[Calamity]

Hello. Something i thought of while reading through some Cthulhu stories is that Cthulhu and the other "dark things" are often rather vaguely described. I think that adds to the suspense of the stories and makes them more thought provoking and scary than if they were described in detail.

On the other hand I really liked the way the Grendels were described in "The legacy of Heorot", where they were, if I remember correctly, meticulously described.

Of course comparing an elder god to a bloodthirsty lizard might be silly, but im still curious about what other likes best, a well described alien or a alien left deliberately vague?

[Erfael]

Well, I only want them to be appropriate to the story. So if a story requires they be left vague, vagueness is good. If a story can't be successful without going into great detail about an alien species, then it would be a shame if the author didn't go into detail.

[nealasher]

Agreed, about the detail. I have to do it because the creatures are usualy and important part of an SF story (and an imaginary ecology). Of course if you want to scare the pants off someone you only give them glimpses of the creature, if anything at all. That's what made Alien so scary, and the original film The Haunting -- remember the sound of claws skittering over a door, the door bulging in, and something muttering in the corridors like a Bedlam ghost?

[juzzza]

Hmmm, I like it about half and half. I like the author to create an idea and allow me to fill in the blanks.

I'm reading City of Pearl at the moment by Karen Traviss and one of the main characters is an alien and apart from claws, height and general humanoid shape the rest is in my imagination (mind you, I am only 100 pages in).

China Mieville is another example, the swamp creature in Iron Council, which feeds through the human drones it connects to with its tenticles, is superb but not exactly detailed.

[homosap]

but the detail has to be supported, I like it when an author actually goes into the evolution of a life form. What I don't like is when they rain aliens on you like quantity is better than quality. Bit like they're trying to outdo the spacers bar from StarWars.

[Ouroboros]

I think Lovecraft and some of the old school of horror writers were masterful in the way that they could manipulate their reader into doing some of the work for them. Our own imagination is usually far more adept at scaring us silly than even the best of explicit shocks or descriptions an author can put down on paper.

So I say: Keep the monster off-screen, and let the dread build as long as possible!

[nealasher]

But then it goes back to what your monster is for. If it is to illustrate an alien ecology then a description is needed, if it's to give a reader the heeby-jeebies then leave it scratching at the door.

[Ouroboros]

Can you have your cake and eat it?

Joss Whedon did an excellent job with his 'Reavers' in Serenity. Throughout the Firefly series they were an unseen bugaboo (sp?) used to good effect. We never actually saw a Reaver, only their ships, and a captive they had driven murderously insane.

In the Serenity movie, Whedon initially retained the psychological shock value of the Reavers, even to some extent after they came 'on screen'. The final chapter of the movie exploring their origins did a good job of providing an intelligent explanation for them. Inevitably this reduces the scariness factor, but as you say, their purpose in relation to the plot had changed by then.

[Michael B]

Our own imagination is usually far more adept at scaring us silly than even the best of explicit shocks or descriptions an author can put down on paper.

So I say: Keep the monster off-screen, and let the dread build as long as possible!
This is very true. There was a film a few years ago about some German soldiers in the Balkans facing a monster that was gradually killing them off. The atmsophere was very intense right up until the creature appeared. At that point the magic disappeared.

Computer generated special effects have moved us away from gorilla suits and animated puppets. However they are still not as powerful as our minds.

[Sean Wright]

Neal Asher said: Of course if you want to scare the pants off someone you only give them glimpses of the creature, if anything at all. That's what made Alien so scary, and the original film The Haunting -- remember the sound of claws skittering over a door, the door bulging in, and something muttering in the corridors like a Bedlam ghost?

Hi Neal, I agree. Scary indeed, and something, I think you'll agree, good horror writers have been using for years - the "no-see" device, until all that glimpsing ends in a JUMP scare that frightens the bejesus out of you. Fear of the unknown is a powerful tool.