Good monster designs

[alan nagsworth]

'Xtro' has some fucking quality weirdness in it beneath the absolutely shambolic acting and musical score. I remember seeing the above gif posted here and being compelled to find the source and watch the film.

Max props to 80s robot mime act Tik and Tok for providing their physical acting skills as the alien and the big toy commando. Both of those scenes are properly unnerving and strange.

I really love contorted or disfigured human forms as monsters in movies. It's an obvious play on the senses and the norm but nevertheless. 'The Thing' as already mentioned is an obvious choice, and there are some other greats as well, such as the "monster" in 'Possession' and the absolutely definitive and gloriously insane shit that goes down in 'Society'. Nothing could have prepared me for how that film pans out. Top tier body horror and prosthetic nastiness.

[Mini]

'Xtro' has some fucking quality weirdness in it beneath the absolutely shambolic acting and musical score. I remember seeing the above gif posted here and being compelled to find the source and watch the film.

Wow, I'm going to have to do the same. I completely agree about the Thing and the Fly, and while we're on Cronenberg I'll mention the weird worms from Shivers, echoed in James Gunn's Slither. They're both phallic and turd-like, brilliantly icky stuff.

[Repentia]

Quite shockingly scary as a child, appreciation that the Skeksis' corruption represent their personal vices comes later. The Dark Crystal was sadly from another era even on release, one in which children were supposed to be scared witless occasionally. The essence draining scene is particularly memorable. Team Henson's appreciation for the grotesque is quite beautifully expressed in their monster films, made horribly worse by the likes of Frank Oz twisting the nerve with their vocal performances. The inhabitants of The Labyrinth may have become thematically less scary as the film went on, but there was still occasional jarring horror with the likes of the Junk Lady.



This reveal pulled the goshing rug out from under me back in the day.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

[Repentia]

Who says there isn't a political career after the muppets, eh? She was great in The Dark Crystal.

The existence of multiple Junk Ladies adds a further adults-only appreciation for the fact that Sarah is definitely not the first teenager to get herself hopelessly lost in the Labyrinth, seduced and then discarded by Jareth.

[Don_Preston]

Professeur Flipus, who is Serge Gainsbourg's muse in 'Gainsbourg.'

[Repentia]

Another triumph of pure puppetry, the sheer range of expression gives Steve Martin a run for his gurning money. The Feed Me sequence in par-tic-u-lar, where he crosses his fronds, taps his tendrils, pouts, simmers and eventually thumps his pot for joy at talking Seymour around to murder. At no point do I not believe he's alive, and enjoying every minute of his arch performance.

His final form is amazingly balanced between comedy and horror. Even within the cartoonish, stage musical pastiche visual style, the sheer size and malice of all of that purple confirms his imminent takeover of the planet.

[ZoyzaSorris]

+1 on the dark crystal as something that freaked me the fuckety fuck out as kwiddle. And I loved it. Kids should like dark shit.

[ZoyzaSorris]

speaking of things that have no eyes and freaked you out as a kid, these fuckers gave me a few nightmares (though clearly ridiculous looking at them now)

[clingfilm portent]

Kids should like dark shit.

I agree and its hard to try and get this idea across too passionately without sounding like some kind of a nutcase, especially when you're trying to communicate it to people who actually have children.

[BlodwynPig]

The original and the best

[Kane Jones]

The original and the best

Great Halloween costume if you're a baldy, too.

[BlodwynPig]

You're more Salem's Lot than Murnau, Kane.

[Kane Jones]

You're more Salem's Lot than Murnau, Kane.

Is there a great deal of difference? I always thought Tobe Hooper's Mr Barlow was a direct rip-off of Nosferatu anyway.

[envelope]

Great thread! Totally agree with everything posted.

Especially loved the Skesis, was fascinated with them as a kid. The bit that always creeped me out was the dining scene, the way they attached various bits of twisted looking cutlery to their fingers was incredibly well designed. Plus, the creatures themselves are just shambolic. Shuffling about like an arthritic tramp. Somehow this made them so much more menacing.

Which brings me too my vote for the Zombies in Lucio Fulci's Zombie flesh eaters.

Yeah, yeah, I know...zombies and all that....but these have always been a league ahead in my opinion. Just caked in texture and creepiness.



I mean, just look at that! Fucking horrible. You can practically smell it.

[Thomas]

I have just remembered the villainous Charn from kids' telly thing Through the Dragon's Eye -

[Brundle-Fly]

I think this has to be the most iconic representation of a mutant/ generic alien from This Island Earth (1956), launching copyist B movie Martian creatures and the Mars Attacks Topps bubblegum cards several years later.

[BlodwynPig]

I have just remembered the villainous Charn from kids' telly thing Through the Dragon's Eye -

Histor's uncle?

[small_world]

I have just remembered the villainous Charn from kids' telly thing Through the Dragon's Eye -

Fucking hell yeah, freaky fucker.

[small_world]

Ahhhh. Other kid freaky things... THE MOOMINS!!
Eugh, they were proper well weird, especially that little girl one.

Someone post a moomin.

[PAGATRON]

Here you go love.



I was more impressed with the Groke

[Spiteface]

Daijinryuu from Gosei Sentai Dairanger [nb]Or Serpenterra from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, if you prefer.[/nb] Because nothing says "Peace-keeping God" quite like a giant robot dragon.



Yes, those are skyscrapers that only just come up to his feet.

[garbed_attic]

I have just remembered the villainous Charn from kids' telly thing Through the Dragon's Eye -

I begged my mum not to make me go to school. It turns my stomach. The wax crayon coloured people melting into liquid glubber-slush. ERG! It reminded me of a Youtube Doubling I did pairing the final battle with Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum, though:
http://youtubedoubler.com/9SHa

As for Moomins, it's disquieting and tender and wry and definitely worth a rewatch.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Charn was bloody chilling. A complete mindfuck compared to the jolly tone of the rest of the show. It's a great design though; it just is evil.

[Morrison Lard]

Krang.

Pink blob, camp as Christmas and lived inside that bloke off Masterchef. Brilliant.

Sarlacc

A great big bumhole, with teeth, that lived in the desert. Brilliant, but ruined forever when they gave it tentacles and a beak.

[Sivead]

Matango! My favorite kaiju, but on in vintage vinyl toy form and on a trike.

[Brundle-Fly]

Mangled up vengeful psychotic sports personality, Artie Gruber from 2000AD's Harlem Heroes strip.

[eluc55]

Obviously velociraptors aren't monsters, but their design in the original Jurassic Park deserves a mention.

Sneering sadists, with eyes that convey so much personality, they just look like total cunts.

[Deanjam]

Flukeman

[Repentia]

Oh yes! And Squeeze. I remember the delight when they brought Eugene Tooms back in a later episode. It was probably the best Xfiles callback in the entire series. It's not just his eyes, or the stretching business, it's his whole demeanour. And the wonderful fade out to him making his newspaper nest in the cell. It's subtle the ways in which he's monstrous, hiding behind the facade of his human appearance.

Subtle monsters are good, too. Pennywise as the gas station attendant was probably the creepiest form he took. It was the little smile he gave as he let slip a line of dramatic irony.