10. "It Came from Beneath the Sea": This Ray Harryhausen classic about a giant octopus is a cheesy and kind of outdated 50's sci-fi film, but it's still pretty awesome today, and you can't help but admire the stop motion effects, as, for the time, they were groundbreaking, and Harryhausen put hours of hard work to create them.
9. "Tarantula": You can't have a giant monster movies list without including a movie about giant bugs. This is another cheesy 50's monster movie about a small desert town being attacked by a giant spider who is eating the locals. Despite the poster showing the spider going on a rampage through town and eating a woman, this scene never actually happens as (SPOILERS) the army blows it up before it reaches the city limits, something I was kind of disappointed by.
8. "The Incredible Shrinking Man": This sci-fi classic features Grant Williams as a man shrunk to the size of an ant, who must fight for his life against common household pests and pets, including a housecat and spider. This concept was later used in the hit family comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
7. "The Giant Claw": This movie makes the list because of it's hilarious-looking monster. The film actually isn't all that bad, but, unfortunately, once the monster appears on screen, it looses all sense of seriousness and becomes one of those "so-bad-it's-funny" movies. Apparently the main star was at the screening in his home town, and left the theater, embarrassed and furious, when the audience burst out laughing when the monster appeared on screen.
6. "King Kong vs. Godzilla": This is one of the first "versus" movies, and, although it's dated, is still pretty cool. This Japanese film pits Godzilla ("King of the Monsters") against the American creation King Kong ("The 8th Wonder of the World"). Now, like most versus movies, who wins the fight is left ambiguous, which may disappoint some people, and the costumes are really bad-looking by today's standards, but it's still pretty awesome to see the two biggest names in the giant monster movie sub-genre fight, and unlike other entries on this list, it's in color!
5. "Cloverfield": This J.J. Abrams/Drew Goddard project is one of the better found-footage films and is actually pretty effective and scary. Despite a lot of shaky cam, the film is quite effective and has a cool-looking monster. There are also smaller "parasite" monsters that I found even more terrifying than the main monster, nicknamed by the crew "Clover". This movie is probably one of the more intense movies on the list, and might even cause some motion sickness (if you're prone to that sort of thing).
4. "The Host": Another modern-day monster, this Korean horror film focuses on a tadpole-like creature which rises from the Han River to attack random bystanders. It's an innovative and thrilling movie, and the design of the creature is very original.
3. "Them!": This 50's B-movie about giant ants was considered terrifying for the time, and the concept of ants eating people is frightening, but nowadays it's pretty campy and funny to watch, but you can still appreciate it, and I can understand why people in the 50's found it scary. Director Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling) admits he walked out of the theater when he saw it as a kid because he was too scared.
2. "Gojira" aka "Godzilla": Only at #2?! I know what you're thinking, how can this be only #2? Well, even though it was incredibly influential and kick-started the long-running Godzilla franchise, it's still kind of dated, and the American cut is just God-awful. The Japanese cut, however, is actually kind of dark and depressing. It has a lot of imagery which is similar to the Hiroshima bombing, and shows Godzilla as an evil and devastating force, even though he eventually became a hero in later films.
1. "King Kong": I chose this for the #1 spot because, despite Godzilla being very influential, this film has not only inspired countless filmmakers, it also revolutionized special effects, and even today, it's amazing how much work they had to put in to get it made. It's one of the movies that was considered absolutely amazing at the time, and it broke tons of new ground. It's inspired everyone from Peter Jackson to Ray Harryhausen. It definitely deserves the #1 spot on this list.
Runner-ups: Gamera, Rodan, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Deadly Mantis, The Beginning of the End, The Black Scorpion, Mothra, Starship Troopers, The Mist, Mimic, The Water Horse (didn't make the list as it's more of a family film, not the typical "monster movie", and the monster isn't a monster, it's friendly and good-natured), The War of the Garagantuas, Godzilla: Final Wars, The Lost World, Mighty Joe Young, The Killer Shrews, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Tremors, Jurassic Park, Anaconda, The Iron Giant (again, not really a monster), Monsters, Pacific Rim, Super 8, The Troll Hunter, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Behemoth the Sea Monster, Q The Winged Serpent, The Day The World Ended.
(Images: Wikipedia)
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