| This article is about the individual creature which entered Hawkins in 1983. For the species, see Demogorgon (species). For the episode, see The Monster (episode). For other uses, see Demogorgon (disambiguation). |
The Demogorgon, also known as the Monster, was a predatory humanoid creature that entered Hawkins, Indiana in November 1983. The creature seemed to originate from the parallel dimension known as the Upside Down.[1] When Eleven, a child test subject from Hawkins National Laboratory with psychokinetic abilities, made transdimensional contact with the creature, a gate between dimensions opened at the lab. The creature then set foot in Hawkins, and began hunting, killing and kidnapping various local townspeople.
The friends and family of Will Byers, one of the Demogorgon's victims, slowly began to uncover the truth about the creature, with the help of the escaped Eleven. The creature was finally defeated in a showdown with Eleven at Hawkins Middle School. Eleven used her abilities to disintegrate the creature, but accidentally transported herself to the Upside Down in the process.
Quick Answers
What is the origin of the Demogorgon in Stranger Things?
How did the Demogorgon enter Hawkins, Indiana?
What is the relationship between Eleven and the Demogorgon?
What are the hunting habits of the Demogorgon?
What is the Upside Down, the parallel dimension the Demogorgon originates from?
History[]
Background[]
A subject with psychic powers labeled Eleven was placed into a sensory deprivation tank as one of Hawkins National Laboratory's experiments; this allowed Eleven to delve into a deeper psychic state. Although she successfully eavesdropped on a Russian spy as instructed, she unwittingly came across the Monster. Eleven's instincts urged her to stay away from it; she panicked, and the experiment was aborted.[2]
Dr. Martin Brenner was intrigued by the creature, repeating the experiment on November 6, 1983. This time, Brenner ordered Eleven to make contact. As Eleven psychically approached the Monster, she could see it feeding off an otherworldly egg. With great hesitancy, she made contact. In that exact moment, a gate to the Upside Down cracked open in the wall of the tank room, allowing the creature to pass through. Eleven managed to exit the tank and escape the lab amidst the ensuing chaos. An unnamed scientist was not so lucky; the Monster caught him as he tried to operate an elevator.[3][4]
1983[]
The Demogorgon appearing before Will Byers on Mirkwood.
The Monster had the ability to travel between dimensions on a whim, creating temporary portals in the fabric of reality. The Monster arrived at Mirkwood, a road near a local forest, where it stalked Will Byers on his way home. The Monster chased Will as he entered his house, forcing Will to run to his garden shed. Will hid in the shed, loading a rifle in self-defense, but the Monster simply appeared behind him, taking him into the Upside Down.[4]
Once in the Upside Down, Will managed to evade the creature for almost a week and began attempting to communicate with his mother. Joyce and Will had some success, with Will manipulating the electricity in his home dimension, although these attempts would sometimes attract the monster. In an early attempt, Joyce saw her house wall become warped and distorted as the Monster started to break through, terrifying her. In a later attempt, the Monster broke clean through, although Joyce managed to outrun it.
Meanwhile, Will's friends Mike, Lucas, and Dustin began investigating Will's disappearance. Mike noted a strange coincidence linking the disappearance with a recent Dungeons & Dragons campaign. During the campaign, Will's player character was defeated by the fearsome Demogorgon; hours later, Will had vanished from real life. In addition, Eleven used the game piece representing the character to attempt to illustrate her vision of Will hiding from the creature in the other dimension.
The group began to hypothesize that the Monster may have really existed, and was responsible for Will's disappearance. From this point on, the group began referring to the creature as "the Demogorgon".
Scientists at Hawkins Lab began investigating the dimension, discovering exactly what it contained. One such scientist entered through the Gate, wearing a hazmat suit linked to a chain rope. The scientist was savaged and killed by the Demogorgon almost immediately after entering the dimension. The Demogorgon hunted and killed other people and creatures, being particularly lured by blood. Its victims included Barbara Holland, hunters Dale and Henry, and a wounded deer. After Nancy Wheeler entered the Upside Down through a temporary portal, she observed the Demogorgon as it feasted on the deer. The Demogorgon noticed her, chasing her until she returned through the portal.
Will eventually succumbed to exhaustion, lying in his makeshift fort. The Demogorgon found him, breaking through the fort wall and taking him to the Upside Down library.
Nancy and Jonathan Byers later exploited the Demogorgon's attraction to blood to ambush it. With the aid of Steve, they severely injured the beast, setting it alight - however, it survived and slipped into the Upside Down. The Demogorgon left the Byers house and headed to the library, leaving a trail of blood.
