Ghosts, ghouls, monsters, and misfits are integral to the horror genre, so, when a monster universe came into play in 2015 and was backed by Blumhouse Productions, horror fans had something to be excited about. Crypt TV became a haven for horror-oriented web shorts set in a sort of Marvel Cinematic Universe for things that go bump in the night.
Using the resources of YouTube and Facebook Watch, they have made some amazing pieces of horror cinema. The content ranges from one-off monster shorts to full-length series such as The Birch which launched at the beginning of October 2019 on Facebook Watch. With so many monsters, some are bound to be creepier or more horrifying. Due to the length of some of these shorts, spoilers are coming.
Updated on May 17th, 2022 by Tanner Fox: The horror genre has long been considered stale. With iconic villains such as Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger long since put out to pasture, it can sometimes be tough to find anything new or particularly interesting in the world of horror filmmaking.
Fortunately, Blumhouse Productions' Crypt TV has a selection of super-creepy short films and series that'll have horror hounds jumping at their own shadows. From gruesome forest guardians to wicked wendigos, these are some of the creepiest creatures ever to appear in a Crypt TV production.
Fluffy (Troubled Youth)
Fluffy appears in the short Troubled Youth as the leading monster. Having attacked many of the students, the surviving teens try to live as best they can. The first kill of the short is memorable as a young man gets dragged away with his fingernails ripping off as he tries to hold himself in place.
The monster is then seen in a classroom with four students, three of which end up in a closet and attempt to lock the fourth one out. The fourth student props the door open, and it is discovered that she controls Fluffy, turning it on the students. Fluffy itself is a wolf-man creature with a scaly face who definitely isn’t something anyone would want to see roaming the halls.
Cakeman (Birthday Wish)
The short Birthday Wish follows a little girl on her sixth birthday who gets a mysterious present. When she opens it, nothing is inside, so she uses it as a storage box and takes it into her room. Soon after, the box begins to glow, and the girl’s toys and hands are covered in blood. She then gets pulled into the box by two knife-laced hands.
A whole hidden world is in the box as a bunch of children are walking around with no fingers and hiding from an offscreen entity. The little girl comes face to face with Cakeman who lights the girl’s fingers on fire and then starts chopping them off. The final scene is him coming out of the box with his razor teeth showing.
Mimic (Mimic)
Everyone knows the short story where a parent goes in to check on their child in the middle of the night and is asked to look under the bed for monsters only to find their child looking at them from under the bed, terrified. In the short, a boy calls out to his father at night.
When the dad comes in to check, the son is fast asleep, and a noise is heard from the parent’s room. As the dad enters, he sees this tiny creature eating his wife. The Mimic speaks in the boy’s voice and attacks the dad. In the dad’s voice, it calls for the son, and the short ends.
Launder Man (Launder Man)
Launder Man sounds like he might be challenging Calendar Man for the title of lamest Batman villain, but the Crypt TV short starring the creature is actually much scarier than it sounds. A simple, three-minute short filmed in a single room, it's an excellent example of how suspense can be built without flash effects or excessive jumpscares.
The creature itself really isn't all that frightening, but its off-camera presence is as scary as anything else on Crypt TV. Plus, while most monsters stalk bedsides or forests, Launder Man will have viewers watching their backs as they doo daily chores in their own homes.
Miss Annity (Miss Annity)
Miss Annity is the first creature that has been in a series of videos. She is a spider-like demonic being whose focus is on making others live a proper life through the use of “Life Lessons with Miss Annity.” These life lessons are incredibly old-fashioned, but that's hardly the most concerning part about the creature.
First, Miss Annity infects her target with toxins, using her legs to inject it into their necks. For one girl, she slices her in half with a tape measurer being pulled through a mirror by the reflection. All her victims become a part of her life lessons.
Terra (Water Cycle)
The short film Water Cycle focuses on a woman and her very quiet nephew at a house in the desert. Throughout the short, the woman is constantly having water run in the background. While her water bill is certainly outrageous, something else feels that she is being too wasteful.
