15 OF THE BEST MOVIE MONSTERS OF ALL TIME

In an age when the world always seems as though it’s on the brink of collapse and our fears seem larger than life, the best monster movies of the modern age have made our terrors look every bit as real as they feel.

From the classics to the more avant-garde, we’ve gathered 15 of the greatest movie monsters daring filmmakers have provided us over the decades.

It’s time to reexamine some of cinema’s best creepy crawlies. We’d like to apologize in advance for the nightmares.


The Thing, 'The Thing'

The Thing is a shape-shifting alien with the capacity to create and transform into the DNA of any of its prey.

This means that The Thing has the inimitable ability to become anyone’s worst nightmare at any moment, made even more tormenting by John Carpenter’s pledge to frighteningly surreal practical effects.

Whether your favorite is the iconic spider-head or the grotesque, transformed dog, The Thing is a monster with the capability to turn into the most terrifying thing of all: one of us.

Xenomorph, 'Alien'

The Xenomorph is what alien nightmares are made of.

Part machine, part natural aberrance, the Alien that troubles Ripley moves with the kind of haunting assurance fit of the creature’s power.

With racks of nested teeth and acid blood, the Xenomorph is a monster feat that is truly unforgettable at least when it comes to pop culture.

Brundlefly, 'The Fly'

A shocking mixture of man and fly, there’s probably no better Cronenberg video monster than the dripping, gloopy Brundlefly.

In the movie, The Brundlefly takes most of the film to arrive as the scientific experiment that gently overwhelms Seth’s body, but while he barely lasts long before being sent out by his lover, it’s the figurative horror of becoming a monster yourself that brings The Fly to the list.

Godzilla, 'Godzilla'

Although Gareth Edwards’ fantastic and more refined blockbuster breathed fresh life into the age-old monster, it’s hard to beat the 1954 Godzilla,

Borne out of incredible loss and nuclear fallout, Godzilla is the physical embodiment of some of society’s utmost sins and the ghost of terrible things past, almost as disturbing as its inherent politics.

King Kong, 'King Kong'

You don’t receive the name “King of the Jungle” for nothing.

While Peter Jackson’s 2005 film has its strong points, for us, the perfect King Kong is still the 1933 film and remains one of the most bewitching and catastrophic of the movie monsters.

The effects of all their dubious aging are cunning and admirable even years on, making the original Kong a huge success no matter how old the movie magic is.

Frankenstein's Monster, 'Frankenstein'

Frankenstein is hard to beat.

Theoretically a zombie re-animated through technical skill and man’s pride, it’s a monster ignorant of the rules of the world and his own power, as well as a monster overcome with the plight of human connection.

He’s devastating, iconic, and deeply frightening.

Reapers, 'Blade II'

While vampires have fascinated the cultural upmarket for years, it’s del Toro that accelerated them with his designs for the bloodsuckers.

Taking the idea of a human pest quite figuratively in Blade II, Reapers are a new class of vampires with a rigid jaw, exposing a deeply disturbing ringworm-like sucker within.

The transformations themselves are striking enough, but to see them unfold from an otherwise typical vampire form makes Reapers pop culture’s most tragic reaffirmation of the vile monster.

The Pale Man, 'Pan's Labyrinth'

While Pan’s Labyrinth is packed with astonishing creatures, the real star of the film is shown for about 3 minutes in total, a shriveled and deeply unnerving humanoid monster with a penchant for children.

He’s a strong metaphor for the cruel and cold-hearted government and specifically, the callous Captain Vidal that turns Ofelia’s world upside down.

A cunning reversal of a fairy tale plot, the Pale Man is a distressing sight whether you’re seeing the film for the first time or the twentieth.

Crawlers, 'The Descent'

Neil Marshall’s understated suffocating movie is a sight to behold thanks to its subtle approach to loss and its sheer dedication to convincing characters.

But it’s also amazing for its intensely frightening Crawlers, the humanoid cave-dwellers with chalky white eyes and skin, overgrown claws, and echolocation that reveals their arrival even before their grotesque faces do.

They are the perfect antagonists for our doomed spelunkers, and they’re sure to occupy a particular room in your nightmares.

The Predator, 'Predator'

The Predator, like many of the daunting entries on the list, chooses to stay unseen for the majority of the film’s running time, allowing director John McTiernan to end the clock before the big reveal.

Killing for sport and gathering trophies of his unknowing human prey, Predator couldn’t be a more fatal monster adversary.

But when it comes time to expose, the most genuine evidence to his genius character design comes from Schwarzenegger himself: “You are one ugly motherf*cker”.

Gwoemul, 'The Host'

Huge. Amphibious. Mutant.

The terrifying, lethal Gweomul is about as gross and hazardous as a sewer inhabitant is expected to get, and is the fierce fuel for Joon-ho Bong’s The Host.

Sporting some brilliant monster design and some frightening, bumbling creature features, Gweomul runs on pure evolutionary character, and it seems natural selection isn’t on our side.

The Behemoth, 'The Mist'

Although it has less screen time than other appalling beasts in Frank Darabont’s The Mist, The Behemoth, also appropriately known as “The Impossibly Tall Creature,” leaves the most impression of all of the film’s monsters put together.

Slowly, quietly lurking through the mist and towering over everything in sight, The Behemoth is unnerving mostly in its complete obliviousness to any of the human suffering it has unsuspectingly caused at its feet.

Audrey II, 'Little Shop of Horrors'

Directed by Frank Oz, Audrey II is just your regular, everyday human-eating monster plant with a fondness for musical numbers.

Equipped with ever-growing ivy arms and a monstrously pink flapping tongue, Audrey II is the perfect foil to Rick Moranis’ shrinking violet Seymour, and an amusingly disturbing man-eater firm on spawning nightmares that are as extremely odd as they are truly frightening.

Not sold? Just wait until Audrey’s got an unsuspicious customer from Mushnik’s Flower Shop deep inside her jaws.

The Blob, 'The Blob'

Led by the compelling 28-year-old Steve McQueen (playing a teenager, no less), The Blob, which debuted on-screen back in 1958, is an alien life form that lives to suck – drawing people into its weird, purple-ish form and swelling in size along the way.

But the upper hand here, we believe, goes to The Blob’s 1988 revision, which adds a disturbing, sharp quality to the Blob’s slimy threats, while still failing to provide the hazardous substance with any kind of logic.

It Blobs, therefore it is.

Clover, 'Cloverfield'

Truth be told, the Cloverfield universe has so far mainly been defined by the visual nonexistence of a monster rather than its noticeable presence.

But it is proof to the filmmaking fact that such a minor amount of screen-time can make such a permanent impact.

Deadly, toxic, and horrid as hell, “Clover” is an awfully cute name for one ugly monster, don’t you think?

Have you seen any of these movies lately? Which monster was the most terrifying to you?