- 5 months ago
Just one glimpse of these excellent creatures is all you're going to get.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00You gotta love those parts of movies where you get this absolutely badass shot of something
00:04that's gonna go down in history as an iconic monster and then we never see it again. But
00:08sometimes that's half the positivity about it is because it's so rare and doesn't get shown too
00:16much that it stands out the most. With that in mind I'm Sean Ferrick for WhatCulture and here
00:21are awesome movie monsters only in one scene. Number nine, Watcher in the Water, The Lord of
00:26the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Lord of the Rings saga is replete with all sorts of creatures
00:30that don't get big screen time in the mainline entries. I mean even the giant freaking wizard
00:35sleigh in Balrog doesn't get more than a handful of appearances across two of the three movies
00:39with most of the monsters in Middle Earth from Shelob to the mouth of Sauron having one big
00:43moment before fading into obscurity amongst the mammoth set pieces. One such monster that
00:47made quite the splash for all of a scene is the Watcher in the Water, an entity dwelling
00:51in the dark body of a lake before the doors of Durin leading to Moria. Disturbed by
00:56stones being thrown into its depths, director Peter Jackson utilizes POV shots and a burgeoning
01:01soundtrack to let us know that all is not as it seems underneath the surface before busting
01:05out a mass of tentacles that latch onto Frodo. From here the Watcher seems something like
01:09Tolkien's take on a kraken, only more mean looking, pulling itself onto land with such
01:14force that it crumbles the doors of Durin but with a slap of its noodley limbs. He might be
01:19a little CGI around the edges but this ancient evil is enough to make anyone shiver in their
01:24Mithril shirt. Number eight, The Wendigo Pet Sematary 2019. Where most every other entry
01:30on this list is a positive portrayal of an excellent memorable monster there's got to
01:34be one exception to the rule and it's the Pet Sematary remake of 2019 that has a monster
01:39that appears for literally seconds when it should have been a far larger part of the narrative.
01:44Where the novel focuses on a Wendigo as the supernatural force bringing both animals and people back from
01:49the dead in the titular Pet Sematary in which buried bodies can be resurrected for a terrible price,
01:54neither the original movie nor its 2019 counterpart play into this creature's powers particularly
02:00attentively. The 2019 movie does its best by showing but one glimpse of a sketch in a notepad
02:05but the subsequent shadowy creature watching through the trees when Louis buries his daughter Ellie
02:09is all that we get to actually see of it. It's a blink and you'll miss it moment stipulated by some eerie
02:14noises and feels very far too easily missed for something that's such an integral part of the
02:19narrative. Considering how much creepy fun the film could have had with a skeletal deer monster
02:24inhabiting the edges of the clearing this feels like a little bit of a cop-out. Number seven,
02:28Carnictus King Kong. Whilst most monsters with only a small chunk of screen time have us desperately
02:33hoping for another glimpse of what original fascinating creations movie magic has conjured up,
02:37the Carnictus of King Kong have entirely the opposite effect through their brilliantly disgusting design
02:42work. Appearing in the infamous insect pit scene, one that was lost from the original movie but reimagined
02:48by Peter Jackson for his 2005 remake, the Carnictus are the undulating wormy flaccid dick looking
02:53monstrosities that slowly envelop poor sailor Lumpy limb by limb as he attempts to escape with his life.
02:59Spoiler if you couldn't tell from the clip he doesn't manage it. Death by sentient disembodied
03:04Dong really is the most awful way to go. The Carnictus are not pretty, they're not smart and they're not nice.
03:10Essentially a stomach with a toothy maw for a face that consumes endlessly among its giant insect pals.
03:16Of course the Wetarexes or the Arachnoclaws or the Deplectors all get a shout out for their one
03:22scene to shine too but by god it's an act of mercy they don't have more screen time. Number six,
03:27Hydra and the children of Hydra's teeth Jason and the Argonauts. Honestly this whole entry is just going
03:32to be a love letter to Ray Harryhausen's special effects work since the man made Dianimation a bonafide
03:37work of art over his years sculpting monsters for painstaking stop-motion sequences. It would be
03:43remiss not to nod to his one scene specials that were Medusa and the Kraken in Clash of the Titans
03:48or the Naga and the Rock of the seventh voyage of Sinbad really but Jason and the Argonauts sublime
03:53creations are the ones that really take the fleece on this one. The bronze guardian Talos is first to
03:58have his one scene and done. A behemoth statue that defends Crete from those that would steal his treasure.
04:04And whilst the towering giant is impressive he's all but blown out of the water by later in the film
04:08when we meet the many-headed Hydra. Jason is forced into a choreographed fight with a serpentine
04:14creature attempting to slay it with a sword whilst he does eventually win their dance. The teeth of
04:18the Hydra are taken and strewn across the ground to create the children of the Hydra's teeth. A band
04:23of skeletons animated over a period of four months to fight against Jason and his gang in one final
04:28showdown. Both scenes are breathtakingly impressive and have an eerie quality of uncanniness about them.
04:33From the meticulous stop-motion work which makes them all the more spooky. If any one man has
04:38contributed incomprehensibly to movie monsters that deserve endless celebration it has to be Harryhausen.
