Back on the hunt lured by a riddle of an eight-foot flesh-eater. River Monsters with Jeremy Wade, Discovery 2009-2017
Flesh Ripper: the idea that a freshwater eel could be huge or dangerous comes as a real surprise. ibid.
Maori legends are full of tales of predatory beasts – the Taniwha. ibid.
Vlad the Impaler: son of the dragon. Sickened by his monstrous acts, Vlad came to bury his past with the dead, and returned to Transylvania to rule in peace. Dracula Untold 2014 starring Luke Evans & Dominic Cooper & Charles Dance & Sarah Gadon & Art Parkinson & Diarmaid Murtagh & Paul Kaye & William Houston & Noah Huntley & Ronan Vibert & Zach McGowan & Ferdinand Kingsley et al, director Gary Shore
Men do not fear swords, they fear monsters. ibid. Vlad
Sometimes the world no longer needs a hero; sometimes what it needs is a monster. ibid.
Chapter 1. Alarming Rumours! In the year 1868 the shipping world was alarmed by rumours of an avenging monster on the loose. A series of strange events befell certain vessels cruising the great South Seas, and travel on the nightmare sea lane dwindled to a few bold ships. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1954 starring Kirk Douglas & James Mason & Paul Lukas & Peter Lorre & Robert J Wilke & Ted de Corsia & Carleton Young & J M Kerrigan & Percy Helton & Ted Cooper & Fred Graham et al, director Richard Fleischer, opening caption
There’s the monster! ibid. on-board ship
I’m not a monster, Kate. I’ve qualities you may learn to like. Or love even. Robot Overlords 2015 starring Ben Kingsley & Gillian Anderson & Callan McAuliffe & James Tarpley & Milo Parker & Elia Hunt & Craig Garner & David McSavage & Geraldine James et al, director John Wright, Kingsley
The crack of lightning. A mad genius. An unholy creation. The world of course remembers the monster and not the man. Victor Frankenstein 2015 starring James McAvoy & Daniel Ratcliffe & Jessica Brown Findlay & Andrew Scott & Charles Dance & Freddie Fox & Mark Gatiss & Callum Turner & Daniel Mays & Spencer Wilding et al, director Paul McGuigan
I think it is high time you met our monster. ibid.
In a provincial Russian town a mummified mutant body is discovered … A grey body except for its head which is brown and an unusual helmet-shape, huge slanting cat-like eyes and the absence of a navel or sexual organs. The Unexplained Files s2e4: UFO: Curse of Flannan Lighthouse & Aleshenka: Russian Mummy
I can’t seem to get through today either. Now I have become a monster. Oldboy 2003 starring Choi Min-sik & Yoo Ji-tae & Kang Hye-jung & Kim Byeong-ok & Oh Tae-kyung & Yoo Yeon-seok & Woo Il-han & Yoon Jim-seo & Oh Dal-su et al, director Park Chan-wook
The East is four billion years old. Modern man has been around for only thirty-five thousand years. His beast-like forefathers are supposed to have died out: but is it possible that an ancestor from a distant past still roams the Earth? The manbeast! Manbeast! Myth or Monster, 1978
According to the sherpers the Yeti is covered with stiff reddish-brown hair. The head is pointed and the face bare. Its call is a loud wailing yelping noise. It walks normally [sic] on two legs. ibid.
