Just one glimpse of these excellent creatures is all you're going to get.
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00:00You gotta love those parts of movies where you get this absolutely badass shot of something
00:04that's gonna go down in history as an iconic monster and then we never see it again.
00:08But sometimes that's half the positivity about it is because it's so rare and doesn't get shown
00:15too much that it stands out the most. With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrig for WhatCulture,
00:20and here are awesome movie monsters only in one scene.
00:24Number nine, Watcher in the Water, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring.
00:27Lord of the Rings' saga is replete with all sorts of creatures that don't get big screen
00:31time in the mainline entries. I mean, even the giant freakin' wizard-slaying Balrog doesn't
00:36get more than a handful of appearances across two of the three movies, with most of the monsters in
00:40Middle-Earth, from Shelob to the Mouth of Sauron, having one big moment before fading into obscurity
00:45amongst the mammoth set pieces. One such monster that made quite the splash for all of a scene is
00:49the Watcher in the Water, an entity dwelling in the dark body of a lake before the doors of Durin,
00:54leading to Moria. Disturbed by stones being thrown into its depths, director Peter Jackson
00:59utilises POV shots and a burgeoning soundtrack to let us know that all is not as it seems
01:03underneath the surface before busting out of massive tentacles that latch onto Frodo.
01:07From here, the Watcher seems something like Tolkien's take on a kraken, only more mean-looking,
01:12pulling itself onto land with such force that it crumbles the doors of Durin but with a slap
01:17of its noodley limbs. He might be a little CGI around the edges, but this ancient evil
01:22is enough to make anyone shiver in their Mithril shirt.
01:25Number 8, The Wendigo, Pet Sematary 2019. Where most every other entry on this list
01:31is a positive portrayal of an excellent, memorable monster, there's got to be
01:34one exception to the rule, and it's the Pet Sematary remake of 2019 that has a monster
01:39that appears for literally seconds when it should have been a far larger part of the narrative.
01:44Where the novel focuses on a Wendigo as the supernatural force bringing both animals and
01:48people back from the dead in the titular Pet Sematary, in which buried bodies can be resurrected
01:53for a terrible price, neither the original movie nor its 2019 counterpart play into this
01:58creature's powers particularly attentively. The 2019 movie does its best by showing but
02:03one glimpse of a sketch in a notepad, but the subsequent shadowy creature watching through
02:07the trees when Louis buries his daughter Ellie is all that we get to actually see of it.
02:11It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment stipulated by some eerie noises and feels
02:15very far too easily missed for something that's such an integral part of the narrative.
02:20Considering how much creepy fun the film could have had with a skeletal deer monster
02:24inhabiting the edges of the clearing, this feels like a little bit of a cop-out.
02:277. Carnictus, King Kong Whilst most monsters, with only a small
02:31chunk of screentime, have us desperately hoping for another glimpse of what original,
02:35fascinating creations movie magic has conjured up, the Carnictus of King Kong have entirely
02:39the opposite effect through their brilliantly disgusting design work. Appearing in the
02:43infamous insect pit scene, one that was lost from the original movie but reimagined by Peter
02:48Jackson for his 2005 remake, the Carnictus are the undulating, wormy, flaccid-dick-looking
02:53monstrosities that slowly envelop poor Sailor Lumpy, limb by limb, as he attempts to escape
02:58with his life. Spoiler, if you couldn't tell from the clip, he doesn't manage it.
03:02Death by sentient disembodied dong really is the most awful way to go.
03:06The Carnicts are not pretty, they're not smart, and they're not nice. Essentially a stomach with
03:11a toothy maw for a face that consumes endlessly among its giant insect pals. Of course, the wet
03:17orexes, or the arachnoclaws, or the deplectors all get a shout-out for their one scene to shine to,
03:23but by God, it's an act of mercy they don't have more screentime.
03:266. Hydra and the Children of Hydra's Teeth, Jason and the Argonauts
03:30Honestly, this whole entry is just going to be a love letter to Ray Harryhausen's special effects
03:34work. Since the man made Dynamation, a bonafide work of art, over his years sculpting monsters
03:40for painstaking stop-motion sequences. It would be remiss not to nod to his one-scene specials
03:45that were Medusa and the Kraken in Clash of the Titans, or the Naga and the Rock of the 7th Voyage
03:50of Sinbad, really, but Jason and the Argonauts' sublime creations are the ones that really take
03:55the fleece on this one. The bronze guardian Talos is first to have his one scene and done,
03:59a behemoth statue that defends Crete from those that would steal its treasure. And whilst the
04:04towering giant is impressive, he's all but blown out of the water by later in the film when we
04:09meet the many-headed Hydra. Jason is forced into a choreographed fight with a serpentine creature,
04:14attempting to slay it with a sword. Whilst he does eventually win their dance, the teeth of the Hydra
04:19are taken and strewn across the ground to create the Children of the Hydra's Teeth, a band of
04:23skeletons animated over a period of four months to fight against Jason and his gang in one final
04:28showdown. Both scenes are breathtakingly impressive and have an eerie quality of uncanniness about
04:33them from the meticulous stop-motion work which makes them all the more spooky. If any one man
04:37has contributed incomprehensibly to movie monsters that deserve endless celebration,
04:42it has to be Harryhausen. If the previous entry didn't convince you that practical
04:48monsters are the best of the bunch, then Return of the Jedi's Rancor definitely will.
