10 Brilliant Horror Movie Monsters You Were Completely Unprepared For

10. Uxia - Dagon

Anyone familiar with the oeuvre of iconic horror author/ infamously problematic fave HP Lovecraft could probably have guessed that a film based on his dark, disturbing body of work would feature a few malignant monstrosities lurking in the darkness. Ditto anyone who knows anything about Dagon director Stuart Gordon's filmography, as the late horror helmer's most famous efforts Re-Animator and From Beyond are both gory body horrors which adapted Lovecraft's work in visceral, grotesque fashion.

So it's a surprise that 2001's Dagon starts out as a slow, somewhat plodding small town mystery, more akin to a humdrum Twilight Zone instalment than a true monster movie. As the flick's slow-moving story of a couple lost in a strange Spanish seaside village wears on, the audience becomes convinced this is a rare subdued outing for Lovecraft and Gordon.

Of course, it isn't.

That pretty local girl with the enchanting eyes? This’s a still Lovecraft adaptation, so she’s got a set of horrifying fish-tentacle-leg-things which appear near the end of the tale. From that point on all Hell breaks loose, and this apparently subtle mystery turns into a gory horror show, the genre shift signalled by the arrival of this tentacled terror.