Demogorgon

Happy Stranger Things Day! To celebrate the final season coming out, we're heading over to Hawkins for the epic monster, the Demogorgon! How do these monsters come to be? How do you defeat one? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Happy Stranger Things day! A secret that I think I’ve shared before on the show is that I was terrified to watch Stranger Things for a long time because it looked scary, and to be honest, there have been a few times I have been spooked by it, but I binged it just after season 4 came out and have been eagerly awaiting this since.

DESCRIPTION:

To celebrate the last season coming out today, I’ve decided to take us into the spooky Upside Down to look at a monster that terrorises the universe, yes - we’re being hunted by a Demogorgon in this special Hellfire Club special episode.

Before we start, I need to clarify for my usual mythology lovers that this is a Stranger Things special episode and that this is not going to be covering the original Demogorgon from D&D or Greek mythology - although I will naturally touch on them as the namesakes and inspirations behind the monsters. So if you’re expecting a full Demogorgon deep dive across all their monstrous selves, you’ll have to wait for another episode I’m afraid. 

Also - obviously, if you’ve not watched ANY Stranger Things, you’re going to get spoiled here. Don’t listen to this episode if you are waiting to watch any of them or you don’t want up to season 4 spoilers. 

So what are Demogorgons? They are typically described as humanoid monsters, with slimy, pale pink and white mottled skin, elongated arms and fingers, three-toed, almost bird-like feet and bony bodies. Their general look is very similar to a human, although they are always naked with no visible genitalia and incredibly skin-tight and skinny. The humanoid look stops at the head though, where instead of a face, there is an interlocking bulb-type opening, which when opened is rows of teeth across blood red petals and a gaping hole of a mouth in the middle. If you’ve ever seen a corpse flower, they slightly resemble this in the face. 

They have black blood, no eyes or visible ears, but have an incredible sense of smell and are attracted to blood like sharks. They stand bipedal at around 6-10 feet tall, although they have been known to run on all fours when chasing after something. 

An interesting twist to this monster is that they can communicate telepathically through a hive mind and are thought of to be controlled by one being in the place they have come from, the Upside Down - an alternate, darker dimension to our own filled with these monsters and their master, Vecna. Under this hive mind are not only Demogorgons, but also their flying kin, the Demobats, the Demodogs, the roots and vines in the environment and any person possessed by the hive mind - how they get possessed, I’ll get onto. There are debates that another monster in this universe, the Mind Flayer, made up of dissembled bodies, is part of this hive mind - it is said it has its own sentience to Vecna. 

Vecna, this antagonist of the whole series, controls everything within the hive mind to seek what he wants, ultimate control over the Earth to transform it into the Upside Down. I’m not going to go more into Vecna, who is also named after a D&D character - you’ll have to wait for another episode on him. 

I’ve spoken about how these monsters come from this alternate dimension, however, they don’t come from the Upside Down itself. They originally came from a completely different dimension known as Dimension X, however, we’re not actually too sure if Dimension X has now been transformed into the Upside Down, but we know this is where the Demogorgons originally came from. 

But how did they get here to little Indiana in the 1980’s? That is where their powers come in. Demogorgons most immense power is dimensional teleportation and the ability to open gates to other dimensions, which allows them to pop in and out of our world but also messing up any energy source nearby whilst doing so. They are also very durable and almost invulnerable to damage through usual means whilst also being incredibly agile and strong. Lastly, they have a regenerative healing factor so even if you do manage to hurt them, they’ll heal anyway.

They hunt in the night and typically hunt people, but will also enjoy any livestock, which they attack with their elongated finger claws and finish off with a snap of their petal-like face around the head of the prey. They also typically take prey back to the Upside Down to feed on, but they also take prey back to reproduce which is a whole other thing. 

Demogorgon reproduction reminds me of the scene in Harry Potter where Ron throws up slugs, but also reminds me of the Alien series. The way they reproduce is through a slug, the first stage of their life cycle, being planted into a living being to gestate. The slug is eventually born through the mouth of the person, who would usually be unconscious or in-fact dead, after the gestation and would go and live on its own from there. 

There are 6 stages of Demogorgon life, the first being the larva or slug, which look like a much larger normal garden slug - disgusting just on the face of it obviously. They are dark green with bright yellow spots. Then they evolve into the second stage, the ‘Pollywog’, which happens after an undisclosed amount of time, where they moult and grow legs like a tadpole would. They are now about the size of a human hand and have yellow-green skin, small claw-like hands, a mouth and a tail. They are sensitive to heat and the sun and will happily eat anything. 

