Aquatic Monster movies have existed since the dawn of time; while some, such as Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, go on to win Academy Awards, the majority of them end up as unwatchable B flicks.
Sea monsters, on the other hand, have remained to haunt mankind in practically every mythology, or they may appear as urban legends, such as the Loch Ness Monster. Whatever the case may be, these creatures are a sight to behold.
We’ve compiled a list of the best sea creatures ever produced in Hollywood history in this video. While a number of the films featured here may not appear to be Oscar contenders, they certainly know how to handle their monsters! Let’s get this party started, shall we?
The Creature from Sweetheart (2019)
After an accident, Jennifer Remming and her boyfriend Brad’s yacht washes ashore on the beach of a tropical island. Brad dies soon after, and she buries his body. She finds ex-residents’ graves and belongings while alone on the abandoned island. Jennifer later discovers Brad’s tomb has been exhumed, with a trail of blood going from it.
Jen’s suitcase reaches the surface the next day, and she dives into the sea to recover it, only to discover a massive foreboding pit on the seabed. She discovers a humanoid marine creature in the dark of night, much to her distress.
She tries to hide from the monster or catch it over the next few nights, but her efforts are in vain. Eventually, Jen stabs thecreature with a sharpened stick and narrowly escapes. Somehow, her friends Zackand Mia reach the island.
Despite warning them about the horrors that hide beneath the watersurface, they pay no heed. However, the monster will not restuntil he gets what he wants,i.e. whoever comes to his island.
The film’s monster is an unusual aquatic creature in that it lives mostly in a deep trench beneath the ocean’s floor bed, yet it can also walk above the surface and breathe air with relative ease. The monster’s entire body is first visible behind a canopy of trees before we see the rest of it.
However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that it is exceedingly tall, and that it is “taller than any man,” as Jennifer states. When it comes to strength, the monster has no issue picking up and flinging individuals at least 20 feet away with a single stroke. It uses the razor-sharp claws on its feet and hands to slice and puncture objects and humans.
It might look like a dim-witted monster but it shows a higher degree of intelligence when it strategically tests the raft before attacking. Furthermore, it appears to be somewhat nocturnal as it hardly appears on the surface during daytime. But, it is definitely light-sensitive because, in the scene where Jennifer lights up a flare above the water, it immediately comes out to inspect.
The creature’s blood is sticky and dark when Jennifer hits it with her pocket knife and many homemade spears. Furthermore, the species from Sweetheart, like other birds, reptiles, and sharks, has a nictitating membrane that it utilises to lubricate and protect its eyes.
With its scaly and armor-like exterior skin, it resembles a humanoid reptile. Its most intriguing aspect has to be the communicationclicking sounds it makes, which seem like they’re from a Predator. Remember to watch it on Netflix; it’s well worth your time.
Lizzie from Rampage (2018)
Athena 1 was a space station that was performing studies on genetic mutations and genesplicing. An experiment, however, goes bad, and a mutant rat causes mayhem. Claire Wyden, the company’s CEO, instructs the space station’s lone survivor to gather the virus canisters and return to Earth in an escape pod.
The pod, however, explodes as it enters the planet’s atmosphere, scattering the canisters over the United States. When a wolf and a crocodile are exposed to the pathogen, they change into monstrous creatures. Another canister lands in the paddock of George, an albino gorilla maintained and communicated with by Davis Okoye, a US special forces soldier and primatologist.
George, too, is exposed to thepathogen and grows in size, becoming more aggressive as he does. Genetic engineer and ex Energyne researcher Dr.Kate Caldwell contacts Davis and tells him about the company’s plan to use the pathogen as abiological weapon.
Meanwhile, George is captured by US agents led by Harvey Russell.Funnily enough, the US agents take George in an airplane, but due to an elaborate conspiracy,he breaks out of the plane and joins the crocodile and the wolf to wreak havoc on Chicago andits nearby areas. However, there’s still a way that George can be calmed down, involving his old friend Davis.
