If it looks like a human, sounds like a human, and smells like a human, it just might not be a human at all.
Many creatures look like humans or disguise themselves as humans. Many of them, including vampires, ghosts, and werewolves, have fascinated and terrified us for centuries. And, like those mentioned, we're terrified of them for good reason: we just never know who or what lurks in the darkness ready to strike. But, have you ever seen that coworker of yours eat garlic? Or can you say for sure you've been with him during a full moon? How do you know your closest friends aren't something entirely other than human?
How do you know that everyone you know isn't one of these creatures?
1. Changeling
Medieval literature is rife with the fear of changelings, as society struggled to come to terms with such fears as infant mortality, developmental disabilities, childhood illness, and the like. Because illness and disease were caused by evil spirits or sin, both of which children were thought to be protected from by God, it was difficult to understand why some children suffered the way they did. They ended up inventing stories of stolen children and fairy replacements to try to understand their tragic reality.
But it's not just a medieval fear. The 2008 film Changeling starring Angelina Jolie explores a real-life case of switched children: in 1928 Los Angeles, a single mother discovers that her son has been kidnapped. The police find him in a few days, but the mother, Jolie, does not believe that the boy returned to her is her son. What follows is an account of the police corruption, female disenfranchisement, and power imbalances rampant in the time, as well as a take on the infamous Chicken Coop Murders. Jolie's son may not have been taken by fairies, but the title of the movie suggests the sinister nature of its plot.
When demons are just wearing human disguises, they can typically be spotted easily. Being found out will usually cause them to disappear, defeated. Sometimes, however, the person who discovers a demon or the Devil won't repudiate them, and open themselves up to temptation. The best example of this in folklore is of Faust, who traded his soul to the Devil; Tom Walker, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Devil and Tom Walker," does the same thing.
But confronting demons is not always a wise idea. For example, the 1998 film Fallen is a modern-day depiction of Azazel, who takes over people's bodies in order to do evil. No less harrowing is 2010's The Last Exorcism, which instead deals with Abalam. Speaking of exorcisms, have you ever seen The Exorcist?
Many folklore stories describe angels, or beings thought to be angels, visiting humans. Whereas demons often choose to become powerful people, like a businessman or a lawyer, angels tend to take the forms of lowlier humans. They typically try to use words and wisdom to gently push people onto a holy path, though they can become violently outraged if they are treated improperly.
Angel disguises, like demon disguises, tend to be thin. Where demons are "dark," angels tend to be radiant, white, and pure. Happiness is draped over them like a robe. Their holiness outshines and outstrips their false human forms. But those tainted by sin may not be able to see this, and they run the risk of facing divine punishment.
Doppelgangers, however, don't do much. Or if they do, it is rare for one to be discovered as a doppelganger. It could be that everyone has a doppelganger, and exact duplicate of themselves, living maybe one or two towns over, but the two never meet because their respective circles of friends never come into contact with one another. But should they meet—should you see your doppelganger, that is an omen of death. It won't kill you, but something will.
Indeed, it's said that everyone has a double. It could very well be that we all have a doppelganger that we have yet to meet. But, what if it works the same way for the doppelganger? What if, when a doppelganger sees you, the person it doubles, it is marked for death the same way you would be if you spotted it? What if you're only alive right now because your doppelganger saw you first, rather than the other way around? How do you know that you aren't the doppelganger?
That said, many kitsune disguises are imperfect. Some retain a foxlike shadow despite looking human, while others have to keep their long red hair. The best way to see through a disguise, though, is to keep the kitsune talking until it slips up and accidentally says something that reveals it isn't a human. Can you outwit a fox?
It's fears like these that keep us arrested by the things that look human, from horror movie villains (not only the Thing, but even Michael Myers and Freddie Kreuger are more like monsters that only look human) to zombies, vampires, ghouls, ghosts. These creatures push at the limits of what it means to be a human. How do we treat something that so close to being like us, but at the same time couldn't be more different? What does it say about us as humans if these creatures make us question our own humanity?
But such monsters tap into even deeper fears. The things that are familiar to us make the scariest monsters. When any woman we meet might be a kitsune, or when our friends might be vampires, or when our newborns seem strange, everything changes for us. We feel betrayed by our trust in our own species. We feel invaded and used. And when we think that something out there may have a body, a personality, a life indistinguishable from our own, and that it isn't human despite the fact that you do everything it does, the same way—what does that say about us? How far can we trust that what we do makes us human? Or, thinking about it another way, isn't it terrifying to think that we share such an intense, personal connection with the worst murderers and criminals just by being the same species? We are all so close to being monsters and we don't even realize it.
That's what creatures in disguise, evil or kind, good or bad, make us confront. They encourage us to face our fear head-on and decide on our own, human path.
Done - Grey
