Scariest horror monsters.

[Custard]

Though I don't think it was a great film, The Babadook was pretty effective, I thought

[St_Eddie]

Few monsters have stuck in my head quite as much as this:

Cat's Eye is such a fun film.

"Hello again...friends."

A different take on Brown Jenkin appears in the TV series Masters of Horror, with their own adaptation of The Dreams in the Witch House.  It freaked the crap out of me...

Personally, I always found the intro to Monsters to be very silly and borderline laughable.  To each their own though.

As a kid, I always used my hands to cover my eyes, whenever this moment came on screen.  Ditto with the gremlin at the window of the airplane in the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet segment of film.

[greenman]

I'm fascinated by animatronics and old school special fx, so with films like The Thing, Alien, The Fly, etc, there's nothing faintly scary to the figures themselves, personally

The 2 things that come to mind that shit me up good and proper were the Old Dwarf Woman at the end of Don't Look Now and the tramp behind the diner in Mulholland Dr.

Robert Blake in Lost Highway as well if that counts.

I would say certain scenes in The Thing were quite scary though...



The film itself arguably moves from more of a horror towards action as it progresses, something like the monster with the dog in its side at the end is intended more as a threat.

[Shaky]

Personally, I always found the intro to Monsters to be very silly and borderline laughable.  To each their own though.

I see where you're coming from and it is close to being laughable but for me that's what makes it unsettling. The shoddy music, the wonky 80's video look, the fact they're all horribly deformed but acting like a normal sitcom family. Gave me the right shits as a child when i caught it by accident at some illicit time of night.

With the Aykroyd reveal, again it's almost silly if looking at the picture alone but it's a brilliantly paced shock in the movie. Still gets me every time.

[St_Eddie]

The Sumatran Rat-Monkey, from Peter Jackson's Braindead.  The jerky stop-motion animation only adds to the nightmarish vibe.

I see where you're coming from and it is close to being laughable but for me that's what makes it unsettling. The shoddy music, the wonky 80's video look, the fact they're all horribly deformed but acting like a normal sitcom family. Gave me the right shits as a child when i caught it by accident at some illicit time of night.

I do see what you mean and perhaps I'd feel similarly if I had seen it as a kid but alas, I saw my first episode of Monsters just a few short years ago and was far too cynical and jaded by then, to be creeped out by it.

With the Aykroyd reveal, again it's almost silly if looking at the picture alone but it's a brilliantly paced shock in the movie. Still gets me every time.

Yes.  A huge part of why that scare works is because of the speed of the reveal, the shortness of the shot and the animalistic sound that the creature makes.  As an aside, I've always wondered what exactly Aykroyd's character is?  Are there any mythological beasties, which might tally with his wanton transformation?  Whatever he is, he had a reasonably decent knowledge of TV shows and their theme music, which amuses me greatly; the thought of a monstrous being, relaxing for a nice night-in, slouched in front of the TV, tapping his feet to the theme song.

[Shaky]

Yes.  A huge part of why that scare works is because of the speed of the reveal, the shortness of the shot and the animalistic sound that the creature makes.  As an aside, I've always wondered what exactly Aykroyd's character is?  Are there any mythological beasties, which might tally with his wanton transformation?  Whatever he is, he had a reasonably decent knowledge of TV shows and their theme music, which amuses me greatly; the thought of a monstrous being, relaxing for a nice night-in, slouched in front of the TV, tapping his feet to the theme song.

Heh - that's not a million miles away from the reason I like/am terrified by the Monsters intro. Juxtaposing the familiar and unknown. A seemingly normal, pop-culture loving, affable guy turns out to be... whatever the hell that is. Quite an unusual role for young Danny too.

Trying to watch it on Youtube now and I honestly don't know if I can. True horror right there.

[Blumf]

Heh - that's not a million miles away from the reason I like/am terrified by the Monsters intro. Juxtaposing the familiar and unknown.

Have you tried Meet the Hollowheads (1989)? Not a horror, but has a weird enough setting whilst still being some kind of 50's family type thing that it might work for you.

[Shaky]

Have you tried Meet the Hollowheads (1989)? Not a horror, but has a weird enough setting whilst still being some kind of 50's family type thing that it might work for you.

Oooh, thanks! Just found it on Youtube and the off-kilter circus music during the credits is already messing with my head.

