Dark Presence (Alan Wake)

The Dark Presence is the Villain from Alan Wake. It is an amorphous force of pure elemental darkness and malevolence. It lairs in Cauldron Lake, near Bright Falls. The water of the lake is infused with it's magic. It is very sensitive to light, and may have been inspired by HP Lovecraft's The Haunter in the Dark.

Native American myth
The native americans living near what would become the town of Bright Falls believed that the lake was a way to the realm of the dead.

Artists
The Dark pPresence normally sleeps in the Dark Place, at the very bottom of Cauldron Lake. However, will awaken when it senses someone with the right ammount of creative potential, and manipulate the real world to fit their story. It also attempts to manipulate the story itself to get itself free from the fetters of the lake. Since a story must stay true to it's internal logic, it can't just be "I get free. The end." This sort of corner-cutting also doesn't work if the artist tries to just have an angel show up and stab it with a flaming sword, for example. That would ruin the suspension of disbelief. For example, a poet who's lover had drowned in the Lake was written back to life in avery shoddy fasion. As there was no actual storyline or heroic sacrifices on the part of the protagonist, the Dark Presence used her as it's Avatar.

Minions
The minions of the Dark Presence are known as Taken. The Dark Presence engulfs an unilluminated human with a tendril of itself and erases it's personality and free will, and manipulates them to attack the Protagonist of the now-real story. Normal taken are armed with a variety of implements, such as sickles and meathooks. Super Taken are unarmed, but they can move so fast as to turn The Flash green with envy. Chainsaw taken are, of course, armed with chainsaws and are very bulky with a large ammount of upper body strength.

Other minions are Poltergeist Objects, possessed oil drums and spools of cable, and often whole vehicles.