The nerd side of the internet is in love with the first trailer for the upcoming Godzilla: King of Monsters dropped at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. And rightly so. It’s been a few years since the US has had a Godzilla film proper (the franchise is still going quite strong in Japan) and this film boasts new takes on many of Godzilla’s beloved frenemies – Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah are all featured in the upcoming film and fans can’t wait. But while we breakdown each individual still in the trailer until we get another one, let’s stoke the kaiju fever even higher with some non-Godzilla kaiju film recs for the summer!
Non-Godzilla kaiju you say? Yes. It’s no secret that the king of monsters has a scaly, radiated death grip on the genre. But it’s good to check out some other stalwarts of the genre with beasts like Gamera or even Yongarry for a different perspective on giant creatures. Why does the big lizard get to have all the city-stomping fun?
1) The Mysterians (1957, dir. Ishiro Honda)
Chikyū bōeigun – released in English as The Mysterians – just barely escapes the Godzilla orbit. Honda is, of course, the father of the Godzilla franchise and arguably the genre as a whole. But Honda also loved political, topical sci-fi as seen with The H-Man and The Human Vapor. Those interests collide in The Mysterians. The kaiju here is actually a giant robot named Moguera, unleashed on humanity by the titular aliens after they get the jump on us by casually insisting they’re not invaders. Never trust an alien in a fancy suit.
Moguera and the Mysterians would eventually be repurposed as Godzilla villains (if you think the Mysterians sound an awful lot like The Xiliens from Invasion of the Astro Monster, you are correct), but The Mysterians is a great sci-fi flick to watch on its own. It’s a little darker than your average Godzilla film, showing humanity desperately fighting a losing battle against an incredibly advanced race with a weapon of mass destruction, and no radioactive lizard to bail us out.
2) Gorgo (1961, dir. Eugène Lourié)
Gorgo is a British-American collaboration with a French director, so you know this is going to be good. Maybe? Well, it’s interesting.
Lourié was no stranger to sci-fi monsters at this point, having directed both The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and The Colossus of New York amongst other creature fare. So he was definitely the man to handle this surprisingly sympathetic tale of a mother and son trying to reunite. Mother and son sea creatures who are several hundred feet tall. Mama Ogra definitely destroys a sea side shanty or two in the process, but that’s what those scientists get for snatching her baby. Gorgo is enjoyable even now, maybe more so after films like Cloverfield. It’s only real failing besides some dated special effects is that it’s a little too in love with the idea of being a British Godzilla. Speaking of monsters outside of Japan…
3) Q – The Winged Serpent (1982, dir. Larry Cohen)
Q leans more into horror than sci-fi, but all the elements of a good kaiju movie are still there. We’ve got a giant winged serpent, hapless military, New York being destroyed…
Q is an interesting take on the established kaiju tropes. There’s not really an environmental or sociological aspect unless the message is “don’t mess with giant dinosaur eggs in the city”. Unlike most kaiju who just want to be left be, Q is actually pretty malicious, gobbling up New Yorkers in broad daylight. There is also Aztec mythology inspiration, and the weird cult elements that almost place it as a Clive Barker flick. It’s a fun if grim-dark watch that shows how flexible kaiju genre can be outside of its home country.
4) Gamera (1965, dir. Noriaki Yuasa)
Gamera is the other major kaiju franchise in Japan, produced as a direct rival to Godzilla. But don’t think of the giant turtle as a clone – Gamera is strictly for the children!
Gamera sets himself apart from eternal rival Godzilla with an amazing barrage of powers and an even more monstrous appearance. But Gamera’s most notable feature is… friend to all children. Daiei Films immediately banked on Gamera’s kid appeal and cast him as a giant freaky hero for pretty much all his films. Even in his debut film, where he is still a mindless destructive beast recently freed from Antarctica, he gets a much nicer send off than being obliterated by an Oxygen Destroyer. Gamera’s movies vary greatly in quality, but the monster himself is always endearing. The Goku to Godzilla’s Vegeta, if you will.
5) The War of the Gargantuas (1966, dir. Ishiro Honda)
One more Honda directed films and quite possibly his best of the genre outside of his famous creation.
The kaiju featured in this movie are actually clones of Frankenstein, first hinted at in Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965). Frankenstein did not conquer the world; ironically, his spawn don’t seem terribly interested in it either. Wait, no destruction? Is this even a kaiju film? Oh, yes. The themes of this movie are really interesting as it uses the two gargantuas – Gaira and Sanda – to explore the different types of kaiju established in the genre by this point. Gaira represents the aggressive, destructive kaiju that don’t need provocation, while his brother Sanda is a gentle giant that wishes to co-exist with humans in peace. Naturally, these two sides can’t exist with each other and the brothers get into a… well, a war. A war that humans are powerless to stop. As Professor Serizawa would say, let them fight!