Eleven killed a large number of government agents at Hawkins Middle School, defending herself, along with Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, before collapsing in exhaustion. The Demogorgon was attracted by pools of spilled blood, breaking through the wall. The Demogorgon began a spree of violence, attacking Dr. Brenner as surviving agents opened gunfire.
Eleven destroying the Demogorgon.
For a while, the four kids outran and evaded the creature, hiding in Mr. Clarke's classroom. Eventually, the Demogorgon found them, breaking into the room and attacking. Though Lucas attempted to fire rocks at the monster with his Wrist-Rocket, Eleven regained her strength and was determined to protect her friends, using her powers to blast the monster backwards across the classroom, causing it to crash into the blackboard and become pinned to the wall. After wishing farewell to her friends, Eleven used her remaining power and boosted it to the extreme. The monster disintegrated into a flurry of ashes and energy; though El disappeared into thin air and was feared deceased, she was actually transported into the Upside Down.[5][6]
Appearance[]
The Demogorgon was a tall and thin humanoid creature with elongated limbs. Its head appeared to lack facial features until it unfurled the flesh like a flower to reveal "petals" lined with many sharp teeth, and a large open mouth. The Demogorgon's arms and digitigrade legs end in claws; its skin is slimy.
After being set on fire by Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve, the Demogorgon's body was covered in burns.
The physical presence of the Demogorgon is often preceded by the creature's guttural growls and shrieks, alongside all lights in the area rapidly flickering on and off.
Nature[]
Most knowledge on the Demogorgon is highly speculative - even Dr. Brenner admitted that he and his peers had a limited understanding of the creature. That being said, the behavior of the beast is "predictable" as Brenner remarked, comparing it to a typical predator.[5] Nancy made similar associations: she compared the creature to nocturnal predators such as lions and coyotes. She noted that the solitary nature of the creature was similar to that of a bear.[3]
Nancy also theorized, correctly, that the Demogorgon was attracted to blood, comparing it to a shark.[3] The creature’s ability to detect blood was incredibly potent; it could sense tiny quantities of exposed blood, and from across dimensions.[7] However, the creature was not exclusively drawn by blood; for example, both Joyce and Will Byers were attacked by the beast despite the absence of blood.
It is unknown whether the creature was attracted by other stimuli, though a likely candidate was sound: when Nancy ventured into the Upside Down, the Demogorgon was unaware of her presence until she stepped on a vine, making a loud noise.[2] However, the Demogorgon’s sudden reaction in this moment may have been linked to the Upside Down’s hive mind. The fact that sound from the human dimension was faintly audible to human ears in the Upside Down might suggest the Demogorgon was also sensitive to sound; however, it remains unclear whether the creature had ears or had hearing ability in the conventional sense.[3]
In any event, like many predators, the Demogorgon simply took any opportunity to hunt and acquire prey, and generally preferred solitary or isolated victims.
Sometimes, the Demogorgon, instead of eating its prey, would capture them in an attempt to breed more Demogorgons, as it did to Will.
The Demogorgon was able to travel between dimensions at will, creating temporary portals or wounds in the fabric of reality. How or why the Demogorgon possessed this ability is unclear, though it only started traveling to the human dimension after the moment of psychic contact with Eleven. Mr. Clarke, the boys' science teacher, theorized that interdimensional travel would require "a massive amount of energy, more than humans are currently capable of creating"; by this logic, the Demogorgon must have wielded a great deal of energy while dimension-traveling. Nearby lights and electricity would constantly flicker on and off while the Demogorgon did so, which suggests that creating these portals did indeed involve huge volumes of energy.
The Demogorgon was hostile every time it was encountered, immediately pursuing anything which caught its attention. It generally used instinct and brute strength, rather than intelligence, to get through obstacles. That said, in one major exception, the creature supposedly used telekinesis to unlock the Byers' front door. Similarly, a deer killed and eaten by the Demogorgon was seemingly dragged through a gate to the Upside Down by use of telekinesis, as witnessed by Nancy and Jonathan.[2] Strangely, outside of these two scenarios, the Demogorgon neglected to use telekinesis; furthermore, Demogorgons seen in later years did not appear to possess any telekinetic ability whatsoever. It could be inferred that these feats of telekinesis were actually performed by Vecna, who may have assisted the Demogorgon in its pursuit of prey.
One source suggested that Vecna controlled the hive mind through which all Demogorgons appeared to be connected;[8] The Demogorgon of '83, though a unique case in some respects, was presumably also part of the hive mind. In 1986, Dustin described the Demogorgon as "the Mind Flayer's foot-soldier" and Vecna as the Mind Flayer's "five-star general".[9] Though the precise nature of the power dynamic between Vecna and the Mind Flayer was difficult to ascertain, it seems almost undoubtedly true that - via the hive mind - the Demogorgon was subservient to either Vecna or the Mind Flayer (or both).
