The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Date	User	Rating
Jan 10, 2022	ktappe	50 _20th
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.
Dec 09, 2020	doyler29	70 _36th
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.
Apr 19, 2020	TimeCapsule	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).
Jun 25, 2019	braddad68	88 _37th
For the genre of 1950's sci-fi/horror/monster movies, this is one of the better ones! A fun ride.
Jun 23, 2017	jfen	81 _23rd
I like the process the humans go through in figuring out what's going on. Good animation too. Not that exciting though.
Aug 21, 2016	hotsake	70 _74th
Fun low budget monster film with some still amazing effects from Ray Harryhausen. Easy to see why this inspired the original Godzilla film.
Jan 10, 2016	Evan Waters	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.
Jan 02, 2015	salomaord	50 _0th
Sci-Fi das Antigas #3
Apr 20, 2014	glm01	80 _64th
79.500
Oct 14, 2013	PeaceAnarchy	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.
Aug 23, 2013	moraesfelipe	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.
Oct 26, 2012	gokcanz	70 _56th
* Casting, Acting : 7 * Script : 6 * Directing, Aura : 9 * Ease of Viewing : 6 * Naked Eye : 7
Jul 07, 2012	Kowry	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.
Jun 22, 2012	Luna6ix	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.
Jul 07, 2011	mwgerb	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.
Oct 20, 2010	Voltaire53	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.
Jul 13, 2010	irvinejump	55 _41st
As you do
Mar 17, 2010	caiman	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.
Sep 08, 2009	aaaaaaarrggg	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.
May 19, 2009	OMercyMe33	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.
Aug 29, 2007	Freder	75 _63rd
Just a good ol' rip-snorter mawnstah meets man Harryhausen fest, loosly based on a Ray Bradbury mood piece called "The Lighthouse."
Aug 14, 2007	Mathew	65 _51st
Monster eats man goodness!
Aug 14, 2007	MartinTeller	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.
Mar 01, 2007	TheDiceman	50 _35th
Classic

Average Percentile 40.42% from 192 Ratings