Lizzie used to be just a regular neighbourhood crocodile from the Florida Everglades, pleased to eat whatever fish she came across. She could have lurked near humans on occasion, but she wasn’t a malevolent croc. Really! However, humans used their little science trick and transformed her into a 100-foot-long beast.
Her Ankylosaurus-like mutation gave her razor-sharp blades that protruded from her hide, tusks in her jaws, and a spiky club. While the wolf and George only inhaled the mutating agent, Lizzie ate the entire canister; this made her bigger and stronger than the other two.
She received super-crocodile strength and durability: she could lift and fling huge military vehicles, bite her way through helicopters, and plow into buildings. She tore off Ralph’s head with great ease. As far as her durability is concerned, she withstood a rain of missiles from an AH 64 Apache chopper, as well as a bunch of grenades that exploded into her gills.
These things only seemed to anger her, much less hurt her. Of course, she’s a fantastic swimmer, but like other crocs, she’s not as swift on land as the wolf or the huge chimp. By the way, Dwayne Johnson certainly rocked in the film as Davis.
Homo Aquaticusfrom Leviathan
During a deep-sea mining operation, a crew of seven discovers a damaged Soviet ship dubbed Leviathan. They locate the captain’s video tape, which talks about medical difficulties and other issues that plagued his crew, in the ship’s safe.
Sixpack, a Russian sailor, discovers a Russian vodka flask and shares it with a coworker named Bowman. The oddest discovery, though, is that Leviathan was scuttled. Sixpack dies the next day, but subsequently comes back to life as a terrifying monster. Bowman suffers the same fate.
Two members of the crew request an emergency evacuation, but a storm on the mainland forces a twelve-hour delay. Meanwhile, Bowman and Sixpack’s reanimated and mutated corpses begin to merge with each other. But, that’s not all; a tentacled beast is waiting to attack the surviving members of the crew.
The creature was created by the Russians as a part of their research on their unwitting crew members, but when the experiment got out of hand, they resorted to scuttling the ship to prevent further spread of this deadly infection.
The Homo Aquaticus is also called the Fishman because it’s a bio-engineered human that looks like a fish. The creature is comprised of former Russian men who ultimately fused together, creating jawed tentacles, fins, a fish-like head, and other aquatic features.
The Aquaticus can mutate and mature into an adult with rapid speed. Its severed limbs can act as individual creatures and can regenerate if not stopped. Apart from being extremely contagious, the monster can also absorb the intelligence of other organisms, including humans.
All of these elements harken back to John Carpenter’s The Thing. Do you agree with me? The crew manages to hurl the creature into the sea in the film, but a portion of its leg gets severed and remains with them. It started regrowing the rest of the monster right away.
Despite its ability to absorb intelligence, the artificially created extraterrestrial appears to be less intelligent and dexterous than humans, and certainly not as intelligent as the creature in Carpenter’s film. The film does a fantastic job at conjuring up a sense of anxiety, dread, and claustrophobia.
Gwoemul from The Host (2006)
A military scientist in the United States instructs his Korean assistant to empty roughly 200 vials of formaldehyde into a sink. The sink empties into a drain, which empties into the Han River. The incident results in various alterations in the amphibian animal community, as well as the death of many fish.
Six years later, in 2006, a terrifying and massive amphibious creature emerges from the river’s depths and assaults the audience. Park Gang(Gaa-ng) Du, the proprietor of a fast food establishment, and his daughter Hyun Seo are among those on the riverbank.
Gang Du flees with his daughter but loses her in the pandemonium, and Hyun Seo is kidnapped and thrown into the river by the monster. Soon, the US military quarantines everyone who came in contact with the slimy beast. Naturally, Gang Du and his family are also kept in isolation.
