5 Disturbing Monster Movies You Need to See [Video]
Chad Collins
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Monster movies are all the rage, yet outside of a few exceptions, they never quite get the credit they deserve. While the likes of Crawl and Antlers come to mind as some of this century’s best, monstrous mayhem is often relegated to the direct-to-video front, indie releases that simply manifest online without an ounce of marketing to their name. It’s a shame, largely because few horror subgenres prove as ridiculously entertaining as a good old-fashioned monster movie. However audiences conceptualize them, there’s something to be said for watching some beastie run rampant, tearing apart limbs, demolishing anything in its path.
While 2022 has been elevated by titles like Prey and The Cursed, here are five additional monster movies you might have missed this year.
Monstrous
Monstrous might not be the Christina Ricci monster movie its marketing suggested, though it’s all the better for it. Boasting one of the better plot twists in recent memory, Monstrous remains eminently watchable on account of Ricci’s committed, simultaneously funny, and heartrending, descent into madness. In Chris Sivertson’s period horror movie, Ricci is a housewife in the 1950s who flees from an abusive husband with her young son. They settle in a rural country home somewhere in California’s dust bowl. Soon thereafter, they’re plagued by appearances of a monster that emerges from an adjacent lake. Monstrous never endeavors to be anything remotely scary. Yet, it is psychologically dense, and Ricci draws from her Yellowjackets well in a transcendent, incredible performance.
Hatching
Hatching isn’t just a phenomenal monster movie—it’s one of this year’s best horror movies, period. Director Hanna Bergholm mines a lot from a little in her Finnish shocker about a young girl, Tinja (Siiri Solalinna), who brings home a mysterious egg from the woods. That egg hatches into an adorable, giant bird. Soon, the bird—named Alli—begins acting as a mirror for Tinja’s darkest, repressed desires. An amalgam of body horror and classic slashing, Hatching is fiercely feminist and fiendishly effective.
The Lair
While The Lair never quite reaches the highs of Neil Marshall’s own Dog Soldiers or The Descent, he does harken back to his heyday of monstrous slaughter. Sure, the acting is incredulously bad. The setting is stark, and the plotting is inconsistent and, frankly, ridiculous. Yet, it matters for naught when Marshall has such gorgeously conjured alien hybrids—all practically conceived—ripping off heads, slaughtering their way through English militaristic imperialism. Marshall’s directorial status does admittedly suggest considerably more than what’s on display. Though, when he’s having this much fun, it proves infectious.
The Killing Tree
In truth, I’ve been skeptical of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey since it was first announced. It transcends the realm of high-concept horror, leaving the likes of Polaroid or Truth or Dare in the misty, bloody dust. It sounded like a concept more than a movie. The kind of (admittedly brilliant) marketing ploy that would never live up to what it promised. Now, having seen The Killing Tree (also known as Demonic Christmas Tree), I’m genuinely suspecting Blood and Honey might be good.
Director Rhys Waterfield is preempting his Winnie the Pooh slander with The Killing Tree, a monster movie that is considerably better than it should have been. And I don’t simply mean better on account of being “so bad, it’s good.” I think The Killing Tree is actually good. It’s well shot, competently acted, and even boasts a little thematic heft to go alongside its tale of a serial killer reincarnated as a homicidal Christmas tree. The effects are principally of the computer-generated variety. Yet, they work well enough, demonstrating more care than most bargain bin Christmas horror offerings. It’s a present masquerading as a lump of coal. Resultantly, it almost certainly earns its status as one of the best Christmas slashers in years.
Croc!
Paul W. Franklin’s Croc!, conversely, can’t reasonably be called a good movie. Ostensibly the story of a young woman getting married at a rural British manor, it’s more akin to an old Cinemax skin flick. This is a softcore porno with a smattering of crocodilian carnage thrown in to maintain its genre status. It won’t appeal to everyone. Yet, the finest purveyors of bad cinema, what with its laughable effects, terrible acting, and lack of narrative, well, anything, will find it consistently watchable. Sometimes, a movie doesn’t need to be good. It just needs a lot of glossy, attractive brits being torn asunder by digital crocodiles.
Which of these have you seen? What’s your favorite monster movie of the year? If you haven’t already, too, check out The Cursed. It’s criminally underrated. As always, us know your thoughts on all things monstrous over on Twitter!
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