The popular concept of “Boogeyman” is somewhat nebulous, with different cultures and traditions attributing varied descriptions, characteristics and abilities to the character. The first challenge director Rob Savage stumbled upon, in adapting The Boogeyman by Stephen King, was not only giving something of a definition to the Monster, but also enabling the audience to project… Read More Tormentor in the Dark
The Fright Night script was born out of director and writer Tom Holland’s enthusiasm for the vampire genre of old. “I love vampires,” he said, “and I have a lot of affection for the old, sometimes corny, vampire movies and all the Hammer horror films. […] I think that if you’re going to do [a… Read More Frightful Vampires
In approaching the design aspects for Alien: Romulus, director Fede Alvarez started from the baseline point that everything should be reminiscent of the first two Alien films. Of course, that implied that the iconic stages of the Alien life cycle present in the film should harken back to the very first Alien and the terrors… Read More StarBeast — Alien: Romulus
Content Warning: the article includes discussion and explicit pictures of Alien hybrid genitalia, which may be problematic for readers of a certain sensibility. “You are a beautiful, beautiful butterfly.” As an unexpected side effect of the cloning process, the Alien Queen stops producing eggs and develops a womb-like sac, out of which an abomination, an… Read More StarBeast — Alien: Resurrection, the Newborn
In the coldest regions of space, the monstrous entities Ogdru Jahad — the seven gods of chaos — slumber in their crystal prison, waiting to reclaim Earth… and burn the heavens. Des Vermis Mysteriis, page 87
Abraham Sapien returned in Hellboy: The Golden Army. Jones reprised the role, and the creature design was largely kept the same, although lighter color tones and different schemes were used for certain areas of the skin. Although the design was the same, the much larger onscreen presence throughout the film dictated a different approach to… Read More Abe Sapien Returns
The conspicuous presence of spiders in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth imaginarium is rooted in Arachnophobia, an irrational fear Tolkien’s son, Michael, was affected by. In the universe of Arda, the spiders were originally spawned by a single being — Ungoliant, a massive demonic entity which entered Middle Earth before the First Age, perhaps one of… Read More Shelob
Among the vast array of creature effects that Entertainment Effects Group had to arrange for Ghostbusters, a rather large role had to be filled by the Terror Dogs: Gozer the Gozerian’s loyal servants, whose purpose is to open the portal that allows the travelling entity to set foot on a new world to conquer.
In the last part of the Monstrous Hundred, here’s a carousel of films from the 2000s onwards! Pitch Black (2000) This film packs a clever, outside-the-box narrative with an equally interesting subversive man as its main character, pitting him and an unlikely crew against swarms of truly outlandish alien creatures that are neither hammerhead sharks,… Read More Special: Monster Legacy’s Monstrous Hundred – Part 4
The Monstrous Hundred continues with the 90s, a turning point in effects-making with the advent of CGI. Tremors (1990) Kicking off the 90s roster of creature features on a fabulous note, Tremors is one of the most brilliant, all-around engaging monster movies of all time. From the witty dialogue penned by S.S. Wilson and Brent… Read More Special: Monster Legacy’s Monstrous Hundred – Part 3
