Woodsy's Manta post reminded me of stuff that gave me chills as a child. I had a large book of animals and one of the pages showed life in the deep ocean. Covering most of the page was a huge black shark, evilly eying up a Torpedo Ray and a Manta, all depicted in inky black. It was the only time I have seen a shark painted as black and it stuck in my childhood mind as a terrible, scary image. Just so, the Icthyosaur exhibit in Liverpool Museums dinosaur section, was very dimly lit and covered by a thin gauze, so that in the half light, you could touch the covering and imagine that there was nothing solid between you and those toothy jaws! Equally, at the entrance to the museum foyer was a massive japanese Spider Crab in a glass case, at least twice as long as I was tall, when I was about 6 and it worried me intensely that things could grow to this size. I recently emailed the museum to see if these exhibits still existed and they kindly sent me these photographs of the models, which were until recently, still on display.
My mother was a big Hammer film fan and would on occasion let me stay up past 10.30 for the Appointment with Fear film showings on ITV. I sat and watched The Quatermass Xperiment one night, so utterly terrified I couldn't move from the sofa. The creature defied all natural laws of nature and I could not accept that it was only a model. Even today, the effects still unnerve me.
The Glob, Zanti Misfits, TV Terror and Chromite actually had to be removed from the album and hidden away, as they terrified me so much. Decades later, as an adult, I found a dvd set of the series and was so disappointed with the actual creatures, especially as they were all in black and white!
You can see the Crawling Eye proudly positioned on my 7 year old head here!
