10 Great Sci-Fi Movie Villains Who Only Appeared Once
2. The Spawn - The Deadly Spawn
Okay, so 1983’s The Deadly Spawn is admittedly not the
most famous monster movie on this list. But perhaps it should be, since this
low rent cult gem manages to combine some classic eighties “kids have to defend
their home against invading monsters” action worthy of The Gate, Terrorvision,
or Chuck Russell’s The Blob remake with imaginatively realised and undeniably original
villains who deserve a place of their own in sci-fi horror history.
Beginning their onscreen life cycle as mere slug sized larvae, these eponymous spawn emerge from an asteroid crashing in idyllic suburbia and, after offing a pair of campers, take up residence in the dank basement of a small family home. After eating the only parents around, the creatures grow into a monstrous mass of teeth, multiple gnashing heads, and wrinkly muscular tentacular necks who look distinctly, er… look, there’s no two ways about it.
The titular spawn are some horrifyingly phallic fanged monsters which make whatever ate Andy Serkis in 2005’s King Kong look positively lovely. A blatant allegory for their teen victim’s coming of age, these toothy horrors deserved far better than a single cinematic outing, particularly given the ending’s incredible reveal that there are mountain-sized mutations of them ready to eat our world alive.