Is Siren Head the Ultimate Modern Monster? | Monstrum
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- čas přidán 8. 08. 2022
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Lumbering through the countryside blasting its eerie messages from metal speakers perched atop a forty-foot wooden humanoid frame, Siren Head is a prime example of modern folklore born on the internet. Featuring insights from Siren Head's original creator Trevor Henderson, this episode looks at how social media contributes to horror in the 21st century.
The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.
A special thank you to Trevor Henderson for his candor and assistance with this episode. Learn more about Henderson's art and current projects at trevorhenderson.format.com/ and on Twitter @slimyswampghost
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Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor/Animator: Jordyn Buckland
Illustrator: Samuel Allen
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music
Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
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Bibliography
Cowdell, Paul. “‘Practicing Witchcraft Myself During the Filming’: Folk Horror, Folklore, and the Folkloresque.” Western Folklore, vol. 78, no. 4, 2019, pp. 295-326.
Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction, edited by Trevor J. Blank, Utah State University Press, 2012.
Folklore and the Internet Vernacular Expression in a Digital World, edited by Trevor J. Blank, Utah State University Press, 2009.
Garner, Bryan. Garner’s Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, 2016.
Hall, Alaric. “The Etymology and Meanings of Eldritch.” Scottish Language, vol. 26, 2007, pp. 16-22.
@slimyswampghost. “She was on vacation with her husband and they were scoping out graveyards on the way, as you do, when she saw it. Rising out of the old cemetery, big as an old (macabre) telephone pole. Was this some kind of bizarre art piece the authorities hadn't gotten wise to yet?” Twitter, 19 Aug. 2018, 11:09 a.m., / 1031241826018062336 .
@slimyswampghost. “Sirenhead Facts!” Twitter, 5 Oct. 2018, 9:43 P.M., slimyswampghost/s....
The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World, edited by Michael Dylan Foster, and Jeffrey A. Tolbert, Utah State University Press, 2015.
Tolbert, Jeffrey A. “Chapter One: ‘The Sort of Story That Has You Covering Your Mirrors.”’ Slender Man Is Coming: Creepypasta and Contemporary Legends on the Internet. Edited by Trevor J. Blank and Lynne S. McNeill, Utah State University Press, 2018,
pp. 25-50.
Zulli, Diana, and David James Zulli. “Extending the Internet Meme: Conceptualizing Technological Mimesis and Imitation Publics on the TikTok Platform.” New Media & Society, 00(0), 2020, pp. 1-19.
![Siren Head: The Movie #2 [Unofficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TZAhbDp_AYI/mqdefault.jpg)
Even Junji Ito, the horror manga artist himself, expressed nothing but praise for the Siren Head art. Congratulations to Trevor Henderson for receiving such a shoutout.
Omg thinking about it, the concept of Sirenhead itself is probably right up Junji Ito's alley. Ito has expressed that his creative process is to take mundane objects and phenomenon and twist them into absurd extremes, like a really intense "what if" thought experiment. It's never about direct in-your-face horror to him, and that's why his works lean towards the uncanny and creepy.
Trevor Henderson should consider a career as a horror movies' director.
i love junji ito! my favourite story of his is Planet Remina
He was just joking bro but his work is just much creepy
@@samuelebincoletto637 you can't be serious
A key part of Sirenhead's appeal, for me, is how it incorporates a realistic emergency alert broadcast sound, which by itself induces anxiety but in this context juxtaposes the mundane, familiar, stressful sound against an unknowable eldritch horror.
For me its like if Lovecraft, King & the Emergency Broadcast System. Got together & had a bastard love child.
Agreed. Very nerve wracking
I think you really nailed it. A tornado siren is a signal that something dangerous is nearby, but you don't know exactly where or when it will strike. Additionally, it's hard to pinpoint the location of a tornado siren because of how the acoustics work. So you have this persistent, unignorable sign of danger that's everywhere at once.
i was thinking the same thing - the fear inducing aspect of large scale tragedy incoming or occurring by the use of sirens. from natural disasters like tornados and hurricanes to human related like school shooters and bombings, sirens create a warning type of fear of impending doom and thats the fear this monster created in me
And for those of us who lived through the Cold War era, it evokes the fear of the Five Minute Warning: the blaring announcement of an imminent, inescapable nuclear destruction.
