The Monster Movie Hall of Fame and 'The Invisible Man'

The Monster Movie Hall of Famefive picks each, chronological

King Kong 1933

Adam's pick. Monster as pure spectacle: stop-motion built for a giant screen, and somehow still sympathetic even as he's smashing people into paste.

Cat People 1942

Adam's pick. A Val Lewton production directed by Jacques Tourneur, working the suggestion-over-effects route his low budgets forced on him.

Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954

Adam's pick, directed by Jack Arnold. The underwater-stalking template Jaws would run with. Per Adam, it's also the movie Guillermo del Toro's Shape of Water waters down.

Jaws 1975

Sean's pick, and by his own account his favorite movie period. His case: the shark doesn't mean anything, and that's exactly why it works.

Dawn of the Dead 1978

Sean's pick. George Romero's consumerism satire, with Tom Savini's gore effects doing as much talking as the metaphor.

Alien 1979

Sean's pick. H.R. Giger's design work on a creature Adam calls monster as lack of character: there's no reading its motives, only its shape.

The Evil Dead 1981

Adam's pick, Sam Raimi's debut. The monster here is a book (the Necronomicon), not a body. Edited by a pre-Blood Simple Joel Coen.

The Thing 1982

Sean's pick, John Carpenter's remake. Rob Bottin's transformation effects opened the same summer as E.T. and got buried for it.

The Fly 1986

Sean's pick. David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum, produced by Mel Brooks. It's the one on the list that gets Sean, by his own admission.

The Mist 2007

Adam's closing pick. Frank Darabont's Stephen King adaptation. Both hosts prefer watching it in the black-and-white cut.

Leigh Whannell on 'The Invisible Man'

Leigh Whannell on

The Invisible Man 2020

Writer-director Leigh Whannell moves the story to the victim's point of view, with Elisabeth Moss carrying it. The invisibility effects mix CGI with 1930s-style practical tricks: a stunt performer in a green suit, a crew member pulling a wire from inside a cabinet.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Cited in the Hall of Fame conversation Bride of FrankensteinFrankensteinDraculaYoung FrankensteinGodzillaPsychoThe Shape of WaterKing Kong (2005)Pan's LabyrinthPrometheusAliensCat People (1982)Invasion of the Body SnatchersThey LiveHalloweenThe FogBlood SimpleAn American Werewolf in LondonQThe HowlingGremlinsGremlins 2: The New BatchSmall SoldiersThe Wolf ManWendigoChild's PlayAnnabelleThe ExorcistThe OmenThe ChangelingThe Blair Witch ProjectParanormal ActivityPacific RimIt Chapter TwoParasiteLoganPinocchio20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Films Whannell watched while writing The Invisible Man MiseryFatal AttractionWait Until DarkCat PeopleGone GirlDead CalmMad Monster Party?

Also mentioned in the Whannell interview UpgradeRoboCopTotal RecallScannersBig Trouble in Little ChinaInceptionThe MatrixStar WarsOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodKnives OutJudyGhostbustersThe Elephant Man

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