The 5 Best Aquatic Monsters in Movies

The story behind the iconic Jaws movie poster | Creative Bloq

credit: Jaws

People are easily terrified when watching a lot of different horror movies, but there’s a quality to aquatic environments that make the monsters even more terrifying, and it’s the fact that in the water, humans are kind of out of luck if a monster happens along and decides to be aggressive. Going up against a creature whose natural habitat counts as difficult and sometimes deadly terrain for humans is enough to give people the willies when thinking about setting foot into a large body of water again.

Plus, these monsters might strike for any reason as the movies have shown, since there’s not a ton of provocation needed on the part of humans, at least not in a direct manner, since the indirect approaches that are used often tend to be enough. From dumping toxic waste to drilling too deeply to just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time, humans have run afoul of aquatic monsters in the movies for decades, and it’s made for great cinema. 

Here are five of the best aquatic monsters from the movies. 

5. The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - Turner Classic Movies

credit: Creature from the Black Lagoon

This creature could be called one of the OGs from back in the day since this creature predated color movies and still made a lot of people terrified for a little while, considering that the detail put into the suit was amazing at that time. Even now, it’s easy to appreciate the design since it did manage to stand out among the other monster movies, and it was also seen that the creature might have been misunderstood.

It’s interesting how a creature becomes a monster when humans are the ones continually traipsing around where they have no business, but then again, the creature was sold as a monster in a very easy way since its appearance and actions were enough to terrify people. 

4. The Kraken

clashofthetitans17.jpg

credit: Clash of the Titans

It does feel that a lot of people would gladly prefer the original monster to this one, but the truth is that we only get to see both creatures for a short time since their initial purpose is to rise from the depths and be killed when looking at the eyes of Medusa. But the graphics used for this creature in the remake were great enough to be impressive, plus the new design was kind of cool since it afforded the Kraken a new level of mobility that was terrifying.

Also, the fact that it was connected to Hades was interesting since, in the first movie, it was summoned by Thetis, the sea goddess. This new look, however, was far more terrifying and did work despite the shortened length of time it was present. 

3. Cthulhu

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credit: Underwater

This monster was rather awesome despite the fact that the audience didn’t get to see it until near the end of the movie when it was finally revealed to be the main villain that had been wreaking so much havoc. The smaller creatures, which were still quite big in comparison to a human, were troubling since they were kind of dumb, but at the same time were numerous enough and tough enough to be a serious problem.

This movie wasn’t all that great, but the creatures were interesting since just when one might have thought that things couldn’t get any worse, an ominous shadow appeared in the distance, and yes, things became SO much worse. 

2. Octalus

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credit: Deep Rising

These things were simply creepy, not to mention insanely strong, since there was a scene in which a woman was sucked into a toilet as the camera panned away and showed the spray of gore. While a lot of people might be wondering if such a thing as this creature is real only in smaller form, well, check Google, and you’ll find out.

If such a creature did exist at any given time though one would imagine that remains would have been found at some point unless they exist at such depths that remains can’t be retrieved. But rest getting past reality and fiction, these things are a terror of the deep that could easily be worked into a reboot if someone had the ambition. 

1. Jaws

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Credit: Jaws

At this point in cinema, Jaws isn’t the biggest or the most powerful, but the shark is still one of the most impressive and most iconic creatures to ever grace the big screen, and it’s fair to think that it’s still one of the most loved movie monsters of all time.

Without any disrespect meant to any other creature, this mechanical shark actually had a huge effect on a lot of people when it came to swimming in a large body of water, and it had a negative effect on the idea that a shark could and would start eating people.

Thankfully that idea finally faded, but one can’t help but think that this creature was the most impressive in a morbid way since it affected people during and after the movie. 

Jaws

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