25 of the most terrifying sci-fi monsters in the past 25 years – SYFY WIRE (blog)

September 2017 is Syfys 25th anniversary, so were using it as an excuse to look back and celebrate the last 25 years of ALL science fiction, fantasy and horror, a time that has seen the genres we love conquer the world of pop culture. For us, that means lists! ALL THE LISTS! Well be doing two 25 greatest lists per day all throughout September, looking back at the moments, people, and characters that shaped the last quarter century. So keep checking back. Please note: Our lists are not ranked; all items have equal standing in our brains

What items in our lists were your favorites? Did we miss something? We welcome respectful debate and discussion, so please let us know in the comments!

In the past 25 years, we at SYFY have seen enough teeth, tentacles, venom, claws, blasts of atomic breath and unnamed alien appendages to take over spaceships and pirate ships and major metro areas and the entire planetif not multiple planets. If not the entire universe.

Get on your armor and remember your weapons and anti-venom as you dare navigate this list of the 25 most terrifying monsters ready to party for SYFYs 25th birthday. Just dont ask Godzilla to blow out the candles.

1. Big Daddies - BioShockImagine a lab-manufactured humanoid whose skin and organs have been recycled from corpses and grafted into a gruesome diving suit that functions as their exoskeleton. Horrified yet? The mad scientist who brought these ultimate bio-weapons into being would have been gruesomely pleased to see how they terrorized players trying to maneuver through the submerged city of the classic 2007 game Bioshock and how their iconic image spawned some killer cosplay. I wouldnt want one of these things to come and give me lollies even if I was a Little Sister.

2. Brain Worms - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

3. The Cloverfield Monster - CloverfieldIt came from the deep and clawed its way into the pantheon of epic movie monsters almost as quickly as it crushed Manhattan. Not bad for something unrelated to any other big-screen beast that was so scary it managed to imprint itself into peoples nightmares. Those ridiculously long legs that appear bizarrely reptilian and insectile didnt hurt. You know something is beyond threatening when the government decides to sacrifice New York for the sake of destroying it. As if that isnt barbaric enough, it has parasites whose bite can make you explode.

4. Cronos - God of War 3

5. Goldar - Power RangersAfter Mighty Morphin Power Rangers owned 90s TV, everyone wanted to flip, kick and otherwise show off our ninja skills against the bad guysand Goldar was a prime target. This humanoid ape who looks like King Tut mated with the Sphinx is oddly hilarious when he tries to prove how menacing he is only to get taken down again and again. Maybe thats why it was so entertaining to watch the Power Rangers (especially the White Ranger), and if not them, their Megazords, beat the arrogance out of him on repeat.

6. Godzilla (Godzilla)He breathes massive blasts of atomic fire. He tramples skyscrapers like soda cans. Hes what happens a dinosaur emerges from bath of nuclear waste that made him more terrifying than even T-rex. Godzilla has been the king of kaiju since he first terrified theatergoers in the era of nuclear war paranoia that was the 50s, but he got a fresh coat of CG paint in Gareth Edwards' 2014, expanded universe-launching blockbuster.

7. Headcrabs - Half-LifeThe 2004 game that that became an insta-classic for its eerily immersive experience and has even been called the greatest game of all time also exposed players to one of the creepiest parasites of Black Mesa and all time. Things that jump on your head and mind-control you arent the worst it gets. Youre way better off having one of those gaping mouths latching onto your skull than the Poison species turning you into a Poison Zombie. Even freakier is that these things are edible, but only Vortigaunts and Bullsquids really have an appetite for them.

8. Indominus Rex - Jurassic World

As if resurrecting dinosaurs with the potential to shred people wasnt enough in Steven Spielbergs iconic 1993 sci-fi film Jurassic Park, fast-forward to 2015 and youll actually be convinced there is something scarier than T-Rex. Dr. Wus Faustian obsession with DNA mixing levels up the franchise in its fourth freakish installment when he doesnt just raise the dead but genetically engineers a lethal hybrid of the voracious carnivore with other prehistoric lizards that have a taste for raw flesh, creating a monster dino with the smarts to outwit even Chris Pratt. Yes; that smart.