04:43Number five. The Rancor. Return of the Jedi. If the previous entry didn't convince you that
04:48practical monsters are the best of the bunch the Return of the Jedi's Rancor definitely will.
04:52Appearing for what feels like nothing more than an extended cameo underneath Jabba's chambers the Rancor
04:57makes a meal of one unfortunate guard before setting his sights on Luke Skywalker who's also been
05:01dropped into his death pit. What makes the Rancor so great as a monster largely comes from its initial
05:06sinister reveal appearing from behind a metal door that looks like a giant toothy mouth with only a
05:11glimmer of its eyes and fangs visible in the darkness. Stepping claws first into the light the
05:15sickly crunch of the Gamorrean Behorhand only belies how powerful this hulking behemoth is making
05:21Lutzk's defeat at the thing even more of a cause for celebration when he bests it with his own
05:25mechanical trappings. Jabba's Rancor only gets a few brief minutes in the spotlight but it's one of the most
05:29beloved and revered monsters populating the Star Wars universe. If this beastie didn't stick with
05:33you as a kid you're watching the wrong movies. Number four Angel of Death Hellboy 2 The Golden
05:38Army Guillermo del Toro's taste for the weird feels almost unquenchable with his abstract creations
05:44making for some of the most uncomfortable and impressionable characters in film history. The
05:48Angel of Death from Hellboy 2 fits that mold perfectly both an incredibly strange figure but
05:52instantly compelling in its presentation slotting into the Hellboy canon as easily as a giant red demon and
05:57his humanoid fish pal have from the very beginning. The Angel of Death is a del Toro creation that
06:02primarily toys with the vision of its creepy effects having its eyes grow from the wings coming out of
06:07its back and a hard chitinous plate in the place of having eye sockets and a forehead. Skeletal in its
06:12figure whilst having a flair for the dramatic and enjoying a particularly creepy cadence the Angel of
06:16Death is a wonderful example of the magic that del Toro and Doug Jones make when they get together. The
06:21Shape of Water and Crimson Peak another two examples the pair have under their weird and wonderful belts.
06:27Number three Stanley's Head It Chapter Two. There's no way this can be mentioned without special homage
06:33paid to the Thing the founding place of all things Spider Monster crafted from poor Norris's head in John
06:38Carpenter's 1982 movie. The Norris Thing head is worthy of an entry all of its own of course alongside
06:44every other unique twisted iteration of the alien Thing that it takes on during its time terrorizing a remote
06:50Antarctic research base. But let's celebrate Spider Heads the world over with a more recent addition to that one-shot list of
06:55creepy crawly noggins. After all the assimilated monster might have been the first instance of a
07:00decapitated human head running around on eight arachnid glades but it certainly wasn't the last.
07:04Paying special reference to the seminal classic director Andy Muschietti transforms Stanley Urie's
07:09lonesome head into another skittering horror show during It Chapter Two's runtime especially effective
07:14both for its excitable throwback as well as the deviation from Stephen King's source material. What was
07:18supposed to be a stationary head in a fridge turns into a child's rampaging bunce roaming free in one of the most
07:25takes on across the movies both a welcome surprise and a terrifying vision in one gruesome blow.
07:31Number two the trench Aquaman. Arguably the best part of the movie for its dark tone and incredible
07:36execution this moment just proves what a force director and horror aficionado James Wan is in
07:42the industry when he's allowed to do his thing. Of course the trench scene of Aquaman is one of the
07:47most memorable points depicting Arthur and Mera besieged by a terrifying spiny group of monsters from the
07:52deepest part of the ocean. I'll be honest there's one single shot that gives a vague look at these
07:56fishy fiends early on but really we don't actually see them in full until their big moment so they're
08:02coming on the list all the same. Humanoid deep sea fish that have regressed from Atlanteans the trench
08:06move like a giant ant farm as they pulsate together under the waves hunting down any and all that would
08:11venture into their territory above the resting place of a powerful trident. Embodying everything creepy
08:16about the deepest and darkest parts of our oceans the trench are suitably scary as the monsters of this
08:20universe as well as remarkably destructive providing a real threat in a comic book movie that can often
08:25feel as if its superpowered inhabitants are invulnerable. Number one the pale man Pan's
08:29Labyrinth. Yet another movie that doesn't let up on original monsters with ever dastardly creation
08:34thrown up on screen Pan's Labyrinth is a treasure trove of Guillero del Toro's most intricate and
08:39interesting beasts that need no more than a swift feature to solidify them into horror history canon.
08:44Whilst the fawn and his fairies are some of the most eerily enchanting that crop up throughout the narrative
08:49it's the monsters that drop one time only appearances during Ophelia's tasks that remain the most
08:54terrifying. The giant toad is a nice chunk of weirdness but it's again Doug Jones's the pale man
08:59that has long been revered as one of the best original monster creations that only ever appears
09:04in a single scene and of course one of the most downright scary of them all. Emaciated, skeletal and
09:09pale as the name suggests. Really the creature has no eye sockets but rather little holes in its palms
09:14that he pops his eyeballs into, hunting Ophelia with splayed fingers in a sick rendition of reindeer
09:19antlers across his face. Feasting on fairies and children alike the pale man is evil incarnate and
09:24his appearance is only strengthened by how little time we actually spend with him. Five minutes, five minutes too many.
Comments