Several fantasy movies offer fans some of the best monsters imaginable, and many have stood the test of time over several decades. There are great monsters in horror movies, including Godzilla and slasher monsters like Freddy Krueger and Pinhead. However, for fantasy movies, it is about more than just being scary.
In fantasy movies, the monsters can be evil and scary, but they are also meant to be horrifically beautiful and fantastical. Fantasy monsters are often created to open the imagination, rather than to create a jump scare meant to terrify the audience. These monsters also go back to the start of cinema, and remain iconic to this very day.
The Flying Monkeys (The Wizard Of Oz)
Released in 1939, The Wizard of Oz is one of the earliest fantasy movies to be a massive box-office success, and the studio didn’t even think it would succeed in the genre; instead, they labeled it a musical. The film used the brand-new Technicolor format to create a beautiful, dazzling land and contrast it with the dull real world.
However, there was another contrast. While Oz was bright and colorful, a darkness threatened to overwhelm the land, led by the Wicked Witch of the West and her evil Flying Monkeys. For a movie marketed toward a younger audience, these Flying Monkeys were terrifying, and their attacks on the heroes were extremely disturbing.
Actor Pat Walshe played the Monkey King, Nikko, and having a real person portray these fantasy monsters made them even more disturbing to look at, creating nightmare fuel for children for decades after the film’s initial release.
The Rancor (Return Of The Jedi)
Return of the Jedi was the third Star Wars movie, and while it is mainly categorized as sci-fi, the three earlier franchise movies are as much fantasy, thanks to the Jedi storyline. That third film starts with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian heading to save Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt.
However, their plan goes awry when they are caught and Luke is dumped into the Rancor pit, put to battle the giant monster held captive there. This is a scary fantasy monster, a seemingly mindless, violent creature used as fighters by their captors. However, later appearances showed they didn’t have to be evil monsters.
George Lucas initially wanted two actors in a suit to portray the Rancor and when that didn’t work out, Lucas brought in puppeteers. He created the fantasy monster through rod-oriented puppetry, resulting in a visually dynamic creature for Luke Skywalker to battle and eventually kill.
Darkness (Legend)
Darkness is different from many other fantasy monsters because it wasn’t a raging monster that served others. Instead, Darkness was the main antagonist in Legend, and what makes him even more fantastic is that the incomparable Tim Curry played the monster, helping turn the film into a cult classic.
The design of Darkness was incredible, modeled to look like a demon, colored red with giant horns and a demonic skin design. He also has a cape that makes him even more majestic and overbearing, which worked perfectly for Curry’s over-the-top performance. Darkness stole every scene he appeared in and is the best part of Legend.
Rob Bottin, who worked as the special effects artist on The Howling, created the effects on Legend, including creating Darkness. It took over five hours to get Curry into his full makeup, and Legend was all the better for it.
Cyclops (The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad)
Ray Harryhausen created some of the greatest stop-motion fantasy monsters in movie history, and he created the monsters in Jason and the Argonauts, a film that Tom Hanks considers the greatest movie ever made. However, his greatest fantasy monster came in the film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
This monster was the Cyclops, a great beast that terrorized Sinbad and his crew on their journey. These monsters were one-eyed creatures that roamed the wilderness of Colossa, and they are the main antagonists in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. They are strong beasts with limited intelligence and seem to lack any moral compass.
Out of all of Ray Harryhausen’s creations, the Cyclops really sits at the top as the best of the best, and they are even more highly praised than the stop-motion skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts.
The Jötnar (Trollhunter)
While the movie was not a massive hit, Trollhunter was a huge festival favorite when it was released in 2010 and one of the most unique found-footage fantasy-horror movies of its era. The film, directed by André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe) in Norway, follows documentary filmmakers searching for mythical trolls.
What they didn’t expect to find was that the trolls were real, and that the government was hiding their existence and protecting them in preserves to protect them and the human population in the lands surrounding the area. The main monster here was the Jötnar, and they did a brilliant job of keeping it in the shadows for much of the film.
