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The final episode of Dracula
Claes Bang played the evil vampire at the heart of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ adaptation, which scored rave reviews following its premiere on New Year’s Day (1 January).
Just three days later, though, and the show fell out of favour with those who had been praising it – mainly due to the twist that brought the character face-to-face with Van Helsing’s descendant in the 21st Century.
After watching two episodes that were set in the same time period as Bram Stoker’s novel, viewers felt the modern day re-imagining failed to hit the mark.
Twitter was awash with messages criticising Sherlock
Show all 20 1 /20The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The Babadook (2014) He comes out of a pop-up book, announces himself with three knocks at the door, and it’s seemingly impossible to get rid of him once he sets his sights on you… The Babadook isn’t just a perfect movie monster, he also ascended to the rank of unexpected queer icon thanks to Tumblr.
Entertainment One
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Nosferatu (1922) The first (unauthorised) adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula is a masterful presentation of the Victorian fears the vampire represents - xenophobia, disease, female sexuality and death. FW Murnau's silent film starring Max Schreck as Dracula character Graf Orlock - the bald, sharp-toothed monster with hideously clawed hands at the end of outstretched arms - sparked a lawsuit by Stoker's estate and all copies were ordered destroyed. Fortunately, a few copies in Germany survived, and Schreck's skulking villain continues to define our ideals of what a monster in "human" form looks like. Indeed, it is his humanness that is the both the allure and the undoing of him - unable to tear himself from the Mina character's neck before sunrise, he meets his doom. Yet the scene where he creeps up the stairs, casting a vast, terrifying shadow on the wall behind him - that is immortal.
Film Arts Guild
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Blade II (2002) Guillermo del Toro has made a career out of dreaming up all kinds of creatures – some nice, others not so – and the Reapers in Blade II fit firmly in the latter category. They’re a deadlier breed of vampire (yes, in this film you can be even more dead than the undead) and, perhaps even more terrifyingly, the lead carrier is played by Luke Goss.
New Line Cinema
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The Thing (1982) “You’ll never see anything like The Thing ever again,” John Carpenter once said of his 1982 sci-fi horror. Many critics at the time would have responded, “Good.” Upon its release, the film – which centres around a mysterious, malformed humanoid discovered buried in ice, that consumes and assimilates anything in its way – was met with a barrage of negative reviews. Critics decried it as “bereft, despairing and nihilistic”, but over time, those traits have become its greatest strengths. Plus, there are tentacles, slime and dismembered body parts.
Universal Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Gremlins (1984) As mogwai, they're unbelievably cute. But feed them after midnight and you'll be faced with these slimy little terrors, with their triangular faces, sharp teeth and penchant for mayhem. (JS)
Warner Bro
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The Fly (1986) There are few scenes more horrific than Jeff Goldblum completing his metamorphosis into the gloopy, eponymous fly, in Cronenberg's classic.
20th Century Fox
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time King Kong (1933) Whether you see King Kong as a rampaging monster or a tragic antihero, the ape has become one of the most famous movie icons in history and has appeared in dozens of films, video games, comics and books since his debut in the original 1933 classic. (EH)
Radio Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) This strange prehistoric beast from 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon lurks in the depths of a dark lake in the Amazonian jungle. It doesn’t take too kindly to a group of scientists’ attempts to capture it and bring it back to civilisation for testing. (EH)
Universal Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Pan's Labyrinth (2006) The Pale Man only appears in one scene in Pan’s Labyrinth, but has understandably been burned into the collective memories of everyone who’s seen it. A child-eating ghoul with loose skin and eyeballs lodged in his palms, he remains Guillermo Del Toro’s most disarming and terrifying creation.
