10 Most Messed Up Horror Movie Monsters
2. The Thing - The Thing (1982)
The Thing can take many guises. Arctic wolf. Beardy scientist. Disembodied head that sprouts spider-like limbs and fleshy antennae before scurrying about.
The horror of the Thing works on two levels. The first - it is a perfect mimic. It could be anyone or anything, and paranoia soon infects the research crew faster than the Thing can itself.
Secondly, its design is such a wonderful exercise in body horror: twisting flesh, mouths on chests, a dripping mosaic of limbs and jaws and bones exploding and jutting in nightmarish forms. The Thing’s many guises take the form of puppets and animatronics covered in KY Jelly, all designed by Rob Bottin at the desire of John Carpenter to avoid ever having to use a man in a monster suit.
As such, the Thing never looks remotely human once its true form is revealed, only a nightmarish distortion of human components. Even scarier though is when it looks perfectly human.