Nightmare Fuel / Hazbin Hotel

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Plenty of shows over the years have earned the dubious honor of being set in Hell, the literal state of punishment of the wicked, but if there's just one of them that has a very high chance of being brewed with pure unfiltered horrors beyond all comprehension, it's gotta be a animated series that resolves around a demon princess running a hotel providing rehabilitation for dearly departed sinners.

Safe to say, this is Hazbin Hotel we're talking about. And as these following examples will show, there's a reason why Vivenne put a NOT FOR KIDS disclaimer on the titles of all of the series's online videos.

Warning: Spoilers Off applies to this page. Proceed at your own risk.

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General

• The trailer has a number of scenes with imagery that firmly establishes that the characters are demons and the setting definitely takes place in Hell. While many of these scenes certainly qualify as scary, some of the really creepy ones are those with Alastor in them. Among these is one particular noteworthy Freeze-Frame Bonus, as pictured, which stands out as being the definition of absolutely pure nightmare fuel.
• Alastor, pictured here, was a serial killer in life and never loses that wide, toothy grin on his face.
• The reason Alastor smiles all the time; he sees smiling as a show of power and dominance, and sees anyone who lets other emotions show as weak, no matter how objectively strong they might be. It just drives home how much of a sadistic monster he really is, and calls into question his motives for backing the Happy Hotel all the more.
• The fact that demons are not only astoundingly resilient, but can only ever be killed by an Exorcist (the creepy Angels) or a weapon that said angels left behind after the exterminations must mean that all the demons we see getting brutalized, like the guy who stole Angel's drugs and suddenly got crushed by a random boulder, and the Egg Boi who had a bomb shoved into him and thrown into his boss's face, are still alive despite how much damage has been done to them. Imagine how far torture must be able to go in Hell, if the person being tortured can't die from the experience...
  • Hell is essentially the after-life; where sinners go after they die. If people can be killed in Hell, what happens to them after?
    • Word of God confirms that everyone in Hell is astoundingly resilient and can take a beating, surviving even the most painful injuries but they're effectively Deader than Dead if they're killed by Heaven-forged weaponry such as the spears of Exorcists. So yeah, there's that.
    • Word of God also says that destroyed souls turn into essence that is generally absorbed by the ground. Whether this is required to keep Hell's very existence from literally crumbling to nothingness or if every soul decomposed and absorbed just makes Hell more of itself is currently unknown.
• It's established that sinners can buy the souls of other sinners for whatever reason, this being the source of the Overlord's power. Given that Hell is a debauched free-for-all, they can do anything they want to the souls under their care, whether it's to make them perform menial jobs for them, or just to be the unwilling victim of dismemberment whenever their owner is having a bad day. It's basically slavery, but the slavers are allowed to do whatever they want to their slaves and it lasts for eternity.

Season 1

Overture

• Adam himself. His macho assholery makes him Laughably Evil, sure, but this is the leader of Heaven's armies. One of the highest angels is as crude and callous as a demon (if not more so, since Helluva Boss reveals demons are not Always Chaotic Evil), which spells bad news for everybody. And while he seems like a meathead during the meeting, the ending of the first episode implies he's much more competent than he looks.
• While Adam is a sadist, his second-in-command, Lute, is even worse. She forgoes any of the comical Faux Affably Evil banter Adam does and oozes deathly earnest contempt for Charlie and all hell beings in everything she says. One particularly unnerving scene, accompanied by the scene suddenly taking an ominous dark red glow, has her sneer at Charlie that the only reason she's even there is because her father made a contract against exterminating hell-born, essentially telling her she'd have gladly murdered Charlie long ago if she could.
• During "Hell Is Forever", Adam reveals that the angels like seeing Sinners get slaughtered. If the viewer still had any feelings that the Exorcists' mission is well-intentioned, this should dispel that.
• In a Freeze-Frame Bonus at the end of “Hell Is Forever”, you can see Adam’s hologram physically grabbing Charlie, despite it being established earlier that the hologram was intangible when Charlie tried to shake his hand. Charlie looks at her arm where Adam grabbed her, then back at Adam in horror with the realization that Adam could have killed her whenever he wanted, he just pretended he couldn’t to Troll Charlie.
• While it's played for laughs, Niffty freezing up and staring off into space when Vaggie tries to film her is also kind of creepy, especially since it's hard to tell if she just has vanilla stage fright or is straight-up dissociating.
• At one point, Vaggie tries to film Alastor, only for the camera to glitch out and die. Even Vaggie herself is unnerved by this.
  Alastor: I wouldn't try that, my dear! (sporting a Nightmare Face) This face was made for radiooo...
• The episode's final scene where 666 News announces that the extermination has been moved to 6 months rather than 1 year. After Katie delivers the news, it immediately cuts to a panicky shaky-cam POV of a cameraman zooming in on the Extermination countdown tower, all while Pentagram City can be heard screaming in terror in the background.
  • Katie's reaction to the news is just creepy as hell. She comes uncomfortably close to the camera while keeping a smile clearly hiding her fear, and then twists her neck while violently twitching her eye.

