Grendel. The true nature of the creature was always ambiguous in the original poem, but you were pretty safe to think he was some hulking primordial beast; either scaled or furred or both but still whole and secure in his power and cruelty. Yet in this film, the Mark of Cain (not to mention being descended from both demon and mankind) is a clear punishment against the natural order; as he is twisted into an abomination abandoned by God. A horrific mutated humanoid with uneven limbs and wax-melted features, his skin is torn, scarred, burned so badly to expose muscle and sinew, in fact, his body is so severely deformed, he appears to be in a state of constant agony. One side of his head also has a giant exposed eardrum which is so sensitive (from red-inflamed infection) that partying noises occurring miles away cause him abject misery. And it is this factor that drives him into his murderous rages.
Our first glimpse of Grendel is that damn swollen growth that passes for his ear pulsating with the pain of the vibrations he's picking up. The agony is so great that Grendel rakes his talons through the flesh of his scalp; slicing deep, self-inflicted cuts into his nigh-invincible hide in an effort to distract himself; all while burbling and moaning in horrific, pitying spurts.
The opening sequence in which Grendel massacres all of Hrothgar's men and several of the women. Of particular note is a woman who screams in fear of him. How does Grendel react? He crushes her skull between his palms, lifts her body up into the air and slams it onto the ground; breaking every other bone she had. Sure, the only reason he's doing it is because he's in pain, but, Jesus. Grendel's treatment of the other Danes is also pretty gruelling. In one instant, he is tomahawked in the butt-cheek, only for him to shake angrily as demonic blue flames dance in his eyes. He proceeds to snap the attacker's neck, then rip him in half at the waist, squeeze the blood from his upper body to glug it down like some sort of enraged toddler, then hurls his twisted corpse away like an empty juice carton.
Unferth having to hide from the rampage by submerging himself in a deep cess-pool nearly overflowing with the night's revelries worth of piss.
While a Crowning Moment of Awesome, Beowulf going Blood-Splattered Warrior (enough to make Kratos or Guts jealous) by burrowing through a sea serpent's pallet and through its eye to be drenched in gallons of blood can be disturbing to watch. And before that, Beowulf gutted another leviathan like a Cornish game hen, spilling its entrails into the sea in a veritable blood-fall of viscera.
Wealthlow's lay on her harp drives Grendel to new heights of frenzy. Though sounding divine and soft to Beowulf, in Grendel's cavern lair her melody reverberates louder and crueller than all the scap's bawdy songs combined. (A great reference to the original poem, where Grendel despises all things that bring humanity joy; so a queen's fair music is utter hell). We're treated to the monster shrieking into frame like the spawn of the damned once he can no longer tolerate this new affront to his senses.
Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary's original 98' script explains it well enough:
Never before has a song of happiness seemed to warp into a TORTUROUS REQUIEM. An aria of joy and light, underscored by darkness and self doubt... To hear it all there is Grendel, who we now see in his full form and shape... a deformed man of gargantuan size. His skin like stretched leather over ancient muscles, interwoven into his flesh are strands of golden tattoo, as if someone had valiantly tried to beautify this ogre. His hands clutched tightly over the sides of his oblong skullcap. His golden eyes pinched tightly shut, tears of blood drip from them. This is a monster born of pain. Once a man, now twisted into a caricature of insanity and depravity. He writhes in pain at the song inside his head. His naked body scarring the sodden floor of the cave around him. The dank walls, lichen covered and marred with roots, seem to close in on Grendel as if the monster were inside an immense trash compactor. A claustrophobic nightmare has manifested itself into Grendel's twisted reality. Indeed, the cave is growing smaller. Or is it that Grendel is growing bigger?! The behemoth has grown so large he can barely fit into the room. The tiny bones of many Thanes litter the sarcophagus chamber, some bleached with age, others still ripe with their fruity flesh. Their armour, now dwarfed by the monster's size, seem like small cans of ripped open tomato paste. The monster can no longer take the haunting song of happiness inside his twisted brain. He scrambles for the exit to this tomb of song. There is only one thing that can stop the noise inside his head. Murder. Murder of all things living and good. Murder of all things beautiful and proud.
Grendel biting off Hondshew's head and then crunching and grinding said skull between his deformed gnashers with insane relish and disturbing delight.
Beowulf punching Grendel in his mutated eardrum until the thing pops like a damned giant zit, releasing a fount of puss and other unmentionable looking liquid! It even causes the monster to shrivel in stature from his formidable 4m height to the size of a bawling, screeching, desperately fleeing man.
The sheer variety of hideous wailing and caterwauling Crispin Glover was capable of dredging from his tortured vocal chords when he voice-acted Grendel.
The loss of Grendel's arm. Instead of just ripping it off, Beowulf pulls it taut with a chain, until the socket is popped out, then proceeds to repeatedly slam one of Herot's great timber doors onto the upper limb until it snaps off, all while Grendel desperately tries to tell the Geats that he's not a demon and cries in fear as Beowulf screams how he's about to rend him apart.
Beowulf:*slam!* Your blood-letting *slam!* days are finished, *slam!* demon! *slam!*
Grendel: Ic nō dæmonhel! note "I am not a hell demon!"
Both of Beowulf's nightmares have this, accompanied with a Nightmare Face and Suddenly Shouting. The first has Grendel's mother under the guise of Wealthow appearing to Beowulf as he sleeps, (her form and hair floating as if submerged in water above him and with a dual overlaid voice) But the scariest part (after which Beowulf sits bolt upright as he wakes up) is when Wealthow says, "Enter me and give me a SON!", because as she screams her last word, her face elongates and becomes fanged and monstrous, as she lunges straight at the camera. *shudder*
Something similar happens in Beowulf's second nightmare only with his own son with Grendel's mother instead, when he says "I'm something you left behind... FATHER!" You can briefly see his human face as he says the first part, only to transform into the dragon's face upon the last word, again coming right at the audience. Sleep tight.
When Beowulf awakes in Herot after said sleep paralysis to find the She-Demon has come in the night and slaughtered everyone sleeping in the hall. Without anyone awakening as she committed her murders and she has even suspended their carcasses from the rafters in a macabre display of gloating revenge.
Although Beowulf reaches apotheosis as a realised human being by fixing his mistakes, the original script and indeed the final film's dialogue as he lays dying has this terrifying Fridge Horror moment that turns the story upside down even further! If it is true...
King Beowulf: Do you... hear her?
Lord Wiglaf: I hear nothing.
Beowulf: Grendel's mother - my son's mother - my... my — (He trails off, leaving the word "mother" unspoken)
This would explain why the demoness wanted Beowulf's seed so badly as only a pure child of her line could beget a powerful, unblemished and whole demon on her. Compared to Hrothgar's bastard. Hopefully this means Ecgtheow was of some other humanoid Fey or good-hearted Nephilim; otherwise why is Beowulf not in turn like Grendel on the outside?! Of course, this neglects to mention that Beowulf's mother was the only daughter of Hrethel, king of the Geats in the original epic poem!
The sinisterly ambiguous ending of the movie. It is never shown whether Wiglaf yields to Grendel’s mother’s seduction and continues the line of monster-kind or not.
