Films: The Hallow (2015)

Alias: None

Type: Mutant

Location: Forest

Height/Weight: That of average humans.

Affiliation: Neutral, leaning on Evil

Summary: Many tales of old bring up the Fair Folk. These are beings who are one with nature, but do not take too kindly to humans, and will even torment them if they please. But these are not your typical mean fairies. These are something much more rooted in reality. And we do mean 'rooted'.

History: The Hallow exist in the woods surrounding an Irish town, and have held an icy grip of fear around the place. They are seen as fairies and changelings, except they are not. They are in fact people infected with a bizarre fungus that malforms them into powerful but terrifying monsters that share a hive mind. They are also rather angry about the logging going on. Bad news for a recently arrived family, whose baby is in danger of being abducted and replaced with a changeling.

Notable Kills: Nothing special.

Final Fate: The baby and his mother ultimately survive their encounter with the Hallow, but that's not the end. Lumber from the woods is being delivered elsewhere, and it's carrying the fungus with it...

Powers/Abilities: Many Hallow have stingers hidden in their bodies, like their fingers, that can infect people with the fungus, slowly turning them into a monster themselves. For some reason, they like stabbing people in the eye.

Weakness: Bright lights drive them away, but they are especially weak to iron.

Scariness Factor: 4-Usually, realistic fantasy creatures fall flat for being creatively sterile. Not these misshapen beasts. Their anatomy is an enigma, they will either kill or painfully convert you, and there's a level of ambiguity as to whether there actually is some fantasy to them. Since when did science explain a weakness to iron, anyhow?

Trivia: -The origin of the changeling myth is...not the greatest. Most legends stem from how people would blame their children being replaced with the doppelgangers due to said children being born with disabilities and/or deformities. In other words, if you were autistic or something, you were deemed a changeling.

-One of director Corin Hardy's inspirations for making this film was the famed stop-motion artist Ray Harryhausen, whom he was close friends with.