Spoiler Warning! This article or section reveals details from Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Read at your own discretion...

This article is about the species. For the individual creature, see The Demogorgon.

Demogorgons were predatory creatures that inhabited the Abyss and the Upside Down. All Demogorgons encountered thus far are assumed to obey the Mind Flayer and by extension Vecna, and make up part of the hive mind. Under the hive mind’s influence, Demogorgons are murderous, violent and have limited intelligence.

In 1983, a fully grown Demogorgon set foot in Hawkins, Indiana after a wormhole to the Abyss was accidentally opened. This Demogorgon was eventually defeated and destroyed, but not before it could inflict damage upon the human world.

In 1984, Will Byers, a rescued victim of the Demogorgon, became a vessel for the Mind Flayer. Will's possession allowed Vecna and the Mind Flayer to unleash a horde of adolescent Demogorgons, or 'Demodogs', upon Hawkins National Laboratory. However, following the closure of the Mothergate, the Demodogs' psychic link to the hive mind was broken, overloading them with pain and resulting in their mass death.

In 1985, the Soviet Union developed experimental technology that would allow them access to the Upside Down, with one gate to the dimension being successfully created in a base under Starcourt Mall. This technology allowed the Soviets to procure at least half a dozen Demodog specimens. These specimens were kept in a facility in Kamchatka, where all but one were stored in tanks filled with oxygenized water, keeping them alive in a paralysed state; a fragment of the Mind Flayer was also captured. One creature, through accident or design, matured into an adult Demogorgon. The Soviets occasionally fed live prisoners to the Demogorgon; they hoped to potentially weaponize the beast.

In 1986, the adult Demogorgon was accidentally let loose as Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Murray Bauman, Dmitri Antonov and Yuri Ismaylov fled the facility. Following their escape, the guards' gunfire aimed at the creature ricocheted and shattered the chamber containing the Mind Flayer's particles; the particles leaked out and entered the paralysed Demodogs' bodies, re-animating them. The Demodog horde then joined their adult counterpart in slaughtering the Soviet personnel. The escapees later returned to the facility and successfully executed all of the creatures, destroying pieces of the Mind Flayer and inflicting damage to the hive mind.

In 1987, a Demogorgon was tasked with taking Holly Wheeler from her home and after putting up a brutal fight with Holly and her parents, it successfully abducted her. A day later, Will Byers and Robin Buckley learned that Derek Turnbow was the next target, as Will was able to see through the next victim's eyes. Will and his friends decided to stage a "trap" for the Turnbow family and another Demogorgon. The party booby trapped the house but weren't able to catch the Demogorgon, as Derek wakes up, revealing his location. Joyce warded off the Demogorgon with an axe before Steve Harrington ran it down with his beamer. From there on, Steve, Nancy Wheeler, Dustin Henderson and Jonathan Byers followed the Demogorgon through the rift it made, into the Upside Down, to find Holly. Eventually, Vecna and many more Demogorgons initiate an attack against the military at the MAC-Z, successfully taking the remaining eight children captive.

Etymology

Though Dustin jokingly christened the pollywog form of the species "Dustonious pollywogus", Demogorgons have not been given an official name or scientific title.^[1] However, Eleven and her friends used the nickname "Demogorgon" in reference to the original monster from 1983, after a monster featured in Dungeons & Dragons.^[2][3]

History

1943

to be added

1950s

to be added

1979-1983

When Henry Creel was banished to Dimension X, he observed the creatures roaming the landscape.

1983

Main article: The Demogorgon

At Hawkins National Laboratory, Martin Brenner tested Eleven in a remote viewing experiment, in which she used her mental void to eavesdrop on a Russian spy. However, the experiment came to an abrupt end when Eleven started hearing a Demogorgon in the distance, terrifying her.

On November 6, 1983, Brenner repeated the experiment and insisted that Eleven "make contact" with the creature. Eleven followed through, making contact with the creature while it fed off a large egg. Upon making contact, a gate to the Upside Down cracked open in the wall of the tank room, throwing the lab into chaos.

