Summary
Some kids grew up with a favorite dinosaur. Others preferred to watchDinosaurus!Giant monster movies, or Kaiju films, have been around since the silent era, but they picked up in the Atomic age when King Kong gained rivals in Godzilla, Mothra, and Gamera. Since then, Godzilla and Kong have gone from strength to strength. The Monsterverse has become a nice blockbuster break from superheroes, andGodzilla Minus Onegot an Oscar for its effects.
It’s enough to get new fans into checking out the old school. But once they’re done with the mainline classics, they should branch out into movies that are just as engaging but don’t get as much due praise. Theseunderrated kaiju moviesare well worth a viewer’s notice.
120 Million Miles To Earth
IMDb Score: 6.3/10
People don’t need to know kaiju movies to know about Ray Harryhausen. His style of stop-motion animation played a big part in popularizing monster flicks, from the Beast inThe Beast from 20,000 Fathomsto Talos the Bronze Giant inJason and the Argonauts, among others. However,20 Million Miles to Earthgets overshadowed.
It sees US astronauts land in Italy after a mission on Venus, and they come back with more than some space rocks for study. They bring back an egg that hatches into a creature called a Ymir, which rapidly grows and causes havoc throughout the Italian countryside and Rome. It followsKing Kong’s formula in that its beast isn’t the size of a skyscraper but has a sympathetic side that endears the audience to its plight.
2Rodan
IMDb Score: 6.2/10
Some say Toho’s monster movies predate the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the first true multi-movie continuity. It’s just that, after they branched out into other monsters likeMothraandVaran the Unbelievable, they shrunk their focus back down to Godzilla and made everything else revolve around him. Mothra would get more of her own movies later, but Varan and the others were reduced toGodzillacameos here and there.
Still, some of these singletons deserve their time in the sun, likeRodan. It’s a movie of two parts, as one plot sees an amnesiac miner and the authorities deal with some giant bugs hanging out in the caverns around Mt. Aso, Kyushu. The other reveals the titular pterosaur that dines on them, alongside a few more twists in its tale. It’s a strong, old-school monster flick with a heart to go with its explosions.
3The War Of The Gargantuas
When they receive reports of brutal attacks at sea, Drs Stewart and Togawa think it resembles the Frankenstein-like creature they studied, only theirs was gentle. They eventually learn the vicious one, Gaira, is a clone of their gentle one, Sanda. Sanda initially gives his “brother” a chance, but Gaira’s brutality against the humans causes Sanda to defend them and fight Gaira in an epic duel.
The War of the Gargantuaswas supposed to be a sequel toFrankenstein Conquers the Earth, but they had little connection beyond sharing some cast members playing different characters. However, it became a cult classic on its own. The movie inspired Hajime Isayama to makeAttack on Titan, and Quentin Tarantino to use it as the basis forThe Bride’s battle with Elle DriverinKill Bill Vol. 2. They may be rubber suits, but without this movie, anime and movie history might’ve turned out differently.
4King Kong Escapes
IMDb Score: 5.5/10
Fans know about the originalKing Kong Vs Godzilla.They may even know of the different attempts to pit the great ape and the big G against each other over the decades. What they may not know is that Toho gave King Kong his own movie, and even gave him a robotic rival years before Godzilla would fight Mechagodzilla for the first time.
King Kong Escapessees the titular ape get abducted from Mondo Island by the evil Dr. Who (not that one) and his assistant Madame Piranha. They need him to mine Element X from the North Pole after their robot ape, Mechani-Kong, broke down. Drawn under their control, and by them capturing Lt. Watson, a Navy woman Kong took a liking to, Kong has to find another way to escape their clutches.
5Gorgo
IMDb Score: 5.6/10
When the crew of a salvage ship investigates a hoard of illegally stashed gold underwater off the coast of Ireland, they get more than they bargained for when they come across a sea monster. They dub the creature “Gorgo,” successfully capture it and sell it to the circus, who take it back to London. However, they soon learn they’ve made a mistake, as the Gorgo they captured is a child, and they have just upset its mother.
Cult movie fans may recognizeGorgoas “the BritishGodzilla,” though this wasn’t always the plan. Made by King Brothers Productions, who produced the US cut ofRodan, it was originally going to be set in Japan as a tribute toGodzilla. Then they switched the setting to France, with brief consideration given to Australia before they settled for Britain, albeit via Dalkey in Ireland, where all the exterior scenes were shot.
