What To Watch
10 Creature Features for When You’ve Had Enough of Humanity
Ignore the monsters in your head and enjoy the ones onscreen instead.
By Ananda Dillon
Oct. 8, 2026
10 Creature Feature Movies and Shows to Stream Now - Netflix Tudum
Creature features, aka monster movies, are sometimes seen as the (literal) ugly stepchild of the horror genre. Maybe it’s because their heavy costumes, makeup, or CGI can make them too unrealistic to be scary. Those who appreciate this maligned subgenre know that what makes monster movies and shows work is that they often serve as a metaphor for deeply human issues.
Monsters represent our fears — of that which is different from ourselves, but also of our own base desires: for power, control, and revenge. But creature features can also provoke our empathy and challenge our biases.
Of course, these films and series also just provide a scary good time watching gruesome beasts rampage weak, unsuspecting humans. The best onscreen monsters give us a bit of both: something mythical and terrifying, and also something to feel compassion for. Whether you’re looking for human-made horrors or fantasy beasts, there’s a monster for every occasion. Check out these 10 creature features, and enjoy a break from the world you know.
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Josh Hartnett stars in this six-episode thriller as Calvin Penney, a bighearted but stubborn fisherman who remains haunted by his father’s mysterious death from decades ago. One day, an unidentified sea creature starts terrorizing his small Newfoundland hometown, with locals succumbing to mayhem brought on by strange events, and Calvin’s son Wade (Charlie Heaton) exhibiting terrifying symptoms. To keep his family and community safe, Calvin teams up with a marine researcher (Mackenzie Davis) to confront the creature and reveal the island’s buried secrets before it’s too late. The twisty limited series dives into themes of family, community, and change — both terrifying and inevitable.
Damsel
In this fantasy film, Millie Bobby Brown plays Elodie, a young noblewoman who agrees to marry Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) in a neighboring realm to help feed her own people. Elodie and the prince connect, and she ignores her mother’s uneasy feeling about the arrangement. As part of the wedding ceremony, Henry carries Elodie across a mountain chasm — then he promptly drops her into the void. Surviving the fall, Elodie realizes she’s been offered as a sacrifice to an ancient dragon in the mountain. But this beast won’t be getting an easy meal — Elodie is determined to survive and have her revenge.
Frankenstein
The master of creature features, director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth), takes on fiction’s most famous man-made monster. This adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic 19th-century novel stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, a tortured scientist determined to overcome death. He harvests body parts from fallen soldiers, stitching them together to form a new man, the Creature (Jacob Elordi), and harnesses the power of lightning to reanimate him. Rejecting his unnatural creation, Victor attempts to destroy him, but the Creature lives and makes his way out into a world that fears him.
Godzilla Minus One
Godzilla is one of the world’s most recognizable onscreen monsters. A far cry from the original kaiju’s first appearances in the low-budget Japanese films of the ’50s, this movie gives the radioactive colossus a makeover, distinguishing him from the American franchise started in 2014. In post–World War II Tokyo, kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) returns home to find that his parents have died in a bombing. Meanwhile, empowered by American nuclear testing in the waters outside of Japan, Godzilla awakens. He’s angry and ready to unleash his wrath on Tokyo. Shikishima and fellow war veterans devise a plan to take down the destructive beast.
Okja
In this film about a supersized animal, it’s the humans who are the real monsters. Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) is a young South Korean girl whose grandfather is raising a genetically modified “super pig,” Okja. Mija and her giant pet have a special relationship, so when Okja is taken away to NYC, Mija follows her. Thus begins an adventure involving a run-in with an animal liberation group, a daring escape from an inhumane slaughterhouse, and a plan to expose wealthy business owner Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton). Directed by Academy Award winner Bong Joon Ho, Okja is a thought-provoking creature feature addressing animal rights and corrupt capitalism.
Stranger Things
The technology of ’80s films ushered in a new era of monster movies. So it’s fitting that this nostalgic series about a group of kids in the ’80s would include some great creatures. In Hawkins, Indiana, 12-year-old Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) goes missing, prompting his school friends Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) to search for him. The boys come across a psychokinetic girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who escaped from a federal research facility that’s been conducting paranormal human testing. The facility inadvertently opened a portal to a hellish alternate dimension where Will is menaced by terrifying creatures.
The Silence
This horror flick introduces a terrible threat to humanity that’s unearthed by scientists and released into the world. The “vesps,” as they are known, are blind flying creatures with super hearing that helps them track and kill humans. Hugh Andrews (Stanley Tucci) attempts to get his family to safety in the family van before realizing sound is what lures in the vesps. His daughter, Ally (Kiernan Shipka), lost her hearing in an accident, so the family is well-versed in sign language. As they set out for safety, staying as quiet as they can, they encounter all manner of dangers — both man and beast.
Troll
This Norwegian film takes one of its country’s oldest folk myths and brings it to life. Paleontologist Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) is brought onto a task force that’s researching the deaths of several mountain drilling operators. When she finds what appear to be giant footprints around the disaster site, she reaches out to her father, Tobias (Gard B. Eidsvold), who’s long believed the mountain troll is real. The team accidentally awakens the giant, and military intervention only further provokes its rage. Soon, the beast is headed toward Oslo, leaving Nora and Tobias to scramble for a way to stop the impending disaster.
Under Paris
A bloodthirsty shark, loose in the River Seine? This French action-horror film follows Sophia (Bérénice Bejo), a marine researcher whose team encounters a massive shortfin mako shark nicknamed Lillith. Three years later, Sophia is in Paris working at an aquarium when she’s told that Lillith’s tracker places the shark in the Seine. Joined by a police diver, Sophia searches for Lillith, eventually discovering that the shark has adapted to fresh water and produced offspring with the same genetic mutation. With a triathlon set to take place in the Seine, Sophia is in a time crunch to find the shark.
The Witcher
A show about a monster hunter promises plenty of scary creatures. Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill in Seasons 1–3 and Liam Hemsworth in Season 4) is a monster hunter for hire, blessed with supernatural powers that aid him in taking down even the most formidable of beasts. Traveling the Continent, he takes new jobs, eventually meeting and falling in love with the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra). Destiny brings him to Cirilla (Freya Allan), the young crown princess of Cintra, who holds great magical potential. The three of them encounter perils along their respective journeys and prepare for the bigger battles ahead.
Additional reporting by Ashley Lee.
Number of recommendations may vary by region.
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