The 12 Most Memorable Garden-Variety Killers
January 26th 2009 10:10
ANOTHER LIST
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4. Poltergest
Type: Suburban tree
Released: 1982
A family is terrorised in their home by evil spirits. At first it's all a bit light-hearted as they stack chairs but then start possessing a clown doll and a massive tree outside the house, which smashes through a window and tries to kidnap the young son Robbie. Apparently the movie's famous writer Steven Spielberg was terrified of a tree outside his bedroom window where he used to live as a small boy - along with an old clown, which also had a starring role in the classic thriller which spawned two sequels.
WATCH >>>
3. Creepshow
Type: Alien moss
Released: 1982
The second story in this cult classic horror anthology from writer Stephen King and director George A. Romero called The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill features King himself perfectly cast as goofy backwoods farmer who finds a meteorite, which has crashed in his property. The black comedy short sees Jordy thinking he's hit paydirt, with visions of selling the thing, but he winds up paying with his life. The radioactive rock from outer space contains a secretion - or "meteor shit" as Jordy calls it - that turns into a green moss that quickly infestates anything and everything in its path, including Jordy. "Oh, Jordy Verrill, you lunkhead!"
WATCH >>>
2. The Little Shop of Horrors
Species: Alien plant
Released: 1960 and 1986
The now legendary 'Audrey II', the talking, bloodthirsty plant from another world, has had two incarnations on the big screen - the first in 1960, directed by Roger Corman and featuring a cameo by a young dorky Jack Nicholson. The second came in musical form in 1986 (adapted from the 1982 stage show) and had baritone Levi Stubbs, from The Four Tops fame, as the voice of the singing man-eater. Rick Moranis is the nerdish florist, Seymour Krelboin, who must feed it - humans. As Audrey II says, "I'm just a mean green mother from outer space and I'm bad!"
WATCH >>>
1. The Day of the Triffids
Species: Alien plant
Released: 1962
Based on the classic John Wyndham novel of the same name, the Triffids are aliens that arrive on Earth during a meteor shower, which also blinded most of the planet's population. They miss out on seeing walking plants that have been likened to gigantic asparagus shoots that possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting and hellbent on killing them. Suffice to say humans are pretty much 'rooted' themselves - until they figure out that salt water can dissolve the invading hordes of big green men from outer space. Starred Howard Keel as the hero of the piece. The movie was made into a mini-series in 1981.
WATCH >>>
Don't forget to check out ...
The 13 Lamest Robots in Movie History
The 10 Lamest Alien Visitors in Movie History
They seem harmless enough but plantlife can inflict some serious carnage on the human race. Well, in the movies anyway.
Having recently watched two films released from 2008, The Ruins and The Happening, I've weeded out a list of budding garden-variety killers.
12. Scary Movie 2
Type: Giant marijuana
Released: 2001
Four teens are tricked by their professor into spending a weekend at a haunted house for a school project. Spoofed the spate of ghost movies released at the time, like The Haunted, 13 Ghosts, and What Lies Beneath, as well as the classics The Exorcist (1974) and the Steven Spielberg-penned Poltergiest (1982). One of the students, the stoner Shorty Meeks (played by co-writer Marlon Wayans), gets more than he bargains for when he takes along his potted marijuana plant. What transpires is a homage to a scene from Poltergiest. "I'll never smoke you again", says a distressed, rolled Shorty.
WATCH >>>
11. Please Don't Eat My Mother
Type: Horny plant
Released: 1973
A shy middle-aged virgin who lives with his mother, Henry Fudd (played by former wrestler and body builder Buck Kartalian), buys a plant that turns out to possess a sexy feminine voice and then develops a craving for insects, frogs, dogs - and humans. A typical early '70s sexploitation film, obviously borrowing heavily from Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors (1960), but with a lot more 'bush'. Suffice to say the plant does eat his mother. Interesting sidenote, Kartalian played Julius, the gorilla who hoses down Charlton Heston, in Planet of the Apes.
WATCH >>>
10. The Woman Eater
Type: Amazonian tree
Released: 1957
A mad scientist, Dr James Moran (George Coulouris) returns from a trip to the Amazon with a sacred tree that is supposed to produce a special serum that can restore life to the dead. The catch though is that this obviously male 'woody plant' wants to devour young women, and they must be hot young women - who don't know how to run, but know how to scream. The scariest character from this British-made horror though is the good doctor's 'diaper'-wearing sidekick Tanga (Jimmy Vaughn).