6Atragon
IMDb Score: 5.8/10
If the classicGodzillaseries was like the MCU, thenDestroy All Monsterswas itsAvengers, bringing in practically every monster Toho Studios could use up to that point, legal issues and costuming permitting. It hadFrankenstein Conquers the World’s Baragon (briefly),King Kong Escapes’ Gorosaurus, and Manda, a giant serpent-like creature from the seafaring adventure flickAtragon.
Based on two novels,The Undersea KingdomandThe Undersea Warship, it sees photographers Susumu and Yoshito get pulled into a plot involving an old general’s plan to find the lost continent of Mu, and Mu’s attempts to keep that from happening, right down to bringing out Manda. It was popular enough to get an anime spin-off,Super Atragon, and inspire the opening fight inGodzilla: Final Wars.
7Space Amoeba
IMDb Score: 5.4/10
IfAtragonhad too much human-Mu-warship drama and too little monster action,Space Amoebamakes up for that by having four at once! Kind of. The titular Space Amoeba, or Bemular, is a gestalt entity of microscopic beings that caught hold of the Helios 7 probe on its re-entry to Earth. From there, it takes hold of a cuttlefish and mutates it into the giant monster Gezora, causing Havoc on Sergio Island.
Then Bemular begins to spread across the island, turning a rubble crab into Ganimes, and a turtle into Kamoebas. The JSDF do their best to fight it off, but with the creatures under Bemular’s control, they have their work cut out for them. Especially when Bemular can infect people, too. Made during the classic kaiju era’s slump, the movie arguably holds up better than Godzilla’s efforts at the time (All Monsters AttackandGodzilla Vs Hedorah).
8The X From Outer Space
IMDb Score: 4.8/10
Toho Studios hasGodzilla,Daiei hasGamera, and Shochiku has Guilala, akaThe X From Outer Space. It started as a spore sprayed on the spaceship AAB Gamma when it landed on Mars. But once it returned to Earth, the spore interacted with some acid and mutated into a giant monster that looked like Godzilla merged with a UFO.
It caught on as a cult classic for its kind-of tongue-in-cheek nature. The jazzy soundtrack doesn’t exactly fit a giant monster stomping through Tokyo, but it does fit the movie’s cheesy, comic dialogue and plot. Serious fans may prefer the more grounded likes ofAtragon, orRodan, but fans who are in it for rubber-suited fun likeWar of the Gargantuaswill be entertained by Guilala’s rampage.
9Gorath
IMDb Score: 5.3/10
Between the giant reptiles, apes, monster men, amoebae, and more, it can be tricky coming up with a new and original monster threat. Even as early as 1962, Toho splintered from monsters to makeGorath, where the threat is a giant runaway star that’s on a collision course with Earth. It’s up to the planet’s brightest and bravest to figure out how to shift Earth into a new orbit to avoid impact.
What makes the movie a kaiju flick? Gorath does cause mass destruction, absorbing debris, and ridding Saturn of its rings. But it isn’t a sentient being. Unlike Maguma, a giant monster walrus that the producers added to capitalize on the kaiju boom, much to director Honda’s annoyance. He does affect the movie’s tone, but not enough to distract viewers from what’s actually a decent, old-school sci-fi thriller.
10The Daimajin Trilogy
IMDb Score: 6.7/10, 6.4/10, 6.2/10
Daiei usedGameraand his foes to threaten modern Japan. For feudal Japan, they had theDaimajin Trilogy, consisting ofDaimajin(“Great Demon God”),Return of Daimajin, andDaimajin Strikes Again, all released in 1966. Inspired by the Czech Jewish legend of the Golem, they each follow the titular being, a spirit sealed within a giant statue that unleashes its fury on the enemies of whoever prays for its favor.
The first two movies, where Daimajin avenges a murdered family and protects two lakeside villages respectively, are considered the strongest of the bunch. But all together, they’re strong examples of how the kaiju genre works in a historical setting. Daimajin would later return inDaimajin Kanon, a sentai take on the first movie, and would join forces with Gamera inThe Great Yokai Wars: Guardians.
