Fifty More Horror Clichés That Should Be Left to Spoil

#21: Mutations

  Whenever someone thinks about exposure to toxic waste materials in popular culture, their minds tend to reach out to one of two routes.

The first route is that the exposed person in question gains some type of incredible superpower, such as the strength of The Incredible Hulk or the stretchy, rubber based body of Mr. Fantastic. In this variant of the trope, usually a very powerful superhero is born, if not a very formidable villain.

The second route is that a second head pops out the side of your head or some other freaky business occurs that alters the state of your body. You become very monstrous looking in this route of the popular culture trope, becoming a "freak" in mere minutes after accidental exposure, the darkest variant of toxic waste exposure in media for sure.

Both examples of toxic waste exposure in popular culture are very fantasy-based, with the only thing connecting them to any type of science in real life being the DNA altering process. It is a cliché in any media, especially superhero stories and the horror genre. Nothing about the exposure process in any of these examples are in the least bit realistic, and scrape away any of the actual real world implications. Heck, there is even the slight danger that some kid might believe that toxic waste exposure might lead to superpowers and thus put themselves in danger. When it comes to actual toxic waste exposure, the side effects are a lot more scary and chilling to say the least.

To not get too graphic on the side effects of actual radiation exposure, basically exposure to even the slightest bit of toxic waste is extremely dangerous for your health. Instead of superpowers or a monstrously altered appearance, those exposed to actual toxic waste immediately become deathly ill. The radiation inside toxic waste is extremely dangerous for the way it acts viciously on all the DNA structures inside of a human body. In seconds, strong bonds of DNA that help your body do everyday functions are broken down or altered in such a way that they cannot do their job anymore. Thus, the body starts to break down completely, leading to all sorts of messed up things that will ultimately without medical help will result in an extremely painful death.

Again, without getting too gory, the effects these poor people feel while suffering from radiation sickness is far from pleasant. The first obvious sign is hair loss, an effect anyone who has ever gotten chemo therapy can completely attest to. This hair loss can be permanent and if the hair were to grow back in the future, there is a high chance it will be bleached out and become white. Then there is a vicious nausea that completely takes over the body, a type of stomach sickness ten times worse than any type of intestinal-based virus you may have had in the past. That is not even mentioning burnt and blistered skin, complete confusion, and coughing up blood. Depending on the severity of the exposure, death without treatment can take a couple hours all the way to a couple of days.

Real life toxic waste exposure is really no joke, and much more frightening than any type of media would have you believe. It is one of the worst experiences any person could be forced to witness, making the scariest of horror narratives look like a children's book. The real life implications of radiation poisoning are extremely frightening and not something that can easily be sugarcoated.

It is important for anyone writing about toxic waste exposure to not try to warp the details so suddenly innocent people believe the worst that will happen is a second head. Toxic waste exposure is an extremely painful experience that the public should be informed about so as to not risk witnessing the terribleness of it. While you should be careful about the details when talking about the subject to not completely scar certain people, it is an important topic that should be brought up so people can stay safe.

The only way we can take down the demon that is radiation poisoning is through information. As writers, one of our primary goals is to inform the public about a certain topic, whether it be completely fantasy based or something as serious as radiation poisoning. Through our words, we could save many lives in just a few sentences. The public needs to know about serious stuff like radiation poisoning, even if the details are not pleasant to talk about for the person or ourselves. Information is a sword much stronger than steel, able to pierce through the souls of anyone listening.

Misinformation in fictional tropes are quite dangerous if not handled correctly. This is the case with toxic waste exposure, which many people wrongly connect to superpowers or strange monster-like forms. It is a subject that needs to be handled with much better care if the public is to remain safe.