04:52Appearing for what feels like nothing more than an extended cameo underneath Jabba's chambers,
04:56the Rancor makes a meal of one unfortunate guard before setting his sights on Luke Skywalker,
05:00who's also been dropped into his death pit. What makes the Rancor so great as a monster largely
05:05comes from its initial sinister reveal, appearing from behind a metal door that looks like a giant
05:10toothy mouth, with only a glimmer of its eyes and fangs visible in the darkness. Stepping claws
05:14first into the light, the sickly crunch of the Gamorrean Behor hand only belies how powerful
05:19this hulking behemoth is, making Luke's defeat at the thing even more of a cause for celebration
05:24when he bests it with his own mechanical trappings. Jabba's Rancor only gets a few brief minutes in
05:28the spotlight, but it's one of the most beloved and revered monsters populated in the Star Wars
05:32universe. If this beastie didn't stick with you as a kid, you're watching the wrong movies.
05:35Number 4, Angel of Death, Hellboy II, The Golden Army. Guillermo del Toro's taste for the weird
05:41feels almost unquenchable, with its abstract creations making for some of the most uncomfortable
05:45and impressionable characters in film history. The Angel of Death from Hellboy II fits that
05:49mould perfectly, both an incredibly strange figure but instantly compelling in its presentation,
05:54slotting into the Hellboy canon as easily as a giant red demon and his humanoid fish pal have
05:59from the very beginning. The Angel of Death is a del Toro creation that primarily toys with the
06:03vision of its creepy effects, having its eyes grow from the wings coming out of its back and
06:07a hard, chitinous plate in the place of having eye sockets and a forehead. Skeletal in its figure,
06:13whilst having a flair for the dramatic and enjoying a particularly creepy cadence,
06:16the Angel of Death is a wonderful example of the magic that del Toro and Doug Jones make
06:20when they get together. The shape of water in Crimson Peak, another two examples the pair
06:24have under their weird and wonderful belts.
06:27Number three, Stan Lee's head, it, chapter two. There's no way this could be mentioned without
06:32special homage paid to the Thing, the founding place of all things Spider-Monster, crafted from
06:37poor Norris's head in John Carpenter's 1982 movie. The Norris Thing head is worthy of an entry all
06:43of its own, of course, alongside every other unique, twisted iteration of the alien Thing
06:47that it takes on during its time terrorising a remote Antarctic research base. But let's celebrate
06:52spider heads the world over with a more recent addition to that one-shot list of creepy crawly
06:56noggins. After all, the assimilated monster might have been the first instance of a decapitated
07:00human head running around on eight arachnid glades, but it certainly wasn't the last.
07:04Paying special reference to the seminal classic, director Andy Muschietti transforms
07:08Stan Lee Ury's lonesome head into another skittering horror show during it, chapter two's
07:12runtime, especially effective both for its excitable throwback as well as the deviation
07:17from Stephen King's source material. What was supposed to be a stationary head in a fridge
07:20turns into a child's rampaging bonce roaming free in one of the most sickly shapes that it
07:25takes on across the movies, both a welcome surprise and a terrifying vision in one gruesome blow.
07:31Number two, The Trench, Aquaman. Arguably the best part of the movie for its dark tone and
07:36incredible execution, this moment just proves what a forced director and horror aficionado James Wan
07:42is in the industry when he's allowed to do his thing. Of course, the trench scene of Aquaman
07:47is one of the most memorable points, depicting Arthur and Mera besieged by a terrifying spiny
07:51group of monsters from the deepest part of the ocean. I'll be honest, there's one single shot
07:55that gives a vague look at these fishy fiends early on, but really, we don't actually see them
08:00in full until their big moment, so they're coming on the list all the same. Humanoid deep-sea fish
08:04that have regressed from Atlanteans, the trench move like a giant ant farm as they pulsate together
08:09under the waves, hunting down any and all that would venture into their territory above the
08:12resting place of a powerful trident. Embodying everything creepy about the deepest and darkest
08:17parts of our oceans, the trench are suitably scary as the monsters of this universe, as well as
08:21remarkably destructive, providing a real threat in a comic book movie that can often feel as if
08:26its super-powered inhabitants are invulnerable. Number one, The Pale Man, Pan's Labyrinth. Yet
08:30another movie that doesn't let up on original monsters with ever-dastardly creation thrown up
08:35on screen, Pan's Labyrinth is a treasure trove of Guillermo del Toro's most intricate and interesting
08:40beasts that need no more than a swift feature to solidify them into horror history canon. Whilst
08:45the faun and his fairies are some of the most eerily enchanting that crop up throughout the
08:48narrative, it's the monsters that drop one-time-only appearances during Ophelia's tasks that remain the
08:53most terrifying. The giant toad is a nice chunk of weirdness, but it's, again, Doug Jones's The Pale
08:59Man that has long been revered as one of the best original monster creations that only ever appears
09:04in a single scene, and of course, one of the most downright scary of them all. Emaciated, skeletal,
09:09and pale, as the name suggests, really, the creature has no eye sockets but rather little
09:13holes in its palms that he pops his eyeballs into, hunting Ophelia with splayed fingers,
09:17in a sick rendition of reindeer antlers across his face. Feasting on fairies and children alike,
09:22the Pale Man is evil incarnate, and his appearance is only strengthened by how little time we
09:27actually spend with him. Five minutes. Five minutes too many.