WATCH >>>
9. The Revenge of Doctor X
Type: Hybrid Venus Fly Trap
Released: 1970
In the tradition of Frankenstein, another crazy scientist, Dr Bragan (James Craig) creates his own man-eating plant which actually learns to walk after uprooting itself, and goes on a killing spree. Though the movie was directed by Kenneth Crane (The Day The Lord Got Busted), the brainchild behind it was none other than Ed Wood, who wrote the screenplay. It was filmed in Tokyo and features numerous topless Japanese girls for no other reason than it could. Also known as The Double Garden and The Venus Fly Trap.
WATCH >>>
8. The Happening
Type: All
Released: 2008
No plant monsters here. In fact, nothing that the eye can see. Pissed off at man's constant pollution of the earth, plant-life on the east coast of America decide to release toxins that cause humans to go a little nuts, so nuts they commit suicide in some pretty spectacular ways, such as nosediving off of buildings. Genuinely interesting concept from the hit and miss director M. Night Shyamalan, but as Ben Lee once sang "a lot goes on ... but nothing happens". Those mostly affected by the toxins are people giving off 'bad vibes', like the ones this movie produced when it was released.
WATCH >>>
7. The Navy vs The Night Monsters
Type: Antarctic tree stumps
Released: 1966
A scientific expedition to Antarctica discovers unusual long-dorment tree stump specimens, which, after taken aboard a naval base, reveal themselves to be fully mobile killer, acid-secreting monsters that live by night. The film, which has a dismal rating of 1.2 on the Internet Movie Database, was adapted from the book by Murray Leinster, The Monster from Earth's End. The film was also known as The Night Crawlers and stars Marilyn Monroe clone Mamie Van Doren as the naval nurse.
WATCH >>>
6. The Evil Dead
Type: Tree vines.
Released: 1981
Directed by Saim Raimi (the Spider-Man trilogy), the film sees five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unwittingly release flesh-possessing - and tree-possessing for that matter - demons. In a disturbing scene that was banned in some countries, one of the female characters, Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) is held down and brutally raped by vines from a tree. Now 50, Sandweiss has only just returned to acting after a 26-year hiatus raising her family. Don't watch the video if you're easily offended.
WATCH >>>
5. The Ruins
Type: Ancient Mayan vines
Released: 2008
Enjoyable movie about a group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they decide to visit an old Mayan pyramid where an archaelogical dig is supposed to be happening. What they find are some rather inhospitable locals determined to appease a bunch of carnivorous vines by using them as sacrificial lambs. These ancient vines are also capable of making certain sounds like mimicking laughter, through their pretty flower buds. The movie was actually shot in Australia.
Having recently watched two films released from 2008, The Ruins and The Happening, I've weeded out a list of budding garden-variety killers.
12. Scary Movie 2
Type: Giant marijuana
Released: 2001
Four teens are tricked by their professor into spending a weekend at a haunted house for a school project. Spoofed the spate of ghost movies released at the time, like The Haunted, 13 Ghosts, and What Lies Beneath, as well as the classics The Exorcist (1974) and the Steven Spielberg-penned Poltergiest (1982). One of the students, the stoner Shorty Meeks (played by co-writer Marlon Wayans), gets more than he bargains for when he takes along his potted marijuana plant. What transpires is a homage to a scene from Poltergiest. "I'll never smoke you again", says a distressed, rolled Shorty.
WATCH >>>
11. Please Don't Eat My Mother
Type: Horny plant
Released: 1973
A shy middle-aged virgin who lives with his mother, Henry Fudd (played by former wrestler and body builder Buck Kartalian), buys a plant that turns out to possess a sexy feminine voice and then develops a craving for insects, frogs, dogs - and humans. A typical early '70s sexploitation film, obviously borrowing heavily from Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors (1960), but with a lot more 'bush'. Suffice to say the plant does eat his mother. Interesting sidenote, Kartalian played Julius, the gorilla who hoses down Charlton Heston, in Planet of the Apes.
WATCH >>>
10. The Woman Eater
Type: Amazonian tree
Released: 1957
A mad scientist, Dr James Moran (George Coulouris) returns from a trip to the Amazon with a sacred tree that is supposed to produce a special serum that can restore life to the dead. The catch though is that this obviously male 'woody plant' wants to devour young women, and they must be hot young women - who don't know how to run, but know how to scream. The scariest character from this British-made horror though is the good doctor's 'diaper'-wearing sidekick Tanga (Jimmy Vaughn).
WATCH >>>
9. The Revenge of Doctor X
Type: Hybrid Venus Fly Trap
Released: 1970
In the tradition of Frankenstein, another crazy scientist, Dr Bragan (James Craig) creates his own man-eating plant which actually learns to walk after uprooting itself, and goes on a killing spree. Though the movie was directed by Kenneth Crane (The Day The Lord Got Busted), the brainchild behind it was none other than Ed Wood, who wrote the screenplay. It was filmed in Tokyo and features numerous topless Japanese girls for no other reason than it could. Also known as The Double Garden and The Venus Fly Trap.
