The art of movie monsters has come a long way. 

Some of the first creatures to ever grace the big screen were literally just guys in bad Halloween costumes, growling and knocking over paper mache sets. Then, Harry Hausen switched it up and made some pretty impressive stop-motion beasts. Right as techniques were starting to advance in the 1960s and 70s, a lot of productions decided to… just go back to the guy in a costume route.

So many pulpy sci-fi shows from way back when have the funniest, dumbest looking costumes you’ve ever seen. They’re meant to terrify and fascinate, but really, you just end up thinking how that guy must have felt that day, covered in rubber, doing bad kung fu in the desert with Captain Kirk or whatever. Occasionally, some of these monsters actually do scare you, but mainly because we found an upclose still photo, and it just looks weird.

It’s funny, odd and makes you glad Cronenberg came along to show these amateurs how monsters are done.