excruciatingly slow monsters

[Jim H]

Been awhile since I've seen it, but don't the triffids in Day of the Triffids get about kinda slow?

Yep, they are slow, but the premise is handled more intelligently there. Triffids are under control, as long as human society is functioning. Only when everyone goes blind, the Triffids become a threat.

BTW are you thinking of the (rather lame) film version with Howard Keel or the TV series of the eighties?

In the book at least, they "walk" slow, but they have a tendril whip which moves extremely fast and is poisonous.  And it sucks if there is a forest of them, which is what happens when people aren't controlling them.  Still though, they harvest something off them in the book, and the people who maintain them wear a special suit which is essentially invulnerable to their attacks (equivalent of a bee keeper suit).

[Just Plain Horse]

As if the Triffids aren't lame enough already, they are killed by seawater, right? Sucks to be on planet Earth!

Somehow, I get the feeling with all the monsters mentioned so far, they would all lose in a walkathon to Torgo... or the Blob.

[Gerry]

As if the Triffids aren't lame enough already, they are killed by seawater, right? Sucks to be on planet Earth!

Only in the 60s movie, not in the original novel or the 80s serial (or the 50s radio play for that matter).

Another dreadfully slow monster would be an disembodied hand that tries to kill you.  I'm thinking of the hand segment of DR. TERRORS HOUSE OF HORRORS in which a disembodied hand tries to kill Christopher Lee, but there is more than one example of this type of monster.

[Texdar]

BTW are you thinking of the (rather lame) film version with Howard Keel or the TV series of the eighties?

I was thinking of the 1962 Day of the Triffids....haven't seen the others.

[Jack]

Come to think of it, the alien in Alien never really moved at all, did it?  We saw it moving faster and faster in each sequel, but in the original it hardly moved at all. 

Other than that, the critter in Hybrid mostly killed people who were stupid enough to walk right up to it without noticing it.  And then there was a pretty cool looking monster in Lethal Target, but it just stood there for the most part.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Dang...whats that movie with the stone columns that just stand there and somehow terrorize people. 
Not "From Hell it Came" but from the same time period.
-Ed

[Gerry]

THE MONOLITH MONSTERS?

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Thats it! Thanks.   Nothing slower than that.
Also, in the Book Day of the Triffids, tehy had special anti-triffid weapons.
-Ed

[Andrew]

You know, the Sarlaac from "Return of the Jedi" is pretty darn slow.  It just sits there and waits for things to stumble in.  Then it takes thousands of years to digest them.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

The golem?
-Ed

[Yaddo 42]

From Spookies:

That face melting critter in the hallway with the tentacles (which were pretty fast though)

The farting monsters in the wine cellar.

The Asian lady/spider. But once she had her prey in the web she could take her time.

But there were some faster buggers in that one too. The hook handed were wolf IIRC.

[Dr. Whom]

Thats it! Thanks.   Nothing slower than that.
Also, in the Book Day of the Triffids, tehy had special anti-triffid weapons.
-Ed

As far as plant monsters are concerned, at least the Triffids were more intelligently written than most. If you're going to have a plant-like monster, it stands to reason that it will lurk somewhere until its prey walks by. It is equally obvious that, in a universe where there are such things, nobody in his right mind will get close enough. In the Day of the Triffids, this is elegantly solved by making everyone (well, nearly everyone) blind, so they can stumble about and get mown down.

On the other hand, you don't want your monsters to be too fast. If your heroes can't outrun the monsters, your chase scenes will be something of an anticlimax.

So, the ideal speed of a monster will be just under that of a running man.

[Andrew]

On the other hand, you don't want your monsters to be too fast. If your heroes can't outrun the monsters, your chase scenes will be something of an anticlimax.

So, the ideal speed of a monster will be just under that of a running man.

I think that the story can give you some leeway with that.  If you have fewer monsters than characters (or a single beast), then you can get away with the creature(s) being faster.  Same thing if the movie takes place inside of a structure, because a quick creature still has to deal with doors slammed in its face.

If a monster stops to eat who it kills, you also buy time for the other characters to run.  Sadly, most seem to require little nourishment and simply kill people because doing so is fun.

[Dr. Whom]

You can have lots of fast monsters, if you have a way of fending them off, like a building or the light in Pitch Black ( a very underrated film IMHO). However once you lose the protection, you're toast. You really need to get the plot right if you try this. It also complicates matters if you want have a great Final Showdown with the hero.

[Torque]

Always marveled at any zombie movie (aside from the more new school ones) where the dead just stumble along.  Although one could argue the strength in numbers issue but thats only when people coop themselves up somewhere. 

Zombies, at least, have the whole suprise thing going for them.  With zombies, people don't see a flesh eating monster, they see a person stumbling along who might be injured.  Most normal people would stop and try to help, then it's "Hey, maam, are you alri-AAAAAIIEEE you BIT me you crazy b***h!"  By the time anyone realizes what's going on, the infection has spread and the damn things are everywhere.

It works in thoery.......