Octopus-insect

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Octopus-insect
The Octopus-Insect in The Lost Spider Pit Sequence
Alternate names Tentacle bug
Species Giant insect
Enemies Huge spiders, Humans
First appearance Latest appearance
King Kong (1932) Merian C. Cooper's
King Kong

The Octopus-insect is a nondescript giant tentacled insect monster that was cut from the 1933 film King Kong and the footage was subsequently lost. Despite this, it remains in the film's script and two novelizations. Eventually, when Peter Jackson recreated the missing scene with the help of Weta Workshop, an interpretation of the creature finally made its way to the screen.

Name

The name "Octopus-insect" is a name taken from the 1932 King Kong novelization, where it is used twice to describe the otherwise ambiguous creature.[1] The film's script describes it simply as "an insect with octopus arms", and the name Octopus-insect used in the book was derived from this description. During production on Peter Jackson's recreation of the missing scene, it was called the "Tentacle Bug".[2]

Design

Aside from the aforementioned film script describing it as an insect with octopus legs, the only idea given of the Octopus-insect in the context of the original film comes from the 1932 King Kong novelization. It is said that it has "tentacles like those of an octopus".[3] This is the only real description given, and when observing concept artwork for the film made by Byron Crabbe, which were adapted quite closely for shots that remain in the film, they simply depict sets of tentacles extending from the darkness. This could imply that even he did not know what they truly looked like.

In Merian C. Cooper's King Kong by Joe DeVito, a novelization officially endorsed by the Cooper estate, the Octopus-Insects are said to be round creatures with many tentacles like an octopus that secrete a trail of slime when they move.

The team at Weta workshop based on the limited artwork of the creature associated with the production of the original scene, created a new maquette and stop-motion puppet to represent the creature. They portray it as a six-tentacled creature with many eyes and a pair of pincers at its mouth. It had a long, curving body with a raised tail.

History

"The Lost Spider Pit Sequence"

Exactly as in the script for King Kong, "An insect with octopus arms takes a man".[4] When King Kong throws several sailors on a log down into the pit it was bridging, the beasts that made their homes there came out to feed. The Octopus-insect sneaked up behind one of the men, and reared up on its tail before attacking. It knocked the man to the ground and began to feed.

Books

King Kong

The Octopus-Insects inhabited the great crevice of Skull Mountain Island, and lived in the numerous caves that lined it. They were preyed on by the huge spiders that lived alongside them. After an Octopus-insect was attacked by a great spider, King Kong began to shake human sailors off of a log bridging the chasm, while a Triceratops blocked the other end of the log. One fell into the slimy mud at the bottom, and was swarmed by six huge spiders that ate him alive. After the rest of them were sent into the pit, the huge spiders, Octopus-insects, and giant lizards all fought for the new carrion.

Merian C. Cooper's King Kong

While the crew of the Wanderer peered into the ravine, an Octopus-Insect oozed along a ledge where a gigantic lizard was sunning itself. As it made its way along, it was sprung upon by a huge spider that dragged it back into one of the many crevices lining the chasm walls.

Gallery

Concept art

King Kong

Production

"The Lost Spider Pit Sequence"

Screenshots

"The Lost Spider Pit Sequence"

Trivia

  • In Edgar Wallace's early drafts of King Kong, the pit scene included an actual octopus, and a nondescript "curious creature," which may have been combined in later drafts by Ruth Rose and James Creelman into the octopus-insect.

References

This is a list of references for Octopus-insect. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. Lovelace 1932, pp. 93, 95.
  2. “The Mystery of the Lost Spider Pit Sequence.” Warner Home Media, Wingnut Films, Weta Workshop, 2005.
  3. Lovelace 1932, pp. 93.
  4. https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/kong1933.html

Bibliography

  • Lovelace, Delos W. (1932). King Kong. Grosset and Dunlap. ISBN 0448439131.

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