Discover the top ten underrated creature features for you to enjoy.
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00:00 Since the very earliest days of cinema,
00:02 horror has featured prominently,
00:04 and the genre has brought us some of the most
00:06 unforgettable sights in motion picture history.
00:09 The following list contains some of the most memorable
00:12 movie monsters ever committed to celluloid.
00:15 From beautifully strange reworkings of classic fairy tales
00:18 to demon cats, rabbits, and dinosaurs,
00:21 there's something for everyone here,
00:22 even fans of Elvis Presley.
00:24 I'm Jess from World Culture,
00:26 and here are 10 great monster movies you may have missed.
00:29 Number 10, Kuroneko.
00:31 Kuroneko, or to give the film its full title,
00:34 and I will do my best with this pronunciation,
00:36 Yabunonaka no Kuroneko, a black cat in a bamboo grove,
00:41 ranks among the best movies you may not have seen
00:44 in any genre.
00:45 The film was directed by Kaneto Shindo,
00:48 the multi-talented creative responsible for many classics
00:51 of Japanese cinema, including Onibaba and Naked Island.
00:55 Shot in black and white, Kuroneko's setting is feudal Japan,
00:58 and the monsters in this case are the deadly spirits
01:01 of Yone and her daughter-in-law, Shige.
01:04 Murdered by a troop of samurai,
01:05 the two women return as vicious killers,
01:08 seducing and then murdering unsuspecting samurai
01:11 by tearing their throats out with their cat-like teeth.
01:14 A splendid twist arises when a samurai named Gintoki
01:18 is tasked with tracking down
01:19 and destroying the vengeful spirits.
01:22 The problem, as Gintoki soon discovers,
01:25 is that Yone and Shige are none other
01:27 than his deceased mother and wife.
01:30 Number nine, Company of Wolves.
01:32 One of the greatest and certainly most stylish
01:34 of werewolf films, Company of Wolves serves
01:37 as both an allegory and a fine horror in its own right.
01:40 In part a retelling or reimagining
01:43 of the classic Little Red Riding Hood,
01:45 the film stars a number of familiar faces,
01:47 including Angela Lansbury, Stephen Reyer, and David Warner.
01:51 There are several scenes here
01:53 which will remain with you forever,
01:55 not least of which is a wedding ceremony,
01:57 the participants of which are transformed
01:59 by a vengeful witch,
02:01 the reappearance of a presumed dead husband,
02:04 and an almost familiar trip to grandma's house.
02:07 Whatever the movie's underlying message,
02:09 it remains a startlingly and highly enjoyable watch.
02:13 Number eight, House, 1977.
02:16 A cult classic for fans of Japanese horror,
02:19 1977's House features one of the most memorable
02:23 and bizarre human-creature battles in cinematic history.
02:27 It was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi,
02:29 a filmmaker who started out in TV advertising
02:33 and swerved into experimental territory
02:35 before making his mark in the mainstream movie world,
02:38 enjoying an incredible 60-year career.
02:41 House displays Obayashi's taste for bold weirdness.
02:44 The protagonist, seven schoolgirls, of course,
02:47 and indeed most of the cast, were amateur actors
02:50 with little to no previous experience.
02:53 The film's plot concerns an ill-advised trip by the girls
02:56 to a country house belonging to an aunt.
02:59 Said house, of course, turns out to be haunted.
03:02 The monster in this fantastic entry
03:04 is none other than the house itself,
03:07 which proceeds to murder the girls
03:09 in various outlandish ways.
03:11 The British Film Institute aptly describes House as
03:14 a head-on collision between the evil dead
03:16 and yellow submarine.
03:18 Number seven, Baba Hotep.
03:20 Baba Hotep stars horror legend Bruce Campbell
03:23 as Elvis Presley.
03:25 Now confined to a nursing home,
03:26 Elvis befriends fellow inmate, Jack.
03:29 Presley confides in Jack that back in the '70s,
03:31 he swapped places with a double in order to free himself
03:35 from the confines of the showbiz life.
03:38 Jack in turn confesses to being John F. Kennedy,
03:41 explaining that he was not killed in '63.
03:44 He survived, was patched up, died black, and abandoned.
03:48 With that sort of set up,
03:49 the fact that a mummy is stalking the nursing home
03:51 seems like the most believable aspect
03:54 of this fantastic film.
03:55 Number six, Werewolves Within.
03:57 A fantastic modern entry on this list,
04:00 2021's Werewolves Within largely slid under the radar,
04:04 which is a crying shame as this is a gem
04:06 well-deserving of a much larger audience.
04:09 Taking inspiration from the Ubisoft game of the same name,
04:12 Werewolves Within stars the likable Sam Richardson
04:15 as Finn Wheeler, a forest ranger newly assigned
04:18 to cover the small town of Beaverfield.
04:21 Finn soon befriends mail courier Cecily Moore
04:24 and discovers that the town is bitterly divided
04:26 over plans for a proposed oil pipeline.
04:29 To make matters worse, a mysterious creature
04:31 has begun terrorizing the inhabitants,
04:34 and when a vicious snowstorm traps many of the residents
04:37 inside a local inn, Finn and Cecily have to balance egos
04:41 and tempers in order to survive and discover the truth.
