Scary malevolent hands extending out to grasp at something. These usually come in packs, with all the arms reaching for a victim to pull back to their source. To add to the nightmare fuel, these arms tend to be quite flexible, and able to lunge out to grab their target.
While these usually show up in groups for extra horror, individual arms can also be scary entities with terrifying reach. Especially if they are trying to drag someone into a nightmare abyss of some kind, perhaps via an Ankle Drag.
This is a favored trope of Eldritch Abomination, Black Magic, and getting Dragged Off to Hell. Casting a Shadow can also sometimes do this via their Tendrils of Darkness.
The hands themselves are generally either a grotesque mass of Body Horror flesh, or Made of Evil. The Dragged Off to Hell variation naturally comes with the implication of being souls of the damned. These limbs can also sometimes double as Creepily Long Arms in the case of an unseen Monster Under The Bed.
The scary grabbing effect is sometimes mimicked by Rubber Man and Elemental Shapeshifter, although it's much less likely to be played for horror.
Why this imagery is so scary has a couple possible sources. Many grasping hands naturally evoke a feeling of being overwhelmed by a mob, and sometimes even has disturbing implications of being physically violated. The fact the hands commonly pull you somewhere unseen (underground, underwater, into shadows, into portals) also appeals to a fear of the unknown combined with a fear of being taken by the unknown.
The film Repulsion has popularized a specific variation of this trope, where dozens of arms reach out from hallway walls.
Compare Evil Hand (when your own hand turns against you), Giant Hands of Doom (which are disembodied), and Helping Hands (which are singular sentient hands).
Also compare Raised Hand of Survival which can become this trope if it attacks someone.
See also Attack of the Monster Appendage.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Elfen Lied: Diclonius can create "vectors", invisible energy-based hands that reach out from their body with the power to manipulate objects, including the strength to dismember or decapitate the average human being. Most Diclonious have a limited range and can only generate four "vectors" total. One Diclonious girl, however, can generate up to twenty "vectors" that have enormous reach and are actually visible to the naked eye.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The inside of the Gate of Truth seems to be filled with nightmarish hands that seek to rip you apart.
- The climax of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable ends with Yoshikage Kira in a mysterious alleyway that sort of acts as a gateway to hell. If one looks behind, then they will get Dragged Off to Hell. As punishment for being a Serial Killer, Reimi tricks Kira into looking behind. As a result, countless ghastly hands grab him everywhere, as he is forcefully dragged into the abyss of darkness that lurks.
- My Hero Academia:
- Dark Shadow can extend his claws in this manner, which gets especially scary when he's gone berserk at night.
- Dabi grabbing Bakugo's throat and slowly pulling him into a Warp Gate evokes this imagery.
- During the war arc, Shigaraki develops this as an ability, made all the more horrific since every hand has his Make Them Rot powers.
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: From "Divine Opposition, Part 1":
From the water covering the ground, grasping hands rose on their own, clawing at the enemy’s legs.
- Eclipsed Hearts has a heroic example in the Shadow Mages and their use of Shadow Hands. Although the protagonist Luna and her mother Noir can command shadowy extending hands for combat and mundane Uses, both are good examples of Dark Is Not Evil and help the heroes protect the worlds from the forces of Darkness. Of course, Luna is also shown to strike fear into her friends when she uses her Shadow Hands with full force,note even if they know she's on their side.
Film — Animated
- The Little Mermaid (1989): In the scene when Ariel is sealing a deal with Ursula, the sea witch uses her magic to summon two creepy hands from inside the cauldron and bids Ariel to sing. As the girl sings, the creepy arms approach her, one holds her back while the other enters her throat to steal her voice for Ursula.
- The Princess and the Frog has Dr. Facilier's "friends on the other side" grab his shadow with a shadow hand of their own after his talisman breaks.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: As Snow White runs terrified through the forest, she imagines tree branches snagging on her skirt as claws clutching at her.
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: As Miles Morales desperately swings through New York in the end of the film, he reminisces over his past experiences; during the montage, the Spot's hands begin to come out of portals on buildings, symbolizing his threat to Miles.
Literature
- Fate/Zero: When the Grail corrupts Irisviel, several small hands emerge from the pool she is standing in, tugging at her and pulling her in deeper.
