If you spent the 2010s actively popping red balloons, avoiding reading creepy children’s pop-up books, and declining invitations to quaint cabins in the woods, you must have been feasting on as many monster movies as we did.
One of the oldest forms of horror cinema, monster movies and their dreaded villains come in all shapes. Whether they’re aliens, ghouls, demons, or vampires, monsters can represent a manifestation of our own fears. Or more uncomfortably, they can represent who we truly are. And honestly, we have a lot to fear these days, even if these fears aren’t always straightforward to explain — that’s where monsters come in.
What to watch: Best scary movies
From 2010 to 2019, Pennywise the Clown chased us through the sewers, Mister Babadook became an icon on-screen and off, and vampires got unexpectedly polite. Here are 13 of our favourite monster movies, unranked, from the 2010s. Just remember, if you find a creepy diary in a cabin basement, don’t read the Latin.
1. IT
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All it took for this modern horror masterpiece’s marketing team was a bunch of well-placed red balloons to strike fear into the hearts of cinema-goers. Andrés Muschietti’s formidable 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s classic 1986 horror novel was realised in two parts, with the former being one of the best monster movies of the decade — both smashing critical responses and box office numbers.
Set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, IT sees a motley group of seven kids, the so-called Losers’ Club, who must confront their own personal demons to battle the terrifying Pennywise, a murderous clown who casually slithers out of the sewer system to prey on children. While the film’s not just about a scary clown, and delves deeper into fears associated with adolescence, the clown will truly haunt you. Bill Skarsgård, who’s been perfecting that fucked-up smile since he was a kid, truly spins an unforgettable Pennywise — if he’s not on-screen, you dread when he will be. While IT: Chapter Two proves an ample ending and features an undeniably top-notch performance by Bill Hader, it is the first chapter that truly stands out. Or rather, floats.
How to watch: IT is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video.
2. A Quiet Place
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John Krasinski’s tense directorial debut, A Quiet Place, weaponized sound to the point that audiences found themselves too scared to eat crunchy snacks during the movie. This hold-your-breath horror film follows a young family — led by Krasinski himself, alongside Emily Blunt — doing their best to silently survive in a world where monsters hunt by sound.
“Sound plays another character in this film. Sound’s the enemy of this family,” said Blunt. It’s this plot device that had the film constantly compared to Netflix’s Bird Box, but A Quiet Place differentiates itself in many ways, one of which is the decision to show the monsters. Reveal aside, the film will leave you with many lingering questions, some of which we can help with.
Plus, there’s a sequel and a prequel if you survive the first film.
How to watch: A Quiet Place is now streaming on Paramount+.
3. The Babadook
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Ba-ba-DOOOOOK. You’ll never quite see a children’s pop-up book the same way after watching Australian director Jennifer Kent’s frightening feature-length debut. Based on Kent’s 2005 short film Monster, The Babadook is an elegant, poignant, and frankly terrifying analysis of grief, not to mention one of the most impactful monster movies of the last decade.
Lead actor Essie Davis truly puts everything into her performance as Amelia Vanek, a woman who is tormented, along with her son, by the titular monster — a croaking, towering figure in a top hat you won’t easily forget. Kent used puppetry and stop-motion to create the now-iconic creature, which took on a life of its own outside the film when Mister Babadook emerged as an unofficial mascot of Pride.
How to watch: The Babadook is now streaming on Shudder.
4. Attack the Block
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Featuring John Boyega’s feature-length film debut and co-starring future Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker, Attack the Block is one of the most creative and fun monster movies of the decade.
Written and directed by Joe Cornish (also his feature-length film debut), this British sci-fi comedy horror sees a group of teenagers, led by Boyega, who must defend their council estate from some incredibly pissed-off aliens — or rather, “big alien gorilla wolf motherfuckers” — all on Guy Fawkes Night. It’s gruesome and hilarious, and produced by the studio behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
How to watch: Attack the Block is now streaming on Max.
5. What We Do in the Shadows
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The 2014 mockumentary that spawned the excellent TV spin-off sees Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement as co-writers, co-directors, and hilarious co-stars as vampire housemates — along with Jonathan Brugh and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer — living their very best lives after dark in Wellington, New Zealand. Throw in some exceedingly polite werewolves, led by Conchords alum Rhys Darby, trying their best to avoid being rude — “We’re werewolves, not swearwolves!” — and you’ve got one hell of a fun monster movie.
How to watch: What We Do in the Shadows is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video.
6. Shin Godzilla
Credit: Cine Bazar Toho Company / Kobal / Shutterstock
While the rebooted big-budget popcorn blockbusters Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters have smashed and crashed through cinemas before this, another take on the terrible lizard took the crown in the 2010s. From Evangelion mastermind Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, Shin Godzilla unpacks the bureaucracy behind handling the invasion of a Giant Unidentified Creature. The film blatantly takes its cues from the government’s handling of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Though there are some spectacularly destructive city-stomping scenes, the film focuses on the repercussions of a government slow to act during a disaster. You’ll sit through meeting upon meeting, weighing pros and cons, considering expert testimony, and managing logistics before any action is taken. Which government agency is responsible for this thing? What’s the biggest priority: people or damage? While this is all happening, the evolving monster itself just looks like it’s having the greatest time, slithering and smashing its way to global chaos.
