A lot of complaints I see these days regarding mythical monsters like vampires, lycan, faeries, and similar, are that they’ve become too seductive and glamourized. I personally disagree, but it depends on the story. Some monsters have this romantic aspect to them that aids with hunting. Others are a deeper look into the real monster of the story, humanity.

Regardless, I’d love to discuss ways you can make your monsters both beautiful and monstrous. This will hopefully inspire ideas in either horror or dark fantasy, and perhaps help you think outside of the box – or use things within the box that are still a great idea for these stories.

(1) Transformation

Perhaps the most simple way to make a monster scary is the easy road – transformation. Have your monster’s true form be something terrifying and twisted. Or, a form they can turn into freely, that isn’t necessarily their ‘true form’. Either way works! You should think about what triggers it. A magical effect? Emotional state? No boundaries – it would be triggered at will?

This is a common thing seen in werewolves (well, the main point of werewolves!) but can be in things like faeries, vampires, siren, and the like. They could have a beautiful form for luring, and a terrifying form for the killing. There is no limit to the forms they can take either. Why not give them several, for various purposes? You could explain each form, too, or just go with ‘well, that’s how they are’.

(2) Powerful Magic

Magic is featured, and rightfully, heavily in most fantasy stories. Your monsters can utilize magic as well, something so terrifying and powerful, they’re incredibly dangerous. Make sure to balance crazy powerful characters, though, of course! I do this with Ares in The Dancing Crow, who can summon chains to root enemies in place. He then proceeds to rip them apart. He does look aesthetically pleasing, as well, so can be both terrifying and nice-looking.

Also bear in mind how a character may use this magic. You can have some really scary villainous monsters that look good and utilize their magic for evil. We see that a lot, and it is quite successful in the urban/dark fantasy genre.

(3) Frenzy

Some monsters are prone to going out of control, which you can use to your advantage. Be it the moon for lycans or bloodlust for vampires, monsters can be super scary when hangry. I demonstrate this in my book The Dancing Crow, which is further emphasized by the narrator’s excellent performance in the audiobook. The complete, mindless lack of control makes the monster more dangerous as they really can’t make intelligent decisions. That means you’ll be a pile of bones and flesh without them even wanting to, perhaps.

It’s also showing a completely different side to your monster character. They may normally be under perfect control and super reasonable, but the moment they snap, they are like a rabid animal. Even worse, make it so they are even stronger during this frenzy phase. This could even be used as a double-edged sword in your writing. Suppose something could trigger the frenzy and you have more of a chance to defeat the antagonist…but at what cost? And can your monster be brought back from that?

(4) History/Legend

Myth and legend are powerful tools. What is out there for your monsters, and how do your characters react to what they know? How much of the legends are true? I would suggest making most, if not all, of the legends surrounding your character true. Of course, tossing in a curve ball of false ones here and there are fine, but your monster becomes much less scary if it’s something overblown and found out in the story.

Think about what your monster would need to do to form this legend, or even better, have them do something even more notorious and frightening than what the stories say. That could be an even scarier twist. Something so beautiful causing so much destruction, for example. But wait – the destruction was GROSSLY understated. Oh no! That could be an interesting way to enhance just how dangerous your ‘pretty’ monster is.

(5) Contortion

Contortion would be similar to transformation in this case, but I’m talking specifically about just some features. The widening of the mouth, for example, into uncanny and unnatural territory. The same thing applying to limbs, or body parts morphing into something they should not be. You’d keep part of the ‘beauty’ of your monster, but twist the rest.

This could be difficult to do. Make them super terrifying but also beautiful at the same time. This is subjective, of course, and there are many ways to do it. I see a lot of this used with things that can widen their smile then unhinge their jaws to reveal even more teeth. It’s fascinating when done with humanoids, and completely unnerving, yet sometimes they do keep that ethereal beauty to them while at the same time being terrifying.

There you have it! Hopefully these provided you ideas on how to implement ‘beautiful monsters’ into your story with less folks complaining. I know with my living vampires, they could be a mixed bag of monstrous-looking or beautiful. I think the ‘all vampires are completely beautiful’ angle is sort of silly. In my case, they’re like regular people with tons of variation and extremely violent tendencies. This is especially seen in The Dancing Crow.

Speaking of which, if you want a great vampire horror on audiobook, look no further than here. I highly recommend this work because the narrator knocked it out of the park. Check it out!

Click here to get The Dancing Crow audiobook on audible!