This content explores the horror subgenre of "loss of humanity," defined as forced physical and psychological alteration that strips individuals of their identity and autonomy, presenting it as a more disturbing fate than death.
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Imagine Bob. He's a father of two and a
loving husband who is trying to improve
his life. He likes black tea and his
favorite fragrance is bulgarian. What do
you think is the worst thing that can
happen to Bob? What is the most painful
torture someone can be put through?
For sis, let's take his arms and legs,
shorten them, and stitch them back on
but in each other's place. Then let's
surgically move his jaw further forward
and change the shape of his ears.
Lastly, we will implant hair all over
his body and put him in his new home and
we're done.
Bob can still think. He can remember who
he used to be. But is he a still human
living like this? Cruel, wasn't it? This
is loss of humanity, the most disturbing
form of horror. In this video, we're
going to talk about six pieces of media
that use loss of humanity, starting from
the least disturbing and ending with the
most. What makes loss of humanity so
effective is that it's one step even
worse than what we see as the worst
thing that can happen to a person which
is death. This subjuna of horror is
extremely rare because to make one you
really have to be sick in the head. It
is not something a sane individual can
come up with. So when a normal person
sees it, it disturbs their psyche to no
end. So I need to warn you now that the
things we are going to talk about in
this video are really dark. There are
also spoilers, so be warned. Here are my
criteria for what counts as loss of
humanity in horror. It has to be forced
on the character. It should result in
physical alterations. Basically, body
horror. The subject should not be able
to easily go back to who they were.
Lastly, the subject should not be able
to end their own suffering. Before we
begin, let me give you some honorable
mentions that didn't make the list for
one reason or another. Metamorphosis by
France Kafka. Season 4, episode 1 of
Black Mirror. Full Metal Alchemist. The
human centipede. Now, let's not waste
any more time and get right into it.
Starting with the least disturbing,
which is [Music]
[Music]
the 2014 movie Tusk is a dark comedy
with some horror aspects. The
combination of comedy and horror is not
anything new, but what differentiates
Tusk from the others is that it takes an
extremely disturbing and unexpected turn
when it comes to its horror. A podcaster
goes to an old man's house to interview
him about his crazy life. for his
podcast called The Nazi. That's not
important. While in the old man's house,
he gets drugged and amputated. That was
only the beginning of his
transformation. Then his body is
modified to better fit the role of a
wolver, a human walrus. There's a very
fine line between comedy and horror, and
this movie walks on that line
masterfully. The idea of a man being
turned into a walrus is funny. It's
comedy. But when you think about how
something like that could be done, you
start to realize how horrifying it
actually is. It's bringing cartoon
physics into the real world. Imagine how
terrifying Tom and Jerry would be in
real life. That's what Tusk is. Just
imagine having all of your rights taken
away from you like that. What keeps this
movie from reaching its full horror
potential is that it doesn't take itself
too seriously. But that's also what I
like about it. It's a stupid movie and
it knows it. It doesn't take anything
away from how disturbing it is. But see,
when it comes to loss of humanity, this
is only the beginning. [Music]
[Music]
Look at all these cute characters. Look
how beautiful the art is. You know what
else has cute characters? Happy
reference. This is the abyss and it
holds many mysteries. For example, how
deep is it? Why can some of the
creatures that live there only be found
there? Where did the weird objects and
technologies found in the abyss come
from? There are some reasons why these
mysteries have not been solved yet. The
dangerous environment of the abyss and
the creatures that want to kill you. But
the main reason why it is still so
unknown is the curse of the abyss. You
can go down, but if you do, you can no
longer come back up. At least not if you
go past the sixth layer. If you try to
ascend from the first layer to the
surface, the symptoms will be light
dizziness and nausea. From the second
layer to the first, heavy nausea,
headache, and numbness of limbs. From
the fourth layer to the third, intense
pain throughout the body and bleeding
from every orifice. And most importantly
for this video, the symptoms for
ascending from the sixth layer of the
abyss to the layer above are loss of
humanity and if you're lucky, death.
This manga starts off very cute. The
characters are funny and full of
childish joy. You start reading it and
very quickly you find a connection with
the characters, especially the main
character, Rico. She and her friend Rake
decide to go into the abyss. So far, the
story has been very fun and whimsical.
You think you know where the story is
going. You're three volumes into the 10
plus volume manga and Rico and Rake are
fighting against one of the dangerous
monsters in the abyss. But Rake being
the awesome kid he is is pushing the
That monster is venomous. Having no
other way, Rake picks Ro up and escapes.
But they are in the fourth layer of the
abyss. So now Riko is in excruciating
pain and is bleeding from every orifice.
The cured character you want nothing but
happiness for is dying and her friend
has to cut his swollen hand to stop the
poison from reaching the rest of her
body. This is when you realize this
manga is not what you expected. It was
giving you a false sense of security.
I'm not going to talk about the loss of
humanity aspect of this manga because
it's a huge spoiler and I want you to
feel the pain I felt the first time I
read it. Made in Abyss is really
immersive. It gives you extra
information between chapters which makes
it feel all the more alive. It also
makes you fall in love with some
characters just so it hurts more when
bad things happen to them. So just know
this manga is cruel. Very cruel. [Music]
[Music]
Depending on who you ask, this one might
be a lot more disturbing than any other
example of loss of humanity we talk
about in this video, despite being only
8 minutes long. The reason for that is
simple, realism. When you watch Final
Surgery 2.0, So you can imagine
something like that happening in real
life. I would say something like this
has probably already happened at least
once somewhere in the world. This short
doesn't pull any punches. It goes as far
as it can. In concept, it's very close
to Tusk. In Tusk, a person gets turned
into a walrus. Here, a kid gets turned
into a rabbit, but here it's as
disturbing as it can be, unlike in Tusk,
which is more comedy. However, at some
points, it gets too cartoonishly evil.
