Ray Harryhausen's art raid: where the effects genius found his terrifying monsters

From his sword-swinging skeletons to a horn-headed cyclops, a new show reveals how the gruesome godfather of special effects plundered antiquity for ideas – and his own art collection

The skeletons rise up from the scorched earth, lithe yet lifeless arrangements of loose yellow bones that leap over ruins to advance into mortal combat with Jason and the Argonauts. Swords swinging and shields held high, they are the perfect warriors, dispensing death with no fear of it themselves. But are they scarier than Kali, the multi-limbed goddess who fights Sinbad the Sailor with weapons clutched in all six hands, her blue arms scything through the air as our mariner hero scurries for his life?

These are the images that terrorised me as a kid, quaking in front of the big screen at the Odeon in Rhyl, Wales. That first encounter with the monsters of Ray Harryhausen remains with you for ever. When I think of Kali, I can still taste the Kia-Ora and the terror.

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