Grimm’s most disgusting Wesen

Grimm wouldn’t be able to call itself a supernatural horror if it didn’t, from time to time, feature something truly horrific. We’re not just talking about the hold-your-breath scenes in which our hero stalks down poorly lit corridors or through creepy Portland forests, but full-on vomit ‘n’ viscera Cronenberg-style body horror.

That’s what links the following eight Wesen; they’re the Grimm creatures you really don’t want to see on screen while you’re eating your tea. Acid-dripping spider fangs, liquefied corpses, eyeless hags, razor-toothed leeches and more ahead…

Fuchsteufelwild

“A scary goblin-like Wesen whose fingernails extend into long, sharp blade bones. Its muscles secrete a highly concentrated acid, allowing those blade bones to burn and slice through its victims”

If the acid-secreting fingernail blades isn’t enough to put you off these Wesen, then their psychotically competitive personalities will. The Fuchsteufelwild aren’t just in possession of seriously horrible bone-blades that can “cut through flesh like a hot knife through butter”, but also nasty, sadistic, homicidal minds that will make sure you feel every second of their torture.

Season two’s Fuchsteufelwild, encountered in Nameless, was a modern take on the Rumplestiltskin story which saw one of their number taunt and murder his way through a bunch of game developers as he asked them to guess his name.

Old acid fingers here, however, is just the start…

Spinnetod

“The Spinnetode are known for the gruesome way they dispatch their victims. They liquefy the organs of their prey with a highly corrosive acid, suck them out and mummify the remains.”

The description above isn’t the half of it. Not only do Spinnetode Wesen liquefy the organs of their prey with corrosive acid, they produce that acid internally and vomit it straight into the victim’s mouth. That’s me off soup for the foreseeable then.

We first met the Spinnetod (played by Angel’s Amy Acker) in season one’s Tarantella, which explained the Wesen’s rapid ageing process and need to seduce and then suck out the liquefied organs of young men in order to maintain a youthful appearance and their regenerative ability. Could they not just try Oil of Olay?

Jinnamuru-Xunte

“A hideous fly-like creature that feeds off its victims tears. It causes blindness using microscopic sand-like parasites that burrow into and eventually destroy their host’s eyeballs.”

We’ll take your spider vomit and raise you a parasitic worm eye-spray. That’s the special trick of the truly stomach-churning Jinnamuru-Xunte, which feeds on its victims tears by spitting a cloud of the aforementioned worms into their eyeballs. Hooked in place with special barbs, the worms cannot be removed and render the victim blind while the Jinnamuru-Xunte licks up their tears using its long, forked tongue.

Kind of makes you nostalgic for the Fuchsteufelwild doesn’t it? That’s not the worst of it. This fly-like Wesen is disgusting inside and out. Open up its head and you’ll find a black brain teeming with red worms.

Schakal

“Canine Wesen who are naturally aggressive, cruel, and violent, and will let nothing stand in the way of their goals”

On first look, there doesn’t seem to be anything to separate these dog-like creatures from your average brutish Wesen. Sharp teeth, fur, Wolverine-style sideburns… what’s so disgusting about all that?

It isn’t the Schakal’s physiology that merits them a place on this list, but their appetite, specifically their appetite for chowing down on tiny humans. Yup, the Schakal eat babies, which is about as despicable and nauseating as it gets.

Fun fact: according to Grimm lore, Hitler was a Schakal. So now you know.

Lebensauger

“A hideous Wesen with a large, rounded hole with sharpened teeth, like that of a leech”

From the German meaning “life sucker”, the Lebensauger is acknowledged to be one of the most repulsive Wesen in the world of Grimm. Even they find themselves disgusting, which is why the few we meet on the show are characterised by psychological issues including alcoholism and, in one memorable case, posing as a police intern to torture and kill fellow Wesen. Self-hating much?

Well, if you looked like a giant poo with teeth, you might well feel the same.

Geier

“Geiers are the vilest of all, they harvest human organs while the victims are still alive, seeming to take pleasure in the savage pain they cause.”

Even as metaphor, vultures aren’t the natural world’s best-loved creatures, and judging by the behaviour of Grimm’s Geier, our antipathy towards them is well-deserved. These vulture-ish Wesen are particularly nasty critters, off-putting in both appearance and behaviour.

The Geier’s chief reason for joining the ranks of Grimm’s most disgusting is the habit described above. They’re fond of slicing open people’s torsos and plucking out human organs while their victim is still alive. That’s gruesome enough, before you realise that Geier don’t even need to do it to survive. They use the gory ingredients to make potions and aphrodisiacs to sell to the Wesen community, making these scavenger beasts both physically and morally disgusting.

Hexenbiest

“An eyeless, witch-like Wesen who resembles a zombie with rotting or disfigured flesh”

If the Hexenbiest weren’t such dastardly Wesen – attempting to murder hospital patients, baking people drugged cookies, and putting girlfriends in magical comas – it would be unfair to judge them harshly for their zombie-hag appearance. Since they’re thoroughly evil on the inside though, we’re good to go.

Beautiful in human form, the Hexenbiest (female) and Zauberbiest (male) woge into eyeless beings with chunks of missing flesh exposing their jawbones. It’s the contrast between their appealing human sides (as portrayed by Claire Coffee and Sasha Roiz) and their distinctly unappealing centuries-dead, decaying corpse sides that makes their transformation all the more off-putting.

Cracher-Mortel

“An Archer-fish with sharp spikes that pop out as it ‘puffs up’. They spit a gooey green liquid that can induce a death-like trance in its victims”

Surely a Puffer Fish-based Wesen would end up on the adorable list? Not this chap. The Cracher-Mortel, as personified by The Waking Dead’s voodoo-practising Baron, is anything but cuddly.

It joins the Spinnetod and the Jinnamuru-Xunte as a Wesen with a disgusting spitting habit (their name actually translates as ‘deadly-spitter’ in French), though the Cracher-Mortel’s spit doesn’t kill its victims. Instead, their gooey green expectorate induces a death-like trance and, by all accounts, causes excruciating pain. To be avoided.

Next time, we take a look at Grimm‘s most adorable Wesen…

Grimm season 3 currently airs on Wednesdays at 9pm on WATCH in the UK (Sky TV 109 & Virgin TV 124).

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