Tomaters Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (plus three sequels: Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Killer Tomatoes Strike Back and Killer Tomatoes Eat France there was also a cartoon based on Return)
I say this with no sense of irony: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is one of my favorite movies to watch with a group of people (while drinking). This musical-horror-comedy-spoof hits all the right notes to be a genuinely fun and funny movie to watch. Bonus trivia: the drummer for Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, Matt Cameron, sang the song Puberty Love which, when played over a stadium PA system, saved the world from the tomatoes. (Watch the trailer.)
You try making a tomato look threatening.
El Seed, The Tick Animated Series
El Seed attended night school to learn about agriculture. Did I mention he was a plant? That parts important. Hes not too fond of humans goats either. Speaking in a Castilian accent and wearing a traditional bullfighting outfit (ohhh I get it, its a pun on El Cid), the vegetable supremacist attempts to take over The City and the world before being thwarted by The Tick and his faithful sidekick, Arthur, with an assist by The Civic-minded Five. Not before spouting off some great one-liners in this mostly-forgotten animated gem. (Watch the full episode.)
I would so kill for this entire series to be released on DVD.
Trees, Poltergeist and The Evil Dead
The movie Poltergeist is the inevitable conclusion when Steven Spielberg, the guy who directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the guy who played Coach on Coach get together: magic! Inexplicably, its often thought of as a somewhat appropriate movie for children to watch because of Señor Spielbergos name in the credits and subsequently wrecked the childhood psyche of everybody born between 1978-1986. In addition, its also one of the movies that show exactly why you arent supposed to build your house on top of a graveyard. If it had been an Indian burial ground, they would have been in real trouble. (Check out the tree scene.)
Contrast that with the tree in The Evil Dead. That tree isnt just possessed by evil spirits, its positively rapey and thats way more horrifying.
It waits
Birds, The Birds
I say its time we start classing up this joint and get the image of nonconsensual dendrophilia out of our minds. In what is generally regarded as Alfred Hitchcocks final masterpiece of cinema, birds unexplainably attack a California town. Although there may have been an actual event that inspired the film, the reasoning behind the attacks is never explained on the screen leaving the viewer to wonder what sort of allegorical meaning the birds have. Regardless of whatever the viewer comes up with, the film is still a technical marvel for its time Birdemic: Shock and Terror and remains frightening to this day. (Watch the trailer.)
They dont make phone booths anymore. How are we to survive the coming birdpocalypse?
Also, what will Doctor Who do?
Audrey Jr. / Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors
The original Little Shop was a black comedy about a schmuck botanist who accidentally created an evil plant who talked and craved human blood by crossbreeding a butterwort and Venus Flytrap. Somewhere between 1960 and 1986 1982 to be exact this story took on new life as a Broadway musical and somehow it got better. Dont ask me how it works. In the 1986 film version, Rick Moranis is the schmuck who finds the plant (which doesnt look at all phallic), which is now from outer space. Several songs and some of the greatest puppet and animatronic work later, we have a plant-based monster for the ages and I couldnt be happier. (Trailer: 1960 / 1986)
Feed me, Seymour!
Poison Ivy, Batman
I had to save the best for last. It may be slightly cheating, but I dont care. Oh Pamela Lillian Isley, how I love you. Poison Ivy is a Batman villain who has always had a special relationship with the florae of the world. As time went on, she became more and more plant-like by needing sunlight for photosynthesis and carbon dioxide in order to breathe. That makes her more plant than human and therefore, counts! Since her introduction, she has acted as a constant foil to Batman, as well as the polluting industrialist Bruce Wayne. She represents ecoterrorism at its greatest extreme and should serve as a reminder of what happens with environmentalism taken several hundred steps too far.
Shes a brilliant scientist, I tell you. Thats why I like her so much.
So that tops off our Earth Day-themed list of villains. Remember to treat our home planet well because its the only one we have, and as Ive just illustrated, it will fight back.
Joe Vampire is a writer for HalloweenCostumes.com, which carries a wicked Poison Ivy costume and several other organic villains.