It proceeded to go on a rampage in the town of Hawkins, Indiana, abducting Will Byers and killing several other individuals including Barbara Holland, Henry, Dale and Shepard. It eventually met its demise, being disintegrated by Eleven at Hawkins Middle School after being burned by Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers.

1984

By 1984, the Mind Flayer had spread a series of tunnels beneath Hawkins from the Mothergate. It used adolescent Demogorgons, called "Demodogs", to do its bidding. The Demodogs began using the tunnels as transportation.

One Demogorgon pollywog was discovered by Dustin Henderson and named D'Artagnan, or Dart. Dart was able to form an amiable relationship with Dustin at first, but upon molting into a larger stage, he killed and ate Dustin's cat Mews. Seeing this, Dustin realized that Dart was a juvenile Demogorgon and attempted to trap him. However, Dart escaped into the tunnel system.

A group of Demodogs later surrounded and attacked Steve Harrington, but were called by the Mind Flayer to the hub of the tunnel system. There, they attacked and killed soldiers from Hawkins Lab, before traveling to Hawkins Lab itself, informed by a possessed Will Byers. They managed to break through polycarbonate glass and infiltrate the lab, proceeding to massacre it. They killed several scientists, personnel and Bob Newby.

Some Demodogs were later called to the Byers house to kill Will Byers' friends, but were killed by Eleven. Later, Eleven and Chief Jim Hopper returned to the lab to close the Mothergate, while Steve, Dustin, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair and Max Mayfield lit the hub of the tunnel system on fire. This significantly weakened the Demodogs, allowing Eleven and Hopper to enter the room housing the Mothergate. There, Hopper shot Demodogs as Eleven closed the Mothergate, severing the connection between the Demodogs and the Upside Down. This resulted in the deaths of all the Demodogs.

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, an operation to open a new gate to the Upside Down using machinery of immense energy commenced. However, it failed in Russia, prompting the Soviets to turn their attention towards Hawkins.

1985

By 1985, the Soviet Union had began opening a new gate in Hawkins. Using the gate, the Russians managed to extract several Demogorgons. They paralysed numerous Demodogs and stored them in oxygenized tanks, but seemingly let one grow into a fully-grown Demogorgon. This Demogorgon was sent to a prison facility in the Kamchatka Peninsula, where it fed on prisoners.

1986

In 1986, the Kamchatkan Demogorgon continued to feed on prisoners, killing most of them. However, Hopper and Dmitri Antonov managed to survive the Demogorgon using a fire. The Demogorgon later killed most if not all of the prison staff.

During the prison staff's attempt to kill the Demogorgon, the tanks containing the Demodogs and a piece of the Mind Flayer were shattered by gunfire. The Mind Flayer particles went into the Demodogs, awakening them. Upon returning to the prison, Hopper lured the Demodogs and the Demogorgon back into the prison courtyard where the Demogorgon used to feed on prisoners. Just as the Demogorgon was about to attack Hopper and Joyce Byers, it and the Demodogs were lit on fire by Murray Bauman. This killed the Demodogs, but the Demogorgon managed to survive. It was then beheaded by Hopper using a sword.

1987

In 1987, during an ops mission in the Upside Down, Will Byers briefly has a vision and sees the 1987 Demogorgon travelling towards the Wheelers residence. We then see Holly Wheeler in her room as the Demogorgon creates a gate and enters her room, Holly seeks refuge with her mother Karen Wheeler and they hide underwater as Ted Wheeler fights the Demogorgon but ultimately gets thrown across the room, leaving him hospitalized. Karen Wheeler confronts the Demogorgon and injures it with the end of a wine bottle. The Demogorgon, however, recovers, and strikes her in the neck and chest, wounding her badly. Nancy & Eleven arrive to find Karen injured & the Demogorgon and Holly gone. Eleven then continues to pursue it through a gate. Later that month, a group of Demogorgons invades the Mac-Z to retrieve others intended to be used for Vecna's plan, wiping out most of the military with ease until a soldier uses a flamethrower on one and causes the Demogorgons to collapse as the hivemind is overwhelmed. With most of the horde eliminated and regrowing, Vecna sends a pack of adolescent Demogorgons to eliminate Max Mayfield at the hospital, however, are unsuccessful.

