10 OF THE BEST MONSTER FILMS
Godzilla (1954)
The original Japanese version was a metaphor for nuclear weapons. But thanks to many subsequent spin-offs and remakes the fire-breathing lizard is now one of the cult movie monsters and adaptable to almost any fear or concern.
Cloverfield (2008)
Using the popular “found footage” formula and adding a heavy dose of post-9/11 anxiety and an X Files flavour, this film about unknown monsters wrecking New York was a critical and box office success.
Tremors (1990)
Monstrous earth worms terrorise a community in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Everyone's scared except Kevin Bacon.
King Kong (1933)
Take a girl and a very large gorilla, stick them on top of the Empire State Building (or, in the 1976 version, the World Trade Centre), add themes of venality, opportunism and environmental destruction, and you have probably the most iconic creature feature ever made.
Alien (1979)
Ruthless, deadly, fearless and apparently indestructible – and that's just Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. The monster she battles remains one of sci-fi's greatest. In space, no-one can hear you scream for more.
Predator (1987)
Arnie's kick-ass special forces unit is picked off one by one. In the jungle. By an enemy it can't see.
Monsters (2010)
A NASA deep-space probe crashes in Mexico, bringing home unwanted alien visitors which spawn and grow. America decides to build a big, beautiful wall to try to stop them. It doesn't.
Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror (1922)
There isn't a vampire film out there which doesn't have some part of this 1922 German Expressionist classic in its DNA somewhere. Beautiful and terrifying.
Them! (1954)
Giant, irradiated spiders wreak havoc in Los Angeles and inadvertently give Van Morrison the name of his first band.
The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939)
Arguments rage over which adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous novel is the best – most will go for this Basil Rathbone version – but they're all terrifying. Except Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 1978 effort.
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