Radio Killed the Video Star

• While Vox's over-the-top hatred of Alastor can make him come across as goofy, it doesn't change the fact that he controls all of the entertainment broadcasted throughout Hell. Combine that with the fact that Vox can use both his broadcasts and his own eye to entrance his viewers, and it can give off some creepy implications if you think about it long enough...
  Advertisements: VoxTech! Trust us with your money! [...] Trust us with your entertainment! VoxTech! Trust us! Trust us! Trust us...!
• After managing to talk Valentino down from pursuing Angel at the Hotel, Vox offers to send up his worst-performing employee because Valentino still wants to hurt somebody.
  • The simple fact that the idea of Angel staying at anywhere other than his studio enraged Valentino so much he was planning to go on a killing spree just to vent about it is a good indicator of just how messed up Angel's relationship with him is.
  • Vox provides a small but pretty effective jumpscare when, in an attempt to dissuade Valentino, he grabs him by the collar and calls him out in a heavily distorted voice. He's especially intimidating in the German and French dubs, where he sounds like he's about to rip Val to shreds.
• In the alcove full of tv screens in Valentino's room, there's a framed photo of him together with Vox. Valentino is shown having two feathery antennae in full black and white detail. What exactly happened to his left antenna that it now looks smaller and almost plucked apart?
• The end of "Stayed Gone", Alastor begins to reveal his monstrous form, his antlers become huge, and his arms and neck creepily extending in a jagged formation with his sclera turning pitch black. It looks utterly unnatural.
  • Of note: We've seen that look once before (in the comic) - right before Alastor devoured someone that actually managed to piss him off. Incredibly effective threat display on his part. In a way, it's Alastor's vengeance for what Vox did to him in said comic: Managing to ruffle his feathers.
  • His grand finale involves effortlessly crashing Vox's signal and blacking out all of Pentagram City, except for his radio broadcast equipment. All to deliver the simple message that his power is far more real than the Vees, and that they should wish that he'd stayed gone.
  • Alastor's final lines of the song are a twist on Vox's initial boast at the beginning. Except Vox didn't broadcast that part, so Alastor was seemingly watching him the whole time.
• Valentino texts Angel telling him about a "donkey show" he apparently has to be in. A donkey show is exactly what it sounds like in context. Ew.
• Angel Dust receiving dozens of messages from Valentino. Every message alternate between Valentino apologizing for his behavior in a friendly tone, and then him screaming threats of violence. Then red mist covers Angel speaking in Valentino's voice. This is also the first of many examples of Val leaning into the Realism-Induced Horror of abusive relationships — Val trying to lure Angel back into his clutches by playing up a friendly façade and making excuses for his previous toxic behavior is a very real manipulation tactic that actual abusers do indeed use.
  Valentino: Angel baby, come home! It's not the same without you here, I miss you! Come back—
  Valentino: ANGEL, YOU BITCH! IF YOU DON'T COME HOME, YOU'LL BE FUCKING GREASY TRUCKERS FOR THE NEXT YEAR—
  Valentino: Hey, amorcito, I didn't mean to yell, but you know how crazy you make me—
  Valentino: YOU FUCKING SLUT!
  Valentino: Hey, Angie! About earlier—
  Valentino: —KILL YOUR WHOLE FUCKIN' FAMILY!
  Valentino: Work's really stressful!
  Valentino: —LITTLE COCKSUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!
  • And then there's the last message Angel listens to, where Val's tone suddenly becomes dead serious.
  Valentino: You actually think you can change? Addict trash like you doesn't change. I'll see you soon, baby.
• Angel Dust and Vaggie were ready to straight up kill Sir Pentious for being a spy for Vox, with their eyes glowing with utter hatred. It's a good thing Charlie was able to talk (or sing) them out of it.
• In the closing scene, we see Alastor lurking in the shadows...specifically, we see his glowing red eyes and luminous Slasher Smile in the pitch black of the hallway. He turns himself into smoke to mock Vox over the video watch, then once again retreats into the darkness to give a sinister cackle — which is only made more unnerving by the movement of his disembodied mouth. He looks like a deeply disturbing Cheshire Cat.