Description

Overview

Demogorgons are tetrapods with distinctive flower-like heads. They have oily black blood, like their flying sister species.^[4] They are seemingly native to the Abyss and pre-date the creation of the Upside Down on November 6, 1983.^[5][6] Despite having no apparent visual output, it was possible for organisms sharing the hive mind and possibly Demogorgons themselves having "Demo-vision" where users could see what the Demogorgon was seeing, albeit, with a vision that rendered most objects, places, people more of a red-orange filter and less clearer one, similar to thermal vision. The extent of its field of vision, as they do not rely on eyes to see, may encompass a full 360° perspective, despite relying on other senses such as hearing or smell.

It is unknown what happened to the demogorgons after the Mind Flayer and Vecna are killed thus when the Upside Down portal is destroyed.

Life cycle

See also: D'Artagnan

The life cycle of a Demogorgon seems to have six distinct stages and is similar in some ways to that of several Earth amphibian species.

In the only cases of Demogorgon reproduction observed, the cycle began with the deposition of eggs or larvae within a host by a tendril within the Upside Down. The slug-like larvae were later vomited-up by the host, before subsequently escaping into the wild. After this, the larvae underwent a period of rapid metamorphosis^[7], molting through each phase of their development until emerging as an adult. The process takes place over the span of a week. A Demogorgon's life cycle was best illustrated by Dart, a Demogorgon which Dustin temporarily kept as a pet.

A Demogorgon’s growth rate seems to be tied the amount of food and nutrients consumed. It possibly took D'Artagnan almost a year to transform from a 'slug' into a 'pollywog' in the wild. However, after being fed and nurtured by Dustin, it achieved the "Demodog" phase in the span of a few days.

Stage One: "Larva"

Larval Demogorgons^[7] are roughly the same shape and size as the standard garden slug, but they differ in coloring. Larval Demogorgons are generally dark green, with bright yellow spots.

The larvae inhabited the bodies of the original Demogorgon's victims:

• Will Byers: Will was found in the Upside Down with a tendril extending down his throat following his capture by the original Demogorgon (see Stage Six below). A month after returning home, Will coughed up a larva and washed it down his bathroom sink drain. The tendril seemed to essentially 'impregnate' Will, using his body as a means to grow slugs.
• Barbara Holland: While immersed in the Void, Eleven scoured the Upside Down to find Will and Barbara. She discovered Barb's corpse and saw a larva slither out of Barb's mouth and across her face.

Stage Two: "Pollywog"

After an unknown amount of time, a larval Demogorgon would molt to the next stage of its life cycle, sometimes referred to as a “pollywog” due to the resemblance to the larval stage of amphibians. The pollywogs are small enough to fit in the palm of a human hand, and their translucent skin is colored yellow-green. They possess a pair of forelimbs with small claw-like hands, a mouth, and a lizard-like tail. They are incredibly sensitive to heat; even direct exposure to the light of a table lamp is enough to cause a pollywog extreme discomfort. During this stage, they appear to be opportunistic feeders, as Dart was found foraging for food in a trashcan and ate a candy bar it received from Dustin.^[8]

Stage Three: "Frogogorgon"

Unlike other stages, the third stage of the cycle is not entered by the creature molting. Instead, this stage is signaled by the pollywog's skin taking on a dark green color, as well as an increase in body mass. The pollywog will then sprout a pair of hind legs, becoming quadrupedal. Small, sharp teeth begin growing in the creature's mouth.^[9][8]

Stage Four: "Catogorgon"

Once the pollywog has eaten a sufficient amount of food, it molts, growing a little larger than a standard house cat. It is in this stage that the juvenile Demogorgon develops the signature “petal mouth” that the species is best known for. In addition, the juvenile becomes carnivorous. Its skin takes on a darker color and is resistant enough to heat that it can walk in direct sunlight with no injury.^[9][8]

Stage Five: "Demodog"

Upon molting to the penultimate stage of their life cycle, the adolescent Demogorgon develops to a much larger version of their previous form, which Dustin referred to as a “Demodog”. Now roughly the size of a large dog, the Demodog is strong enough to tackle a grown human. They are proficient in digging tunnels and are able to climb steep precipices. While a Demodog is not invulnerable to gunfire, it has skin thick enough to repel several gunshots.^[8] However, despite their thick skin, a restrained Demodog inside the Kamchatka facility had its chest cut open and its organs exposed.

