The 21 Best Monster Movies of All Time

When you think of monster movies, you have to think of Godzilla. The legendary kaiju is the ultimate monster, and his first appearance is still the best of them all. Sure, the special effects don’t compare to more recent entries, but the thrill of seeing Godzilla for the first time is unbeaten here. Despite the monster’s origin as an allegory about the dangers of nuclear armament, you can skip the heady nature of its themes and enjoy a giant sea monster just wrecking Tokyo. It doesn’t get better than that in the genre.

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Though monsters are usually an external threat, David Cronenberg’s The Fly brings the body horror internally, as the film sees Jeff Goldblum’s brilliant scientist Seth Brundle fuse himself accidentally with a housefly. What follows is a psychological and physical trip, as Brundle slowly starts to mutate into a human-fly hybrid. It would be comical if Cronenberg and Goldblum didn’t combine to make it terrifying. By the film’s climax, you will be both grossed out and wildly intrigued to see what happens next to the scientist who just went too far.

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If Godzilla is the top monster in canon, then King Kong is 1A. Hailing from Skull Island, the giant gorilla-like beast is both shockingly quick in his violence and tender in his love for Fay Wray’s Ann Darrow. The film’s finale is one of the most famous scenes in Hollywood history, but it’s the time on Skull Island that solidifies this 1933 version as the definitive version of Kong. Plus, there are T-Rexes and other primordial monsters strewn about, if a giant ape doesn’t fulfill your monster needs.

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“Humans are the real monsters” is a trope that has been used by horror movies for decades, but The Descent scorches a new trail in that oft-used cliche thanks to its clever usage of horrible protagonists and humanoid creatures. The less said the better about this one, though it thrives because its claustrophobia comes from both the cave of its setting and the interpersonal relationships that rapidly disintegrate as the “crawlers” come out to play. Not for the queasy, but definitely for those who love monsters, both scary and real.

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As maybe the hardest-to-watch movie on this list, The Evil Dead gets special mention for making the monster movie utterly demonic. It may be low budget in production value and presentation, but the story of five college students who succumb to demonic possession is a thrill to watch, provided you can stand almost nauseating levels of gore. Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams is one of horror’s most iconic characters, and the origin of his saga is the best of the bunch, giving a violent edge to a genre that often relies on suspense more than visceral thrills.

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Sex is terrifying. So says It Follows, a horror movie focused on a monster that hunts down everyone who has sex with someone previously “infected” with the entity. A clear and unsubtle metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases, sure, but It Follows succeeds by amping up the atmospheric thrills and creeping dread of death. The movie succeeds for its premise, but it’s elevated by a perfectly terrified Maika Monroe in the lead role as Jay, an unfortunate victim-to-be of the monster’s unexplained wrath.

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Joss Whedon’s send-up of horror movie tropes is, at its heart, a monster horror-comedy. Following a group of teens who are subjected to horrors beyond human comprehension, controlled by mysterious (and hilarious) office workers played by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, Cabin in the Woods turns expectations on its end all the way until its unforgettable climax.

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Though aliens are technically monsters, the subgenre of alien horror movies deserves its own post (and we’ve got you covered there!). However, Attack the Block plays less like the Alien of yore by centering the horror on earth, and also by making it very funny. John Boyega is clearly the star, and if this wasn’t the role that elevated him to stardom, it was definitely the one that showed he had it in him. Alien invasions have never been this much fun.

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Who do you trust when you can’t trust anyone? That’s the guiding question in John Carpenter’s The Thing, which features a group of researchers in Antarctica stumbling across a mimicking alien parasite that can turn even a best friend into a horrific enemy. The Thing gets points both for being unnerving and for its monster design; the titular parasite can look like anyone, and oftentimes, it is not clear to either the characters or the audience who is friend and who is foe. It’s disgusting in its elevated gore, but that same gore serves a purpose: filling the audience with the same dread as those fighting to not get assimilated.

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What’s a parent’s worst fear? Not being able to protect their child is certainly up on the list, and The Babadook preys on that fear in a two-character play of psychological horror. The titular character might have become an unlikely LGBTQ+ icon in the years since its release, but in the movie itself, the horror of a monster that haunts Amelia (played wonderfully and terrifyingly by Essie Davis) and her son Samuel is as scary as advertised. This isn’t a visual spectacle of a monster movie, with most of it taking place in the shadows, but it won’t disappoint those looking for frights of an elemental nature.

