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in: Monsters

Monsters

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Kraken, sexy witches, giant millipede, angry molesting tree, and many others in the Cube Prisons.

"An endless array of elevators. Monsters in every single one. It's the CostCo of death." - Script's description of the cube prison.

Monsters are a large collection of various entities, which include everything from ordinary humans, animals, abominations, legendary and/or supernatural beings.

The monsters are provided to the Facility for the purpose of murdering the five sacrifices in the Ritual. For each monster, there is a corresponding item that can be used to summon it.

Appearance and Characteristics

The four major types of such creatures are:

  • Supernatural - These monsters possesses qualities and abilities not conforming to known laws of science.
  • Psychopaths - These monsters are psychopathic or otherwise violently insane humans.
  • Folkloric Creatures - These monsters have their origins in folklore, legends and myths.
  • Common Phobias - These monsters are the embodiment of various common fears and phobias.

Minor types include:

  • Undead Humans - These are deceased humans that have been brought back to life in an undead state.
  • Demons - These monsters are demonic creatures from the biblical Hell.
  • Extraterrestrials - These monsters originate from some world other than Earth.
  • Giant Animals - These monsters are animals that are larger than normal, sometimes larger than the laws of nature would allow in the real world.

Many monsters can fall into more than one category, such as Kevin (psychopath/common phobia), The Doctors (common phobias/undead humans) and Reavers (undead humans/psychopaths). While most monsters correspond to certain tropes, some are more specific, if not original, like Jack O'Lantern, Sugarplum Fairy, and Dragonbat.

To fulfill multiple horror conventions, each of the monster's appearances differ between them. It is clear that every monster is kept in thousands of identical transparent cube prisons roughly the size of a standard elevator, so the monsters (each) would be small enough to fit inside them, despite some of them appearing too large for the volume of a cube (like the Kraken, Giant, and the Angry Molesting Tree).

Their behavior varies, some of them attacking wildly (i.e. Man in Transparent Tarp) while others remain calm and collected (i.e. Ku Klux Klan), as shown when some of them tried fruitlessly to escape their cubes while others calmly waited to be released.

While temperaments may differ, they all have a single, solitary goal in mind: kill every human being they see. They lack an actual will of their own, completely ignoring their situation, the surroundings and each other (unless they are monsters that operate in groups like The Dolls, The Scarecrow Folk, and Mutants), and are focused solely on their dark task. Despite their inherent violent and evil nature, they are never seen in conflict with each other, as seen when the Dragon Bat ignores a helpless human in front of it, because another monster was already advancing on him.

Their methods of killing range from suffocation, stabbing, burning, tearing, beating to death, slow torture and biting. While the book describes what they do as simply feeding themselves, they may not need food for sustenance, as they are never seen being fed or otherwise provided for in their cubes, and those who eat simply eat for the sake of eating (like the Giant Snake and the Zombies). Their mortality and vulnerability to injury varies, as the Clown was shot three times in the chest to no visible effect while Marty was able to kill a Mutant in Hospital Gown with a single headshot. As all of the monsters were effectively contained and could be captured by Facility staff (the job of the Wranglers), it can be inferred that even the immortal monsters could be somehow disabled, either through conventional means or through some contrivance that draws from their fictional nature.

The origin of the monsters is never fully explained in the film, although it is suggested that they predated human existence. When Truman remarks that they are "something from a nightmare", Lin responds "No, they're something that nightmares are from. Everything in our stable is a remnant of the old world . . . courtesy of you know who." As the mere existence of some of the Monsters violates the laws of biology and physics, and since none of them seem to have the usual physical requirements of organisms (completely isolated indefinitely in their small cubes), it would be logical to assume that they are all creations of the Old Ones and are sustained by the power of those dark gods, even the monsters that have real-world analogues and which manifest no supernatural properties.

Many fans theorize that the monsters are actually the pets of the Ancient Ones, and are waiting to be set free to re-unite with their owners. They also believe that some of the monsters ultimately helped in getting Dana and Marty into the Facility for the express purpose of being released from their cells during The Purge. Though it is possible some (or all) of the surviving monsters were killed when one of the released Ancient Ones destroyed the Facility, it is equivalently speculated a majority of the monsters may have survived given their supernatural, magical or undead nature, likely aiding the Ancient Ones in bringing about the destruction and/or suppression of mortals or the end of existence itself.

List of Monsters

Cabinboard span

Sitterson standing in front of the betting board that all the departments take part in.

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The Whiteboard.

Monster Listed On The White Board

Other Monsters Seen in the Film and Behind the Scenes

Monsters only mentioned in the Novelization

Monsters appearing in the Visual Companion

Monsters appearing at the Universal Attraction

Monsters are fanmades

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