Looking for great creature feature movies? From ‘Gremlins’ to ‘Attack the Block,’ these 8 picks are essential viewing for horror fans.
If the creature is not an insect or some kind of animal that has been mutated or infected by a virus, then the creature can be an alien or some kind of beast or unrecognized/undiscovered nonhuman species (This, by the way, is why I’d consider the Gill-man a creature and not Count Orlok, for example).
So with this in mind, here are eight creature features that showcase just how much fun–and how varied–creature features can be, in no particular order. If you don’t see your favorite here, be sure to let me know in the comments.
Primate, 2026’s first box office horror hit and the most-watched movie globally on Paramount+ this summer, is a straightforward, fast-paced, nasty little movie about a sweet pet chimp who brutally attacks a college student and her friends after contracting rabies.
There’s a Charli XCX needle drop. The practical effects are fantastic. Ben the chimp is played by movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba, which makes every face and jaw being torn off feel all the more real. It was exactly the kind of movie I needed to ward off the post-New Year’s, early January blues, and it’s the perfect movie to watch if you need to turn your brain off during holiday prep between now and December.
Is there anything Bong Joon-ho can’t do? While I don’t usually enjoy movies that show the monster immediately, often, and in broad daylight, The Host does all three without sacrificing an ounce of suspense or terror. The film tells the story of a food stand vendor (played by Song Kang-ho, whom I also adore in Thirst) whose daughter is snatched by a giant amphibious creature living in Seoul’s Han River.
If you’re a fan of Bong’s work, then you know to expect the unexpected, even if the plot is reminiscent of the creature features of the 1950s and ’60s. This is a wacky, tone-shifting, intense dark comedy/melodrama that isn’t afraid to criticize the impact of the American military on South Korea. In fact, it’s actually inspired by a true story.
It’s impossible to compile a roundup about creature features without including Alien, Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi thriller about a seven-member commercial starship crew being picked off one-by-one by the titular extraterrestrial.
If you’re a horror fan, then you’ve probably already seen this one, but if it’s been a while, take this as your sign to give it a rewatch. There’s no way to explain how truly awful the situation is on the Nostromo, the sheer terror that comes with knowing that 1.) there is no way out, 2.) nobody, not a single friend or relative, knows what’s happening, and 3.) this creature won’t stop until it kills you. It’s a claustrophobic, oppressive experience from start to finish, featuring one of the most beautiful, vicious creatures ever put to film. And Harry Dean Stanton is wearing a fantastic Hawaiian shirt.
It’s hard to believe that The Thing, John Carpenter’s remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, was a critical and commercial failure when it was released in 1982, but when you realize Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released two weeks prior, it’s easier to understand why audiences weren’t receptive to Carpenter’s decidedly less optimistic take on extraterrestrials. Thankfully, time has been very kind to The Thing, which has since become one of the most beloved creature features of all time and has only gotten better–and even more relevant-with age.
What makes this entry interesting, though, is that our creature is a shape-shifting organism with no real form or shape. I’d argue this makes the titular thing more frightening than any of the other creatures on this list.
We really don’t talk enough about Crawl, Alexandre Aja’s ruthless creature feature about alligators preying upon a father, daughter, and their dog as they hide in a crawl space during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida. At just 87 minutes, this is a fun, brisk film that does a lot with its simple premise. Great gore? Effective sound design? Claustrophobic setting? Check, check, and check.
But what makes Crawl really scary is the added threat of climate change. There’s an implication here that there’s a non-zero chance this will happen again, that as the frequency, intensity, and duration of storms and other natural disasters get worse, so will the chances of getting devoured by a giant alligator. By the end of the movie, you’ll be wondering why anyone lives in Florida anymore.
I’ve included Cujo before in a roundup of some of the best horror movies set in the summer, and I knew as soon as I started writing this that it needed to be here, too. Cujo is kind of a perfect creature feature–take a beautiful, friendly family pet, turn him into a rabid, unrelenting monster, and let him loose on a hot summer day.
I know that this one tends to make people sad–Cujo is suffering! He isn’t in control of his actions! A mother and her child are at risk of dying of heatstroke in a car! This family is falling apart! But it really is worth a watch if you haven’t seen it before, especially if you like films with a mean streak or domestic dramas. If you’re the kind of person who is particularly sensitive to seeing dogs or children suffer, maybe skip this one.
With the holiday season quickly approaching (Can you believe they started playing a remix of “Jingle Bell Rock” while I was at Sephora two days before Halloween?), now is the perfect time to Gremlins, Joe Dante’s Christmas movie about a young boy who receives an adorable creature as a present and accidentally hatches a horde of mischievous reptilian monsters after breaking three important rules concerning its care.
I really can’t get enough of this movie (How did I forget one of the Gremlins gets its hands on a miniature gun? Or that they kill an elderly woman by tampering with the controls of her motorized stair lift?), and I think the creature effects here are some of the best on this list. It’s also one of the reasons why we have the PG-13 rating.
I have a soft spot for underrated and underseen movies, and Attack the Block is somewhere in my top 20. Featuring a pre-Star Wars John Boyega, Attack the Block follows a teen gang and a nurse living in the same housing estate who must join together to defend themselves and their neighbors from a pack of dog-sized alien creatures. It’s smart, funny, and beautifully shot, with equal amounts of action and heart.
But what really makes Attack the Block so special is the creature design. The aliens are walking, spiky voids with grinning, bioluminescent jaws, something we haven’t seen before and haven’t seen since. Imagine my surprise when I discovered their design was inspired by writer-director Joe Cornish’s pet cat and the Space Invaders video game.
