familiar cycle.}}
== Literature ==
* Damien Thorn Jr in ''[[Omen
* Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story
* Mordred Deschain in ''[[The Dark Tower]]''—while in the womb he forces his mother to eat frogs. He also has ''four'' parents, two of whom are human (and two of the main heroes). The other two are the [[Big Bad]] and the gender-bending incorporeal [[Horny Devils|sex demon]] who raped the aforementioned humans at various points in the story.
* The [[Christopher Pike]] novel ''The Grave'' was about a young woman who is impregnated by one of [[The Undead]] and killed by being dumped in a freezer. She becomes one of the undead herself and it is revealed that the fetus she is carrying {{spoiler|was specifically bred by a [[Mad Scientist]] to become the antichrist. But by the end it's revealed the [[Mad Scientist]] has failed, the Fetus Terrible being more a balance between good and evil who destroys the [[Mad Scientist]] and goes on his merry way.}} Oh, and this book was aimed at teenagers. Really.
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** [[The Movie]] takes the horrible image and cranks it [[Up to Eleven]].
** And before he got his new body, he took the form of a small, monkey-sized humanoid that resembled a fetus (Rowling has mentioned that this is the bit she's most surprised got past the editors).
* Brought up and explicitly feared in ''[[Tales of Kolmar]]''. {{spoiler|A dragon was turned into a human and married another human}}, which was prophesied to result in monster children and later a world brimming with demon fire with nothing to stop it. When Lanen got pregnant this pregnancy almost killed her several times, since the mingling of such different kinds of blood was hard on her body, but ultimately the trope was subverted.
== Live Action TV ==
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** If you count the "eye-in-the-back-of-the-head" thing, ''three times''. It was even [[Lampshaded]].
** Also played with in the pregnant Darla storyline. It was written for a few eps as though she was pregnant with something terrible, although it was ultimately subverted.
* So did Phoebe on ''[[Charmed]]'', with Cole's child (conceived while he was
* ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' parodied this with the birth of Del Boy's son, Damien. When Rodney discovers the name to be given to the child, he is tortured by fantasies and nightmares that the as-yet-unborn child will grow up to be an evil, manipulative anti-christ. Of course the boy is nothing of the sort, but this doesn't stop Rodney from reading far too heavily into the small child's rebellious antics.
* And there it was this Colombian [[Soap Opera]] titled "''[[Me Llaman Lolita]]''", where the heroine fell in love with the male protagonist since she was ''in her mother's womb'', and her feelings radiated to her mother, leading to a series of tragic situations. Granted, she's not ''evil'', but the whole premise is [[squick]]y as hell.
* Let us not forget the long, drawn-out story arc on ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' in which Gabrielle is impregnated by the demonic god Dahak.
* ''[[Torchwood]]'' has an episode where Gwen gets her [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]] at her Hen Do (Bachelorette Party) and she is tracked by the genetic mother of the fetus who wants to rip Gwen apart to get her baby. The Fetus Terrible element predominantly comes from Gwen and Rhys's parents thinking she's gonna have their grandkid juxtapositioned with Torchwood trying to figure out how to kill the fetus.
* ''[[Lost]]''{{'}}s Aaron may grow into something terrible, depending on who you ask about the woman raising him.
* Played with on ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' when Dewey is encouraged by his unborn brother to make mischief.
** Another example is in a flashback when Lois is pregnant with Reese and he kicks so hard that it's clear that he already has a nasty violent streak
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* In season 9 of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the Ori impregnate Vala with the Orici, basically their version of the Antichrist. As Vala herself put it:
{{quote|'''Vala:''' Let's get something clear. She's not my daughter, Daniel. The Ori impregnated me against my will and forced me to bring her into the galaxy. I was an incubator. A shipping crate. And nothing more. }}
== Music ==
* Abigail, in the [[King Diamond]] album of the same name, possess her mother before being born. She is also an example of [[Express Delivery]].
* ''[[Wumpscut]]'''s Womb is about the Fetus Terrible delivering a [[Hannibal Lecture]] to the mother.
== Mythology ==
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** To be perfectly fair, the Rockies ''are'' a fairly [[wikipedia:Rocky Mountains|evil mountain range]]
* [[The Bible|Esau and Jacob]] fighting in Rebekah's womb and causing her lots of trouble... [[Evil Twin|Esau]] in particular.
== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[9 Chickweed Lane]]'': Monty, who is either [[God Is Evil|God]] or just [[A God Am I|a very eccentric human]], has decided that [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|he's disappointed with humans]] and (after contemplating wiping us out with [[The Virus|a nice little plague]]) wants to improve this by evolving humans into [[Body Horror|cockroaches]], starting with an unborn child whose parents happen to be an ex-nun and an ex-priest, although it's not clear if he's aware of this. When Monty tells the ex-nun his great idea, she [[Mama Bear|tosses him into a lake.]]
* ''[[
* One strip of ''[[Tom the Dancing Bug]]'' featured Bad Fetus, a remorseless cop-killer.
