GIANT MONSTER Movie Archives 1960-1969

It's BACK! 

It's TERRIFYING! 

It's HORRIFIC!

IT CAN'T BE STOPPED! 

It's the... GIANT MONSTER MOVIE ARCHIVES SECOND EDITION....

This time kiddies... get ready for the Psychedelic Sixties! 

The 1950s are considered the GOLDEN AGE for science fiction monster movies, and it's no wonder considering the sheer number of films produced. More than a dozen titles were released in 1957 alone. But during the decade of the 1960s Japan really picked up the pace of production during their "Kaiju Eiga Boom". Japan's fantasy/monster films and television programming from this period had a great influence outside of the island. Although mostly designed for the local market, they were exported, dubbed (and sometimes re-edited) and soon became popular in North America and Europe. This helped to create a foreign demand for Japanese pop culture overseas (that later expanded to include anime, Sanrio products, J-pop, etc.) which continues to this day.

There's plenty of reviews of these films elsewhere online. As with any genre, they vary greatly in quality (the films and the reviews). This is intended only as a simple at-a-glance chronological list of the films released during the decade which (at least loosely) fit into the GIANT MONSTER category. It's merely a launching point to start your journey. Should you be so bold.

In this decade it became more common to shoot feature films in Glorious... Terrifying... Monstrous... COLOR!  And I dare say... the movies started to get even more bizarre. Godzilla returned less as a rampaging destroyer and more as a folk hero, protector and yes, even father. And some studio head in Japan approved half a dozen films about a giant jet-powered flying... (wait for it)... turtle. With tusks. And he kept his job.

Okay, let the model stomping begin!

Cue the tiny airplanes hanging on wires!
Lock Ray Harryhausen in a room for six months with a camera and his stop-motion puppets!

Annnnd... All Monsters Attack!!

The 1960s

The Time Machine (1960)	Dinosaurs! (1960)	The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
The Lost World (1960)	Goliath and the Dragon (1960)	Valley of the Dragons (1961)
Konga (1961)	Gorgo (1961)	Mothra (1961)
Reptilicus (1961)	Creature From the Haunted Sea (1961)	The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)	Mysterious Island (1961)	Gorath (1962)
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)	The Day of the Triffids (1962)	The Magic Sword (1962)
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)	The Slime People (1962)	Eegah! (1962)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)	Battle Beyond the Sun (1962)	Atragon (1962)
Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)	Jason and the Argonauts (1963)	Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
7 Faces of Doctor Lao (1964)	Dogora, the Space Monster (1964)	Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)	Gamera (Gammera the Invincible) (1965)	Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
Daimajin (1966)	Return of Daimajin (1966)	Wrath of Daimajin (1966)
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966)	It! (Curse of the Golem) (1966)	Gamera vs. Barugon (1966)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)	The Magic Serpent (1966)	War of the Gargantuas (1966)
King Kong Escapes (1966)	Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967)	Son of Godzilla (1967)
Gappa, the Colossal Beast (1967)	Yongary (1967)	The X From Outer Space (1967)
Space Monster, Wangmagwi (1967)	Gamera vs. Bairus (1968)	Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Kong Island (1968)	Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)	All Monsters Attack (1969)
Gamera vs. Guiron (1969)	The Valley of Gwangi (1969)	Latitude Zero (1969)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (short, 1969)

Oh, I nearly forgot about the red-eyed giant lunar caterpillars crawling through the caves of the moon. Yep, I just typed that. Compliments of H.G. Wells and the master of Dynamation himself, Ray Harryhausen.

First Men in the Moon (1964)

ஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜ

Although more spooky and not really giant, the monsters in the Yokai trilogy are quite creatively designed. (1968-1969)

The popularity and influence of television was increasing rapidly in the 1960s and exported Japanese series such as Ultraman and Giant Robot (released in the U.S. as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot) helped spread the popularity of the genre during the height of the "giant movie monster boom".

Ultraman battles Bemular (the original series, 1966)

Giant Robot does battle with the Giant Eye (1967)

Although the 1960s finally came to a end, monster movie makers hadn't exhausted all their monsterific ideas just yet. They would continue their fantastic adventures throughout the next decade and beyond. Return to this blog for that chapter... coming soon.