Top Ten Most Gruesome Sci-Fi Monsters in the History of Filmmaking
10) Mutations in Hunger Games
The wolf-like mutations that Katniss encountered at the end of the Hunger Games definitely are cringe worthy. The movies didn’t make them look too scary, but in the book the wolf mutation looked like the fallen tributes. The most disturbing one was the mutt that looked like Rue, one of the kids that Katniss befriended before she was brutally murdered by one of the other kids in the arena.
Take a look at the scene from The Hunger Games
9) Sarlaac Pit
Of all the aliens in the Star War’s original trilogy, the Sarlaac pit from Return of the Jedi takes first place for most terrifying space monster. Located on Tatooine, the Sarlaac is a huge sandworm that lives out in the desert. Jabba the Hutt uses the Sarlaac as a way to sentence his victims to death. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacaa and given this sullen sentence right after Luke is caught trying to rescue them from the Hutt’s fortress. The Sarlaac particularly terrifying because it slowly digests it’s prey, sometimes taking hundreds of years to completely devour them. This does not sound like a pleasant way to go!
Watch the Sarlacc Pit in Action!
8) The Predator
These are the real Predators, not the wacko altered ones from Alien vs Predator (why would these two fight anyway? They’re not even from the same universe). The thing that I love about the predator movie is that it starts out as an action packed, war movie, but then half way through it takes a 180 and turns into a horror sci-fi with aliens that are invisible and that can sense you through infa-red vision. I love that they can turn invisible, it just makes them all they more scary.
Take a look at the Predator beating up Arnold!
7) The Slugs from Slither
These guys are super creepy, infact the entire movie is a gore-fest. With the exception of brilliant actor Nathan Fillion, movie is definitely not for those who are easily grossed out. It is part zombie, part sci-fi, part comedy and part B-horror. I’m sure there are people out there that say it’s brilliant and that it bridges the gap between sci-fi horror and zombie flick, but I just think it’s gross. I generally used to like taking a nice relaxing bath but now I am TERRIFIED that a brain eating slug will crawl out of the drain and kill me. I couldn’t get through it, I had to fast forward all the scenes with the slugs in them. Thanks a lot, James Gunn.
Eww. Watch the slugs, if you dare.
6) The Network
The Network is a vast alien intelligence that takes over the small town of Newton Haven in Edgar Wright’s sci-fi classic The World’s End. Their main goal is to turn Earth into a better place, but they do that by taking people, chopping them up into mulch and replacing them with a Blank Robots that think and look just like them. They say that they are trying to help, but nobody likes being controlled, right? Just like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, these aliens are terrifying because you don’t know who has been replaced and who hasn’t.
Watch Simon Pegg beat the Blanks!
5) Graboids
The main antagonists from the 1990 film Tremors, Graboids are desert dwelling alien worms that use seismic sensors to devour anything that makes a foot step. Two cowboys named Val and Earl discover these creatures after they witnessed one trying to eat their truck. When they discover that these things have eaten Old Edgar, and his entire flock of sheep they reluctantly turn back to help save the remaining residents. The Graboids are particularly terrifying because they have these long snake tentacles that come out of the ground, grab on to you and pull you into their mouths. They are incredibly strong, smart and fast and seemed to have developed a taste for humans.
He picked the wrong wreckroom!
4) The Thing
John Carpenter’s 1982 classic is a real horror fest. This is a creature that can take up any form it wants —the weird head spider, the blood, the dog thing— and it definitely make this one of the most bizarre sci-fi monsters on this list. Even though, for having the ability to take up any form it wants, it certainly makes some interesting choices on what to turn into. I mean, why would you turn into a head-spider when you could just turn yourself into a chair or a toilet and wait for your victim to sit down? I guess that wouldn’t make a very interesting movie though, just sayin’. Just like in Alien, this movie is about an isolated crew who encounter and alien creature whose main goal is to destroy and devour them. I can’t really tell which one has a higher gore factor though; they’re both pretty grueling to watch.
This is gross, watch with caution.
3) The Aliens from Signs
My favorite scene in the whole movie is when Joquin Pheonix’s character is watching the home video of the Alien sighting on the news and he shouts “VANAMOS, CHILDREN!!” and then the Alien steps out of the bushes and he is shocked beyond belief. I think it is Night M. Shyamalan's strongest film next to The Sixth Sense. Just like in The Sixth Sense, this is one of those movies you can watch over and over again, and each time you’ll get something new out of it. This movie has so many layers, yes it’s a movie about an alien invasion but it also is about a man whose lost his faith, and a family whose struggling to remain strong after a tragedy. Sometimes all you need to fix something is an alien invasion. Like in Ridley Scott’s Alien, these aliens are not seen up close until the climax of the movie, and they are not given an origin story—which I think makes them even creepier. The fact that so little is known about these aliens makes them all the more terrifying.
Vanamos, Children!!!
2) The Blob
The Blob is a gelatinous creature from outer space that devours anything in its path. Featured in both the 1958 film and the 1988 remake, the blob ate it’s way to the top of this list because of it’s gluttonous appetite and desire for human flesh. The original movie, starting Stevie Mcqueen is more of a B-Rated blockbuster hit than a true horror though-it’s one of those vintage movies you can sit down and watch with friend while having a good laugh at the 1950s special effects. The 1988 remake on the other hand is slightly more on the disturbing side. The scene that always stands out in my mind is the one where this poor lady gets stuck in a telephone booth—she thinks she’s safe but then the blob starts devouring the entire thing, with her inside it! She then sees the half digested face of a man and I think that’s when she knows she is doomed.
And here it is, the phonebooth scene
1) The Xenomorph
Obviously, the Xenomorph is on the top of my list for being the most terrifying space monster in history. More commonly known as the Alien from Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic, the Xenomorph as scared the pants off thousands movie viewers for over twenty years. It didn’t even have a name in the first movie—it was referenced as the thing for most of the movie—we don’t even find out it has a name –Xenomoprh—until Cameron Crowe’s sequel Aliens where the military has taken interest in it. Let’s see, where to begin with this thing….first, it has acid for blood so you can’t kill it without being horribly disfigured or dead. But I think the most terrifying thing about it is that it’s a parasite; it needs a live host to reproduce. Ridley Scott said he was inspired to design this creature after he saw certain wasp lavas bursting out of their live caterpillar hosts. Eww. I think the best part of Alien is that we don’t know anything about it, we as viewers are as clueless as the crew who has to deal with it. It is completely alien to them as well (see what I did there, haha).