Scrambled Eggs

• Zestial, though Affably Evil, is clearly an extremely powerful Overlord to the point that even Alastor seems to defer to him. Additionally, everyone in Hell is utterly horrified by his and Alastor's presence, to the point that one of them lights himself on fire upon seeing them talking casually with each other.
• Alastor is implied to be plotting something with the news that Carmilla killed the Exorcist and terrifies Frank into silence, or tries to anyway.
• While what happened has yet to be seen onscreen, Carmilla briefly details what happened when she encountered the Exorcist - The latter went on the attack. Against her daughters. And she reacted like any Mama Bear would. And when recounting what happened, Carmilla's eye go wide and glow red with terror; in that instant, she thought she was going to lose her own children to a monster hellbent on killing all Sinners.
• Rosie's first appearance is unsettling as hell. She has zero lines in this episode so all you get are creepy shots of a cannibal overlord with Scary Teeth and Black Eyes of Evil ominously staring at others.

Masquerade

• The Content Warning that opens this episode is the simplest yet also most unsettling one in any VivziePop work. Unlike the comedic and stylish content warnings of Helluva Boss episodes, the Hazbin pilot, or even the darker content warning of the "ADDICT" which at least had stylish fiery text and ambience, this episode opens with a pure black screen and complete silence, setting the tone for the terror that's about to unfold.
• We finally get to see Valentino interact with Angel Dust with all the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that has been implied. Angel Dust is utterly terrified at even the prospect of missing a shoot, and when Charlie accidentally causes a fire, Valentino takes Angel Dust into his dressing room where he repeatedly assaults Angel, accusing him of bringing Charlie into his studio, and then reminding Angel that due to the contract he signed, Angel's soul belongs to him and there's nothing he can do about it. While there's a supernatural element here, the scene is so scary because it's a disturbingly realistic portrayal of sexual abuse:
  Valentino: You know she can't do anything. (manifests a chain around Angel's neck and pulls his soul contract out of thin air) I *own* you. Or have you forgotten that?
  Angel Dust: (sniffles and whimpers) No...
  Valentino: (holding the chain tightly) When I say "come", you say?
  Angel Dust: Yes, Valentino.
  Valentino: (leans closer to Angel so that their faces are touching) When I say "You are fucking twenty guys before lunch," you say?
  Angel Dust: Yes, Valentino.
  Valentino: When I say "You better get that fucking CUNT out of my STUDIO..." you say?
  Angel Dust: Uh, I...
  Valentino: (grips Angel's face and leans in closer) YOU SAY?
  Angel Dust: Look, V-Val, she just gets involved in everything. I-I'll tell her to leave. Just don't hurt her.
  Valentino: (lifts Angel up by the collar of his robe) I have killed bitches for less than this attitude you're giving me. You're lucky you make me money!! Now, you're going to go get rid of her... (throws Angel to the floor) ...and then you are filming all night! Get me?
  Angel Dust: Yes, Val...
  Valentino: (smiles evilly) Good.
  • It is worth noting that Valentino is the one who should be freaking out in this scene, not Angel Dust, because actually managing to piss off Lucifer's daughter is like a mouse finally poking a lazy cat into action. But Charlie's demeanor is so unthreatening that even when she is clearly going to break Valentino like a twig for his behavior, Valentino isn't threatened and Angel actually stops Charlie from attacking him, seeing her as the one in danger. This is noted to be a favourite tactic of real-life abusers, in where they psychologically bind their victims so badly that they themselves will refuse help from people who would've saved them with little effort.
  • Adding to the sheer terror and realism to the scene is that for the most part, there is no music. All you hear are the devastating sounds of someone getting beat up in a realistic manner.
  • While a Moment of Awesome for the audience, an enraged Charlie nearly going One-Winged Angel after seeing what Valentino did to Angel. The Voice of the Legion that accompanies her is chilling. Even worse, it's implied that all Charlie saw and heard of Valentino's abusive behavior were several injury sounds and vague talking, yet that was enough to provoke visceral anger from her. One can only imagine what she would have done if she actually heard what Valentino said to Angel in that dressing room.
  • Even before the actual abuse becomes apparent, during the scene where Charlie accidentally ruins the shoot everything goes cartoonishly wrong, the set bursting into flame, Charlie tries to put it out while babbling about rewriting the script to be wholesome...then we cut to Angel Dust. He's close to a panic attack and staring in horror at Valentino, who's completely in shadow except for his eyes narrowed in rage. Suddenly, we realise that this is not just a no-stakes hijink.
• "Poison" takes the Rape as Drama and Fan Disservice shown in "ADDICT" and ramps it way, way up with shots of Angel being tied up in bondage gear and forced to film brutal rape and gangbang scenes with several huge, menacing and predatory-looking actors at once, while being abused by Valentino in-between. Toward the end, when Valentino barges in on Angel's dancing sequence, Angel panics and tries to crawl away before Val grabs him and drags him offscreen, the implications being very clear...
  Angel: My story's gonna end with me dead from your poison…
  • In particular, the long "Oh-ohhhhhhh!" combined with the accompanying visual make it seem like Angel is screaming in pain.
• Angel's meltdown when Husk rejects him one too many times is both this and a Tear Jerker, reminding us that Valentino's abuse has all but fully convinced Angel that his only worth is sex. As well as after Husk called him fake right before the meltdown, his eyes glow magenta and he gets up in Husk’s face angrily shouting “CALL ME FAKE ONE MORE TIME, MOTHERFUCKA! I dare ya!” And to top it all off, we finally see confirmation that those little freckle-like dots under his eyes are actually more eyes, and they have catlike pupils in them.

