10 Monster Movies You Should See Before You Die
1. Predator
Hard to believe now, but when filming commenced on Predator, the creature design was one of the silliest things anyone on the crew had ever seen. According to director John McTiernan, he was shooting on location when he received a costume for a red cyclopean monster – on stilts, yet – and immediately realized the movie was in trouble.
The producers turned to Stan Winston, a newly minted Oscar winner for his work on Aliens (he’d also previously worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger on The Terminator), who designed the iconic monster you saw onscreen. The Predator is the icing on the cake of a movie that's both flawlessly directed (McTiernan made Die Hard next) and brilliantly cast, with one of the best tough guy ensembles of the 80s.
McTiernan even manages to reign in Jesse “I ain’t got time to bleed” Ventura when he calls his colleagues a “bunch of slack-jawed faggots” and mows down half the jungle with Ol’ Painless. Ventura, by the way, later became mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minneapolis, and was elected Governor of Minnesota in 1998, beating Arnie’s gubernatorial ambitions by 5 years. Another member of Predator’s cast, former porn star Sonny Landham, later ran for Governor of Kentucky.
No conclusions here, just some food for thought.