Top 20 Underrated Giant Monster Movies

This movie makes you wait a long time to get a good look at the monster. In fact, the audience isn’t even sure that there is a monster until the story is well underway. The plot builds slowly by starting with a terrifying train derailment that is followed by a series of bizarre happenings. People go missing, electronics disappear, and the power fluctuates. The tension never lets up, and the child actors at the movie’s heart deliver brilliant performances that keep you glued to your seat. It’s also excellently shot and contains a great blend of special and practical effects. All of the performance and technical elements make the payoff well worth the wait.

This monster isn’t here to terrorize people or smash cities. Instead, he’s the embodiment of 12-year-old Conor’s feelings about his mother’s terminal illness. This dark fantasy deals with difficult themes like grief, anger, and loss through the stories the monster tells Conor. Liam Neeson’s deep, gravelly voice gives weight and heart to the creature. It’s amazing to see something that starts out mysterious and scary becomes the friend that Conor desperately needs. Despite critical acclaim, audiences didn’t turn out to see this movie in theaters. Still, this powerful family film is a unique entry in the giant monster genre.

Don’t kidnap animals out of the wild. That’s the moral of this British contribution to the golden age of kaiju. Much like “King Kong”’s Carl Denham, sea captain Joe Ryan is determined to make a few bucks by capturing a giant sea monster and selling it to a circus. But it turns out this little guy is just a baby. After the young one is displaced, his much bigger mother comes looking for him. Like many of the best creature features, “Gorgo” makes the beast sympathetic. The real villains here aren’t the massive monsters, but the humans eager to exploit them for profit.

Produced by Toho Co. studio, a major player in the Japanese kaiju movie industry, “Varan” is a classic of the genre. A holdover from dinosaur times, this colossal winged lizard just wants to be left alone in his lake. The village priest tries to warn away the scientists who want to conduct experiments there. But naturally, they don’t listen. A few years after the film was released, an American version was produced that also took place in Japan and followed a similar storyline. Besides the iconic flying scenes, “Varan” stands out for its unusually witty humor and dialogue. It’s such a delight that genre fans might find it hard to believe they didn’t discover this soaring tale sooner.

The 90s were the heyday of over-the-top disaster movies. This is an underrated gem from the decade that delivers on every level. When a band of mercenaries attack a luxury cruise ship, they discover the passengers and crew mysteriously missing. The culprits are a group of ferocious worm-like creatures – or at least, that’s what they seem to be at first. In reality, they’re the tentacles of the Octalus, a sea monster with a taste for human flesh. The film got extremely mixed reviews and flopped at the box office at the time. But it’s since gained a cult following in the decades following its release. While it’s not the deepest kaiju movie in the sea, it certainly is one of the most fun to watch.

You might be tempted to write this one off as a generic smash-em-up action movie, but that would be a mistake. Guillermo del Toro put a ton of thought into the design of all the kaiju. He took inspiration from both the great monster movies of decades past and classic works of art. And as a bonus, he set up a plot where humans in giant robots have to stop the creatures from tearing humanity apart. While the monsters are naturally the biggest stars of the show, the plots surrounding the human characters are just as engrossing. That fact and the great designs resulted in a gorgeous-looking movie filled with monsters that feel somehow both futuristic and timeless.

If you’re a giant monster mega-fan, then you’re probably familiar with the work of Ray Harryhausen. The stop-motion animator was responsible for some of the most famous American film monsters, including the Ymir. This poor alien didn’t ask to be here. After being brought back to Earth from Venus as an egg, it hatches and quickly grows to gargantuan proportions. It never intends to torment people. It just takes issue with the scientists who want to cage and study it, and later, the soldiers who are determined to kill it. This film’s visual effects are way ahead of their time. By the end of the film, you’ll find Ymir’s tragic fate to be genuinely heart-wrenching.

When done right, horror and comedy can be a match made in movie heaven. After a barrel of toxic chemicals gets dumped into a lake, it mutates the local crickets, ninja turtle-style. An eccentric spider collector then decides to feed the enhanced bugs to his brood. Unfortunately, the arachnids become enormous and wreak havoc on the town. They quickly progress from snacking on pets to catching ostriches, to attacking humans. This wacky early 2000s flick is the perfect blend of scary, funny, and occasionally disgusting. And did we mention it features a young Scarlett Johansson? Seeing the future Black Widow have to deal with giant spiders is wonderfully ironic in hindsight.

While at the time it was dismissed as a “Godzilla” ripoff, this 1965 film kickstarted the second most prolific kaiju film franchise, one that would end up setting the tone for other monster films of the era. After an accidental nuclear blast in the frozen north, a colossal turtle emerges from the ice, one that can breathe fire and even fly. The film inspired numerous sequels, and their kid-friendly tone helped them to drawn in children, a move later adopted by the “Godzilla” movies themselves. In the 1990s, a trilogy of grim and gritty films rebooted the franchise, but the original is still sorely under-viewed.

This low-budget sci-fi flick took the 2010 film festival scene by storm and quickly became an unexpected critical darling. Its plot took place near the U.S.-Mexico border a few years after gigantic creatures land on Earth. During the film, two American protagonists try to get back into the States. Along the way, they encounter obstacles both extraterrestrial and earthly. The film was praised for tackling heavy themes amidst the terror and wonder of an alien invasion. Additionally, the relationship drama at the movie’s heart is punctuated by scenes of brilliant tension, breath-taking visuals, and deeply human connection.

