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{{trope}}
[[File:
A form of [[Body Horror]] common in alien-invasion plots. Aliens, rather than invading in their own form, insert themselves into (usually) unwilling humans, whereupon they completely take over the host's body, suppress their will, and generally make them [[Not Himself|not themselves]]. They generally do this because their natural form is some kind of grub or other not-very-formidable state.
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Contrast [[They Look Like Us Now]], where the [[Masquerade]] is limited to posing as human without being able to replace/control specific individuals. Compare [[Living Doll Collector]]. Can overlap with [[And I Must Scream]].
[[Sub-Trope]] of [[Body Snatcher]].
{{examples}}
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* [[Captain Marvel|Mister Mind]].
* In the ''[[She Hulk]]'' graphic novel (this was before she turned to surreal meta-comedy) the Cockroach Horde gets around by infesting human bodies.
* The Vaylen in the ''Iron Empires'' graphic novels and ''Burning Empires'' RPG are worm-like creatures that take over the brains of sapient beings, including humans. They have a variety of [[Body Horror|methods for introducing the worm]], all of which are as painful and [[Squick
** Some parasites have the decency to crawl in through a cranial orifice, but for a Vaylen to infest a human, a new one has to be made. That's right, an infected doctor will ''[[Strapped to An Operating Table|drill a hole in your skull]]'' to slip a worm into your brain. And as if that weren't bad enough, once you've been infected, [[And I Must Scream|you can never control your own body again]]. You're an immobile meat-puppet forever.
* ''[[The Savage Dragon]]'' villain Horde.
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* The antagonist in ''The Hidden'' was an icky alien resembling a mosquito larva, which forced its way down people's throats and did the [[Body Surf]] routine.
* The parasites in [[David Cronenberg]]'s ''Shivers'' are a toned-down version of this. While they don't fully take over your free will, they [[Anything That Moves|greatly increase your sex drive]], causing you to infect more and more people. It's [[Fan Disservice|not as hot as it sounds.]]
* ''[[The Stuff]]'' looks like marshmallow cream, tastes good and compels the infectees to consume more and more of it, to the delight of the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive
* ''[[The Faculty]]'' is a [[Post Modernism|post-modern]] take on this.
* Mr. Potato Head from ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'', oddly enough. ''Toy Story 3'' shows that Potato Head's "consciousness" is actually in his body parts, rather than his actual body. In the film after his body is locked up by the bad guys, his parts escape and end up getting around by attaching onto a tortilla, and later a cucumber.
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* The [[Trope Namer|novel]] by [[Robert A. Heinlein]], right down to the physically weak "true form" of ''[[The Puppet Masters]]'', a grapefruit-sized globule reminiscent of ''[[Metroid]]'s'' eponymous creatures.
** By the time it was made into a movie, it was considered a rehash of ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''. In a case of [[Executive Meddling]], the story was compressed and simplified, and they were given a trendier "reptilian" form.
* The book and TV series ''[[Animorphs]]'' had the dreaded Yeerks, giant brain-controlling slugs. In a partial subversion, one ''pretty easy'' way (at least, to clever opponents, let's just say [[You Meddling Kids|those Animorphs]]) to remove a Yeerk from its host. They're also a ''bit'' more sympathetic, due to not being evolved on a [[Planet of Hats]]
** Also subverted in that another species, the Iskoort, discovered to be a symbiotic (consisting of vaguely birdlike Isk and the suspiciously Yeerk-like Yoort) are stated to have been engineered so that neither survives without the other (this is implied to be ''why'' they've become of such interest to the Ellimist and Crayak).
* In the sci-fi book ''[[The League of Peoples Verse|Radiant]]'', the lead character Youn Suu is inhabited by a non-communicative, red, moss-like alien called the Balrog, and is given evidence on both angles to whether it is malevolent or benign.