9. Knifehead - Pacific RimGuillermo del Toro cant possibly go wrong with a creature feature, especially when those creatures get supersized to kaiju. Knifeheads knife head is so sharp it can slice through even the Jaeger armor that snagged it so many special effects awards and nominations. Kind of like goblin shark on legs, hes even more massive than Yamarashi. Not even a Plasmacaster can destroy this killer kaiju so easily. You only think that thing floating in the water is a corpse until it reemerges from the depths and nearly disembowels your Jaeger until you blast it in the face.

10. Kraken - Pirates of the CaribbeanFor a film series that was wildly popular when human pirates were the biggest monsters on the Black Pearl, this tentacled leviathan took the movie-fication of the classic Disney ride to a whole new sea level, savvy? The Kraken only looks like the massive squid of legend until you realize it has so many concentric circles of dagger teeth you have no idea what it is anymore. Those tentacles can tear apart ships faster than ripping off a candy wrapper. The last person you ever want to be is Jack Sparrow as it drags him down to the unfathomable depths.

11. Marvel Zombies - Marvel ComicsBecause zombies just arent nightmarish enough, there have to be zombies that can actually zombify superheroes and then go cannibal feasting on other zombified superheroes. What is so shocking about these undead versus the usual zombie hordes is that they take the Marvel superheroes that have been icons for legions of fans and inject them with every evil they fought as humans. Hulk may usually smash to save people, but how hes biting their heads off. You also dont want to mess with walking corpses wielding a supergun loaded with cosmic powers.12. Parallax - DC ComicsWhats worse than a parasite? How about a demonic alien parasite that embodies your worst fears and may or may not inflict enough paranoia to make entire civilizations wipe themselves out? Like, it can actually push you to murder (and it can, if it did it to Green Lantern Hal Jordan), but its sickening shade of vomit-yellow should be enough to drive you away before that happens. Parallax has not only managed to stay alive through Green Lantern comics for years, but its persisted enough for DC to unleash it into film and video game extensions of the series.

13. PiranhacondaWhat do you get when you cross the most voracious fish in the world with the hugest snake in the world? You get a beast slithering out of the jungle whenever it senses blood, and humans are on the menu. SYFY is the master of a certain breed of TV movie monsters (you already know that by now), so its no surprise that a virtual DNA experiment bred two of your worst fears into one monstrous hybrid. The bite of this thing might make you rethink your next tropical vacation, especially if youre headed for Hawaii. Whatever you do, do not steal its eggs.14. Pyramid Head - Silent Hill

He might have a human body (at least, a body of human flesh crudely Frankensteined together), but even if Pyramid Head has no shred of humanity left, hes become the bloodstained poster child for the Silent Hill franchise and one of the most iconic video game villains ever. You dont need to read the label to know which game that is if that faceless face is staring back at you. Game and movie cosplay versions of him have infested every con Ive ever been to, but that doesnt downplay the fear factor. You do not want that much rusted metal head-butting you.

15. Sadu-Hem - Hellboy

16. SharktopusSharktopus is what happens when you combine the genes of Jaws and Cthulhu in a petri dish. Sort of. While it doesnt actually have Lovecraftian DNA, this failed military science experiment was successful for SYFY in its merging the freakiest aspects of the most famous shark attack movie of all time and a many-tentacled mythos to create a leviathan thats even more fearsome than the Kraken. Its exactly what it sounds likehalf carnivorous fish, half eight-legged cephalopod with extra teeth and sharp tentacles. At least you can blow it up.

17. The Silents - Doctor WhoThey will make you confess all your sins without ever knowing youve done it, but thats not the worst thing about the Silents of Doctor Who, which has had some of the scariest aliens to ever crawl through all of time and space. Neither are those mouthless faces with gaping eye sockets (hard as that may be to believe). Most terrifying is that they can change the course of time and warp it to their willlike, if they want you already dead. They seem to have accomplished their mission by becoming ingrained enough in the classic series to be part of its universe forever.