I think anyone who grew up in tornado zones knows the implied threat of Siren Head. Every first Tuesday of the month, at 10am, they test the tornado siren, and man does it sound creepy. It immediately scratches this animal part of my brain that tells me I'm in danger, so that even seeing a siren that isn't making any noise is a little bit unsettling.
The presence of a siren means that the place you're in is dangerous. *Could* be dangerous, at least. And even though the siren is the warning and not the threat itself, you implicitly come to recognize the siren as a danger.
and those of us who grow up with the monthly drill probably pause first to think "wait is it the first Tuesday of the month?? oh sh*t, it's Saturday, RUN!!" lol
I agree, tornados are horrifying, and the sirens are creepy too.
He's General Panic.
I didn't even grow up in such and area and that sense of danger is there. If you've played Silent Hill or seen old movies with air raid sirens during the war you know that feeling.
I think the world over now has an almost evolutionary animal flight/fight response to that scratchy siren sound. The systems; air raid, tornado, tsunami etc; have never been updated or, if updated from analog to digital, kept the analog sound because itbis iconic. We humans are at the top of the food chain so only extreme acts of natural disaster or our fellow man can actually hurt us. I also find it unnerving that more and more of our modern monsters have elongated, famine like bodies or bloated/fat wet/sweaty bodies, very rarely something in between.
Sirenhead is honestly one of the coolest modern monsters. Henderson definitely deserves the recognition.
Absolutely, my guy slimyswampghost is like a damn monster printing machine with a direct line to the worst nightmares possible 😂😂
I would agree. But I also consider him one of the saddest modern monsters. Henderson has produced a very realistic monster here and also a very realistic depiction of sadness.
Yes! :) I rarely see him in any video.
He also had a friend/acquaintance named "David Romero" who did some great animations.
@@Yatukih_001 "At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
The best part of modern monsters is that we can take a look into the subconscious of humanity during the present, instead of interpreting the past. And in the future, new monster experts can look at the past with a detailed and well documented archives. Thank you Dr.Z!
Nope bro
he's just an internet monster exaggerated by an impromptu creepy pasta kid
@@drkpsych0 creepypasta kid?
@@drkpsych0 & 'Old School' monsters are just exaggerated campfire stories. That doesn’t make them any less a mirror for the reflection of social anxieties both past & present. Societies evolve & so do their monsters.
@@drkpsych0 The fact that Sirenhead is so widespread and successfully creepy as a modern monster is what gives you a look into society's subconscious. Why did it get so popular? Why does it effect people so strongly? These are the kinds of questions we ask about monsters of times past, but asking these questions about contemporary monsters can give us an interesting look at modern society. How the monster came about is basically irrelevant to what it can tell us.
I feel like things like Siren Head, Slenderman, the SCP Foundation, and The Backrooms are really popular because they exist outside of copyright laws. Copyright as a systems is fairly new things to how humans interact with stories and myths, since copyright was made into the system we know in the early 1700s. Before that if someone wrote a book, play, poem, etc. there was no legal precedent stopping others from taking it and expanding on it with their own twists.
I feel like a lot of people are gravitating towards these more open source/public domain characters now because they can make their own dent in the mythos instead of cowering in fear of being sued by a big media company. Like I have had a super hero fanfiction/fan comic kicking around in my head since I was like 12, but I haven't made it because a company would swoop down and attack it if it ever gained popularity.
Just throwing this on at the end here too, screw Disney for turning copyright and intellectual property into the nightmare landscape it is now just because they couldn't handle making 2 billion instead of 3 billion every day.
I see the possibility of this , but no. Too asymmetric. People aren’t seeking a copyright free monster. Our fears don’t care about artistic or corporate ownership.
@@1LivelyRogue we may not be less scared of a "copyright" monster, but it impedes people from participating in the process of contributing freely to folklore, which is what the appeal of folklore is. Oral traditions allowed every person to add to and shape myths, which is why many myths have multiple variations. No one owned these stories, and so they spread freely. When you're a rando on the Internet, are you going to create works with a copyright character "owned" by a litigious corporation, or are you going to create with a character that you neither have to pay licensing fees for nor worry about a company having the power to veto your creative vision?
