Halloween Monster Movie Playlist

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

For those of you that are big fans of monsters like me, paging through a bestiary is always a delight. While we pull many of our devious and dangerous creatures from folklore, we also draw from pop culture from time to time. Many of us here are fond of horror movies (and monster movies), and it's no small surprise that a number of our monsters are inspired by the movies we so love.

As a Halloween treat, here's a list of ten monsters from our bestiaries that owe part of their origin to the silver screen. For this list I tried to stick to influences that were strictly movie-based instead of things from folklore that happen to be the monstrous stars of horror movies, otherwise this list would be full of vampires, werewolves, flesh golems, ghosts, and even leprechauns (oh, come on... you know you've seen at least one of the Leprechaun movies).

And now for our feature presentation...

  • Augur Kyton (Bestiary 3) Phantasm (1979)
  • Body Thief (Bestiary 4) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, 1978)
  • Carnivorous Blob (Bestiary 2) The Blob (1958, 1988)
  • Deadly Mantis (Inner Sea Bestiary) The Deadly Mantis (1957)
  • Hungry Fog (Bestiary 3) The Fog (1980, 2005)
  • Immortal Ichor (Bestiary 4) Prince of Darkness (1987)
  • Mogaru Kaiju (Bestiary 4) Godzilla (various; 1954-2014)
  • Weedwhip (Bestiary 4) Day of the Triffids (1963)
  • Wickerman (Bestiary 4) Wickerman (1973, 2006)
  • Xenopterid (Bestiary 4) Mimic (1997)



Illustrations by Ryan Portillo, Joshua Meehan, David Melvin, and Eric Belisle

Whether you're handing out candy or rolling dice or watching a scary movie or going out with your fiends, we hope you have a creepy Halloween!

Adam Daigle
Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: David Melvin Eric Belisle Halloween Joshua Meehan Monsters Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ryan Portillo

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Great list, though the blog title should have been "You Play A Good Roleplaying Game, Boy..."

Paizo Employee Contributor—Canadian Maplecakes

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I'd prefer not knowing the Wickerman is at all based on the 2006 Wickerman movie. ;)

Scarab Sages

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I always felt that Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas was a Worm That Walks living inside a Skinstitch.

Community Manager

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Imbicatus wrote:
I always felt that Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas was a Worm That Walks living inside a Skinstich.

Ooh. *makes a note*

Contributor

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Thurston Hillman wrote:
I'd prefer not knowing the Wickerman is at all based on the 2006 Wickerman movie. ;)

NOT THE BEES!!!!!


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Adam Daigle wrote:
[...]or going out with your fiends[...]

Nice "typo"!

And some good-looking art!


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I'm sure most other Kytons are inspired by the Hellraiser movies :-p

Night Hags which are inspired by Nocnitsa cover mostly the dream haunting Freddy Kruger.

But those are from D&D of course, not Paizo creations.

And I really thought this would be a Bestiary 5 sneak preview!


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If only Bestiary 5 could have something that covers It and The Thing!

Sovereign Court

Man Prince of Darkness is such an underappreciated John Carpenter classic. I mean Alice Cooper as a creepy possessed homeless person, what's not to love? I think the Immortal Ichor will be featuring prominently in an upcoming campaign I'm dreaming up.

--Vrocktober

Paizo Employee Developer

Nullpunkt wrote:
Adam Daigle wrote:
[...]or going out with your fiends[...]

Nice "typo"!

And some good-looking art!

Thanks for noticing. :)


Yeah, Adamn, while I respect ya man, you've got something terrible wrong. Godzilla is not a horror movie series.

Please don't lump ToHo's work with a movie genre that's essentially full of one trick pony plotlines and one-sided coin villains.


It was about monster movies! Not only horror!

And they forgot Coloxus me thinks, its kinda like the fly?

Dark Archive

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Myth Lord wrote:
If only Bestiary 5 could have something that covers It and The Thing!

There's a pretty good analogue for The Thing in Legendary Games' Mythic Monsters 17 - Aliens called the Qomok. CR 14/MR 5, but mythic monsters don't mean you have to have mythic players at all.


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Ah I see what you meant now with the message :-p

Thanks for the heads-up, but still hope a bestiary gets The Thing in one of its pages for the collection!

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Thurston Hillman wrote:
I'd prefer not knowing the Wickerman is at all based on the 2006 Wickerman movie. ;)

There was no Wickerman remake.

There was no Wickerman remake.

There was no Wickerman remake.

There was no...

Sovereign Court

Called it with the Xenopterid! I love the Mimic, pity the sequels all sucked.

Paizo Employee Developer

Darrell Impey UK wrote:
Thurston Hillman wrote:
I'd prefer not knowing the Wickerman is at all based on the 2006 Wickerman movie. ;)

There was no Wickerman remake.

There was no Wickerman remake.

There was no Wickerman remake.

There was no...

I hear ya both. I questioned whether I should include it, but I figured it's easier to commiserate than suffer criticism for *not* including it. :)

Silver Crusade Contributor

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To be fair, it was one of the great comedies of our time.


Nice list but you guys forgot a lot creatures like flesh golem for Frankenstein's monster, vampires, the mummy, there are many fishmen that could be the creature from the black lagoon. You can't tell me the brain ooze wasn't inspired by some old sci-fi/horror movie.

I would really love to see Paizo's take on It and the Thing.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Dragon78 wrote:
Nice list but you guys forgot a lot creatures like flesh golem for Frankenstein's monster, vampires, the mummy, there are many fishmen that could be the creature from the black lagoon.
The blog wrote:
As a Halloween treat, here's a list of ten monsters from our bestiaries that made their debut on the silver screen. For this list I tried to stick to things that were strictly movie-based instead of things from folklore that happen to be the monstrous stars of horror movies, otherwise this list would be full of vampires, werewolves, flesh golems...

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

I would so love a Huge wickerman mini...


Can y'all please stop reminding me about Mimic?

*shudders*


I would also really love the Chimera from the B-Horror movie The Relic, the one that decapitates its victims.

Also the beating-heart rat-like humanoid monster that feeds on hearts with the annoying,creeping heartbeat from the movie Split Second.

And maybe the creature from the deep from the movie with Famke Jansen on that boat, Deep Rising.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Well,

Some people complain about referencing the Wickerman remake.

That's how I feel about referncing the 2005 fog vs the original.


The Mist (2005) is my favorite horrormovie of all time. Hands off!

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Myth Lord wrote:
The Mist (2005) is my favorite horrormovie of all time. Hands off!

Not the Mist, the crappy Fog Remake with Tom Welling.

Fun Fact, prior to H20, the Fog was the only movie Janet Leigh and Jamie Leigh Curtis appeared in together.


OH, didn't even know there was a real The Fog remake! Lol

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Myth Lord wrote:
OH, didn't even know there was a real The Fog remake! Lol

Ugh... it's bad. Really bad.

Dark Archive

Myth Lord wrote:
OH, didn't even know there was a real The Fog remake! Lol

I wish I didn't know about it also.


That Fog remake is on my Netflix que. I'm guessing I should delete and forget about it before I ruin my psyche.


You must make a flying shark from Sharknado (I, II, III, [IV?]...)

/cevah


Myth Lord wrote:

I would also really love the Chimera from the B-Horror movie The Relic, the one that decapitates its victims.

It's a wanna-be Lovecraftian Thing. What's not to adore about this cute little critter? ;)

Scarab Sages

Cevah wrote:

You must make a flying shark from Sharknado (I, II, III, [IV?]...)

/cevah

I once fought a wild shaped Druid in shark form with sky swim. Does that count?

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