== Real Life ==▼
* As a specifically non-human example, many species of sharks that give live birth have this as regular behavior in the womb. The litter of shark pups starts out more numerous, but the pups predate and eat one another until only the survivors end up being born.▼
== Tabletop Games ==
* Ye olde ever relevant ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' calls these little nasties "Unholy Scions" in the supplement "Heroes of Horror", giving the fetus a +6 intelligence bonus while still in the womb (the rough equivalence of taking an animal and making it a slightly
** The Atropal is a DnD monster which ''looks'' like a giant fetus. It's technically supposed to be a stillborn god, though, and is undead
** One issue of ''[[Dragon]] Magazine'' that details the life and society of drow states that if a drow mother conceives twins, the fetuses will ''fight to the death inside her womb''. This does not harm the mother at all - in fact, [[Squick|most derive a sort of orgasmic pleasure from it]] - and does not result in a miscarriage, as the slain fetus is absorbed into her body. Note, however, that drow siblings who are ''not'' twins will almost always become enemies eventually, given how deep their [[Social Darwinist]] nature is ingrained into them.
** According to legend, a hag can switch her unborn child for that of a human female. They further claim that any mother who brings a hag-child to term will killed by it. The ''[[Ravenloft]]'' Splat book ''Van Richten's Guide to Witches'' claims this story is probably untrue ([[Arbitrary Skepticism|even Van Richten]] doubting its authenticity) meaning it is [[Loose Canon|only true if the DM wants it to be.]]
* This is a motif for around 80% of Zombie Spawn in [[Mortasheen]], which mainly comes from the fact that they are the horrifying results of [[Nausea Fuel|two zombies copulating]].
* ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' has the ''unihar'', or "ghost children," which are created when two werewolves have a sexual relationship and the female gets pregnant. At birth, a twisted malformed spirit emerges and flees into the Shadow Realm, waiting to grow more powerful and exact revenge upon its parents.
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** ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' has Fetchspawn, the offspring of a Faerie human-impersonator and a human they've fallen in love with; they're generally born [[Enfant Terrible|sociopathic monsters]] who are very likely to disappear into the Hedge one day, but that doesn't mean that's where the trouble ''starts''. The ''extremely'' rare occasion that two Changelings actually manage to reproduce may also spawn a child as half-fae as their parents, whose Fae nature can be detectable (or even obvious) before its birth.
** ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' had the Widderslaint in the ''Book of Madness'', reincarnated Nephandi (mages who are evil because of their warped souls—or possibly whose souls are warped because they're evil). The fluff text describes a Widderslaint infant who crawled into his twin brother's crib and strangled him to death.
* This is how Genestealers from ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' differ from [[Alien (franchise)|Facehuggers]], [[Half Life|Headcrabs]] and most other providers of the [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]] -
* "Blood Babies" from ''[[Deadlands]] Classic'' are "Abominations" that superficially resemble newborn human children and have a penchant for clawing their way out from inside a woman's uterus. {{spoiler|[[Spoof Aesop|And this, friend, is why you should always boil water before you drink it.]] }}
* ''[[FATAL]]'' has a particularly depraved version in which people can be made pregnant by a ''rapist sword'' and give birth to ''another'' sword. And this, friends, is why you Should Not Play ''FATAL''.
== Video Games ==
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* There is an infamous theory that [[Cosmic Horror|Giygas]] from ''[[EarthBound]]'' is one and that at the end of the game, you travel back in time to kill it at its weakest state when it was a fetus.
* The Nihilanth from ''[[Half Life]]'' resembles a giant fetus (with a third arm growing out of it's chest and a head that opens up).
* ''[[Meat Boy
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' may in fact have the ultimate Fetus Terrible from Hell! {{spoiler|When an archdemon is killed, the Old God that inhabits it will simply jump into the next tainted creature nearby. The only thing to prevent that is to have a Grey Warden deal the killing blow as they gain their powers from the taint, but still have their own souls, so the soul of the Warden and the Old God will annihilate each other. Flemeth has come with a magic ritual that enables her daughter Morrigan to become pregnant with the child of a Grey Warden and when a Gray Warden deals the killing blow to the archdemon, the Old Gods spirit will jump into the tainted child. Since the fight against the archdemon is only a few days after the ritual, the child does not yet have a soul and will become the Old Gods new body.}} Morrigans only condition for going through with it is and saving the Grey Wardens to sacrifice themselves, is that she is to keep the child herself to raise it.
** Even made more horrifying by the fact that {{spoiler|Flemeth has gained virtual immortality by merging her own soul with a lesser demon while still stying herself, and stealing her daughters bodies when her own becomes too old. If Morrigan had never found out about it, Flemeths plan was apparently to take over the demon child to merge herself with an Old God, [[A God Am I|making her the most powerful being that ever existed]], surpassed only by the Maker himself.}}
** However, {{spoiler|Morrigan does mention that the child will be born free of the taint and that it will be cared for. There's a lot of predictions in [[Wild Mass Guessing]] that the child will be a protagonist in a future Dragon Age game in which case it would be up to the player to decide if the Old God Baby All Grown Up is a true Fetus Terrible in the making}}.
