Top Movie Monsters

By Keith Uhlich

The most ingenious aspect of the upcoming Cloverfield is the William Castle-esque viral marketing of its central attraction, a supposedly humongous beast of burden relegated, in all promotional material thus far, to shadowy, tantalizing half-glimpses, low-register guttural roars, and iconic, Dolby-accentuated flying debris (what goes around comes around: the decapitated Statue of Liberty that graces both Cloverfield's poster and trailers takes a decidedly giddy place of honor/horror alongside the slo-mo exploding White House in Independence Day). Come Friday, the creature will be unveiled for all to see and, Harry Knowlesian raves notwithstanding ("like a pussy that eats YOU out!" drooled one Ain't It Cool second-stringer), the chance for crushing disappointment is a more-than-distinct possibility. It's the old live-up-to-the-hype conundrum: all these obsessive, anticipatory imaginings cloak the fact that the true effects and influence of Cloverfield's beastie can't be adequately determined until the film housing it has passed into history. But it does beggar a question: what are the film monsters that last, and why?

Hence this collection of the top 11 such hellions that, in one way or another, continue to haunt this writer's dreams, though don't expect too many obvious choices (no King Kong or Godzilla on this roll call, and even such "well, of courses" as Frankenstein and Count Dracula are herein represented by movies slightly off the beaten path). Scary as the things are that tower over us, crashing through building and brush with sheer, unstoppable girth (several examples of these below), there are also the subdued monsters, those all-too-human creatures who co-exist within our self-same existential space, lulling us into complacency before they strike like venomous cobras. And speaking of venomous cobras...

Begin: The Indian Tomb's Snake >>