@@1LivelyRogue We fear plenty of things from horror movies. But they never become part of our collective consciousness because you'd get sued if it did.
Just to be clear, Siren Head isn't public domain, it's copyrighted to Trevor Henderson. It's unfortunately gotten out of his hands a bit and he has to deal with people trying to claim it as their own creation and monetizing it against his will frequently. Most video games using Siren Head are allowed to because they requested permission from him.
@@1LivelyRogue fear? Maybe not. But popularity? Almost certainly. The opportunity to participate in a fictional world is what really makes a mark on what's popular.
This is what I love about this channel; the willingness to look at all kinds of monsters. All cultures and locations, the serious and the hokey, and not just the old folklore but the new ones that are still emerging. In this day and age with the technology we have available we can watch these stories go from a momentary distraction to an actual legend, and this channel doesn't shy away from these just because they're new.
All monsters matter!-*Dr. Z*
@@pbsstoried Please make a video of giant and Mokele-mbembe.
@Storied would you interested in talking about the scp foundation in a future episode
@@pbsstoried please do chudrail and shaelay (shape shifting jackel demon in.punjabi folklore)
@@pbsstoried I think the "work" that he created in this interview alone - by having opened doors and empty closets behind him with random junk strewn on a slanted shelf - was de-monstr-ating his unnerving and memorability-latching capabilities by itself.
Also, _why?_ Was he moving, or was it art? Did he say, Storied?
I wish Trevor Henderson got more recognition for creating Siren Head. I'm glad you guys did your due diligence and got him for an interview for this episode.
Indeed! :)
Also, lets face it, any kind of alarm, be it fire or tornado is terrofying and having a monster blast out those deafening sounds while chasing you is just nightmarish
there’s one video of sirenhead with the audio of a broken tornado siren and it’s actually rhe most terrifying piece of sirenhead content i’ve seen
Indeed.
For real! One of the craziest experiences I have is when my sister and I travelled to Arkansas and the very first night we were there a tornado arrived. My home state has tornado sirens however I'd never heard a tornado siren with a human voice before and it was jarring asf.
Siren Head is such a brilliant monster. The sound of sirens is always unsettling with their foreboding nature, the design is perfectly balanced and there's even a slight melancholy to the concept itself. Great episode and kudos to Trevor Henderson!
I whole-heartedly agree! :)
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
Siren head is a combination monster. It first represents a fear that the past resents the present. The things that we left behind as the world moved on can find their own unnatural life. They shamble aimlessly. Looking for it's lost importance on the outskirts of both time and place.
Secondly, The choice of a siren in the first place mirrors it's eldritch horror appearance. Sirens like these hold a special place in the human psyche. The same thing to everyone around the world. They warn of Tornadoes, Tsunami, Monsoon, Earthquakes, Wild fires and the like. Powers so far beyond human control that the only thing you can do is run. Whatever's coming can't be reasoned with or bargained. The same Siren sounds are used in the SilentHill franchise to evoke exactly the same fear. A fear of an unreasonable fathomless power not unlike the fear of gods of Kathulu myth.
It's fitting that we can talk to the creator of Siren head. As it evokes a fear of the things we have created and lost control over.
rock paintings that have been found throughout the continent of North America and are 44,000 years old
Yassss I love this interpretation
_Can I also add that Siren Head also represents the fear of the unknown. The fear of what lurks within rural areas and forests. Its like some primal instinct within us that makes us afraid of the woods so much_
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
MONSOON FROM METAL GEAR!111
( this is a joke ik what an actual monsoon is)
I think Siren Head's skeletal frame, its resemblance to outdated technology, and its originally living in sparsely-populated places all invoke ruin and decay. The fact that it's predatory reminds us that ruin and decay are coming for us all as individuals, societies, and humanity in general. And if it's intelligent, then we're being directly targeted by these things. That IS scary.
Indeed! Siren head is a metaphor for future prophecy.
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
I never heard of Sirenhead before this video, but my first thought, was that it represents the fears of bad news and what sirens means. Relevant in this time with a lot of wars, invasions, and threats of war and/or invasion around the world.
Yeah, it seems like a war demon conjured up out of the collective fear of bombings.
Same I never heard of this monster before this either.
