Top Ten Best Movie Monsters

To whittle this list down to a certain kind of horror movie monster I’m excluding those monsters based on people real or fictional (such as Hitler or Hannibal Lector) and general groups (like Zombies or Dinosaurs). The goal of this list is to move past just great villains and to zero in on horror monsters. My list, my rules.

10. Freddy Kruger – Nightmare On Elm Street Films
Sure he was a person but then he became the pyscho who invades your nightmares and kills you while you sleep. Robert Englund might have played this character tongue-n-cheek a lot I regardless think he’s a great horror invention.
9. Godzilla - Gojira
I almost didn’t put the ultimate big guy in there because he’s kind of a hero. Then I thought about it and realized anything that can destroy a city needs to be on the list. Seeing a giant lizard emerge from the sea is a terrifying sight. Let's have Godzilla be the stand in for other such giants as King Kong and the monster from Cloverfield.

8. Gwoemul- The Host
It’s a bus-sized bay creature that hunts people down and nests in a gutter. It’s inventive looking and completely horrific when you consider it's really just fish and frog mixed together.

7. Dren – Splice
Some might say the movie isn't that great but I still think Dren is the best Frankenstein-like monster so far put to film. It's really a gruesome and frightful concept. While I don't think films can really be good warnings for future tech maybe we should force all geneticists to view this beautiful yet dangerous she-monster

6. Pale Man – Pan’s Labyrinth

Guillermo del Toro’s frightful creation is a stand-out in an amazing movie. He’s the flesh-eating monster without eyes except for when he opens his palms and fans them out at you. Creepy, surreal and beautiful all mixed into one.

5. Graboids – Tremors
Some might be shocked that I put in these land-worms on this list, especially when you consider the film they’re in is more of a comedy than a scary film. Sorry, those Jaws like worms were designed with freakiest originality and make for great monsters of horror.

4. That Baby – Eraserhead
True, this absurd experimental film by David Lynch isn’t really classified as horror but it might as well be. That baby might not attack people and be as harmless as a planet but it still gives me the heebee jeebees. I swear it gave me nightmares and I can’t explain why. It’s just an eerie movie and that sick little thing needs to die before it does grow up and becomes something worse.

3. Pinhead – Hellraiser

He’s the captain of the Cenobites, monsters who guard the entrance to Hell. Brought to life with awesome commanding presence by Doug Bradley, he’s my favorite former human monsters. I really hope someday someone brings this character back and reboots this trapped-in-B-movie-hell franchise. If not at least we have a couple good films with him in it. Someday I will go to work on Halloween as this guy and scare my co-workers to death.

2. Aliens – Aliens
This list isn’t complete without H. R. Giger’s brilliant creatures in space inventions, constructed by the great Carlo Rambaldi. You know a creature design is brilliant when they’re still effective even in horrible movies (Aliens Vs. Predator). I still remember when I first experienced these guys and I must admit to being overwhelmed. It was a terrifying idea of a monster that uses humans to incubate its offspring.

1. The Thing – The Thing

The above choice would have been here except for the fact this alien from the great John Carpenter remake actually scared me. I remember seeing this mysterious “we don’t know who’s the monster and who’s human” concept unfold and when the mutated monster breaks loose from human (or dog) form, it is a horrible transformation. I truly jumped out of my seat and yelped when this monster appeared. You’ll never get me down there in Antarctica to work at some science station. Not ever after seeing this film.