10 Great Monster Movies You May Have Missed

WhatCulture

Discover the top ten underrated creature features for you to enjoy.

Transcript

00:00 Since the very earliest days of cinema,

00:02 horror has featured prominently,

00:04 and the genre has brought us some of the most

00:06 unforgettable sights in motion picture history.

00:09 The following list contains some of the most memorable

00:12 movie monsters ever committed to celluloid.

00:15 From beautifully strange reworkings of classic fairy tales

00:18 to demon cats, rabbits, and dinosaurs,

00:21 there's something for everyone here,

00:22 even fans of Elvis Presley.

00:24 I'm Jess from World Culture,

00:26 and here are 10 great monster movies you may have missed.

00:29 Number 10, Kuroneko.

00:31 Kuroneko, or to give the film its full title,

00:34 and I will do my best with this pronunciation,

00:36 Yabunonaka no Kuroneko, a black cat in a bamboo grove,

00:41 ranks among the best movies you may not have seen

00:44 in any genre.

00:45 The film was directed by Kaneto Shindo,

00:48 the multi-talented creative responsible for many classics

00:51 of Japanese cinema, including Onibaba and Naked Island.

00:55 Shot in black and white, Kuroneko's setting is feudal Japan,

00:58 and the monsters in this case are the deadly spirits

01:01 of Yone and her daughter-in-law, Shige.

01:04 Murdered by a troop of samurai,

01:05 the two women return as vicious killers,

01:08 seducing and then murdering unsuspecting samurai

01:11 by tearing their throats out with their cat-like teeth.

01:14 A splendid twist arises when a samurai named Gintoki

01:18 is tasked with tracking down

01:19 and destroying the vengeful spirits.

01:22 The problem, as Gintoki soon discovers,

01:25 is that Yone and Shige are none other

01:27 than his deceased mother and wife.

01:30 Number nine, Company of Wolves.

01:32 One of the greatest and certainly most stylish

01:34 of werewolf films, Company of Wolves serves

01:37 as both an allegory and a fine horror in its own right.

01:40 In part a retelling or reimagining

01:43 of the classic Little Red Riding Hood,

01:45 the film stars a number of familiar faces,

01:47 including Angela Lansbury, Stephen Reyer, and David Warner.

01:51 There are several scenes here

01:53 which will remain with you forever,

01:55 not least of which is a wedding ceremony,

01:57 the participants of which are transformed

01:59 by a vengeful witch,

02:01 the reappearance of a presumed dead husband,

02:04 and an almost familiar trip to grandma's house.

02:07 Whatever the movie's underlying message,

02:09 it remains a startlingly and highly enjoyable watch.

02:13 Number eight, House, 1977.

02:16 A cult classic for fans of Japanese horror,

02:19 1977's House features one of the most memorable

02:23 and bizarre human-creature battles in cinematic history.

02:27 It was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi,

02:29 a filmmaker who started out in TV advertising

02:33 and swerved into experimental territory

02:35 before making his mark in the mainstream movie world,

02:38 enjoying an incredible 60-year career.

02:41 House displays Obayashi's taste for bold weirdness.

02:44 The protagonist, seven schoolgirls, of course,

02:47 and indeed most of the cast, were amateur actors

02:50 with little to no previous experience.

02:53 The film's plot concerns an ill-advised trip by the girls

02:56 to a country house belonging to an aunt.

02:59 Said house, of course, turns out to be haunted.

03:02 The monster in this fantastic entry

03:04 is none other than the house itself,

03:07 which proceeds to murder the girls

03:09 in various outlandish ways.

03:11 The British Film Institute aptly describes House as

03:14 a head-on collision between the evil dead

03:16 and yellow submarine.

03:18 Number seven, Baba Hotep.

03:20 Baba Hotep stars horror legend Bruce Campbell

03:23 as Elvis Presley.

03:25 Now confined to a nursing home,

03:26 Elvis befriends fellow inmate, Jack.

03:29 Presley confides in Jack that back in the '70s,

03:31 he swapped places with a double in order to free himself

03:35 from the confines of the showbiz life.

03:38 Jack in turn confesses to being John F. Kennedy,

03:41 explaining that he was not killed in '63.

03:44 He survived, was patched up, died black, and abandoned.

03:48 With that sort of set up,

03:49 the fact that a mummy is stalking the nursing home

03:51 seems like the most believable aspect

03:54 of this fantastic film.

03:55 Number six, Werewolves Within.

03:57 A fantastic modern entry on this list,

04:00 2021's Werewolves Within largely slid under the radar,

04:04 which is a crying shame as this is a gem

04:06 well-deserving of a much larger audience.

04:09 Taking inspiration from the Ubisoft game of the same name,

04:12 Werewolves Within stars the likable Sam Richardson

04:15 as Finn Wheeler, a forest ranger newly assigned

04:18 to cover the small town of Beaverfield.

04:21 Finn soon befriends mail courier Cecily Moore

04:24 and discovers that the town is bitterly divided

04:26 over plans for a proposed oil pipeline.

