I enjoy Predator not so much for the look of the monster, but the abilities. It’s kind of a biomechanical monster. And it has Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Alien was original enough for me, even if it was bipedal.

To say that you can’t be creative with monsters because they’re ‘only from another dimension’ is a massive cop-out and after-rationalization.

One thing that makes me enjoy the new star wars movies is the immense creativity involved with creating all of the different worlds and monsters in them. They aren’t close to the mindfuck of a beast that is in The Thing, but hey, that’s one of the major reasons why The Thing is such an awesome movie.

Bottom line: If you want to make a monster, get creative. Otherwise, don’t have them in there, just have some malicious spiders that have grown large. They are just as scary.

I, for one, have never seen a spider that large before (though the Camel Spider is pretty close), and I’ve certainly never seen one with a mouth full of human-like teeth or webs that can burn your flesh off. If I saw that thing in real life it would scare the shit right out of me, so I had no trouble believing that anyone in the film felt threatened by them, and as long as they’re frightening, I could care less what animal they resemble. Then, of course, there were the tentacles. Yeah, I’ve seen a tentacle before, but not one like those in The Mist. When that thing opened up and all the little mouths were chomping I was blown away and delighted by the designs. They didn’t have to create something entirely new because they altered the things I’m used to seeing enough that they were unpredictable and frightening.

If you’ve got a problem with monsters in films too closely resembling real creatures, how can you enjoy Alien, Predator, or any other film with a guy in a suit since they resemble humans? The Alien has that second inner jaw which was a concept snagged from a type of insect, and there are certainly animals in the real world with mandibles similar to the Predator’s. Tremors must be unacceptable because they look like worms, and the monster in The Host is a mutated fish. Face huggers look sort of like spiders with tails, and even The Blob is just like a big amoeba. The Thing, a monster which I love from a movie that I love even more, is perhaps the only creature from a film that I can think of which doesn’t really have ties to anything living that I know of, so is that the only movie monster you like?

Sorry if I’m coming off like a dick, but I just can’t understand your argument that the design of the creatures in The Mist aren’t “cool” because they resemble real-life animals.

I agree with every one of those statements.

Henrik: “The monsters in The Mist are flies and spiders, and then some big praying mantis that you don’t even get to see.”

I also agree with every one of those statements.

Henrik: “And the monsters are outside, not exactly the best scenario for creating an intense drama inside a room.”

This, I do not agree with. Did you even see The Mist, Henrik? Most of the drama was caused by the people in the store, not the creatures outside.