When the monster was finally shown in full, it was mostly thanks to lights aimed at it at night, and it was a truly terrifying creation. Critics praised the film and called the immense troll a huge triumph, given its smaller budget.
The Skeksis (The Dark Crystal)
There have been scary children’s movies over the years, but nothing traumatized kids in the 1980s more than The Dark Crystal. Made by Jim Henson’s puppeteers, many families took their kids to see the film expecting something like the fun Muppet movies, only to find nightmare fuel.
The puppets in The Dark Crystal were terrifying and not at all appropriate for younger audiences. The most startling were the Skeksis, though these fantasy monsters have become cult favorites since the film’s release. Part of it is their beautifully horrific designs, and part of it is that they are campy while still frightening.
The Skeksis were the Lords of the Crystal, cruel and aggressive, impressive monsters. They are tall and reptilian in appearance, while pretending to be kind. It made them even more terrifying when they showed their true selves.
Smaug (The Hobbit Trilogy)
There were four named dragons in The Lord of the Rings franchise, and only one of them appeared in the films. By limiting the dragons to only Smaug, Peter Jackson was able to put all his work into making this one fantasy monster look as incredible as he could, rather than trying to create multiple dragons, all looking different.
Not only was Smaug a visually dynamic dragon in the Hobbit movies, but he also had a personality that helped elevate him above similar fantasy monsters. Voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Smaug was a greedy and manipulative dragon who had lived for many years and believed himself better than any other species around him.
Smaug was just as tremendous as any dragon in the Game of Thrones television show, and his intelligence and the fact that he could speak made him an even scarier beast in the realm of the story. Smaug might be the greatest dragon to ever appear in a fantasy movie.
Sandworms (Dune)
The Sandworms were not villains in the Dune franchise. Instead, these fantasy monsters were merely forces of nature, used by different people for various purposes. These creatures lived on the desert planet of Arrakis and mostly existed under the sand.
They served a purpose: their larvae produced the spice used to fuel the interstellar travel machines in the universe. However, they were also great beasts that helped the Fremen in their battle for independence and safety, as the Fremen could ride the Sandworms into attacks, and these fantasy monsters could kill anyone in their path.
Their appearance in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies was worthy of their reputation, as he showed them as prehistoric creatures that have been evolving for 100,000 years. Seeing the giant creatures, and especially their large mouths and teeth, was one of the most impressive monster effects of the last decade.
The Balrog (The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring)
While Smaug was incredible in The Hobbit trilogy, the greatest fantasy monster in that franchise was the Balrog, which appeared in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Balrog got an even bigger platform in The Rings of Power series on Prime Video, and these creatures are incredible.
The Balrogs were once some of the Maiar (angels), and unlike the wizards such as Gandalf, Saruman, and Sauron, these Maiar became the Balrogs and served the Dark Lord Morgoth. These were most comparable to fallen angels, and they took the appearance of terrifying creatures, with strength greater than almost any other.
They are also almost unbeatable, as seen in Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf battled Durin’s Bane, a fight that ended the Balrog, but also led to Gandalf’s death and resurrection as Gandalf the White.
Pale Man (Pan’s Labyrinth)
The Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth is the greatest fantasy monster ever created for a movie. The Guillermo del Toro film told the story of a young girl living during the Spanish Civil War with a new stepfather who was one of Franco’s top lieutenants. The girl retreated into a fantasy world to escape the horrors of the real world.
However, what she found in the fantasy world paralleled the horrors of the real world, and one of the scariest beings she encountered there was the Pale Man. When the Pale Man first moved, lifting its featureless face and then raising its hands to show its eyes there, it was terrifying.
Seeing the Pale Man chase the child down the halls is one of the scariest scenes in an almost perfect fantasy film. Doug Jones took on the role, and his perfect movements made this terrifying fantasy monster leave an undeniable mark on the minds of anyone watching the movie.