WATCH >>>
8. The Happening
Type: All
Released: 2008
No plant monsters here. In fact, nothing that the eye can see. Pissed off at man's constant pollution of the earth, plant-life on the east coast of America decide to release toxins that cause humans to go a little nuts, so nuts they commit suicide in some pretty spectacular ways, such as nosediving off of buildings. Genuinely interesting concept from the hit and miss director M. Night Shyamalan, but as Ben Lee once sang "a lot goes on ... but nothing happens". Those mostly affected by the toxins are people giving off 'bad vibes', like the ones this movie produced when it was released.
WATCH >>>
7. The Navy vs The Night Monsters
Type: Antarctic tree stumps
Released: 1966
A scientific expedition to Antarctica discovers unusual long-dorment tree stump specimens, which, after taken aboard a naval base, reveal themselves to be fully mobile killer, acid-secreting monsters that live by night. The film, which has a dismal rating of 1.2 on the Internet Movie Database, was adapted from the book by Murray Leinster, The Monster from Earth's End. The film was also known as The Night Crawlers and stars Marilyn Monroe clone Mamie Van Doren as the naval nurse.
WATCH >>>
6. The Evil Dead
Type: Tree vines.
Released: 1981
Directed by Saim Raimi (the Spider-Man trilogy), the film sees five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unwittingly release flesh-possessing - and tree-possessing for that matter - demons. In a disturbing scene that was banned in some countries, one of the female characters, Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) is held down and brutally raped by vines from a tree. Now 50, Sandweiss has only just returned to acting after a 26-year hiatus raising her family. Don't watch the video if you're easily offended.
WATCH >>>
5. The Ruins
Type: Ancient Mayan vines
Released: 2008
Enjoyable movie about a group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they decide to visit an old Mayan pyramid where an archaelogical dig is supposed to be happening. What they find are some rather inhospitable locals determined to appease a bunch of carnivorous vines by using them as sacrificial lambs. These ancient vines are also capable of making certain sounds like mimicking laughter, through their pretty flower buds. The movie was actually shot in Australia.
WATCH >>>
4. Poltergest
Type: Suburban tree
Released: 1982
A family is terrorised in their home by evil spirits. At first it's all a bit light-hearted as they stack chairs but then start possessing a clown doll and a massive tree outside the house, which smashes through a window and tries to kidnap the young son Robbie. Apparently the movie's famous writer Steven Spielberg was terrified of a tree outside his bedroom window where he used to live as a small boy - along with an old clown, which also had a starring role in the classic thriller which spawned two sequels.
WATCH >>>
3. Creepshow
Type: Alien moss
Released: 1982
The second story in this cult classic horror anthology from writer Stephen King and director George A. Romero called The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill features King himself perfectly cast as goofy backwoods farmer who finds a meteorite, which has crashed in his property. The black comedy short sees Jordy thinking he's hit paydirt, with visions of selling the thing, but he winds up paying with his life. The radioactive rock from outer space contains a secretion - or "meteor shit" as Jordy calls it - that turns into a green moss that quickly infestates anything and everything in its path, including Jordy. "Oh, Jordy Verrill, you lunkhead!"
WATCH >>>
2. The Little Shop of Horrors
Species: Alien plant
Released: 1960 and 1986
The now legendary 'Audrey II', the talking, bloodthirsty plant from another world, has had two incarnations on the big screen - the first in 1960, directed by Roger Corman and featuring a cameo by a young dorky Jack Nicholson. The second came in musical form in 1986 (adapted from the 1982 stage show) and had baritone Levi Stubbs, from The Four Tops fame, as the voice of the singing man-eater. Rick Moranis is the nerdish florist, Seymour Krelboin, who must feed it - humans. As Audrey II says, "I'm just a mean green mother from outer space and I'm bad!"
WATCH >>>
1. The Day of the Triffids
Species: Alien plant
Released: 1962
Based on the classic John Wyndham novel of the same name, the Triffids are aliens that arrive on Earth during a meteor shower, which also blinded most of the planet's population. They miss out on seeing walking plants that have been likened to gigantic asparagus shoots that possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting and hellbent on killing them. Suffice to say humans are pretty much 'rooted' themselves - until they figure out that salt water can dissolve the invading hordes of big green men from outer space. Starred Howard Keel as the hero of the piece. The movie was made into a mini-series in 1981.
WATCH >>>
Don't forget to check out ...
The 13 Lamest Robots in Movie History
The 10 Lamest Alien Visitors in Movie History
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Comment by NoaIzumi
Fine Politics
Anime Bottle
Comment by Damo
The ultimate plant film.
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
...would love to see "Please Don't Eat My Mother", too!
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Raoul Duke
Style of Eye
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