are fictional monsters and the antagonists in the Japanese tokusatsu series Garo.
Fictional history The Horrors are demons that originate from a . The usual variety of Horrors, called are grotesque black-winged skeletal demons that enter the human world, drawn by their primary "food" of human malice and darkness. They use Inga gates, objects tainted by darkness from either playing a role in a naturally-accumulated atrocity like mass murder or an unresolved traumatic experience. There are also Inga gates that are created by someone infusing the object with dark energies. Regardless, all Inga gates are usually activated when a person with inner darkness approaches them, with the emerging Horror turning that person or any other living thing nearby into a host body.
From there, either taking over the host or forming a symbiosis to act out the host's dark desires, the Horror "evolves" into a unique form based on the gate they emerged from, each with their own personal tastes and feeding habits. Normally a human is dead the moment that an Inga Horror possesses them and what remains of the host follows the Horror in death as well. The Makai Knight Jinga seemingly possessed the unique ability to purge a Horror out of its human host with the human restored to their original self, but it is later revealed that he only suppressed the Horrors, and it only worked due to the original Jinga's machinations. Though rare, there are also some unusual Horrors that prefer to possess objects rather than living things, not having a preference for specific prey, as they consume whoever comes into close contact one way or another instead. But the rarest Horrors are the ones that assume the form of large beasts without needing a host body, acting only on a primal and indiscriminate urge to feed.
Three commonalities all Inga Horrors share is a preference of hunting at night, their blood marking someone for death as Horrors will have an increased desirability for the afflicted, and speaking in the Makai language which can be understood by someone well-versed in the language or a potential host, usually adopting a human language upon possession. While slain on a regular basis, Horrors can never truly die so long as darkness exists in the hearts of men. Upon a physical death, the Horror's essence is sealed within a Makaiken until its essence is formed into a dagger that is entrusted to a Watchdog to be sent back to the Demon World. Though there is a one night relief in the that occurs once every 20 years to bar any passage of Horrors into the human world, a slain Inga Horror can still return later. Trace essences of slain Horrors latch onto a Makai Knight and accumulate, requiring him to undergo a ritualistic purification periodically. In the case of those who bear the title of Garo, the essence of Horrors that the Garo user slain eventually forms into a Zaji, vowing slay whoever is holding the title of Garo at the moment. While Inga Horrors taken on human forms have no weakness against sunlight and can operate normally during daytime, they have an aversion nonetheless of showing their true forms under broad daylight. As such, Makai Knights almost never need to draw their blades for combat before sundown.
While stronger Horrors, especially those evolved to have unique forms and powers, tend to live and hunt alone when they make it into the human world, the weaker ones with no desire to hunt on their own and dependent on others to feed tend to band together and form small community pockets, as revealed in "Garo: Makai Retsuden". Each of these communities have their own hideouts called "forts", despite having no fortifications of any kind. The forts have cages in which humans are kept as livestock to be consumed later. These Horrors are weak enough that a lone Makai Knight prove more than enough to wipe a dozen or two of them out within minutes.
Despite their nature as enemies of humanity, some recurrent ones gaining so much notoriety that they are named and documented. Horrors are not always targeted for elimination. At times, they are re-purposed by Makai Priests to serve various functions, such as for sealing of other more powerful Horrors, experimentation, or those like Sedinbale sealed to provide their vast knowledge on various Makai-related matters. Even like Zaruba are created with Horrors that hold no enmity against humanity and have pledged their loyalty to the Makai order, the created items entrusted to certain Makai Knights of prestige.
In the events of Yami o Terasu Mono and Zero: Black Blood, given humans as payment for their loyalty as familiars, the Inga Horrors are shown to be significantly weaker as they can be killed by Makai Knights at a quicker pace. These Inga Horrors lack unique Horror forms, mostly seen only in their human form even during battle while some can assume their true usual Horror form.
In the events of Versus Road, a new form of Inga Horror is seen as an enemy that hunts down players. These Horrors appear to be modified with cybernetic enhancements, which seem to serve as restraints or control devices. The game world Horrors are shown to be incredibly fast, able to clear large distances in an instant. Despite the slight increase in physical ability granted to them by the game world, the players, being otherwise normal humans, are quickly overwhelmed by even one of these Horrors and generally opt to either flee or hide when encountering one.
Messiah the Ultimate Horror is the originator of all Horrors from the and has existed well before the beginning of the conflict between the Makai community and Horrors. Messiah is the most unusual Horror because she is the only Horror that appears almost perfectly human in form, resembling a giant white-skinned half-naked woman with long-clawed fingers and unique jewelry and tattoos around her head and shoulders. Her back contains a Taoist round disc. While the full range of her powers are never revealed, Messiah's abilities include magical shielding, animating her body tattoos into cannons, summoning Horrors by merely touching the ground she walks upon, and flight.