Stage 3 is the Frogogorgon, where the skin changes to a dark green and they sprout legs and teeth as well as getting to be the size of a large rat. Stage 4 is the Catogorgon and this is where the petal mouth first appears, and the monster becomes carnivorous. They have a darker green colour skin and are no longer sensitive to heat or the sun. 

Stage 5 is the Demodog stage, they moult from the Cat version and are about the size of a larger dog or wolf. They are incredibly strong, able to dig massive tunnels and climb tall mountains. They are not invulnerable yet, but their skin has thickened to repel gunshots and is a horrible pale green colour. 

Then we’re back at our humanoid flower-headed pals in stage 6, who are murderous, violent and a bit mind control dumb - but I’ve not told you how to kill these yet have I? 

So let’s talk death, you could harm these considerably by utilising their slight weakness to fire, which does still burn them and you can still whack them, but there’s no guarantee they’re not getting straight back up and brushing it off. The best way to kill them is to use their telepathic link against them by having telepathic powers yourself.

Oh, you don’t have those? What a shame - but it’s okay, you could also just chop their head off with a big sword at the neck, that’ll do it, but good luck with that mate.

ORIGIN:

Now moving onto etymology, as I said, Demogorgon is taken from a Greek mythological monster, but also, not really. Demogorgons in Greek myth were a deity or demon associated with the Underworld, and sometimes a named demonic king.

But the word Demogorgon is still Greek, coming from a misinterpretation of the language back in the day, from the word demiurge, which is a creator being. However, if we’re staying in universe - it’s linked to a D&D character with the same name, who was also a demon lord. 

There is also obviously a link with the two words here, Demo and Gorgon to be a link to demons and Gorgons, the latter also being from Greek mythology - however, it is just more linked to the D&D monster, so that one is just an obvious point out. 

For their history, we only knew about these monsters from their first appearance in 1983, when a stage 6 Demogorgon entered Hawkins, Indiana in the US. It was killed, but did spread some damage to the Earth, including kidnapping a child. In 1984, the same child became possessed and unleashed a bunch of Demogorgons into Hawkins, which were all eventually killed by the heroic team we know from the show. 

In 1985, the Soviet Union created a technology to get into the Upside Down and created a huge portal to gather specimens of Demodogs to aid in the war, however, one of these matured into a Demogorgon, which they kept in their prisoner of war camp in Kam cha tka - also eventually killed by one of our heroes. The portal brought forth the Mind Flayer, which possessed a bunch of people in Hawkins and threatened total destruction before being destroyed. 

Lastly, to what we know at least, Vecna is still plotting our demise with the help of his Demogorgon friends in the Upside Down and we’re waiting to see what happens next in his dastardly plan. 

I really enjoy this show - but let’s come out of the fantasy and talk show-making and the inspiration and creation of this beast. Stranger Things is finishing up with its last season all wrapped up before 2026, but has been running since 2016 and has an immense cult following known as the Hellfire Club from the D&D club in the 4th Season. RIP Eddie Munson, you were my dream man.  

The Duffer Brothers, who wrote Stranger Things, wanted to use practical effects in making a proper horror monster and it was partially motion capture and then from Season 2 onwards, was CGI. 

The motion capture involved a full-size form 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 and the actor, Mark Steger often had to wear metal stilts to make him ten inches taller. It actually only took half an hour to 40 minutes to put on and only weighed around 30 pounds. The animatronic head had 26 motors in, and the head petals would all move uniquely, however, it was so loud that Steger couldn’t hear directions and it was ultimately changed to full CGI in the next season.

They were heavily inspired by the works of Guillermo Del Toro, H R Giger, Clive Barker and Masahiro Ito and were ultimately inspired to go with the humanoid creature with no face, just a mouth, but also with nature, which gave them their flower-like head. They are often linked to mushrooms behind the scenes though, and throughout shots of the Upside Down, you can see lichen-like substances everywhere and spores in the air. 

Kind of a weird history section, but before the 5th season finishes up, there’s a few questions in their back story, and I hope we get everything answered as the show comes to a close. 

