Creature Feature
The monster from this movie inspired the design of characters like Abe Sapien and the creature from The Shape of Water.
What is Creature from the Black Lagoon?
This pirate captain was known for using fear tactics to intimidate his enemies into surrendering rather than resorting to violence, a favored trick being lighting fuses and candles to give himself a demonic visage.
Who was Blackbeard?
This aquatic predator never runs out of teeth thanks to the extra sets always growing in their jawbone.
What is a shark?
In this 1968 film a group of people try to survive an onslaught of ghouls inside a farmhouse. By night’s end only Ben, played by Duane Jones, is left alive, though he winds up getting gunned down by an armed posse after being mistaken for a ghoul.
What is Night of the Living Dead?
This show follows a large ensemble cast as they try to survive a zombie apocalypse, featuring characters like Sheriff Rick Grimes and crossbow enthusiast Daryl Dixon.
What is The Walking Dead?
Room 353 of this historic inn located in downtown Torrington was (or is?) supposedly haunted by the ghost of Alice Conley, the original owner, who died there.
What is the Yankee Pedlar Inn?
In Mary Shelley’s original novel, this monster is an eloquent, self-taught reader of Milton and Plutarch, but the most memorable version is Bela Lugosi’s lumbering, groaning performance in the 1931 film.
What is Frankenstein’s monster?
This English privateer was best known for his raids against settlements and ports along the Spanish Maine… that is until a rum was named after him.
Who was Captain Henry Morgan?
Until 2004, no photos of living examples of this deep ocean denizen existed. Instead, people knew of this creature through dead specimens washed up on beaches, suction-cup scars found on sperm whale heads, and beaks found in sperm whale stomachs.
What is a giant squid?
In this 2011 film a group of college friends takes a vacation in the wilderness, and begins getting picked off one by one. This seemingly generic set up is actually part of an elaborate ritual to appease the gods, a ritual the protagonists wind up derailing and dooming the world in the process.
What is The Cabin in the Woods?
This show, which has led to numerous adaptations and spin offs, follows the titular family as they inadvertently terrorize neighbors and members of the community with their strange antics.
What is The Adams Family?
This recently-demolished factory building took up the block on the corner of Prospect Street and North Elm Street and manufactured needles, ball bearings, and more.
What is the Torrington Company Standard Plant?
Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, and Adam Sandler have all played this famous count.
What is Dracula?
These two pirates who operated in the early 1700s disguised themselves as men to join a crew, became known as distinguished fighters, and are often speculated to have been lovers… though this claim has no concrete evidence to back it.
Who were Anne Bonny and Mary Read?
This family of fish with the scientific name Psychrolutidae lives in water so deep that they have very little bone and muscle, relying instead on the incredible pressure to give their body structure and support. When taken to the surface, the fish become depressurized, with a drooping nose and frowning mouth that became subject of a meme in the 2010s.
What is a blobfish?
In this 2024 horror game you follow the unfortunate tale of workers aboard the freighter spaceship Tulpar. By the end only one member of the crew survives after having been mutilated, drugged, and stuffed into a cryo sleep pod.
What is Mouthwashing?
This popular horror anthology series treats each season as its own contained story within a larger fictional universe, often using the same actors season to season in new and different roles.
What is American Horror Story?
Up until it was closed and the land sold, this now-abandoned Catholic church on Pulaski Street continued to have parts of the Mass in Polish.
What is St. Mary’s Church?
In 1994, researchers Bob Brier and Ronn Wade recreated the process for making this monster movie mainstay for the first time since the practice was common in Ancient Egypt.
What is a mummy?
This famous Scottish captain was known for a great many things, from hunting pirates, to raiding French and Spanish colonies, to supposedly hiding buried treasure, before eventually getting hung on piracy charges in 1701.
Who was Captain William Kidd?
This order of fish uses a long filament that hangs in front of their eyes to attract prey towards their mouth. Some deep-sea examples also emit light from the filament.
What is an anglerfish?
In this 2010 film Ryan Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, the only character seen on screen as the entire movie takes place inside a coffin underground. The movie concludes with rescue efforts failing, and Conroy suffocating to death.
What is Buried?
This horror mini series centers on a creature, played by Tim Curry, as he hyucks it up terrorizing the residents of a small Maine town.
What is IT?
In old pictures of Torrington’s Main Street, you may see an unfamiliar steeple. A plaque now marks the spot where a church of this Protestant denomination once stood.
What is Methodism?
Based on a character created by H.G. Wells, this imperceptible evildoer kills over a hundred people by crashing a car, derailing a train, and throwing people off cliffs.
What is the Invisible Man?
This pirate, known as the most successful pirate during the Golden Age of piracy, captured over 400 ships during a three year span between 1719 and 1722. He is also credited with many tropes seen in pirate themed media, including having had his own pirate code and being an early adopter of the skull and crossbones flag.
Who was Captain Bartholomew Roberts?
This family of fish gets from place to place by attaching themselves to larger organisms - often sharks but also whales, turtles, manta rays, dolphins, and scuba divers, among others - via a sucker-like organ.
What is a remora?
In this popular horror anthology podcast archivist Jonathan Sims documents and battles the supernatural, eventually becoming the catalyst for a world shattering apocalypse.
What is The Magnus Archives?
This horror series centers on premises pulled from the book series of the same name written by RL Stine.
What is Goosebumps?
Torrington’s first meeting house no longer stands, but you can still find a plaque marking the spot in a field on this road.
What is Klug Hill Road?