Recent mentions of the Tabanga and the Creeping Terror have made me think about monsters that are just too slow to be frightening. True, the Tabanga has good turn of speed for a tree, and being unstoppable, it would get you in the end, especially on an island. However, the sight of the Witch Doctor backing away slowly would indicate that you could live to a ripe old age before it caught up with you. As long as you can ride a bike, you're safe.
Slow monsters also pose interesting problems to the script writers. They have to come up with vaguely probable reasons why people get killed by something they easily avoid.
So, what would be the slowest monster on record? I haven't yet seen the movie, but I would guess the rocks from Monolith Monsters.
I guess he could be considered "a monster" and he sure does move slow.
Michael Myers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Myers_%28Halloween%29)
How about the slugs from "Slugs?" And the worms from "Squirm?" LOL! Don't know how these little buggers managed to kill anyone, except through ambush. :teddyr:
Quote from: Jordan on January 17, 2007, 12:20:13 PM
How about the slugs from "Slugs?"
exactly what I was thinking before I clicked... also is it not possible to easily kill slugs by pouring salt on them? The original book is by Shaun Hutson who wrote loads of similarly dubious monster-horror books, Ive read most of them!
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.
The Universal series mummy was dam slow.
The Creeping Terror.
No movie monster is slower than the one in this flick.
(http://www.badmovies.org/movies/creepterror/creepterror3.jpg)
The killer plants from "The Navy vs. the Night Monsters" are very slow. They keep killing people because the idiots walk right into them. I would say they are even slower than the Monolith Monsters, because the growing rock spires start rolling along pretty fast once they begin to grow. You might need to race Tabonga vs. a Night Monster to see which was slower. Now, that would be a race that would require a lot of patience.
The silicates in Island of Terror were pretty slow. About the only thing they had going for them was their reach and their ability to adhere to sheer surfaces. Likewise, the glowing rocks from Island of the Burning Doom aka Night of the Big Heat were pretty darn slow.
Yeah, the Mummy movies were always a hoot. As a kid, I always wondered why people allowed themselves to be backed into a corner and strangled by something that lumbered so slowly. Maybe they were just so shocked at being crept upon by a preserved corpse in rags!
One slow monster that rarely gets mentioned is the 'Stones of Blood' in the eponymous Dr Who story. It was a great Tom Baker series from the golden age. :teddyr: The Stones are in fact a silicon based lifeform that ingest blood to survive. They look like big slabs of stone, which fit right into the whole Stonehenge look. In one scene, a couple went camping and set up their tent near what they thought was a stone circle - next thing you know, they wake up and wonder why the heck the stones have moved overnight! Then their crushed and drained corpses are found the next morning! Ahh, memories ... I'll have to watch that story again!
Come to think of it, the Stones did move fairly fast, kind of gliding/grinding along.
Quote from: Andrew on January 17, 2007, 06:49:56 PM
The killer plants from "The Navy vs. the Night Monsters" are very slow. They keep killing people because the idiots walk right into them. I would say they are even slower than the Monolith Monsters, because the growing rock spires start rolling along pretty fast once they begin to grow. You might need to race Tabonga vs. a Night Monster to see which was slower. Now, that would be a race that would require a lot of patience.
Mamie Van Doren vs Killer Trees. I've got to see this!
"Stones of Blood" always liked that one among Dr Who stories. Yet another K-9 and his weak-ass batteries defeating having a badass laser in the nose, plus the whole angle of the head/point of aim problem they would always overlook.
Shaun Hutson wrote a bunch of stuff like Slugs? Might have to look those up. I saw the film on TV in high school, there was a group of guys who read nothing but stuff like Slugs, even Stephen King or Dean Koontz was too highbrow for them. They knew a film was being made, when I told them I had seen it they were actually nice to me for about two days.
Would Anne Ramsey count as a slow monster?
Been awhile since I've seen it, but don't the triffids in Day of the Triffids get about kinda slow?
Well they aren't exactly monsters, but they are really slow and they try to kill everyone around, in the hopes of stopping the dumping of waste i think..
One of my favorites in my collection too
Frogs
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068615/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068615/)
Quote from: Texdar on January 18, 2007, 08:09:31 AM
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?
Quote from: AlexB on January 18, 2007, 01:32:12 PM
Quote from: Texdar on January 18, 2007, 08:09:31 AM
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).
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.
QuoteAs 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.
Quote from: AlexB on January 18, 2007, 01:32:12 PM
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.
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.
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
THE MONOLITH MONSTERS?
Thats it! Thanks. Nothing slower than that.
Also, in the Book Day of the Triffids, tehy had special anti-triffid weapons.
-Ed
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.
The golem?
-Ed
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.
Quote from: Ed on January 19, 2007, 04:20:24 PM
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.
Quote from: AlexB on January 22, 2007, 06:50:28 AM
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.
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.
Quote from: The DarkSider on January 17, 2007, 12:29:53 PM
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.......
Some of the zombies in the movie "Burial Ground". For example, one zombie was breaking up through the ground, at the camera kept switching back and forth to the zombie coming from the ground,and this couple kissing sitting on the ground. It must have been five minutes, then finally the damn zombie is out of the ground, and he sits there for a minute, then gets up and slugs torward them, then stops, then gos, and the people dont notice, and they finally do, and the stupid zombie stands there looking at them, going slower than a snail. That was probably the slowest zombie in that movie.
Quote from: Torque on January 22, 2007, 04:38:19 PM
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.
Ha, good point. Until the word gets out, zombies work because people do not expect others to behave that way. Nor do they expect large numbers of zombies to go around, breaking into houses and such. Modern homes are secure, not due to physical security, but because society provides for police and stability.
The little girl zombie in "Dawn of the Dead" got the jump on the guy in the beginning because why would two adults be worried about a little girl that they knew?
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