* {{spoiler|The Yithians are revealed to do this to the protagonist}} in [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s "The Shadow out of Time," a story that combines this trope with [[Mind Rape]].
* The German space epic series ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' featured a race of alien beings, the "Element of War", in a story arc during the mid-1980s. The aliens, who looked like silvery crabs, telepathically controlled people while sitting on their shoulders (although they could technically cling anywhere to the person's body). They were infamous for increasing the host's aggressions and xenophobia and brainwashing him with their constant telepathic whispers until he shared their warlike [[Social Darwinist]] ideology. Interestingly, the Element of War was itself an artificially created slave race that served an ascended cosmic entity called the Master of the Elements as part of his army, the Decalog of Elements. It multiplied by fissure.
* The Souls in Stephenie Meyer's novel ''[[The Host (novel)|The Host]]'' are a mostly kind, benevolent race of silvery centipedes who thoroughly believe that [[Humans Are
** Mind you, given that, with the exception of the protagonist, the Souls have ''absolutely no qualms whatsoever'' about invading planets and ''destroying'' the consciousnesses of ''every single sentient being'' on these planets, it's hard for a human reader not to suspect [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]], even if the protagonist doesn't seem to think so.
* The entity Tak in ''[[Desperation]]'' does this as well - but the process of riding along changes the body and causes it to decay if the host's mind isn't strong enough.
* ''[[Wild Cards]]'' has Ti Malice, a parasitic Joker named after a Voudun Loa.* His whole body is like an atrophied, withered fetus and he latches on to a host, leech-like, to feed on their bodily fluids and emotions. Not only does he control his hosts while he's attached, they become addicted to the sensation, so that even after he releases them they long for his return.
* The handlingers of ''[[Perdido Street Station]]'', who are given host bodies of convicted criminals by the government of New Crobuzon in return for doing their dirty work.
* [[Stephen King]]'s book, ''[[The Tommyknockers]]'', later made into a television movie. The effect appears to be from radiation at first, and at first it also appears to be beneficial, at least physically. It's not a straight example, however, since the aliens aren't actually in
* Hivers in ''[[Discworld|A Hat Full of Sky]]'', which are strange beings akin to bodiless minds incapable of thought. They target powerful beings whose minds it can take over, slowly filling up every space until there is none of the original left.
* Vord Takers from the [[Codex Alera]] are a particularly nast form of this- once they've taken over, your original personality is ''gone'' beyond recall, and the process is compared to a living death. Mercifully, though, the Takers (like all non-Queen Vord) are dumb as posts and while they can force their stolen bodies to reproduce learned skills, they cannot access memories or impersonate the original person with any accuracy.
** For better or for worse, it's not ''living'' death, it's just plain death. Some taken are described as being rotten and decrepifying.
** It actually seems to vary. Some Taken are essentially zombies, but when Doroga describes the process, he only refers to death of the mind, rather than of the body. Since Takers can control corpses, presumably the Vord just don't look after their Taken's health, leading them to die naturally of thirst or starvation anyway.
* Richard K. Morgan's ''The Steel Remains'' explains zombies this
* Dean Ing's novel Anasazi, concerning parasite aliens who have been living in the American Southwest for centuries
* In ''Stuck on Earth,'' Ketchvar III, a slug/snail-like alien, shoves himself up Tom Filber's nose and takes control of his brain.
* A more benevolent, and yet sad, example occurs in short shoty ''Gastarbeiter'' (guest worker) by Leonid Kogan. In it people get contacted by some incorporeal entities that, in their natural dwelling, cannot perceive anything, but can possess people and live through them. Any experience, even the most tedious or unpleasant from human POV, is a blessing to them, so they offer people to supplant their minds for such occasions. At first it seems mutually beneficial: entities promise to take care of their host's body, act naturally and avoid making any crucial decisions, postponing them until the host "returns", and the host kind of sleeps through the whole time, but retains all the memories afterwards. The sad part is that people get addicted to skipping larger and larger parts of their lives, some of them even "committing suicide" by forfeiting their bodies to symbionts permanently.
