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By Whitney Alen

In the early days of cinema, creative directors spent a lot of effort trying to achieve special effects without the aid of computer rendering and digital action. They quickly discovered that perspective was a great resource, and that very small things could be made to look very large (or vice versa, of course). There was no such thing as high definition, but there were other ingenious advances in filmmaking. With clever use of close-ups and toy models, even a small spider could crush villages. Thus was born that genre of camp and classics, the giant animal flick.

There was another force at work, in these early films, that represented common feelings of the time: Science was a rapidly expanding field, but in many ways it was still not well understood, and there was a widespread uneasiness about its consequences. The satellites people worried about then were Sputnik, not satellite TV. In each of the following movies, it is man’s own actions and ambitions that bring the over-sized beasts into disastrous contact with humanity. Without further ado, the top 5 classic giant animal movies:

King Kong – No other enormous animal star is as iconic as King Kong. Appearing in 1933, this was really the first of the giant animal movies. This one is a little different from many that follow in that science wasn’t actually the culprit of Kong’s size or fury. Rather it was human greed and ambition that removed him from his natural habitat. For a high-budget HD update, Peter Jackson’s 2005 film makes an interesting comparison.

Them! – Along with Kong, this may also be considered a parent of the genre. It’s the story of giant ants terrorizing the population of a New Mexico town. It turns out atomic radiation is responsible for the truck sized ants, and it seems that nothing can stop them.

It Came From Beneath the Sea – The giant octopus that terrorizes San Francisco in this film is laughably unreal by modern audiences used to flashy high definition effects, but the movie is still admirable for facing the challenge of having a sea monster attack a city – the action is necessarily all at the water’s edge. Hydrogen bomb tests have made this huge cephalopod radioactive and driven it from its natural deep-sea home. Interesting to note is that the film only had budget to create 6 tentacles, so the beast is never fully shown!

Tarantula – In this film well-intentioned science has gone seriously awry. A scientist attempting to solve world hunger creates a nutrient formula for animals – but it causes them to grow huge, and hungrier than ever. This proves deadly when the tarantula gets free and starts devastating the town. Mad scientists, blossoming romance, and one enormous arachnid – what more could you ask from the genre than that?

Night of the Lepus – Made in 1972, this movie glorifies the camp of its predecessors. Once again, the best intentions of science wind up causing a test subject – a rabbit in this case – to grow to supernatural proportions. It also breeds like a, well, rabbit, and the researchers must stop the bunnies before the whole Southwest is destroyed beneath their fluffy paws and bloodthirsty jaws.

Even with modern technology the genre hasn’t really changed so much over time. Films like Jurassic Park show that the cautionary tales about meddling with science are still very much alive. New films might have computer-generated monsters and HD bragging rights, but the enormous animal is still the main attraction. Catch these classics on satellite TV and you won’t be disappointed.

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