Godzilla/Nightmare Fuel


 * Gojira. It's not the giant monster that's the scary part. No, what's terrifying about the film is the aftermath of Godzilla's attack on Tokyo which looks like the city was hit by an atomic bomb.
 * A quiet, understated moment of heart-crushing power in the aftermath of Godzilla's attack laid me low: A doctor passes a Geiger counter over a little girl. The counter goes berserk.
 * Completely intentional, as the big G is (at least in his first appearances) a blatant metaphor for The Bomb.
 * The Oxygen Destroyer. Oh, god. I have YET to find a more terrifying weapon in the face of fiction. Sure, it's not as awesome as a laser cannon or as stylish as a light sabre. But, the fact that the Oxygen Destroyer causes its victims to have a horrible agonizing death via asphyxiation is nothing short of terrifying.
 * It doesn't just asphyxiate, it dissolves living things all the way down to the skeleton!
 * Godzilla himself is rather terrifying. This isn't some random confused animal in the wrong place at the wrong time. No, he knows exactly where he is. Oh, and he's pissed at humanity and wants to kill everyone. Yes, even you. Worse yet, there's almost nothing you can do to stop him. Something that's big, radioactive, and angry is not something to be taken lightly.
 * The GMK incarnation of Godzilla. He's essentially a giant zombie version of the original Godzilla controlled by the vengeful spirits of forgotten soldiers who died in WWII. White souless eyes, a permanent scowl on his face, wants to wipe out all of Japan (and possibly humanity in general), and even ends up that were sent to save the world from him.
 * And, at the end of the film In other words,
 * Destroyah. To quote James Rolfe-"He looks like the goddamn devil!" It doesn't help that his juvenile forms look like a cross between a Xenomorph, a crab, and a scorpion, or that he's able to use the same horrific ability as the Oxygen Destroyer (see above, also where he got his name).
 * To make things even more unnerving, he does all his atrocious acts (incluing ) for no reason other than for his own sadistic amusement. In the game Godzilla: Unleashed, he even lets out a rather creepy Evil Laugh after winning a fight.
 * As much hate as they get, the baby Godzillas in the 1998 fall under this for the fact that there are hundreds of them in Madison Square Garden.
 * There's a scene in Godzilla VS Hedorah where Hedorah is flying overhead emitting a cloud of sulphiric acid. The innocent bystanders below are shown collapsing and then their flesh melting off of their faces.
 * Speaking of that scene, Riichiro Manabe's score during it. say what you want about his composing ability, but when it comes to producing horrific cues for this and other films such as Crest Of The Wolf, the Bloodthirsty trilogy, and Jigoku he's actually pretty good.
 * Hedorah tries to drown Godzilla in sludge. Godzilla's struggles to get out make it all the more unnerving.
 * One scene in the movie has a character hallucinating that everyone at a dance club has a creepy fish head. It's one of the most disturbing Big Lipped Alligator Moment in any film.
 * King Ghidorah, even with his Badass Decay, falls under this. Try to imagine a three-headed dragon that travels from planet to planet essentially wiping out all life from it. Oh, and that he's often under the control (or at least a willing servant) of various alien races that want nothing more to take over the planet. Don't think it can get worse? Well, take in the fact that he ENJOYS his job.
 * The Heisei incarnation's origin is rather terrifying. It pretty much starts out as three cute genetically-engineered pets that are left alone to fend for themselves on an island near Japan. Then the island is hit by a nuclear bomb (the same one that created the original Godzilla) that causes said three pets to fuse with one another into a single giant dragon.
 * Gigan. Sure, he's not the scariest-looking Kaiju out there. But, take into consideration that he's the first monster to make Godzilla bleed. Oh, and there's the little fact that he absolutely loves causing mayhem and destruction and prefers to hack his opponents with either his scythe-arms or his buzzsaw-belly rather than use his optic blasts.
 * Biollante, Anti-Villain and Dark Is Not Evil applying her second form is still really scary to look at. In spite of being the monster to root for it's disturbing when she pierces Godzilla's hand with a vine and then easily fits his whole head into her mouth and snarling. Less than five minutes of footage and no one forgets that monster.
 * Monster X. Its appearance goes into Uncanny Valley immediately, it's pretty much the only opponent to hold the big G up (apart from Caesar, Anguirus and Rodan teaming up) and its roar/EvilLaugh scares the shit out of this troper. And guess what?
 * the Godzillaverse itself qualifies! imagine living in a Crapsack World choke-full of Kaiju, aka humongous, near-indestructible and VERY pissed-off monsters who gleefully screw the square-cube law(aka something so big should not exist, yet it does). they include mutants, ancient deities and alien planet-destroyers. at any moment they may attack your city and raze it to the ground, millions of people will die, there is no time to rebuild because probably they have already spread death and destruction somewhere else, humanity can't do anything to stop them. the kicker? the most heroic of them(Godzilla himself) is a dinosaur mutated into a walking nuclear holocaust, and he is one of the most destructive. sure he's more of a Chaotic Neutral Anti-Hero, but he still doesn't give a shit about mankind.