There might be nothing better than a good monster movie. Whether it is a giant monster movie with dinosaurs or radiated lizards, a slasher movie with faceless serial killers or dream demons or a classic monster from the archives of Universal Horror, watching a movie monster kill and be killed is at the top of fun movie watching moments. However, while some movie monsters have stood the test of time as the scariest creatures in films, able to bring nightmares to kids of all ages, there are others who were dead on arrival or even worse. The latter are those monsters who were, at one time, scary creations, but have since become something less.
Looking past their origins in German Expressionist horror films like Nosferatu and Der Golem, it was the Universal Horror movies that introduced America to the movie monster. When World War II proved that real life was scarier than those monsters, a new kind of horror monster arrived with atomic war undertones. In the '80s, it was the slasher movies which led way to ghost stories -- while all manners of demons, serial killers and ghosts littered the way throughout history. With monsters and ghouls, demons and ghosts, bad men named Michael and Freddy, slashers and aliens, and everything in between haunting our dreams through horror cinema, there are those that have left lasting impressions and those we just want to stay away. Here is a look at 15 movie monsters who still scare and 15 that should stay scarce.
30 PREDATOR (SCARY)
The Predator originally showed up in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name. A race of alien hunters that arrived on Earth and decided that humans would be the next species that they added to their walls, it was up to Arnie and his Army special force troops to find and stop them.
Cut to 2018, and there has been one sequel, two hybrid movies where Predators took on the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, and a reboot in 2010 called Predators. A new movie directed by Shane Black is coming in 2018 called The Predator and from the trailers, it looks just as scary as the original. The Predator is one movie monster that didn't lose its fear factor despite a few lesser sequels.
29 CHUCKY (SCARCE)
One diminutive movie monster that refuses to die is the evil possessed doll Chucky. The first movie came in 1988 with Child's Play, a very creative and scary horror movie about a bad guy whose spirit is transferred into a child's doll, after which it sets out on a trail of vengeance against those who wronged him, while only a little boy stands in the way.
However, since that original film, there have been six sequels and Chucky went from being a scary possessed toy into a running joke as each film moved further into the horror-comedy genre. Now, there is a reboot reportedly coming from MGM while Universal is preparing a TV series from creator Don Mancini. While there is hope the TV series brings Chucky back to his original fearsome self, too much damage might have already been done.
28 WEREWOLVES (SCARY)
While there has been a lot of damage done to the vampires thanks to urban fantasy television, the werewolves haven't suffered the same level of degradation. Twilight had sparkly vampires but at least the werewolves there remained relatively scary and dangerous. Even TV shows like Bitten have not neutered the werewolf.
The original Wolf Man was one of horror cinema's most tragic creations, with Lon Chaney Jr. portraying Larry Talbot as a man who doesn't want to hurt anyone but has no choice when he transforms. Over the years, movies like American Werewolf in London, The Howling, Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps have ensured that fans of the werewolf have plenty of quality and genuinely scary horror movies to keep them satisfied.
27 ZOMBIES (SCARCE)
It has been a very long time since George Romero created the modern-day zombie, and since his creation, the zombies have undergone a metamorphosis that has rendered them disgusting but rarely dangerous or scary. While the original zombies were just men whose brains were destroyed and served a voodoo master, the modern-day zombie is just a lumbering creature who wants to eat flesh.
Sadly, the idea of slow-moving zombies created two things. The first was in comedy as movies like Shaun of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead and Fido, which have turned zombie horror into brilliant satire. The second was by making them run fast, but that never felt right. Thanks to The Walking Dead, zombies have taken a back seat to the evil of humanity -- making them no longer scary and just a nuisance in their own genre.
26 MICHAEL MYERS (SCARY)
In 1978, John Carpenter created a new face of horror in Michael Myers. Halloween changed everything about horror movies at the time and really helped kickstart the slasher movie craze. Michael was a sociopath who was locked away as a six-year-old child after he stabs his sister on Halloween. Fifteen years later, Michael breaks out of the asylum and starts to hunt again.
Now, there have been plenty of chances for Michael Myers to die in the eyes of fans. The entire plotline with Jamie Lloyd almost jumped the shark and the Rob Zombie movies are polarizing to put it nicely. However, the trailer for the new movie that ignores all but the original Halloween proves there is still life left in Michael Myers when it comes to scaring horror fans.
25 JASON VOORHEES (SCARCE)
While there still seems to be some blood in the Michael Myers Halloween franchise, it seems that Friday the 13th has run dry. While the first movie was groundbreaking, it had nothing to do with Jason Voorhees as a slasher villain. With the second movie, it was all about the zombie-styled hulking movie monster.
