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Amonster movie,monster film,creature feature, orgiant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or moreantagonisticmonsters, often abnormallylarge ones. The film may also fall under thehorror,comedy,fantasy, orscience fiction genres. Monster movies originated withadaptations of horrorfolklore and literature.
The most common aspect of a monster movie is the struggle between a human collective of protagonists against one or more monsters, who often serve as the antagonistic force. InJapanese cinema, giant monsters known askaiju often take up this role.
The monster is often created by a folly of mankind – an experiment gone wrong, the effects ofradiation or the destruction ofhabitat. Or the monster is fromouter space, has been onEarth for a long time with no one ever seeing it, or released (or awakened) from a prison of some sort where it was being held.
The monster is usually a villain, but can be a metaphor of humankind's continuous destruction; giant monsters since the introduction ofThe Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) have for a time been considered a symbol ofatomic warfare, for instance. On the contrary,Godzilla began in this fashion yet as time moved on his reputation quickly grew into that of acultural icon to the Japanese, as much asSuperman is a cultural symbol to America, with a number of films presenting Godzilla as a sort of protagonist who helps protect humans from other, more malevolent monsters.
The attempts of the humans to destroy the monster would at first be the usage of an opposing military force – an attempt that would antagonize the monster even more and prove useless (a cliché associated with the genre). TheGodzilla series utilized the concept of a superweapon built by Japanese scientists to suppress him or any of the monsters he fights.
Historically, monsters have been depicted usingstop motion animation,puppets, orcreature suits. In the modern day, many monster movies have usedCGI monsters.
The first feature-length films to include what are regarded as monsters were often classed as horror or science fiction films. The lost 1915 Germansilent filmThe Golem, directed byPaul Wegener, is one of the earliest examples of film to includea creature. Wegener released a sequel in 1920 entitledThe Golem: How He Came into the World, which is one of the earliest extant feature films within this category. This was followed in 1921 by the Italian science fiction filmThe Mechanical Man, directed byAndré Deed. The fragment that exists of this film features an early example of a giant monster battle, in this case involving large humanoid robots. TheGerman ExpressionistNosferatu in 1922, and the depiction of adragon inFritz Lang'sDie Nibelungen in 1924, followed tradition. In the 1930s, Americanfilm studios began to produce more successful films of this type, usually based onGothic tales such asDracula andFrankenstein in 1931, both heavily influenced by German Expressionism, followed byThe Mummy (1932) andThe Invisible Man (1933). Classified as horror films, they included iconic monsters.
Special effects animatorWillis O'Brien worked on the 1925 fantasy adventureThe Lost World, based on thenovel of the same name. The book and film featureddinosaurs, thebasis for many future movies. He began work on a similar film known asCreation in 1931, but the project was never completed.[2] Two years later, O'Brien produced special effects for the 1933RKO filmKing Kong, directed byMerian C. Cooper. Since then,King Kong has not only become one of the most famous examples of a monster movie, but also is considered a landmark film in thehistory of cinema. The monsterKing Kong became a cultural icon, being featured in manyother films and media since then.[3]
King Kong went on to inspire many other films of its genre and aspiring animators. A notable example wasRay Harryhausen,[4] who would work with Willis O'Brien onMighty Joe Young in 1949. Following the re-release ofKing Kong in 1952, Harryhausen would later work onThe Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953. The film was about a fictional dinosaur, aRhedosaurus, that was awakened fromfrozen ice in theArctic Circle by anatomic bomb test. It is considered to be the film which kick-started the 1950s wave of "creature features" and the concept of combining nuclear paranoia with the genre.[5] Such films at the time includedCreature from the Black Lagoon (1954),Them! (1954),It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955),Tarantula! (1955),The Deadly Mantis (1957) and20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).The Giant Behemoth (1959) was an unacknowledged remake ofThe Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
During the 1950s, Japanese film studioToho produce their first successfulkaiju films. Their first successfulkaiju film wasGodzilla (1954), which adapted the nuclear concept fromThe Beast from 20,000 Fathoms from a Japanese perspective, rooted in real-life Japanese historical events, such as theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and theDaigo Fukuryū Maru incident in 1954.[6][7] The film's success spawned theGodzilla franchise, the longest-running film franchise in history. The titular monster has becomea cultural icon, and one of the most recognizable monsters in cinema history. It also inspired a wave ofkaiju films, such asRodan from this time.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), a re-edited Americanized version ofGodzilla for the North American market, notably inspiredSteven Spielberg when he was a youth. He describedGodzilla as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies" because "it made you believe it was really happening."[8]
A parallel development during this era was the rise of theZ movie, films made outside the organized motion picture industry with ultra-low budgets. Grade-Z monster movies such asPlan 9 from Outer Space (1959) andThe Creeping Terror (1964) are often listed among theworst films ever made because of their inept acting and amateurish special effects.
After 1960, American monster movies were less popular, yet were still produced. However, Japanesekaiju films were popular during this decade. In 1962,King Kong vs. Godzilla was akaiju film produced by Toho featuring both Godzilla and King Kong. In 1965, Japanese studioDaiei Film started their ownkaiju franchise to rival that of Godzilla, in the form ofGamera.
Ray Harryhausen continued to work on a number of films such asThe Valley of Gwangi (1969), while Toho continued production of Godzilla and otherkaiju films likeMothra (1961).