Also on top of very human disasters like war there are many other warnings and threats broadcast by such warning systems In particular there is the increasing frequency of major natural disasters, firestorms, heat domes(the powerful anti cyclonic storms which cause long lasting heatwaves), hurricanes/typhons(or any other name for a tropical cyclone), derechos, tornadoes earthquakes tsunamis volcanoes, geomagnetic storms etc. things well outside human control yet which our actions have made more frequent or we have changed our lifestyle in such a way that we are much more susceptible to them than our ancestors were in the past.
Also fun fact the Great red spot is actually the same kind of anticyclonic storm as heat domes only as the upper level winds of the vast storm drags up material from lower levels of the atmosphere on Jupiter its visible unlike on Earth where the gases at all levels are transparent. They are storms fueled by trapped heat without a release rising in vast anticyclones of air racing away from the center. Notably they also trap lots of water while preventing that water from condensing into clouds or rain and water vapor is one of the most powerful greenhouse gasses thus further amplifying the effects. Worse when the heat dome finally falls apart and merges with a cold front all that water vapor that has built up can rapidly rain out effectively at once in a torrential deluge. Given that such systems become more common the hotter things get it will only get worse with climate change and I think that is starting to set in adding a whole other level of anxiety as these storms have gone from rare to relatively common.
sirenhead should be seen as a symbol of moral panic and other types of false alarms propagated via social media, or even just misinformation in general... and then co-opted in multimedia PSA campaigns.
"IF YOU DON'T FACTCHECK... SIRENHEAD GROWS STRONGER"
@@alveolate should??
@@alveolate meh too shallow
As a midwesterner I think part of Sirenhead's appeal for me is the way it is familiar and almost comforting despite it's association with disaster. The area I live in tests the tornado sirens the first Wednesday of every month, so whenever that first Wednesday rolls around and I hear the distant whine of the siren I feel a little excitement that it's the First Wednesday. On the other hand if I hear those sirens and the sky is green, it's time to get the dog and hide in the basement (not before standing on the porch with my hands on my hips gazing at the sky and remarking on the color. Real Midwesterners know).
A green sky. That must be as nice as the aurora borealis! :)
This is one the few 'modern internet monsters' that actually scares the crap out of me. Even though I know it's not real it's still creepy as all Hell! 😖
Yeah he really nailed the design
@@Doomroar Understatement of the Millennium hon!
weakling!
Sirenhead seems to be this scary but misunderstood monster. In all the drawings hes not attacking anyone, just kinda standing still.
He may be real u never kniw
I loved Hendersons down to earth attitude while talking about his creation. Like just being happy that others brought his creation so far. This was really a special episode
Indeed. :)
Wonder if Dr. Z is going to delve into the SCP universe as well, since we’re already talking about modern monsters?
Now THAT would be an interesting episode.
Ditto. The amount of structure that SCP has acquired over the years is impressive.
What is SCP?
My nephew introduced me to siren head and the way he did terrified me. We live in northern Alabama and so we get tornadoes in the spring. I have been through one and ever since the sound of tornado sirens has terrified me. Well my lovely little demon of a nephew is on CZcams and starts listening to siren head videos for fun and one sounded like a tornado siren. Didn't help that it was tornado season!
ROTFLMAO! Oh man that kid is *EVIL!* 🤣👏🙌👍 Good luck with that one hon!
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 what's worse is my son wants to do everything he does so I have 2 to deal with lol
I love that as humans we still want to sit around and tell stories to scare each other. It doesn't matter if it's with a campfire or a screen lighting our faces.
I also love some of the communities online where everyone can contribute to a greater narrative.
"Me too!" - Courage the Cowardly Dog :)
The idea of the modern 'telling stories around a campfire' reminds me that I'd love to see a video talking about the whole phenomena around the SCP Foundation and related things.
What might be the symbology of the SCP Foundation and its sometimes unjust incarceration of anomalies?
@@melvinfranco2142 Other than; there's a lot of horrific events taking place hidden from public view, whether government or domestic - I'm not sure.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the SCP project. It's like sirenhead but x1000. I love the idea that certain things could be so wrong that they ruin the fabric of our reality. Some aren't traditional monsters too, nothing to watch or chase you or eat you.
What might be its symbology, young man?
x3,000+ hahaha
@@melvinfranco2142 Other than; there's a lot of horrific events taking place hidden from public view, whether government or domestic - I'm not sure.
