History Main / CaveMouth

* The old Sri Lankan royal fortress was called the Lion's Mouth, because it could only be accessed through a gate that was carved to look like the gaping mouth of a lion. Enormous paws were carved below the gate. These paws still stand today, while the mouth is gone.

* One defunct restaurant chain called "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_Chicken_Inn Coon Chicken Inn]]" (which got a namedrop in ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'') designed its entrances to resemble the mouth of a smiling African American porter, represented in stereotypical {{blackface}} style.

* ''VideoGame/{{Desperados}}'': El Diablo's cave resembles a skull.

* In the eleventh ''Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps'' book, Deep in the Jungle of Doom, one path has you entering a cave that is strangely damp, with soft pink walls. It turns out you're in the mouth of a giant rock monster, and your friend let it eat you in exchange for her own life. Naturally, this is a BadEnding, and ends with you being SwallowedWhole and waiting for death as you plunge towards the stomach...

* ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe2'': One level takes place in "the cavern called Dragon's Throat". Guess what the entrance looks like?

* Grunty's lair from ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''.
* The entrance to the Sea of Black Tears in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' is shaped like a giant skull.
* The Tyrano Lair in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' features doors styled after theropod maws which open and close depending on switch configuration.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkFall: Lost Souls'', Amy's creepy drawing of Dowerton Station depicts the entrance to the train tunnels like this.
* El Diablo's cave in ''VideoGame/{{Desperados}}'', as a skull.
* The entrance to a cave in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'' not only looks like a mouth, it has a sense of taste as well, and will spit you back out if your armor isn't tasty enough (it likes silver).
* One level of ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe 2'' takes place in "the cavern called Dragon's Throat". Guess what the entrance looks like?
* Two entrances to the Annihilator Factory in ''VideoGame/HeroCore'' have a mouth design.
* Almost all the dungeon entrances in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' consist of these. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' also features a couple as a CallBack to the first game.
* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'', the cave you start in the beginning. [[spoiler:It turns out that it's an EldritchAbomination.]]
* A giant monkey head serves as the entrance to the caverns of meat in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland''. The head itself is attached to a giant skeleton buried underground...
* The cave entrance to the [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Oubliette of Suffering]] in ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}} and the Pirate's Curse'' is one with its "teeth" initially blocking the way. [[GeniusLoci It will only open its mouth]] to stinky ne'er-do-wells.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', every level's exit is a Mask Gate, shaped like a huge bird head.
** Also, the map icon for "Bowser's Galaxy Generator", the final level of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', which is actually shaped like [[BigBad Bowser's]] head.
** As with the map icons for the first two Bowser levels in the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''. And the fish planet in Bigmouth Galaxy.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', caves in [[MeatMoss Crimson]] zones are disturbingly mouth-like, an effect aided by the red Crimstone and stalactites that look like teeth.

* The cave in which Lewis was murdered in ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'' had an eerie mouth like opening with four holes above it that looked like nostrils and glowing eyes due to the green entity in the cave.

* The Storybook Land boat ride at Disneyland begins by entering Monstro the whale from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''.

* Done in "In Search of the Dungeon Master", an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons''.

See also BewareTheSkullBase, which often features this trope with the mouth being the dead jaws of a giant creature. Sometimes this goes beyond the visual metaphor and actually becomes a plot-relevant -- perhaps [[ThatsNoMoon That's No Cave]].

Sometimes this goes beyond the visual metaphor and actually becomes a plot-relevant -- perhaps [[ThatsNoMoon That's No Cave]].

* Great America's roller coaster The Demon has featured a high-speed plummet into a CaveMouth since its theming in 1980.

* In Disney's ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', the front door of Ursula's lair is the mouth of a sea-dragon skeleton.

-->-- ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic''

* In ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' Twoflower's kidnappers inadvertently settle in the mouth of an enormous troll, mistaking it for a cave. They probably would have been fine if they hadn't lit a fire inside it, ironically to ward off trolls.

* The Storybook Land boat ride at Disneyland begins by entering Monstro the whale from ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}''.

* Monstro's mouth in ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}''.

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the Cave of Wonders' opening is a big tiger's mouth with sharp teeth. It also talks. ("Who disturbs my slumber?")
** ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'' has a huge TurtleIsland whose mouth was like a cave.

* The entrance to Hell seen in ''Disney/PlutosJudgementDay'' is a large, cat-shaped cave (which coincidentally resembled the entrance to the Cave of Wonders seen in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' many decades later) in the middle of a volcanic area.

* The Cave of the Beast in ''The Twelve Tasks of ComicBook/{{Asterix}}''. Bonus points for closing after they enter.

-->'''Lampy''': [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl OOH-WAAH-OOH-WAAH-OOH-WAAH-OOH-WAAH!!!!!]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. In ''The Face of Evil'' a giant face of the Doctor has been carved into the cliff by the mad computer. The Doctor indignantly rejects the idea that they enter the cave by climbing up 'his' nostrils. "It's up over the tongue and down the throat."
** Similarly the [[Creator/PaulMcGann Eighth]] Doctor encounters a creature who was a mountain, and its many cave entrances [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho055TheTwilightKingdom part of him]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'', Sandy goes into what she thinks is a big pink cave and punches out what she thinks is the [[SandWorm Alaskan Bull Worm]]. She had actually walked straight into its mouth and beat up its tongue.

->'''Kidnapper:''' We'll be fine. Trolls run from fire.
->'''Rincewind:''' Yes, but... this one can't, you see.
->'''Kidnapper:''' And why's that?
->'''Rincewind:''' Well, because... you've lit it on his ''tongue.''

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', every level's exit is a Mask Gate, shaped like a huge bird head.
** Also, the map icon for "Bowser's Galaxy Generator", the final level of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', which is actually shaped like [[BigBad Bowser's]] head.
** As with the map icons for the first two Bowser levels in the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''. And the fish planet in Bigmouth Galaxy.
* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'', the cave you start in the beginning. [[spoiler:It turns out that it's an EldritchAbomination.]]
* The entrance to the Sea of Black Tears in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' is shaped like a giant skull.

* In ''VideoGame/DarkFall: Lost Souls'', Amy's creepy drawing of Dowerton Station depicts the entrance to the train tunnels like this.

* El Diablo's cave in ''VideoGame/{{Desperados}}'', as a skull.

* The Tyrano Lair in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' features doors styled after theropod maws which open and close depending on switch configuration.
* Two entrances to the Annihilator Factory in ''VideoGame/HeroCore'' have a mouth design.

** ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'' has a huge turtle whose mouth was like a cave.

-->'''Berk:''' Yech! There's that horrible smell again! Hang on, there's sommit funny about this place. [[ExplainExplainOhCrap The walls are slimy, and that green looks like a tongue, and them things over there look like teeth... Ohhh, globbits!]] I'm inside the mouth of some horrible thing!

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', every level's exit is a Hawkmouth, shaped like a huge bird head.