Kong himself is the least scary thing living on Skull Island. Here's why.
- The way the crew members die... many of them Eaten Alive. Special mention goes to the Cruel and Unusual Death of the cook, devoured one limb at a time by the Carnictis. That's currently pictured on this page, by the way. Poor Lumpy...his screams...
- The entire insect pit sequence really, especially if one suffers from entomophobia.
- One of the men tries to climb up the canyon wall... and is suddenly grabbed by a giant pincer bursting from said-wall and gets dragged screaming into the hole.
- It has a special ability to frighten New Zealand viewers, knowing that some of the insects are actually GIANT WETAS
, bloody ugly insects native to their fair land (and the reason Peter Jackson named his VFX company WETA). And while they normally live in forests, they can turn up anywhere, and they're big enough as it is, so the concept of wetas the size of a dog would freak any NZer out...- Their NAME (Wetapunga) means 'God of Ugly Things' in Maori. Worse, the Carnictis are real, too... they're giant-sized versions of bloodworms, a carnivorous worm with protruding... er... lips.
- The Terapusmordax that replace the Pteranodon as the giant flying monsters in this version of the film. It's the "Bat Out of Hell", "Kidnapping Bird of Prey" and "Swarm of Rats" tropes all wrapped up into one horrifying nightmare.
- The deleted swamp scene (featuring the Piranhadon) wasn't much better. Two of the crew are Impaled with Extreme Prejudice on its teeth, but one is swallowed whole, as he futilely reaches from between the teeth. In a freakin' Orbital Shot, so we can see he's doomed from all sides, no less. It very nearly does the same to Jack Driscoll.
- It gets worse—if you listen closely, you can hear the poor sucker's muffled screams as the monster descends back into the swamp.
- And then at the end of the sequence, one last man gets out of the water, to safety. Then the Piranhadon bursts out of the water, grabs him, and pulls him under. Safety was snatched from this poor man's grasp literally seconds before he reached it.
- Whilst trying escape from Kong, Ann is chased into a hollow log by a pair of Foetodon, which are large crocodile-like creatures. Inside the log however are a pair of giant centipedes, which she has to lie still and allow to crawl all over her because she can't risk attracting the reptile's attention. Just watching the scene can make one's skin crawl, especially when one of them sticks its antennae in her mouth.
- What's worse, when Ann initially runs into the log, one of the Foetodon is about to get her when something grabs it and pulls it back out of the log, dragging it up into the air and killing it in view of the camera while the bigger animal is still hidden, and the other Foetodon flees in terror. Ann stays put even as the giant centipede shows up until another one crawls onto her shoulder and she runs back out of the log...and comes face to face with the biggest predator on Skull Island, Vastatosaurus rex.
- Kong himself frequently reminds the audience that, regardless of his bond with Anne, still remains a 30ft tall silverback with arms strong enough to crack open the skulls of fully grown V-Rexes and squish people like flies. A noteworthy example of how much he can give Killer Gorilla vibes is the very beginning of the log scene. At one point, we're offered Hayes's point of view with Kong roaring while charging Carl's crew (and, by extension, the viewers) .
- Let's just say that a lot of the creatures on Skull Island will guest-star in your nightmares.
- The coffee-table book, The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island has some even creepier examples. Yes, even creepier than the Carnictis.
- Not just the creatures, but the natives of Skull Island. When you hear the term "savages" used to refer to aboriginal cultures, it's usually an insulting description of someone with a different culture. This, however, is the culture the word was made for. Emaciated, wearing scant clothing made of human hair and teeth and small animal bones, and driven to feral insanity by living on an island crawling with monsters...
- They're pretty creepy in the Natural History of Skull Island coffee-table book, too. Not least, because it's apparent that they've actually been fully integrated into the local food chain, and occupy the same niche as, say, small omnivorous rodents would in a normal habitat.
- The scene where Denham and the rest of the crew first venture onto the island and discover the native village. The creepy architecture, skeletons and overlaid audio of screams and chanting make it highly unsettling.
- Fright fact: according to The World of Kong, the natives' "village" is actually an ancient burial site from when Skull Island had a thriving civilization on it. As the island started falling apart, the dinosaurs invaded the city and the humans were forced out. Their graveyard is the only place on the entire island where they have some degree of safety, and even that means very little in a place like Skull Island.