That something else is an entity called Terra. Appearing as a sheen of water at first, it begins to slowly attack the woman. It boils her wine and explodes a glass in her hands, then begins freezing water particles on her skin. The woman gets into a hot tub, and Terra finishes her by draining her of all the water and blood in her body.
The Thing (The Thing In The Apartment)
Everyone experiences a feeling of being watched, even when they know they are alone. Yet, that hair-raising feeling won't go away, and there's just no way to shake the suspicion. That's the basic premise of The Thing In The Apartment.
Part of the horror comes from how abstract the monster is. It's a sort of formless fear meant to stand in for whatever the imagination can conjure up in the dark. This short strikes at the very essence of horror.
The Brute (The Door)
The Door, also known as The Door in the Woods, debuted in 2018 and quickly became one of Crypt TV's most highly-rated outings. A thirteen-minute long short film about a group of children who accidentally unleash a strange beast that lives in the woods, the film is terribly tense and shocking gore-soaked.
The Door in the Woods is everything a horror fan might want in a creature feature, wrapped up into an easily-digested short film. It has since become a fan-favorite monster, and it later appeared in a sequel, as well as an eight-part mini-series.
Mordeo (Mordeo)
Based on the tale of the Wendigo, the Mordeo is a creature that used to be human until it consumed human flesh in the woods. This creature starred in a series of Crypt TV episodes that debuted in 2017 and was followed up with three episodes in 2019.
The design for this creature is very creepy; an eyeless skull with horns, and the transformation from human to Mordeo is peak body horror. The horns burst through the skin as the newly-turned begin to rip off the rest piece by piece. The boniness of the creature mixed with its hunger for human flesh drives the horror home.
Anthony Kane (My First Day)
Released in 2017, My First Day was a minute-long horror-comedy about a child preparing for his first day of school. He's seen packing all sorts of horrible things such as vials of cyanide and a book about the life of serial killer Ed Gein before he departs for the bus. It's then revealed that he's wearing a mask made from skin torn from the faces of his murdered parents.
While terrifying, My First Day is a bit of a nod to the wackiness of horror icons like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger. A note seen at the end of the film details Anthony's acceptance to a school meant for future slasher villains, and Anthony certainly seems to fit the part.
Kinderfänger (Pipers Song)
A modern horror retelling of the Pied Piper, this was one of a number of series which retold multiple stories such as The Little Mermaid and Mirror Mirror. This short opens with a bunch of parents looking for their missing children. Joining the parents is a young girl with a hearing aid.
The girl finds the rest of the children who are surrounding the Kinderfänger. He is playing a song that the girl cannot hear, as she takes out her hearing aid. She and the rest of the kids return to the parents, but the other children begin to tear the parents apart at the request of the Kinderfänger.
Look-See (Look-See)
“If you yourself cannot release, then it will come to take a piece” is the repeated phrase associated with the monster, yet few seem to heed the advice. The Look-See has had two seasons of scares and general creepiness under its belt. Targeting people who won’t let go of the past, he has become one of the main faces of Crypt TV’s monster universe.
The most disturbing part is that, even if the person feels like they have let go properly, it’s up to the Look-See’s discretion. The types of situations are wildly different, too; one person was mourning the loss of their little brother, and another person was lusting after their friend’s husband, yet they get the same punishment.
The Birch (The Birch)
The Birch is the most-viewed video for Crypt TV with over 18 million YouTube views. That success lead to Crypt TV’s partnership with the Facebook Watch program to release a new series based on the creature. A forest spirit of sorts, The Birch is a protector of the weak who can only be summoned by those who are true of heart.
In her first outing, she dismantles a bully in the forest, but she has gotten even deadlier in the more recent series. Her design allows her to blend in with the trees, and, when she stands over you, she is an imposing figure with a gnarly face. Somehow, she is both the creepiest and most caring monster, but, since the series is ongoing, that may change for the main character of the new series, Evie.