In a movie I saw recently, a person was laying in their bed, covered by a sheet. A demonic entity used this opportunity to pull down the sheet (down as in, toward the floor)* and crush the victim. Fortunately someone intervened and the demon’s plan was scuttled. For now.
If that were to happen IRL (work with me here), wouldn’t the sheet just fail at a certain point and rip apart long before the person under it was in any real danger? I imagine the victim would feel some discomfort (apart from being terrified, that is), but other than a bloody nose I don’t think they’re looking at any real long-term damage.
*The demon was pulling at the sheet uniformly- so essentially all of the edges of the sheet were being pulled toward the floor simultaneously.
I wonder if the width of the bed would make a difference. In my mind, the sheets are being pulled from around the edge of the bed towards the floor. So it seems like a really wide bed would cause most of the force on the sheets to be sideways and that pulling hard enough to get the requisite downward force would rip the sheet.
Also, unless the person were completely covered by the sheet, surely they could wiggle out of the top edge.
I’d imagine a lot depends upon the type of mattress. An old fashioned metal frame might rip the sheet at a stress point, especially near the corners. But if you had a soft foam mattress, I’m guessing you’d asphyxiate.
metaphysical entities don’t necessarily have to follow the laws of a 3-d universe. the demon could be pulling on the entire sheet (not just the edges), which would be very similar to being smothered with a large pillow.
If you’ve got Gout, you don’t even have to pull on the sheet – the mere pressure due to the weight of the sheet will make you feel that you are being Crushed To Death.
We speak, sadly, from experience (but not recent experience, fortunately, due to Allopurinol).
Exactly what I was thinking. If the entity was pulling merely on the edges, as described by the OP, then crushing would be impossible. And asphyxiation wouldn’t happen either, because we seem to be talking about a porous fabric bedsheet, not some sort of sheet of plastic.
I think if you built a frame out of steel that say weighed 5000# and had the sheet stretched across it then layed the sheet across the subject. I say the sheet would fail.
If you had rollers set at the same width as the subject and the rollers simply tightened the sheet over the subject I think he would suffocate.
Everyone here is aware that you can breathe through a cloth sheet, right? In fact, if you ever find yourself in a fire, get your bed sheet and soak it with water if you can, and breathe through that.