They are:
- Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)
- The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)
- The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
- The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)
- A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018)
- Trollhunter (André Øvredal, 2010)
- Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
- Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022)
- Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)
That’s a hell of a list and I can’t really quibble with it (at least within it’s own remit as I might not include things like Prey). However, I’ll have a ponder and see if I can think of anything they missed.
It Follows and IT (at least Chapter One) deserve to be in the top 10, imo. Jordan Peele’s Nope. Maybe Hellboy (2004).
I feel like I don’t understand what author understands under a ‘monster movie’ tag. For me, nor The Mist, not Pan’s Labyrinth fit, and Prey, while I def like it, doesn’t focus on the Predator itself as much as other movies in the franchise. I think that pointing out one’s reasoning before the list is essential in these pieces, especially when many of these pieces are written by robots who can’t reason.
The tricky thing is that what constitutes a monster movie is subjective at the edges - I’d personally not have included Prey or Pan’s Labyrinth (if you want a great GdT monster movie then it’d be his first Hellboy) but I’d say The Mist should be in.
My reasoning against The Mist is that monsters can be replaced with just a natural disaster, say flood (EXPLICITLY BIBLICAL FLOOD FROM GOD, for all our sins!), and it would be enough to roll all the same social and personal drama that was for me the core of the movie. There’s a clever lovecraftian lifehack of never describing your monsters too much, but my pov that it was just a context for all of us to despise this cultist nutjob queen and feeling trapped there with her and other characters.
I won’t usually hold IT over this movie, but I’d put it on the list instead of The Mist since Pennywise is clearly the main attraction of the movie and overcoming it is the goal that’s obvious from the very start.
I’d be interested to hear what makes it fit.
Gotta disagree about the Mist.
The monsters absolutely were the point, and something like a storm/flood/fire wouldn’t flip that many people to religious human sacrifice or electing a religious leader to decide who gets sacrificed within 3 days. (the reason she was being believed was also monster related)
The monsters are what caused panic, fear, loss of humanity, and desperation. The movie makes a point to illustrate this when the generator stops working - the people needed something they could understand, and resolve, and refused to acknowledge monsters would be possible until they see part of one and some flip from impossible to act of god/devil, which doesn’t really happen with fire or rain or snow.
The variety, size, and mysterious origins of the monsters are absolutely the centerpiece and couldn’t be replaced by any natural disaster, as the whole point was how unnatural everything became.
I would say that Prey isn’t so much a monster movie as a movie with an ‘ugly’ powerful humanoid. I would definitely put “The Thing” on this list, but it’s not exactly modern.
Trollhunter is so good. I rewatched it for Halloween last year and it still holds up.
Shin Godzilla > Godzilla Minus One.
I’m not a big monster movie fan, but i thought Cloverfield and A Quiet Place were very very good.
Perhaps you are but don’t know it. If you like those try The Mist and The Host, if you haven’t already.
Was The Mist one of those M.N.S. movies that ended with a big nothing? He had a few that were really good and suspenseful and then he just couldn’t close them. I don’t think I’ve seen the host. I’ll try it.
I’m not sure what MNS stands for but the ending has it’s fans (including me) and detractors.
Bong Joon-ho has gone on to win an Oscar for Parasite but his earlier films are still solid, The Host being a personal favourite.
