Monster Madness Tournament: Release the Kraken, and Everything Else!

The past couple of years, we had a great time with our arbitrary Tournaments-of-Death here in the blog. (See: Movie Madness and TV Madness.) Let’s keep that going! Seeing that October is upon us and people are already getting ready for Halloween, we thought that a tournament of movie monsters would be pretty darn awesome.

When we did the TV tournament, we asked for suggestions about which characters should be included. I’d like to ask for more suggestions this time around, but first I want to outline a few rules and guidelines that I’ve mulled over in my head.

The Monster Madness tournament will be divided up into weight classes. The heavyweights will include monsters like Godzilla and King Kong, who can crush cities and stomp humans without a second thought. Obviously, these guys have quite an advantage simply due to their outrageous size and destructive powers. An entire half of the tournament will be dedicated to these types of monsters.

The second group, the middleweights, will be humanoid monsters such the Brundlefly, and so forth. With this group, we need to set a few rules. While characters like Mike Meyers and Norman Bates are indeed scary, they don’t really count as monsters in the literal sense. Freddy Kruger, however, is a supernatural monster. At least, that’s how I view it.

The third group of participants will be the featherweights. These include, but are not limited to, insane leprechauns, blood-thirsty gremlins and death-dealing dolls. In order to keep things fair, everything will be separated by weight class until we can determine the winners of each respective category. After that’s finished, we’ll have an ultimate showdown where the winners of the weight classes go head to head to claim victory as the ultimate movie monster.

Now that we’ve got the logistics out of the way, I ask you for your suggestions on who… errr… what should be included in this tournament. Please let us know in the Comments section below which movie monsters you’d like to see when the tournament begins.

54 comments

    • William Henley

      I don’t know, I bet Cookie Monster could eat Grover. Now Elmo would smother you to death with love.

      The two-headed monster and Harry the Monster may have some chances.

  1. Shayne Blakeley

    Oh Hell yes.

    Freddy as you mentioned, Alien, Stay-Puft, Fornicus – Lord of Bondage and Pain, Clover, Hannibal, Tarman, The Thing, IT, Angela (Night of the Demons), Killer Tomatoes, Critters, Tremors, Herbert West, Puppet Master. Oh God I’m excited.

  2. Drew

    Freddy Kruger is most definitely not a monster. He’s a person. It doesn’t matter if he is supernatural, or not, he simply doesn’t qualify. You talked about how Michael Meyers doesn’t count as a monster. Well, to me, he’s just as supernatural as Freddy, when you consider all that he has done over the years.

    Obviously, we need to include all of the Universal classic monsters.

    In addition, I think we need to include monsters such as Bruce from ‘Jaws’, the T-Rex and Raptors from ‘Jurassic Park’, and the snake from ‘Anaconda’. While they’re not technically “monsters’, they’re much more so than a supernatural person like Freddy.

  3. Drew

    Grendel from ‘Beowulf’, Predators, Kronos, Jekyll and Hyde, the faun from ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, the Kraken, and many of the monsters from ‘Cabin in the Woods’.

    • Shayne Blakeley

      If you want to get literal I’d argue that Jeckyll and Hyde would fall in the same category as Freddy or Michael Myers. I concede that Hannibal and Herbert West don’t qualify as monsters, but I think it’s more fun with more mortal characters involved, granted they wouldn’t last long.

    • Oh man, I would love to see E.T. in this, preferably pitted against something with very sharp teeth. Maybe the Xenomorph from Alien. That would make my day.

    • MMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAA SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

      oh, man, oh god, oh man oh god, oh man oh god oh man oh god! yes!

  4. Drew

    I was thinking of the Jekyll and Hyde from ‘Van Helsing’, but I’ll concede that Jekyll and Hyde isn’t appropriate.

    NO JASON, FREDDY, OR MICHAEL MEYERS!!!

    It’s entirely lame to shoe-horn serial killer/slashers/mass murderers into a contest about Monsters. None of them qualify. I don’t care how supernatural, or not, they are.

    • Shayne Blakeley

      Granted their respected franchises are slasher movies, and in the case of Jason and Myers they didn’t start out necessarily supernatural, but at this point they are all at the very least super-powered zombies. They’re not specifically serial killers like Bates or Lector. I just don’t understand the argument of how they wouldn’t qualify as monsters.

