6 Beastly Cryptid Horror Movies Ranked
Hidden Animals
Many horror fans, including myself, are interested in cryptids – legendary creatures whose existences are claimed but not confirmed. The most famous examples are Bigfoot/Sasquatch and Nessie/The Loch Ness Monster, but there are many, many others. Most cryptid horror movies depict a group of adventurers seeking to find proof of these creatures.
Cryptozoology, the study of cryptids, aims to collect evidence to support the existence of these enigmatic animals. Mainstream scientists generally consider cryptozoology a pseudoscience.
I am skeptical that any of these beasts exist in objective reality. I don’t dispute that many people genuinely believe they’ve witnessed a cryptid. Certainly not everything is a hoax. But the hard evidence for these creatures is negligible. I want Bigfoot to be real, but the logical side of my brain says that it is not.
Real or not, cryptids have made a significant impact on society and popular culture. The vast woodsy areas of my home region of the Pacific Northwest are longtime hotspots for Bigfoot sightings. Our former NBA team, the Seattle Supersonics, even had a sasquatch mascot. Other states and countries have their own versions of this legend, including the Yeti of the Himalayas and the Skunk Ape of the Florida Everglades.
With all this monkey business, it’s not a surprise that Sasquatch is a popular subject for cryptid horror movies. But there’s plenty more than just Bigfoot horror movies out there. Let’s take a look.
Here are six beastly cryptid horror movies ranked. They’re mostly found footage, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Found footage is a perfect format for “researchers journey into isolated area to find mysterious creature” storylines.
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6. Exists (2014)
Cryptid: Bigfoot
A group of friends journey deep into the woods to search for Bigfoot. Along the way, they accidentally hit a mysterious creature with their car. Now, an angry Bigfoot has turned the tables on them. Instead of them hunting him, he’s hunting them!
Exists, which was directed by Blair Witch co-creator Eduardo Sanchez, should have been fun. Unfortunately, it lacks atmosphere and tension. Found footage movies often struggle to find a convincing explanation for why the characters keep filming even when they’re in mortal danger. Exists is one of the worst offenders in this regard.
The characters are annoying and shallow. I was rooting for Bigfoot to kill them all so that the movie would be over. There are much better Bigfoot horror movies out there.
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5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Cryptid: The Jersey Devil
The Last Broadcast is perhaps the best known of the pre-Blair Witch found footage horror movies.
It’s 1995. Desperate for ratings, two amateur local television hosts travel deep into the frigid, isolated New Jersey Pine Barrens in search of the legendary Jersey Devil. They use video cameras and a cutting edge technology called Internet Relay Chat (essentially a primitive version of apps like Discord) to document their travels and communicate with viewers.
They’re accompanied by an alleged psychic and another guy who…well, honestly I’m not sure why he’s there. The script doesn’t seem to know what to do with him either, since he abruptly disappears. The two hosts are brutally killed and the psychic is convicted of their murders.
The film is framed as a documentary by the enigmatic David Leigh (David Beard), a filmmaker who questions the guilty verdict and wants to get to the bottom of what really happened. Leigh’s dour and heavy-handed narration is often unintentionally funny.
The Last Broadcast is constantly compared to the Blair Witch Project, but the parallels are only superficial. This is a far more violent and less subtle film. If you went into this movie believing it was real, it would probably be intriguing, but when you know its fake, most of it is rather bland.
I will give credit to the ending for being surprisingly twisted and disturbing, although it throws all logic out the window in the process.
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4. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Cryptid: Mothman
What’s this, a cryptid horror movie that isn’t found footage?! Will wonders never cease?
The Mothman Prophecies stars Richard Gere as John Klein, a grieving widower who works as a journalist in Washington D.C. His wife dies of a brain tumor after a terrifying car accident involving a bizarre creature. Shortly before passing away, she sketches a series of eerie drawings of the monster.
John finds himself in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, the real life site of the Mothman sightings from the 1960s, and meets the local sheriff, Connie Mills (Laura Linney).
John is desperate to make sense of his wife’s death. He quickly becomes obsessed with the Mothman. Connie grows concerned and tries to convince him to move on with his life. The tragic 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge, which some people have blamed on the Mothman, is also integrated into the storyline.
