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Just one glimpse of these excellent creatures is all you're going to get.
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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 is
02:09all that we get to actually see of it. It's a blink and you'll miss it moment stipulated by some eerie noises
02:15and feels very far too easily missed for something that's such an integral part of the narrative.
02:20Considering how much creepy fun the film could have had with a skeletal deer monster inhabiting
02:24the edges of the clearing this feels like a little bit of a cop-out. Number seven, Carnictus King Kong.
02:29Whilst most monsters with only a small chunk of screen time have us desperately hoping for another
02:34glimpse of what original fascinating creations movie magic has conjured up, the Carnictus of King Kong have
02:39entirely the opposite effect through their brilliantly disgusting design work. Appearing in the infamous
02:44insect pit scene, one that was lost from the original movie but reimagined by Peter Jackson for his 2005
02:49remake. The Carnictus are the undulating wormy flaccid dick looking monstrosities that slowly
02:55envelop poor sailor Lumpy limb by limb as he attempts to escape with his life. Spoiler if you couldn't tell
03:01from the clip he doesn't manage it. Death by sentient disembodied dong really is the most awful way to go.
03:06The Carnictus are not pretty, they're not smart and they're not nice. Essentially a stomach with a toothy
03:12maw for a face that consumes endlessly among its giant insect pals. Of course the weterexes or the arachnoclaws
03:19or the Deplectors all get a shout out for their one scene to shine too but by god it's an act of mercy they
03:25don't have more screen time. Number six, Hydra and the children of Hydra's teeth Jason and the Argonauts.
03:30Honestly this whole entry is just going to be a love letter to Ray Harryhausen's special effects work. Since the man made
03:35Dianimation a bonafide work of art over his years sculpting monsters for painstaking stop motion
03:42sequences. It would be remiss not to nod to his one scene specials that were Medusa and the Kraken in
03:47Clash of the Titans or the Naga and the Rock of the seventh voyage of Sinbad really but Jason and
03:52the Argonauts sublime creations are the ones that really take the fleece on this one. The bronze guardian
03:57Talos is first to have his one scene and done. A behemoth statue that defends Crete from those that would
04:03steal his treasure and whilst the towering giant is impressive he's all but blown out of the water
04:07by later in the film when we meet the many-headed Hydra. Jason is forced into a choreographed fight
04:13with a serpentine creature attempting to slay it with a sword whilst he does eventually win their
04:17dance. The teeth of the Hydra are taken and strewn across the ground to create the children of the
04:22Hydra's teeth. A band of skeletons animated over a period of four months to fight against Jason and
04:27his gang in one final showdown. Both scenes are breathtakingly impressive and have an eerie quality of
04:32uncanniness about them from the meticulous stop-motion work which makes them all the more spooky. If any
04:37one man has contributed incomprehensibly to movie monsters that deserve endless celebration it has
04:42to be Harryhausen. Number five the Rancor Return of the Jedi. If the previous entry didn't convince you
04:48that practical 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 dropped into his
05:02death pit. What makes the Rancor so great as a monster largely comes from its initial sinister reveal.
05:07Appearing from behind a metal door that looks like a giant toothy mouth with only a glimmer of its eyes
05:12and fangs visible in the darkness. Stepping claws first into the light the sickly crunch of the
05:16Gamorrean Behorhand only belies how powerful this hulking behemoth is. Making Luke's defeat at the
05:22thing even more of a cause for celebration when he bests it with his own mechanical trappings. Jabba's Rancor
05:27only gets a few brief minutes in the spotlight but it's one of the most beloved and revered monsters
05:31populating the Star Wars universe. If this beastie didn't stick with you as a kid you're watching the wrong movies.
05:35Number four Angel of Death Hellboy 2 The Golden Army. Guillermo del Toro's taste for the weird feels
05:41almost unquenchable with his abstract creations making for some of the most uncomfortable and
05:46impressionable characters in film history. The Angel of Death from Hellboy 2 fits that mold
05:50perfectly both an incredibly strange figure but instantly compelling in its presentation. Slotting into the
05:55Hellboy canon as easily as a giant red demon and his humanoid fish pal have from the very beginning.
