The Best Monster Movies on The Criterion Channel

What it's about: The story of a gentle-hearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl. She is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. She is unable to return the key on time, but it is revealed that the Beast is the genuinely handsome one. A simple tale of tragic love that turns into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: A 400-foot (122-meter) fire-breathing dinosaur, awakened from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by hydrogen-bomb testing, attacks Tokyo.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man and grow to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: The year is 1999 and the Earth's monsters have been rounded up and kept on Monsterland. The peace however is broken when a race of she-aliens, the Kilaaks, unleash the monsters across the world.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Vudu).

What it's about: When a village is besieged by giant caterpillars, a more horrifying discovery is made in their underground home: a giant flying creature that resembles the prehistoric pterodactyl. Soon after, a second Rodan appears and the two monsters begin to destroy Japan.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Prime Video & FandangoNOW).

What it's about: The 5th film in the original Godzilla franchise marked a turning point in the series. Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra must put aside their quarrelsome ways to become allies and defend earth from 3 headed Dragon King Ghidorah.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & FandangoNOW).

What it's about: A bullied schoolboy dreams of traveling to Monster Island, where he befriends Godzilla's son, who is also having bully troubles.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).

What it's about: An American airbase in Canada provokes resentment from the nearby residents after fallout from nuclear experiments at the base are blamed for a recent spate of disappearances. A captain from the airbase is assigned to investigate, and begins to suspect that an elderly British scientist who lives near the base and conducts research in the field of mind over matter knows more than he is letting on..

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Gaira, a humanoid sea beast spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster, attacks the shores of Tokyo. While the Japanese military prepares to take action, Gaira's Gargantua brother, Sanda, descends from the mountains to defend his kin. A battle between good and evil ensues, leaving brothers divided and a city in ruins.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).

What it's about: Four friends are attacked by a demon while on a picnic, due to possession of a tome of mystic information, and find themselves pitched into a world of evil which overlaps our own. Incorporates a 16mm amateur short film by Dennis Muren and Mark Thomas McGee, featuring author Fritz Leiber Jr., filmed in 1965.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy).

What it's about: The first pilot to leave Earth's atmosphere lands, then vanishes; but something with a craving for blood prowls the countryside...

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Ships disappear on route across the Arctic Sea, and a special submarine is sent to investigate.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, The Criterion Channel, Kanopy & 1 other) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: The spaceship AAB-Gamma is dispatched from FAFC headquarters in Japan to make a landing on the planet Mars and investigate reports of UFOs in the area. As they near the red planet, they encounter a mysterious UFO that coats the ship's hull with unusual spores. Taking one of the specimens back to earth, it soon develops and grows into a giant chicken-lizard-alien monster that tramples Japan.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).