20 Horror Monsters That Were Scarier Before You Saw Them

Even though many special effects from the past seem dated by today's standards, the visuals in The Angry Red Planet are on a whole other level. 

With a minuscule budget of $200,000, this 1959 sci-fi B-movie had to cut corners to simulate the Martian environment. While the astronauts are on Mars' surface, a cheap film-processing technique called CineMagic was utilised, tinting live-action footage in a red hue. This filming method was emphasised in the marketing, which built up a lot of hype.

Although this approach was imaginative, the Mars scenes are garishly bright and look atrocious. Worst of all, it makes the Martians appear cartoonish, especially the bat-rat-spider, which is literally what the alien is called on the film's poster. This critter is meant to be spine-tingling, despite looking like it's been assembled from cardboard. The way its legs dangle, you can tell they're being moved with strings, like something you would see in an amateur play.

This reveal is so needlessly funny, it's bewildering how the rat-bat-spider was slapped on all the marketing, as if this was the be-all-and-end-all of horror monsters.