Film: The Strange World of Planet X (1958)

Alias: Giant Cockroaches, Giant Grubs, Giant Damselfly Larvae, Giant Wolf Spiders, Giant Millipedes, Giant Gecko

Type: Mutant

Location: Forest

Height/Weight: Most are the size of cars.

Affiliation: Neutral, leaning on Evil

Summary: Klaatu warned that our advances in technology would spell doom for us. In this case, one big spod didn't learn. Instead, he rained cosmic rays on the world and paved the way for some monster mayhem.

History: A rather mad scientist named Dr. Laird has invented a machine capable of attracting properties from the far reaches of space! What could be better than that? Answer: anything. For the forces of the cosmos have very unstable attributes, and Laird doesn't care, he just wants to keep futzing up with space FOR SCIENCE! It doesn't matter whether aliens from Planet X want it to stop or the fact that the cosmic rays just mutated and enlarged most of the arthropods and reptiles in the forest. He'll get this machine off the ground no matter what!

Notable Kills: In a rather gory scene by 50s standards, a giant cockroach can be seen gnawing on a soldier's half-devoured face! Yikes!

Final Fate: All the mutated animals are gunned down, and the doctor's machine is nuked by Planet X aliens for good measure.

Powers/Abilities: Nothing special, although those mandibles of the insects look like they could HURT.

Weakness: Anything conventional.

Scariness Factor: 3.5-Fairly standard 50s giant animal fare. Nothing really special.

Trivia: -This film is notable for its use of a Theremin in its soundtrack.

-Cosmic rays are basically radiation waves. You won't grow big getting hit by one. You'll probably just die.