31 favorite monsters: The Martians

"The War of the Worlds" was written by H.G. Wells in 1898, and introduced the world to the now fundamental concept of the alien invader. Terrorizing mankind with their towering mechanical tripods, heat rays and black smoke, the invaders hail from the planet mars, and desire Earth's bountiful resources. Having evolved beyond the need for much else, they consist of only immense, saclike bodies, bulging eyes, beaklike mouths and two clusters of tentacles or "hands." The creatures fit themselves into their walking machines like brains putting on interchangeable bodies, and most disturbingly of all, nourish themselves by drawing blood from other creatures and injecting it into their own veins via syringe-like tools, lacking anything resembling an actual digestive system.



These tentacled heads are hinted as a glimpse into our own evolutionary future should we continue to rely more heavily on our technology, and it's a shame that some adaptations HACKCOUGHSPIELBERGCOUGH completely reject this entire concept. Having perhaps long eradicated microbial life from their own world, the seemingly unstoppable invaders are ultimately wiped out by harmless Earthly germs - probably the common cold.