Different things scare different people. Similarly, people define “monster movies” in different ways. I define a monster movie as any flick that contains something that totally should not exist at all. I'll cop to fact that I'm not a huge fan of old time creature features. Rather, here's my take on the 7 best monster movies, chosen because I still scream when I watch them … and some of them still make me peek in the closet and under the bed.
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This movie gets on the list because, at the time, I had a Kid Sister doll. And My Buddy, so she'd have someone to play with. Can you imagine? Chucky scared the living bejeebus out of me – and honestly, he still does, at least in the first one. They lost the plot with the sequels, but they scored a home run with that little monster the first time around.
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You want to talk about vampires? Then let's talk about Chris Sarandon. He was the worst: a suave monster that you really, really wanted to like … until he tried to suck your blood. He gave me the heebie jeebies – still does. Just not in part 2, because that was awful.
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Oh man. I love and hate this movie. I love the book, and the movie is not nearly as good as the book … but it's still pretty good. Church and Gage are the creepiest monsters to me, because they're real. For years after seeing this, I secretly worried my buried pets or loved ones would somehow come back from the dead. Once you see #4 and #10, which I saw before seeing Pet Sematary (in retrospect, my parents should not have let my older cousin ever babysit me), you'll understand why.
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Um, SCREAM. This was partly terrifying because it was in black and white. It always seemed to me almost like news footage – like it really happened! After learning my cousin let me watch this, my dad had a tendency to come up behind me and try to gnaw on my head, grunting, “Brains, braaains, BRAAAINS!” all the while. ...I also come from a weird family.
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This is why monster movies can often be different from actual horror movies. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in this. It totally wasn't a horror movie, it was like a guy movie. But that Predator was a monster and he scared me to death. To death!
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Omg. There's a reason Stephen King is called the Master of Horror. This translated really well into a movie. I could handle the book, you know? But actually seeing Pennywise – better, seeing him brought to life by Tim Curry – scared the crap out of me. I initially watched the movie because, hi, I was little and in love with poor, doomed Jonathan Brandis. That'll teach me.
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This sequel was cheesy as all get out – and creepy as all get out too. I mean, there was embalming fluid and all! That could really happen! I still can't watch this, NO!
Very little actually scares me. These days, I'm more bothered by psychological horrors, like The Ring. Brrrr. However, when a monster movie scares me, it scares me for life. What are your favorite monsters from movies?