Hilarious Monsters

Stephen King wrote about the importance of comedy in horror…but not to the point it took away from the horror! Here are a few of the most hilarious antagonists in cinema history.

From Hell it Came (1957)

This walking tree stump is neither scary or clever. The manner in which it awkwardly shuffles only serves to illustrate how easily you could escape from its bark-laden grasp. Not only that but the majority of its body is its face – a stoic looking one, one that’s about to fall asleep. How can you take this seriously?

The Giant Claw (1957)

I can admire the effort that goes into models and props, but this abomination (ironically from the same year as my first pick), is a laugh a minute. What starts out as a U.F.O. is in fact an impossibly huge, very goofy and highly uncoordinated bird of prey. Throw in its shrill Squawk as it attacks planes and you’ll question what the hell you’re watching. Couple this with the obviously poor techniques – men being dangled in front of another screen – and there’s a chance you’ll be in tears. Now of course a bird that big could never be airborne, but this does not merit logical criticism.

Sting of Death (1966)

Not a bad title…until you find out where the sting of death comes from. A grown man inside of a skin tight blue costume, horrendously decorated with blue cables (apparently stingers). It looks like a mess, but nothing can compare to its head – clearly a man head inside of a transparent beach ball. Yes, I just wrote that. There is virtually no effort here. It’s so bad it almost goes beyond laughter, something that could inspire the viewer to destroy every last copy of this piece of doodie that should not qualify as cinema.