Dad Beat Dad

• The episode opens with Charlie having a complete meltdown over how to make the hotel a success, apparently having been going through the motions the entire night. Her freakout gets so bad that the ground actually shakes before she bursts out in maniacal laughter.
• Mimzy's recounting of Alastor's arrival in Hell reveals that he decimated the ranks of the Overlords around at the time, and for a while just broadcast their screams to the Pride Ring before he eventually revealed he was the one behind it. Angel and Sir Pentious are notably freaked out.
• Husk reveals that Alastor's soul is bound via contract to someone else, implicitly stronger than him. This leads to two moments:
  • First, just who did Alastor cut a deal with that could be so powerful as to either make him as strong as he is now, or make him even stronger than he was when he first showed up?
  • Second, Alastor's reaction to Husk bringing that up, even just between them, is to immediately invoke his ownership of Husk's soul and threaten to tear it apart if he speaks a word of it to anyone, complete with him briefly going One-Winged Angel. Husk is left cowering at the normally unflappable Alastor showing genuine rage. It shows that, despite his charismatic demeanor, Alastor can be just as controlling and abusive as Valentino, and the same may hold true for all Overlords.
    Husk: Big talk for someone who's also on a leash.
    Alastor: (sports a Nightmare Face while the room darkens) Ha ha... What did you say?
    Husk: (A chain manifests around his neck as he's pulled to the ground, genuinely terrified) Uh, nothing! I uh...
    Alastor: If you ever say that again, I will tear your soul apart, and broadcast your screams for every other disrespectful WRETCH who dares to question me.
• The threat from Alastor is so terrifying that it leaves Husk shivering in fear even after Alastor calms down and leaves. Poor kitty.
• Alastor growing to giant size and revealing dark tentacles as he tears the loan sharks after Mimzy apart.
  Alastor: I WILL DEVOUR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!
• The scene of the holy figures surrounding Lucifer, and then pointing their weapons to Charlie, shows that on some level Lucifer is terrified that Heaven will try and hurt Charlie, or worse, for trying to stand up to them.
  • The look of pure terror on his face right before he pulls her away implies that this wasn't standard Disney Acid Sequence logic — Lucifer was having an actual PTSD flashback.

