Top 15 Giant Monster Movies

Ray Harryhausen is one of the most respected people in pre-CGI visual effects, second only to Willis O'Brien. This is the last prehistoric-themed film he did, based off an unproduced idea by O'Brien. The catch is simple: Remake King Kong, but set it in 1912 Mexico, and instead of a giant ape, a cowboy captures a giant ambiguous dinosaur (Wiki states it's an Allosaurus, IMDb a T-Rex) and puts it up for show. Of course, it ends up running amok. The film placed good old-fashioned fantasy mayhem in a Western setting, to great effect. It's one of those lesser-known films by Harryhausen, one that could probably be remade well due to it never really reaching the proper audience (it was on a double bill as the "B Movie" on it's original theatrical run).

The '50s brought us some classic giant creature films, but most of them were just plain dumb. The 1980s saw a lot of these films remade, and "The Blob" got one in 1988. This was one of those truly gory films -- it had to be. It had to live up to the previous remakes ("The Fly," "The Thing") and still be its own film. It succeeded. It's still got that cheesey edge to it, but it's definitely more in-your-face. The monster itself is one of the more frightening- it has the ability to get you almost anywhere.

After making near-pornographic (and some could argue actually pornographic) films "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls," schlockmeister Paul Verhoeven's next film was ... an adaptation of a politically charged novel involving space Marines? Well, guess what? He changed it into a gore-and-boob B-film! Now it's about Casper van Dien, Denise Richards, Jake Busey and Neil Patrick Harris blowing up giant alien bugs! It still offers an inkling of the uncomfortable critique on militant invasions, but just barely. It's mostly just shots of people getting their brains sucked out.

What happens if, instead of hoity-toity scientists in famous cities (with highly destructible landmarks), a monster film took place in the middle of Nevada with a bunch of hicks trying to stop the creatures? "Tremors" is what you get. The '90s weren't very kind to the monster genre, at least not for theatrical films. However, Kevin Bacon and (oh gawd) Reba McEntire made the film marketable. Add giant man-eating worms and a healthy dose of redneck humor, and you've got a formula for success. Three sequels and an ill-advised Tv series later, I actually think a reboot is probably a good idea sometime in the next five years. I think a new generation needs some graboid action.

Radioactive giant ants. This is, once again, a classic of '50s creature features, and no list would be complete without it. the sound those hallmark ants make is undeniable. Old-school effects like this always had a classy feel to them, and this movie is no exception. This film was one of the first to feature radiation as a cause of the giant monsters (it came out the same year as the original "Godzilla," although the American version wouldn't come out until two years later). The way the film is framed at first as a murder mystery engages up until the ants make their first appearance, and then all hell breaks loose.

Now, before you get up-in-arms about including the Americanized version ... I haven't seen the Japanese version. I had a hard time picking which godzilla film to include (in the end it was between this, "Destroy All Monsters" and "Godzilla 2000"). I had to include the first. There's just something about the primal nature of Godzilla in the first film. He's a product of man, an unholy beast, and his eyes are glassy and cold. His face was clearly not meant to be likeable, and I like this version much more than the later versions, with the widened, rounded snout and expressive eyes. The original is frightening and still the best.

This is a film that I almost excluded because the monster is only giant in one or two scenes -- it's mostly pretending to be a dog or a person. But many great giant monster films don't always showcase the creature. That's the case in John carpenter's classic. The original Thing from Another World, was a guy with plants growing out of his head. Carpenter's version was disgusting, yet amazing. The themes of trust and paranoia added to the film's tension, and when the monster did rear its ugly head, it was all the more frightening.

If Harryhausen is the best effects guy in monster films, Spielberg is the best director of monster films. It's clear he had a huge influence on J.J. Abrams. Jaws is the film that started the summer blockbuster, and it's only fitting that that film would feature one of the scariest giant monsters of all time. The suspense, the acting, the commentary on corrupt politics, the shark itself ... it's all perfect. I've seen the film at least 50 times, and it's one of the greatest films of all time