An excerpt from my script review for Love and Monsters which will be available 10/19/20:
3.) Quality of Characters
Quality of monsters!
Okay, I called Joel’s run-ins with these monsters “episodic” in regards to the plot, and they were, but…
They were interesting, which for me, made them all the more frightening.
A lot had ways to mimic human behavior to lure victims in, like angler fish but for human beings!
I was reminded of the strange creatures in Underwater. One of the things that stood out in that script too.
It was great, and even if Joel did escape most rather too conveniently, they should still make for cool visuals.
Shelobitch.
A giant spider (guessing a take on Shelob from LotR) with tree sized legs and a gross mouth that mimics someone saying, “Help me,” but in a faint voice.
The Banshee.
Our first sign of trouble here is a sign on the edge of the marsh that simply states “Beware Her”.
Similar to the siren’s song to sailors, the Banshee emits a beautiful singing sound that draws Joel in, and drives Boy (his dog companion) crazy.
Add to that it’s a Slenderman-esque swamp woman with tattered clothes of her victims and it’s eerie as fuck.
Cerberus-Rex.
When one tyrannosaurus head pops out, you’re thinking, “Okay, it’s a dinosaur.”
Then a second…and finally a third…all attached to a single body.
It’s strange sounding, and a simpler creature in that each head seems to have a separate function, and when one is lost the creature has trouble functioning which only makes it madder.
Conthulhu.
This one’s so good I’m willing to type it all out from the scan!
WHAT THE FUCK IS CONTHULHU? Imagine if Cthulhu, in all its squid headed ancient evil, was able to rape and impregnate itself, then rape and impregnate the offspring, and repeat that for millennia.
Satan is scared of Conthulhu.
Now, will we all have the same image in our heads? Probably not, but most of us are familiar enough with the Lovecraft monster that we can imagine how twisted and frightening it would become after centuries and centuries of incest.
Freaky.
And there were weird creatures in between all of those, I just hit my personal favorites.
This was good.
We could feel Duffield’s passion in the description, which will show through to a reader.
If implemented similarly in your own writing, hopefully this will make you stand among other specs.
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