      • Shayne Blakeley

        I mean, if starting off as a human disqualifies something from being considered a monster, than goodbye vampires, zombies, mutants, werewolves, Pinhead, Chucky, Brundlefly, etc.

  5. Alex

    The Ogdru Jahad from “Hellboy”.
    The creature from “Cloverfield”.
    The Man-eaters of Tsavo in “The Ghost and the Darkness” (I’ve seen them at the Field Museum in Chicago. They are creepy even stuffed)

  6. Aaron Peck
    Author

    Love the enthusiasm here. I knew you guys would be able to come up with far more monsters than I would be able to.

    As for the whole Jason/Freddy/Meyers thing, I don’t know yet. I don’t think I’ll include any of them anyway. Freddy was included already in the movie characters tournament and didn’t do so hot there anyway.

    • Shannon Nutt

      I think you’re going to have enough “legit” monsters you won’t need them. Frankly, I’m not even sure vampires should qualify. I’ve never thought of them as “monsters” in the generic sense of the word.

      • William Henley

        I don’t know, in Interview With The Vampire, there were definately some monsters in France

  7. William Henley

    Would ghosts qualify? What about Slimer, Gozar, Zuul? The ghosts from Woman In Black?

    From Gremlins, we got to have Spike, Brains, and Bat Gremlin.

    Species 8472. The Borg, Q, and the Xindi.

    The Bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc

    Oh, what’s that dudes name, the Poltergeist dude from Poltergeist 2. Talk about creepy.

    Now that last one brings up a good question – in the tournament, are we going to compare how much damage the monsters do to humans, or could do to each otehr?

    The Baskilisk, Nagini, Horned Tail Dragon, Norwegian Ridgeback.

    Sand Worms.

    Aliens. Terminator (oh, then we could probably break down which model. While the t-1000 is nasty, what about those tank-terminators and the flying ones? Oh, maybe Skynet?)

    • Personally, I don’t think that robots or cyborgs qualify as monsters, with the possible exception of MechaGodzilla. That would eliminate the Terminators and the Borg.

      Ghosts are debatable.

      • William Henley

        So what about aliens? I know I listed a couple, but what about like The G’hold, The Ori, the Wraith, The Replicators (oh wait, robots).

  8. Rcorman

    Is this strictly movie monsters? I have included a couple monsters from TV shows.

    Heavyweights
    Gamera
    Gyaos
    King Ghidorah
    Q – The Winged Serpent
    Gorgo
    Cyclops – 7th Voyage of Sinbad

    Middleweights
    Medusa – from Clash of the Titans
    Would the Shadows from Babylon 5 qualify as monsters?

    Lightweights
    Zanti – Outer Limits The Zanti Misfits

  9. William Henley

    Oh, if we are going to add Demons, than we could add half the cast of Constantine (what about Gabriele and Lucifer and, what was his son’s name, Mana or something?). In fact, let’s add Satan in general. (Up there, there’s so much room, where baby’s burp and flowers bloom). Now, South Park reminds me of Saddam Hussain, and this brings up a whole new line of baddies – Hittler and Kim Jong Il. Nah, but Satan definately needs to be in there (now, Satan from which movie?)

  10. Joe Campbell

    Deadites from “Evil Dead”
    Mothera
    King Ghidorah
    Mechagodzilla
    The giant ants from “Them!”
    The Thing
    Godzuki
    Cthulu
    The Wolf Man
    The Mummy

  11. At what weight class does the thing from The Thing qualify? At a microscopic level it is terrifying.

    Something from The Mist must make it.

    The creature from The Host should have a place.

    Shelob, though considerably larger than a hobbit would fall into the human-sized category, right?

    The id creature from Forbidden Planet.

    Mrs. Cosgrove from Braindead or Dead Alive.

    The wolves from The Grey.

    The two-headed thing from Willow.

    The Blob.

    Does the Hulk count?

    Tetsuo from Akira.

    Dracula or Nosferatu.

    What about the Lamia from Drag Me To Hell? It’s ambiguous whether it actually exists.

    • Rcorman

      On a similar note to The Thing, which category would the Blob qualify for? It started out very small, but by the end of the movie it was bigger than a movie theater.

    • William Henley

      Oh, nice one adding Willow and Forbidden Planet.

      Now if we can add evil humans / supernatual humans, Bavmorda would have to be in there. I don’t think there has ever been a more evil queen depicted in a movie.