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** Also unusually, there's a faction of them (the Tok'Ra) which takes only willing hosts (they naturally give their host a powerful [[Healing Factor]] and extend the host's lifetime by at least a century or two, so there is an incentive) and time-share instead of taking over entirely
** Inverted in {{spoiler|''Cure'', where the citizens of a planet harvest the Goa'uld for their health-boosting abilities. Unfortunately, [[Oh Crap|they weren't Goa'uld, but Tok'Ra.]] And not just any Tok'ra, but the original Tok'ra Queen Egeria--which given the eusociality of the Goa'uld species makes the Tok'ra a more or less doomed race. }}
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** In later incarnations of the [[Trek Verse]], the Trill might be an intentional subversion, as they only join with consenting hosts, with the goal of merging their respective consciousnesses.
*** In fact there seems to be ''competition'' among the humanoid population of the Trill planet to become hosts; Ezri Tigan (later Ezri Dax) is considered slightly odd for not wanting to be joined.
**** However, the Trill in TNG - [[Retcon|unlike]] those seen later in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' - do take over their hosts entirely instead of there being a merging... despite this, it's still portrayed as a desirable thing.
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** And, if we want to get down to the molecular level, Borg nanoprobes are a form of this.
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Lexx]]'' did this at least twice. In one instance, the preferred method of insertion was rectally.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' had the Drakh Keepers, spawned by the aforementioned Drakh to control other creatures. They only had two weaknesses: alcohol - which put them to sleep - and to kill the Drakh who spawned the Keeper.
** Another ''[[Babylon 5]]'' example: "Exogenesis", which subverts the trope. The Vindrizi symbiotes are assumed to be evil, until it's revealed that they're actually {{spoiler|benevolent "recorders" who use their willing hosts to witness history, hoping to prevent that knowledge from being lost in "the next dark age" they anticipate.}}
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' featured such creatures in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S11
** The Master becomes a goo snake that does this in [[Made for TV Movie|the movie]].
* ''[[Torchwood]]'' used this in "Day One" and "Greeks Bearing Gifts."
* The original ''[[Outer Limits]]'' did two vaguely similar alien parasite episodes.
** In "Corpus Earthling", a race of sentient alien rocks are quietly taking over
** "The Invisibles" combines this premise with [[Spy Fiction]]. An agent of the "General Intelligence Agency" (a [[Fictional Counterpart]] of the [[CIA]]) investigates alien parasites who have infiltrated humanity by joining with willing, power-hungry humans at both extremes of society: some of the Invisibles are homeless misfits, while others are political leaders, industrialists and military brass.
** "Dead Man's Switch", an episode of the new ''[[Outer Limits]]'', had a very brief scene of ''literal'' Puppet Masters. The protagonist is down in a secure bunker, where he must push a button every hour to prevent Earth's last-ditch [[Doomsday Device]] from going off. The protagonist's commanding officer is talking to him via video from Washington DC, assuring him that the alien genocide it was meant to avenge is over and they'll relieve him soon, he just has to keep pushing the button until his bunker can be reached. In the episode's final shot, it's seen that the General is a corpse amidst the buring ruins of DC, and spindly sea-spider-like aliens have their limbs stuck into him through a gash in his back, working him like a ventriloquist's dummy.
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* Apparently the premise behind ABC's short-lived series ''[[Invasion]]''. The show was canceled before it could be made clear, but it appeared to be more a case of "replacement" than "control".
* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Bad Eggs" featured the Bezoar, a prehistoric parasite whose offspring attached themselves to other creatures and controlled their motor functions.
