History Main / SinisterDeerSkull

** Albert Vandermeer wears a deer skull as a mask in ''Roots'' while he torments his brother and sister-in-law using voodoo dolls.

* Deer heads and skulls appear frequently in Rusty Lake's [[VideoGame/CubeEscape Cube Escape]]'' games, and they never mean anything good.

* Deer heads and skulls appear frequently in [[VideoGame/CubeEscape Cube Escape's]] ''Rusty Lake'' games, and they never mean anything good.

[[caption-width-right:350:This guy is the ''reason'' you DontGoInTheWoods...]]

Sub-trope of SkullForAHead (when it is part of the character's body). Compare DemBones (for characters made out of ''human'' bones), TaxidermyTerror, and HornsOfVillainy. A CrownOfHorns is more likely to be worn by a ruler trying to invoke the ''positive'' aspects of deer.

* The modern interpretation of the {{Wendigo}} story depicts the creature with the bare skull of a deer atop a hulking, twisted, zombie-like body. The deer skulls were not present in the original Algonquian myths, where they were much more ghoulish, being the AnthropomorphicPersonification of greed and hunger.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In ''[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E1ThanksToThem "Thanks to Them"]]'', Camilla has to pull over because the police is investigating a car that skidded off the road. The driver tells the officer she lost control because a deer went out of nowhere and frightened them, although her little daughter insists that it wasn't a deer, but a monster. [[spoiler:The camera slides to border of the road, showing the skeleton of said deer, result of a PossessionBurnout by Belos.]]

* Deer heads and skulls appear frequently in the {{VideoGame/CubeEscape Rusty Lake games}}, and they never mean anything good.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In ''[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E1ThanksToThem "Thanks to Them"]]'', Camilla has to pull over because the police are investigating a car that skidded off the road. The driver tells the officer she lost control because a deer came out of nowhere and frightened them, although her little daughter insists that it wasn't a deer, but a monster. [[spoiler:The camera slides to the border of the road, showing the skeleton of said deer, the result of a PossessionBurnout by Belos.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In ''[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E1ThanksToThem "Thanks to Them"]]'', Camilla has to pull over because the police is investigating a car that skidded off the road. The driver tells the officer she lost control because a deer went out of nowhere and frightened them, although her little daughter insists that it wasn't a deer, but a monster. [[spoiler:The camera slides to border of the road, showing the skeleton of said deer, result of a PossessionBurnout by Belos.]]

In short if the protagonists of a story encounter a character with a deer skull for a face, it's a sure sign that something bad is about to go down. Even if the deer skull isn't part of a character, it's still often used as a spooky piece of set dressing, like a creepier version of a [[DesertSkull cow skull in a desert]]. A bleached deer skull lying on the ground -- especially if there's [[NothingButSkulls no skeleton to go with it]] -- adds some much-needed foreboding atmosphere to TheLostWoods or WildWilderness.

* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'': Will has recurring hallucinations and nightmares of a black feathered stag, which he first starts seeing after finding a murder victim impaled on deer antlers. It represents Will's relationship with Hannibal, and his ever-increasing encroachment and influence on Will's life. At times, the stag accompanied by or transforms into a {{Wendigo}}, depicted with a stag's antlers, which represent Hannibal himself (seeing as wendigos are closely linked with cannibalism).

* In ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'', a group of teens ends up stranded for several months in the Canadian wilderness. In the pilot episode, a girl in a headdress made out of deer antlers and a veil leads others (all wearing identity concealing masks) in a cannibal ceremony. In a later episode, the maybe-psychic Lottie Matthews dons the headdress.

** The Reachmen are a [[BarbarianTribe barbaric]] group of [[{{Druid}} nature-worshippers]] who inhabit the area along the border of High Rock and Skyrim known as "the Reach". They have [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized visciously resisted]] any [[FantasticRacism non-Reachmen attempting to conquer/settle the region]] dating back thousands of years, are known to commune with witchy [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies Hagravens]], sometimes worship the above-mentioned Hircine, and prefer "primitive" weapons and armor made out of bone, stone, and hide. In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', the Forsworn (a terroristic sub-sect of Reachmen rebels) Headdress is a light armor helmet that is literally a deer skull adorned with feathers and furs. Forsworn encampments are also liberally adorned with deer skull ornaments.

* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': Lalli is nearly killed in the SpiritWorld by a monstrous Iku-Turso like creature with a moose skull for a head and [[https://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=939#comment-4009860609 deer skulls on its appendages.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In ''[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E1ThanksToThem "Thanks to Them"]]'', Camilla has to pull over because the police is investigating a car that skidded off the road. The driver tells the officer she lost control because a deer went out of nowhere and frightened them, although her little daughter insists that it wasn't a deer, but a monster. [[spoiler:The camera slids to border of the road, showing the skeleton of said deer, result of a PossessionBurnout by Belos.]]

Sub-trope of SkullForAHead (when it is part of the character's body). Compare DemBones (for characters made out of ''human'' bones) and HornsOfVillainy. A CrownOfHorns is more likely to be worn by a ruler trying to invoke the ''positive'' aspects of deer.

* ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'': The JerseyDevil, once he drops his {{Glamour}}, takes the form of a grey skinned demon with a deer's SkullForAHead.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dusk}}'': the {{Wendigo}}s are represented in their modern depiction, [[https://dusk.fandom.com/wiki/Wendigo?file=WENDIGO.jpg zombies with a deer skull as a head]].

In short if the protagonists of a story encounter a character with a deer skull for a face, it's a sure sign that something bad is about to go down. Even if the deer skull isn't part of a character, it's still often used as a spooky piece of set dressing, like a creepier version of a [[DesertSkull cow skull in a desert]]. A bleached deer skull lying on the ground-- especially if there's [[NothingButSkulls no skeleton to go with it]]-- adds some much-needed foreboding atmosphere to TheLostWoods or WildWilderness.

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

[[AC:Film - Live Action]]

[[AC: Literature]]

[[AC: Mythology and Religion]]

* The modern interpretation of the {{Wendigo}} story depicts the creature with the bare skull of a deer atop a hulking, twisted, zombie-like body. In the original Algonquian myth, they were much more ghoulish, being the AnthropomorphicPersonification of greed and hunger.

* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'': One of the many enigmatic and vaguely menacing elder beings in Night Vale is Huntokar the Destroyer, who appears in the form of a woman with the head of a deer. [[spoiler: It eventually turns out that she's Night Vale's forgotten protector deity, who is responsible for the fragmented nature of time and space around the city after she tried to save it from a nuclear war in an alternate timeline.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In ''[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E1ThanksToThem "Thanks to Them"]]'', Camilla has to pull over because the police is investigating a car that skidded off the road. The driver tells the officer she lost control because a deer went out of nowhere and frightened them, although her little daughter insists that it wasn't a deer, but a monster. [[spoiler: The camera slids to border of the road, showing the skeleton of said deer, result of a PossessionBurnout by Belos.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Videogame/TheWolfAmongUs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isc_jersey_menacing_7.png]] ]]

In short if the protagonists of a story encounter a character with a deer skull for a face, it's a sure sign that something bad is about to go down. Even if the deer skull isn't part of a character, it's still often used as a spooky piece of set dressing, like a creepier version of a [[DesertSkull cow skull in a desert]]. A bleached deer skull lying on the ground-- especially if there's [[NothingButSkulls no skeleton to go with it]]-- adds some much-needed foreboding atmosphere to TheLostWoods.

[[quoteright:350:[[Videogame/TheWolfAmongUs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isc_jersey_menacing_7.png]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:350:This guy is the ''reason'' you DontGoInTheWoods...]]