The twisted but ingenious minds of filmmakers and creators have churned out some truly terrifying monsters and creatures that inhabit some of our favorite worlds and movies. From the terrifying Xenomorph all the way to the haunting entity from It Follows. There is no shortage of scary monsters to make even those with nerves of steel, left in fear.
Movie monsters have been a very important part of Hollywood, and more specifically, horror movies wouldn’t be where they are today without the earliest imaginings of hideous and terrifying monsters. It was classics such as Nosferatu, The Phantom of the Opera and Universals roster of classic monsters that first introduced the world to monsters on screen. These classic monsters terrified audiences back then, but as the times changed and with the film industry changing with it, we have been introduced to even scarier movie monsters, which are the stuff of nightmares.
There have been hundreds of scary monsters that have plagued our screens, for more than 100 years, including vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, ghosts, demons, and the gigantic Kaiju. So without further ado, get ready to hide under your blankets and behind your pillows, as we rank the scariest movie monsters.
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7 The Bear - Annihilation
Skydance Media
Alex Garland’s critically acclaimed sci-fi horror flick Annihilation brought us this terrifying and hideously mutated creature. At first, it seems like a normal bear, but due to the shimmer, the bear has been horrifically mutated in nightmarish ways. Bears are scary and powerful enough, but add in an exposed face and skull, which has been disturbingly mutated with that of a human face on its left side, and we are treated to one of the scariest reincarnations of any creature on screen. But quite possibly the scariest and most haunting aspect to this beast, is how it is able to mimic its victims. Earlier in the film, the bear was seen killing and eating one of the explorers as she screams and cries for help. Later on in the film, in a nightmarish scene, we first see the mutated bear in all its horrific glory. When the bear opens its mouth or roars, all we can hear is the explorer’s screams and cries for help. The sound editing and mixing in this scene is truly spectacular, and only adds to how utterly terrifying this scary creature is.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
6 Death Angels - A Quiet Place
Paramount Pictures
These monsters that inhabit the world of A Quiet Place are in fact extraterrestrials, even if the characters refer to them as monsters. The Death Angels come equipped with heavily armored bodies, that cannot be damaged by any weapons. They also use supersonic hearing, but they cannot see, which kind of makes them scarier. On top of all this, the monsters are blazing fast and boast an incredible amount of strength. While the Death Angels won’t eat you, they will kill you with a swift, but painful slash, if you make even the slightest bit of noise. The Death Angels are responsible for many, if not all the scariest moments throughout the franchise. The film makes these creatures so terrifying by building up a tremendous amount of tension every time they are on-screen. By limiting sound in the movie, we are on the edge of our seats. But as soon as we hear a loud noise, it frightens the skin off of us.
5 The Entity - It Follows
Northern Lights Films
It Follows instantly became one of the best examples of elevated horror. By revolutionizing modern horror and introducing us to a terrifying villain known as the entity. As a kind of curse, the entity is passed to each individual through sex. Sort of like an extremely deadly and scary STD. The entity is only seen by the victim who is unfortunate enough to have caught this curse, which makes the character get instantly surrounded by a sense of loneliness, adding to the fear factor of this deadly monster.
The spirit can appear as anyone, and has no set form; it can be a massive male, a creepy old woman, or even a small child. However, usually a big tell in finding out who and where this monster is, is that the entity will usually have dark eyes, while wearing something white. Similarly, the entity will slowly follow the victim by walking towards it, which is terrifying all in itself. We should also mention that when the entity finally catches you, the spirit will kill in horrifically gruesome ways, bending all of its victim’s bones in ways they were never meant to bend.
4 The Babadook - The Babadook
Umbrella Entertainment
If you have seen 2014’s horror cult classic The Babadook, then we don’t need to tell you how unnerving and frightening the Babadook’s appearance is. With a pastry white face, black eyes, a tall top hat, a very long black coat, and hauntingly long fingers, the Babadook is nightmare fuel.
Adding to the creepy factor of the Babadook; he is summoned by reading his book (which may we add, cannot be destroyed). The book includes horrifying illustrations of the Babadook haunting and possessing mothers, before killing their own children, and finally themselves. Accompanying the horrifying images is an utterly creepy nursery rhyme, that we cannot get out of our heads. “If it’s in a word, or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook.”
3 The Alien - The Thing
Universal Pictures
The Thing is still renowned today as one of the most intense sci-fi horror movies ever made, which was in large part due to the terrifying alien that torments and kills the researchers trapped in a research base in the middle of Antarctica. The alien creature is one of the scariest extraterrestrials in cinema, for being able to mimic any organic being, from their appearance, size, mannerisms and even speech. This made for an incredibly tense horror movie, scattered with copious amounts of paranoia. The sheer idea and description of this creature is terrifying enough, but mix in some horrifying special effects from Rob Bottin; a frequent collaborator of John Carpenter, and spine-chilling sound design, and we have one of the scariest movie monsters of all time.
2 Xenomorph - Alien
20th Century Fox
The Xenomorph is one of the most iconic horror villains in all of cinematic history, which is all to do with how terrifying this extraterrestrial being is. Making its horrifying debut in Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror masterpiece Alien, the Xenomorph instantly became an icon in the horror and sci-fi genres. The creature came straight from the twisted and demented mind of H.R. Giger, in his painting Necronom IV, which featured the very first drawing of a Xenomorph, before making its cinematic debut.
Xenomorph’s are huge creatures, standing up to around 8-feet tall, with a large, sloped head, a long scorpion-like tail. They have super-strength and an inner mouth that can explode through a person’s head with a disturbing amount of ease. However, while this creature’s appearance is the stuff of nightmares, we haven’t yet mentioned that the blood of a Xenomorph works like acid, burning through any and all material, especially human flesh. The Xenomorph will stalk its victims before pouncing and splitting their poor victims head open with its inner jaws. Bear in mind, these are just your average, most common Xenomorphs. We haven’t even begun to mention all the different variations and types of Xenomorph’s; from the queen, to a face hugger, and even a Xenomorph and Predator hybrid. This terrifying extraterrestrial is a horror legend for a reason.
1 Pennywise - It
Warner Bros.
A very common fear and phobia is coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, and Pennywise is one example of why so many are terrified of them. The otherworldly trans-dimensional entity is the epitome of evil, preying and feeding off the fear and flesh of the young children of Derry. While Pennywise can change into any form you could possibly dream of or have nightmares about, the entity mostly appears as a clown to both lure and terrify children.
Both performances of Pennywise were iconic, with Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgård both delivering exceptionally chilling performances. But we have to go for Bill Skarsgård’s visceral and transformative turn as the iconic horror legend the edge, for giving us goosebumps every time he is on-screen, and forcing us to have nightmares of this dastardly clown. While Stephen King already made Pennywise terrifying on paper, sprinkle on top of that, an impeccable but utterly haunting performance from Bill Skarsgård, and we have one of the best and scariest movie monsters of all time.