* The second episode of ''[[Angel]]'' featured a burrower demon, who possessed human bodies and took over their mind, however it had to go from body to body on a regular basis, because once it's been in a body for too long, the body started to deteriorate...sensibly enough, as the initial immolation action would logically kill the victim, with the possessed body then being little more than a still-warm corpse. The third season also had the "sluks", transparent crustacean-like demons who entered their hosts through their mouths, the downside being that these creatures required lots of water to survive, causing their hosts to dry down and die.
* ''[[Primeval]]'' had an episode featuring dodos who were infected by some parasite. It spread to some dude, who's personality changed a lot. He also knew he was infected.
* ''[[Quatermass|Quatermass 2]]''. Aliens from a nearby asteroid reach Earth via hollow meteorites and start infiltrating the upper echelons of society.
* The ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "A Bug's Life" features an "intellant virus"
* The Black Oil, dubbed "[[Fan Nickname|the oiliens]]" by fans, in ''[[The X-Files]]''.
** Also, the arctic worms in the first season episode "Ice."
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* Bob Drake's "The Persecuting Engine" deals with a protagonist that falls victim to "The Thing" which uses the aforementioned Engine "which, from afar / can influence your actions as we wish, distort your perceptions into indecipherable alien ones, [and] replace your will with ours" on him.
* A noteworthy example of this is [[Creature Feature]]'s song "Look to the Skies" which is about aliens that have come to Earth for some sinister reason. The refrain?
{{quote|
''The Plan's Been Hatched,''
''Duplicate The Perfect Match,''
''Then [[Body Snatcher|Body Snatch]]'' }}
* In [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Fan Works/Awesome Music]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}H4tyvJJzSDk Lullaby for a Princess], Celestia said the limelight was a parasite<ref>Actually she said she or that the character was "the host" of the limelight. Although given the detrimental effect it had, it's easier to see it being a parasite rather than a mutual or commensal symbiont. So while not out right stated, it's heavily implied.</ref> that took control of her, or a character in a song representing her. She was being metaphorical.
== New Media ==
* The Nawra in ''[[Vigor Mortis]]''. Funnily enough, one of them, Penta, has "oppression" in her dislikes on her character profile.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Dungeons
** The supplement "Lords of Madness" details a race called the tsochari, aka "the wearers of flesh," a tentacled alien that replaces its victim's brain and masquerades in its corpse. Or, if they want to, they can also just ride in a living host, tell him what to do, and hurt him if he doesn't do it.
** Another D&D creature (from core sources this time) is the hellwasp swarm. It can inhabit dead bodies or possess living but helpless (such as from its own poison) creatures, although in the latter case it kills its victim in a few hours.
** Bog Hags in the ''Oriental Adventures'' supplement steal the skin of their victims and use it and their limited shapeshifting abilities to impersonate mortals.
** Puppeteers from the Expanded Psionics Handbook take over the body of anyone that they are in contact with.
** Mind Flayers are another monster that ''reproduce'' in this fashion. A mind flayer tadpole is inserted into the ear of an unwilling (usually) host, and through the process of ceremorphosis (eating out and replacing the brain), the host eventually turns into another mind flayer.
** [[Mystara]] got Hivebrood. A humanoid infected with a hivebrood larva turns into sort of half-bug [[Bee People|social insect]].
* Roach Thralls from the Urban Arcana supplement for the d20 Modern game. The species reproduces by laying eggs inside a living human body, and their larval forms consume said human's brain and internal organs while leaving a sufficiently human-looking carcass to disguise their (somewhat compressed) cockroach form. After 6 months to 2 years, the creature still looks human but can produce and implant eggs of their own into human hosts. The Roach Thrall can shed their human skin if necessary, but this one-way process also renders them unable to reproduce, even with other unmasked Roach Thralls. In the wrong game master's hands, this creature could scare players off of sex for life.