Warner Bros Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The Host (2013) This slimy-skinned creature with an appetite for small children is yet another movie monster that emerges from the depths of a body of water – in this case the Han River in South Korea. In the 2006 film The Host, the strange amphibian kidnaps a local man’s daughter and the story follows his desperate attempts to rescue her. (EH)
Showbox Entertainment
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Critters (1986) These little red-eyed furballs from outer space can eat you quicker than a school of piranhas and shoot darts from their forehead. Fun fact: a young Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in Critters 3 (1991). (JS)
New Line Cinema
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Little Shop of Horrors (1986) There is a silly sort of charm at the heart of The Little Shop of Horrors, which stars Rick Moranis as a nervous florist, and the voice of Levi Stubbs as a singing, man-eating plant called Audrey II. The film is more nerdy than nightmarish, and is all the better for it. (AP)
Warner Bros
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Monsters, Inc (2001) OK, the monsters of Monsters, Inc – an animated Pixar film in which children’s screams generate the city’s power – are far less nightmarish than some of the entries here. Some of them, in fact, are downright cute – not least John Goodman’s blue-furred, gentle giant Sulley. But Randall Boggs, a conniving chameleon as slimy as his name suggests, is brilliantly creepy. (AP)
Buena Vista Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Beetlejuice (1988) Michael Keaton’s bio-exorcist turns the Deetz residence into a house of horrors after transforming into a leery stop-motion reptilian creature in a scene that, despite its placement in the middle of the Tim Burton comedy, remains a pretty unsettling watch. (JS)
Warner Bros Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Tremors (1990) The creatures that terrorise Kevin Bacon can best be identified as "land sharks". That's how writers SS Wilson and Brent Maddock pitched the idea to director Ron Underwood, who used his knowledge of nature (he was a documentary filmmaker for National Geographic at the time) to translate the monster into one hell of an on-screen terror. (JS)
Universal Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time The Blob (1958) Although this creature, which crashes onto Earth inside a meteorite, is described as an alien amoeboidal entity, it is essentially a giant blob that rolls around town, devouring everybody in its wake. In other words, it’s not going to go down as one of the most creatively imagined monsters in cinema, but the fact it gets bigger with each person killed is a pretty scary thought. (JS)
Paramount Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Godzilla (1954) Sometimes a metaphor for nuclear war, but often a giant spiky-backed friend to all, Godzilla is both the scariest and loveliest of cinema’s monsters. Through 35 movies and countless video games, TV series and comic books, Godzilla has been as willing to crush skyscrapers with aplomb as he is eager to rescue humanity. He’s the kind of creature you’d want to bring home to your parents is what we’re saying, if you were in a scenario in which dating Godzilla was an option. (AW)
Warner Bros Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Predator (1987) Because it feels important to reiterate every once in a while to remind us of how good we once had it, there was once a film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger faced off against an invisible, dreadlocked alien in the jungle outside Guatemala. It was Predator, and it was terrifying. (AW)
20th Century Fox
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Frankenstein (1931) Not Frankenstein, as you will have been endlessly reminded by your teachers when you were 11 and reading Mary Shelley for the first time in English. Like many of the monsters on this list, Frankenstein’s Monster is also a master of transformation: sometimes a deformed mutant, other times incredibly charismatic – in a desperately-wants-to-eat-your-brain kind of way. Eternally spooky, however. (AW)
Universal Pictures
The 20 scariest movie monsters of all time Alien (1979) The monsters at the centre of the Alien franchise are so terrifying because they’re oddly biological – all ooze and acid and jutting parts, with phallic things protruding out of them and shiny heads like the backs of cockroaches. They are grim, crawling around like interpretive dance students dressed in black latex and equally as terrifying. Thank God, then, for Sigourney Weaver, who has never met a Xenomorph she hasn’t been able to take down with a trusty flamethrower or through the use of a giant bit of wearable tech. If she’s not available, though… then the best of luck to you. (AW)
20th Century Fox
“I have seen rapid declines in TV shows over seasons before. Never have I seen it over three episodes,” one Twitter user wrote , with critic Helen O’Hara calling the conclusion “deeply silly.”
“We’ll always have episode one,” another quipped, referencing the acclaimed premiere, while others branded the episode ”horses*** and so boring” as well as “dreadful”.
Find a collection of responses below.
Dracula also starred Dolly Wells, Morfydd Clark and Lydia West.
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