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Description
While THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959) will always be best remembered for The Rat-Bat-Spider-Crab, a crazy chimeric beast indicative of the bug-eyed silliness we modern audiences equate with 1950s pulp science fiction, films or otherwise, my personal favorite Martian kaiju from the film has always been The Giant Amoeboid, alias The Giant Amoeba.

The slithering single cell mega-organism acts as the murderous guardian to the film's scantly seen Martians and their city of mile-high skyscrapers. It arises from an oily ocean to chase down a quartet of interloping astronauts from Earth, managing to capture and absorb one of the crew members just before he could reach the safety of their rocket ship. Despite its seemingly unstoppable menace, the Giant Amoeboid is quickly broken down and killed by a great jolt of electricity activated by the astronauts through their rocket ship.

Although victorious, the sapped energy and multiple monstrous encounters force the survivors to return to Earth but a fragment of the amoeba remains on the lead astronaut's arm, itself slowly sucking on his flesh until it's later electrocuted and destroyed back on Earth.

There are scarier and deadlier slime creatures in fiction but The Giant Amoeboid stands out for me with its memorable look which also harkens back to the wild pulp science fiction of yesteryear.

RELATED ARTWORK:

Brandon Tenold on The Angry Red Planet

American Kaiju - Mars Giant Amoeba by

The Angry Red Planet by

TOMORROW: A new horror has arrived at Piccadilly Circus.

Description
While THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959) will always be best remembered for The Rat-Bat-Spider-Crab, a crazy chimeric beast indicative of the bug-eyed silliness we modern audiences equate with 1950s pulp science fiction, films or otherwise, my personal favorite Martian kaiju from the film has always been The Giant Amoeboid, alias The Giant Amoeba.

The slithering single cell mega-organism acts as the murderous guardian to the film's scantly seen Martians and their city of mile-high skyscrapers. It arises from an oily ocean to chase down a quartet of interloping astronauts from Earth, managing to capture and absorb one of the crew members just before he could reach the safety of their rocket ship. Despite its seemingly unstoppable menace, the Giant Amoeboid is quickly broken down and killed by a great jolt of electricity activated by the astronauts through their rocket ship.

Although victorious, the sapped energy and multiple monstrous encounters force the survivors to return to Earth but a fragment of the amoeba remains on the lead astronaut's arm, itself slowly sucking on his flesh until it's later electrocuted and destroyed back on Earth.

There are scarier and deadlier slime creatures in fiction but The Giant Amoeboid stands out for me with its memorable look which also harkens back to the wild pulp science fiction of yesteryear.

RELATED ARTWORK:

Brandon Tenold on The Angry Red Planet

American Kaiju - Mars Giant Amoeba by

The Angry Red Planet by

TOMORROW: A new horror has arrived at Piccadilly Circus.