Hyun Seo manages to let her father know that she’s alive and is being kept in the sewers. Gang Du and his family seek help from the authorities, but none come to their aide. Furthermore, it is revealed that an elaborate conspiracy is at play. Ultimately, Hyun Seo’s family, who were simple citizens, take up arms and resolve to fight the monster and get their little girl back from its clutches. Will they succeed?
The Gwoemul resembles a big grey tadpole, but it has a segmented mouth with mandibles and many razor-sharp teeth, similar to a fish. It breathes through its gills, which are behind the mouth. It features two long chains of fins on the back of its tail, just like a fish, and a whip-like tongue.
It has feet, yet when walking or sprinting, it appears to stumble frequently. The Gwoemul, like other amphibians, can swim extremely well. A massive overgrowth can be found around one of its eyes, however the cause of this mutation is unknown. It possesses four sharp appendages in place of the hind limbs.
The most interesting feature about the Gwoemul has to be the three fishes stuck on its back. They were probably keeping themselves safe by attaching themselves to another mutated organism, or they were simply feeding off the Gwoemul like parasites.
By the end of the film, these fishes fall off when the Gwoemul becomes weak, a result of the Agent Yellow that the authorities inject into the river. The creature feeds by gulping the entire bodies of its prey, and like the monster from Leviathan, it regurgitates what’s leftover, including anything hard like bones or metals.
Depladonfrom Deepstar Six (1989)
A undersea cavern is discovered by the crew of DeepStar Six, a US-owned underwater naval installation. Van Gelder, the crew’s leader, is in charge of the mission, which has as its goal the discovery of underwater settlement and nuclear silos.
Gelder orders the use of depth charges to demolish the cavern beneath their aquatic facility after discovering it. The explosive, however, is too powerful, and it crushes a section of the fragile seafloor.
The team then sends an unmanned vehicle to investigate the region, but they follow after losing communication with it. They find the car, but their SONAR also detects a large object. It gradually closes in and begins a massacre. Have the crew of Deep Star Six opened the gateway to hell?
Or, have they encounter an alien that didn’t come from space but lived in the depths of the ocean? Things get worse as the crew manages to wreck the facility inadvertently in an attempt to launch an attack. All the while a monster is lurking around them.
The monster beast had existed for an eternity deep beneath the ocean’s surface until being awoken by the crew of Deep Star Six’s explosions and dazzling lights. It attacked the Sea Cat first, then began slaughtering the crew members one by one. The Depladon exemplifies how man’s curiosity can easily become his own death wish.
They had lost one of the weapons experts, which resulted in the detonation of nukes, which caused significant damage to the complex. Engineer Jim Richardson, who goes out to repair the damage, is also killed by the ancient beast.
Richardson is killed by it grabbing him in its maws and biting him. After that, the Depladon swims inside and murders another member of the crew. They shoot it with carbon dioxide filled shark darts but even that seems to do no damage. Ultimately, the crew decides to run for their lives.
The film was directed by Sean S. Cunningham, who also directed the 1980 blockbuster Friday the 13th. As a sci-fi horror film, it serves its purpose, but to expect anything more than that would be disappointing. The film could have been a much bigger success had they used better effects. Nevertheless, it’s worth your time and attention if you’re a horror film buff.
Cthulhu from Underwater (2020)
The crew of the Kepler 822 drilling and research facility is five thousand miles from land and seven miles below the surface of the water at the Mariana Trench, the planet’s deepest point. When a big earthquake strikes and ruins the facility, things go wrong.
Because the remaining researchers discover that other crew members have already stolen all of the escape pods, they decide to go one mile to another facility known as Roebuck 641 and attempt to reach the surface from there.
They uncover and kill a previously unknown species just as they are about to embark on this difficult expedition in their pressure suits. Initially, humanoid creatures hunt the crew one by one, but things worsen when they notice an entire nest of the creatures.
But in an attempt to fight these creatures with flares, they awaken an ancient titanic beast named Cthulhu. This one-mile journey at the bottom of the ocean is like taking a walk in an underwater theme park, only millions of years ago, and with creatures that they have never witnessed or even imagined before. Will anyone survive?