However, what started out as a slasher villain that seemed almost unstoppable turned into a supernatural boogeyman that had audiences cheering for the carnage more than fearing for the kids. By the time that Jason went into space, the franchise jumped the shark. Not even a decent reboot in 2009 could save this slasher movie monster. With that said, a recent crowd-funded game in 2015 helped Jason Voorhees start a slow climb back to respectability.
24 FREDDY KRUEGER (SCARY)
Freddy Krueger is one slasher monster that saw his franchise jump the shark and then jump those sharks over and over again. However, while the movies started to become self-parody, the movie monster of Freddy himself remains as scary today as he was when he first appeared.
The first A Nightmare on Elm Street movie is still iconic -- taking the slasher monster and putting him in the dreams of kids, something original and frightening. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors might be one of the best horror sequels ever and Wes Craven's New Nightmare was a film ahead of its time -- the Scream before Scream existed. A reboot in 2010 failed to impress anyone, but as a monster, Freddy is still one of the scariest in movie history.
23 THE TALL MAN (SCARCE)
In 1979, Don Coscarelli created a very inventive and intriguing horror movie called Phantasm. The film was about a supernatural and vindictive undertaker called the Tall Man who turns people who die into zombie dwarves and sends them to his world as slaves. This is until a young boy faces him down and the battle begins.
Phantasm hasn't aged as well as other horror films from its era, although it is still groundbreaking for its time. However, thanks to the law of diminishing returns, a sequel from nine years later, two more from the '90s, and the fourth sequel from 2016, never brought the same level of scares as the original and the Tall Man just doesn't seem to have what it takes to stand at the top of the movie monster list anymore.
22 GODZILLA (SCARY)
Not even the critically bashed 1998 movie with Matthew Broderick could completely destroy the best movie monster to come out of post-World War II Hollywood -- Godzilla. When the dangers of WWII became scarier than the Universal monsters that ruled for two decades prior to that war, movies looked to the fear of an atomic age and Godzilla was born.
Starting off in 1954 with Gojira, the giant monster movie franchise has spawned 33 films made between Japan and the United States. While the American versions were not exactly benchmarks, Legendary Pictures is trying its best to bring the world of giant monsters back to the fan conscious, first with Godzilla in 2014 followed by Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019. Plus, Toho is still hard at work with Godzilla animated movies arriving on Netflix.
21 FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER (SCARCE)
At one time, the Universal Monsters ruled supreme over all other horror movie monsters. Dracula, The Wolf-Man, Frankenstein's Monster, The Bride and more scared people from the early '30s until World War II saw them no longer as frightening as they once appeared. While some of the monsters -- mostly vampires and werewolves -- came back to prominence, Frankenstein's Monster never really regained his status as one of the founding fathers of movie monsters.
That is sad too, as he was one of the most tragic of the monsters, a creature created by a mad scientist who never wanted to hurt anyone and simply reacted in fear against those who tried to hurt him. Honestly, the real monsters here were Dr. Frankenstein and the villagers, and the Monster was more of a victim than anyone. Recent adaptations have ruined the mystique of this Boris Karloff creation.
20 THE CRAWLERS (SCARY)
Sometimes it is best to leave the scary movie monsters in the dark because the more the audiences know about them, the less scary they seem. In his follow-up to the fantastic werewolf movie Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall directed The Descent, an original horror movie that was terrifying and still holds up well over a decade later.
A group of women get together for a spelunking adventure one year after tragedy struck one of their group. With tension and secrets existing between the women, they head into the caves and find themselves trapped in the dark with monsters called The Crawlers who start to hunt and eliminate them. These monsters are barely shown and when they do appear, they are frightening and not-quite-human. A sequel was never made and the memory of The Crawlers is still enough to deliver nightmares.
19 GRABOIDS (SCARCE)
When Tremors came out in 1990, it cemented its spot in the hearts of horror fans as a cult favorite thanks to its humor. The original movie, starring Kevin Bacon, remains to this day a fun and entertaining horror flick that was, at its time, a throwback to the classic monster movies of the '50s. With that said, things went downhill after that.
There were five sequels from 1996-2018 and none of them touched the brilliance of the original. It also doesn't help that Michael Gross and the Graboid monsters were the only holdovers from that original movie. A TV show almost hit this year that would have brought back Kevin Bacon, but it was canceled at the last minute. While that was promising for fans of the first movie, the Graboid monsters have seen better days.
18 CANDYMAN (SCARY)
In 1992, Tony Todd brought a brand-new, fresh horror monster to the big screen in Candyman. The legend that the movie was based on is nothing new as it was a variation of the Bloody Mary story -- with the demon appearing and taking out anyone who repeated its name while looking in the mirror. However, what makes Candyman so scary is the performance by Todd and the frightening backstory of a slave lynched for the "sin" of falling in love.
There were two sequels, but the further examination of the legend of Candyman did little to diminish the scares that this very creepy and very scary movie monster exudes. Watch the first movie and then try to say his name five times in front of a mirror to understand how scary Candyman really is.