The Demogorgon generally hunted in close proximity to Mirkwood. The reasons for this are unclear, though this was potentially motivated by Mirkwood's close proximity to Hawkins Lab and the Gate, as well as the relatively isolated forest in between. The furthest it ever traveled in pursuit of prey was Hawkins Middle School, lured by the large quantities of blood spilled in Eleven's final confrontation with Dr. Brenner and government agents.
Eleven first observed the Demogorgon hunkered over large, yellow eggs feeding off them. It’s not clear whether or not these were the creature’s offspring, or if they were even the same species.
It is unknown when, where, how, or why the Demogorgon was born or created. While it may have hatched from one of the aforementioned eggs, there is currently a lack of evidence to support this theory.
Abilities[]
- Interdimensional Travel: The Demogorgon was able to move between dimensions. It repeatedly entered Hawkins by creating temporary tears in space-time. It could pull individuals, such as Will Byers and Barbara Holland, through these temporary gates and into the Upside Down.
- Demogorgons seen in later years seemed unable to open temporary gates - even the Soviet-captured Demogorgon, which otherwise seemed to be stronger, faster and more capable than the 1983 specimen, did not wield this power. It's possible the 1983 specimen was directly possessed by Vecna and utilized his telekinetic abilities.
- Superhuman Strength: The Demogorgon was a creature with outstanding physical strength. It could break through solid walls and is able to easily overpower and carry a fully grown man.
- Superhuman Durability: With its durable skin and tough body, the Demogorgon could withstand massive amounts of bullets from multiple firearms and several beatings from a baseball bat with nails. However, it was unable to resist Eleven's power of biokinesis, which she uses to dissolve and kill the Demogorgon.
- Telekinesis: The Demogorgon appeared to have had some form of telekinetic power. It unlocked the hatch on the Byers' front door while pursuing Will. It is also possible that it used this power to pull in the deer, and may contribute to its physical strength despite a visible lack of muscle. However, this has not been made entirely clear.
- Blood Detection: The Demogorgon was strongly attracted to blood and could sense even small amounts from different dimensions.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: After being trapped and set on fire, the Demogorgon appeared to have healed most of its injuries after a short period of time.
Victims[]
Killed[]
- A scientist from Hawkins National Laboratory
- Shepard
- Barbara Holland
- Hunters Dale and Henry
- A wounded deer
- An unknown number of military police officers and government agents
- Several unnamed residents of Hawkins
Survivors[]
Appearances[]
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Video games[]
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Behind the scenes[]
The Duffer Brothers described the Demogorgon as "an interdimensional being that has more in common with the shark from Jaws than Pennywise from It. When the monster enters our dimension, it’s like a shark breaching the water. Very much like a shark, it drags its prey back into its home, where it feeds."[1] This quote implies the Upside Down is the Demogorgon's "home"; however, the Duffers say they have a 30-page document explaining the intricacies of the Upside Down, including "where this monster actually came from",[10] implying the origin of the Demogorgon might be more complex.
Many of the scenes with the Demogorgon were done practically, with Mark Steger portraying the Demogorgon in a suit with an animatronic head. CGI was used for scenes that required the Demogorgon to do things a man in a suit couldn't possibly do.
Conception and design[]
The Duffer Brothers had a lifelong dream to create a monster for the screen.[1]
The artists at Aaron Sims Creative were given the task of designing the look of the Demogorgon, with the description of a "humanoid creature with no face, just a mouth." From the very beginning, the Duffers wanted the creature to be humanoid and grotesque, with the creature designs of H. R. Giger, Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro, and Masahiro Ito being influential to the Demogorgon's appearance because of their "strangeness."[1][11] The artists went through several early concepts, some of which were "more monstrous in shape, even more asymmetrical." Ultimately, they were inspired by nature when they came up with the flower petal-like mouth in the first week, a design that really resonated with the Duffers. [12]
Production[]
- See also: Special effects
Having grown up on genre films before computer graphics, the Duffer Brothers wanted to go back to using practical horror elements and using a person in a suit that could interact with the actors in real-time. "There was something about the effects being so tangible in those films that made them especially terrifying to us when we were kids."[1][10]
Spectral Motion, a makeup and creature effects studio which has worked on productions such as Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, was given the task of building the Demogorgon. They only had a span of two months to complete the project, leaving almost no room for error.[1]
The process began with a scan of Mark Steger's body, from which a full-size form was created that the body of the Demogorgon was sculpted onto. Animatronics were installed in the head and arms, which had to be operated with remote control.[13] Steger often had to wear metal stilts that elevated him nearly ten inches. Despite the suit's complexity, it only took half an hour to 40 minutes to put on and only weighed approximately 30 pounds.[14]
The Demogorgon's animatronic head in motion.