The creature is inspired by legendary horror author H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Director William Eubank, presenting a gargantuan mountain-like monster with a grotesque humanoid upper half, ensured that he maintained the typical characteristics of the Lovecraftian monster and pleased the fans by presenting a gargantuan mountain-like monster with a grotesque humanoid upper half.
Cthulhu was so massive that his lower half was drowned beneath the water and could not be seen. It had an octopus-like head with odd features, but the CGI was good enough that we could see the creature’s four pale eyes, several large and sharp fangs, and various tentacle-like appendages floating in the water.
Its jaw had several layers of fanged teeth and the lower jaw had the ability to split in two halves, somewhat like the Predators. Furthermore, the Cthulhu had bony wings, meaning it could very well reach the surface and maybe even fly.
The behemoth creature can very well be compared to the Titans from the Godzilla universe and it wouldn’t be a surprise if we ever get a crossover film, or a Godzilla film which included this hefty beast. But then, want doesn’t get.
Humanoids From The Deep (1980)
The plot centres on humanoid monsters who terrorise the village of Noyo, California. These monstrosities emerge from the depths of the oceans to murder men and sexually abuse women for fun.
The monsters are nothing more than a staged catastrophe. According to the video, a group planned to open a food processing plant in Noyo, and they were experimenting with salmon by injecting a growth hormone. During a storm, the salmon escaped into the ocean, where they were eaten by larger fish.
These larger fishes subsequently mutated into vicious, ugly, dangerous, and perverted humanoid monsters who stripped women naked before mounting on them. However, not all their attacks are successful, and a few women live to tell their horrific ordeals with these humanoid fish monsters. A few from the town are worried about these attacks as the annual town festival is around the corner,providing an excellent hunting ground for these creatures.
We’ve heard about a lot of monsters, but these fish humanoids are a different deal altogether. They look absolutely grotesque and are extremely violent like other monsters, but have an affinity towards exploiting females.
It’s uncertain if they have this kind of disposition because they want to reproduce or because they are fundamentally corrupt and perverse. Despite the threat of fatalities and attacks in the community, the authorities and administration in the film do nothing.
In addition, the majority of the events occur while couples are going to get cosy near the shore. We’re guessing the expression “get a room” has never been more appropriate than during this film!
Nonetheless, this was another Roger Corman film, and the 1980s had only begun to see a flood of rip-offs of sci-fi masterpieces like Alien. Many cynical viewers and critics have also been critical of the rubber suits and the appearance of these monsters, but we think they serve their purpose in a horror movie quite decently. The monsters are basically an intelligent amalgamation of the great white from Jaws and the Xenomorph from the Alien world. They are simply deadly and well… they’re bad.
Kraken from Clash of The Titans (2010)
Gods created man to worship them after defeating the pre-Olympian gods or Titans and dividing the earth among themselves. For the gods, man’s worship would entail immortality, while his blasphemy would put them in danger.
Zeus ruled the heavens, Poseidon ruled the seas, and Hades was duped into controlling the underworld. Perseus, Zeus’s son, is born to Queen Danae some time later. An outraged KingAcrisius, on the other hand, kills the Queen, putting her body in a chest with Perseus and dumping it into the sea.
Spyros, a fisherman, and his wife, Marmara, eventually find Perseus and nurture him. Argos, a city-state, wages war on the gods a few years later. King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia lead the human forces, but their daughter Princess Andromeda stands against her parents as the head of a rebellion.
Hades refuses to allow this blasphemy anymore, and he threatens the end of Argos through the release of an ancient beast called Kraken if Andromeda is not offered as a sacrifice. Perseus will have to realize that he’s a demi-god and defeat the Kraken to save Argos and Andromeda. But the path is full of difficulties, demons, and gorgons.