Demodogs have very great stamina and are able to dig long tunnels. In 1985 an adolescent Demogorgon dug a long tunnel from Dustin's cellar to enter the hawkins tunnel system forming below the town. 1989, adolescent demogorgons likely entered Hawkins through the rifts sealed by metal barriers via digging around in an attempt to enter the hospital and kill Max Mayfield.

Demodogs are incredibly vulnerable to fire and explosives, as their skin easily burns. In 1986, Murray used a flamethrower on the Russian Demogorgon and the demodogs taken by the Russians. The demodogs easily burn to death due to not being as resilient, unlike their adult counterpart who is only weakened. The next year, adolescent Demogorgons enter the hospital in Hawkins in an attempt to kill Max Mayfield. In an attempt to protect Max and the others, Mrs. Wheeler loads a flamable oxygen bottle into a washing machine as a distraction. This successfully distracts the Demodogs and when one of them realizes there's something wrong, the bottle explodes with the force of the blast and flames killing the Demodogs.

Stage Six: "The Adult"

See Also: The Demogorgon & The Kamchatka Demogorgon

After molting for presumably a final time, the Demogorgon emerges as an adult. Adult Demogorgons are primairly bipedal (though they can also take on a quadrapedal posture at times) and reach a height of approximately 6 - 10 ft. They possess immense strength, being able to knock a door off its hinges and pin down an adult human with ease. Their sense of smell is exceptionally potent, being able to detect a small amount of blood from across dimensions. Their skin has grown durable enough to withstand gunfire and numerous attacks dealt with a spiked object. One of the few things shown to cause a Demogorgon any type of significant harm was being burned, but even then the creature was able to escape fairly easily and did not seem to be hindered by its injuries. Adult Demogorgons are able to open temporary rifts between the Upside Down and other worlds, permitted there is a gate linking the two realms to allow connection to the hivemind. In 1987, numerous adult Demogorgon demonstrate the ability to open rifts, creating a massive threat to Hawkins and the human world.

Adult Demogorgons are able to survive without a link to the hivemind, unlike in earlier stages of their growth. The Soviet-captured Demogorgon in 1986 survived the sealing of the Starcourt Base gate. This Demogorgon however, was not able to open gates. This ability is appears to only be available when the individual is both linked with the hivemind and in range of a mothergate or realm plane that creates the "link" between Earth and the Upside Down. Evidence of this occured when in 1986 the Soviet Union attempted to make a portal to the Upside Down, but were unable to due to being too far from the previous location of the mothergate where the realm plane was.

Notable individuals

• The Demogorgon
• D'Artagnan
• The Kamchatka Demogorgon

Behind the scenes

When making Season 1, the Duffer Brothers wanted to primarily use practical horror elements to create the Demogorgon. The monster was shot partly via motion capture, with performer Mark Steger wearing a monster suit with an animatronic head on-set. However, from Season 2 and onwards, the other Demogorgons were fully created with CG.

For Season 2, the Duffers tasked the VFX team with creating four stages of a Demogorgon's life cycle. The book Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down indicates that the following names were internally used for the phases of the life cycle: "Pollywog", "Frogogorgon", "Catogorgon", "Demodog" and "Demogorgon".^[8]

The first two stages were designed with the intention of not giving away the creature's species. D'Artagnan's red-green skin color was chosen to resemble something that would occur in nature, with his yellow spots to help distinguish him from other members of his species. The next stage, the "pollywog", had to look cute, to make it reasonable Dustin would want to adopt Dart as his pet. The crew had to strike a balance betwen hiding indicators of Dart's Demogorgon identity, like the petal-mouth, while nevertheless being a plausible version of a nascent Demogorgon. For the later stages, the production team developed physical 3D models and turned them into silicone puppets, which helped the actors act in their scenes with Dart.^[9]