The original concept of a Troll: Any anti-social creature that occupies a space outside of civilization that poses a threat to the living things within a community
Hmm. *glances over at computer* I see things haven't changed...
Well Played Sir, Well Played Indeed! 👏🙌👍
i want her to have an episode with internet historian. she deserves it
Maybe with The Paranormal Scholar.
Are these people who have channels on youtube?
@@geekdivaherself Probably.
This reminds me of Keisuke Aiso's Momo statue and the strange lore that quickly built up. Parents were told that she would pop up in youtube videos and convince their kids to do bad things or inflict self harm. Its wild how quickly things can get out of control.
I just googled Aiso and Momo and ewww that thing is super creepy. Not many things freak me out but that sure did. 😬
While Sirenhead's original vocalizations were based on the mysterious number stations, its most famous incarnations project a different kind of sound: warning chimes for emergency broadcasts; nuclear attack, tornado sirens, hurricanes, bioterror, any event where the powers-that-be need to get the attention of the general public as quickly as possible.
These sounds are deliberately designed to be unnerving, so they can cut through a conversation or the busy chatter of a Cafe or shop.
The sounds that Sirenhead brings are the warnings of calamity. I think the appeal of Sirenhead preys on the same anxieties of the modern era that the Grim Reaper served for the survivors of the Black Plague.
But modern mankind doesn't face a silent killer that reduces human life to a crop with simultaneous intimacy and dehumanization. The threats we face now are enormous: nuclear annihilation and the consequences of climate change. It only makes sense that our Grim Reaper should be similarly monumental.
The fact that Sirenhead's most popular depictions are accompanied by the sounds that no citizen wants to hear cannot be understated. It is a harbinger of disaster, a portent of calamity on the largest scales imaginable.
They were heavily used in WWII.
Siren head certainly seems to be a metaphor for prophecy taking place, and to come. Which is why I'm not concerned with climate change though, because nowhere does it say that God will destroy the earth until seven years after the rapture.
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
My 6-year-old stumbled upon siren head and a video game playthrough and ended up with nightmares sometime last year but now, she's fascinated by it LOL it's like once she got over the fear part, she was able to find a new perspective on it? So strange but so fascinating LOL
I was like that with mothman and aliens. They terrified me as a child, but after I grew out of that fear they became a persistent curiosity.
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
The use of emergency broadcasts as a lure evokes not just the immediate fear and terror of an actual crisis, but also the flash of dread -- and (on some level) the lingering uncertainty -- that comes even with monotone assurances that it's "just a test" and no real danger is imminent. From the recent Hawaii ballistic missile scare to the false alarms and near misses of the Cold War era, technology past and present is never as reliable as we think (or hope), the former being exacerbated by the ever-evolving threat of (whether malicious or mischievous) misinformation, both of which Siren Head embodies quite well.
I'd adore to see your take on the SCP foundation overall. I've loved your work on Slendy and the BEKs.
I always thought of Siren-head as a monster related to the uncanny sensation of nostalgia and fear that people usually gets from seeing or hearing material related to the Cold War. As sirens are used to alert people about a disaster like an atomic bomb, which was a very real concern for people from those times. Also the creature lurking throughout old rural sites or small almost abandoned towns makes me relate it to a past that once was prosperous (maybe before the Cold War) but now it’s just a relic.
Exactly! And ooh, very true on your second sentence, quite metaphorical. :)
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
Speaking of digital lore the SCP series is worth looking into.
Not really suitable for this type of channel. Other channels do deep dives into that mess.
I was waiting for this video. Sirenhead is one of my favorite creatures!!
I can't believe that you made a siren head episode! I have watched a few CZcamsrs talk about siren head and play the siren head game. I am not going to lie but alongside slender man, siren head is one of my favourite monsters! Thank you very much Monstrum!
It makes me think of how we wonder how much ancient peoples really believed in Zeus and other figures, how much that impacted their lives. Like our belief in Sirenhead, maybe they didn't really fully believe in all those stories, but told stories for entertainment that nevertheless spread because they tapped into some primal feeling. They tickled their imaginations in a certain way, and in moments of desperation or terror, they clung to those stories for comfort, for some semblance of familiarity and control.
