Cryptid Monster Movies

Here’s something fun for Halloween! Allow me to present a list of monster movies that feature veritable cryptids. Obviously, most of these creatures are highly implausible, but none of them claim supernatural, radioactive/mutant or extraterrestrial origins:

1. King Kong – Though its gargantuan girth is never explained, the premise of finding an enormous, bipedal ape on a remote jungle island has cryptozoology written all over it.

2. Creature from the Black Lagoon – You won’t find a less-plausible cryptid than the ‘Gill-man,’ but a team of investigators discovers the creature in the Amazon, where new species are still documented on a regular basis.

3. Jaws – Cryptozoology can include ‘unexpected’ animals… out of place or exceptional individuals of a known species. Sound about right?

4. Anaconda – Unverified accounts of the ‘Surcuriju Gigante,’ 60′ to 100′ anacondas from South America were the basis for this 1997 film.

5. Tremors – Though the origin of the ‘Graboids’ is at first vague, it is eventually revealed that these ‘death worms’ date back to the Precambrian period… some 540 million years ago.

7. Cloverfield – The origin of the titanic Clover monster is kept ambiguous, though there is an inference that it comes from Earth’s deep oceans.

8. Reign of Fire – The post-apocalyptic dragons are portrayed as being a naturally occurring Earth-born species… merely awoken from hibernation or regenerated after vast ages.

9. Deep Star Six – One of my favorites. Deep sea workers encounter a surviving Eurypterid (15-foot ancient sea scorpion). It could happen.

10. Valley of the Gwangi – Another guilty pleasure. Extant dinosaurs and even an Eohippus (basal horse) are found in an isolated valley of the old American Southwest.

11. Q: The Winged Serpent – The Aztec myth Quetzacoatlus… potentially based on giant flying reptiles (pterosaurs), nests on New York rooftops.

12. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms – A hibernating, marine dinosaur (albeit a fictional species) is awakened… wreaking havoc on the pubic at large.

14. The Deadly Mantis – Again… features the old ‘dormant prehistoric monster awakens’ theme. Though, this time it’s an insect of absurd proportions.

15. Razorback – A colossal, invasive monster hog terrorizes the Land Down Under.

16. Nightwing – Hordes of vampire bats invade the American Southwest. David Warner’s characterization of an obsessed researcher seems familiar to this cryptozoologist.

17. White Buffalo – Charles Bronson playing Wild Bill Hickok who, hunts a monstrous, albino bovid. Shades of Moby Dick.

Ken Gerhard About Ken Gerhard
Ken has investigated reports of mysterious beasts around the world including Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, giant winged creatures and even werewolves. In addition to appearing in three episodes of the television series Monster Quest (History Channel), Ken is featured in the History Channel special The Real Wolfman, as well as Legend Hunters (Travel Channel/A&E), Paranatural (National Geographic), Ultimate Encounters (truTV) and William Shatner's Weird or What? (History Television). His credits include multiple appearances on Coast to Coast AM, major news broadcasts and Ireland’s Newstalk radio, as well as being featured in major books and in articles by the Associated Press, Houston Chronicle and Tampa Tribune. Ken is author of the books Big Bird: Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters and A Menagerie of Mysterious Beasts: Encounters with Cryptid Creatures, as well as the co-author of Monsters of Texas (with Nick Redfern) and has contributed to trade publications including Fate Magazine, Animals and Men, The Journal of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club and Bigfoot Times. He currently lectures and exhibits at events across America. Born on Friday the 13th of October, 1967 (exactly one week before the famous Patterson Bigfoot film was shot), Ken has traveled to twenty-six different countries on six continents and most of the United States. An avid adventurer, he has camped along the Amazon, explored the Galapagos, hiked the Australian Outback and has visited many ancient and mysterious sites, from Machu Pichu to Stonehenge.

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