18. The Witch - Left 4 Dead 2Usually, you shine a flashlight in a monsters face to frighten it away. While the Witch will lunge at you if her darkness is disturbed, special infected like her were powerful enough to level up the Left 4 Dead universe in 2009 with new strategies that made players much more likely to think because they were that much more likely to die. Your instinct may usually tell you to kill monsters, but any threat to the Witch will trigger this upgraded banshee to slash you to shreds, so switch off the flashlight and try to slink back into the shadows.

19. The Mayor - Buffy the Vampire SlayerBack when Buffy slayed primetime TV, you came to expect vampires to look like vampires and demons to look like demons (most of the baddies on the show had hideously wrinkled faces from being thousands of years old). What makes this one especially scary is how obvious he isnt. You would never think the deceptively squeaky-clean Mayor of Sunnydale is a sorcerer hellbent on morphing into a purebred demonic entity. The shock from seeing a guy in a suit transform into this unspeakable thing is what really burns him into your memory.

20. The Pale Man - Pans LabyrinthWe've seen plenty of disturbing horror images over our years at the movies, but we'd never seen anything like the scene that unfolded when this guy picked his eyeballs up off a platter, which is all the more proof that Guillermo del Toro can master any monstrosity. Disturbing visions of the Pale Man echoed in the nightmares of moviegoers for weeks. You dont easily forget something that can only see by sticking its eyes on the insides of hands, and then putting his hands to his deformed Voldemort face so he can hunt down dinner. Hes only supposed crave children, but adults might want to steer clear, as well.

21. The Weeping Angels - Doctor WhoDont blink. Because if you do, what looked like an innocuous graveyard statue half a second ago may kill you or send you to an unknown dimension. Its no wonder that so many Whovians may stand unusually still in the presence of an inanimate angel, even it is made of nothing more than marble, because Weeping Angels are not stone but quantum-locked humanoids that can send you into some chasm of time just by touching you. Theyve become so iconic that all you know all those dont blink stickers around werent just for the recent solar eclipse.22. Titans - Attack on Titan

Almost as huge as the following of smash sci-fi manga and anime series Attack on Titan, whose enormous fandom trampled previous chart-topper One Piece in 2014, are these disproportionate humanoids who eat humans for breakfast (and every other meal). The quasi-cannibalism should be enough to make you run, but just in case it isnt, the only reason they exist is to devour homo sapiens. You may or may not get away if you shoot one, because you wont know which ones are immune to painor can regenerate, even if decapitated.

23. Violator - SpawnSpawn is so insanely popular its spawned movies, fan films, video games and even a metal album, so of course you will bow in fear to the overlord that spawned every iteration of Spawn. The Violator is already creepy enough as his alter ego The Clown (who kind of looks like John Wayne Gacys Pogo the Clown persona), but his demonic form is just beyond. He has every murderous appendage you could possibly imagine, and you cant kill him because he always gets reanimated. Its no surprise that this is who is in charge of mentoring new Hellspawn.

24. Uruk-Hai - The Lord of the Rings

25. Zunisha - One PieceZunisha is one mammoth elephantand something huge enough to carry an island on it back is kind of difficult to forget. So is the best-selling manga series of all time that soon turned into an anime and has flooded the high seas with thirteen feature films and eleven TV specials since it set sail in 1997, with no signs of sinking yet. Zunisha is even more ancient than that. While it isnt out to slaughter everything in sight, try to attack it and one whack of its gargantuan trunk will sink your entire fleet of pirate ships.

Those were OUR choices. What are yours? Let us know in the comments which Creators of Color of the last 25 yearsyoud put on your list?

Be sure to check out all of the other lists here!

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25 of the most terrifying sci-fi monsters in the past 25 years - SYFY WIRE (blog)

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero