Alyda Winthrop

Alyda Winthrop is a character created by Jean-Paul Ouellette for the 1988 film The Unnamable and its 1993 sequel The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter. She is loosely based on the titular creature from H. P. Lovecraft's original short story "The Unnamable".
In the first film, Alyda was played by Katrin Alexandre. In the second film, her human body is separated from the creature possessing her, with the former played by Maria Ford and the latter by Julie Strain.
==Biography==
Alyda Winthrop was born in 17th century Arkham to the wizard Joshua Winthrop and his wife. Physically, she was a gargoyle-like creature with pale skin, hoofed feet, legs covered in white fur, bat-like wings on her back, scaly hands with taloned fingers, pointed ears, sharp teeth, and horns on her head. She was sensitive to the light and preferred to flee from it. Her behaviour was animalistic and violent, as she produced screeching noises and would try to brutally kill anyone who came near her.
Alyda's mother died in childbirth, as Alyda "ate through her body". As a result, the child was raised by Joshua, who was forced to keep her locked up in the attic. Unable to control his daughter, Joshua consulted grimoires such as the Necronomicon, and successfully cast a spell that prevented Alyda from leaving the house. However, he was aware that the wooden walls would rot someday, and thus planted trees around the property, hoping to find ways to communicate with the tree spirits that he believed could help him. (: The Unnamable)
In 1704 (: The Unnamable II), Joshua was killed by Alyda, and the house was abandoned for over 300 years, during which Alyda remained alive and confined to the house by her father's spell (: The Unnamable). However, the spell didn't prevent her from burrowing under the ground, which gave her access to the nearby graveyard. Over the centuries, she built a system of subterranean tunnels and survived by feeding on human corpses (: The Unnamable II).
When a group of students from Miskatonic University came to explore the Winthrop House, Alyda attacked and killed several of them, until Randolph Carter found the means to summon the spirits of the trees planted by Joshua. The trees outside the house became animated by the spirits, and reached inside with their branches to capture Alyda and drag her away, saving the lives of Howard Damon and Tanya Heller. (: The Unnamable)
Dragged to the underground tunnels, Alyda was bound by the tree roots. She was later found in that state by Randolph Carter and Prof. Warren when they were exploring the passages.
A blood sample taken by Warren revealed that Alyda's cellular structure was a mix of human cells intertwined with those of an unknown creature. Warren deduced that Alyda was in fact a human who had been possessed her entire life by a being that could occupy the same space as her. The phenomenon is described in terms of quantum mechanics, although Carter acknowledges that in the 17th century it would be the same as magic. They reason that Alyda and the quantum creature live in a form of symbiosis, and that the latter couldn't exist for long without the former.
To drive the creature away from her body, Warren injects insulin into Alyda's bloodstream to "poison" her, then "cures" her back to normal with sugar. The plan works, and Warren and Carter are left with a fully human Alyda who has the healthy body of a young woman, and an innocent child-like mindset. Meanwhile, the creature, although separated from its host and unable to exist by itself for long, remains corporeal enough to manifest itself physically. It proceeds to kill Warren and several other people, while trying to track down the human Alyda and merge back with her. When its final attempt is thwarted by Carter, the otherworldly being is finally destroyed, although this has the unforeseen effect of causing Alyda's human body to age and perish as well. (: The Unnamable II)
Category:Characters Originating From Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Other Supernatural Beings
Category:Deceased (In Mythos)