* In ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'', there are the Lurkers. Originally, they were clone-fetuses being grown in [[People Jars]] as spare body parts for the miners aboard the Ishimura, but became [[Our Zombies Are Different|necromorphs]]. They crawl up the walls and shoot slime at you from their [[Combat Tentacles]].
* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', {{spoiler|if you search Joker and Harley's HQ, you can find a positive pregnancy test laying around indicating that Harley is pregnant with The Joker's child. The fact that the child was conceived while The Joker was suffering the side-effects of [[Psycho Serum|Titan]] can lead to some pretty terrifying implications.}}
** Comes up again in the closing credits if you listen long enough.
{{quote|{{spoiler|''"Hush little baby / Don't say a word / Momma's gonna burn down / The whole damn world..."''}}}}
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* In ''[[Cry of Fear]]'', one kind of enemy is a pale-skinned pregnant woman whose unborn child bursts out of her womb to attack you with knives. It can also mind control you into killing yourself unless you resist the influence.
* Medivh from the ''[[Warcraft]]'' series. He was possessed by the spirit of Sargeras (''Warcraft'''s equivalent of [[Satan]]) while he was still in his mother's womb. {{spoiler|He got better by the time of the third installment}}.
* Taken [[Up To Eleven]] in the third ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' game, with the arena called Fetus of God. Supposedly, this ''thing'' is a body meant to house [[Bigger Bad|Ozom's]] soul, built using countless captured souls and as part of [[Big Bad| Jedah Dohma's]] plan to recreate [[Dark World| Makai]] and the Darkstalkers' goal is to prevent its birth. However, lore aside, it's ''creepy''. Occupying the background of what seems to be a literal [[Womb Level]] (created from the Dohma Castle), it looks like a giant fetus ''with no skin'', its muscles and brain exposed, and when a player wins a round, it opens its eyes and looks at the player with red, [[Hellish Pupils]]. [https://www.fgbg.art/game:darkstalkers-3/fetus-of-god Take a look], but be warned, this ain't pretty.
== Web Comics ==
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* The ''[[Supernatural Law]]'' storyline [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|aptly entitled]] "[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/supernaturallaw/slaw/series.php?view=archive&chapter=16002 I'm Carrying Satan's Baby!]" The story deals with the unlucky woman's attempt to get an abortion without the consent of her husband, who [[Deal with the Devil|sold his soul to the devil]] and is now under his control.
* Angie Levens in the ''[[Ciem Webcomic Series]]'' can permanently sever telepathic links; and send the ghosts that threaten her mother's dreams back to the abyss by throwing them across a (dreamland) room with strobe eyes. She can even heal Candi from the effects of [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]. A rare heroic version of the trope, to be sure. [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|Even death cannot stop her completely]]!
== Web Original ==
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* Completely and utterly inverted in ''[[Metamor City]]'' with Darla, who is an abnormally intelligent with massively powerful telepathy and precognition. Despite this she is a completely innocent unborn child. {{spoiler|She is so powerful enough that she could stun Victor when he was telepathically listening despite him having a partially cybernetic brain to protect his mind that protects against and fools other powerful telepaths.}} Unfortunately her death at the hands of her psychotic father is a [[Foregone Conclusion]].
* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/viewer.php?id=542658&key=AhXfXlXzBtOzlxbStiM2Y1MjQxNGYyQjA3NjIrN19xN2IxMzE7QjczQlYxOzJWNDNiNTIzZjArVnFfOTUxbTk5MDUxNjYxOQ%3D%3D&sandboxid=4dadfab17c2bb Covetous] [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|seems to have this going on]], but in a case of Fetus in Fetu rather than actual pregnancy. (Warning: This "game" can cause headaches, possibly seizures)
== Western Animation ==
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* In ''[[The Venture Bros]]'', we find out in the first season finale that {{spoiler|Dr. Venture ''himself'' was one. When his was in the womb, he ''ate his own brother'', who later turned out to have survived inside his body for his entire life to come out as a baby that is missing an arm and has the head of a full-grown man.}}
** It's also an exaggeration of what [[wikipedia:Mosaic (genetics)|occasionally happens]] in the womb.
* In ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'', Antagone, becomes pregnant and due to her exposure to radioactive waste and ants, her unborn child mutates into an
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', a flashback of Marge's pregnancy reveals that Bart became this after [[Alcohol Is Poison|a tiny drop of alcohol falls into Marge's mouth.]]
** Complete with [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] that sounds an awful like [[Catch Phrase|"Aye Caramba!"]]
▲== Real Life ==
▲* As a specifically non-human example, many species of sharks that give live birth have this as regular behavior in the womb. The litter of shark pups starts out more numerous, but the pups predate and eat one another until only the survivors end up being born.
{{reflist}}
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