HE may be more than 70 years old, but King Kong is still reckoned to be the most terrifying movie monster of all time.
The 50ft ape was voted the best screen beast in the history of cinema by film experts, beating other monsters such as T-Rex from Jurassic Park, The Thing and the Alien from the eponymous 1979 sci-fi film.
The giant ape, which hit cinema screens in black and white in 1933, topped a poll in the film magazine Empire. Describing the giant ape as ?the boss?, Empire said: ?Other pretenders try to dethrone him, but the lord of Skull Island tramples them all. He?s a terrifying force of destruction, yet beautifully human ? this king demands your total devotion.?
Producers Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack conceived the film as a retelling of Beauty And The Beast. The film tells the story of an expedition to a remote island to capture a gigantic ape and bring him back to New York for exhibition. But, after being captured, the monster breaks out after falling in love with a beautiful actress (Fay Wray) who accompanies the expedition team.
The film ? whose most famous scene is of the monster scaling New York?s Empire State building ? grossed a then record $90,000 in its opening weekend.
Oscar-winning Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson is remaking the film on a £70 million budget in New Zealand. It is due for release next year.
Second on the list was the 100ft bronze Talos from Jason And The Argonauts. In the 1963 film the metal giant chases the Argonauts and smashes their ship the Argo.
The Alien, which erupts from John Hurt?s chest in Alien, comes third, followed by T-Rex in Steven Spielberg?s 1993 dinosaur movie Jurassic Park.
However, there was no place for Bram Stoker?s blood-sucking vampire Dracula nor the monster created by the scientist in Mary Shelley?s Frankenstein.
Robert Simpson, horror film critic and the man who maintains the unofficial Hammer House of Horror website, couldn?t believe Frankenstein had been left out.
?I?d let them away with King Kong at number one but I?m really surprised that Frankenstein isn?t even on the list. ?
Simpson said that one explanation for the omission could be the ongoing debate over whether Frankenstein?s monster was really a monster as such, or more of a troubled creation.
?Hammer has him as much more of an unfortunate figure, a person gone a bit wrong, whereas [Boris] Karloff?s Frankenstein is certainly seen as a monster, albeit misunderstood. But I?m still surprised it?s not made the list.?
Other favourites that failed to make the top 10 included Japanese titan Godzilla, the robot endoskeleton at the end of the first Terminator, the final stages of David Cronenberg?s The Fly, The Blob and the flying monkeys in The Wizard Of Oz.
Adele Hartley, director of Edinburgh?s Dead By Dawn Horror Film Festival, described King Kong as ?the classic movie monster?. However, she added that rather than the rampaging ape, her favourite monsters included the man-eating shark Jaws, Freddie Kruger of the Nightmare On Elm Street films and Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies.
She said: ?King Kong is going to be in most people?s top three. It has all the features of a classic monster film ? it has a rampaging monster, a helpless woman and a meddling scientist. It?s one of the Sunday afternoon matinee classics.
?But for me, one of the best monsters has to be Jaws. That was the monster that stopped everyone from going into the sea. Even 10 years after seeing it you?d be terrified if your foot brushed against a bit of seaweed when you were swimming. The film made monsters more terrifying because it this one actually existed.
?Freddie was another of the great movie monsters because in those films was the idea that even in your bed or your dreams, where you were defenceless, he could get you. Jaws may have been effective but Pinhead from Hellraiser is the greatest. You had to beg him to come and get you and that idea revolutionised horror and monsters. ?
The Lord of the Rings monster, the spider queen Shelob which entangles actor Elijah Wood in last year?s Return Of The King, comes sixth, after The Thing, the ?extraordinary organism that trashes all sense of bodily integrity? in the 1982 movie of the same name.
The remaining monsters include the ?Skinned? Werewolf in The Company Of Wolves; Tetsuo, from the Japanese animation Akira; and The Troll in the 2001 film Harry Potter And The Philosopher?s Stone.
Despite advances in computer technology and animation, the 1933 film is still considered the best.
Angela Freeman, a senior manager at the Glasgow Film Theatre, said King Kong was a sell out when it was screened in February. She said: ?It was packed with people of all ages. After the film there was a real range of people all coming out crying at the end. It shows that, despite its age, it still packs a punch.?
The Top 10
1: King Kong
(King Kong, 1933) The model of King Kong was only 18 inches high
2: Talos (Jason And The Argonauts, 1963) Talos was made bronze because of the success of 1962?s Colossus Of Rhodes
3: The Alien
(Alien, 1979) Artist HR Giger?s alien designs were changed several times due to their blatant sexuality
4: The T-Rex
(Jurassic Park, 1993)
The animatronic T-Rex weighed 15,000lbs
5: The Thing
(The Thing, 1982)
The model for the Thing gave off highly flammable gas and was destroyed when a heater was switched on
6: Shelob
(Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, 2003)
An extension had to built for the computers needed to generate many scenes
7: The Metaluna Mutant (This Island Earth, 1955) MGM used the film as research for 1956?s Forbidden Planet
8: Tetsuo (Akira, 1988)
Sony shelved plans for a live action version of this classic Japanese animation after the budget topped $300m
9: The Skinned Werewolf
(The Company Of Wolves, 1984) The SFX maestro behind this classic monster was also a puppeteer on Who Framed Roger Rabbit
10: The Troll
(Harry Potter And The Philosopher?s Stone, 2001)
The Troll model was so delicate that actor Daniel Radcliffe?s weight would have broken it
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