* The Kyriotates from ''[[In Nomine]]'' are a benevolent version of this. They're angels who can control bodies (multiple bodies at once no less!) but they usually only borrow the bodies of willing hosts or non-sapient ones, and do so in the name of good, taking care not to leave the host's body in an injured condition or do things with the borrowed bodies that would cause the host problems. Their [[Evil Counterpart|evil counterparts]], the Shedim also posses their hosts, but are limited to a single body at a time and are [[The Corruption|driven to make their hosts commit increasingly evil acts]]. The insidious part is that the host's consciousness is still there and thinks it's still in the driver's seat. Once the host reaches the [[Moral Event Horizon]], the Shedite leaves and the host is left teetering on the brink.
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* ''[[GURPS]] Black Ops'' has the Brainsuckers. As the name suggests, they don't just control the host, they also eat his brain to feed their offspring.
* The Vrakylaks in ''[[Eon]]'' are a species of semi-sentient, crawling organs that embed themselves in the neck of their victims, manipulating them ether through promises of release or threat of violence (they're attached to their nervous system after all) to kidnap more people and bring them to a nest. When the time is right, all the little Vrakylak's newly hatched spawn crawl up to the secured victims, and the cycle begins anew. Oh, and victims progressively go blind from the symbiosis.
* As of their latest codex, [[Warhammer
* ''[[Rifts]]'' has at about a half dozen types of these. Some are monsters, at least two are available as Player Characters.
== Toys ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The original Zerg, from ''[[
** Not to mention the fact that said character claimed to have been [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|around since the Xel'Naga fell]], which means that he's had an awful lot of time to practice adjusting his appearance... not to mention the fact that everyone needs a hobby.
*** It's implied that {{spoiler|Duran is ''himself'' a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Xel'Naga]].}}
*** Or {{spoiler|one of their creations engineered to resemble a Zerg.}} At the very least, not originally human.
** In ''[[
*** The neural parasite is not limited to biological units either. Battlecruisers, Carriers, Colossi, and all other manner of mechanical units are fair game.
* The Throne of Tides dungeon in the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' Cataclysm expansion features a boss, Erunak Stonespeaker, who is being mind controlled by a creature that attached itself to his head. It will also mind control random players during the encounter.
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* ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' introduces Las Plagas, parasites which turn their infectees into brainwashed slaves for control plagas. Ganados from ''4'' and Majini from ''5'' are infected with Plagas.
** There are some [[Apocalyptic Log|research notes]] left behind by {{spoiler|Luis}} which talk about some [[Truth in Television|real life]] parasites that do this to small insects and the like.
** [[All There in the Manual|According to various files]], the Nemesis from ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]'' is a Tyrant with a pupeteer parasite controlling it.
* In both ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]'' games, the iconic headcrabs kill people by jumping at them and then latching onto their heads to turn them into much stronger zombies. In the second game, the villains even use missiles filled with headcrabs as weapons. Which when you think about it might not be always be a smart idea when you consider the headcrabs aren't actually on their side either; places like {{spoiler|Ravenholm}} ended up literally crawling with zombies as a result of excessive headcrab-bombing.
** It's worth mentioning that players discovered a particularly horrifying fact about headcrab zombies: {{spoiler|Playing the audio of their voices in reverse reveals that their human hosts are actually [[Fate Worse Than Death|still conscious and screaming bloody murder]] from under their fleshy puppetmaster of a hat.}}
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* Even ''[[Pokémon]]'' has a case in the form of Paras and Parasect. Paras is a simple bug being slowly eaten alive by the mushrooms on its back, the bug making the best of its situation by using them for self-defense. Parasect is this same bug, virtually dead and covered with the mushroom, which has overridden the insect's nervous system.
