Thinking again on describing the monstrous.
As we did with Area X.
Let’s pull some descriptions from Lovecraft’s classic The Call of Cthulhu.
Not the statute, the actual monster from dreams and the encounter.
From the dreams of the insane in Part I
…a gigantic thing “miles high” which walked or lumbered about
From the investigation of the cult in Part II:
He indeed went so far as to hint of the faint beating of great wings, and of a glimpse of shining eyes and a mountainous white bulk beyond the remotest trees—but I suppose he had been hearing too much native superstition.
Descriptions from the island in Part III:
Everyone listened, and everyone was listening still when it lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness.
And:
A mountain walked or stumbled.
And:
Three men were swept up by the flabby claws before anybody turned. […] So only Briden and Johansen reached the boat, and pulled desperately for the Alert as the mountainous monstrosity flopped down the slimy stones and hesitated floundering at the edge of the water.
And:
…whilst on the masonry of that charnel shore that was not of earth the titan Thing from the stars slavered and gibbered […] great Cthulhu slid greasily into the water and began to pursue with vast wave-raising strokes of cosmic potency.
Okay, fine, the statute, described in Part III:
The crouching image with its cuttlefish head, dragon body, scaly wings, and hieroglyphed pedestal
Not a lot. At least from my quick re-read/scan.
Good stuff.
Slimy and gross and flabby.
Not the pants-shitting unknowable terror of “the biologist” or “Lowry video” though.