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I mean, it’s Jaws. One of the most famous monster movies of all time, this thriller is all about the terrifying great white shark that torments Amity Island, a made-up place off of the New England coast. The thrill here comes from the moments leading up to Jaws’ appearances, and that iconic theme song (you know the one), but the design of the animatronic shark is a wonder to behold for the time period. Steven Spielberg didn’t miss with this one, and it’s rightfully one of the most famous monster movies of all time.

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What starts an idyllic trip into the land of dinosaurs quickly turns into a blood-spattered ride through the horrors of cloning and the dangers of bringing back what should remain dead. Jurassic Park spawned a franchise, theme park rides, and countless memes, but the film itself is all adventure and suspense, giving a trio of experts a formidable foe in a T-Rex out for meat, as well as the scariest raptors ever put on film. The T-Rex is of course the star here, but the human counterparts, especially Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, do just enough to make the audience care about them beyond being the big dino’s next meal.

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While monster movies tend to lean towards horror in genre, Pan’s Labyrinth can better be described as a fantasy fable. The monsters are mythical in nature, with Doug Jones taking the role of a faun that aids the young Ofelia in her tasks to...well, better to not spoil it. However, at its heart, Pan’s Labyrinth turns the concept of a monster on its head, and Guillermo Del Toro’s dream-like direction raises the atmosphere to sublime levels.

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If you’ve ever had someone tell you that it’s not Frankenstein, but Frankenstein’s monster, then this is the movie for you. The 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein is primitive by today’s standards, but iconic nonetheless. The titular scientist gets a bit of a God Complex and creates a monster in his own image, and then all hell breaks loose. With the brain of a criminal but the demeanor of a child, the monster is as endearing a creature as any on this list. Frankenstein’s monster is as influential as any creature in film history, and he’s never better than he is in his origin film.

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Bless Ron Perlman for his performance as the titular Hellboy in Guillermo Del Toro’s monster-filled romp. With a silly character design and a fantasy-laden storyline, Hellboy could have flopped, but the care of that design and Perlman’s performance make it a blast. It doesn’t hurt that the monsters strewn about are wonderfully created by Del Toro and his team; without spoiling anything, the final set piece is a marvel in monster moviemaking.

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A talking Venus flytrap? That’s the monster in Little Shop of Horrors, a musical comedy with a dark heart at the center. Rick Moranis’s Seymour Krelborn owns a flower shop fallen on hard times, but when he realizes the Venus flytrap can grow to immense size when given human blood, business takes off...as do the hijinks. Musicals might not be for everyone, and people expecting an out-and-out monster movie might be let down by the singular creature and the song breaks, but those who enter the Little Shop of Horrors will be rewarded with one of cinema’s longest-lasting creatures. Audrey II will stay in your mind longer than “Suddenly, Seymour” does after someone does it at karaoke.

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Cloverfield should have fallen apart under the weight of its own hype. Leading up to its release, the marketing made it seem like the Next Great Monster Movie, and anything but that would have flopped relentlessly. However, despite never showing the monster for an extended period of time, Cloverfield succeeds because director Matt Reeves understands that the unseen is often scarier than the seen. The found footage cinematography is a bit of a gimmick, but it works all the day until its memorable final shot.

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Before he was making the Oscar rounds for Parasite, Bong Joon-ho was dipping his toes into monster horror with 2006’s The Host. At its core a movie against American involvement and imperialism, the film is also just a violent satire that threatens to overwhelm its intellectual message. That’s not a bad thing, though; the titular creature is unsettling, and its warpath through the South Korean city is depicted in loving awe. It’s not surprising, given the director, but every frame is shot with care and purpose, and the result is a nightmare commentary on the horrors America has wrought onto the world.

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While the franchise went off in wilder and stupider directions after this 1999 debut, The Mummy still holds up as a fun (and funny) trip into 1920s Egypt. The mythology around the titular mummy, played with reckless abandon by Arnold Vosloo, is laid on thick, and dually-charming performances by Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz ground it into a comedic romance surrounding scarabs and plagues and the undead. Don’t hold the sequels against it, and The Mummy is a hell of a ride.

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There’s no subtlety or a particularly strong plot in Pacific Rim, but who needs that when you have kaijus fighting giant robots? It’s the end of the world as the characters know it, as giant monsters attack the remaining bastions of humanity. Their only defense? Building-sized mechs that resemble giant Gundams and that require two pilots in perfect sync to operate. The action deserves to be seen in all its glory, and the film’s final half hour is a destructive, exhilarating set piece that should satisfy monster lovers all over.

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