Monster Mania!

List creator: Emomovieluver Created on: January 23, 2003 - 9:41 AM PST Description: Somehow, big or low budget films about nasty (and hungry) beasts preying on a group of hapless victims has a special place in my heart.

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movie title	related list	average rating	MPAA rating	watch	rent	buy
Aliens (1986)
One of the rare instance when a sequel is equally as effective as its predessor but in a totally different way. This one's a roller coaster ride!
The Relic (1997)
Cinematographer/director Peter Hyams first foray into the monster movie genre but with Stan Winston involved, how can you go wrong.
Pumpkinhead (1988)
Speaking of Stan Winston, the monster FX legend makes an impressive directorial debute for it's time.
Leviathan (1989)
One of the better of a rash of underwater creature feature thrillers with a decent cast including the luscious Amanda Payes. Love that accent!!!
Deep Star Six (1989)
Speaking of the rash of undersea creature fest, here's one with a little lesser budget but surprisingly effective.
The Abyss (1989)
Yeah, I know technically there's no real monster here in the vein of the rest but since I did mention the undersea trauma connection, this is one of them and the first act surely plays out like some of the above mentioned thrillers.
Within the Rock (1996)
A lesser entry in terms of budget, FX and on-camera talent but no less effective a monster masher. Sure the beastly is cheesy when you finally see it and towards it's demise but most of the film works very well as an B-grade "Alien" rehash.
Godzilla (1998)
Yeah, yeah, yeah... For those of us who grew up with the true one and only Gojira, it's easy to trash Emmerich and Devlin's over-blown update but it has all the elements of a decent creature feature monster mash so cut it some slack.
Reign of Fire (2002)
While we're on the topic of c.g.i created creatures and giant monsters, I'll add in this one though like dino movies, it could easilly fit into a whole another catagory.
Deep Rising (1998)
This one came out almost a full decade after the original rash of underwater creature features of '89 and thanks to the development of a prominent FX technique, it put monster movies into a whole different league.
Virus (1999)
Again it's back to the high seas for this comic book based creature feature entry though this ones a electrical life form who takes physical form from mechnical and human spare parts.
Tremors (1990)
Film-makers Underwood, Wilson and Maddock, who would revolve directing, producing and script writing duties, mixed comedics into the monster movie mix with highly entertaining results particularly due to a terrific cast of A-list players.
Tremors 2 - Aftershocks (1995)
The follow-up is every bet as effective and funny and most definitely worth a look at with a new twist to the critters.
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)
Again, another new twist to the featured monsters. Just confirmed is the "Tremors" t.v. series which no doubt will prove interesting not to mention the production of a fourth entry to the series.
The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's remake is much more true to it's source material with ground-breaking special FX by Rob Bottin. It's must be noted that I'd include the original "Thing from Another World" here as one of my few classics entries had it been available.
Creature (1985)
Yeah, it's definitely a blatant low budget "Alien" rip-off. No one said all the movies in this list had to be good or that I really had to like it.
Anaconda (1997)
The mid-90's is definitely the era of c.g.i. and nothing benefits more than a monster movie. Compare 80's giant rubber snake movies with this slithering brute and nuff said!
Bats (1999)
Again, it's effective c.g.i. and a (slightly) better-than-B-grade actors that's taken what could have been a mundane creature feature and rose it to slithering new heights.
The Blob (1988)
The third remake of an obviously very cheesy sci fi concept at least has a slightly different, updated story-line and a good cast plus special FX that bring The Blob to life!
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Thanks to c.g.i., super-sharks not only terrorize human victims but now break down doors, rip carcasses in half and even turn on ovens.
Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
Any monster movie done these days almost always come complete with c.g.i. critters that can run, jump, scamper and scurry while their animatronic counter-parts could only do so much.
Lake Placid (1999)
Speaking of c.g.i critters in a monster movie, "LP" has one of the better ones in a better-than-average big studio monster movie with a competent cast.
Mimic (1997)
Benefitting from a healthy dose of c.g.i. FX, super-cockroaches plaguez citizens above, on and below the streets of the city, again with notable acting talent.
Rawhead Rex (1987)
England is the locale and Clive Barker is the mind behind this fanged steroid abusing beastly that's very low budget but definitely worth a look at.
Reptilian (2000)
Like the original Godzilla, American filmakers took a Korean monster movie and added English dialogue and additional scenes for this low budget Gojira rip-off with video game looking special monster FX.
Predator (Collector's Edition) (1987)
It's testosterone injected, buldging bicepts abuse along with a franchise-ready alien bug stomper that you'd think be fit for further sequelization though the long delayed "Alien vs. Predator" feature is reportedly in the works at this time.