How to watch: Shin Godzilla is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video (but only in the UK right now).
7. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Credit: Say Ahh Prods / Spectrevision / Logan/Black Light District / Kino Lorber / Kobal / Shutterstock
You’ve never seen an Iranian feminist vampire Western like this. Seriously, it’s the only one. Writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour’s feature-length film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night hinges on the nightly hunts of an intense young vampire (Sheila Vand) who rides a skateboard. Set in the ominous small town of Bad City, it’s at once a sweet love story, a slick crime movie, a full-blown noir, a reinvented Western, and a bloody monster flick, with one of the best soundtracks around.
How to watch: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is now streaming on Kanopy.
8. Troll Hunter
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If you were to tell me that a found-footage horror about trolls would actually be an effective monster movie, I’d think you were… trolling me (pew! pew!). But Norwegian director André Øvredal’s Troll Hunter uses dry humour and creative mythology-building to ask one question: What if there are trolls hiding in the mountains, and the Norwegian government not only knows about it but has deployed specialised hunters to keep them at bay?
It’s a mockumentary that deploys the ol’ student filmmaker-shot, first-person POV techniques popularised by The Blair Witch Project. While there are some good scares, it’s actually kind of fun too. The key lies in the troll hunter himself.
How to watch: Troll Hunter is now streaming on Max.
9. The Cabin in the Woods
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A film that’s much smarter than it looks, The Cabin in the Woods is the ultimate slasher/monster movie homage. The directorial debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Drew Goddard, the film unpacks the horror genre as expertly as Randy from Scream would. A group of college friends, each embodying a well-known horror trope, hit the road for the requisite drunken weekend away in a remote forest cabin.
But if you think you know where this film’s going, you’re wrong. That’s the key to this savvy horror film, with two mysterious figures (the show-stealing Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins) quite literally changing the game on our protagonists. There are monsters aplenty, in every shape and size. If only everyone would listen to Marty (Fran Kranz): “Do not read the Latin.”
How to watch: The Cabin in the Woods is now streaming on Peacock.
10. Train to Busan
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There are zombie films, and there are zombie films, and South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 thriller Train to Busan is one of a kind. Almost entirely set on a train travelling from Seoul, the film follows Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) and his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an), an estranged pair who find themselves passengers amid a zombie outbreak.
As fast-paced as its hordes of undead (these zombies run, Dawn of the Dead remake-style), the film sinks those gnashing teeth in and doesn’t let go until the final sequence. The sheer scale of the zombie population in this film is realised through impressive extra work, and there are more than a few sequences that’ll have you shifting uncomfortably in your seat. Genuinely moving, very bloody, and above all, an example of who the true monsters inevitably turn out to be during a disaster: us.
How to watch: Train to Busan is now streaming on Peacock.
11. Crimson Peak
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Guillermo del Toro dabbled in a spot of Victorian-era Gothic horror in 2015 with his big-budget ghost story Crimson Peak. It’s your classic set-up: A mysterious English baronet (Tom Hiddleston) with a crumbling mansion in northern England piques the romantic interest of an aspiring New York author (Mia Wasikowska), and off they trot to their creepy new home. But of course, the mansion holds a secret, not to mention conveniently blood-red clay grounds, some frighteningly bloody ghosts, and a highly sinister sister figure (Jessica Chastain). Armed with some solid jump-scares, Crimson Peak is the kind of camp, isolated-location nightmare that the likes of Edgar Allan Poe might appreciate.
How to watch: Crimson Peak is now streaming on Prime Video.
12. Under the Skin
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Now here’s an unconventional monster movie that will stay, uh, under your skin for a long time after the credits roll. The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s haunting 2013 sci-fi Under the Skin sees Scarlett Johansson as a predatory alien who drives around hunting men in Scotland. But it’s not that straightforward. It’s one of the strangest, most hypnotic, and relentlessly unsettling movie experiences of the decade — and musician and composer Mica Levi’s score is the stuff of seductive nightmares. Plus, the sheer ambition of this A24 production itself must be noted: Many of the scenes were filmed with hidden cameras within the film’s white van, which Johansson herself drove as she trawled for everyday men, not actors, while Glazer and his team sat with monitors in the back.
How to watch: Under the Skin is now streaming on Kanopy.
13. Under the Shadow
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Tehran in the ’80s during the Iran-Iraq War is the last place you’d expect to be facing a djinn, but in Under the Shadow, that’s exactly what’s up. The feature-length directorial debut of Iranian-born, London-based filmmaker Babak Anvari, this modern version of a haunted house horror film centres around medical student Shideh (Narges Rashidi), whose family’s apartment building is hit by a missile during the conflict. But that’s not the only thing to worry about, with a shadowy presence threatening Shideh and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) in between all-too-human attacks. It’s a bona fide master class in tension building.
How to watch: Under the Shadow is now streaming on Netflix.
UPDATE: Sep. 20, 2024, 2:56 p.m. EDT This article was first published Oct. 18, 2019. It’s been updated and republished since then to reflect current streaming options.
Source : The best monster movies of the 2010s
