Cinema’s most beautiful beasts: the 10 best modern monster movies
The monster movie has been a staple of cinema for decades, with the subgenre typically associated with cheep and cheerful creature features that don’t have any ambitions above doing exactly what it says on the tin.
Of course, that isn’t always the case, with many ambitious filmmakers and proven auteurs dipping their toes into the waters of wanton destruction caused by a myriad of beasts that range from several feet tall to the size of skyscrapers.
For the most part, even the most expensive and polished efforts tend to focus on mindless entertainment and escapist carnage to satisfy the cravings of a bloodthirsty audience who want nothing more than to see worlds being turned upside down on an unimaginable scale.
Occasionally, though, a cinematic monster mash of genuine substance manages to slip through the cracks, and the following ten are among the very best the 21st century has had to offer so far.
The 10 best modern monster movies:
10. Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)
Big things were predicted for Joe Cornish when his debut feature was released, with John Boyega on star-making form in inner-city gender-bender Attack the Block.
The plot is as simple as it needs to be, with a group of wayward youths in a London housing estate forced to step up and defend their turf when unidentifiable ferocious creatures begin wreaking havoc. An instant cult classic, it should have heralded the arrival of an exciting new talent.
Mixing horror and sci-fi with comedy and incisive social commentary, Attack the Block was a wonderful calling card for Cornish, even if he’s only directed one more movie since. When he did, sadly, The Kid Who Would Be King flopped.
9. Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022)
Ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger and his cabal of manly men were picked off one by one in the jungle, the Predator franchise had failed to come close to matching its opening instalment.
Predator 2 has its merits, Nimrod Antal’s Predators didn’t get a sequel, Shane Black’s The Predator bombed, and the less said about the Alien crossovers the better. Deciding that it was time to go back to basics, Dan Trachtenberg stripped the lore back to its core components in Prey.
A period piece prequel that allowed the movie to discard canon and apply a fresh slant to the survival horror pitting a solitary hero against an intergalactic bounty hunter, it was the Predator flick audiences had been crying out for since 1987.
8. Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
Backed by a viral marketing campaign and capitalising on the found footage craze, Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams took the handheld aesthetic and applied it to the creature feature with impressive results.
A boots-on-the-ground monster movie, Cloverfield succeeded in generating intense excitement from viewers before they’d even seen a single frame thanks to its fantastic promotional tactics, and the end result didn’t disappoint.
Using the limitations of its chosen aesthetic to its advantage, Cloverfield dropped audiences right into the eye of the storm, and everyone who didn’t suffer from motion sickness was left gripped to the edge of their seats.
7. Trollhunter (André Øvredal, 2010)
An ambitious experiment that blended fantasy and horror with comedy and documentary, Trollhunter even managed to sneak in some prescient social and environmental commentary.
Following the misadventures of an intrepid student film crew, their investigation into illegal poaching in Norway’s vast expanses becomes something else altogether when they encounter a mysterious man who claims he’d been employed by the government to kill trolls.
It sounds ridiculous, and while the film’s tongue never leaves the inside of its cheek, the engaging story and winning atmosphere proved so singular and melded with Norwegian culture that plans for an Americanised remake were wisely abandoned.
6. A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018)
As far as gimmicks for monster movies go, ‘relentless beasts who hunt entirely by sound’ is a doozy, with John Krasinski announcing himself as a director to be reckoned with in A Quiet Place.
Anchored by a tour-de-force performance by Emily Blunt, rarely have cinemas been more silent than they were when A Quiet Place was released, with viewers too scared to ruin the vibe with the rustling crisps and munching of popcorn.
It ended up launching a franchise, as most successful horror flicks with sky-high concepts tend to do, but it’ll take some doing for the original to be bettered.
5. The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)
The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile had already outlined Frank Darabont as one of Hollywood’s safest pair of hands for adapting Stephen King, with The Mist becoming a pop culture staple for entirely different reasons.
Whereas his first two King-derived big-screen stories were prison dramas packed with heart and emotion, the final scene in The Mist was the cinematic equivalent of somebody knocking on the door with the express intention of delivering a Mike Tyson-powered punch to the gut when it opened.
Even before that, The Mist was an excellently intense creature feature carrying equal amounts of dread and terror, but it was that crushing finale that tipped the film over the edge.
4. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
Guillermo del Toro has never been shy in downplaying the fantastical aspects of Pan’s Labyrinth in favour of steering attention towards the real terrors of the story, but what fantasy it is nonetheless.
The filmmaker has pointed to Captain Vidal as the true monster of the piece, and while that’s completely true, the director’s lifelong adoration of things that go bump in the night, lavish production design, and the manifestation of fable-like fears have never been realised better than it was here.
The Pale Man is a spine-chilling creation who looms large over Ofelia’s descent into the underworld she believes she’s been reincarnated to reign over, with Doug Jones displaying exactly why he’s one of the industry’s most in-demand creature character actors.
3. The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
The real genius of The Descent is how it spends the first half of its running time focusing almost exclusively on character-building before director Neil Marshall flips the switch and lets all hell break loose.
A thousand films feature a disparate band of protagonists being eliminated by murderous creatures, but because the filmmaker spends so long getting audiences invested in the dynamics, relationships, and backstories, that investment elevates the experience exponentially.
The Descent also happens to be one of the most claustrophobic movies ever made, so it’s an uneasy watch even before the feral beasts lurking in the deep, dark caves make their presence known, and it’s easy to believe they’re hiding in the shadows of every frame even when they can’t be seen.
2. The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)
Bong Joon-ho has become renowned for telling stories that fit into the broad parameters of various genres while being uniquely his, and The Host saw him apply that sentiment to the monster movie.
Inspired by real events – at least, with fewer creatures – the beast lurking in the water was created directly by the government-approved dumping of toxic chemicals, with Joon-ho never passing up an opportunity to take a shot at the establishment.
Smart, stylish, funny, spectacular, and resonant all at once, the socially-conscious monster flick has rarely been done better than The Host.
1. Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)
It takes a special effort for a character that’s existed for 70 years and appeared in dozens of movies to say something new, with Godzilla Minus One propelling the industry’s most famous kaiju to new heights.
The first Godzilla film to win an Academy Award, co-writer and director Takashi Yamazaki even emulated Stanley Kubrick by becoming only the second person in Oscars history to win a visual effects prize for a feature they also helmed.
That’s exalted company to be in, but it’s entirely deserved, with Godzilla Minus One exploring post-war Japanese society and the effects it had on the population through the lens of a PTSD-afflicted deserter struggling to reconcile his previous actions with safeguarding a future he doesn’t think he deserves.