05:59The Angel of Death is a del Toro creation that primarily toys with the vision of its creepy
06:04effects having its eyes grow from the wings coming out of its back and a hard chitinous plate in the
06:10place of having eye sockets and a forehead. Skeletal in its figure whilst having a flair for the dramatic
06:14and enjoying a particularly creepy cadence the Angel of Death is a wonderful example of the magic
06:18that del Toro and Doug Jones make when they get together. The Shape of Water and Crimson Peak another
06:23two examples the pair have under their weird and wonderful belts. Number three Stanley's Head It
06:30Chapter Two. There's no way this can be mentioned without special homage paid to the Thing the
06:34founding place of all things Spider Monster crafted from poor Norris's head in John Carpenter's 1982
06:40movie. The Norris Thing head is worthy of an entry all of its own of course alongside every other unique
06:45twisted iteration of the alien Thing that it takes on during its time terrorizing a remote Antarctic research
06:51base but let's celebrate Spider Heads the world over with a more recent addition to that one-shot
06:55list of creepy crawly noggins. After all the assimilated monster might have been the first
06:59instance of a decapitated human head running around on eight arachnid glades but it certainly wasn't
07:03the last. Paying special reference to the seminal classic director Andy Muschietti transforms Stanley
07:08Urie's lonesome head into another skittering horror show during It Chapter Two's runtime especially
07:13effective both for its excitable throwback as well as the deviation from Stephen King's source material.
07:18What was supposed to be a stationary head in a fridge turns into a child's rampaging
07:22bunce roaming free in one of the most sickly shapes that It takes on across the movies both a welcome
07:28surprise and a terrifying vision in one gruesome blow. Number two The Trench Aquaman. Arguably the best
07:34part of the movie for its dark tone and incredible execution this moment just proves what a forced
07:39director and horror aficionado James Wan is in the industry when he's allowed to do his thing. Of course the
07:45trench scene of Aquaman is one of the most memorable points depicting Arthur and Mera besieged by a
07:50terrifying spiny group of monsters from the deepest part of the ocean. I'll be honest there's one single
07:55shot that gives a vague look at these fishy fiends early on but really we don't actually see them
08:00in full until their big moment so they're coming on the list all the same. Humanoid deep sea fish that
08:04have regressed from Atlanteans the trench move like a giant ant farm as they pulsate together under the
08:09waves hunting down any and all that would venture into their territory above the resting place of a powerful
08:13trident. Embodying everything creepy about the deepest and darkest parts of our oceans the trench
08:18are suitably scary as the monsters of this universe as well as remarkably destructive providing a real
08:23threat in a comic book movie that can often feel as if its superpowered inhabitants are invulnerable.
08:28Number one The Pale Man Pan's Labyrinth. Yet another movie that doesn't let up on original monsters with
08:33ever dastardly creation thrown up on screen Pan's Labyrinth is a treasure trove of Guillero del Toro's
08:38most intricate and interesting beasts that need no more than a swift feature to solidify them into
08:43horror history canon. Whilst the faun and his fairies are some of the most eerily enchanting that
08:48crop up throughout the narrative it's the monsters that drop one time only appearances during Ophelia's
08:52tasks that remain the most terrifying. The giant toad is a nice chunk of weirdness but it's again
08:58Doug Jones's The Pale Man that has long been revered as one of the best original monster creations
09:03that only ever appears in a single scene and of course one of the most downright scary of them
09:07all. Emaciated, skeletal and pale as the name suggests. Really the creature has no eye sockets
09:12but rather little holes in its palms that he pops his eyeballs into hunting Ophelia with splayed fingers
09:17in a sick rendition of reindeer antlers across his face. Feasting on fairies and children alike the Pale
09:22Man is evil incarnate and his appearance is only strengthened by how little time we actually spend
09:27with him. Five minutes. Five minutes too many.
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