Kraken was the offspring of two pre-Olympian gods who lived in the oceans, Ceto and Oceanus. Kraken, of course, was a monstrous beast with tentacles so huge that they could not only sink ships but also wipe out entire cities.
His incredible endurance and resilience supported and complemented his strength. He also has a massive maw with a slew of razor-sharp teeth. The Kraken’s tentacles not only helped him spread destruction, but they also let him swim quickly.
When the gods wanted a city-state destroyed, they enlisted the help of the enormous Kraken, according to Greek mythology. However, according to the Norse mythology, the Kraken was the largest of all sea creatures and resembled a giant squid.
In the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, Kraken was depicted as Poseidon’s pet, but in the 2010 film they showed him as Hades’s prisoner. The Kraken was released onto the city-state of Argos when Hades manipulated the other gods into allowing its release.
Slattern from Pacific Rim (2013)
As aliens invade on Earth via an interdimensional hole known as the Breach, mankind band together to create massive manned robots known as Jaegers to fight back. Raleigh and Yancy Becket pilot one of the Jaegers, the Gypsy Danger to combat a Kaiju named Knifehead Raleigh kills Knifehead in a brutal struggle, but he loses his brother in the process.
Becket departs the programme, hurt and stressed by the huge defeat. Because Kaiju sightings had become more common and Jaegers were expensive to create, world governments decided to throw the Jaeger programme under the rug and instead build a gigantic wall.
All of them are transported to Japan under the care of Marshal Stacker Pentecost, who also plans on using a tactical nuke to destroy the Breach. However, Pentecost still needs Becket and tracks him down to include him in the mission.
Meanwhile, researchers find out that the Kaiju are, in fact, bioweapons created by alien colonists who seek to dominate Earth. Becket still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his brother’s death. However, he will have to rise up to the task and forget his past because he has to face the biggest of all Kaijus- the Slattern itself.
Slattern was the most powerful and largest of all Kaijus, and he only appeared at the end of the movie. Its poison and intelligence also make it the most dangerous Kaiju in the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The Slattern has thick, leathery skin that makes them extremely durable. It employs its tail, which has three pointed crowns, for long-range assaults. The tail’s strikes are so powerful that they can pierce Jaeger armour.
The most intriguing assault is when it turns quickly, turning its tail into a mid-range weapon. A spiky protrusion on the chest is used by the Slattern to pierce through the Jaegers.
Apart from these physical attributes, its roar releases massive soundwaves that can cause damage to structures in its path. At about 600 feet in height and 6000 tonnes in weight, its attacks garner heavy momentum and become impressively potent. Do look out for its hammerhead shark-like face and the slanted chin.
Bruce from Jaws (1975)
A man-eating great white shark begins terrorising beachgoers in a tourist town in this thriller. The mayor and the wealthy businesspeople, however, refuse to block the beaches to tourists because they are the town’s main source of revenue.
When a small boy is mutilated by a shark, his mother places a bounty on the shark’s head. As a result, many villagers become shark hunters and head out to the ocean. The film follows three young guys from the Oceanographic Institute, Quint, Brody, and Matt, and their encounters with the great white shark.
Steven Spielberg directed and adapted this film from Peter Benchley’s novel. Benchley got the inspiration for his book from a 1964 newspaper article that said that a 4500-pound shark was caught off the Long Island coast.
Despite the fact that it was primarily a work of fiction, there are certain actual and horrifying occurrences from 1916 that are similar to the plot of Jaws. A great white shark struck and mauled a young businessman called Charles Vansant near Jersey Shore; five days later, Charles Bruder was attacked 45 miles away.
When the shark travelled 16 miles inland through a small creek that joined the ocean, the attacks became even more horrible and terrifying. It had become a public nuisance, and no ocean-connected water body was safe.
The general public was terrified, and officials were on high alert. The shark hunt was conducted in the same manner as any other criminal inquiry. Many of the then specialists like John Treadwell Nichols and Charles Haskins, the director of New York Aquarium, were consulted on the subject.