As I said, Stranger Things has a massive cult following, and is one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever - with spin-offs such as the comic books, novels, other shows and even a West End play that has just transferred to Broadway. I also would not be surprised if something else follows the end of the show and the spin off planned for next year.

We don’t have any real life comparisons really to link this to, there’s not really anything like these in reality. There are links to physical things in the world, like corpse flowers for instance, but I’m sorry to say that there’s not much around this kind of being.

For mythical comparisons, to be honest - there’s not much here either other than the actual Demogorgon and that’s just based on name! I will cover the actual Demogorgon another time, I just don’t want to muddy the water and confuse these two, as they are starkly different and well worth their own episode as a D&D specific monster to cover, alongside Mind Flayers and Vecna himself at some point.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now, you might be thinking, Erin, you can’t possibly cover modern media for this. But you are wrong, there’s a load of stuff that isn’t Stranger Things that has these monsters in.

Art is probably the biggest category here, but there’s nothing official - so go and look at independent art for some incredible modern artistry with these horrendous monsters.

We don’t have any movies, but we do have a stage play. Stranger Things: The First Shadow premiered here in the West End in 2023 and is now on Broadway as of 2025. This is all prequel stuff, I’ve not seen it so I don’t know much about it - but I’ve heard it’s amazing and you can watch the Making of Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Netflix to see the behind the scenes, but obviously, it may be a massive spoiler.

For TV, we have; Stranger Things, The Simpsons & Sesame Street. There’s also a spin-off show apparently happening next year called Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, so keep an eye out for that if you’re a fan.

In video games, we have ones such as; Stranger Things: The Game, Stranger Things VR, Stranger Things 3: The Game, Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales, Stranger Things: The VR Experience, Fortnite, Smite, Roblox, The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, The Vanishing & Dead By Daylight.

Devastatingly, there was a Telltale Stranger Things game in the works, which would have been amazing and I have mentioned numerous times on the show how much I love their games, but it was cancelled when the studio went under in 2018 - boo. Maybe they’ll pick it back up now they’re kind of back? 

My book recommendation this week is to have a look at the Stranger Things comic book or Book series - I won’t name them all because I’d be here all day, but you can look them up by searching Stranger Things novels or comic books I’m sure and there’s a list of them on Wiki. 

If you’re into the movie magic part of monsters, have a look at Making Monsters: Inside Stories from the Creators of Hollywood's Most Iconic Creatures by Howard Berger & Marshall Julius or their other book Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic on more make up special effects. 

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

Lol no, OF COURSE NOT. Folks, if you do, you need to literally go and touch some grass a little I hate to say. Yes, they are freaky and yes, they may show up as your sleep paralysis demon or a nightmare, but are they real? Definitely not, but they are still scary and that’s okay. 

We know these are fictional, so this episode’s do we think they exist is pretty easy - but that’s not to say that if they did, I would be a nervous wreck all the time, because I’m certainly not going to decapitate anything. 

I’ll take this time instead to say that I think they’re a super cool monster, and what I love about Stranger Things is that lean into D&D culture and history, which was massively a point of last season, so I hope it continues into this one for the last time. 

I will also say that although I loved last season and especially Eddie (#dreamboat), my absolute favourite was season 3. I thought the Mind Flayer storyline was phenomenal and also think Billy was my dream man, even though he was a bit of a butt throughout. 

My cousin also recently watched the show for the first time and due to my glasses and ginger hair, I have been called Barb ever since - and you know what, I’ll take it because JUSTICE FOR BARB. 

But anyway, Demogorgons, alongside most creatures in this franchise, have been really well designed and are definitely the perfect monsters for the storyline and for our nightmares. I hope there are some decent spin-offs beside the play where we can see these again some day.

But what do you think? Did the Demogorgons roam the Earth looking to drag us into the Upside Down? You’re insane if you think so, but if you do let me know on social media!

OUTRO: 

What a fun little special this week, I really hope you enjoyed it - and even if you’re not a Stranger Things mega fan, I hope you did too and it was informative at best!

This episode is part of the daily releases I’ve been doing through November, but wasn’t planned long before, so I will repeat what I said a few days ago. 

Next time, we’re heading over to a belief system rather than a place and looking at a creature from Hindu mythology. One of the stunning forms of Lord Shiva, be prepared to gawk in awe of the majestic Sharabha next time on the show.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got loads of social media for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, YouTube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, twitter is mythmonsterspod and BlueSky is mythmonsters. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, and you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.