My eight favorite movie monsters

I can’t let October go without doing some sort of horror-related movie list. This year we pay tribute to movie monsters, those creature feature creatures that don’t fit easily into one of the genre’s more popular niches (vampires, werewolves and the like). Some might fit into categories – such as “alien” or “zombie” – with a little straining, but for the most part these beasts are one of a kind.

This uniqueness gives them a serious advantage in the scare department. When the protagonists square off against a vampire they go in with a good idea of what they’re up against – what it does, what it wants, how to kill it. Such familiar evils are no match for that scariest of all things: the unknown. A monster that doesn’t play by the rules? What would save us from it?

 

The Thing – Calling this a “space alien” doesn’t even come close to describing it. Instead, it’s the perfect embodiment of Reagan-era paranoia: a mimicking embodiment of the AIDS epidemic, a sentient infection that steals your body from the inside, a deadly menace that could be sitting next to you at the dinner table and you’d never know it until it was far, far too late. The claustrophobic Antarctic setting and the absence of the genre’s usual misogyny were also strong contributing factors.

Godzilla – This guy isn’t The King of the Monsters for nothing. The endless parade of sequels – some better than others – have cemented Godzilla as a pop culture icon. But the original movie – unsophisticated, black-and-white, badly dubbed, intercut with footage of Raymond Burr to help it sell in the States – is a brilliantly-chilling portrait of the Atomic Age gone horribly wrong.

Frankenstein’s monster – Thanks in no small part to James Whale’s clever direction and Boris Karloff’s patient makeup-sporting, Universal Studios transformed Mary Shelly’s “Modern Prometheus” into one of the most recognizable monsters in the world. Unlike most of the rest of the beasts on this list, Frankenstein is multi-dimensional, even sympathetic in parts (not bad for a basket full of sewn-together corpse parts). And though several of his list companions appeared in sequels, the monster enjoys the distinction of putting in a second performance as good as the first.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon – Decades before Jaws, this walking coelacanth posed all the menace of a giant shark with the added threat of being able to chase its victims onto dry land. The movie suffers from some of the usual weaknesses of 50s era horror, particularly rampant sexism and racism. But oh that monster. The underwater sequences are particularly noteworthy examples of edge-of-your-seat menace.

Gremlins – These guys have a few weak spots, particularly their photosensitivity. But their vulnerability is more than made up for by the ease with which they multiply. If they were serious about killing people rather than merely making dangerous trouble, they’d be an awful menace. Even as they are they aren’t anything you’d want to run into in a dark alley.

The Burrowers – Think about it: when was the last time you saw a truly innovative movie monster? These things qualify. Their appearance is bizarre in a way that would have been difficult to achieve – particularly for an independent production – before the age of computer-generated effects. And their modus operandi? Ugh.

Fluffy – This creature is probably better known as the monster in “The Crate,” the fourth segment in Creepshow. It would look like some kind of ridiculous white punk rock simian if not for two things, long claws and a huge mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. It’s strong, it’s fast, and it plays off that deep-seated childhood fear: all it wants to do is eat people, and the more the merrier.

The Id monster – It’s unstoppable. It’s invisible. And it’s been summoned into existence for one purpose alone: slaughtering the heroes. For a chunk of the movie one has to use a little imagination to truly feel the threat. But when it walks through a powerful force field that does nothing to stop it but temporarily renders it visible … nightmare city. And the best part is that it's actually part of a really good movie.