The animatronic head consisted of 26 motors, and the noise they produced often made hearing directions difficult for Steger.[14] The animatronics were also designed in such a way that the “petals” would move uniquely each time they opened. When the Duffers first saw the Demogorgon's mouth open, they were blown away, saying “It felt organic. Creepy. Real.” For the shots where the creature's mouth was open, Steger's exposed face would be removed digitally and replaced with a mouthpiece that was also created by Spectral Motion.[1][15]
The CGI enhancements and effects were handled by Aaron Sims Creative.[10]
Trivia[]
The Demogorgon Dungeons & Dragons figure, used by Eleven to symbolize the Monster.
- The Demogorgon received its nickname from Eleven using the Demogorgon game piece from a Dungeons & Dragons set to show that Will was hiding from the creature in her vision of the Upside Down.
- In D&D lore, Demogorgon is a demon prince with two heads that strive to dominate one another but are unable to do so.
- In mythology, Demogorgon is a god or demon associated with the underworld, and whose name is taboo.
- The Demogorgon is the first character in Stranger Things to be named after a character from D&D, which was followed by the Mind Flayer and Vecna.
- It is currently unknown how exactly the Demogorgon senses blood, as it appears to only have a "mouth" and no other visible orifices that could be used for scent. Similarly, it is unclear how the Demogorgon "heard" sound.
- Though the Demogorgon can use telekinesis, it is only shown exercising this ability twice: when it unlocked the Byers' front door and presumably when it pulled in the deer.
- The Demogorgon was killed in Scott Clarke's classroom.
- It was hinted that the falling ash-like spores present in the Upside Down have a possible direct connection to the Demogorgon.[12]
- The Demogorgon's open mouth somewhat resembles a Rafflesia arnoldi, a flower with the odor of decaying flesh, earning it the nickname "corpse flower." Furthermore, its teeth are similar to those of the leatherback sea turtle.
- In the original pilot script, people would bleed from their nose and ears when in contact with the Demogorgon, similar to how Eleven bleeds when using her telekinetic powers.
- In the Dungeons & Dragons game in "The Vanishing of Will Byers", Will uses fireball against the Demogorgon, possibly foreshadowing Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve setting the Demogorgon alight in "The Upside Down".
- The twin toddlers who portray Holly Wheeler, as well as Millie's younger sister, Ava, were initially frightened by the practical Demogorgon suit. To calm them down, a crew member told them that it was a benevolent monster from the Disney/Pixar film, Monsters, Inc.[1]
- If one looks closely, it can be seen that the shot of the Demogorgon attacking Barb in "The Weirdo on Maple Street" was reused in "The Monster", when the Demogorgon notices Eleven's presence. This was possibly done because of budget limitations or time constraints.
- When asked if the Demogorgon was some kind of plant due to its appearance, Mark Steger responded that it was fair speculation, adding that he feels it's "more mushroom, which is kind of between plant and animal."[14]
- Joe Keery was extremely wary when using the bat with nails around Mark Steger, due to him having limited sight and movement while in-costume.
Gallery[]
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For this subject's gallery, see The Demogorgon/Gallery. |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Stranger Things episode 6: How the Duffer Brothers created their monster" Entertainment Weekly. July 20, 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The Flea and the Acrobat"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "The Monster"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The Vanishing of Will Byers"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Upside Down"
- ↑ "Trick or Treat, Freak"
- ↑ "The Weirdo on Maple Street"
- ↑ Stranger Things VR
- ↑ "The Massacre at Hawkins Lab"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "‘Stranger Things’ Finale: Duffer Brothers Talk Cliffhangers, Death and Season 2" Variety. July 18, 2016.
- ↑ "Netflix's Stranger Things: Shawn Levy interview" Den of Geek!. July 15, 2016.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Exclusive ‘Stranger Things’ Art Reveals ‘Upside Down’ Secrets and Barb’s Alternate End" Screencrush. August 22, 2016.
- ↑ "Meet the man behind Stranger Things' terrifying monster" The Verge. August 14, 2016.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "How 'Stranger Things' Built Its Terrifying Monster" Vice. August 9, 2016.
- ↑ "‘Stranger Things’ Demogorgon: Meet the Man Behind the Upside-Down’s Faceless Monster" IndieWire. August 27, 2016.
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| Locations | |
| Entities | D'Artagnan • Demobats • The Demogorgon • Demogorgon (species) • The Flayed • Flesh Thralls • Hospital Monster • The Mind Flayer • Russian Demogorgon • The Spider Monster • Hawkins Tunnel System • Vecna • Vines |
| The Flayed | |
| Visitors | |
| Miscellaneous | |