Know Your Monster: 15
JIGER
This is one of the few female movie monsters from Japan. She’s a prehistoric throwback, quarantined on Wester Island until a team of archaeologists removes a statue that’s kept her safely entombed for centuries. Released from captivity, Jiger wastes no time in attacking Japan, leveling Osaka and easily defeating the Japanese army. Nothing stands in her way except one determined, giant terrapin — Gamera.
Jiger appears to be an amalgam of two dinosaurs — the Triceratops and Stegosaurus. She has an array of horns and tusks, spikes running along her back and a needle-like stinger at the end of her tail. She’s ugly as sin, slow and lumbering, but this monster keeps plugging away and rolling on. She can walk, swim and fly.
Jiger shoots a lethal microwave ray that burns flesh upon impact. When she shoots the ray, she also emits high-pitched reverberations, leaving opponents clutching their ears in pain rather than preparing to fight. Jiger can shoot hidden darts from her horns and has suction pads embedded in her body. Don’t get near her or you’ll be trapped in her deadly vise grip.
Her big claim to fame came in the 1970 movie Gamera Vs. Jiger, from which this battle clip is drawn.
ARVE error: need id and provider
Tomorrow’s featured monster: King Ghidorah
But, of course he does. His victims — er, subjects — include his servant Pedro, a prospector searching for the radium mine and three fellow scientists who make the mistake of traveling 10,000 miles to answer Dr. Thorkel’s request for a little lab assistance. It’s these scientists who come to dub him “Cyclops,” not only because he towers over them after they’ve been miniaturized, but also because he wears Coke-bottle eyeglasses to compensate for his poor vision.