17 CENOBITES (SCARCE)
Possibly the saddest addition to the list of scarce is the once awesomely terrifying Cenobites. When the Cenobites first appeared in Hellraiser, they were like nothing ever seen before. They were sadomasochistic demons that got off on inflicting pain in or even slaughtering humans. With Pinhead as the leader of the Cenobites, they were possibly the scariest movie monsters ever created -- for a time.
However, something happened over the years. After one good sequel in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, the law of diminishing returns took effect. The following movies chose to make gimmicky Cenobites instead of just focusing on their terror-filled ways. Soon, the Cenobites were not even the most important thing in their franchise, which includes 10 movies and another on the way, the most recent hitting this year.
16 THE PALE MAN (SCARY)
When it comes to creating fantastical creatures, few directors match the creative genius of Guillermo Del Toro. In his masterpiece, the 2006 dark fairy tale fantasy Pan's Labyrinth, Del Toro created one of the most terrifying movie monsters in history.
The film takes place during the Spanish Civil War and juxtaposes the horror-filled real world of a little girl named Ofelia and a horror-filled fantasy world, where she faces danger as she travels through a dangerous labyrinth. Doug Jones portrays both Faun, the guide for Ofelia, and the Pale Man, a monster who eats children. With the eyes in its hands and the grotesque movements, the Pale Man is a monster that nightmares are made of.
15 LEPRECHAUN (SCARCE)
The Leprechaun was never that scary of a monster to begin with. First introduced in the 1993 movie Leprechaun, that film is better known as the breakout film for Jennifer Aniston than it is for scares and terror-filled moments. The best part about this movie monster was that Warwick Davis really gave his all to the character, which he then reprised for five sequels.
However, the Leprechaun film series can be summed up by two facts -- neither of which has anything to do with a scary monster in the lead. First, it hits all the tropes for jumping the shark, sending the Leprechaun into space and then to the hood a couple of times. Second, in the 2014 reboot, Warwick Davis was replaced by WWE little person Hornswoggle.
14 GIANT SHARKS (SCARY)
While people who live in the flyover states of the Midwest might not understand the fear of these giant shark movies, anyone who lives close to a coast and enjoys time in the ocean can fully appreciate the fear that these giant shark movies instill in them. It all started with Jaws, a movie that might have ruined the vacation industry for many coastal towns.
Sure, the sequels in the Jaws franchise ranged from forgettable to terrible, but there are many other examples that prove that these movies can remain scary. From the awesome b-grade Deep Blue Sea to the upcoming Meg, there is something to be said about putting someone in the ocean and then throwing a man-eating creature in their path. As long as they don't get too ridiculous, giant shark movies will always have a place in horror cinema.
13 JIGSAW (SCARCE)
It is easy to forget what a solid horror movie the original Saw was. Even the sequels have a brain behind them that helps them rise above the basic torture-based movies that this film spawned. At the end of the day, the Saw franchise was not just about torturing people, but was a moralistic tale of people choosing their own desires over the goodness of the human heart.
Remaining in the background for most of the series was the puppet-master Jigsaw. What made this movie monster so interesting was that he wanted to use these torture devices to inspire people to appreciate life and punished those who failed in their tests of morality. Sadly, over the seven sequels, the torture overshadowed what made Jigsaw great and the effectiveness of his goals began to fade.
12 PENNYWISE (SCARY)
One of the scariest characters in the fiction of Stephen King is an evil demon that takes the form of the clown known as Pennywise. With a list of villains like Randall Flagg, Kurt Barlow and Jack Torrance, that says a lot. Every 23 years, this demon rises and devours the children of Derry and did so without recourse until a group of kids stood up to him and then returned as adults to finish the job.
What is scary about Pennywise? He is a very creepy-looking clown and that might be the most frightening disguise of all. He also targets children, which makes him even more terrifying. Add in the original fantastic portrayal by Tim Curry and the more recent creepy portrayal by Bill Skarsgård, and Pennywise the Dancing Clown is a perfect movie monster for anyone who loves horror.
11 CLONED DINOSAURS (SCARCE)
The current box office numbers prove that there is still a lot of money to be made by cloning dinosaurs. Jurassic World made more money than only four movies in the history of cinema worldwide. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has ensured that the franchise has surpassed previously thought groundbreaking revenue totals. However, it is the big-budget spectacle that is selling these movies.
When the brachiosaurus dies, people mourn. When the T-Rex shows up to wreak havoc, people cheer. When the Raptors start to battle bigger dinosaurs, it gets people excited. When the Indominus Rex or Indoraptor show up, critics start to moan. There are so many great dinosaurs, and creating these weird hybrid clones seem to be humans making the same mistakes over and over again, and the movies start to lose points.