On the beloved space Western series Firefly, there are creatures called reavers, introduced as the worst beings alive. These homicidal cannibal pirates rape and pillage their way through the universe Joss Whedon created, striking fear in the hearts of all who encounter them. However, when Serenity, the movie based on the series, came out, it was revealed who had created these terrifying flesh-eating and flesh-wearing creatures: humans.
Humans experimented on other humans and made monsters out of them. The movie makes it clear that humans are to blame for the very horrors that have been unleashed onto their population. This reveal was both shocking and smart. Throughout the years, this narrative tactic, a kind of “gotcha” approach that forces humans to confront their own inner monsters, has been used on other sci-fi and fantasy series often enough that it has become a trope, and a very effective one at that.
In his book about monsters, anthropologist David D. Gilmore explains, “The mind needs monsters” because monsters “embody all that is dangerous and horrible in the human imagination.” In literature and film, they are projections of our guilt and fear and dark desires, and we are therefore always positioned as their adversaries. In separating them from our own bodies, we are able to preserve the moral high ground. Our binary logic about humans and monsters is that there is a clear and definite line of demarcation separating the two. We are told there are distinct behavioral and moral differences that separate us: humans are intelligent and compassionate, and monsters are irrational and violent.
When we see vampires, demons, and other monsters-of-the-week attacking people in speculative fiction, the appeal is the temporary nature of the fright cushioned, always, by the knowledge that these creatures are fictional and the danger isn’t real. When the “humans are the real monsters” trope is employed on a genre show, it is distinctly unsettling because it pierces through this sense of security.
The encroachment of reality is troubling for many reasons. When there is overlap, when humans aren’t the intelligent and compassionate people we think we are, but rather reavers, the scare becomes physical and psychological. It forces us to reevaluate what it means to even be human. After all, what does it mean to be human if humans can be monsters, too? This kind of peeling back of our skin to reveal the monster within is what makes true crime such a popular genre, and it’s what makes this trope so scary. Humans are the monsters we don’t see coming — hidden in plain sight, looking just like us — which makes them the scariest monsters of all.
Below, I take a look at some genre shows that used this trope to shake up their formulas and give their viewers a good scare.
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