Monster movies have been a timeless phenomenon since the early years of cinema. Who doesn't like colossal beasts that wander out from the depths of human imagination right onto the big screen?
These enormous creatures are the definition of the sublime: they're horrifying, nightmare-inducing, immense creatures that make us feel impossibly small and insignificant.
And there have been so many fantastic films about giant creatures over the decades. Dating all the way back to 1933 with the original King Kong, we've seen hundreds of movies about titanic beings that make the human race feel terribly inferior.
Here are our picks for the best movies about giants, titans, and other huge creatures that stretch the limits of reality!
10. Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
Directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert
Animation, Action, Adventure (1h 34m)
Dreamworks delivered one of their best movies with Monsters vs. Aliens, which does exactly what it says on the tin.
When Susan suddenly becomes a 50-foot woman, she's hurried off to a secret base and kept in a monster facility. There she meets other famous monsters, all of whom are references to 1950s movie monsters.
It's a clever and funny monster movie in which the creators pay homage to the giants on whose shoulders they stand.
9. The Mist (2007)
Directed by Frank Darabont
Starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller (2h 6m)
Stephen King adaptations have always made for great blockbuster material, especially the ones based on his horror stories.
Although The Mist never garnered as much legendary acclaim as films like The Shining or The Shawshank Redemption, it's one that you don't want to miss—especially if you like downer endings.
Director Frank Darabont turns this monster movie into an allegory about faith and religion in the face of adversity, which in this case means giant, man-eating insect-monsters. Yeah, I'd be freaked, too.
8. The Meg (2018)
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Starring Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson
Action, Horror, Sci-Fi (1h 53m)
The Meg features Jason Statham and a giant shark. What more could you ask for? That premise alone is strangely compelling.
A prehistoric beast lurks in the deep ocean and threatens a research team—so Jason Statham must save them.
Despite shamelessly ripping off Jaws (1975), The Meg is so fun that it's hard to hold that against it. This is the kind of stuff that makes movie theaters so necessary. Need I say more?
7. Tremors (1990)
Directed by Ron Underwood
Starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter
Comedy, Horror (1h 36m)
Kevin Bacon in Nevada killing giant worms—what a pitch meeting that would have been! Sadly, Tremors is a bit forgotten now.
When two handymen discover that colossal worms are causing earthquakes and eating the locals, they take it upon themselves to do something about it.
Tremors went on to inspire six sequels. Yes, that's right: six more movies in the same vein. While I can't vouch for all of those movies to have the same quality as the first, this first one is a fun monster movie.
6. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Directed by Frank Oz
Starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia
Comedy, Horror, Musical (1h 34m)
Comedy director Frank Oz has had an illustrious career, and Little Shop of Horrors is just one great movie on his superbly impressive resume.
The only comedy-musical-monster-movie on our list, the film follows a man who purchases a bloodthirsty plant in the hopes of saving his flower shop. As you might expect, difficulties ensue.
Featuring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin at the peak of their comedic abilities, Little Shop of Horrors is a winner—and one of the rare movies to feature giant carnivorous plants of any kind.
5. Pacific Rim (2013)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Starring Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi (2h 11m)
Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to make one of the most colorful giant monster romps in cinema. Pacific Rim shines like no other.
While on a break from making Oscar-winning films, del Toro decided to make a movie about giant robots going around and punching giant kaijus in the face. And you know what? The world thanks him for it.
Pacific Rim is far from the best movie of all time, but it's absolutely one of the most fun blockbuster adventures of our time.
Complete with training sequences, sword-wielding cyborgs, and colossal beasts that emerge from the Pacific Ocean, it's a crowd pleaser.
4. Trollhunter (2010)
Directed by André Øvredal
Starring Otto Jespersen, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Nærum
Drama, Fantasy, Horror (1h 43m)
Trollhunter is an indie dark fantasy film with a very niche approach that won't be to everyone's tastes. However, it was a huge step in the right direction for monster movies of the found footage type.
The story follows a group of students who stumble across a man that hunts trolls for the Norwegian government. Sounds interesting, yeah?
Despite a surprisingly small budget of only $3.5 million, Trollhunter delivers a compelling movie about giant trolls full of meaningful scares. If Cloverfield (2005) is the Blair Witch Project (1999) of monster movies, then Trollhunter is a close second.
3. King Kong (2005)
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody
Action, Adventure, Romance (3h 7m)
While the original King Kong (1933) absolutely deserves every ounce of respect, Peter Jackson's King Kong is simply spectacular.
Building on the lore of Skull Island, Jackson ends up delivering a horrifying flick that transcends even the original.
Sure, it suffers sometimes from bad CGI as well as some scenes going on a bit too long—especially the dinosaur chases—but the end product is just as tragic as the original while being doubly thrilling.
2. The Iron Giant (1999)
Directed by Brad Bird
Starring Eli Marienthal, Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Aniston
Animation, Action, Adventure (1h 26m)
Hold back the tears... The Iron Giant is one of the saddest movies you'll ever watch, which is a testament to how strong its characters are.
When a young boy discovers a giant alien robot, he decides to hide him in his garage. Soon, they develop a great friendship.
The Iron Giant is a film that teaches us about love, forgiveness, and understanding. It looks at how we should never judge a book by its cover, how we can always strive to be good.
Just because you've been turned into a tool for violence doesn't mean you have to be that way.
The Iron Giant is technically a children's film, but it's also a film that transcends genre and target audience. This is the kind of movie that everyone should watch—and not just one time, either.
1. Godzilla (1954)
Directed by Ishirō Honda
Starring Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada
Action, Horror, Sci-Fi (1h 36m)
At the very top of our list, there's Godzilla. This is the iconic film that pretty much invented the kaiju genre and reinvigorated the possibilities of what a monster movie could be.
Directed by now-legendary filmmaker Ishirō Honda, Godzilla follows a group of scientists and researchers who are alerted to the awakening of Godzilla, a giant reptilian monster that breathes atomic fire.
This giant beast was created as a byproduct of America's use of nuclear weapons, leading many to interpret the character of Godzilla as an metaphor for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
So many Godzilla-related movies and TV shows have come out over the decades, but this was the one that started it all.
While the 2014 reboot is a compelling monster flick with much better special effects, the effective message that underpins the original Godzilla is too important for it to be forgotten.
