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8 Monster Movies That Are 10/10 But Nobody Remembers

Ryan Reynolds in zero gravity pulls himself along technical equipment in Life, 2017.Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

By Safwan Azeem Published Jan 25, 2026, 8:51 PM EST

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When you think of great monster movies, your mind usually goes straight to the obvious ones. Old classics like Alien, Jaws, and The Thing, or the modern Hollywood blockbusters like A Quiet Place, the MonsterVerse films, or the Jurassic franchise. These are the movies that shaped the genre and have stayed part of pop culture for years.

But once you look past those big names, there are so many gems out there that did everything right but still slipped through the cracks. Some were low-budget indie films that never had the big marketing push. Others had terrible release timing that killed their momentum. And a few simply confused audiences when they first came out, so people moved on too quickly. Over time, they quietly disappeared from mainstream conversation, even though they absolutely did not deserve it. So, here are eight monster movies that are perfect 10/10s, but somehow nobody remembers them anymore.

8 ‘Cloverfield’ (2008)

Michael Stahl-David and Odette Annable as Robert and Beth, recording themselves on a camcorder in CloverfieldImage via Paramount Pictures

The Cloverfield franchise is one of the messiest trilogies ever made. The first film is a high-stakes found-footage style monster movie. Then you have 10 Cloverfield Lane, a tense psychological thriller where the monster barely shows up. Then there is The Cloverfield Paradox, which leans into cosmic horror with scientists stranded in an alternate dimension. As a result, most people still have no clear idea what this franchise is even about. The third film was also so poorly received that it ended up damaging the entire franchise and dragged the reputation of the first film down with it, which is a shame because Cloverfield is one of the most effective monster movies ever made.

It follows a group of friends trying to survive when a massive creature suddenly appears and begins rampaging through New York City. The found footage style makes you feel like you’re right there on the ground with the characters, experiencing all the destruction. And unlike most films in the genre, there’s no scientist to explain the creature’s origins, no military expert with a plan to stop it, and no government unit that takes control of the situation. It’s just ordinary people trying to survive as the city around them crumbles away.

7 ‘Love and Monsters’ (2020)

Joel sitting next to a robot in Love and Monsters

Dylan O'Brien in Love and MonstersImage via Paramount Pictures

Love and Monsters flew under the radar because it had one of the most unfortunate release situations. The film only played in limited theaters for one weekend due to the pandemic and was then quietly released on Netflix the following year. Most people ignored it because, at first glance, it looked like generic, straight-to-streaming slop. That assumption could not be more wrong. Love and Monsters is one of the most fun and heartfelt monster movies in recent years. There’s action, adventure, horror, drama, a post-apocalyptic setting, romance, and of course, a whole lot of monsters. The movie is also genuinely funny and has major Zombieland energy, so if you’re looking for a similar, lighter take on the genre, Love and Monsters should be at the top of your watchlist.

The story takes place seven years after the Monsterpocalypse, when giant creatures took over the planet and forced humans underground. Joel Dawson (Dylan O'Brien) reconnects with his high school girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) over the radio and finds out that she’s now living 80 miles away at a coastal colony. With nothing left for him in his bunker, Joel decides to journey across the monster-filled wasteland to find her.

6 ‘The Host’ (2006)

Song Kang-ho as Park Gang-du in 'The Host'Image via Showbox

The Host struggled to connect with audiences in the West because it’s a South Korean film, and a lot of viewers still avoid subtitles. Even with strong critical praise, that barrier kept it from becoming a mainstream hit at the time. Directed by Bong Joon Ho, the filmmaker behind Parasite, The Host features a giant amphibious mutant creature that emerges from Seoul’s Han River after years of toxic waste dumping.

The film stars Song Kang-ho as Park Gang-du, a struggling food stand vendor whose daughter is kidnapped by the creature. When the authorities fail, he and his dysfunctional family decide they are the only ones who can save her. For the first part, The Host plays very much like a fun and fast-paced monster movie, but it slowly grows beyond a single genre or standard blockbuster thrills by including sharp political commentary about government incompetence alongside a brisk creature feature.

5 ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ (2011)

Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, and Kristen Connolly in The Cabin in the WoodsImage via Lionsgate

A lot of people have never seen The Cabin in the Woods because it is a hard movie to recommend and an even harder one to categorize. It is not a simple slasher, and it is not a traditional creature feature either. It is a sharp satire that was made to deconstruct, mock, and subvert the horror clichés that dominated the 2000s. The genre has evolved a lot since then, so the film no longer gets brought up the way other monster movies do.