Now some 80's rap as the camera pans around a tentacle. This will do nicely.

[St_Eddie]

Quite an unusual role for young Danny too.

I love the funny little face that Aykroyd pulls, finger aloft, immediately prior to transforming.  His character is taking such cheeky delight in being a terrifying monster.  I also adore the gremlin smacking goo in John Lithgow's face and wagging its finger at him, towards the end of the film (naughty naughty, for shooting a gun at me).  It's yet another case of a monster displaying very human-like behaviour and it's fantastic.

Trying to watch it on Youtube now and I honestly don't know if I can. True horror right there.

Ah, come on now.  You know that you want to see something really scary.

[Brundle-Fly]

The tiny capering Cormoran from Jack The Giant Killer (1962) haunted my dreams as a kid.

[Sambob]

The fireys from Labyrinth. There's something terrifying about them not understanding that Jennifer Connolly's head isn't detachable like theirs, they just want to include her in the fun.

[Bence Fekete]

The fireys from Labyrinth.

Yes that was very disturbing, conceptually as much as anything I suppose. 

it's something about that specific kind of fear you feel when in a heartbeat nature turns utterly and catastrophically indifferent to your mortal existence and you can't put the cork back in. 

Like when you're petting a big dog and it's all friendly but the owner leaves the room and now ol poochie is lickin' his lips and you can see this oscillating loyalty in his eyes darting back and forth... back and forth..ready to implement operation flesh-carnage with it's ferocious murdering implements if you move one wrong eye muscle and dislodge some random genetic tripwire. Errrrrr... er....gooooood poochie....

Then owner comes back and it's all weeeee wahey wooo nah it's cool bro we bonded phew feckin hell he's a fine wee beast aye .. can you believe it didn't try to eat me not even once

[Shaky]

I love the funny little face that Aykroyd pulls, finger aloft, immediately prior to transforming.  His character is taking such cheeky delight in being a terrifying monster.  I also adore the gremlin smacking goo in John Lithgow's face and wagging its finger at him, towards the end of the film (naughty naughty, for shooting a gun at me).  It's yet another case of a monster displaying very human-like behaviour and it's fantastic.

Ah, come on now.  You know that you want to see something really scary.

UPDATE: I watched it (38 years old, I am) and while the reveal is as unsettling as ever I'd somehow forgotten about the noises he/it makes. They're a little silly.

[Sin Agog]

The fireys from Labyrinth. There's something terrifying about them not understanding that Jennifer Connolly's head isn't detachable like theirs, they just want to include her in the fun.

I met the dude who operated them, and various other puppets in Labyrinth, a few days ago after not seeing him for years.  He told me how he wanted to punch my dad out for being an egotistical sociopathic businessman twat.  Can't disagree with him there. Honestly, great guy!

Anyway, in retrospect it's just a generic leathery mask aged with spilt tea in the oven, but the dude from Fulci's House by the Cemetery fucked with my head.  My older half-brother, probably taking out latent hostility sustained from my aforementioned twat dad, would take me down to the basement when I was a kid and ply my poor, over-active brain with all manner of fucked up horror movies.  Can distinctly remember seeing Deathline (Raw Meat), House of Whipcord, and various '80s sci-fi horrors, but it's House by the Cemetery that stuck with me the longest, prob because the nasty shit happened in a basement...and I was in a basement when I watched it, surrounded by my brother and his mushroom-addled friends who were scarier than any horror movie.

[St_Eddie]

UPDATE: I watched it (38 years old, I am) and while the reveal is as unsettling as ever I'd somehow forgotten about the noises he/it makes. They're a little silly.

Yeah but then again, you're a noises he/it.

The fireys from Labyrinth. There's something terrifying about them not understanding that Jennifer Connolly's head isn't detachable like theirs, they just want to include her in the fun.

I'd forgotten all about those psychotic little fire demons and their beheading ways.  I'd blocked them out of my mind.  Thanks for the reminder.  *grumble*

[Steven]

Danny John-Jules also voices one of the Fireys, I only noticed because I recognised his singing voice from the 'Tongue-Tied' dream sequence in Red Dwarf.

[Bence Fekete]

That is a marvellous fact Steven.  Like finding out Bernie Sanders is genuinely related to Larry David. 

[Phil_A]

The eponymous creature from Jan Svankmajer's Otesanek

Here he is, eating some hair.

