20 Best Kaiju Movies Every Fan Needs to Watch
If you like kaiju movies like Godzilla or King Kong, you are in the right place. In this article, we are bringing you the best kaiju movies you can watch right now.
We will just mention movies like King Kong and Godzilla, as there are so many of them that they would fill this whole article. Instead, we will focus on some less-known kaiju movies.
Check them all out, and choose your next kaiju watch right now.
Pacific Rim (2013)
The alien threat to the world has come from the depths of the Pacific, from a rift between two tectonic plates, from a portal between dimensions. To defend themselves from the monsters, the leaders of the great powers united and created their own monsters – the Jäger program was born, which after the initial successes will come to the brink of destruction, along with the whole world.
However, a group of top pilots does not give up and has only one task – to cancel the apocalypse!
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
At the turn of the century, Earth’s monsters have been safely rounded up and studied on Monsterland. Chaos erupts when a race of she-aliens known as the Kilaaks unleashes the monsters across the world.
Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965)
A nuclear explosion in the far north unleashes Gamera, the legendary flying turtle, from his sleep under the ice. In his search for energy, Gamera wreaks havoc over the entire world, and it’s up to the scientists, assisted by a young boy with a strange sympathic link to the monster, to put a stop to Gamera’s rampage.
Rampage (2018)
Davis Okoye shares an indelible bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent gorilla who has been under his protection since he was born. But a genetic experiment gone wrong turned this gentle monkey into a raging monster.
These newly created monsters began to destroy all of North America and everything in their path. Okoye then teams up with a genetic engineer to design and secure an antidote. The fight begins not only to stop a global catastrophe, but also to save the creature that was once his friend.
Varan (1958)
A giant monster wakes up in a Japanese lake, smashes the nearby village, and heads off to attack Tokyo.
Reptilicus (1961)
After copper miners discover part of the frozen tail of a prehistoric monster in Lapland, scientists inadvertently bring it back to life.
Trollhunter (2010)
A group of students investigate a series of mysterious deaths allegedly caused by bears, but soon discover that there are far more dangerous things involved. They start following the mysterious hunter and realize that he is actually hunting trolls.
Troll (2022)
Deep in the Dovre mountain, something gigantic wakes up after a thousand years in captivity. The creature destroys everything in its path and quickly approaches Oslo.
Shin Ultraman (2022)
As the threat of giant unidentified lifeforms known as “S-Class Species” worsens in Japan, a silver giant appears from beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Deep Rising (1998)
South China Sea. A speedboat with mercenaries and a terrifying cargo – a nuclear warhead – is sailing toward the ship “Argonautic”. At the same time, not far away, the luxury ship “Argonautic” sails innocently and becomes the target of an attack by a huge unknown predator.
When the mercenaries arrive on the ship, they are confronted by several survivors who explain how giant mutated worms attacked them.
Colossal (2016)
Gloria is an unemployed party girl who is forced to leave her life in New York and return to her hometown after her boyfriend kicks her out of her apartment. When a huge monster appears on the news that is destroying the city of Seoul, South Korea, Gloria gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this distant phenomenon.
Events begin to spiral out of control, and Gloria must determine why her seemingly insignificant existence has such a huge impact on the fate of the world.
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
When a meteor crashes into Susan Reynolds’ car, contact with an unknown liquid turns her into a 15-foot giant. Her wedding fails, and the army imprisons her and sends her to a secret government hideout, where she meets fellow monsters: Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., B.O.B., The Missing Link, and Insectosaurus. Susan, now named Ginormica, is chosen to lead this team in the fight to save Earth from the evil aliens Gallaxhar.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
The film’s story concerns a fictional dinosaur, the Rhedosaurus, which is released from its frozen hibernating state by an atomic bomb test in the Arctic Circle.
The beast begins to wreak a path of destruction as it travels southward, eventually arriving at its ancient spawning grounds, which includes New York City.