* The Flood in ''[[Halo]]'' does this too. They use fleshy pods to evolve into small, bulbous creatures full of tentacles. Once they find a suitable host, the Infection Forms attach and paralyze the victim before '''ripping open the chest cavity and nestling inside''', taking over the host's nervous system and beginning rapid mutation, culminating in a real ugly abomination known as a Combat Form. Though the host is technically dead, the controller retains enough of the host's experience that Combat Forms are decent marksmen (!). In some cases however, a Combat Form victim is still alive and conscious, occasionally able to regain partial control for a while. The Infection Form is still visible from the outside and destroying it will kill the host too; Infection Forms can voluntarily abandon the host if it sustains heavy damage though if it is killed or removed forcibly, other Infection Forms can take its place and reanimate the Combat Form. Simply dismembering the CFs arms won't stop it. Large concentrations of Flood biomass releases spores that can also cause an infection; because of this, the only sure-fire way to eliminate a nest is to [[Kill It with Fire|burn it with plasma]] or [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|destroy the biomass via activating the Halo rings]].
* The Many in [[System Shock 2]] take over nearly the entire crews of the Von Braun and Rickenbocker. They started out as [[Alien|strange eggs on an alien planet that infect the landing party]], then become controlled human hybrids that still have enough awareness to [[Apologetic Attacker|apologize]] and [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|beg to be killed]] before they attack, before taking on even more bizarre forms. Throughout the game, they seek to telepathically convince the protagonist to join them them against {{spoiler|[[
** They're not quite ''Alien'' copies. They exhibit a number of psychic powers which make humans want to care for and nurture the worms, show them the benefits of being part of a [[Hive Mind]] and ultimately join the Many. You read the diaries of several crewmembers who embraced their change.
* The Jockeys from [[Left 4 Dead 2]] take a more physical approach to this trope: They simply grab on to the survivor and push them in the desired direction until someone else comes up and knocks him off your head.
* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' has a fairly horrifying example: the giant roaches living under the Valuan empire occasionally hijack unfortunates who wander into their territory, from what you can see in game this involves climbing onto the victim's back, jamming limbs into each of the victim's limbs, and then puppeteering them around while using them as a mobile snack. Whether the victims are killed before they get used as meat puppets is not made clear.
* From the original [[Silent Hill]] we have the slug-like parasites controlling the puppet nurses and doctors. [[All There in the Manual|The Book of Forgotten Memories]] indicates said monsters are not product of Alessa's tortured mind but the actual Alchemilla staff turned into mindless drones by her hatred of hospitals.
* Pikmin has them, as does its sequel but they're different. In the first, there are muchroom enemies that can take control of your pikmin (complete with milky white Parasect eyes) and they'll attack you and your swarm. In the second game, there's a species of pikmin that is parasitic that infects bulborbs. After killing the leader of this troupe, you can whistle at the babies and contorl them like any other pikmin. They're immune to all obstacles and have average speed and strength making them very useful. If you can ignore the [[Fridge Horror]] of exactly what that cute little pikmin did to that adorable bulborb baby.
* Glowworms in ''[[Limbo]]''.
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* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', the slaver wasps are themselves tools of a malevolent [[Mad Scientist|Spark]] known as the Other. Also notable in that ''no'' [[Deus Ex Machina]] has surfaced; [[Mercy Kill|death]] is still the only cure for the slaver-infected.
** Well, probably. {{spoiler|Agatha's locket is suppressing her [[Grand Theft Me|psychic possession]] by The Other; it [[Fan Wank|might work]] against the Slaver Wasps, as well.}} Of course, since there's only one of it...
** One
** Prevention is ostensibly trivial, and respirators ''are'' used this way, but hive engines don't appear by themselves, they are carried by minions of The Other (her "priestesses" and already made revenants often suffice, though the old hive engines supplemented enslavers with a swarm of tough warrior constructs), who use either force or stealth to make sure enslavers are not wasted.
** More recently, Tarvek has developed {{spoiler|
* The slugs in ''[[Jump Leads]]''.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has Sirleck ([http://egscomics.com/index.php?arcid=77 this thing]), a former human who achieved immortality by jumping from host to host.
* Prior to the start of ''[[Intragalactic]]'', Piper's brain was eaten by a Brainworm. However, the worm inherited her memories and personalities and has essentially continued her life for her, making her corpse walk and talk for it. In fact the only apparent changes death has brought about in Piper are a deathly pallor and a guilt complex (from killing the original Piper).
