History Main / SwampMonster

* The pre-[[UsefulNotes/ComicsCode Code]] horror comic ''This Magazine is Haunted'' ran a story called "The Slithering Horror of Skontong Swamp", where a [[GreatEscape prison escapee]] runs afoul of some waterlogged undead creatures.

* A MuckMonster that is either [[PlantPerson composed of vegetation]] or FesteringFungus or even covered by it, giving them a distinctly green coloration. These guys tend to be made of the swamp itself and it's very likely they have [[GreenThumb nature based]] powers. For extra horror, many of them [[WasOnceAMan were once human beings]] who were transformed into this creature by the swamp itself. The original of this type of creature is the monster in "Literature/{{It|1940}}" by Creator/TheodoreSturgeon, although It itself isn't a swamp monster but a forest floor monster.

* A MuckMonster that is either [[PlantPerson composed of vegetation]] or FesteringFungus or even covered by it, giving them a distinctly green coloration. Many of them tend to be an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/ManThing, ComicBook/SwampThing, or ComicBook/TheHeap. These guys tend to be made of the swamp itself and it's very likely they have [[GreenThumb nature based]] powers. For extra horror, many of them [[WasOnceAMan were once human beings]] who were transformed into this creature by the swamp itself.

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', while exploring the First Biotope, Sunny and Komatsu run into an ancient giant swamp which is the hunting ground of several massive creatures: just upon arriving, they see a giant fresh-water moray eel, a massive multiple-headed snail and finally a crocodile-mouthed shark who [[AlwaysABiggerFish devour both creatures in one gulp]].

* "It!", a short story by Creator/TheodoreSturgeon that originally appeared in the magazine ''Unknown'' in August, 1940, is the UrExample of the MuckMonster version (and the direct inspiration for ''ComicBook/TheHeap''). The story deals with a plant monster that is ultimately revealed to have formed around a human skeleton, specifically that of Roger Kirk, in a swamp.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** ''ComicBook/ManThing'' is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, being among the most famous MuckMonster swamp monsters in all of fiction, rivaled only by [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent his DC counterpart]] ComicBook/SwampThing. Man-Thing was one a scientist named Dr. Theodore Sallis who attempted to recreate the Super Serum used on Captain America, before an accident led to the serum fusing him with the mystical energies of the swamp, transforming his body into a humanoid mass of swamp material. As Man-Thing, it has lost his human intelligence and is mostly a creature of instinct, though it is [[TheEmpath sensitive to emotions]], particularly fear, which will cause it to burn targets who exhibit said emotion. Despite its limited intelligence, Man-Thing often ends as an incidental hero. Later it's also revealed the mystical energies made Man-Thing the guardian of a Nexus of Realities present in the swamp.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': One of the episodes is based on "How to Kill a Monster", but changes the monster itself. Instead of a green, swamp-dwelling bigfoot, it's a nasty, yellow-colored reptile with a head like a vulture.

** ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s for the MuckMonster variety and appears to have eclipsed Man-Thing in fame due to his appearances in numerous adaptations. Swamp Thing, unlike many other examples of this trope, [[DarkIsNotEvil is a full-fledged, if unusual, superhero]]. There have been many different holders of the Swamp Thing name over the years, with perhaps the most famous version being Alec Holland. Swamp Thing is a being whose body is composed of vegetation and plant matter, and who has developed very powerful GreenThumb powers that actually make him an elemental avatar of nature.

The Swamp Monster is a monstrous creature found almost exclusively in the swamp. It is where they have made their home and they will not or perhaps cannot ever leave. On the rare instances they do, they will likely return to their home eventually.

* ''Film/TheLegendOfBoggyCreek'' was a 1972 horror {{docudrama}} featuring a Bigfoot-like creature called the Fouke Monster that roamed around a swampy area of Arkansas. Supposedly inspired by real-life sightings of this cryptid, the film had him terrorizing rural residents. It was successful enough to beget a sequel, ''Film/BoggyCreek2AndTheLegendContinues''.

[[caption-width-right:300:"[[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} What are you doing in my swamp?!]]"]]

* ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'': Shrek makes his home in a swamp. In the first movie, he is shown [[MonsterFacade scaring villagers]] who enter his swamp with TorchesAndPitchforks, since it's the best way to get them to leave him alone; then, when fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters displaced by Lord Farquaad settle in his swamp, he sets out on a quest to get rid of them.

** Swamps are also the favored home of catoblepases, which are monstrous, omnivorous, and deadly quadrupeds. They're armed with a [[BewareMyStingerTail tail club]] with a long reach heavy enough to rattle and daze anything struck by it, but their most feared weapon is a DeadlyGaze which can [[MakeThemRot rot the flesh off of bone]], if not [[OneHitKill outright kill the victim]]. Catoblepases not only give off utterly repulsive stench smelling of dead and rotting matter, skunk odor and swamp gas, but they also putrify their swampy habitats, choking out beneficial or medicinal herbs and plants, making the water unclean and filthy, making the animal population prone to aggression and disease, and infusing its stench into swamp gases. Catoblepases are generally feared in local worlds' folklore, and rumors about the creature are often considered bad omens.

* A FiendishFish, enormous [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodilian]], or similar water-dwelling creature who primarily stays submerged, but may go to the surface to hunt or prey on unsuspecting humans. This version may overlap with [[StockNessMonster Lake Monsters]] if they inhabit a body of water that is sufficiently big and open.

* ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'': Shrek makes his home in a swamp. In the first movie, he is shown [[MonsterFacade scaring villagers]] who enter his swamp with TorchesAndPitchforks, just [[ForTheLulz for jollies]]; then, when fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters displaced by Lord Farquaad settle in his swamp, he sets out on a quest to get rid of them.