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
It looks like it's something from an abandoned mill town. Very cool, Silent Hill vibes. The creator seems cool, too.
I like this idea of monster artists saying "Yeah, I know this monster is not real. But it represents something very real, some kind of fear we all experience."
It's creating monsters as a form of art, and I think that's fascinating.
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
Just the story of Siren Head is good enough to pain the picture. It leaves more questions which makes it even more terrifying! It reminds me of the 2 sentence horror stories, how some can be truly terrifying with so little information.
Yes, mystery keeps it intriguing. :)
Lots of folks here have noted the inherent disturbing element of sirens and other warning sounds as part of what makes Siren Head so terrifying, and I had a vivid memory of one of the first times a concept like that affected me. It was decades ago, from one of the books in my favorite series, The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, about a character called Gwyn the Hunter. This was based on a wide variety of existing folklore from many sources, an unseen rider who would sound an eerie, distinctive hunting horn that signaled impending war or violence. So our collective sense of a loud, unusual and unnerving warning sound that tells us death and destruction are headed our way goes back much farther than modern technology. This is such an effective updating of that concept, truly chilling. Appreciate you covering it!
Siren head! Listening with pleasure )
I wasnt expecting this. Is a little bit surreal seing the mostern emerge.
I was waiting for siren head and I knew it was coming
In this show we already had monsters from all over the world from every time period yet this one for me is probably the most obscure one
I think you should have mentioned that most videos online about Sirenhead showed it emitting tornado sirens from different states. It also contributes to the horror since the Emergency Alarm System is a harbinger of disaster and so is the Siren head. Not to mention, these alarms are creepy themselves even without context..
If we talk about that case then Recorded June 20, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. Several witnesses called CPD when an unexpected tornado siren wailed overnight, apparently from the direction of Willow Springs Woods. When the traffic police arrived at the scene, the sound stopped, and the source could not be identified. I think it's 100% siren head
True. :)
@@SirenCallStudio Wow . .
This was really fascinating. I've never heard of siren head, but it was really cool to hear about this community that has developed around it.
Made me interested in a video on the SCP universe, which does a similar sort of collaborative horror storytelling, but with a much broader scope... just just one monster, but an endless supply of them.
Yes! SCP ought to be featured on Monstrum!
We do miss that storytelling community. Probably why I love this channel.
Yes, we all miss that. :)
I love Trevor Henderson’s work he makes incredible modern monsters
It would be super cool for you to talk about the back rooms specifically Kane pixels representation of it. It really showcases how someone can contribute to modern folklore
love trevor henderson’s work, i wish more of his monsters would get as much love as sirenhead. longhorse will always be my favorite of his. 💕
Sirenhead is like the Cthulhu of Trevor’s works. The most well known monster from the mythos, but not the only one, and not the most powerful
There's a lot of juxtaposition in siren head. It's organic and inorganic; alive, dead, and inanimate; it conceals itself, but it is louder than most anything you experience. That difficulty in classifying it must contribute to the spookiness of it
I was out walking one night, and a little jumpy in the dark, especially with trees all around. Then I remembered siren head and the Wendigo. I could totally see someone looking up at a large tree, swaying aggressively in the wind and make out a monstrous form.
Edit: would love to see it come into movie form. I think it's not long in coming.
"At the end of the day, regardless of what you believe - it can't be denied that something truly scary and special, has been brought into the world with Siren head. Is Siren head real? Well, at the end of the day, Siren head is as real as any urban legend. Whether it's the man with the hook-hand, the killer in the backseat of the car, or the man making sinister phone calls from inside the building. And like any great urban legend, Siren head is sure to feel a whole lot more real the next time you're walking home late at night, and you hear a faint crackle in the distance, and you could almost swear you saw something move out of the corner of your eye." - The Infographics Show
Siren head has AMAZING movie potential!
I always just loved it’s strange design. Like how do you come up with this?!? The design is so strange, and the creatures presence is so ominous, I LOVE it!
I hope they make a Love, Death, Robots episode about Sirenhead
Thanks for the video 👍 I love your hair 😊🌹
i hope you are making an scp episode or mini serie, because there is a lot to unpack
What is scp?
