Monster movies are often dismissed as the lower form of the horror subgenre, the mere larval state compared to the more fully formed or refined psychological or “thriller” films. Whether or not that B-movie status is deserved depends on the individual movie, but regardless, monster movies hold a special place in film history. The earliest of these monster movies began appearing near the beginning of the 20th century, with the lost Edison Studios adaptations of Frankenstein and The Golem the most prominent examples.
Movie monsters come in all shapes and sizes, be they tremendous giants or more human in form. One thing that is not always monstrous about these beasts and the movies they feature in is their box office returns. Much like Frankenstein’s monster, many of these monster movie flops were misunderstood and chased out of the box office by torch-wielding critics, but in the ensuing years, they have become beloved classics. These monster movie flops that should’ve been monster hits, and it’s high time they get the recognition they deserve.
10
‘The Relic’ (1997)
Directed by Peter Hyams
Not to be confused with the 2020 Australian horror film Relic, this ’90s creature feature is set in the Chicago Field Museum, where a chimeric beast begins stalking and slaughtering museum staff wholesale. The Relic wears its influences on its sleeve, Alien being a major touchstone here, and director Peter Hyams stages the gore with adequate skill.
What really makes The Relic worth so much more than its disappointing box office performance would suggest is its outstanding creature design. The unique monster, which is an amalgam of different mammals and reptiles, was designed and created by the legendary Stan Winston, whose credits include the Terminator endoskeleton and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Winston’s work here rivals some of his best, and the creature is a solid combination of digital and practical effects that have helped it age far better than many of the bad CGI movie monsters that have followed in the decades since.
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9
‘Mimic’ (1997)
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Mimic was Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro‘s first Hollywood feature, and the result represents a compromised vision, thanks to the behind-the-scenes meddling of real-life monster Harvey Weinstein. Despite the final film falling short of Del Toro’s best movies, it’s still an incredibly inventive sci-fi horror creature feature that has the director’s signature style all over it.
The plot follows an entomologist, played by Mira Sorvino, who breeds a hybrid insect to kill off disease-spreading cockroaches. Naturally, this hybrid continues to evolve until they set their sights on humans as their next prey. Filled with stomach-churning effects and stark visuals, Mimic deserved better than to be a failure of a footnote in its director’s career.
Mimic
- Release Date
-
August 22, 1997
- Runtime
-
105 minutes
8
‘Colossal’ (2016)
Directed by Nacho Vigalondo
Colossal has such a weird and wild premise, it’s not surprising that audiences didn’t know what to make of it when it first made landfall. The movie deals with themes of alcoholism and toxic relationships through rampaging kaiju. Anne Hathaway gives one of her best performances as a struggling alcoholic who discovers her issues conjure a massive rampaging monster in South Korea.
Using gigantic monsters as manifestations of insecurity and character flaws is a novel concept that made the movie a hard sell. Despite a decent critical reception, audiences didn’t turn up for the movie and missed out on one of the most underrated sci-fi movies of the last decade. Ignoring this monster-sized dramedy would be a colossal mistake.
- Release Date
-
April 6, 2017
- Runtime
-
110minutes
7
‘Jennifer’s Body’ (2009)
Directed by Karyn Kusama
Jennifer’s Body was writer Diablo Cody’s follow-up to the surprise hit Juno. Unfortunately, this severely underrated Megan Fox horror flick failed to match that teen pregnancy comedy’s success at the box office. The movie is definitely an acquired taste, representing horror at its most emo, but it’s exactly that distinct sense of humor and presentation that has turned it into a cult classic. The story of a teen girl turned succubus who targets the male population of her high school certainly speaks to a specific audience.
Its failure at the box office can be blamed on the marketing, which eschewed trying to market it towards its intended female audience and instead played it up as a sexy horror thriller for teenage boys. Fans eventually found the movie, but well after the effects of its underwhelming release impacted the careers of both Cody and director Karyn Kusama, as well as hurting any chances of a potential sequel.
Jennifer’s Body
- Release Date
-
September 18, 2009
- Runtime
-
102 minutes
6
‘The Blob’ (1988)
Directed by Chuck Russell
This remake of the classic ’50s B movie brought the plot into the modern era and upped the gore a considerable amount. Made during the peak of practical effects, The Blob found various inventive ways for its cast to be killed off by a roaming pink pile of goo.
Unlike fellow horror remake The Fly, Chuck Russell‘s amorphous monster movie couldn’t conquer the box office. The premise of an all-absorbing monster that swallows and dissolves its victims is so simplistically horrific that a second remake has been rumored for years, with Rob Zombie attached at one point. Alas, it still hasn’t taken shape, meaning this beloved cult classic remains one-of-a-kind.
The Blob
- Release Date
-
January 1, 2016
- Runtime
-
95 Minutes
- Writers
-
Irvine H. Millgate, Kay Linaker, Theodore Simonson
5
‘Slither’ (2006)
Directed by James Gunn
Long before James Gunn was selected to reboot the DCU or had made a single Guardians of the Galaxy movie, he was known mostly as the writer behind the live-action Scooby-Doo franchise and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. Gunn’s directorial debut was Slither, a B monster movie throwback to the gooey sci-fi horror of the ’80s like The Blob. Gunn brought his slimiest skills (honed early in his career at Troma Entertainment) to making Slither, a gutsy R-rated horror movie.