Messiah had long desired to enter the human realm but she could not cross through without a large source of energy. After sensing Barago's desperation for power, Messiah reveals herself in a Madō Book that contains forbidden techniques. Though only a shade of her true self, Messiah offers to give Barago the knowledge and power of the forbidden Makai methods in return to bring about the legendary Kiba. Barago wholeheartedly agrees to give up his soul for power and Messiah proceeds to start him on his path of destroying lives to set up the conditions to summon her in her full glory through Kaoru, who is a suitable vessel due to the conditions of her age and birth. But once he fulfills his part in her summoning by removing any trace of humanity in him, upon being awakened Messiah absorbs Barago using Kaoru's body as a medium to use his power to complete the process. Her plans to reach the human world are foiled by Kouga, who enters her realm and defeats her with spiritual help from Kaoru. She is ultimately defeated when, overconfident with her powers, she arrogantly fails to stop Kouga from running his sword into her head after he discards his armor. Shocked at how a normal human has defeated her, Messiah is forced back into her dormant state while releasing Kiba.
During the events of Makai no Hana, it is revealed that Messiah can also be summoned to the human world through the blooming of the Demon Beast Eyrith. It becomes the goal of Kouga's son Raiga to prevent the return of one of his father's enemies by hunting down Eyrith with the help of Mayuri.
During the events of Kami no Kiba, Rinza reveals she facilitated Jinga's resurrection so she could use him and the God's Fang to create a gate on the Moon to summon Messiah. After the God's Fang was destroyed, Messiah awakens from her dormant state in the Makai and is confronted by Jinga in his Horror form. Kami no Kiba: Jinga would reveal that Messiah destroyed Jinga, causing his reincarnation into a human.
Messiah is portrayed by . In Kiba Gaiden, she is voiced by in a flashback and while possessing her body.
Garo These are the Horrors that appear during Garo.
: The 12th Horror to appear, Anglay is a trapper able to bring artwork to life. The Horror poses as a female nude portrait within a painting until the gallery owner, , finds it and is possessed by it. The monster has a taste for young women, liquifying them into paint for consumption, and targets Kaoru. But Kouga's appearance forces the monster to lock down the art exhibit. In the fight with Kouga, Anglay bursts out from its host and manifests itself into a painting, gaining an acidic paint-muck exterior with a frame collar until it regresses to its original form. Garo kills it and Kaoru stained by the Horror's blood as a result. Taniyama is portrayed by . : The 13th Horror. Emerging from a chain, it possesses the body of , a con-woman who takes advantage of money-minded people using an IT company as a front. Using its host's plan, Ishutarb uses money to lure it victims to meet it at nighttime. From there, it would rip them to shreds with chains shooting from Kujō's body and ingest the pieces caught by its chains' links. it is about to kill Kaoru when dumb luck and Kouga stops her. During the fight, Ishutarb alters it host's form into an iron maiden-like armored form. Garo kills it in a parking lot. Kujō is portrayed by . : A unique Horror that has no need for a human host, once said to have wiped out an entire village in one night. Possessing a time-piece, altering it into a variety of forms, Morax lures those driven by time to pick him up. Once he has a hold on his victim, by after dusk, it dehydrates the victim until only dust remains. Forced to use humans as host, Morax takes advantage of Kouga's sympathy for humans to escape. Once he captures Kaoru, Morax assumes the form of a clock tower. Though he is armed with arsenal of bladed arms, Morax is killed finally by Garo, ripped out of his vessel as it crumbles to the ground. : A Horror that first appeared around the time Taiga was alive. It takes over the body of , making him a miracle worker of a surgeon so Pazuzu can feed on the euphoria-enriched blood of Tategami's patients. it slices them apart with the scalpel-bladed tendrils from the back of its head, while leaving the remains for its Horror minions. To ensure it could eat without interference, it erects a barrier to put any Makai Knight at a disadvantage. Kouga has trouble until he uses Kaoru to remove the seals that power the barrier. Upon Pazuzu's last moments, it pleas to devour Kaoru as its last meal. Utterly repulsed by this idea, Garo delivers the final blow, thus ending its reign of terror. Tategami is portrayed by . : A moth demon, possessing a woman who tries to commit suicide as the result of a man's insensitivity. it remains dormant in it zombified host until the full moon, when its bloodlust is at its zenith. During the fight, Garo realizes that the host is nothing more than a puppet composed/filled with moths. The actual Lunarken is the orb like weapon the puppet uses in its attacks. Lunarken is portrayed by . : A corpse-like Horror that appears in a graveyard and possesses the body of a middle-aged prostitute named , making her young again and giving her a beautiful body. In return, Kotomi uses her beauty to lure men for the Horror to devour, using the eyes as a medium to suck the life out of the victim's body before he explodes. In battle, she could launch graveyard tombs to attack Kouga & Rei before Utoque takes over. Once Utoque is killed by Garo, Kotomi is fatally wounded, and begs for help. But Garo states that she is already dead because she has allowed the Horror to possess her in the first place, and her body soon disintegrates. Kotomi is portrayed by , while her original form is portrayed by .