Welcome to Heaven

• Vaggie was an Angel and part of the Exorcist army, until Lute slashed her eye out and graphically stomped on it before ripping her wings off, leaving the poor girl for dead in Hell. Why? Because she showed mercy to a demon child and let him run away instead of gutting him with her spear.
  Lute: Sinful filth like you has no place in Heaven.
  • Actually, let's back that up. Two words: demon child. It's not the first time we've seen young sinner demons, but then you take this into account: Word of God states that sinner demons can't reproduce, and given the implication that Hellborn demons are exempt from the Extermination, that means Heaven's ruling on who can get in can be so fucked up that even kids can be sent to Hell.
    • Carmilla has daughters. If they are her biological children from when they were alive, what happened to them for them to all end up in Hell together?
• Contrary to Adam's claims, most of Heaven doesn't know about the exterminations, and are shocked when this is revealed in court. Gives a whole new meaning to "extermination is entertainment"...
• The fact that the requirements to get into Heaven are unknown even to angels, and that Angel Dust's personal growth into a better person isn't enough to bring him to the Pearly Gates. Charlie's aims for her project has just gotten a lot more complicated, and that's not getting into the healthy dose of existential horror involved.
  • Said existential horror: for millennia, angels, demons, and humans alike have been working on the assumption that Heaven is good and Hell is bad. Under this assumption, all three sides have done horrible things. Hell (especially the Pride and Greed Rings) are filled with corruption and chaos because its residents believe they should just indulge in vices, Heaven('s leadership) has been ordering Exterminations while living in fear that trying to figure things out will lead to them falling like Lucifer did (and so, all they can do is try and enforce the system as-is), and humans have used their religions' moral values as justification to commit atrocities. As it turns out, this was all completely pointless because nobody actually knows the rules of the game.
  • It also brings up the question of exactly who (or what) if anything is making the afterlife judgments in the first place. Is it even making judgments based upon the individual? Is it just random?
• Sera tries to rationalize why she approved of the exterminations to Emily... but she fails to look particularly holy while doing so, as she's displaying a Psychotic Smirk as the flames of the screen are reflected in her eyes. No matter how well-intentioned or reluctant she was, the fact remains that she willingly ordered the mass genocide of human souls, and it's hard to fault Emily for reacting the way she does.
  Emily: To think that I admired you...
• After Sera rules in Adam’s favor, he sends Charlie and Vaggie back to Hell, gloating that he'll start the next Extermination at the Hotel, which even Sera thinks is going too far.
• It's a small moment, but Angel Dust mentions that lately Valentino has been into waterboarding. YIKES.

Hello Rosie

• Alastor is able to get Charlie to agree to a Deal with the Devil, though not for her soul, thankfully. Alastor gets a favor of his choosing from her at a later date in exchange for letting her know that Carmilla killed an angel, and while Charlie adds the stipulation that she won't harm anyone with said favor, it's still clear that he's not planning anything good. As Alastor makes clear during her song to the cannibals, she has potential and he sees opportunity in that.
  • The moment Charlie accepts his deal, Alastor shows a Nightmare Face where his entire grinning mouth is sewed together with some kind of glowing string. It hints that the real reason he never stops smiling is because he can't.