Another classic featuring stop-motion from the brilliant Ray Harryhausen, this movie was based on a short story by Ray Bradbury. It follows a massive Rhedosaurus who was awakened by atomic bomb tests after being frozen in the arctic circle since ancient times. The creature eventually makes its way to New York City, where it menaces Manhattan and Coney Island. Speaking of which, the movie utilizes the urban setting incredibly well. And the film was historic as its atomic plot and creature helped inspire “Godzilla.” In fact, the film’s success was a major reason for the profusion of monster movies that came out in the decade that followed.

Another creature spawned from the 1950s monster movie craze, this ancient pteranodon has earned a place in the kaiju hall of fame. When miners are attacked and killed by a mysterious underground menace, the local townspeople discover … not Rodan. They instead find a group of huge prehistoric bugs. Yet hidden near their lair is an enormous egg that soon hatches out the immense flying beast, who can flatten a city just by flapping his wings. After the film’s initial release, an English dubbed version was created. It quickly became one of the most successful Japanese films in the American market. And Do you recognize that voice? It’s Hollywood icon George Takei in his first film role.

Released in the 1960s, this film is fairly unique for its period setting, with Feudal Japan taking the place of modern cities as the site for giant monster action. The titular monster is a giant, magical stone statue that comes to life to punish the wicked, in this case an evil Lord who schemes his way to power. Even after having an iron rod driven into his forehead, the wrathful monster is more than able to deliver some divine retribution, smashing the Lord’s stronghold. With excellent special effects and a unique and interesting period setting, this film and its two sequels are well-worth checking out.

There’s something about a movie title that tells you exactly what you’re getting with no messing about, and this 2013 giant monster romp certainly has one of those titles. An intensely tongue-in-cheek throwback to classic giant insect movies, the film follows a good-natured exterminator as he helps try and destroy an increasingly giant spider. This may not be the most polished film out there, but it’s clear with every frame that the filmmakers put their hearts and souls into the production, and the result is a fun and endearing crowd-pleaser with action, excitement and heart to spare.

This sci-fi puts an interesting twist on the giant monster genre when it’s revealed that the giant monster attacking Seoul is in fact being unwittingly controlled by Anne Hathaway’s Gloria, a unemployed alcoholic writer trying to sort out her mess of a life. We’ve all been to some dark places when life isn’t going our way, but learning you’ve accidentally been contributing to the destruction of a major city is on a whole ‘nother level. The giant monster action in this film mostly takes a back seat to the character drama, but that doesn’t stop it being from a funny, exciting, and moving character piece.

This unsung classic from “Godzilla” director Ishiro Honda focuses on a spectacular battle two giant monsters, the friendly Sanda and the evil Gaira. In addition to a knock down, drag out battle royale in the finale, this film also features some of the best effects and minatures ever produced by the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya and his team. This is because by Kaiju standards, Sanda and Gaira are positively puny. That meant that the sets and models had to be much more detailed, as the audience would be seeing them much closer than normal. The results speak for themselves.

Intended as a thematic follow up to the “King Kong” animated series from the same era, this gloriously goofy film mixes everyone’s favorite giant ape with spies, supervillains and a giant robot gorilla known as Mechani-Kong. When an evil doctor creates Mechani-Kong to unearth the highly valuable Element X, his plan backfires, forcing him to capture the real Kong to use as manual labor. This doesn’t go to plan, and Kong winds up battling his robotic doppelganger atop Tokyo Tower. If ever you wanted a King Kong movie to feel more like a Saturday morning cartoon come to life, this movie is for you.

Frankenstein’s Monster may not be the first thing to come to mind when you think of Japanese monster movies, but this one takes Mary Shelley's creature to whole new heights. When the monster’s disembodied heart is exposed to radioactive fallout, it regenerates a new, giant-sized body, and things get even more complicated when an ancient creature called Baragon emerges, leading to a fiery confrontation. This hidden gem features more fantastic Tsuburaya effects and a stellar cast led by American actor Nick Adams. It’s also unique in that the titular monster is played by an actor wearing only makeup and prosthetics rather than a full suit.

When the pollution fueled alien creature Hedorah arrives on Earth, only Godzilla can save the day. Director Yoshimitsu Banno’s oddball 70s entry in the “Godzilla” franchise is without a doubt the strangest film in the series, with touches of surrealism, animated interstitials, a truly baffling tone, and did we mention the part where Godzilla flies? The film also bucks the trend toward kid-friendliness, with a dark tone and even onscreen deaths. It feels like an odd mashup of a Godzilla movie and an Avant-Garde art film, making it a truly unique experience for better or worse, and one that every fan should check out.

Another excellent found-footage giant monster movie, this Norwegian film follows a group of journalism students who are seemingly on the trail of a bear poacher. However, when they follow the man into the woods, they discover he’s actually after a much different sort of game: trolls! It turns out the taciturn Hans is really a troll hunter in the employ of the Norwegian government, tasked with tracking down trolls that escape from a preserve. With a streak of black humor a mile wide and some seriously impressive visuals for a relatively low-budget movie, this film is a must see for fans of offbeat genre movies.