* A MuckMonster that is either [[PlantPerson composed of vegetation]] or covered by it or even covered by FesteringFungus, giving them a distinctly green coloration. Many of them tend to be an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/ManThing, ComicBook/SwampThing, or ComicBook/TheHeap. These guys tend to be made of the swamp itself and it's very likely they have [[GreenThumb nature based]] powers. For extra horror, many of them [[WasOnceAMan were once human beings]] who were transformed into this creature by the swamp itself.

* A FiendishFish, enormous [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodilian]], or similar water-dwelling creature who primarily stays submerged, but may go to the surface to hunt or prey on unsuspecting humans. This version may overlap with [[StockNessMonster Lake Monsters]] if they inhabit a body of water with a more open-air.

* A MuckMonster that is either [[PlantPerson composed of vegetation]] or covered by it, giving them a distinctly green coloration. Many of them tend to be an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/ManThing, ComicBook/SwampThing, or ComicBook/TheHeap. These guys tend to be made of the swamp itself and it's very likely they have [[GreenThumb nature based]] powers. For extra horror, many of them [[WasOnceAMan were once human beings]] who were transformed into this creature by the swamp itself.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-811 SCP-811]] ("Swamp Woman") is a woman mutated into a grotesque form who is implied to have [[WildChild lived alone in a swamp from a very young age]]. Most notably, she has an [[BizarreHumanBiology extremely strange physiology]] that has turned her into a PoisonousPerson -- she has an incomplete digestive tract, secretes digestive mucus from the palms of her hands and soles of her feet that [[MakeThemRot rapidly reduces organic tissue into black liquid]] (which she then absorbs into her skin for nourishment), voids waste by vomiting a black tar containing various infectious bacteria that she can [[SuperSpit spit at a target while hunting]], and has liquid rot for blood. However, despite her predatory nature, she is rather docile and child-like.

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See also: SeaMonster, StockNessMonster for similar creatures with a different choice of habitat.

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* ''Film/TheLegendOfBoggyCreek'' was a 1972 horror movie featuring a Bigfoot creature called the Fouke Monster that roamed around a swampy area. Supposedly inspired by real-life sightings of this cryptid, the film had him terrorizing rural residents. It was successful enough to beget a sequel, ''Film/BoggyCreek2AndTheLegendContinues''.

* In Edmond Hamilton's novella "The Abymsal Invaders" (first published in ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' in 1929), an army of LivingDinosaurs and their LizardFolk [[DomesticatedDinosaurs riders]] march out of an Illinois swamp and destroy a small city. However, it turns out that they don't actually come from the swamp at all, but from deep BeneathTheEarth, and the elevator up from their realm simply opens in the swamp.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]

Expect them to be hostile towards any visitors unfortunate enough to stumble upon their territory, though on occasion benevolent swamp monsters do exist. They usually have the ability to stay submerged in the water, if that is the water isn't where they usually reside.

* ''Film/{{King Kong|2005}}'': A [[invoked]]{{deleted scene}} (restored in the film's extended cut) depicts the crew of the ''Venture'' crossing a swamp on Skull Island by means of makeshift rafts... only to come under attack by a ''Piranhadon'', a gigantic 50-foot predator that is basically a giant lungfish with the teeth (and appetite) of a piranha.

* ''Literature/TheMonsterOfPartridgeCreek'' is a short story set in the Yukon Territory, where a natural sulfur spring has created a marshy environment, called a "moose lick", that does not freeze over in the winter. This attracts larger animals, such as the moose themselves, which, in turn, attracts the attention of the monster - a shaggy-coated ''Ceratosaurus''.

* A MuckMonster that is either [[PlantPerson composed of vegetation]] or covered by it, giving them a distinctly green coloration. Many of them tend to be an {{expy}} of ComicBook/ManThing, ComicBook/SwampThing, or ComicBook/TheHeap. These guys tend to be made of the swamp itself and it's very likely they have [[GreenThumb nature based]] powers. For extra horror, many of them [[WasOnceAMan were once human beings]] who were transformed into this creature by the swamp itself.
* Some kind of [[LizardFolk reptilian]], [[FrogMen amphibian]] or [[FishPeople icthyoid]] humanoid creature, [[TropeMaker mostly inspired]] by the [[Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon Gill Man]]. If there are multiple members of their species, they may even form colonies or settlements in the swamp.
* A [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti hairy humanoid creature that resembles Bigfoot]], but often covered in mud and plants. This version is often inspired by real accounts of [[OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious cryptids]] and other alleged;y purported creatures, but their existence remains unconfirmed.

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* The Honey Island Swamp Monster is an alleged [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfoot]] like creature that has been purported to inhabit the Honey Island Swamp in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.
* The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, is a purported [[LizardMen reptilian humanoid]] creature sighted in Bishopville, South Carolina during the 1980s. The initial report was that it was responsible for attacking a man's car while he was driving.
* The {{Kappa}} is a Japanese cryptid that lives in swamps and frequently shows up in Japanese media. It is described as looking like a biped turtle is known for sinister behavior such as kidnapping children or sucking the soul out of victims.
* The [[YowiesAndBunyipsAndDropBearsOhMy Bunyip]] is an alleged creature in Indigenous Australian folklore that is said to reside in billabongs (seasonal waterholes). Descriptions of the creature vary greatly, with it ranging from a giant starfish to being a seal-like creature with a dog-like head. All sources agree, however, that it primarily resides in water and will prey on people who venture too close to the shore.