10 Horror Movies Where The Monster Isn’t The Scariest Part
3. The Host
Rather than saving the monster for later, the tadpole-like kaiju, Gwoemul, debuts within the first ten minutes of The Host. The introduction doesn't bother with subtlety, since Gwoemul is first seen trundling into the middle of Seoul with no build-up, chasing and killing the locals.
Even though this is a magnificent sequence, the prologue is more haunting, where The Host starts with pathologist Douglas telling his assistant Kim to dump formaldehyde down the drain. Though Kim emphasises that the drain leads to the Han River, all it takes is a little bit of calm coaxing from Douglas for him to carry out the orders.
With Kim emptying the bottles, the camera pans across the table, showing hundreds of containers ready to be dumped. Unsurprisingly, it's later revealed that these chemicals infected the aquatic life in the Han, causing one critter to mutate into Gwoemul.
As dangerous as Gwoemul is, what makes it more frightening is the fact that it was created through bureaucratic negligence. Although Douglas' lack of ethics is unacceptable, Kim's behaviour is arguably worse, since he acknowledged the dangers of their actions, yet poisons the water anyway.