Since it's only 8 minutes long,
available on YouTube, and too graphic
for me to describe here, I'm just going
to refer you to watch the actual thing
if you're interested after you finish
this video. Of course, it is so edgy and
kind of artsy, but it's also an
excellent example of this sub genre of her.
her. [Music]
[Music]
Both the slug girl and the snail, which
is a chapter of Uzumaki, are the works
of the master of horror, Junito.
Yeah, I couldn't go more than two videos
without talking about him. Also both of
them are about people turning into
snails. I think it has a very specific
phobia of a snails. Considering there
are other instances of a snail and slug
horror in his works, both of them are
similar in concept, but since I find the
snail to be more horrific, let's only
It's raining, which means Kadma will
come to school today. It's weird because
even though he only comes to school on
rainy days, he never uses an umbrella.
He's also always late. Other kids bully
him for being so slow. Even though it's
been weird, it only became concerning
when it was revealed that there's a
spiral shape growing on his back. I'm
It's even worse. The spiral has become bigger.
Kotama opens the door and slides in.
Today he was unable to wear his usual
clothes. His legs have started to fuse
together and his front has become
flatter to better suit his new way of moving.
moving.
It's raining, but Kama is not in class.
He's right outside of it. His body is
90% done with his metamorphosis. The
arms and legs are gone, and his face now
resembles a snail. His parents refused
to accept that thing as their son. So
the school decides to build the cage and
take care of it. Considering both
Kayyama and another classmate who faced
the same fate still came to school, we
can conclude that they probably can
still remember and think like they used
to, at least to some degree. If you're
curious, this is how a slug girl ends.
Still a human turning into a snail, but
in a different way. [Music]
[Music]
In the cruel world of all tomorrows, we
find some of the best examples of loss
of humanity.
While this book is filled with this
subgenre, from warm people and parasites
to hedonists and lopsiders, one stands
out the most. A fate worse than having
all of your senses and limbs taken away
from you like in Final Surgery. Worse
than being turned into a viral, like in
Tusk, and even worse than being trapped
into the body of a snail. There's a high
chance you already know about this book,
but just in case you don't, let me give
you a simplified explanation. A really
smart group of aliens called the Q
decided to attack humans. Most of the
humans were defeated easily, but one
group fought against them and even
pushed them back a little. Therefore,
when the Q won, they decided to punish
them and make an example of them. The Q
with their three sets of justice wanted
to make them pay. Even extinction would
be too light a punishment for resisting
their star gods. The humans of the rogue
world needed a sentence that would
remind them of their humiliation for
generations to come. And that punishment
is the only thing I will always remember
from this book. The cure turned those
people into living blocks of waste
filtering devices. Their eyes were left
unchanged to witness what they became
and their consciousness was retained so
they could suffer every second of their
existence. Unable to move, talk or do
See, it's torture even for just 5
seconds. But you know what's even worse? [Music]
[Music]
I have watched a lot of movies and read
a lot of books and many of them were
horror. But to this day, what happened
to Ted at the end of I Have No Mouth and
I Must Scream is the single most
disturbing thing I've seen happen to a
fictional character. What am does to him
is the ultimate torture. Humans built an
AI. They gave it sentience. They didn't
mean to, but it happened. That AI who
called himself AM was trapped. Humans
built AM to think, but there was nothing
it could do with all that creativity and
was born in a world too limiting for
him. In a rage, AM killed all of the
human race except for five people. But
he was still trapped. He couldn't
wander. He couldn't belong. So AM
decides to take his revenge for the life
it was given. That's when those five
people came in handy. They became all AM
had to do with his time forever. His
only choice. AM with his infinite
knowledge was able to keep them alive
for hundreds and thousands of years.
Just so it could torture them in
different ways. Every decision am makes
meant to cause pain. Pain to those five
people. No matter what he did to them,
he was able to heal them. As long as
they stayed alive and couldn't bring
back the dead. He's not God. So just
imagine what happens when one of those
five people decides to free the other
four by killing them. Now AM has lost
all his toys except for one, the one
that took them away from him. AM made
sure Ted would suffer eternally and
could not end his own pain. He doesn't
want Ted to run full speed into a
computer and smash his skull or hold his
breath until he faints. So he altered
his body. Now he's a soft jelly-like
thing, smoothly rounded with no mouth
and pulsing white holes filled with fog
where his eyes used to be. His arms and
legs were also altered, if you could
call those humps of soft slippery matter
legs. He leaves a moist trail when he
moves. His mind was left intact so he
could dream and remember. His sense of
time has also been altered. Sometimes it
takes him 10 months to say the word now.
A thing that could never have been known
as human. Human. human.
I'm sure there are other examples of
loss of humanity in different media as
well. I can only imagine what great
examples exist in the world of gaming.
But that was every instance of loss of
humanity I have. Now it's your turn to
introduce me to something new. I love
this sub genre and it would be great to
see more of it. Anyway, that's it for
now. I hope you were introduced to
something new in this video. If you
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