The Monster Times film magazine was founded in 1972. In 1973,The Monster Times conducted a poll to determine the most popular screen monster. Godzilla was voted the most popular movie monster, beatingCount Dracula, King Kong,the Wolf Man,the Mummy,the Creature from the Black Lagoon, andFrankenstein's monster.[9]
In 1975, Steven Spielberg directedJaws, which while labeled as a "thriller", features a large,animatronicgreat white shark.Jaws was an aquatic monster movie influenced by earlier monster films such asKing Kong andGodzilla.[10]Jaws is one of the few monster movies based on a real incident: theNew Jersey shark-attacks of 1916 (from whichPeter Benchley got the idea for the story). DirectorJohn Guillermin remadeKing Kong in 1976. Thexenomorph alien had its first appearance in the 1979 science-fiction/horror filmAlien, directed byRidley Scott. That was the same year when magazineFangoria started being published, in response to the popularity of thisgenre.
Since the mid-1970s, withMel Brooks'Young Frankenstein, and into the 1980s, monster movies likeLarry Cohen'sQ, the Winged Serpent (1982),Tom Holland'sFright Night (1985),George A. Romero'sCreepshow (1982) andRon Underwood'sTremors (1990) used comedy as a scaring device. Just before the technological revolution that made possible to create digital special effects thanks toCGI, the last generation ofSFX artists impressed many with the quality and realism of their creations:Rick Baker,Stan Winston andRob Bottin are among the most remarkable names in the industry.
1993 saw the release ofJurassic Park, based on the1990 novel of the same name byMichael Crichton and directed by Steven Spielberg, which set a new benchmark in the genre with innovative use of CGI and tried-and-tested animatronics to recreate dinosaurs. The film was also influenced byGodzilla.[8]Jurassic Park was an enormous critical and commercial success and at one point held the title ofthe highest-grossing film of all time.
The success ofJurassic Park and its five sequels,The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997),Jurassic Park III (2001),Jurassic World (2015),Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) andJurassic World Dominion (2022), made sure that dinosaurs likeTyrannosaurus rex and theVelociraptor established themselves in the public psyche. The movies also helped generate renewed interest inpaleontology. While the films showed allegedly authentic dinosaurs which had been recreated bygenetic engineering and could be understood as science fiction, advanced contemporaryanimation technology made it also possible to revive medieval legends about dragons. The successful feature filmDragonheart (1996) showed a friendly dragon voiced bySean Connery.
Traditional monster movies re-emerged to a wider audience during the late 1990s. An Americanremake ofGodzilla was made in 1998. TheGodzilla featured in that film was considerably different from the original and many Godzilla fans disliked it. In 2002, a French monster filmBrotherhood of the Wolf (2001) became the second-highest-grossingFrench-language film in the United States in the last two decades.[11] In 2004, Godzilla was temporarily retired followingGodzilla: Final Wars. FilmmakerPeter Jackson, inspired by the originalKing Kong and Ray Harryhausen films,[4]remadeKing Kong in 2005, to critical and commercial success. In 2006, a South Korean monster film,The Host, involved more political overtones than most of its genre.[12]
The 2008 monster movie,Cloverfield, a story in the vein of classic monster movies, focuses entirely on the perspective and reactions of the human cast and is regarded by some as a look atterrorism and theSeptember 11 attacks metaphorically.[13] The following yearThe Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) was released, in which the legendaryLoch Ness Monster is portrayed as a playful creature menaced by overly aggressive humans. TheBritish Independent Film Award-winning filmMonsters, in a manner similar toCloverfield, presented the story of a monster epidemic from the perspective of the humans affected by it. Although not entirely focused on monsters, blockbusters such asThe Avengers andPrometheus included scenes that featured monsters posing threats to the protagonists.
In 2013,Warner Bros. andLegendary Pictures released theGuillermo del Toro filmPacific Rim. Though the film was heavily inspired by thekaiju andMecha anime genres, del Toro wished to create something original with the film rather than to reference previous work. The film was a moderate success in the United States but a box office hit overseas. It received generally positive reviews with significant praise for the film's special effects. A sequel,Pacific Rim Uprising, was released in 2018.
In 2014, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures releasedGodzilla, a reboot of theGodzilla franchise directed byGareth Edwards. Legendary originally intended to produce a trilogy with Edwards attached to direct all films.[14] Shortly afterwards, Legendary announced a shared cinematic universe between Godzilla and King Kong, titledMonsterVerse.[15] Two years later in 2016, Toho rebooted theGodzilla franchise withShin Godzilla.[16]Kong: Skull Island was released in March 2017, a reboot of theKing Kong franchise and second film in Legendary's MonsterVerse. The third film in the MonsterVerse,Godzilla: King of the Monsters was released on May 31, 2019.Michael Dougherty directed the film and featuredRodan,Mothra, andKing Ghidorah.[17] The fourth film in the MonsterVerse,Godzilla vs. Kong, directed byAdam Wingard and featuredMechagodzilla,[18] was released on March 31, 2021.[19] The fifth film in the Monsterverse,Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was released on March 29, 2024 and again was directed by Adam Wingard. The sixth film in the Monsterverse,Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, is slated for March 26, 2027.
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