6 Non-CG Movie Creatures That Will Give You Nightmares

Since the inception of CG into science fiction, fantasy, and horror films, movie creatures and creature design has taken a hit. That statement is not meant to disrespect any of the current slew of very talented CG artists out there today, but there is just something unnatural about shiny, CG monsters. They never have a real sense of physics to them. They always just ends up feeling like Roger Rabbit to me. Like someone carefully mixed animation and real acting to try to make one, fluid experience. But when it comes to creature and creature design, you really can't beat organic makeup and prosthetics if you want to make the audience believe the creature is there and poses an actual threat, be it rushing at the protagonists or slowly stalking them from the shadows. Unfortunately, we don't get to see a whole lot of non-CG movie creatures these days. Everything seems to be digitized. So, we've decided to put together a list of some of the most frightening creatures on film who were played by real life people, and not just animated on a computer. You may not agree with, or even be familiar with all of these picks, but we feel that they are an accurate representation of what can be accomplished with a bit of imagination and strong creature design. So, without further ado, we present to you 6 non-CG movie creatures who will give you some seriously terrifying nightmares. Count Orlock - Nosferatu Dear All Vampire Movies Ever Made, Hey, what's up? My name is Remy and I'm a big fan of horror and do a lot of writing about the subject for this and various other websites. I just wanted to mention something really quick. How is it that NONE OF YOU have made a vampire as scary as Count Orlock from Nosferatu yet? That is the FIRST vampire movie ever, and it came out in 1922 for fuck's sake. Yet, you give us shiny, sparkly vampires who run up trees like spider monkeys on acid. I have a crazy idea for your sub-genre of horror films. How about your try and make vampires scary again? You know, like the first vampire ever? Sincerely, Remy Carreiro Side note: I know Salem's Lot came pretty f*cking close. But to put it in perspective, that was a TV movie. Yes, a TV movie and a 1922 movie have the best vampires ever. For shame, vampire movies. For shame. Bald, sharped teeth, and pale skin was all it took. Speaking of pale skin..... Pale Man - Pan's Labyrinth Anyone who loves creature design and practical creatures has to know that creations like this would not be possible without "creature actor" Doug Jones. The actor plays Fauno/the Pale Man in this movie, and essentially, to monster nerds like us, Jones is a god. Guillermo del Toro seems to know this and snatches him up any time he has a monster filled movie and needs a tall, thin, expressive man to embody those creatures and bring them to life. Eventually, I'll just write up a list of awesome Doug Jones creatures, so stay tuned for that. But can we talk about the Pale Man for a second? Everything about this character is exactly how we imagine monsters as a child. Disturbing, twisted, broken, and evil. Though we learn very little about the Pale Man in the film, we know you don't fuck with his grub. You fuck with his grub and he will pop his eyes into his hands and shamble at you until you piss yourself in a corner. In other words, this is movie creatures doing what they do best: scaring and scarring people. Xenomorph - Alien I fully realize this creature's fear impact has lessened each time a shitty game or shitty movie gets made with them or related to them, but let's flash back to the first Alien movie for a second, shall we? Before they were full-on action films, and before they left space and found space jails and clones. Let's talk about when it was one alien hunting down on group of people and taking them out, one by one. What was amazing about Alien is not only the sick H.R Giger design, but the fact that when you think about it, the creature is just Jason Vorhees in space. A relentless killing machine that is almost all but unstoppable. While the sequel wasn't terrible, nothing can quite compare to that first film and the terror that the Xenomorph filled the viewer with. Before that, space monsters had all been kinda 1950's-esque and meh. Alien forever changed that. Cave-Dwelling Bat Beasts - The Descent God bless Neil Marshall. From Dog Soldiers to The Descent to Game of Thrones, he really just gets it. What is it, you ask? Well, being badass, for one. Two, palpable terror and violence. The dude never goes the CG route, and the end result is always visceral and wonderfully troubling. The creatures in The Descent stand as a testimony to this. A screeching, slimy, blind terrifying testimony to this. If you have not seen The Descent, you have missed one of the scarier "monster movies" in recent memory. The best way to explain the creatures here are giant, rabid, blind cave-bat-mutants. They live in absolute dark, so they use echolocation to see. They also live underground and need to eat, so have a tendency to attack and rip apart anything they hear. You do the math. It is directors like Neil Marshall and del Toro who give me faith that the art of movie creatures will not get worse and worse, even in a cinematic landscape that seems to imply as much. Goblum Fly - The Fly (Remake) David Cronenberg's The Fly remake seemed like such a silly idea on paper. If you had seen the campy original, there was no way to envision the fly creature actually somehow being disturbing and scary. Then we actually see the movie, and end up getting one of the goriest, nastiest body horror flicks ever. Big props to Jeff Goldblum for an impeccable and disturbing performance. You believe this man is turning into an insect, and everything that goes along with it is disgusting yet seems so real. From puking on the dude's hand to pulling out teeth and tearing through his own skin, the Fly is a fucking terrifying monstrosity that somehow should not work on film, yet completely does. This movie is the reason I will NOT eat something a fly has landed on. Because now, I know what they do. Great creature, though, and great movie. The Thing - The Thing I need someone to tell me how a movie like The Thing never really ages. All horror movies from that genre age. You tend to watch them now and they look awful. Thing is (see what I did there), this movie is another example of great acting mixed with great writing and great creature design to top it all off. But wait, Remy. How can you say the creature design for the Thing is amazing, when there is no set design to the creature? That seems a fair question, but it is one I am glad you asked. The reality about it is, no matter what form the Thing takes in that movie, it is always like the above picture. It always looks like some sort of half-fetus meets half-face, crossed with insect legs and deafening, screeching noises (an unofficial theme of the list). In other words, no matter what form this "thing" takes, it is scary as fuck. Also, though some of the effects have shown their age, it doesn't matter when you have scenes like this: Now what I want you to do is, compare that to the sequel/remake from just a few years ago: Now, I ask of thee, which one is better? I know that no one will say the second scene. As ambitious as it is, and as scary as it COULD have been, it looks like a cartoon. It looks like every CG scene in every horror movie from the last ten to fifteen years. But when we saw the first scene in 1982, it was like nothing we had EVER seen in horror before. Yes, it is all puppetry and practical effects, but it is a fucking head that spouts spider legs and scuttles away. That scene STILL fucks people up. The reality is, CG just does not pack the same punch. The physics are always off, there is always a surreal shininess to the creations, and they move like cartoons. Yet, you watch every movie on this list, and you cannot help but be awed and scared by the movie creatures that are featured in them, even decades later. So, maybe one day, CG will realize, it either needs to evolve further, or just hang around with Michael Bay and leave the horror genre alone. Because you don't get better than the monsters on this list. You really don't.

6 Non-CG Movie Creatures That Will Give You Nightmares

Cave-Dwelling Bat Beasts – The Descent