10 Horror Movie Creature Features That Broke All The Rules
Killer cows! Killer babies! Lovecraftian encounters in the mile high club!
The monster movie comes in many different guises and has done since the dawn of cinema.
Whether it's the original King Kong beating his chest, 1979's iconic Alien bursting its way out of poor John Hurt's chest, or more recent efforts such as, er, the Evil Bong series, almost anything can be the focus of a creature feature provided it fits the mould of the sub genre.
Like a lot of horror sub genres such as the slasher movie, the monster film revolves around a small group of unfortunates who encounter some form of malevolent monstrosity which proceeds to pick them off one by one until it's finally felled.
Within that limited framework there's almost endless opportunities for innovation, as evidenced by The Cave, The Descent, and The Cavern, a trio of subterranean creature features from 2005 which share a setting and basic premise but nonetheless managed to each offer a completely different spin on the sub genre (spins of varying quality, but that's neither here nor there).
But what, you may be wondering, about the monster movies that broke the mould? The creature features which aimed to do for the sub genre what the likes of Scream did for slashers?
Well worry not dear reader, as this list has assembled a run down of ten monster movies famous for breaking the rules of their sub genre.
10. It’s Alive
Directed by the infamous B-movie icon Larry Cohen, who brought us such esteemed efforts as Q: The Winged Serpent and The Stuff, It's Alive is an effort from 1974 which managed to make a movie monster out of the horrors of parenting.
Metaphorically speaking, that is. In literal terms, the movie's monster is a baby.
Sure, it's a mutant baby, but this was still a pretty audacious move for a creature feature to feature a killer infant as its antagonist.
Long before Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson would tread similar territory in his far sillier Braindead, this daring flick opted to take the idea of a killlr cannibal baby dead seriously and created an agreeable slice of schlock in the process. It's a film so solid that it managed to spawn (because it's a baby... get it?) a handful of sequels and a 2009 remake.
The flick is also notable for somehow garnering a PG rating upon its US release, despite the plot concerning... Well, again, a man-eating killer baby. Bit of an oversight on the part of the famously squeamish family-values-friendly MPAA there.