Swamps inspire fear in many minds. Dark and damp they are full of mystery and creatures that slither in the mud. An experienced guide entered Louisiana’s Honey Island swamp one fall day in 1973: the outing would become the stuff nightmares are made of … Something that struck his boat. In Search of s2e16 … The Swamp Monster, History 1978
On 17th July 1978 there appeared along the timber line of Mount Hood, Oregon, three creatures never before filmed. They are the monsters of the north-west. The Indians call them Sasquatch. The white man – Bigfoot. These primal-looking figures are human beings dressed in costumes for a motion picture. In every detail they are duplicates of the part-man part-ape described by a variety of reliable eye witnesses. In Search of s3e9 … Monster Hunters
‘It’s easy to make someone into a monster. It’s hard to see that you’re on that path too.’ Glenn Beck, cited Divide & Conquer: The Story of Roger Alies, Sky Atlantic 2019
The locals believe it is a sea monster … It’s reported throughout the Bermuda Triangle … There’s something down there killing people … A half-shark, half-squid type animal. Curse of the Bermuda Triangle III: Monster in the Abyss, Discovery 2021
Even before the time of Homer himself people were telling the story of one of the most celebrated monsters in all Greek mythology ... a Cyclops. Tom Holland, Dinosaurs, Myths & Monsters, BBC 2011
A most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before. The monster lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow’s nest on the mainmast. The head was small and the body short and wrinkled. The unknown creature was using giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well. The monster was longer than our whole ship. Hans Egede, Dano-Norwegian missionary 1734, sighting off Greenland
Over the centuries there have been reports of the so-called Great Sea Serpent. Scores of captains have recorded such sightings in their ships’ logs. Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World, ITV 1980
Precise drawings were made of the Stronsay Beast at the time, and its dimensions were carefully measured. More than fifty witnesses swore to what they had seen. Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World, Rothiesholm Head, Stronsay, 1808
The Holmes family believe they came face to face with the legendary Serpent of the Sea. Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World
We were going along and all of a sudden we heard a disturbance in the water and we saw this mound come up out of the water. Well you’ve seen these motorway tractor units with their very large tyres ... Well if you can imagine one of those being released from out the water and then shooting up under its own propulsion. Bramwell Holmes, televised interview
We could see that it had two shallow humps three or four feet long. And then it had a small head. It had a thin neck and a small head which was dipping in the water and looking around. It was like some sort of prehistoric monster that you see. A huge size. Absolutely huge. Incredible. Andy Holmes, televised interview
I guess it looked pretty much like a long snake-like thing with fins on it. And at first sight of it I saw a head about a foot and a half long, about eight, nine inches wide. And it had large cat-like eyes … John Andrews, Vancouver, Canada, televised interview
We noticed something big caught in the nets. It was a red fleshy object which smelt very strongly. We didn’t know what it was. Captain Akira Tanaka
We’ve seen whales and we’ve seen dolphins and all that sort of thing, but this was nothing like that at all. This was like a pre-historic monster. John Cox, televised interview
This animal showed no signs of rotting; it was absolutely complete, unmarked. The monster measured approximately twenty-eight feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail; the body as it lay on the ground was approximately five to six feet deep ... The animal had teeth. Charles Rankin, Gourock, River Clyde Scotland, borough surveyor who ordered destruction and burial of beast during wartime
There’s been sightings around these shores for hundreds of years. And a lot in this century, particularly in the first decade of the century when the early steam ships were around. Sheila Bird, author Tales of Old Cornwall
There was this gigantic sea creature with a small head, a long neck, and an enormous hump. Sheila Bird, sighting with brother
A small head that rose up on a long neck and then one hump behind it, two humps, third hump came up ... People accused me of inventing it. Except that a lot of other people were seeing it as well. Tony Doc Shields, Parsons Beach, Cornwall
In 1876 the West Briton newspaper reported that fishermen from Falmouth had found a huge sea snake curled around their lobster pots but had thrown it back into the sea ... Witnesses continue to come forward. Strange But True? ITV 1993-1997
Take a look at this photo shot at Lake Champlain in 1977. The creature now known as Champ remains elusive. The photo has been declared genuine by some experts, and to date no scientist has ever discredited it. The World’s Greatest Hoaxes, 1998
What you are now seeing could be the most provocative video tape ever shot of a similar creature. It was recorded in California this year [1998]. The large scaly snake-like animal was captured by two amateur photographers: one on shore and the other on a boat ... It’s our hoax: designed to show you how easy it is to create your own sea-serpent video. ibid.
Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. Job 40:15-19
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Psalms 74:13&14
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. Lamentations 4:3
And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Duidain, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell. Enoch 2:60:7&8