Ah, October! A month of PSLs, flannels, cider, and scary scary monsters. Actually, there are a lot of people who find more realistic horror or suspense movies terrifying, but who can manage a good monster movie. Humans doing terrible things? That happens all the time. But monsters? There’s no such thing. We think. If you’re looking to get your monster fix, we have some suggestions for you. From black & white classics to recent releases, and from the silly and absurd (if you don’t like your movies too scary) to the downright terrifying, here are ten great monster movies to watch now on Amazon Prime.
1. A Quiet Place (and A Quiet Place 2)
In a time when special effects and CGI can make fake scenes look more real than ever, it’s kind of refreshing to realize that a truly edge-of-your-seat, terrifying movie can be made without that. Sure, A Quiet Place has some big scenes of destruction that probably wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago. But the scariest aspect of the movie is the fact that it is almost entirely soundless. It’ll have you holding your breath throughout, trying not to make a noise while watching it as well.
2. Alien
This movie is more than 40 years old, but truly good horror movies hold their scare value no matter how old they are! The fact that the crew is isolated, with no one to rely on but themselves, adds to the feeling of claustrophobia and terror as they fight off an alien life form. It also has one of the scariest taglines for a movie – “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
3. Frankenstein
If you can appreciate seriously old movies, 1931’s “Frankenstein” with Boris Karloff is a classic you need to watch. We may have made leaps and bounds in filmmaking since then, but human nature has always been terrifying. It won’t take long for you to forget the black & white and production values of this 90-year old movie and get wrapped up in the action and horror of the monster.
4. Night of the Living Dead
This low-budget zombie film became the zombie film by which all other zombie films are judged. In fact, most of what we assume about zombies today – that they’re reanimated people who want to feast on the still-living – came from this movie. It’s a ground-breaker in a whole lot of ways and well worth adding to your monster movie collection.
5. Hellraiser
Just the look of the appropriately-named Pinhead is terrifying…that’s some serious acupuncture going on there. This is horror-meister Clive Barker’s first movie and if you’re either a monster movie buff or a general horror movie buff, you should watch it for that reason alone.
6. Beetlejuice
We had to throw in some less-scary movies for those of us who are easily terrified. Beetlejuice is Tim Burton at his whimsical, demented best. Michael Keaton plays a very weird ghostlike creature who is summoned and takes over a home, trying to drive its owners out. Goth Winona Ryder and the always-awesome Catherine O’Hara add to the camp. This is a great movie for a tween Halloween party or movie night also.
7. Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks lightheartedly skewers monster movies in this 1974 comedy that stars Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle, and Madeline Kahn. This movie is worth watching just to see Peter Boyle singing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” as Frankenstein’s monster.
8. Zombieland
Zombieland is a modern-day zombie comedy, starring Emma Stone, Jessie Eisenberg, and Woody Harrelson who looks like he’s just having a whole lot of fun. It’s gory in an over-the-top way and gets actually scary at times, but it’s also hilariously funny.
9. Predator
One of the quintessential Arnold Schwarzenegger movies of the 80s, with lots of explosions and shots of him in sleeveless shirts and vests showing off his muscles and chomping cigars. There are big guns, there are lines you’ve probably heard repeated with a Schwarzenegger accent (“Get to the choppah!”), and there’s a huge alien who goes hand to hand with Arnold at the end. The special effect are a little cheesy decades later, but they just add to the fun.
10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Sometimes, the biggest monsters…are us. In this case, however, the humans have been overtaken by aliens who kill them in their sleep, then replace them looking exactly the same. The terror comes from no one believing the few people who are warning them until it’s too late. This 1978 version of the movie (there are four) stars Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy running through the streets of San Francisco.
What’s your favorite monster movie of all time?
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