What Are The Monsters In From? Every Rumor And Theory Explained

After three seasons of wading through an ever-rising tide of puzzle box mysteries, the MGM+ sci-fi series "From" finally gave viewers a major clue about the origins of the nightmare creatures terrorizing Fromville after dark. This revelation came through two pieces of dialogue in the Season 3 finale, "Revelations: Chapter Two."

The first big reveal comes through Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) moments after her nightmarish pregnancy pod is whisked away by the ubume doula. As Ellis (Corteon Moore) joins her in the root cellar to gratefully note that she's "okay," Fatima tells him she saw what the monsters did. "Those things that come out at night, I saw what they are. They sacrificed their children because it promised them that they would live forever." Smiley's (Jamie McGuire) rebirth from Fatima's prego-pod just as she's saying this while surrounded by all of his monster Fromily only serves to support Fatima's claim that the monsters cannot die — at least not permanently. Moments later, Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) remembers that she and Jade (David Alpay) were in Fromville at the beginning and have returned many times trying to save their daughter, suggesting Fatima's vision is true.

In a place where spirits and voices mislead human inhabitants, there's no guarantee any vision should be taken at face value. But even if there's something to Fatima's claim that the monsters were humans who sacrificed their kids for eternal life, the full truth behind these creatures is still up for speculation — leaving room for some pretty fascinating fan theories.

Outwardly, the monsters credited as the "Nightmare Creatures" look like extras from "The Andy Griffith Show." There's a milkman, a farm hand, a bride, a cowboy, a mechanic, a cheerleader, a librarian, and even a couple of nurses in the mix. They can seem like regular friendly humans right up until they turn on their victims, ripping their bodies into nothing but grisly carcasses. As creator John Griffin remarked in a behind-the-scenes clip, "They come at you smiling. They come at you with a seduction and with an enticement."

The creatures can shift to reveal gruesome figures beneath their facades, freakish appearances that are inspired by Irish artist Francis Bacon's 1953 painting "Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X." They can't be killed using conventional weapons and do not appear to experience pain, and, as we now know, they have to be resurrected if they are killed somehow. Kristi's dissection in "Belly of the Best" reveals Smiley's desiccated innards, suggesting the monsters were once human.

By day, they live in the tunnel system underneath Fromville. The creatures are highly intelligent, manipulative, and capable of changing their strategy. They deeply relish hunting and torturing their victims — although they leave both Randall (A.J. Simmons) and Boyd (Harold Perrineau) alive when given the chance to kill them. Although the talismans keep them out of homes, they can be invited in, and they'll say anything to get that invitation. Unsettlingly, they also seem to know much more about the townspeople than they should from just creeping around the woods at night.

One thing we know for sure about Fromville is that it doesn't seem to fall on any map of the world as we know it. This fact is established early in the series through the map at the post-office-turned-sheriff's station that reveals people arrive in Fromville from all over the United States. Whether the monsters are trapped there or remain there by choice is open to debate, as is the very nature of the world they inhabit.

Some fans have speculated that the monsters reside in purgatory, while another hypothesis holds that the entire reality is constructed in young Ethan's (Simon Webster) mind. There's even a contingent of fans convinced "From" is a simulation theory story. But for many in the Fromily fandom, it seems most likely that Fromville exists either as or in a pocket dimension much like the Christmasland pocket universe in "NOS4A2." 

As The Faceless Girl observes on her YouTube channel, "From" seems to be set in a universe where thoughts directly impact reality, with the Fromville community potentially being drawn from memory. This, she suggests, is how we ended up with things that don't quite make sense, like a hotel sign and pool without a hotel. If true, it could even explain Fromville's bizarre power system, with its wires going to nowhere that still somehow manage to power the community.

For a long time, the "dark fae/sluagh" fan theory dominated "From" Facebook groups and subreddits only to suddenly drop off with Tabitha and Fatima's most recent revelations. Even if it was seemingly disproven, it was a pretty good theory with plenty of evidence to back it up. Many pointed to the word "fae" itself as evidence, noting that it can mean "from" in Scottish English dialects. Citing Celtic folklore, theorists note that fairies — also called fae — were often dark and violent creatures. In some legends, they were human-sized, godlike beings who only came out at night. One type of fairy called the sluagh are the cannibalistic spirits of the restless, unforgiven dead.