The Show Must Go On

• When Niffty is given an angelic dagger and told to stab any angel she can, she immediately tries to go after Angel Dust, and seems disappointed when stopped.
• Adam is as funny as ever, but he shows why he's the leader of the Exorcists when he manages to severely wound Alastor and casually kill Sir Pentious.
• Even Adam tells Lute to chill when he sees her sheer bloodlust regarding Vaggie.
  Lute: Rip Vaggie's cunt-mouth out her ass!
  • Lute's sheer fanatical determination to "purge the sinners". When Vaggie manages to get the upper hand on her thanks to collapsing rubble trapping her arm underneath, giving her a Cruel Mercy so she has to deal with the fact the "Failure" spared her life, Lute's response is to unhesitatingly pull at her trapped limb the second Vaggie's back is turned. She yanks on it with such ferocity that the wounded limb rips clean off, spewing golden ichor everywhere, and she instantly resumes her now-feral attack on Vaggie before she can help Charlie against Adam, managing to overwhelm her despite the handicap from sheer batshit insanity.
• An injured Alastor's ranting during the otherwise happy and uplifting end song as he crawls into his wrecked radio station -the Overlord is visibly shaken after his brush with death. Though he still keeps a smile, the rest of his body and wild eyes makes it clear that we aren't seeing the poised gentleman anymore, but a man in the throes of a honest-to-God breakdown, growing even more rattled and desperate as he comes to the realization that he’s grown to care for the Hotel residents as friends. Not wanting to make himself vulnerable by showing weakness, he instead doubles down on his dark nature and his efforts to get out of the deal he’s trapped in, concluding the segment declaring that once he finds a loophole, he’ll be the one in control, which hints at very bad things for the future:
  This place reeks of death
  There’s a chill in the air
  And I barely escaped being killed by a hair
  “Great Alastor, altruist, died for his friends”?
  Sorry to disappoint…
  That is not where this ends
  I’m hungry for freedom like never before
  The constraints of my deal surely have a back door
  Once I figure out how to unclip my wings
  Guess who will be pulling all the strings?
  • Alastor’s reappearance and joining in the happy, triumphant chorus as if nothing has happened becomes subtly off-putting after this glimpse behind the curtain; the viewers know that Alastor is aggressively not okay post-battle, and that he is having a sincere and frightening breakdown but when he’s singing along with Charlie he appears just as well put together as ever, emphasizing that the personality we normally see from Alastor is a Mask of Sanity.
  • Just as frightening in hindsight: the fact that he can potentially (and possibly is planning to) use his deal with Charlie to pull this off and become freed from the chains of his deal by forcing her to take his place.
  • Mixed with Tear Jerker. Some viewers have pointed out if you look closely at Alastor’s hand after he’s done pulling on his hair you’ll see he actually managed to pull some of it out. And judging from how he looks at both of his hands after the fact he may not have realized what he had done.
  • Mixed with Tear Jerker. Alastor's verse seems to indicate that he’s more concerned with how his legacy would be the fact that he “almost died for his friends” than the fact that he almost died. He is so obsessed with being strong and in control and how the public views him that he isn’t concerned about the fact he almost died, but how it would have made him look in the end.
  • Remember the implication Alastor is always smiling so that no one will know his true thoughts? Here, he's still smiling while completely alone and obviously having a mental breakdown, implying the actual reason is that it's physically impossible for him to stop.
• During the epilogue, Vox can be seen watching Niffty being interviewed for killing Adam with a dark grin on his face, suggesting that he's already brewing up dark designs for Hell's latest celebrity.
• Similarly, the Vees are implied to be planning to take advantage of the shift in power in Hell to further their own influence, implying that they'll be much more active in the plot come season two.
• The Reveal at the very end that Lilith made a deal with Heaven, or at least Adam. She doesn't seem at all pleased by Lute's next command - going down to Hell and stopping Charlie - but this changes a lot...

Pre-Release Material

Pilot

• While we only see a glimpse of them, we do get a look at the beings enacting the annual genocide in hell. They are silvery-skinned angels very appropriately called Exorcists with horns, notched halos and still holographic faces that sometimes glitch.
  • Said holographic faces wouldn't look out of place on your standard bloodthirsty killer, but nope, these are supposed to be angels and it's clear they enjoy what they do.
• We see the aftermath of one of these exterminations at the start of the pilot, with corpses being strewn across the ground, a demon yanking angel weapons out of a corpse before other demons start to chow down, and a clock tower counting down the days until the next yearly extermination...
  • The aforementioned corpse is that of a boutique owner, and as her body is devoured by the other demons, we see her business partner cross her name off of the store sign with a wicked smile on her face. Yikes.
• Before the disastrous interview, we're treated to the image of Katie Killjoy's neck breaking at a 90-degree angle as she sits back down to her spot on the news table- with the fractured bone visible. Sheez...
  • You even hear a barely audible scream effect when her neck suddenly snaps. It's as if the animators themselves realized how horrifying what they just drew was.
• The way Alastor looks at Charlie when she starts singing "Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow." His smile stays, but his eyes narrow in a predatory way, and his shadow moves without him, leering forward as Alastor cocks his head in interest.
  • Even worse, there's a poster behind him warning people about the dangers of his alias, "the Radio Demon" with "BEWARE!!!!!!" and "Do not fuck with him!" scrawled on it.
  • There's also the fact that the poster and his shadow show a much more monstrous form than his already frightening appearance, which seems to indicate that what we see is only some kind of glamor or disguise.
• Charlie is by no means the scariest demon in the gallery, but seeing her shift from her happy-go-lucky normal face to a red-eyed, horned monstrosity on a whim can get pretty creepy.
  • A freeze-frame on her face is especially disturbing. Those horns she sprouts don't just poke up. They tear out of the top of her forehead, and have tattered skin stretching around the base of them.
• Alastor shows himself to be a surprisingly polite and affable demon when he visits Charlie to offer her his help. The smile quickly turns into a horrifying grin when Vaggie tries to threaten him from hurting anybody.
  Alastor: Deear, if I wanted to hurt anyone here...    I would have done so already   .
  • Not only that, the video quite literally breaks when he smiles, seemingly under his influence alone.
  • It somehow manages to be MORE creepy in the Japanese dub.
• The various images of Alastor that are shown as Vaggie recounts to Angel Dust Alastor's past feats. Made worse by the deliberately jerky, limited animation making it look like articulated paper dolls.
• At the end of the pilot, Alastor defeats Sir Pentious by summoning an enormous tentacled monstrosity that ensnares his blimp. When the blimp explodes, Alastor has the mother of all Slasher Smiles, and this is only a mere glimpse of his powers. Who knows what he could be capable of next time?!