04:45 Number five, Cat People, 1942.
04:48 Rightfully regarded as a classic
04:50 of the black and white era, RKO's Cat People
04:53 is a stylish and inventive take on the monster movie.
04:56 The plot centers on Irina de Brovna,
04:58 whose recent marriage to Oliver Reed, not the actor,
05:01 is beset by a peculiar trouble.
05:04 Irina believes she is descended
05:06 from an ancient tribe of cat people,
05:08 and that if stirred to passion,
05:11 she will transform into a half-woman, half-cat beast.
05:15 Much has been made of Cat People's subtext
05:17 concerning the dangerous lusts of women,
05:20 ingrained patterns of misogyny and hypocrisy,
05:23 but if you wish, you can easily put all that aside
05:25 and simply enjoy this well-made
05:27 and surprisingly original Sunday afternoon movie.
05:31 Number four, Night of the Lepus.
05:33 Fitting comfortably into the so-bad-it's-good category,
05:37 1972's Night of the Lepus features an unlikely adversary
05:42 in the form of a rampaging horde
05:44 of monstrous mutant killer rabbits.
05:48 The film is based on a book,
05:49 The Year of the Angry Rabbit,
05:51 by Australian author Russell Braden.
05:53 Braden claims that the novel was envisioned as a joke
05:56 and took about four weeks to complete.
05:58 Night of the Lepus, however, misses all this
06:00 by a country mile thanks to a woeful script,
06:04 poor acting, and most damningly,
06:06 laughably bad special effects.
06:09 Director William F. Claxton, a native Australian
06:11 and former Japanese prisoner of war,
06:14 also helmed episodes of The Twilight Zone,
06:16 Bonanza, The High Chaparral,
06:19 as well as '80s phenomenon Fame.
06:21 We can assume he had an off day, or days here,
06:24 as Night of the Lepus soundly misses the mark
06:27 on every single front.
06:29 Number three, Valley of Gwangi.
06:31 Ahead of its time in the genre-mashing stakes,
06:34 1969's Valley of Gwangi uniquely pits Wild West cowboys
06:39 against living dinosaurs in a New Mexico canyon.
06:42 Intriguingly, the film was based on an abandoned project
06:45 by Wills O'Brien, the creator of the original King Kong,
06:49 who sadly passed away before he could bring
06:51 this idea to life.
06:53 Though it never quite lives up to its A-list potential,
06:56 the film has plenty to offer, not least the novel plot,
06:59 which concerns the supposed existence
07:01 of a herd of tiny prehistoric horses.
07:04 The owner of a struggling Wild West show
07:06 teams up with her former lover and a British paleontologist,
07:10 hoping to track down and capture these beasts
07:12 in order to boost flagging ticket sales.
07:15 An all-star cast take the roles of the protagonist,
07:18 but the real stars, of course, are the dinosaurs,
07:22 which are wonderfully brought to life
07:23 by legendary animator Ray Harryhausen.
07:27 Number two, The Mummy, 1932.
07:30 Boris Karloff is the main star, a legendary horror actor
07:34 whose resume includes such classics as Frankenstein,
07:37 The Mask of Fu Manchu, and The Ghoul,
07:40 all of which are well worth seeking out.
07:42 Inspired by the real-life discovery
07:44 and opening of Tutankhamen's tomb 10 years earlier,
07:47 the plot concerns an archaeological expedition
07:50 led by Joseph Wemple and Dr. Muller.
07:53 The team pays the price for its inquisitiveness, of course,
07:56 and unwittingly unleashes
07:58 ancient Egyptian high priest Imhotep onto the world.
08:01 Lost love's hidden tombs, curses, and magic spells
08:05 all play a part in this delightful movie
08:07 directed by Carl Freund,
08:09 who also worked on both the science fiction classic Metropolis
08:13 and the much-loved sitcom I Love Lucy.
08:15 Number one, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
08:19 A magnificent two-for-one entry here,
08:21 as we're recommending both the original 1956 version
08:25 and its equally excellent 1978 remake.
08:28 Both adaptations of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
08:31 are closely based on the classic book of the same name
08:35 by American author Jack Finney.
08:37 The chilling premise behind Body Snatchers
08:39 is that folks are slowly becoming convinced
08:41 that their nearest and dearest
08:43 have been replaced by doppelgangers,
08:45 almost perfect replicas whose behavior is somehow off.
08:49 Doctors initially assumed
08:50 that this is some kind of mass mania caused by stress.
08:54 In reality, sinister aliens are slowly taking over the Earth,
08:58 killing us off one by one
09:00 and taking the place of their victims.
09:02 That's the end of our list,
09:04 but let me know down in that comment section
09:06 if you can think of any other great monster movies
09:08 you reckon most people probably missed.
09:11 As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
09:13 Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
09:16 If you like it, you can come say hi to me
09:17 on my Twitter account, where I'm @JessMcDonald,
09:20 but make sure you stay tuned to us here
09:22 for plenty more great horror lists.