- Re:Zero:
- Betelgeuse has this as a superpower. His "Unseen Hands" can also turn invisible, but are generally represented as black and demonic.
- The Witch of Envy's grasp over Subaru's lifeforce is represented as a nightmare hand caressing his literal heart.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: In "The Magician's Apprentice", the Doctor visits a planet where a young boy is trapped in a field of handmines — weapons that resemble hands and drag people down into the Earth. To make things worse for the boy, he's very nearly abandoned there because the Doctor discovers that he's a young Davros and that the planet is a war-torn Skaro. The Doctor choosing to rescue him results in the Daleks eventually being wired with the concept of mercy.
- The Librarians (2014): "The Librarians and the Heart of Darkness" has the team looking through a "haunted house" (actually a magical house known as The House of Refuge that's been coopted by a Historical Domain Psycho Killer) looking for survivors of a killer. Ezekiel, perhaps the most Genre Savvy when it comes to haunted houses, finds a partly open closet and mutters repeatedly to himself, "Movie guy is wrong." as he goes to investigate the closet. He opens the door and finds it empty. But then as he turns his back, a large number of hands start reaching out of the closet for him...
Tabletop Games
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Mystery Hand
card is a detached hand plus arm of the DARK attribute and "Fiend" monster type.
Video Games
- Fatal Frame III: Yashuu Kuze's ghost form has a mass of arms coming out of her back. Her move consists in commanding the arms to extend and attack the player. At some points during the battle, handprints appear on the Camera Lens in order to block the player from getting a shot of her.
- The first big scare in Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon consists of hands coming out of the mirrors in the subway restroom that bend and reach towards you even at a distance.
- God of War II: After being betrayed by Zeus and impaled by the Blade of Olympus, Kratos's body is being dragged to the Underworld by several sets of monstrous and decayed arms ("Arms of Hades"). In this section, the player has to attack the hands and escape back to the surface.
- Hades: Tartarus' red waters are filled with spectral hands reaching out, although they pose no mechanical threat.
- Honkai: Star Rail: In Jingliu's trailer, there's a shot of her surrounded by shadowy hands, which symbolizes her struggling with her "mara" affliction that compromised her sanity. They also appear in her Idle Animation.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Franchise-wide enemies include Wallmasters and Floormasters, creepy hands who suddenly drop from the ceiling or appear from the walls and floor to grab Link, taking him back to earlier in the dungeon or draining his health.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Dead Hand is a creepy zombielike being, and true to its name, it has a bunch of creepy hands popping out of the ground that hold onto Link, keeping him from moving as Dead Hand itself closes in on him.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: The "Gloom Spawn" enemy is a sentient pool of Nightmare Hands that are hidden across the map.
- The Janitor from Little Nightmares has Creepy Long Arms that he can extend infinitely at will. His arms end up snaking around the map hunting for you until you cut them off.
- Mr. Hopp's Playhouse:
- Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 1: In the climax, a giant Mr. Hopp extends a hand towards Ruby, and she can only run from him. In front of her, there are black hands coming out of the ground and she must shoot them (either with a gun or a slingshot, depending on which version of the game you play).
- Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 2: Later on in the game and especially prominent in the Underworld, one of the hazards is a black hand that drops down from the ceiling and attempts to grab Esther.
- OMORI: Hands, often in groups, are a recurring motif throughout the game, to the point that bo en's "My Time" (used for the bad ending) references "hands of time". This motif likely relates to Sunny having angrily shoved Mari down a flight of stairs, causing her death.
- Red Hands are NPCs initially found in White Space, where they will attack Omori and teleport him back to the center upon contact. While they initially attack alone, a group of them drags Basil into Red Space when Omori encounters him deep in Black Space. It's soon shown that Omori has a "Throne of Hands" in Red Space, constructed of and surrounded by giant hands. During the final battle between Omori and Sunny, the former uses a "Red Hands" attack in which a swarm of them attacks from around the screen, as well as a separate "Red Hand Attack" in which several of the hands from the Throne of Hands pile down on Sunny.