ADDICT

• The "ADDICT" music video is a thousand different kinds of ghastly, except the horror comes from the music video showing just how much damage sexual abuse can do to a person. On top of that, it reveals that Angel's Bad Boss Valentino uses his authority over Angel to systematically manipulate and force him into a very one-sided, abusive relationship.
  • For starters, we see him forcefully kissing Angel while in his limo. One scene later and Angel is having a complete breakdown in his room, violently throwing things before curling up into the fetal position on the floor and crying. Notice that the front of his tuxedo is open...
  • At the very end of the video, there's a brief flash in Angel's mirror showing Valentino bending Angel over from behind, holding his lower arms, and Angel is very obviously not enjoying what's happening. If you have a keen eye, you might notice what appears to be fuzzy handcuffs around Angel's wrist, as well as Valentino giving a thrust, and it will start to dawn on you.
  • With that in mind, the sinister, perverted look on Val's face as he watches Angel at the beginning of the video is especially disturbing.
  • In the limousine, just before Valentino forces Angel to kiss him, we see the two girls who were sitting with him during the latter's show making out and one of them looks somewhat uncomfortable with it - since Valentino is so abusive to Angel, one of his biggest earners, it's not a stretch to imagine he's just as bad, if not worse, with all his other employees as well.
  • What makes Valentino all the more terrifying is that people like him exist in real life, so he can cut a little close to home for victims of abuse similar to the one that Valentino puts Angel through.

Comics

Dirty Healings

• This is the first time we are formally introduced to Valentino, one of the overlords of Hell and Angel Dust's pimp. His first action is to sadistically force Angel Dust into prostituting himself to earn the money he was meant to earn during a porn shoot.
• More concerningly, Angel Dust, who earlier just easily decimated a crew of thugs with a barrage of firepower, appears to be physically shaken and even frightened by Valentino's presence. Prior to this encounter, Angel has always behaved with a smug and condescending demeanor. But in front of Valentino, he wouldn't dare say anything that might get him on his boss's bad side and complies without resistance. This comes to show how great a threat Valentino could be later in the series.

A Day in the After Life

• The entire comic pretty much goes out of its way to demonstrate just how terrifying Alastor is. As he takes his leisurely stroll throughout the city, almost every demon either cowers or outright flees in terror at the sight of him.
• A downplayed example, but at one point, Alastor happens to stop by an electronics store and cast a disinterested look at the televisions in the display window. Some of them happen to be showing Vox on the screen...when suddenly, in a burst of static, they switch to a larger version of Vox, who takes up all the screens combined as he flashes a Slasher Smile...and it's implied that he can see Alastor. Big Brother Is Watching, it seems...
  • Also worth noting? Alastor shrugs off the incident with some snark at the TVs, but as he walks away, the Radio Demon curses to himself under his breath while muttering trash talk about his rival Overlord. Given that we've seen Alastor unruffled by just about everything so far, what kind of power does Vox have that gets under his skin?
• The crowning moment, however, goes to the ending. When Alastor walks in on a butcher who's about to rape or kill one of his customers, the Radio Demon puts on the mother of all◊ Nightmare Faces, complete with soulless black pits for eyes and a giant smile showing all his teeth, as he proceeds to devour the guy. Granted, the bastard had it coming and then some, but that's still a horrendous way to go.
  Alastor: You know, I do really hate those who can't show a little more respect to those of fairer means. It's rather distasteful, LIKE BAD MEAT.

Season 1 Trailer

• During the awesome song where the denizens of Hell say they have had enough of Heaven's Exterminations, we see a shot of a female angel watching carnage unfold with a smile on her face and fire in her eyes. It's unclear if it's a Slasher Smile or a Broken Smile, but the effect is still eerie.
• Alastor grows tentacles and dismembers several demons attacking the hotel.
  Alastor: It's time I remind everyone why I'm here.

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