My Ten Favourite Ray Harryhausen Creatures

A personal ranking of stop-motion brilliance by the master of monsters

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). Credit: Sony

Ever since discovering Jason and the Argonauts (1963) as a child, I’ve been obsessed with the films of Ray Harryhausen. Famous for his many stop-motion monsters, his indelible stamp is almost auteur-like, with the directors on his films mostly present for technical functions, ensuring the shots required for his spectacular monster set pieces were captured appropriately. In that respect, he’s akin to Walt Disney. Ask most people who directed The Jungle Book (1967), and they’ll incorrectly say Disney rather than Wolfgang Reitherman, just as most people think Harryhausen directed Jason and the Argonauts, rather than Don Chaffey.

I say all of this to make clear to the uninitiated that Harryhausen’s part in cinema history is not to be underestimated — not just from a visual effects perspective, but from the tone and feel of his films. They are straightforward adventures; colourful, cheerful, and great fun for all the family, uncluttered by unnecessary subtlety, nuance, or indeed narrative logic. For instance, the plot of Jason and the Argonauts is grossly flawed, as the film ends only halfway through the Jason legend. Yet one does not come away from that film feeling short-changed, as the creature feature set pieces are so remarkable.

With Ray Harryhausen, you can feel the love he has for his creations to the point that there’s a kind of tragedy and pathos to their inevitable demise at the hands of the protagonist. On more than one occasion as a child, I found myself rooting for the monster rather than the hero. I felt sadness at their death akin to the sadness felt at the end of King Kong (1933), a film that massively influenced Harryhausen. I call this feeling “Ray Harryhausen Syndrome” and I discuss it a little more in this more extensive piece on monster movie cinema, if you’re interested. (Among other things, I point out how filmmakers such as George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and Guillermo Del Toro all have their own moments of Ray Harryhausen Syndrome.)

With all that in mind, here are my top ten monsters from Ray Harryhausen creature features, presented as a countdown in order of personal preference.