Can't wait for Monstrum to cover SCPs or even The Backrooms one day
now that this topic is open in this channel, it would be awesome if there was a video on the SCP Foundation
That uh... that'd be a pretty broad topic even if she focused on one or two classics.
Woah early squad!!
I would like all these chapters to be in the future season of Monstrum.
*Sea Serpents
*Leviathan
*The Rake
*Sleepy Hollow
*Phantom Vehicles
*Boogeyman
*Ghosts
*Possessed Dolls
*Shadow People
*Undead
*Goblins
*Bigfoot
*Man-Eating Plants
*Killer Clowns
*Evil Robots
*Swamp Monsters
*The Mummy
*Scarecrows
*The Invisible Man
*Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
*Merfolk
*Demons
*Skeletons
*Stingy Jack (Jack-O'-Lantern)
*Gnomes
*Sea Monsters that attacked Submarines
*Ogres
*Ghouls
*Lich
*Cyborgs
*Witches
*Kaiju
*Cthulhu
Cthulhu ✅
@@dukeon Alien Abductions ✅️
I've never heard of this monster. It's gotten me thinking about how new, modern-day monsters are created in the first place.
Same! Godzilla, Siren head, Cthulu mythos, etc. They all got started by someone with a story to tell and digging into the depths of what makes them afraid/creeped out. It also makes me wonder what new monsters will arise.
Siren Head is the epitomy of a modern fear of anonymity. In recent years there has been a trend of monsters that have the ability to mimic voices. Probably the most obvious example is the changes modern folklore have made to the Wendigo, but modern Goatman, Specters, Skinwalkers and more all have the ability to pretend to be someone familiar. I noticed this was given to Siren Head stories almost immediately upon its creation. Internet has made us afraid of strangers knowing too much information and pretending to be our friends. I can't count how many scary stories i read online use the "sister's voice called out to me from the forest, using my name.... but my sister was asleep next to me" trope.
I think it also speaks to the capacity that technology that are made to help us have to become hurtfull, like how a siren that horns frequently can sometimes takes us to the edge or even beyond that.
I have to give he edge to Slenderman over siren head. That character crossed over into actual folklore. Even beyond that, I think Ringu/grudge ghosts get the medal for market penetration and global impact.
Here's a list of my favorite female monsters lamia, succubus and alraune Which is a type of plant monster And if you choose lamia then I want to know the difference between them and naga I would have mentioned mermaids too but sense you already did a video on sirens and there seemed so similar I won't mention it
Nagas are from Hindu/Buddhist mythology and are part human part cobra and are mostly benevolent.
Lamia is from Greek mythology and is a monster who eats men and/or babies. Lamia is sometimes depicted as a human woman who is either part lion, part snake, or part shark. (Lamia literally translates to large shark.) They are sometimes compared to vampires.
@@NickLavic wow I did not know that thank you
I, too, encountered Sirenhead through tik tok, but it wasn't the viral video. It was a video of someone cosplaying as Sirenhead REALLY WELL. Like 9 feet tall, siren blaring through speakers, walking on stilts. Absolutely creepy and impressive!
I think the prevalent “ghost car” stories is also a sign of the ubiquitousness of a technology influencing folklore. The French horror movie “Rubber” is the latest theatrical depictions of that.
Never heard of Sirenhead before, but it seems like great fun.
I love that you got to interview the creator! Very interesting! Probably not the best thing to watch at night while I'm staying by myself in the middle of nowhere for a few days...
I'm a big fan of Trevor Henderson's work and this video is really interesting! Like a long-awaited spiritual successor to the PBS Idea Channel video about Slender Man as modern folklore. Great work as always.
Just realized I may have left a similar comment on the Monstrum video about Slender Man. Egg on my face. Still, I love getting a variety of perspectives on related subject matter so it's a good thing in my eyes!
A Halloween Monstrum video set around a campfire in the deep woods with Siren Head and other monsters would be fun
Such an insightful and fun episode!!! Thanks guys :)
Such a humble guy. his creation deserves all the paraise.
Speaker Head went from cool to super scary in my mind at all the possibilities. Well done.
Love Trevor's work. So many of his creations elicit a visceral reaction from me.
- that top or dress, or whatever it is, is amazing.
I remember as a kid the air raid siren tests always gave me an eerie feeling. Interesting concept for a monster.
