Mothra (1961)

 

Part of the original Godzilla franchise. Mothra is a gigantic moth that is worshipped on Infant Island. When an expedition goes to Infant Island, two little priestesses (about the size of Thumbelina) are captured by club owner Clark Nelson who then uses them at his club. Mothra then goes on a quest to rescue her priestesses and bring them back home. Unlike some of the other kaiju films, Mothra doesn’t set out to destroy. She’s just going in a straight line to find her priestesses and if you happen to be in her way? Well that’s your problem. Long lauded as the Queen of the Monsters, Mothra is one of my favorite kaijus.

Pacific Rim (2013)

 

From a trench deep in the ocean vicious monsters known as “kaiju”. The only way to deal with them is by the use of giant robots called “jaegers”. The Jaegers are piloted by two humans using a mental link. But the government has decided that the Jaeger program is no longer working and wants to discontinue it. But it is only a ragtag group of Jaeger pilots that is standing between the earth and total annihilation. There is a sequel, but I don’t like it’s premise. As far as I’m concerned, the franchise ends with this movie, which I love. 

Dead Silence by SA Barnes

 

Claire and her crew discover the Aurora, a luxury space liner just floating in space. But when they go on board to salvage things, it quickly becomes apparent that something went horribly wrong on the Aurora. The book gave me serious “The Naked Time/The Naked Now” vibes. Another thing I loved about this was that it is a first person narration. This worked for this book because Claire sees ghosts but you are never entirely certain if she actually sees ghosts or is just nuts because it’s always seen through her eyes. Quite a great scifi horror book. 

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

 

They did remake this movie in the 70’s but this is about the original movie. My dad says that this one scared him badly when he was a child. It starts in a hospital where a psychiatrist is called in to talk to a raving man. The man who is introduced as Dr. Miles Bennell starts to tell the other man about how the people in his home town are being slowly replaced by pod people. It is a scary invasion story simply because the people can be anyone…