That said, it might be the ultimate monster movie for people who have seen everything else. This film probably holds the record for the most monsters ever packed into a single movie. There are werewolves, zombies, mermen, unicorns, clowns, sexy witches, a giant snake, and even an Angry Molesting Tree. It is pure monster galore in a way that no other film has ever attempted.

4 ‘Colossal’ (2017)

Anne Hathawy as Gloria waving and smiling in ColossalImage via Neon

Colossal disappeared from conversation almost as quickly as it arrived. It was a small indie film with a limited theatrical run, so most people never even had the chance to see it. On top of that, it was a major box office flop. The film only earned $4.5 million worldwide against a $15 million budget. When a movie underperforms that badly, studios stop promoting it, and audiences assume it is not worth their time.

The marketing also struggled to explain what kind of movie it really was, which left many viewers uninterested. That is a shame, because Colossal has one of the most original ideas the monster genre has ever seen. Anne Hathaway stars as Gloria, an alcoholic, out-of-work party girl who discovers that she has a strange connection to a giant monster attacking Seoul, South Korea. Whenever Gloria stands in a specific children’s playground at exactly 8:05 a.m., the monster appears on the other side of the world and mirrors her movements.

3 ‘Monsters’ (2010)

Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy in Monsters

Image via Vertigo Films

Monsters was made on a shoestring budget of just $500,000, which meant limited marketing and very little mainstream visibility. It arrived quietly and left just as quietly, even though it was doing something far more interesting than most big studio monster movies at the time. The film was Gareth Edwards’ directorial debut, and the grounded, human first element of Monsters impressed Legendary Pictures so much that they hired him to direct 2014’s Godzilla, which ended up kickstarting the MonsterVerse. Since then, Edwards has gone on to direct Rogue One, The Creator, and Jurassic World Rebirth.

The film follows the aftermath of a NASA probe crash landing in Mexico, which causes alien life forms to emerge and leads to half the country being quarantined as an Infected Zone. The story focuses on a cynical photojournalist who is tasked with escorting his boss’s daughter through this dangerous area to reach the U.S. border, and along the way, they encounter heavy military presence and terrifying alien creatures. The overgrown, deserted towns and perilous trek feel straight out of The Last of Us, so if you enjoyed the games or the show, you’ll definitely love Monsters.

2 ‘Infested’ (2023)

Théo Christine as Kaleb screaming while looking up at a spiders in Infested. Image via Shudder

Infested is a French-language horror film set in a rundown apartment building where the residents find themselves trapped, forced to fight for survival against venomous spiders that reproduce at an alarming rate and keep growing bigger and deadlier. Think of it as the frantic energy of REC mixed with the skin-crawling terror of Arachnophobia. Infested excels because it tries to tackle much higher concepts than just the survival drama, although even as just a monster movie, it stands as one of the best in the genre.

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The film received overwhelming praise in France and holds a near-perfect 95% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite all that, Infested remains largely unknown because of its release strategy. It only played in France before dropping on Shudder for international audiences. Since it was a foreign language film on a niche streaming platform, it never got the attention it truly deserved. Still, the quality was undeniable, and director Sébastien Vaniček was later handpicked by horror legend Sam Raimi to direct and co-write the highly anticipated new Evil Dead sequel, Evil Dead Burn. That alone should tell you how good Infested really is.

1 ‘Life’ (2017)

Jake Gyllenhaal shines a flashlight out a portal window in Life.Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Life is a solid space-set creature feature with one of the best casts in the genre. You have Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, and Hiroyuki Sanada leading a tense, high-stakes monster movie, yet almost no one ever talks about it. And that is because the basic premise of the movie sounds extremely similar to Alien. The story follows a deadly extraterrestrial monster on a space station that starts hunting the crew one by one. Critics dismissed it as a cheap Alien ripoff, and it was released in a year full of high-profile sci-fi movies like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Alien: Covenant, and Blade Runner 2049. With so much attention on those big releases, Life got lost in the shuffle and never generated much buzz.

But this film is so much more than a mere Alien knockoff. The story follows a team aboard the International Space Station who discover the first confirmed extraterrestrial life from Mars. The single-celled organism, named Calvin, rapidly evolves into a fast, intelligent, and highly aggressive multicellular creature. What makes Calvin truly scary is his size and mobility. Unlike most monster movies that rely on huge creatures for fear, Calvin is small and can slip into any crevice, inside the tight corridors of the space station, and even into human bodies, which makes him infinitely more terrifying.

Like Follow Followed Life R Sci-Fi Thriller Horror Release Date March 24, 2017 Runtime 104 Minutes Director Daniel Espinosa Writers Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese