Plot: In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages.

KBZ’s Take: While King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963) was restricted by technological restraints of the time, the 2021 film featuring the titular battle of the Kaiju titans has no such restraints and is the battle most fans of the subgenre have been waiting for. Though the plot of the film ties into the overall Monsterverse setup, this a film mainly worth seeing for the Kong vs. Godzilla battle fans have been dreaming of.

Additional Lists: Best Films About King Kong #3, Best Films About Godzilla #3

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

KBZ’s Take: The Cloverfield film franchise features this film, 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and The Cloverfield Paradox (2018). While all the films are set in a shared universe with varying degrees of alien ‘monsters’ attacking Earth, it’s the initial installment of the franchise that features some great Kaiju action and destruction that makes it a worthy entry on our list.

Additional Lists: Best Alien Invasion Films #15

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, an extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla that’s been in his care since birth. When a rogue genetic experiment goes wrong, it causes George, a wolf and a reptile to grow to a monstrous size. As the mutated beasts embark on a path of destruction, Okoye teams up with a discredited genetic engineer and the military to secure an antidote and prevent a global catastrophe.

KBZ’s Take: Based on the Rampage video game, the film adaptation brings to life the Kaiju destruction that was popular in arcades in the mid-1980s. While the film initially takes a more humorous approach to the King Kong-like George, it eventually shifts to a more serious approach involving the Kaiju-life crocodile (Lizzie) and wolf (Ralph) culminating in an epic Kaiju battle between the three mutated beasts.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: When a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and tears through the city, the government scrambles to save its citizens. A rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster’s weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side – the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes.

KBZ’s Take: The Shin series of films feature reimagined Japanese classics such as Shin Kamen Rider and Shin Ultraman. We personally enjoyed Shin Godzilla the best for its unique take on Godzilla and its very non-subtle political themes and satire.

Additional Lists: Best Films About Godzilla #3

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Careless American military personnel dump chemicals into South Korea’s Han River. Several years later, a creature emerges from the tainted waters and sinks its ravenous jaws into local residents. When the creature abducts their daughter (Go Ah-sung), a vendor (Song Kang-ho) and his family decide that they are the only ones who can save her.

KBZ’s Take: Bong Joon-ho rose to international fame when his film, Parasite (2019), won best film at the 92^nd Academy Awards. What’s less well known, however, is that Joon-ho has had a few of the best films about eco-horror and genetic engineering including The Host, Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017).

Of all his films prior to Parasite, The Host is the best film with themes of eco horror and one of the best overall films of the K-Horror (Korean Horror) film subgenre. Inspired by Kaiju films, it layers a theme involving human negligence with chemical waste that results in a terrifying, mutated monster over a family drama with a frantic father in search of his daughter.

The Host is a horror film at heart, but it is also a satire with many tonal shifts. It’s the best eco-horror film of the decade that has a self-awareness of the dangers of human negligence and shines a horrifying, yet comedic, lens at mankind’s hubris and inability to control itself.

Additional Lists: Top Eco-Horror Films You Haven’t Seen – 2000s #1

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent, and the world.

KBZ’s Take: Them! is one film from our list of The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1950s Horror that uses atmospheric and off-screen horror to great effect. Though the designs of the mutated ants are dated, there’s no denying the effective creepiness that occurs throughout the film when the ants are ‘heard’ in the distance.

This is an older Kaiju film that remains a classic of the subgenre that younger fans should seek out.

Additional Lists: The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1950s Horror #4

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.

KBZ’s Take: Even though Peter Jackson’s King Kong version is a hefty 187 minutes long, it’s still the best film version of King Kong and one the expands on all the right themes.

First, the film does a better job than any other adaptation of exploring the horrors of Skull Island and what Kong is constantly up against. The horror themes in the film track more closely to the 1933 version and, in most instances, surpass them.

Second, the film better explores the relationship between Kong and Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) which makes Kong a more sympathetic creature throughout the film.

Though we would always advise fans of the subgenre watch the original 1933 film, if there’s only one filmed version of King Kong you have time to watch, this is it.

Additional Lists: Best Films About King Kong #1

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Titans suddenly appear on Earth and feed on humans. 100 years later, human civilization lives in peace behind giant walls to defend themselves…until the Titans re-appear.

KBZ’s Take: This is by far the most bonkers and crazy film on our list and an apocalyptic film that only the Japanese can make. This is a live adaptation of the popular magna and anime series which has resulted in very divided opinions.

While the magna and anime series has better character development and world building, the live action films are a three hour effort across two films (this Part 1 film and Attack on Titan II: End of the World (2018)). We still enjoyed the live action films and thought it was one of the better and more unique post-apocalyptic films with some of the most disturbing Kaiju you will ever see.

Additional Lists: Top Post-Apocalypse Films You Haven’t Seen #9

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Japan has barely recovered from the Second World War when a gigantic peril emerges off the coast of Tokyo. Koichi, a deserter traumatized by his first confrontation with Godzilla, sees this as an opportunity to redeem his conduct during the war.

KBZ’s Take: Godzilla has always been a constant presence within the subgenre as different versions of the mutated dinosaur have wreaked havoc on Tokyo and the rest of the world. And though the two other primary Godzilla films of the early 2020s, Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) & Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), were massive blockbusters at the box office, it’s the lesser-known Godzilla Minus One that we feel is the best Godzilla film since the original Godzilla (1954).

Though Godzilla Minus One isn’t a horror film per say, it is action-packed and is grounded with its focus on Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and his relationship with Godzilla over the years. It’s the classic tale of redemption as Kōichi experiences the monster for the first time and must rise up to help defeat Godzilla from destroying Tokyo.

This is a visually amazing film that won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 96^th Academy Awards. There are sequences in the film that are jaw dropping from Godzilla’s first appearance to the havoc and destruction caused by the monster as he rampages through Tokyo. It’s a film we highly recommend for fans of the subgenre even though it’s light on horror elements. We’re that confident that after seeing the film, you’ll agree with us that it’s one of the best adaptations of Godzilla from the last 50 years.

Additional Lists: Best Recent Eco-Horror Films #1, Best Films About Godzilla #1

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: A ragtag band of humans band together in the year 2025 to fight legions of monstrous creatures rising from the sea. Using massive piloted robots to combat the alien threat, earth’s survivors take the fight to the invading alien force lurking in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless enemy, the forces of mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes – a washed up former pilot and an untested trainee – who now stand as earth’s final hope against the mounting apocalypse.

KBZ’s Take: Though there’s an argument to list one of the many Godzilla or King Kong films as the best Kaiju film of all time, we had to go with Pacific Rim due to its non-stop action and special effects that were ahead of its time. This is the type of film that both defines the subgenre and redefines how Kaiju battles should look and feel.

The film takes all the best elements of previous Kaiju films from a human-created mech unit battling against Kaiju in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) to the psychic connection between human and Kaiju in Mothra (1961) and meshes them together in an action-packed film that features the most exciting thrills of the subgenre.

Though Godzilla and King Kong will always remain the “Kings of the Kaiju”, Director Guillermo del Toro brought a fresh take to the subgenre that helped redefine the immense scope and destruction of Kaiju battles.

Additional Lists: Best Alien Invasion Films #5

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon