Man sees distorted ‘demon-like’ faces because of rare neurological disorder
When Victor Sharrah woke up one day in November 2020, he feared he was in some sort of “demonic world”.
When he looked at people’s faces, they appeared “demon-like”, with their ears, noses and mouths stretched back, and with deep grooves in their foreheads, cheeks and chins.
“You can’t imagine how scary it was,” the 59-year-old, from Clarksville, Tennessee, said.
What he was actually seeing were distortions, caused by an incredibly rare neurological disorder, known as prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO.
Even more unusual in the case of Mr Sharrah was that, when he looked at a phone or computer screen, people’s faces appeared normally.
That gave scientists an interesting opportunity to put Mr Sharrah at the centre of an interesting new study – the results of which were recently published in respected medical journal, The Lancet.
For the first time, researchers were able to recreate these rare PMO distortions in the form of pictures.
Pic: Antonio Mello/The Lancet.
Pic: Antonio Mello/The Lancet.
“As the patient reported no distortion when viewing facial images on a screen or on paper, we asked him to compare an in-person face to a photograph of the face taken in the same room under identical lighting conditions,” the authors said in their report.
“By alternating between observing the in-person face perceived as distorted and the photo on a computer screen-perceived as undistorted, he provided real-time feedback on the perceived differences.
“We then used image-editing software to modify each photo until it matched his in-person perception.”
What is PMO?
There are reportedly fewer than 100 published case reports of PMO, and scientists don’t fully understand what triggers it.
However, they suspect it is caused by dysfunction in the brain network that handles facial processing.
The distortions can vary from case to case, with other people reporting seeing people with droopy or off-set eyes, and others reporting seeing “witch-like” features.
Interestingly, unlike a person experiencing hallucinations due to a mental disorder, a person with PMO is aware that what they are seeing is a distortion or that something is wrong with their vision.
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According to NBC, the US partner of Sky News, researchers offered two possible triggers in the case of Mr Sharrah.
The first was that he had carbon monoxide poisoning four months before his PMO symptoms started.
The second was he had endured a significant head injury 15 years earlier while hitting his head on concrete, with MRI scans showing a lesion on the left side of his brain.
Mr Sharrah also has a history of bipolar affective disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the study.
Pic: Antonio Mello/The Lancet.
Pic: Antonio Mello/The Lancet.
Though PMO symptoms often resolve after a few days or weeks, they can linger for years, and Mr Sharrah said he still sees demonic faces.
‘I came close to having myself institutionalised’
He has found ways to cope with his condition, including living with a roommate and her two kids, which he said has been helpful, because he’s used to having people around, so he isn’t as spooked when he sees new faces in public.
According to NBC, he also finds that green light alleviates his symptoms, so he sometimes wears glasses with green-tinted lenses when he’s in crowds.
Mr Sharrah wants others to know they can manage the condition.
“I came so close to having myself institutionalised,” he added.
According to the study’s lead author, Antonio Mello, a PhD student who works in Dartmouth’s Social Perception Lab, many doctors aren’t aware of PMO and may misdiagnose people with mental health disorders instead.
As a result, some PMO patients have been prescribed medications for schizophrenia or psychosis, which aren’t appropriate for their condition, he added.
American Senator Ted Cruz has broken ranks with fellow US conservatives and
hit out at talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, saying it was “mafioso” behaviour.
Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised after it pulled the long-standing host of Jimmy Kimmel Live following comments in his show about the alleged gunman charged with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Kimmel implied the suspect was a Maga Republican, despite the man’s mother telling police he had “started to lean more to the left”.
As a result, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened Disney and local broadcasters with investigations and regulatory action if they aired Kimmel’s show – which led to dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC pulling it.
US President Donald Trump, who appointed Carr, lauded the decision.
But Mr Cruz criticised the threats as “dangerous as hell”.
“I got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,” he said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. “That’s right out of
a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here.
“It would be a shame if something happened to it’.”
Senator Ted Cruz. Pic: AP
Explainer: What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk?
The senator, a former constitutional lawyer, then adopted a broad mafioso accent to quote Mr Carr’s comments about broadcasters this week: “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.”
Mr Trump fired back, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he disagreed with Mr Cruz – one of the most
powerful Republicans in Congress – and calling Mr Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage.”
Demonstrations against his suspension have sprung up. Pic: AP
The Texas senator’s remarks are a rare example of a prominent member of the president’s own party publicly
criticising the actions of the administration, highlighting deepening concerns over free-speech rights and Mr Trump’s threatened crackdowns.
Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and others who speak negatively of the president.
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US talk show titans speak out
Kimmel’s fellow late-night hosts have rallied around him, as did former US president Barack Obama, who wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
Conservative activists had been angered by Kimmel’s comments on his show that they were using the assassination to score “political points”.
Right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was shot dead on 10 September as he took part in a public debate at a college campus in Utah .
Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder, weapon, and obstruction of justice offences.
US talk show host Stephen Colbert has condemned the cancellation of fellow late-night star Jimmy Kimmel as a “blatant assault on freedom of speech”, as America’s top late night presenters came out fighting.
He used the opening of Thursday night’s edition of his Late Show to address the pulling of Jimmy Kimmel Live over comments made about the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel used his show earlier this week to accuse the Trump administration and its allies of “working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, with the president among those to pin it on left-wing extremism.
The move by Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised, with the network accused of kowtowing to President Donald Trump, who celebrated the decision.
Also airing on Thursday night, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, appeared in a garish gold set, in parody of Mr Trump’s redesign of the White House, to tell viewers the episode would be “another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show”.
Stewart, playing the role of an over-the-top, politically obsequious TV host under authoritarian rule, lavished praise on the president and satirised his criticism of US cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight crime.
“Coming to you tonight from the real […] crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no-one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” he said.
He then introduced his guest – Maria Ressa, a journalist and author of the book How To Stand Up To A Dictator.
Jon Stewart. Pic: Associated Press
Over at The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon told his audience he was “not sure what was going on” but that Kimmel is “a decent funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back”.
Fallon then promised viewers that in spite of people being “worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we will be censored”, he was going to cover the president’s recent trip to the UK “just like I normally would”.
He was then replaced by a voiceover describing Mr Trump as “incredibly handsome” and “making America great again”.
Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s Tonight Show. Pic: The Tonight Show X
Seth Meyers also joined the fray.
“Donald Trump is on his way back from a trip to the UK,” he said at the top of his show Late Night, “while back here at home, his administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech… and completely unrelated, I just wanted to say that I have always admired and respected Mr Trump.
“I have always believed he was a visionary, an innovator, a great president, and an even better golfer.”
Kimmel’s removal from the show he has hosted for two decades led to criticism that free speech was under attack.
But speaking on his visit to Britain, Donald Trump claimed he was suspended “because he had bad ratings”.
It came after fellow late-night host Colbert saw his programme cancelled earlier this year, which fans claimed was also down to his criticism of Mr Trump, who has since railed against Kimmel, Meyers, and Fallon.
He has posted on Truth Social that they should all be cancelled.
Jimmy Kimmel hosting last year’s Oscars. Pic: AP
Figures from both the worlds of entertainment and politics lined up to lament ABC’s removal of Kimmel.
Chat show doyenne David Letterman said people should not be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what he called “an authoritarian” president.
During an appearance at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York on Thursday night, he added: “It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.
“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media.”
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
Former US president Barack Obama wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
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