History Literature / TheThoughtMonster

* InfantImmortality: Averted. Two of the creature's victims include two little boys.

''The Thought-Monster'' is a short story written by Amelia Reynolds Long. It was published in the March 1930 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''.

A small town experiences a rash of mysterious deaths. Victims turn up dead with looks of horror on their faces. The culprit is dubbed "the terror" by the locals. [[[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops A visiting policeman]] from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, Detective James Gibson, thinks it's just an escaped lunatic, and leads an AngryMob to catch him. He turns up later, having been transformed into a [[DrivenToMadness gibbering idiot]].

A small town experiences a rash of mysterious deaths. Victims turn up dead with looks of horror on their faces. The culprit is dubbed "the terror" by the locals. A visiting policeman from New York City, Detective James Gibson, thinks it's just an escaped lunatic, and leads an AngryMob to catch him. He turns up later, having been transformed into a [[DrivenToMadness gibbering idiot]].

''The Thought-Monster'' is a short story written by Amelia Reynolds Long. It was published in ''Magazine/WeirdTales''.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Walgate's servant Mrs. Jenson unintentionally lets the thought monster loose when she goes into the laboratory "in a fervor of housecleaning.]]

* DoingInTheWizard: Other than simply doing it ForScience, this appears to have been the original motivation behind Walgate's work. He wanted to prove that so-called psychic phenomena are the result of a person's thoughta made physical and having an impact on the surrounding environment, especially providing a scientific explanation for "table-tipping" and other parlor trucks.

''The Thought Monster'' is a short story written by Amelia Reynolds Long. It was published in ''Magazine/WeirdTales''.

''The Thought Monster'' was adapted into the 1958 film ''Film/FiendWithoutAFace''. It was directed by Arthur Crabtree with a screenplay by Herbert J. Leder, who relocated the story to UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} (''The Thought Monster'' never really reveals where it takes place). Leder also changed Michael Cummings into an Air Force Major named ''Jeff'' Cummings and added a subplot about the USAF conducting long-range radar tests, among other changes and [[AdaptationExpansion expansions]].

* TitleDrop: In his journal, Walgate writes, "I have let a thought monster loose upon the community!"

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Or GoneHorriblyRight, depending on your interpreation. Walgate's efforts to create a being of living thought. He had no idea it would eat people's minds, either killing them or driving them insane.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Walgate's efforts to create a being of living thought. He had no idea it would eat people's minds, either killing them or driving them insane.

* TitleDrop: In his journal, Walgate writes, "I have let a thought monster upon the community!"

The terrified townsfolk turn to a "psychic investigator" named Michael Cummings, who is convinced that the killings are the work of an invisible supernatural force. Specifically, he thinks it has something to do with a scientist named Dr. Walgate who lives outside of town, and he encourages the townspeople to discourage "the terror" from attacking by rigging up violet lights around their homes after dark, because (according to him anyway) violet light drives away supernatural beings.

* CrazyEnoughToWork: Cummings' plan to repel the invisible menace using violet light. It works for a while.

* BrainFood: The monster consumes its victims' [[spoiler:PickyPeopleEater minds]].

* BrainFood: The monster consumes its victims' brains.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Dr. Walgate]] uses himself as bait to lure the "terror" into a lead-lined room where he traps it and kills it using violet light, and is found by Cummings and the town doctor "a gibbering idiot."

A small town experiences a rash of mysterious deaths. Victims turn up dead with looks of horror on their faces. The culprit is dubbed "the terror" by the locals. A visiting policeman from New York City, Detective Gibson, thinks it's just an escaped lunatic, and leads an AngryMob to catch him. He turns up later, having been transformed into a [[DrivenToMadness gibbering idiot]].

* DoingInTheWizard: Other than simply doing it ForScience, this appears to have been the motivation behind Walgate's work. He wanted to prove that so-called psychic phenomena are the result of a person's thoughta made physical and having an impact on the surrounding environment, especially providing a scientific explanation for "table-tipping" and other parlor trucks.

* ForScience: This seems to be Dr. Walgate's entire motivation.

* InterrogatingTheDead: Cummings tries to use the old "[[EyeRemembers the last thing a person sees is imprinted into their eyes method]]" with the dead body of a farmer who dies after be arrives. Walgate himself also disinters the body of the mayor to conduct his own investigation, fearing his creation is responsible for the deaths.

Surprisingly, it works. When the lights are installed, the killings taper off and eventually stop. Cummings and the town doctor then go to confront Walgate, only to discover his [[ApocalypticLog journal]] detailing his experiments in the materialization of thought...

* AgentScully: Dr. Bradley. He's with Cummings up to a point, even admitting the possibility of an evil elemental force run amok, but starts to grow skeptical once the psychic introduces his plan to keep "the terror" at bay using violet lights. However, he is forced to admit that Cummings' plan worked after a month passes with no deaths.

* CrazyEnoughToWork: Dr. Bradley, the town coroner and the AgentScully to Cummings' AgentMulder, doubts that the psychic's plan to repel the invisible menace using violet light will work. But it does. Until it doesn't.

* DoingInTheWizard: Other than simply doing it ForScience, this appears to have been the motivation behind Walgate's work. He wanted to prove that so-called psychic phenomena are the result of thought made physical and have an impact on the surrounding environment, especially providing a scientific explanation for "table-tipping" and other parlor trucks.