The Best Monster Movies on The Criterion Channel

What it's about: Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Yemani soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel & Shout Factory TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Ichiro Miki is a child living in the industrial district of Kawasaki, where his parents' constant struggle to make ends meet often leaves the schoolboy alone. Constantly teased by a bully nicknamed "Gabara", his only friends are toy consultant Shinpei and fellow classmate Sachiko. Ichiro turns to escapist dreams of Monster Island where he befriends the equally bullied Minilla.

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

What it's about: Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra's fairies arrive and are aided by the journalists in a plea for its return. As their requests are denied, Godzilla arises near Nagoya and the people of Infant Island must decide if they are willing to answer Japan's own pleas for help.

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

What it's about: Searching for his brother, Ryota stows away on a boat belonging to a criminal alongside two other teenagers. After being caught in a storm the group arrives on Letchi island, where the Infant Island natives have been enslaved by a terrorist organization and held captive by a crustacean monster. Discovering a sleeping Godzilla, they decide to wake him up to defeat the terrorists and liberate the natives.

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

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, then it growing 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 (Plex & Crackle), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, Philo, The Criterion Channel & 1 other) & 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 popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Scientists in the South Seas are conducting weather experiments when reporter Goro Maki suddenly arrives on Sollgel Island. He soon discovers the island is inhabited by giant mantids, a cast away woman, and a baby Godzilla.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

What it's about: At the turn of the century, all of the Earth's monsters have been rounded up and kept safely on Monsterland. Chaos erupts when a race of she-aliens known as the Kilaaks unleash the monsters across the world.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel), stream on a TV everywhere service (TCM) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

What it's about: An Okinawan prophecy that foretells the destruction of the Earth is seeming fulfilled when Godzilla emerges to return to his destructive roots. But not all is what it seems after Godzilla breaks his ally Anguirus's jaw. Matters are further complicated when a second Godzilla emerges, revealing the doppelgänger as a mechanical weapon.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

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 popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy).

What it's about: Two fishing scout pilots make a startling discovery when they find two giant monsters on a remote island. One is a new monster dubbed Anguirus, and the other is a second Godzilla. The two monsters make their way to Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy.

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

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 & PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, 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 popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel).

What it's about: A village is besieged by prehistoric nymphs when a more horrifying discovery is made. A giant flying creature that resembles a pteranodon emerges. Soon a second monster appears, converging with its mate in Fukuoka.

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

What it's about: An ever evolving alien life-form arrives on a comet from the Dark Gaseous Nebula and proceeds to consume pollution. Spewing mists of sulfuric acid and corrosive sludge, Godzilla may not be able to defeat the toxic menace.

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

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 (Philo, fuboTV, AMC Premiere & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (AMC) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Comic artist Gengo Kotaka lands a job with the World Children's Land amusement park. He soon becomes suspicious of the organization when a garbled message is discovered on tapes. Godzilla and Anguirus quickly decipher the message and begin a plan of action.

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

What it's about: Inventor Goro Ibuki creates a humanoid robot named Jet Jaguar. It is soon seized by an undersea race of people called the Seatopians. Using Jet Jaguar as a guide, the Seatopians send Megalon as vengeance for the nuclear tests that have devastated their society.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

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 & Shout Factory TV), stream on a subscription service (Philo, fuboTV, AMC Premiere & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (AMC) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: A meteorite lands in Kurobe Valley as detective Shindo is assigned to protect Princess Salno. Seemingly assassinated, she emerges under the guise of a prophetess and catches the attention of Mothra's fairies with her warnings of the appearance of Godzilla, Rodan, and powerful space monster called King Ghidorah. Mothra must convince Godzilla and Rodan to set aside their hatred of humanity or face Ghidorah alone.

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

What it's about: Tales of the Night is renowned animation auteur Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar)'s first foray into 3D animation. A hit at the Berlin Film Festival, the film extends the earlier shadow puppet style of Ocelot’s Princes and Princesses, with black silhouetted characters set off against exquisitely detailed Day-Glo backgrounds bursting with color and kaleidoscopic patterns – the subtle use of 3D creating a diorama-like effect. The film weaves together six exotic fables each unfolding in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead. In Ocelot’s storytelling, history blends with fairytale as viewers are whisked off to enchanted lands full of dragons, werewolves, captive princesses, sorcerers, and enormous talking bees - and each fable ends with its own ironic twist.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

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 popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel).

What it's about: Mysterious aliens known as Xiliens arrive from Planet X and ask Earth's people to help them save their world from "Monster Zero". In exchange for borrowing Godzilla and Rodan, the Xiliens offer a cure for cancer. Sent on the expedition are astronauts Glenn and Fuji who discover Monster Zero is none other than King Ghidorah.

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