Paul Fairclough

Movie monsters come in many shapes, sizes and species, from parasitic slugs to reanimated dinosaurs to creeping mounds of space gelatin. Some are meant to symbolise social ills or reflect the deepest, darkest human fears, while others are clearly reflective of the issues their designers have been working on in therapy. In other cases, some monsters are just unholy beasts that are often nauseating to look at but impossible to turn away from, driven only by pure instinct. All that said, a great movie monster doesn’t necessarily make for a great monster movie. In the case of these movies, the monster might drive the action, but there’s more going on than just awesome effects and righteous kills. To help sort the beastly from the bogus, we put a few parameters in place. First off, no zombies or vampires – those guys warrant lists of their own. Secondly, no humans. Apologies to Freddy, Jason, Michael and Henry from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but you are not the kind of monsters we’re looking for. Rather, we loaded up on killer rabbits, killer plants, killer fish, killer clowns, killer aliens and killer giant sandworms – and even then, it was hard to choose the bloodthirstiest of the bunch. But we did the best we could.  Written by Tom Huddleston, Adam Lee Davies, Andy Kryza, Paul Fairclough, David Jenkins & Matthew Singer Recommended: 👹 The 66 greatest movie monsters💀 The 100 best horror movies of all-time👽 The 100 best sci-fi movies of all-time🦄 The 50 best fantasy m

War has long fascinated filmmakers, no conflict more so than World War II. No wonder: the sheer scale of the destruction, the atrocities associated with it and its place in human history make it a natural framework for stories of resistance, survival and unimaginable loss. So many movies have been made about the war, it’s almost a genre unto itself.  For that reason, choosing the best World War II movies is a challenge. That’s why, along with polling our well-studied Time Out writers, we also called in an outside expert: Quentin Tarantino, a man who knows a thing or two about making a great WWII film. Among the selections, you’ll find towering epics, intimate character studies, intense documentaries, historical revisions and even a few comedies. War is hell, and World War II was particularly hellish – but at least we have these films to help make some sense of it. Written by Tom Huddleston, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Fairclough, Anna Smith, David Jenkins, Dan Jolin, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer Recommended: ⚔️ The 50 best war movies of all-time🎖️ The best World War I movies, ranked by historical accuracy💣 The 101 best action movies of all-time🇺🇸 The 20 best Memorial Day movies

Check out our definitive list of films guaranteed to kill even the cosiest evening stone cold dead. If you've got a bad-date-movie experience of your own you'd like to share, or think there's a woefully unromantic movie we've missed out, let us know in the comments below.  

If you’re stuck with a date you don’t really want – or just keen to make your cosy night in that little bit more 'experimental' – check out our definitive list of films guaranteed to kill even the cosiest evening stone cold dead. If you've got a bad-date-movie experience of your own you'd like to share, or think there's a woefully unromantic movie we've missed out, let us know in the comments below. RECOMMENDED: The 100 best romantic movies