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** And now {{spoiler|they're invading in the main universe, having taken over Agent #18 and - it appears - Nega-Nick...}}
* The Fixits in ''[[The Mansion of E]]'' are hat-shaped critters who are able to control their "wearer".
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[John Dies at the End]]''; more apparent in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20080905192256/http://www.johndiesattheend.com/jdate2/intro.html sequel.]
* The Wormbrains from [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm Mortasheen] are an entire class of creature that does this, with the parasitic worms serving as the creature's mind. They come in many [[Sarcasm Mode|"lovely"]] forms like [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/cestoid.htm this], [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/proglapse.htm this], [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/manticoil.htm this], and [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/squirminator.htm this].
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** Oh, and there's even some evidence linking ''Toxoplasmosis'' infection to schizophrenia.
*** And [[Crazy Cat Lady|Crazy Cat Ladies]]. The above evidence linking it to schizophrenia is the discovery that anti-malaria drugs have been found to cure some cases of it. This should be emphasized. Carriers are attracted to cats. In rodents, it makes them easier for cats to eat. In humans, ''it makes us think cats are [[Cuteness Proximity|adorable.]]'' Umm... [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]... Damn it... [[Futurama|I, for one, welcome our feline overlords.]]
*** "The study suggests that male carriers have shorter attention spans, a greater likelihood of breaking rules and taking risks, and are more independent, anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose. It also suggests that these men are deemed less attractive to women. Women carriers are suggested to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls. The results are shown to be true when tested on mice, though it is still inconclusive. A few scientists have suggested that, if these effects are genuine, prevalence of toxoplasmosis could be a major determinant of cultural difference." Feel free to quake in terror.
*** Notice how one of the personality changes is that it make you feel more suspicious. As in paranoid. Now ask yourself, [[Paranoia Fuel|how do you feel]] after reading about this infection? [[Oh Crap]]
* While there is little out there that controls humans, parasites that control other species are fairly common. Examples include:
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*** ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOQ0VU24xw&feature=related Cordyceps unilateralis]'' targets ants, forcing its ant host to climb to a position that overlooks their own hive, so that the entire hive will be infected when the ant dies and starts scattering spores. However, the ants themselves have evolved a mechanism in response to this, so that any time an ant starts showing symptoms of infection the rest of the hive will carry it a long way away so it can die without threatening the hive. This must be the plot for at least five sci-fi horror movies.
* Fungi residing in the human digestive tract can make their hosts feel ''very'' uncomfortable unless they eat enough sweets to satisfy the fungi. And you can get infected by simply eating infested bread...
{{quote|
'''Bob:''' "[[Horror Hunger|Sugarrrrrrrrrrrrr...]]" }}
* There's a species of barnacle of the genus ''Sacculina'' that infects female crabs and grows tentacles into its brain. it then lays eggs in the crabs egg sac, which swells up with baby zombie-making barnacles to infect other crabs with.
** And if you're a male crab, [[Gender Bender|it turns you into a female crab]].
* Xenos vesparum is a parasite that lives in wasps. It enters a young wasps as a larvae and grows while the wasp stays small and becomes infertile. When Xenos mating season comes, it forces its host to fly to a special place, where the Xenos in this area meet. Now the males kill and leave their hosts and mate with the females. The female now forces its host into hibernation and in the spring flies it to a wasp colony where the parasite larvae can find their own hosts. Then the female kills its host. And nobody knows how they do it.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Bizarre Alien Biology]]
[[Category:Cosmic Horror
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Mind Manipulation]]▼
[[Category:Alien Tropes]]
[[Category:Evil Is Visceral]]
[[Category:Puppeteer Parasite]]
▲[[Category:Mind Manipulation Tropes]]
[[Category:Body Snatcher]]
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