04:29 To make matters worse, a mysterious creature

04:31 has begun terrorizing the inhabitants,

04:34 and when a vicious snowstorm traps many of the residents

04:37 inside a local inn, Finn and Cecily have to balance egos

04:41 and tempers in order to survive and discover the truth.

04:45 Number five, Cat People, 1942.

04:48 Rightfully regarded as a classic

04:50 of the black and white era, RKO's Cat People

04:53 is a stylish and inventive take on the monster movie.

04:56 The plot centers on Irina de Brovna,

04:58 whose recent marriage to Oliver Reed, not the actor,

05:01 is beset by a peculiar trouble.

05:04 Irina believes she is descended

05:06 from an ancient tribe of cat people,

05:08 and that if stirred to passion,

05:11 she will transform into a half-woman, half-cat beast.

05:15 Much has been made of Cat People's subtext

05:17 concerning the dangerous lusts of women,

05:20 ingrained patterns of misogyny and hypocrisy,

05:23 but if you wish, you can easily put all that aside

05:25 and simply enjoy this well-made

05:27 and surprisingly original Sunday afternoon movie.

05:31 Number four, Night of the Lepus.

05:33 Fitting comfortably into the so-bad-it's-good category,

05:37 1972's Night of the Lepus features an unlikely adversary

05:42 in the form of a rampaging horde

05:44 of monstrous mutant killer rabbits.

05:48 The film is based on a book,

05:49 The Year of the Angry Rabbit,

05:51 by Australian author Russell Braden.

05:53 Braden claims that the novel was envisioned as a joke

05:56 and took about four weeks to complete.

05:58 Night of the Lepus, however, misses all this

06:00 by a country mile thanks to a woeful script,

06:04 poor acting, and most damningly,

06:06 laughably bad special effects.

06:09 Director William F. Claxton, a native Australian

06:11 and former Japanese prisoner of war,

06:14 also helmed episodes of The Twilight Zone,

06:16 Bonanza, The High Chaparral,

06:19 as well as '80s phenomenon Fame.

06:21 We can assume he had an off day, or days here,

06:24 as Night of the Lepus soundly misses the mark

06:27 on every single front.

06:29 Number three, Valley of Gwangi.

06:31 Ahead of its time in the genre-mashing stakes,

06:34 1969's Valley of Gwangi uniquely pits Wild West cowboys

06:39 against living dinosaurs in a New Mexico canyon.

06:42 Intriguingly, the film was based on an abandoned project

06:45 by Wills O'Brien, the creator of the original King Kong,

06:49 who sadly passed away before he could bring

06:51 this idea to life.

06:53 Though it never quite lives up to its A-list potential,

06:56 the film has plenty to offer, not least the novel plot,

06:59 which concerns the supposed existence

07:01 of a herd of tiny prehistoric horses.

07:04 The owner of a struggling Wild West show

07:06 teams up with her former lover and a British paleontologist,

07:10 hoping to track down and capture these beasts

07:12 in order to boost flagging ticket sales.

07:15 An all-star cast take the roles of the protagonist,

07:18 but the real stars, of course, are the dinosaurs,

07:22 which are wonderfully brought to life

07:23 by legendary animator Ray Harryhausen.

07:27 Number two, The Mummy, 1932.

07:30 Boris Karloff is the main star, a legendary horror actor

07:34 whose resume includes such classics as Frankenstein,

07:37 The Mask of Fu Manchu, and The Ghoul,

07:40 all of which are well worth seeking out.

07:42 Inspired by the real-life discovery

07:44 and opening of Tutankhamen's tomb 10 years earlier,

07:47 the plot concerns an archaeological expedition

07:50 led by Joseph Wemple and Dr. Muller.

07:53 The team pays the price for its inquisitiveness, of course,

07:56 and unwittingly unleashes

07:58 ancient Egyptian high priest Imhotep onto the world.

08:01 Lost love's hidden tombs, curses, and magic spells

08:05 all play a part in this delightful movie

08:07 directed by Carl Freund,

08:09 who also worked on both the science fiction classic Metropolis

08:13 and the much-loved sitcom I Love Lucy.

08:15 Number one, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

08:19 A magnificent two-for-one entry here,

08:21 as we're recommending both the original 1956 version

08:25 and its equally excellent 1978 remake.

08:28 Both adaptations of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

08:31 are closely based on the classic book of the same name

08:35 by American author Jack Finney.

08:37 The chilling premise behind Body Snatchers

08:39 is that folks are slowly becoming convinced

08:41 that their nearest and dearest

08:43 have been replaced by doppelgangers,

08:45 almost perfect replicas whose behavior is somehow off.

08:49 Doctors initially assumed

08:50 that this is some kind of mass mania caused by stress.

08:54 In reality, sinister aliens are slowly taking over the Earth,

08:58 killing us off one by one

09:00 and taking the place of their victims.

09:02 That's the end of our list,

09:04 but let me know down in that comment section

09:06 if you can think of any other great monster movies

09:08 you reckon most people probably missed.

09:11 As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.

09:13 Thank you so much for hanging out with me.

09:16 If you like it, you can come say hi to me

09:17 on my Twitter account, where I'm @JessMcDonald,

09:20 but make sure you stay tuned to us here

09:22 for plenty more great horror lists.

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