However, despite Tabby and Fatima's big reveals, this theory may not be completely debunked. The world of Fromville seems riddled with mythology, so it makes sense that the people who sacrificed their own children in exchange for immortality might find themselves cursed to roam a pocket dimension as cannibalistic souls damned by their own misdeeds. The presence of the doula yokai, cairns, and a three-rooted tree like Yggdrasil from Norse mythology — not to mention all of the runic symbols hanging around Fromville, from the talismans right down to Ellis' blue jeans — all tie in with this idea that mythology plays an essential role in this reality in one way or another.

Another very popular theory is that the nightmare creatures are a new take on the Native American myths of Wendigos or Skinwalkers. If true, this might account for the fact that only people from the contiguous United States seem to make it to Fromville. As depicted in the second episode of "Supernatural" and the Wendigo horror movie "Antlers," Wendigo legends derive from Algonquian oral traditions, while Skinwalkers derive from Navajo folklore. While the Wendigo curse theory seems at first to align with the townspeople's choice to sacrifice their children in exchange for eternal life, it seems to fall apart the closer you look into these Indigenous oral traditions.

As Cherokee author Calla Claire explained in a TikTok video on the topic, both Skinwalker and Wendigo legends relate to Indigenous traditions that deal with the "duality of man." According to Claire, "It is more like if you choose evil, this will happen to you," which she says explains why these creatures are human-like. And, according to Indigenous YouTuber Shanclen of Shanclen Shadow Productions, Skinwalkers are shapeshifters who used to be medicine people but sacrificed a loved one to gain their powers more quickly.

Much like the timeline of "Lost," another series about a mysterious place where no one can leave produced by "From" producers Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner, the events going down in Fromville make fans want to freeze the screen and spend countless hours searching for hidden meaning. Unlike their previous mystery box series, "From" producers have promised that this time around they actually have a plan to go with their completely out-of-pocket storytelling.

With this reassurance in mind, Fromily members have picked up on all sorts of details, like the dates scrawled across the lighthouse wall and cave art depicting something fans are calling the "red jellyfish" drawn next to a sketch of Jade's tree root symbol. Many fans believe the red jellyfish symbolizes an entity controlling everything in Fromville, from the weather to the radios and jukeboxes — an entity that may or may not look like an actual red jellyfish.

According to this theory, the monsters are doing this entity's bidding, and it's this entity that most likely convinced them to sacrifice their children. As this theory notes, the creatures seem to act in concert at times under someone or something's direction, like when they suddenly changed their routine one night. YouTuber Dan Underscore has pointed out that several characters could be the jellyfish entity, observing that the "ghosts" of Abby, Khatri, and Tom could all just be the entity taking on various forms.

From the beginning of "From," the writers have been rather loudly telegraphing the idea that stories, storytelling, thought, and imagination are integral to the show's meaning. Referencing his Lake of Tears story, Ethan talks extensively about being on a "hero's quest," at one point declaring, "We probably have to save somebody if we want to go home [...] Sometimes I pretend that's where Thomas went. That he's on a magical quest and if I try, I can help him save the kingdom." His parents read his favorite book "Flight of the Cromenockle," acting out a scene that references a cave.

Sara's (Avery Konrad) suggestion that Fromville has a way of physically manifesting nightmares doesn't seem that unlikely given Nathan's fear of cicadas preceding an actual swarm of cicadas getting released. Some fans have suggested the thing that dragged Sara and Boyd's tent was the giant spider from Ethan's storytelling. In another version of this theory, Victor and Tabitha (whose husband Jim Matthews is played by an actor you're probably familiar with) are the storytellers.

If the anghkooey children poured their hopes into tree roots to create the Faraway trees and their cursed parents are nightmare creatures, perhaps Fromville is somehow governed by thought and things that people imagine are capable of permanently altering reality. This could account for all of the abandoned dwellings from different eras we see represented around the map outside of Fromville — things like the Victorian mansion and the cabins that appear to be from early colonists. If this theory holds true, it's even possible that the original villagers were transformed into monsters by their own thoughts through the monstrous act of sacrificing their own children.