First is Slender Man, and now Siren Head. What's next?
Cartoon Mall Cat?
Maybe SCP? I really hoop SCP
Herobrine?
You mentioned something I love about modern folklore such as Siren Head: the self-awareness of those creating and propagating those stories. We take them seriously and add to the mythology while being completely aware of their modern, fictional origins.
When we look back at mythical creatures like dragons and mermaids, we make educated guesses about where the stories came from. The first time a non-indigenous traveller saw a crocodile, or 'race-memories' of dinosaurs. A horny sailor catching a glimpse of a manatee. Given how modern folklore develops, these kinds of explanations seem over-complicated compared to 'someone made it up, and people kept the story going because it was cool'.
My 10 year old cousin LOVES Siren Head, when they've mentioned kids getting into it, didn't surprise me at all. It did keep him up at night cause it was around tthe time our town had tons of wild fires so the siren would scare him thinking it was Siren head.
This so cool! I didn't know about this monster! Thanks Dr. Z!
"I hope I didn't give anyone sleepless nights." Oh Trevor, you gave me M A N Y sleepless nights.
Great work 🥳 Thank you 💜
I have my own theory, like the slavic demon plague maiden is personification of plague and disease.
Siren Head i personification of deaths from air bombardment and artillery fire, always preceded by alarm sirens.
The more a city has suffered from artillery fire or air strikes, the bigger and more powerful the Siren Head becomes.
This is written by a resident of the city where alarm sirens sound every August 1 at 5:00 PM to comemorate this:
czcams.com/video/Vx3aGiurRbQ/video.html
Siren Head created from such hecatombs would be an opponent for Godzilla or Cthulhu.
Imagine how many and how powerful Siren Heads were created by orcs since october 24 in Kiev, Mariupol and dozens of other villages and cities.
I think orcs will meet them soon, although that's already happening.
It's funny how we look back on historic monsters and often assume that everyone really believed in them. I bet many originated much like modern monsters do, with people just contributing to a fun creepy story.
I'm so HYPED for this
I love this show. Thanks
You should add the Maltese belliegha or a well monster for a future video
P.s., the h for belliegha has a cross
This sounds interesting!
Definitely
there is a whole section about this monster in the maltese bestiary
Never heard of this one before. What is it?
It’s a monster that grabs people from wells
I love this show so much!
I love this channel! Great content 🖤
Damn, we got two amazing angelic voices here.
As someone from the rural Midwest, the shape and arrangement of the sirens (the two square flared horns stacked and pointing in different directions) looks exactly like tornado sirens. The sound of these sirens existed in a weird limbo of threat and banality. The sirens were tested on the first Tuesday of the month, so in those cases they were just a grating annoyance. But hearing them in the middle of a storm meant it was time to drop everything and rush to the basement.
Combining these experiences with the idea of Siren Head, most of the time when you see sirens on a pole, it's nothing but an ordinary part of the scenery of a rural town. But sometimes, if it's dark and stormy and you're far from shelter, hearing the sirens is a true sign of danger.
I love the internet's ability to revive old customs. No restrictions or ownership- just people creating for the fun of it; just like the birth of classic creatures around old campfires and in the seats of ampitheatres. It's a golden age for horror, and creativity as a whole.
Disagree. We need to ditch this and go back to telling verbal stories around fires. Technology is tearing us apart.
You spoke with Trevor
Great video Dr Z!
It's so refreshing to see the new forms of culture that exist today being taken seriously. A lot of people (especially the older generations) keep complaining that culture is disappearing, when in truth it's just evolving.
I have had an intense fear of the nuclear lockdown noise since i was a toddler... you know the one. When I first heard of Siren Head.. a primal chill ran down my spine😬
Shout out to Trevor for not pulling any copyright shenanigans with Siren Head.
Subtitles at 0:21 "there's no doubt it's also an Eldridge being"
I wonder where Eldridge is.
The bloopers are always so cute
Thank you for sharing your monster knowledge about Siren Head!
I think one of my favorite thing about online folk monsters like Sirenhead and Slenderman is that the original creators don’t copyright them. In many cases in seems like that doesn’t even occur to the creator. They probably could get a copyright but we know that these creatures survive by being public domain and the creators allow them to stay that way and I love them for it.