Kaiju
is one of those terms that has been around for years, used primarily for fans
of Japanese pop culture to sound smarter than the rest of us when they wanted
to talk about big honking monsters. Unfortunately, thanks to three decades’
worth of importing their TV to jaded American audiences, “kaiju” has entered
the pop culture lexicon. It’s a word of Japanese origin, that, loosely
translated, means “big honking monsters.” Way to move the discussion forward,
folks.
Specifically,
the term as it applies to movies is considered a genre, though what monsters are
considered kaiju are hotly debated. For
the purposes of our discussion, I’m going to break it down like this: King Kong
(1933) is not a kaiju movie. King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) is. Simple, right? Also,
I’m going to give it my best effort to pick the scariest kaiju movies I can, knowing full well that these movies aren’t
anything like what’s on the other Top 5 lists. However, I am a Monster Kid, so neener-neener,
we’re doing this anyway.
