excruciatingly slow monsters

[Dr. Whom]

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.

[Ash]

I guess he could be considered "a monster" and he sure does move slow.

Michael Myers

[Jordan]

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. 

[zombie no.one]

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!

[Mr. DS]

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. 

[RCMerchant]

The Universal series mummy was dam slow.

[Torgo]

The Creeping Terror.

No movie monster is slower than the one in this flick.

[Andrew]

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.

[Shadow]

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.

[~Archivist~]

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.    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.

[Dr. Whom]

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!

[Yaddo 42]

"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?

[Texdar]

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

[Duckmancgy]

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/

[Dr. Whom]

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?