31 favorite monsters: The Bat Rat Spider

It's running later than I intended, but there are still three entries to go!



In The Angry Red Planet, the first manned mission to mars is menaced with a multitude of martian monstrosities, but it's the Bat Rat Spider Crab that the film is most remembered for, and deservedly so. The gangly, snarling chimera of crawlies blends the nightmarish and the whimsical in a way that our modern cinematic aliens have sorely forgotten; today's sleek, predatory CG creations may be technical marvels, but compare them to the following sequence and tell me which is really more disturbing:



While easily the most iconic, the Bat Rat Spider is not the largest or most dangerous creature to threaten our crew, as their entire ship is later engulfed by what is described as a titanic amoeba. The poster art shows us a fascinating dumpling-like creature with dozens of little tentacles, while the film version has bulging eyeballs that constantly spin around and a messier, pukier appearance. Both are pretty awesome, and a piece of it even breaks off to parasitize a crewmember!