There are many elements to making a fantastic horror film, but saying that, one of the most
important aspects is the antagonist, the monster that is going to be tormenting your protagonist,
and hopefully keeping us awake at night in the process.
So today on Top 5 Scary Videos, I’m going to be counting down our list of the Top 5
Iconic Horror Movie Monster Designs.
Before we begin though, be sure to stick around until the end of the video where I’ll be
responding to some of your comments.
And with that, let’s jump in.
5 Gremlins - Gremlins Gremlins are the fictional and unknown reptile-like
creatures, who are the primary antagonists of the entire Gremlins franchise.
They made their debut in the 1984 movie Gremlins, before reappearing in its sequel Gremlins
2: The New Batch.
They are also based upon the creatures with the same name of old English folklore.
Inspired by a real-life nightmare of rodent infestation in his NYC loft, Chris Columbus
originally conceived the Gremlins as an R-rated suburban invasion force, however, once the
script found its way to Spielberg, the violence was significantly toned down.
However, saying that, the final design was still enough to traumatize young children.
Chris Walas was the man behind dozens of iconic movie monsters.
He brought us Brundlefly, as well as Jabba the Hutt’s henchmen.
However, nothing will ever top the Gremlins, with their sharp claws, sharp teeth, and piercing
alien eyes.
Now, there are multiple variations of the Gremlins, including: Vegetable Gremlin -- One
Gremlin turns into a creature made of living vegetation.
Electric Gremlin: It drinks a serum that turns it into raw energy.
Brain Gremlin: It drinks serum that increases its intelligence and gives him a human voice.
Bat Gremlin: It mutates into a bat-creature and then he’s injected with genetic sunblock
by the Brain Gremlin.
Phantom Gremlin: it has acid splashed in his face and he hides his facial scars behind
a mask.
Greta: One Gremlin drinks a serum and she becomes a female gremlin.
And finally, Mohawk/Spider-Gremlin: near the end of the movie, Mohawk drinks a serum that
turns him into a spider-like Gremlin.
Yeah, a lot of a lot.
But it just goes to show how meticulous they are with the monster designs, designs that
will linger in our psyche for a long, long time.
4 Brundlefly - The Fly Seth Brundle, or better known as Brundlefly,
is the titular protagonist, played by Jeff Goldblum, of David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake
of The Fly.
Now, the Academy Award-winning makeup was designed and executed by Chris Walas, Inc
over a period of three months.
The final Brundlefly was designed first, and then the various steps needed to carry Seth
Brundle to that final incarnation were designed afterwards.
Overall, the transformation was intended to be a metaphor for the aging process.
So, saying that, Brundle loses hair, teeth and fingernails, with his skin becoming more
and more discolored and lumpy.
The transformation was broken up into seven distinct stages, with Goldblum spending many
hours in the makeup chair for the later incarnations.
Stages 1 and 2: Subtle, rash-like skin discoloration that leads to facial lesions and sores, with
tiny fly hairs dotting Goldblum’s face, in addition to the patch of fly hairs growing
out of the wound on Brundle’s back.
Stages 3 and 4-A: piecemeal prosthetics covering Goldblum’s face, wigs with bald spots, and
crooked, prosthetic teeth.
Stage 4-B: deleted from the film, this variant of stage 4 was seen only in the “monkey-cat”
scene, and required Goldblum to wear the first of two full-body foam latex suits, as Brundle
has stopped wearing clothing, at this point.
Stage 5: the second full-body suit, with more exaggerated deformities, which also required
Goldblum to wear distorting contact lenses that made one eye look larger than the other.
Stage 6: the final “Brundlefly” creature, depicted by various partial and full-body
cable-and rod-controlled puppets.
Stage 7: another puppet which represented the mortally injured Brundlefly-Telepod fusion
creature as seen in the movie’s final moments.
There is something truly sickening about this monster creation, which, at the same time,
is deeply upsetting and capable of moving you to tears.
3 The Predator - Predator The Predators or Hunters, are an extraterrestrial
species characterized by their hunting of other dangerous species for sport, including
humans.
They are a sentient, humanoid race that breathe an atmosphere similar to that of Earth’s,
but possess a level of technological advancements fair superior to anything available to humans.