  12. EM

    My suggestions (many have been mentioned already, some have not):

    • Adam, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 4)
    • Asphyx, The Asphyx
    • Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
    • Basilisk, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    • Bête a.k.a Beast, la Belle et la Bête a.k.a. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
    • Bionic Bigfoot, Six Million Dollar Man
    • Blob, Blob franchise
    • Borg, Star Trek franchise
    • Bride of Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein
    • Bruce the shark, Jaws
    • Brundlefly, The Fly (1986)
    • Cemetery ghoul (Bill Hinzman), Night of the Living Dead (1968)
    • Chernabog, Fantasia
    • Inspector Daniel Clay, Plan 9 From Outer Space
    • Cookie Monster, Sesame Street
    • Cooper, Super 8
    • Creature, The Creature Wasn’t Nice a.k.a. Spaceship a.k.a. Naked Space
    • Cthulhu, The Call of Cthulhu
    • André Delambre, The Fly (1958)
    • Dementor, Harry Potter franchise
    • Devil bat, The Devil Bat
    • Devil possessing Regan MacNeil, Exorcist franchise
    • Dianoga, Star Wars
    • Dracula (Béla Lugosi), Dracula and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
    • Frankenstein Monster, Universal Frankenstein franchise
    • Anthony Fremont, Twilight Zone franchise
    • Gamera, Gamera franchise
    • Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider franchise
    • Giant ant, Them!
    • Giant with ship on his head, Time Bandits
    • Gill Man, Creature From the Black Lagoon & sequels
    • Gojira a.k.a. Godzilla, Gojira a.k.a. Godzilla franchise
    • Gremlin, Gremlins franchise (for a particular Gremlin, try Stripe)
    • Fenrir Greyback, Harry Potter franchise
    • Harry-Pooch hybrid, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
    • Dr. Carl Hill, Re-Animator franchise
    • Hulk, Incredible Hulk TV series and/or Hulk film franchise and The Avengers
    • It! the Terror From Beyond Space, It! the Terror From Beyond Space
    • Killer shrew, The Killer Shrews
    • Kong, various King Kong films
    • Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    • Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again
    • Maleficent (in dragon form), Sleeping Beauty
    • Martian invader, War of the Worlds (1953)
    • Medusa, Clash of the Titans (1981)
    • Metaluna Mutant, This Island Earth
    • Monolith Monster, The Monolith Monsters
    • Monster from the id, Forbidden Planet
    • Mutant, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
    • Nagini, Harry Potter franchise
    • Nikko the flying monkey, Wizard of Oz
    • Count Orlok, Nosferatu (1922)
    • Phantom of the Opera a.k.a. Erik, Phantom of the Opera (1925)
    • Quetzalcoatl, Q, the Winged Serpent
    • Rabbit of Caerbannog, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    • Radon a.k.a. Rodan, Rodan franchise
    • Rancor, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
    • Shai-hulud, Dune
    • Shelob, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    • Skeleton warrior, Jason and the Argonauts
    • Species 8472, Star Trek: Voyager
    • Spider queen, Arachnophobia
    • Stuff, The Stuff
    • Tall Man, Phantasm franchise
    • Thing, The Thing (1982 & 2011)
    • Thing From Another World, The Thing From Another World
    • Tingler, The Tingler
    • Troll (any variety), Trolljegeren a.k.a Trollhunter
    • Vampira, Plan 9 From Outer Space
    • Wampa, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
    • Winston, Time Bandits
    • Wolf Man, Wolf Man franchise
    • Xenomorph, Alien franchise
    • Yamamura Sadako or Samara Morgan, Ringu or Ring franchise

  13. William Henley

    Oh, what about the Orcs from The Lord of the Rings? Oh, and what was that thingy that Gandalf fought in Modor? It’s on the tip of my tongue.

    What about Darleks, Cyberman (shoot, we could probably have a Doctor Who tournament in and of itself and have enemies of the Doctor in there).

  14. Shayne Blakeley

    Just started watching Chillerama, which I’d never heard of prior to its review here (thank you), and now I have to insist that the giant sperm monster be included.

    • Shayne Blakeley

      Just finished watching Chillerama (no thank you) holy shit does that movie go downhill fast!

    • EM

      This weekend I saw Pet Sematary for the first time. I would not call it a great movie, but I found it entertaining, and I nominate Gage Creed for the tournament. He wants to play with you!