20 Most Highly Rated Horror Movies On Rotten Tomatoes

Rating: 93%

Special effects have come on in leaps and bounds in the sixty-three years since its release, and by today’s standards Gojira (or Godzilla for the cultural ingrates) does look a tad outdated. But regardless of how quaint it might seem to modern-day moviegoers, it’s nevertheless a classic monster movie and introduced us all to one of cinema’s most iconic beasts.

It’s more than just a monster movie too. At its heart, it’s a cautionary tale about the perils of nuclear warfare with the titular monster as the atomic bomb manifested in physical form – an allegory not lost on Japanese audiences in 1954, less than a decade after the devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

Since its release Gojira has spawned countless sequels and spinoffs and remakes and reboots, some good (Mothra vs. Godzilla, for example) and some not so good (that means you Roland Emmerich), but none quite so good as the first ever Godzilla film.