When the monster finally opens its legs in No One Gets Out Alive, a giant fanged mouth emerges from its groin and decapitates its victim. The figure walks on oversized hands, while a veil of skin spreads behind it like wings.
Director Santiago Menghini identified the creature as Ītzpāpālōtl, an Aztec warrior and death goddess whose name translates as “obsidian butterfly” or “clawed butterfly.” In Aztec religion, she rules the paradise of Tamoanchan and is queen of the skeletal Tzitzimimeh.
Menghini said the creature began with a design by Keith Thompson, who also designed the monster in The Ritual. Unit VFX developed the effects, William Todd-Jones created the puppet, and performer Luana Chebeleu supplied its movement.
The moths surrounding the box are Rothschildia orizaba, which Menghini connected to Ītzpāpālōtl and the creature’s consumed victims. He said the entity “doesn’t just want to eat its victims; it wants to own them, possess them, keep them forever.”
The supernatural horror film was loosely adapted from Adam Nevill’s 2014 novel and released worldwide on Netflix on September 29, 2021. The Aztec deity was created for the film; the novel’s horror drew from English folk tradition instead.
The design resurfaced nearly 5 years later when the Instagram account unusual.cinema praised it on September 20, 2026. The film’s use of Ītzpāpālōtl has also drawn criticism for turning a figure associated with protecting midwives and women in labor into a monster.