Cloverfield (2008)
How would a group of ordinary little people react to a monster attack on their town? The sane ones would take a camera and film what was happening. This is exactly what happened to five young people who were preparing a farewell party for a friend, and a monster the size of a skyscraper just attacked New York. This film is a document about their attempt to survive the most terrifying event in their lives.
Like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield was shot from the perspective of a small portable camera. The chaos captured by a hand-held camera, which shakes and hides the horrors more than it shows them, leaves the worst things to our imagination. But don’t worry, this time the monster that is destroying New York will be shown. Do not think that this is a low-budget film, on the contrary, the visual and sound effects will really surprise you, and the camera work will completely immerse you in the events.
The Host (2006)
In February 2000, toxic chemicals were released into the Han River from a US military base in South Korea. Six years later, a monstrous fish reptile emerges from the river and begins attacking the residents of Seoul.
The monster grabs the little girl Hyun-seo and takes her with him to the river, and her father, other members of his family and other citizens who came into contact with the monster end up in quarantine.
Gang-du receives a cell phone call from his daughter, who informs him that she survived the monster attack and is in the city sewers. Since the authorities don’t believe him, thinking it’s an illusion of a pain-stricken father, Gang-du and the rest of the family escape from quarantine to save Hyun-seo.
King Kong (2005)
The year is 1933, the time of the great economic crisis in the USA. Unemployed New York actress Ann Darrow (N. Watts), forced to steal because of hunger, is rescued from her predicament by filmmaker Carl Denham (J. Black) and persuaded to accept the female lead role in a film being shot in Asia. She accepts and the two of them set off on a boat trip with the team.
Denham has a map of the mysterious Skull Island and pays Captain Englehorn (T. Kretschmann) to divert and sail to the island. On board is playwright and screenwriter Jack Driscoll (A. Brody), who falls in love with Ann. The ship docks next to the island and the team disembarks, looking at the remains of an ancient and primitive civilization. After a member of the film crew is killed, they realize that they are being chased by natives and flee, but Ann is caught and taken to the shore where they intend to sacrifice her to a giant gorilla they call Kong.
The film crew and some of the crew return to save Ann. Ann is at first horrified by the huge gorilla, but his behavior is very peaceful and gentle, and the beast becomes sympathetic to her. Driscoll manages to rescue Ann and they escape, which infuriates the gorilla, who gives chase. The film crew lures Kong and puts him to sleep with chloroform, ties him up in the ship’s hold and transports him to New York…
There are of course other King King movies as well as Godzilla movies and you can find more of them in our list of the best movies about giants.
Godzilla (2014)
It is a reboot of the Japanese film classic from 1954, which, thanks to modern technology and a superb cast, brought this legendary monster closer to today’s movie audience in the most explosive way possible. This is a powerful story of human courage in the face of titanic forces of nature after a terrifying being, before which humanity is seemingly powerless, rises from the sea to restore the balance of nature.
This spectacular adventure with unprecedented special effects pits the world’s most famous monster against human arrogance, thus threatening the existence of mankind.
Mothra (1961)
An expedition to Infant Island discovers a native population and tiny twin fairy priestesses of the island’s mythical deity. Named Mothra, she sets out to rescue her fairies after they are kidnapped by an exploitative businessman.
Attack on Titan (2015)
In the film, Eren Yeager, his childhood friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, join the Survey Corps, a military corporation to fight gigantic humanoids called the Titans after their hometown is attacked by a Colossal Titan.
The Giant Claw (1957)
When an unknown flying object appears during the testing of a new U.S. military radar, the U.S. Air Force sets out to investigate and uncover the unknown craft. Although they discover nothing, they still lose one of the military planes, and its disappearance remains a mystery.
It doesn’t take long before the UFO is revealed to everyone, not only the US military, and the discovery itself means death and destruction of the entire planet Earth. A UFO is a prehistoric gigantic bird as big as an armadillo, which comes from an antimatter galaxy and flies at supersonic speeds, destroying everything in its path. Earthly weapons can’t do anything to it and the question is how to kill something huge and invulnerable before it kills us all?
