Castle Vanian Halloween Special: Top 5 Creature Features

Selecting just five Creature Features for our Top 5 list wasn’t as easy as you’d think. Sure, a few are so iconic you can’t argue with them but after that… well, things start to get a little obscure and a whole lot weird. How do you decide when you’ve got things like Critters and Tremors duking it out?

(Which, by the way, would make a fucking awesome movie.)

The movies we settled on have a few things in common. First of all, you won’t find any aliens on this list. Leave those invaders for another list, another time. Secondly, we decided we wanted movies that focus on one creature. (With the exception of this week’s Wild Card.) With those restrictions in mind, have a look at what we came up with...

Top 5 Creature Features

		5. Lake Placid (1999) The funniest and most entertaining movie on this list, Lake Placid features a killer crocodile that’s got local authorities way out of their depths trying to figure out how he ended up in Maine. (Not the actual Lake Placid, which is a little weird.) A broken-hearted palaeontologist and hot-shot mythology professor fly in to help out – which is when things get interesting. And snarky. Very, very snarky. Lake Placid stands out because of the rapport between its supporting characters. It’s so good you forget that you’re supposed to be paying attention to the budding romance going on with the main characters. Oh, and don’t forget the legend that is Betty White (who absolutely steals every scene she’s in.) For more, click here. Wondra’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jay’s Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
		4. Godzilla (1998) You can’t make a list of monster movies without including the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla. We knew our list would include one of the many King Kong movies, so the hard part was deciding which one. Like many that came before and many that yet to come, the 1998 Godzilla is as much action movie as it is horror. It stars unlikely action hero, Matthew Broderick, as a scientist who teams up with acting legend and bad ass Frenchman, Jean Reno. It feels almost like a buddy cop romp when those two team up, with a little mayhem on the side. This version of Godzilla is a favourite here at Castle Vanian because of its resemblance to long-dead dinosaurs. It’s remarkably believable, considering it’s a giant freaking monster and the end of the movie is satisfyingly twisted. For more, click here. Wondra’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jay’s Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐
		3. Gremlins (1984) Remember that rule about focusing on a single creature? That doesn’t apply to this week’s Wild Card movie, Gremlins. You’ll notice that it’s also a Christmas movie and heavy on the comedy. We discussed all of these things at length. The verdict? It’s our list and we’ll do what we damned well please. You’d have to have been living under a rock for the last (almost) forty years to not know what Gremlins is but, for those of you who’ve recently rejoined humanity… This one is about a man who buys his son an exotic pet and gives him a very specific set of instructions for caring for said pet – which the kid accidentally ignores. The gremlin (Mogwai) duplicates, the resulting duplicates mutate, duplicate some more, then go on a rampage through town. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds. Gremlins has kind of gotten a reputation in recent years as a family film but it’s quite a dark, nasty film. There are some surprisingly nasty death scenes (the gremlins get it worse than the humans) that make it worthy of any horror list. For more, click here. Wondra’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jay’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
		2. King Kong (2005) King Kong is another monster that had an instant spot on this list of Creature Features. Again, the hard part was picking from some very good Kong movies. We picked the 2005 King Kong because it’s a slick masterpiece. The casting, sets, costuming, and script are spot on and time appropriate. And Kong… Kong is frighteningly believable. If you saw that thing on a news report, rather than at the cinema, you’d 100% believe it was real. Then shit yourself. The best part about this King Kong movie is the way it pulls at your heart strings. It makes you root for Kong in a way that no other version has so, when the inevitable ending comes, it breaks your heart that much harder. For more, click here. Wondra’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jay’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
		1. Jaws (1975) What can I say about the classic, Jaws, that hasn’t been said a million times before (sometimes by people cleverer than me?) You’ve got a cop who hates water but lives on an island, a young expert on sharks no one wants to listen to, and a weathered old sea captain with a tale for every scar who team up to take out a shark that’s terrorizing locals. They were made for each other, weren’t they? Jaws was the movie that changed the game for Spielberg and scared beachgoers out of the water. It’s had a lasting impact on both the shark populations and the horror community. For more, click here. Wondra’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jay’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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