The Mothman Prophecies is not as creepy as it could have been, but it’s involving enough. A much scarier horror film about the Mothman could be made by a skilled genre director, but this is still a solid effort to take on one of the world’s oddest cryptid stories.
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3. Frogman (2023)
Cryptid: The Loveland Frog
Frogman is an amusing satire of found footage cryptid horror movies. Forget all those films about Sasquatch – how about one with a horny murderous frog armed with a magic wand and an insatiable lust for human women?
Back in 1999, a kid takes a grainy video of a mysterious frog-like creature while his family is on a camping trip. Years later, the now adult Dallas (Nathan Tymoshuk) is tired of being mocked by people who believe he faked the footage.
Frogman, which is based on the bizarre legend of the Loveland Frog, follows Dallas and his friends as they journey deep into rural Ohio to find proof that the creature exists. Frog around and find out!
I enjoyed this movie’s self-awareness. The filmmakers were savvy enough to know that a serious horror movie about a killer frog wouldn’t work. Let’s face it – frogs aren’t scary. They’re great subjects for horror satire, though.
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2. Incident at Loch Ness (2004)
Cryptid: Nessie
What do German filmmaker Werner Herzog, a Playboy bikini model, and the Loch Ness Monster have in common? They all play major roles in Incident at Loch Ness, a funny mockumentary about the making of a documentary film about the Nessie legend.
Herzog, who plays himself, is extremely skeptical of the monster’s existence. He envisions the film as a think piece on why thousands of people believe in Nessie despite the lack of evidence for its existence.
Herzog ends up stranded on a boat in the middle of the frigid Loch Ness with a pretentious and incompetent producer, a blabbermouthed cryptozoologist, an inept captain, a fake sonar expert who was hired because she looks great in a skimpy swimsuit, and a host of other quirky and eccentric characters.
As egos clash and disputes flare about the direction of the film, Herzog realizes that he may have been too quick to dismiss the monster’s existence. Will he survive to see the film completed?
I loved this movie’s wry sense of humor. Herzog seems to be having a great time poking fun at his own controversial reputation. This is the most unique of the cryptid horror movies on this list. Just don’t go into it expecting to see a traditional monster movie.
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1. Willow Creek (2013)
Cryptid: Bigfoot
Jim (Bryce Johnson) is obsessed with Bigfoot. He’s shooting a documentary about his search for the legendary creature. His girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore), a skeptic, has reluctantly joined him on a journey deep into the northern California wilderness.
The couple’s mission is simple: find Willow Creek, the site where the notorious Patterson-Gimlin film was shot. Despite warnings from the locals, the couple sets up camp deep in the woods, unaware that they’re about to experience the most terrifying night of their lives. Turns out that Jim’s right. There is a monster lurking in these woods – and it’s pissed!
This movie isn’t particularly original. Some aspects are clearly inspired by The Blair Witch Project. Still, the nighttime scenes are often genuinely creepy, and the actors – especially Kelly – seem truly terrified. It’s one of the most effective bigfoot horror movies.
Willow Creek tops my list of cryptid horror movies because it’s easily the creepiest of these six films. The terror is more about anticipating what’s going to happen, rather than what we actually see. Some people don’t like that. They want to see everything.
I think the scariest monsters are the ones who lurk in the shadows. The best cryptid horror movies strikes a delicate balance of showing enough to keep the audience satisfied while keeping a reasonable amount ambiguity to preserve a sense of eerie mystery.
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What Other Creatures should be featured in cryptid horror movies?
We’ve had enough Bigfoot horror movies. Don’t get me wrong, I love the big hairy ape, but I’m hoping for more films about other cryptids.
I thought about including a Chupacabra movie in this list, but the cupboard is pretty bare in that regard. Predictably, Tubi has some low budget offerings. I haven’t seen ’em.
How about Goatman or Lizard Man? Or what about Nessie’s North American cousins, Ogopogo and Champ? There are countless possibilities. Here’s to hoping that the cryptid horror movies of the future will entertain and terrify us with a wide variety of creepy monsters.
