Godzilla Joins Jaws, Alien, and the Blob in the Shy Monster Hall of Fame
Godzilla had the second biggest opening of the year, with $93.2 million. That’s a pretty impressive showing by the title monster considering his name isn’t uttered until 45 minutes in, and by the time audiences actually catch a glimpse of his ferocious maw, the movie is nearly half over. In this he follows a rich tradition of shy monsters: Many directors before Gareth Edwards have felt that tension builds the longer a movie’s central terror-inducing force is shrouded in mystery. We dusted off the stopwatch to find out just how camera-shy some of Hollywood’s most famous movie monsters really are.
Gojira (1954)
The monster: The original prehistoric beast awakened by nuclear weapons testing, Gojira symbolized the destructive force of nuclear war post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After experimenting with different designs, the filmmakers finally settled on the dinosaur-like beast we all know. Then they unleashed him on Tokyo.
First partial glimpse: 24:10
First full shot: 46:30
Total screen time: 7 minutes, 55 seconds
Body count: Too many to tabulate
Why so shy?: Compared to the monsters that came after him, Gojira is pretty outgoing. But at just under eight minutes of screen time, the iconic beast appears in only 12 percent of the film. We can assume this is partially due to the brutal filming process that required an actor to hop into an unventilated suit for three minutes at a time. Any longer and filmmakers would have had one more body on their hands.
The Blob (1958)
The monster: A gooey, amorphous ball of gunk that envelops anyone in its path, the blob falls to earth in a meteor at the beginning of this B-movie masterpiece, and the rampage through a small Pennsylvania town is on. But the blob has a weakness and Steve McQueen, in his first starring role, discovers it just in time.
First partial glimpse: 21:47
First full shot: 21:47
Total screen time: 1 minute, 26 seconds
Body count: A couple hundred
Why so shy?: It’s possible director Irvin Yeaworth kept the blob offscreen to build suspense, but it’s much more likely he was just trying to hide the shoddy special effects. When your monster is a two-gallon ball of silicone mixed with red dye, it’s probably best not to let people stare at it too long. Nothing breaks the momentum like noticing the dye starting to settle at the bottom.
Jaws (1975)
The monster: The great white shark that terrorized Amity Island on July 4th weekend measured in at somewhere between 20 and 25 feet. That makes him a pretty formidable movie monster, and thanks to Steven Spielberg’s expert direction, he’s also one of the scariest, constantly lurking below the surface of the water.
First partial glimpse: 16:28
First full shot: 76:50
Total screen time: 4 minutes
Body count: 5
Why so shy?: Spielberg planned for the demon shark to appear more frequently in Jaws but was thwarted by faulty props. It was a happy accident that some say changed movies forever. Spielberg devised two notable solutions: first, not showing the shark, but implying its presence with music, and second, shooting from the shark’s point of view. Spielberg doesn’t give us a good look at it until more than an hour in and by that time the anticipation is so high that the audience is left looking like Roy Scheider the moment he goes nose-to-nose with the man-eater.
Alien (1979)
The monster: For almost an hour, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi bloodcurdler doesn’t need a monster to be scary. Unknown alien transmissions are plenty terrifying. When the crew of the spaceship Nostromo is sent to investigate them, Alien goes from suspenseful to scream-worthy. The title creature begins as a parasite implanted in John Hurt’s chest that grows into a shih-tzu-sized chestburster, and then a seven-foot nightmare, all within the span of a few hours.
First partial glimpse: 56:20
First full shot: 1:08:00
Total screen time: 3 minutes, 36 seconds
Body count: 9
Why so shy?: Partly it’s the set’s layout: Spaceships are full of short hallways and tight turns, so anytime the alien isn’t onscreen, it’s impossible to know where it might be lurking. One notable scene has the alien stalking Tom Skerritt while the audience only sees it as a blip on a radar screen. There’s no growling or teeth gnashing, but it’s one of the movie’s most riveting, less-is-more moments.
Signs (2002)
The monster: M. Night Shyamalan’s slow burn of a sci-fi thriller starts with crop circles that suggest bad things to come. (Or pranksters with a lot of free time.) Mel Gibson eventually solves the mystery and it’s Crop Circle 101: Lanky green men have taken over the world.
First partial glimpse: 38:11
First full shot: 58:19
Total screen time: 1 minute, 50 seconds
Body count: 1
Why so shy?: Of all the films on this list, none would have benefited more from not showing the monster at all. Shyamalan’s fifth film is plenty thrilling when the extraterrestrials are kept just outside of view. Once they’re exposed though, the tension turns to disbelief at just how cartoonish they look.
Cloverfield (2008)
The monster: The only thing bigger than the monster that ransacked New York in Cloverfield was the hype for this J.J. Abrams-produced flick. It follows a group of good-looking twentysomethings on the night a large reptilian creature and its minions lay waste to Manhattan.
First partial glimpse: 21:23
First full shot: 1:04:00
Total screen time: 3 minutes, 26 seconds
Body count: Thousands, maybe millions
Why so shy?: Director Matt Reeves cited both Jaws and Alien when asked why he waited so long to show the monster in Cloverfield. Reeves said those movies prove “there’s nothing more terrifying than the dread, the anticipation of seeing something.”
Super 8 (2011)
The monster: Abrams couldn’t stay away from the monster movie for long, directing his own in what he called an homage to Steven Spielberg’s early-’80s alien films. With the help of Spielberg himself (who served as a producer), Abrams concocted the story of a big, somewhat reptilian alien that escapes from military custody to terrorize a small Ohio town.
First partial glimpse: 38:30
First full shot: 1:24:00
Total screen time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds
Body count: 5
Why so shy?: With Spielberg and Abrams teaming up, Super 8's alien never stood a chance at much exposure. Asked about his approach, Abrams said, “You want to see the monster, but at the same time there’s something wonderful about it being withheld and hidden and just off camera.” And firmly in our nightmares, of course.
Photo credits: Everett Collection, ©Buena Vista Pictures, Cloverfield ©YouTube, ©Paramount Pictures