When alien slugs crash-land in a small American town, they spread rapidly and begin to take over the minds of every citizen whose mouth they can wriggle their way into. Slither is a squishy, gory good time that’s equally as funny as it is nausea-inducing. The talented cast includes Gunn stalwarts Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker, who earns every cent of his paycheck playing the main host for the insidious slugs.
Slither
- Release Date
-
March 31, 2006
- Runtime
-
95 minutes
4
‘Night of the Creeps’ (1986)
Directed by Fred Dekker
Surprisingly, of all the films that Gunn mentioned as inspiration for Slither, Night of the Creeps wasn’t one, and the director insists he hadn’t seen it prior to making his movie. From director Fred Dekker, this ’80s horror cult classic also involves alien slugs making landfall on Earth. This time, they target a college during pledge week, where they proceed to turn frat boys and co-eds into (even more) mindless zombies.
Much like Slither, Dekker’s movie is a pastiche, blending horror elements from ’50s sci-fi and ’60s zombie movies. The movie doesn’t try to hide its influences and even names some characters after genre legends, like John Carpenter and George A. Romero. More than just a heap of references, Night of the Creeps has a subversive script and delivers on the monster madness, making it one of the best zombie movies of all time.
Night Of The Creeps
- Release Date
-
August 22, 1986
- Cast
-
Jason Lively
, Tom Atkins
, Steve Marshall
, Jill Whitlow
, Wally Taylor
, Bruce Solomon
, Vic Polizos
, Allan Kayser - Runtime
-
88 Minutes
- Writers
-
Fred Dekker
3
‘The Monster Squad’ (1987)
Directed by Fred Dekker
Not satisfied with delivering just one of the cheesiest ’80s horror movies, Dekker followed up his first film with The Monster Squad, which asks the question “What if The Goonies fought the Universal Monsters?” The answer is one ridiculously entertaining monster movie. Set in, where else, small-town America, the movie follows some of the coolest horror movie kids who must face off against Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy, and the Gill Man for good measure.
The re-imagined creatures were designed by Stan Winston and his effects team, creating all new versions of the classic Hollywood monsters. Despite that novel approach and a witty script co-written by Dekker and Shane Black, The Monster Squad failed to attract audiences but has, of course, gained a sizable cult following since then. Unfortunately, the back-to-back failures of Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad stalled Dekker’s directorial career, which is a monstrous injustice.
- Release Date
-
August 14, 1987
- Cast
-
Andre Gower
, Robby Kiger
, Stephen Macht
, Duncan Regehr
, Tom Noonan
, Brent Chalem - Runtime
-
82
- Writers
-
Shane Black
, Fred Dekker
2
‘Tremors’ (1990)
Directed by Ron Underwood
Despite the fact that Western creature feature Tremors has spawned a total of six sequels, the original film crashed at the box office like a Graboid into a concrete wall. The movie eventually found success on home video, but that only guaranteed that the sequels would be unfairly fated to premiere direct-to-video. In a perfect world, audiences would’ve stampeded to theaters to see this cult classic featuring the most dangerous underground worms this side of Dune.
Subterranean monsters submerging victims across a desert Nevada town sounds like the kind of premise that fills up the weekend roster on Syfy. However, Tremors‘ clever script and terrific cast elevate the material into an endlessly quotable monster movie. The practical creature effects by Amalgamated Dynamics are also some of the most convincing ever put on screen, giving real weight and tangibility to these Precambrian carnivores.
Tremors
- Release Date
-
January 19, 1990
- Runtime
-
96 minutes
- Writers
-
S.S. Wilson
, Brent Maddock
, Ron Underwood
1
‘The Thing’ (1982)
Directed by John Carpenter
John Carpenter’s paranoid classic The Thing had the unfortunate fate of premiering in theaters a mere two weeks after Steven Spielberg‘s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Audiences were far more taken with Spielberg’s loveable Reese’s Pieces-munching alien than with the assimilating nightmare in Carpenter’s film, and critics were even more savage. Perhaps the film was just released in the wrong decade since its chilly nihilism feels more akin to ’70s horror than the more optimistic ’80s.
History has corrected the massive oversight, with The Thing now considered a masterpiece and Carpenter’s scariest movie ever. The antarctic set story of a group of researchers who are beset by a shape-shifting alien that wants to assimilate the entire planet is suitably grim, with a haunting score by Ennio Morricone and timeless practical effects created by Rob Bottin. Despite its reclamation, The Thing‘s failure profoundly affected Carpenter and his career. He would spend the rest of the decade cranking out cult classics that would shape genre cinema for decades to come, never gaining the respect he deserved until years later.
The Thing
- Release Date
-
June 25, 1982
- Runtime
-
109 minutes
- Writers
-
Bill Lancaster