They are bipedal humanoids, physically distinguishable from humans by their greater height, long,
hair-like appendages on their heads, their reptilian skin and their faces, which feature
arthropod-like mandible and no visible nose.
The Predator also use their mandibles to convey emotions; for example, flared mandibles apparently
signify interest or curiosity, and they have even been known to grin with them.
Which is pretty damn creepy.
They can also employ their mandibles as weapons, using them to inflict grievous bit wounds
on their opponent.
As well as the fleshy dreadlocks around the side of the head, some Predators have also
been seen to possess sparse, quills on their cheeks and above their eyes.
The Predator were designed by FX artist Stan Winston, but did you know, it was originally
intended to fit martial artist Jean-Claud Van Damme, which ended up becoming something
short of a cheap imitation of HR Giger’s iconic Alien design.
However, lucky for us, the design was scrapped after some test shooting, leaving us with
the creature we know and love today.
From the advanced weaponry, and the mask, the creature is one that is not forgotten
quickly, and is perhaps one of the most iconic monsters in cinematic history.
2 The Pale Man - Pan’s Labyrinth To quote The Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth: “You’re
going to a very dangerous place, so be careful.
The thing that slumbers there, it is not human.”
The Pale Man is the secondary antagonist of the Spanish dark fantasy horror, Pan’s Labyrinth.
Now, despite only appearing in one scene in the entire movie, he is perhaps one of the
scariest monsters ever created.
He is a pale skinned humanoid monster with his eyeballs in the palms of his hands, which
is unsettling to say the least.
As most will know, Guillermo del Toro loves his monsters, and in turn his monsters tend
to be some of the most terrifying creatures to ever grace our screens.
However, the one that truly takes the cake is The Pale Man, a monster that is a grotesque
work of art, played by Doug Jones.
His appearance is unnerving, but to make matters worse, he’s hungry for children and fairies,
and seeing him hunt for his meal is something that will keep you up at night.
His skin is saggy and wrinkly, and the eyeballs on his palms are absolutely terrifying to
even look at.
Trivia for you lovers of the Pan’s Labyrinth, Pale Man was inspired by the threesome of
stigmata, Goya paintings, and old men with droopy skin.
Yep.
It’s a lot of a lot.
1 Xenomorph - Alien The Xenomorph XX121, better known just as
Xenomorph, is an extraterrestrial endoparasitoid species with multiple life cycles, hailing
from the Alien franchise.
It is one of the deadliest of all known alien species, and requires a host organism in order
to reproduce.
Now, it’s appearance can vary depending on the host in which the Facehugger implants,
however, the human phenotype is generally around 7-8 feet with a long, muscular tail
and large, curved, oblong head.
Designed by acclaimed artist H.R.Giger and constructed by Carlo Rambaldi, this creature
design is vaguely erotic, particularly with it’s phallic shaped head.
Not to mention, the subtle parallels to sexual assault, with the creature forcibly penetrating
to impregnate it’s hosts, only for the parasite to grow unusually fast and then burst out
of the human via the chest cavity.
Now, there have been countless variations, portrayed in noticeably different ways throughout
the films series.
Now, much of this was to do with the continuing advancements made in special effects, technology,
and techniques used to bring it to life.
As previously stated, in the original Alien film and in the sequel Aliens, the Xenomorphs
were tall, slender creatures.
However, in later films, they are depicted as being shorter and bulkier organisms.
Regardless of the significant physical changes to the creatures, the original look has barely
changed, resulting in one of the most terrifying monsters in history.
Well, there we have it!
Do you guys agree with our list?
Were there any iconic horror movie monster designs that we missed?
Leave us all your thoughts and feelings in the comments down below and perhaps we can
do a part 2.
Before I go though, I just want to respond to a few comments from one of our last videos,
Top 5 Scary Horror Books Better Than The Movie.
CountOrlok22 said: “IT” has yet to be adapted in a manner that matches the horror
of the novel” -----
Amanda Evans said: “The book of the Haunting of Hill House is fantastic.
The original film was great but the remake was...oh dear.”
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James Sarno said: “Let the Right One In is such a good movie.
Now I’m going to check out the book, thank you Queen.
As always, you’re on point.”
-----
LucyAnne Thrope said: “Dear Lucy!
Oh sweet dear Lucy, you made me fall off my chair when you pronounced “Lindqvist”.
I laughed.”
-----
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And until next time, see ya later.