[itsfredtitmus]

The eponymous creature from Jan Svankmajer's Otesanek

Here he is, eating some hair.

no hyperbole this is the worst thing

[Sin Agog]

^ Saw Little Otik in the fl--- bark a few years back at a free Svankmajer exposition.  Had the rabbit from Alice, too, and pretty much every other relic from his movies.  Never been so proud of this city before.  Gotta say, Otik was basically just a big twig.  Guess he hadn't eaten in awhile.  That movie must majorly mess with new parents, get them thinking that their bundle of joy is just a wailing maw.

I used to be scared to my quivering core by all things puppets and dolls.  Even Rosie & Jim gave me the horror.  It's the imitation of life factor, I reckon.  I'm now into that kind of stuff as it gives me an extra jolt up my anomic arse.  The Garbage Pail Kids thread SMBH started a few months back did bring back some grim memories, though.


The crocodile's the least scary thing in that picture by far.

[St_Eddie]

The creature from the Tom Savini directed episode of Tales from the Darkside, Inside the Closet.  I always wonder what this thing is.  The best explanation that I can come up with is that it's the professor's daughter, which killed its Mother at birth.  Perhaps the professor got a little too involved in researching some Satanic tomes, resulting in a Rosemary's Baby type of situation.

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"Mr. Fluffy", the Tasmanian Devil from The Crate segment of George A. Romero's Creepshow.  This is one of my earliest memories of being scarred by a movie monster.  The very earliest is the yeti from the 70's TV movie, Snow Beast.  It's not very scary at all, in retrospect but I was only 5 at the time...

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The eponymous creature from Jan Svankmajer's Otesanek

Otesanek/Little Otik is a great film.  I first caught it on TV in the wee hours of the morn, back in the day and since then, it's become a firm favourite of mine.

That movie must majorly mess with new parents, get them thinking that their bundle of joy is just a wailing maw.

Beats living in denial.

That is a marvellous fact Steven.  Like finding out Bernie Sanders is genuinely related to Larry David.

Heh, I'd always thought that this was fairly common knowledge to film/Red Dwarf fans.  He also crops up in Scum, The Little Shop of Horrors and Blade II, though his appearances in those films are a bit easier to spot, due to being able to actually see his face.

[Brundle-Fly]

This bloke from Zombie Flesheaters (1979)

The whole scene freaked me out when I was thirteen. Initially, it was enough of a rush seeing a topless woman scuba diving but it was a masterstroke of Fulci to throw an aquatic zombie into the mix. And then a SHARK!!

It fascinated me thinking of this zombie spending weeks wandering aimlessly on the sea bed, feeding off any passing sand sharks and octopi.

[itsfredtitmus]

Garbage Pail Kids was a secret Troma film project FACT

[BlodwynPig]

more underwater scary, from Dagon

[BlodwynPig]

the first thing that freaked me out visually was actually a cat. It might have been Snow Beast mentioned above, but it was definitely a Bigfoot or Yeti film. The cat, but not the viewer, saw the beast and the image of it frozen dead on the spot sent me into floods of tears and nightmares for months afterwards.

[Steven]

Heh, I'd always thought that this was fairly common knowledge to film/Red Dwarf fans.  He also crops up in Scum, The Little Shop of Horrors and Blade II, though his appearances in those films are a bit easier to spot, due to being able to actually see his face.

I'd only watched Scum for the first time a couple of months ago (actually no, I watched it with some mates at Uni but we were drinking fuckloads of vodka and had some really strong weed so I remember absolutely nothing about it other than them laughing their heads off at the 'greenhouse rape' scene), so it was fairly easy to spot him. Though fuck, Little Shop Of Horrors was one of my favourites as a kid and never noticed him cropping up!

Me and my friends would pause the tape in Ghostbusters and forward it to watch the transformation of the Librarian, as it scared the shit out of us at the time, 28 years old etc:

[Norton Canes]

[BlodwynPig]

[Kelvin]

I genuinely find Warwick Davis' Leprechaun quite unsettling, probably because I watched one of the films (2, I think), back when I was relatively young, and it really disturbed me. Since then, I've watched several of the films, and they're all pretty awful, in retrospect, but I still find Davis' sadistic, buoyant characterisation makes me uneasy.

[Steven]

Terrifying.