- The entire attack scene is terrifying, especially from the use of slow mo. So after Carl tries to feed a child Native some chocolate and it bites him he gets mad chases it, only to find a bunch of them glaring at him. Carl tries to calm things down and believes them as harmless, but is proven wrong when suddenly one of Carl's members gets a spear thrown into him (not even sure how that happened), Ann screams in horror which alerts Kong, so the native high priestess wants Ann to be sacrificed and they attack the others to get to her, and they manage to kill someone by forcing him onto a rock and executing him with a spiked club, in which seems to be some ritual. They are about to kill Carl in the same fashion when Captain Englehorn suddenly arrives and shoots the one with the weapon and the others flee in terror.
- The moment preceding this scene definitely deserves mention; when the crew discovers the lone native child, they just stare at them blankly without uttering a sound, then slowly raises their arm and makes a very slight motion with their hand, which is somehow accompanied by unsettling rattling sound, made even more unsettling by the fact that we never learn what the sound is and what caused it exactly. The child remains in the same position with their arm raised, and doesn't change their expression until Carl tries to put a chocolate bar in their hand, after which they go from an utterly blank expression to snarling with rage.
- In this one scene, you see why Englehorn and the crew of the Venture wanted nothing to do with Skull Island. In a very grim told-you-so tone, Englehorn asks Denham immediately after this, "Seen enough?"
- Skull Island as a whole is pretty terrifying. A mysterious island absent from any maps, perpetually surrounded by fog, covered in the eerie ruins of an unknown civilization and inhabited by countless monstrosities and feral natives.
- Shots of the ship slipping through all-too-narrow gaps in the rock outcroppings, with rough seas tossing it dangerously close to razor-edged rock faces and ghastly ape-face carvings, have their own elements of dread.
- Given that, presumably, the Natives were not local to the island originally, this island has been discovered before. Now you know why it's not in the records: after all, who the hell would want to willingly go here except for Denham?note
- There's also the fact that the island is slowly but surely sinking into the ocean. The ecosystem and civilization seen in the film is just a tiny remnant of what once was, which has driven many of the native species into sheer desperation as their world literally falls apart. Not only has the island driven its natives insane, the native animals have become inbred, feral beasts or giant killing machines just to survive.
- Shots of the ship slipping through all-too-narrow gaps in the rock outcroppings, with rough seas tossing it dangerously close to razor-edged rock faces and ghastly ape-face carvings, have their own elements of dread.
- The sacrifice scene is terrifying. In the 1933 film, the interrupted version amongst the natives has its own sad dignity. Here, we get nightmarish wailing, gibbering and ululations, all interspersed with a hideous old crone gleefully chanting "Kong!" in Ann's face as the rest of the natives twitch, shudder and jerk like they are dying, many of them with their eyes rolled back into their heads.
- Just to add to the creep factor, the Natural History tie-in book establishes that that "hideous old crone" isn't just a ritual chanter: she's the absolute ruler of the settlement. Which, given how batshit insane she appears to be, explains a lot about the state of the village and its inhabitants.
- After Kong's escape, he notices Jack among the crowd, clearly remembering that it was him who "kidnapped" Ann. Needless to say, Kong is furious and chases him TWICE during the New York sequence. Just imagine having a creature like Kong chasing you down with murderous intent...
- In the extended cut of the chase through New York, there's more time to realize that the soldiers are shelling Kong and firing machine-guns at him in the middle of Manhattan, one of the most densely-populated places in the country at the time. And they're too focused on killing the ape to notice that they're sending bullets into occupied apartments when they miss, unlike in modern-setting films which at least tend to hint that civilians are being evacuated.
- If you happen to have a fear of heights, the climactic sequence is really not going to sit well with you. If you don't have a fear of heights, it might give you one.
- Shortly after the crew sets off to find Ann, we cut back to her and Kong. Kong stops at what appears to be the place he always goes after the accepts one of the islanders' sacrifices. Ann's situation is scary enough as Kong swings her around, almost like a dumbbell, and then she sees it's much, much worse. Below her, at Kong's feet, are dozens of human skeletons, and every one of them has a bone necklace just like the one that was put on her. She manages to use that same necklace to stab Kong's hand, distracting him long enough to hear the rescue party approaching and he runs off. Ann is safe...for now, as we see from all the entries above that this was just the first terrifying thing that happened to her on the other side of the wall.
