10 More Horror Movies With The Most Shocking Monster Reveals
4. The Predator - Predator
No list on this topic could be complete without mentioning 1987's Predator. While the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led effort is admittedly not a fully-fledged fright flick (it's a bonafide action classic), it still contains the unforgettable reveal of one of cinema's most iconic monsters and features a plot that wouldn't seem out of place in most horror films.
Director John McTiernan steadily builds suspense throughout the movie by waiting as long as possible to reveal the alien's full appearance - the Predator (Kevin Peter Hall) doesn't remove its futuristic mask until the climactic showdown. After the film's titular antagonist hunts and decimates his squad of soldiers, Schwarzenegger's Dutch Schaefer eventually realises that his pursuer stalks its prey using thermal imagery. The major then uses a thick layer of mud to camouflage his heat signature and lures the Predator into an ambush.
Impressed at Dutch's resourcefulness, his alien foe deems him a worthy adversary, removing its helmet to fight him face-to-face and precipitating one of the most memorable monster bows of all time. Schaefer is confronted with a set of features that only an extraterrestrial mother could love - a hideous mess of clammy flesh, razor-sharp tusks and malevolent yellow eyes that coldly survey him before the Predator lets out a bloodcurdling roar.
Frankly, Schwarzenegger's immortal one-liner is putting things mildly. A jarring monster reveal of the highest order, and one that lays bare McTiernan's genre subversion perfectly.