6. Phororhacos (Mysterious Island, 1961)
After unleashing a pair of Cyclops into an unsuspecting audience, Columbia clearly thought that their next feature should go one better. And so Mysterious Island, loosely based on Jules Verne's novel 'L'le mystérieuse', sees a group of US PoWs stranded on a South Pacific island, defending themselves against such fearsome beasts as colossal crabs, giant bees and a surly cephalopod sitting on the seabed. Terrifying though these all are, they can't compete with the Phororhacos; a fierce, feathered prehistoric bird that pounces from out of nowhere. It may resemble a chicken- but as you may have deduced by now, its intimidating stature is surely enough to make you reconsider a barbecue. Yet our survivors, driven to despair by hunger and fear, are no less deterred. Even the model no longer exists; having been recycled (or 'cannibalized') to construct the dinosaur Ornthiomimus in 1969's The Valley of Gwangi.