Though the slugs are often assumed to be larval Demogorgons, and the precursor to the "pollywog" stage, this has never been confirmed by the Duffer Brothers or any other member of the production team, though Paul Graff acknowledged it was a strong possibility.^[9] That said, the 2019 Topps "Evolution of a Demogorgon" trading cards depict the slugs as the first stage in the Demogorgon life cycle.^[7]

Trivia

• Human bodies becoming host to inhuman slugs is a probable reference to Alien, in which the Xenomorphs reproduce in a similar fashion.
  • Both species are presumably blind, due to having no visible eyes.
• In "The Gate", Dustin and Steve shoved a Demodog's corpse into the Byers' fridge.
  • Though the Duffer Brothers suggested the Demodog's corpse had a role to play in the third season, it ultimately went unmentioned.^[10]
  • In the Winter Special One-Shot, Dustin reveals the corpse "[turned] into sludge over night".
• In Stranger Things: The Game, Demogorgon larvae appear as regular enemies throughout the Upside Down, as well as the fourth chapter's sewer stage and the sixth chapter's Hawkins Lab stage; when killed, the larvae split into two smaller enemies.
• Fungus-like structures with Demogorgon-esque "heads" appear in the game Stranger Things VR. These lifeforms are possibly entirely imaginary or symbolic, since Vecna only finds them within the minds of creatures connected to the hive mind. The faces of the lifeforms notably consist of six 'petals', as opposed to the Demogorgons, which typically only have five.
• In "The Pollywog", Dustin considers calling the species D'Artagnan belongs in (who was in his pollywog form at the time) Dustonious pollywogus.

• The fourth season introduced the Demobats, a sister species to the Demogorgons capable of flight.
  • Prior to the season's release, it was heavily speculated that the season would introduce new Upside Down creatures, including new "Demo-creatures" to go alongside the Demogorgon and its Demodog variant.
    • Though rumor and speculation about Demobats was ultimately proven correct, "Demospiders" were also rumored to appear. This speculation was prompted by the season's early promotion, which featured a recurring spider motif. In their tweets sharing the first teaser poster for Season 4, which itself included spider imagery, Sadie Sink and Priah Ferguson left a spider emoji as the caption. Much of the "Demospider" speculation can be linked to highly speculative articles by online outlet CheatSheet.com; these articles made misleading statements about "Demospiders" appearing on merch, which was then taken out of context by some fans as evidence of a real "Demospider" monster removed from the final version of Stranger Things 4. Adding to the confusion is an official pre-vis image of a wingless Demobat (included above), which highly resembles a spider. Though spider imagery did ultimately appear in Season 4, this was specifically tied to Vecna and his love of black widows.^[12][13]

External links

• Demogorgon species at TMNTPedia

References

Locations	The Upside Down • Creel House • Curse gates • Gable Ridge Road Base • Gates • Hawkins • Hawkins National Laboratory • Lover's Lake • Hawkins Public Library • Hawkins Middle School • Hawkins Tunnel System • Mothergate • Forest Hills Trailer Park • Wall
Entities	D'Artagnan • Demobats • The Demogorgon • Demogorgon (species) • The Flayed • Flesh Thralls • Hospital Monster • The Mind Flayer • Russian Demogorgon • The Spider Monster • Hawkins Tunnel System • Vecna • Vines
The Flayed	Billy Hargrove • Heather Holloway • Bruce Lowe • Tom Holloway • Janet Holloway • Doris Driscoll
Visitors	Robert Akers • Murray Bauman • Robin Buckley • Joyce Byers • Will Byers • Scott Clarke • Vickie Dunne • Eleven • Steve Harrington • Dustin Henderson • Barbara Holland • Jim Hopper • Dr. Kay • Max Mayfield • Eddie Munson • Bob Newby• Eight/Kali Prasad • Shepard • Lucas Sinclair • Mike Wheeler • Nancy Wheeler
Miscellaneous	The Abyss • Camazotz • Cyborg Demodogs • Dungeons & Dragons • Exotic matter • Fabric of space-time • Hellscape • MAC-Z • Mind Lair • Pain Tree • The Keys • The Void • Upside Down Egg • The Upside Down (episode) • The Upside Down (track) • Vecna's curse