Let's Play Good & Bad!
Good: The Wolf Man Design
Hey! That's basically exactly what I wish all werewolf designs looked like! Beast enough to be scary, human enough to be horrible. What we want is "Uncanny Valley On Purpose." And that's what this looks like The original Lon Chaney Jr. Wolf Man was kind of like this, but the world has been desensitized to "extra-hairy fierce eyes" and so exaggerating the teeth and the length of the claw-fingers and pulling back the lips even further is real real good. Plus, Lon Chaney's always looked a little too frizzy, like the humidity was turning his whole body into a stuffed animal that's been put through the drier. This Wolf-Man's hair looks jagged and tangled and explosive, like a mane.
We like the design for the Wolf Man. We like it. And look, he's climbing around on all fours! Good!
Bad: Dracula Design
Noo...booo...
We want "undead gentleman." Not "Video Game Villain."
The thing that makes Dracula scary is that he looks exactly like a normal human except for a couple of...odd...things. And those one or two odd things make him horrible.
Classic Dracula's design did this real well. His eyes are too wide-open. Why? Why are they wide-open? It's almost like it's a cadaver being piloted by a non-human monster, and that non-human is trying to remember what "being alive" looks like, and it knows that "alive" things have open eyes and look alert. So it makes sure to open up its eyelids as wide as they can go, "LOOK I'M A LIVING CREATURE, COME CLOSER, NOTHING TO FEAR FROM AN ALIVE PERSON."
But Epic Universe's Dracula only has wide-eyes when he's lunging ferociously, like any attacking animal telegraphing "fearsome predator" would. That's just normal-thrilling. Not "specific-to-Dracula-scary." They make his eyes weathered and sunken and bloodshot. That's a choice. But it's not the right one.
And the posture. Epic Universe Dracula doesn't have the right posture. Classic Dracula has perfect posture... it's a little too perfect. Everything is too still. Unnaturally still. Like whatever is piloting the human-shaped body is only operating one muscle precisely at a time as-needed, and the others can be left so deathly-still and dormant. A real, live human wouldn't be able to be so precise. They'd be shifting their weight, gesturing absentmindedly, blinking. Dracula doesn't do those things.
And Epic Universe Dracula shouldn't look like he's recently been feeding on people en-masse so that his cadaverously blue skin is stained red, permanently, around the hands, eyes, and mouth. No. Because Classic Dracula is immaculately clean. Supernaturally clean.
Because the idea is that he's not a man. Dracula is a Thing piloting a man-body around, pretending with supernatural, extreme prejudice, to be normal so that it can fool its next victim. It would never let remains of its last meal stain its fingers; that would give it away. Insect-like stillness and precision. The ability to use parts of the body for ripping and grasping that a human wouldn't think to use. The use of more than just the eyes to notice its surroundings. Those are the vibes Dracula is supposed to have. Too much like what a non-human would think a human is like.
The only hint of what remains of Dracula the Man is his clothes and highborn finery. Antiquated. He became a Devourer of Man as an ancient warlord, butchering commoners and subduing them as a member of the ruthless high class, first. Then he became that literally, draining the life out of others as a monster. So his clothes are supposed to look aristocratic and almost-embarrassingly out of fashion. Except you can't mock him because he's too frightening to be taken anything but seriously.
This Epic Universe Dracula is wearing something that feels like it has no ties to anything in human history. He's too flaunting of his supernatural-other-ness. He's too supervillain. He's supposed to be subtle and secret, like a reclusive aristocrat you find out is a serial killer—and that's what makes him horrible. Not some Fantasy-Epic-Dungeons-&-Dragons boss.
Bad Dracula. I need a more subtle Dracula. Vampires that are so still they remind you of a spider sitting on a web in someone’s house during a Halloween party, and it’s so motionless you can’t tell if it’s a decoration or a living thing.
They should make an animatronic that looks like it’s just a really elaborate statue, or a wax figure, OR, even better, it should look like a really simple, bad animatronic, at first. Minimal movements. Too many body parts moving independently, one right after the other, almost mechanical. And then BAM suddenly he turns fluid and lifelike as the Avatar Animatronic, right as your ride vehicle is passing under him, and he looks RIGHT AT YOU and lunges. Then he goes back to being still and stiff.
But no. We get an Overwatch Character. Who likes this kind of thing in their monsters?
Good: The Creature From the Black Lagoon
YES! Three cheers for the monster from my hometown!
I just like that he wasn't left out. That's it. Don't really care about his movie or his character that much.
Bad: Maleva
nooo. what? Why does this look like it was made by AI? This is one of the worst character designs I've ever seen. There's so much going on, I feel like I'm looking at what artificial intelligence came up with for a prompt that said "vaguely ominous sexy woman with a hint of warrior traits in a fantasy werewolf VIDEO GAME."
Lame.
If you're worried about the racial component or you need like a "witchy pro-monster expert civilization" for your Dark Universe, just stop it. Just don't worry about needing to update those things. Not if you're going to do it like this.
If you need a people group who wisely understand that there's more to this world than meets the eye, and evil can manifest itself powerfully, and good can manifest itself powerfully, as a counter-point to post-modern scientific skeptics—
—do better than "video game almost-steampunk word-salad of cool things" characters.