Naturally, shark fishing became a sport for all people alike. And, allegedly, a shark was caught that had human remains in its stomach and intestine. Spielberg followed this event from 1916 very closely while making the film that became a terrifying and terrific thriller. Many directors tried to replicate the magic, but none seem to come even close to the thrill and fight that Spielberg generated. We guess the first is the best.
Piranhas from Piranha 3D (2010)
Matt Boyd’s destiny is sealed when fishing in Lake Victoria when his body is ripped apart by a school of venomous piranhas. Sheriff Julie Forester and her deputy officer Fallon discover Matt’s disfigured body as they begin their hunt for him, and they discuss closing the Lake to visitors.
However, it is spring break, and hundreds of students are looking forward to having a good time. Furthermore, during this time of year, the body of water brings in a substantial amount of cash for the local town, ensuring that the lake remains open.
Later, Zane and Laura, two siblings, become stranded on a sandbar island in Lake Victoria. It is revealed that the earthquake breached the floor bed of the Lake and opened a passage to a prehistoric lake that houses a deadly species of piranhas named Pygocentrusnattereri, also called the Original Piranha.
This species of piranhas devours their victim in moments and even survives through cannibalism. Sheriff Julie’s warnings are ignored by the youngsters who party at Lake Victoria, and almost everyone gets either killed or wounded by the carnivorous fish. Will the bloodbath end? If yes, how?
Despite the fact that the Pygocentrusnattereri, or red belly piranha, may be found in many places of the world, the video portrays them as an ancient and prehistoric species that died out roughly 2 million years ago.
The piranhas in the picture are capable of killing and devouring things far larger than themselves, but that is true of all piranhas. The difference is in the level of fury displayed by these piranhas. They’re a lot deadlier than conventional ones, and they’ll murder just about everybody that gets in their way.
Octalus from Deep Rising (1998)
Another great luxury cruise ship, the Argonautica, went down in the same way as the Titanic, but this time it was due to a huge hideous creature with spiky tentacles that loves to suck human bodily fluids and spit out the skeleton, rather than a fatal mistake turn into an iceberg.
Hanover and his mercenary band recruit Captain Finnegan to rob the vault and the wealthy passengers. However, when they arrive at the ship, they discover that none of the guests have arrived, and the ship is in complete disarray. They soon discover that the ballroom is flooded with blood.
As the group works to complete their mission, one by one, they are assassinated by weird tentacled entities. It is revealed that the spiky tentacles are actually the body parts of a larger sea monster named Octalus.The creature may well be an extreme evolution of the oceanic animals named Ottoia, who gulp their prey to suck their nutritious bodily fluids and then eject the skeleton.
The beast takes over the ship with its tentacles hunting any person alive. Trillian and Finnigan spot an island a few nautical miles away, and it seems to be the only way that they can save themselves from this sea monster. The last scene of the film has an exciting revelation.
Octalus is a massive beast with a bulk that could swallow an entire cruise ship. Its body was made up of tentacles that ended in mouths with sharp fangs, as the name suggests. We don’t know if the tentacles are sentient enough to function on their own or if the main body controls them all.
The crew that went to rob the ship of its fortunes initially thought that the tentacles were individual creatures; we don’t know if the tentacles are sentient enough to function on their own or if the main body controls them all.
The tentacles, on the other hand, were intelligent enough to figure out where the prey was, implying that they had a sensory organ that detected heat or vibrations. Octalus seemed to be an able hunter because it made sure to send the prey into an enclosed location without an escape route so that it could devour them easily.
Interestingly enough, the distant island that Trillian and Finnigan discover is, in fact, the Skull Island from the King Kong universe. Stephen Sommers was supposed to direct a King Kong film with Deep Rising being a lead-in film, but the project never began. We told you this so that you would understand that our alien-looking monstrous animal is comparable to a Kong or a Godzilla!