The Weeping Angels

Imagine walking into completely silent abandoned building.

Dust covers the floor, old furniture sits exactly where it was left, and in the corner stands a beautiful stone angel with its hands covering its face.

You don't know what it is so you stare at it, curious. You look away for just a second, and then you look back.

It's closer, frightening you.

That is the nightmare at the heart of the Weeping Angels, one of the most terrifying creatures ever created for Doctor Who.

Strangely enough, these weeping angel story didn't begin with an alien planet or some complicated science-fiction idea.

It began with a statue in a graveyard.

The Weeping Angels first appeared in the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Blink," written by Steven Moffat.

The basic rule was simple but very horrifying:

They can move when you're not looking at them. The moment you look at one, it becomes completely still - like an ordinary stone statue.

You turn your head? It moves close.

You so as much blink? It moves closer.

Look at your phone for a moment? You might already be in trouble - probably dead🤦

In the story, Doctor Who described them as ancient creatures known as the "Lonely Assassins." Their unusual biology makes them "quantum locked" that is, when they are observed, they are forced into a stone-like state - and that's what makes them so frightening.

You don't have to outrun them or anything extreme. You simply have to keep watching them no matter what...or else...

Steven Moffat has said that the inspiration for the Weeping Angels came from a holiday in Dorset, England.

He had discovered a chained-off graveyard with a warning about an unsafe structure. Inside, he noticed a statue of a weeping angel.

It was creepy enough to stick in his mind.

But years later, Moffat returned to the area with his son - and the angel was gone. The graveyard and the warning was still there, but the statue couldn't be found.

Moffat later joked about the two possible explanations: either the angel was real or he had somehow imagined it. What bothered him was that he remembered clearly seeing it.

Of course, there is no evidence that a supernatural angel actually disappeared. But as inspiration for a horror monster?

It's almost perfect.

But why do they cover their faces? That's another clever part of the design.

They're called Weeping Angels because they are often depicted with their hands covering their faces, resembling grieving angel statues found in cemeteries.

But there's a darker interpretation: The Angels can't look at one another without freezing each other. So when one appears to cover its face, it may actually be protecting itself from another Angel's gaze.

Right now, imagine an entire room filled with them. Every statue could be watching another, and the moment you stop watching them...they move.

What thing to keep in mind though is that they don't exactly kill anyone, which makes them even stranger.

In Doctor Who, they typically attack by touching their victims and sending them backward through time. Instead of simply killing someone, an Angel can effectively steal the victim's future life by throwing them into the past, then feeding on the resulting temporal energy.

It's a horrifying concept because the victim doesn't necessarily die immediately. They simply lose the life they were supposed to have, and suddenly, the past becomes their future.

One reason the Angels became so memorable is that the episode didn't need constant explosions or graphic violence. In fact, you barely see them move.

That's the genius thing about the episode.

The audience knows the Angels are moving, but the camera doesn't show the movement itself. Instead, you see the result.

A statue was over there.

Now it's here.

You look away. It's closer again.

That forces your imagination to do most of the work. And sometimes, what your imagination creates is much scarier than anything special effects could show.

Moffat also drew inspiration from the childhood game "Statues," in which players have to freeze when they're being watched and can move when they're not.

He reportedly found the game frightening even as a child. Combine that childhood fear with a creepy cemetery statue and the idea of observation affecting reality - and you get the Weeping Angels.

It's a remarkably simple recipe for horror.

If you've ever watched Doctor Who, you've probably heard the warning:

Don't blink.

It became so closely associated with the Angels that an ordinary bodily function suddenly became terrifying.

You can't stop blinking forever. Eventually, your eyes have to close.

And the Angels know that. That's what makes the monster so effective.

You aren't fighting something you can punch.

You're fighting your own biology.

The Angels were so popular that they returned in later stories, including "The Time of Angels," "Flesh and Stone," "The Angels Take Manhattan," and later Doctor Who stories.

But their first appearance remains special. "Blink" became one of the most celebrated episodes of the revived series, earning Steven Moffat a BAFTA for Best Writer in 2008.

And perhaps that's the strangest thing about their success.

The Weeping Angels aren't terrifying because they're enormous. They aren't terrifying because they have huge teeth.

They're terrifying because they look like something you've probably walked past hundreds of times.

A statue.

Something silent and harmless.

Something that cannot possibly move.

At least...not while you're looking at it.