- Something in the Dark, the first Phobia boss, appears as a Slasher Smile and an assortment of lengthy arms emerging from the darkness. Prior to the battle, the player walks down an abnormally long staircase, where the arms extend out from the darkness in a homage to Yume Nikki's Staircase of Hands.
- In the Omori Route, not only is Omori's Red Hands attack unlocked upon returning to White Space, returning to the Lost Library allows you to refight all three Phobia bosses, earning you special attacks themed after each. Vertigo, unlocked by beating Something in the Dark, consists of dark hands reaching out from the sides of the screen akin to Red Hands, while Something in the Walls and Something in the Water's respective attacks substitute them for spider legs and plant-like tentacles.
- Pagui:
- The first game's last boss, the Demon King, can summon gigantic shadowy hands to snatch and grab at targets. These hands are invincible and can't be harmed, the only solution is to avoid them while taking potshots at the Demon King.
- The second game has a stage in the corridors of a haunted mansion, floating in an eldritch void, where gigantic deformed hands will periodically smash through the windows.
- Paper Mario:
- Super Paper Mario: Part of the horror of navigating the River Twygz in the Underwhere is fending off the Underhands, ominous grasping white arms that live on the riverbed and are said to drag souls deeper into oblivion. To make matters worse, they're totally invincible. Even using Barry, the one thing they can't outright No-Sell, will just make them regenerate unharmed.
- Paper Mario: The Origami King: At one point, there's a giant cutout of a black hand called the Handaconda that chases Mario and Olivia. It captures Olivia, triggering a boss battle.
- Resident Evil
- Resident Evil: Wandering a hallway in the Spenser Mansion, there is a scene were zombie arms come breaking through the windows grabbing at the player character, be it Jill or Chris.
- Resident Evil 2: The player character, Leon or Claire, will be attacked by zombie arms coming through the gaps in boarded-up windows at the police station.
- Sengoku Basara: Oichi channels these through her magic.
- One of the attacks General Tsao uses in his boss battle in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is when he uses his black magic to summon a trail of hands reaching to grab Sly. The only way to avoid the attack is to climb up one of the bamboo-shoots in the area.
- Splatterhouse:
- Splatterhouse 1: In the second section of stage IV, after the library, the player has to jump over broken floorboards and avoid falling into small pits where severed hands are. The hands can jump out of the pit and grab the player.
- Splatterhouse 2:
- In a section of stage V, the player navigates a library corridor, and several severed hands crawl on the floor and leap to grab the player.
- In stage VI, Rick uses the mask's arcane powers to open up a portal to the void. After he does that, Jennifer's (his girlfriend) soul hovers out of the hole, bathed in pale blue light, and begs him to save her. Suddenly, many long decayed arms spring out of the hole and drag her soul back into the void with them.
- Also in stage VI, after the boss comes out of the hole to the void, small red hands leap out of the hole and attack the player.
- Splatterhouse 1: In the second section of stage IV, after the library, the player has to jump over broken floorboards and avoid falling into small pits where severed hands
- Yume Nikki: The Staircase of Hands consists of nothing more than a staircase surrounded by lengthy, waving arms, with hands grasping towards nothing. While the player cannot be harmed, the atmosphere produced is nonetheless unsettling.
Web Animation
- Dorkly Originals: In "Boos Meet a Real Ghost", the flames burst out of the ground and turn into a hand, grabbing Kevin (the eponymous real ghost), dragging him to hell.
Webcomics
- Castle Swimmer: The Octalia dark magic can be shaped into black hands to extend their grasp.
Western Animation
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "Shirley the Medium", a box is found that contains a pair of nightmare hands that try to pull people inside itself.
- The Real Ghostbusters: In "Jailbusters", the Ghostbusters get thrown into the "Arm Pit", which is a pit full of disembodied arms that try to grab them and drag them to their deaths.
- Static Shock: Ebony can use his powers to create arms that lunge out from the shadows to drag his enemies into his portals.
- Steven Universe: The Cluster (and the gem experiments more broadly) tends to manifest as a writhing mass that takes the shape of a gigantic arm.
- Teen Titans (2003):
- Raven has the ability to conjure these in tandem with her intangibility powers to drag enemies away.
- Terra creates some of these out of mud to try to drown Raven in a pool.
