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The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
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The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

1953
Sci-fi, Adventure
1h 20m
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Avg Percentile 40.91% from 203 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(203)
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Rated 20 Oct 2010
69
36th
Hard to judge by today's standards not only because of the comparison of special effects but because a lot of what could be seen as clichés are only so because this movie has had so many of its original ideas copied. Still, a good rollicking adventure, Ray Harryhausen's great stop-motion work and so many ideas which have been (and sometimes still are getting) borrowed and touted as 'original' means this one is certainly worthy of an hour and a quarter of your time.
Rated 07 Jul 2012
10
7th
If you're seen any American sci-fi flicks from the '50s, there probably isn't anything surprising about this generic creature feature. The acting is unmemorable and dull, as are the characters, the plot and pretty much everything else. It doesn't even work as campy fun. At least the animatronics were decent.
Rated 21 Aug 2016
70
75th
Fun low budget monster film with some still amazing effects from Ray Harryhausen. Easy to see why this inspired the original Godzilla film.
Rated 19 Apr 2020
66
58th
This OG 50's monster movie classic was an entertaining enough of a watch. Although while you may just have come for the Harryhausen stop-motion, you're gonna end up sitting through a lot of bland monster-movie procedural filler, also known as the "plot", for most of the movie instead. However, fans of the genre should appreciate the film's impact and enjoy it well enough. Others will appreciate seeing just how much the film inspired a bigger, more famous, future monster movie..."Godzilla"(1998).
Rated 22 Jun 2012
60
15th
I've been hardly kind to 50's monster flicks and this one impresses me just as much as the rest. I find it utterly cringe-worthy that, in the early atomic age, film makers thought that radiation was some sort of silver bullet for everything. This monster is breathing harmful microbes, no, burning it to ashes wouldn't work, better shoot it with some radiation, that'll do the trick.
Rated 14 Oct 2013
68
20th
Not bad, the monster stuff is pretty well done and while it certainly looks fake it still holds up well. I think being in black and white helps make it work. Like most of these movies it gets a little tedious and by now it's pretty obvious that the solution is always "kill it with fire." The acting, writing etc are all of acceptable quality but nothing more.
Rated 29 Aug 2007
75
63rd
Just a good ol' rip-snorter mawnstah meets man Harryhausen fest, loosly based on a Ray Bradbury mood piece called "The Lighthouse."
Rated 10 Jan 2016
83
25th
The Fifties' first giant monster movie suffers a little from flat direction and a story that takes too long to get to the interesting part, but Ray Harryhausen's work bringing the Rhedosaur to life makes it all worthwhile.
Rated 08 Sep 2009
71
73rd
This low-budget monster pic became one of the top box office hits of 1953 and established Ray Harryhausen as the master of inexpensive stop-motion wonders. When released in Japan, this film's success there served as the inspiration for Toho's _Godzilla_ series and was itself pretty much remade by Lourie as _The Giant Behemoth_ and _Gorgo_. Best scene: the beast snacking on one of New York's finest.
Rated 23 Jun 2017
81
22nd
I like the process the humans go through in figuring out what's going on. Good animation too. Not that exciting though.
Rated 26 Oct 2012
70
56th
* Casting, Acting : 7 * Script : 6 * Directing, Aura : 9 * Ease of Viewing : 6 * Naked Eye : 7
Rated 23 Aug 2013
64
56th
So, Lee Van Cleef shoots the radioactive beast at a rollercoaster-- that happens to carry a deadly plague -- with a radioactive rifle and saves New York. But the science girl hooks up with the loser scientist. Hell yeah. Such a classic.
Rated 07 Jul 2011
38
25th
Although it's been incredibly influential on the monster movie genre, I'm just glad it influenced it to improve over time, because this isn't that great. It's not bad enough to induce a camp sense of hilarity (like Plan 9), but neither the effects nor the story are good enough to be effectively thrilling.
Rated 20 Apr 2014
80
64th
79.500
Rated 14 Aug 2007
65
51st
Monster eats man goodness!
Rated 17 Mar 2010
70
37th
Everything up until the climax was a bit tedious, but once the creature started rampaging through New York, I got into it a little more. The stop motion effects were quite decent, and the scene at the roller coaster was great. I just wish the first 80 minutes were interesting.
Rated 01 Mar 2007
50
35th
Classic
Rated 02 Jan 2015
50
0th
Sci-Fi das Antigas #3
Rated 13 Jul 2010
55
41st
As you do
Rated 19 May 2009
75
67th
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) is definitely an inspirational sci-fi movie. This is the movie that really sparked the whole 'giant monster' craze and lead to Godzilla being made and released a year later. It's a pretty good and entertaining movie.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
50
8th
I picked this up expecting some campy fun, but most of the fun was saved for the last 10 minutes. And most of the production value, too. Bad actors, bad script, bad sets, lots of stock footage. For better Harryhausen animation, stick with Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans.
Rated 25 Jun 2019
88
36th
For the genre of 1950's sci-fi/horror/monster movies, this is one of the better ones! A fun ride.
Rated 09 Dec 2020
70
42nd
This is among the cream of rampaging dinosaur movies, for a couple of reasons. The story and characters are not just fodder for the dinosaur. They are genuinely likeable and the plot is compelling in a stripped-down B-movie way. But the real star here is Ray Harryhausen, who's stop motion dinosaur effects are magnificent. This dinosaur has real personality and the rampage through New York City is an extraordinary sequence.
Rated 10 Jan 2022
50
22nd
An early dinosaur film. Obviously they had to come up with some weird story about its origins, but the actors play it straight and do the best they can with the material they're given. You can find many worse monster movies, but even though it's decent in its own genre doesn't mean it's a great film.
Rated 29 Aug 2023
71
47th
O Monstro do Mar estreava há 70 anos no Brasil. Se você vê que isso é anterior ao Gojira, torna-se bem impressivo, mas acho que o subtexto de Hiroshima e Nagazaki da versão japonesa torna as coisas muito melhores. Box OP Godzilla Origens.

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