There is a specific and terrifying difference between ānever wereā monsters and āare not anymoreā monsters
āThe thing that was not a deerā implies a creature which mimics a deer but imperfectly and the details which are wrong are what makes it terrifying
āThe thing that was not a deer anymoreā on the other hand implies a thing that USED to be a deer before it was somehow mutated, possessed, parasitically controlled or reanimated improperly and what makes THAT terrifying is the details that are still right and recognizable poking out of all the wrong and horrible malformations.
hey I totally fucked up and forgot the 3rd type, which is āIs Not Anymore And Maybe Never Wasā monsters āThe thing which was no longer a deer and maybe never wasā implies a creature that, at first glance, completely appears to be a deer, but over time degrades very slowly until you realize (probably too late) that it is not a deer anymore, and had you seen it in this state first, you wouldnāt have recognized it as a deer at all, and thereās a decent chance that it was never actually a deer to begin with but only a very good mimic, and what makes this one scary is the slow change from everything being right to everything being wrong, happening slowly enough that you donāt even notice it until its too late, as well as the fact that something now so clearly not a deer could have fooled you to begin with.
And the fourth type, which is, āI dunno, but it sure aināt a deer.ā Which implies complete confusion about what the creature could be, to the point that even a person as comfortable in this world as someone who would use the word aināt unironically is uncertain, which should horrify you to the deepest depths of your soul.
