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Movie monsters began in the 1930s with some scary dudes (for that time) like Wolfman,The Werewolf of London, Dracula, King Kong, and the Mummy.  With modern technology Hollywood has given us even scarier horrors. Here's my top ten:

The Creature: The Creature From the Black Lagoon

The best monster of the 1950's. A black/white 3D movie that found an expedition down the Amazon running afoul of a humanoid "gillman," who immediately kills most of the men and goes after the only female. The actor who played the monster was a champion swimmer who had to hold his breath for long periods underwater and wear the heavy rubber suit. Many Black Lagoon underwater filming techniques were used 20 years later in this next one.

 

 Jaws

We were back in the water when 28-year-old Steven Spielberg gave us an even bigger fish star. This was frightening to me because it could actually happen. After watching this movie in 1975, I couldn't even get in the bath tub for months.

 Godzilla

Another water monster. The first Godzilla was made in Japan like a lot of things were in 1954, but the much later American versions were the best. Our 2014 and 2019 Godzillas were much bigger than their Godzilla. The big lizards were not too scary to me but were well done. The planned, "Godzilla vs King Kong" next year will be even bigger. Speaking of King Kong: 

King Kong

The first big monkey movie came in 1933 when the love starved King went after the pretty blond girl, but he was a bigger villain in "Skull Island." I had a little trouble with that movie believing Tom Hiddleston as a British special forces soldier after seeing him play Hank Williams.

The Thing

I did not see this movie. I do not want to see this movie. I have only seen pictures of this ugly mug, but he creeps me out.

Freddy Krueger from The Nightmare on Elm Street

A bad, bad man. I burned my striped sweater. Sales of Clearasil increased after this movie came out in 1984.  Cool hat.

Dinosaurs from Jurassic Park

They were well done and supposedly as realistic as possible. My favorite was the Velociraptors in the kitchen. They ate more actors than any other dinos. They even ate Samuel L Jackson. The king of dinosaurs, T Rex, only ate one, and he was the lawyer.

Predator

Jean-Claude Van Damme was hired to be the original monster, but he complained that the suit was uncomfortable and that he would never be seen on camera out of the suit, so the studio fired him and hired Kevin Hall who played Bigfoot in "Harry and the Hendersons".  At 7'2", he added a new dimension to the movie. EXTRA: Two future US State Governors were in the movie. Can you name them?

Pennywise: IT

If you were always afraid of clowns, Penny will take those fears to a new level. He was not your typical balloon dachshund-making clown. He is more of the terrorizing the kids clown (one of which became a radio DJ in the movie--hey!). The original movie IT is the highest grossing horror movie in history. ($700 million).

And number one on my list:

The Xenomorph from Alien

Great monster. Great movie! Scared the crap out of me in 1979. Very believable movie about truck drivers in space. Alien won a box of awards. It's hard to believe the monster was a real person in a costume. He was a 6'10" Nigerian named Bolaji Badejo who was discovered in a bar by a member of casting.  He was incredibly thin and spent a lot of time in all the Alien movies dripping Vaseline. This movie was a breakthrough for newcomer Sigorney Weaver who overcame being a woman in the workplace by stripping to her skivvies and kicking monster butt.

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