First and foremost, there’s no question about it: 1933’s King Kong is the definitive monster movie about a giant ape, and given it’s had sequels, remakes, and reboots, it’s also fair to call King Kong the best giant ape series. Kong can’t quite match Godzilla when it comes to the quantity of movies he's been featured in, but Kong has also been around for longer, and doesn’t have a fellow ape rival who can even come close to matching his stamp on popular culture.
Still, that hasn’t stopped other attempts at giant ape movies from happening, with plenty having identifiable similarities to either the 1933 original King Kong or any other film within that series. Some of these giant ape movies are surprisingly good, and some are kind of miserable to sit through. None can touch the first King Kong, but some of those below are more than interesting footnotes in cinematic history, and might be worth seeking out for fans of this brand of giant monster movie.
1 'Mighty Joe Young' (1949)
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Starting off strong, Mighty Joe Young is probably as good as it gets when it comes to post-King Kong giant ape movies, and it likely helps that its director, Ernest B. Schoedsack, was both the co-director of 1933’s King Kong and the director of its sequel, Son of Kong (also released in 1933). It’s about a young woman and a large ape, though unlike King Kong, the pair have a history in Mighty Joe Young, and the ape at the film’s center isn’t quite as large as Kong.
Other than that, there are definite similarities when it comes to the genres explored, and both films revolve around the titular apes being shown in public as spectacle with chaotic results. Mighty Joe Young scratches the same itch as those 1933 King Kong movies, and it’s overall very well-made, if perhaps just a little too familiar for its own good.
2 'Rampage' (2018)
Director: Brad Peyton
Dwayne Johnson is an exceedingly popular actor who’s had his fair share of memorable movies, but 2018’s Rampage doesn’t tend to get included among them. It’s a film adaptation of a relatively old (and arguably obscure, at least nowadays) video game series, and has a premise that involves a western lowland gorilla growing to a remarkable size and battling some other creatures that have similarly grown under mysterious circumstances.
It's all an excuse to have loud and flashy action set pieces filled with computer-generated imagery, destruction, and much, much larger-than-life beasts. For those who are desperate for a giant monster movie with an ape that’s central to the whole thing, maybe Rampage will suffice as so-so entertainment, but given it seems to have become oddly forgotten after just a few years, no one’s going to call it a classic.
Rampage
PG-13ActionAdventure Sci-Fi- Release Date
- April 12, 2018
- Director
- Brad Peyton
- Cast
- Dwayne Johnson , Naomie Harris , Malin Akerman , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Jake Lacy , Joe Manganiello
- Runtime
- 115
3 'Half Human' (1955)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Ishirō Honda was the most important director involved with the first couple of decades of the Godzilla series (known as the Showa era), being behind the original and plenty of other – sometimes underappreciated – sequels. Honda directed various other works of sci-fi that involved large creatures, with one of the more interesting and infamous being Half Human, released just one year after the first Godzilla.
It could charitably be called a movie about a giant ape, considering the plot revolves around various people in a snowy wilderness clashing with a mysterious creature known only as the Snowman. It’s a film that’s been largely buried due to some controversies attached to it, but perhaps it’s better that it stays hidden, because the worn-out and low-quality copies of it that do exist don’t offer much, even if one can get past the poor picture quality.
Half Human is currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.
4 'The Mighty Peking Man' (1977)
Director: Ho Meng-Hua
A change of pace from the sorts of martial arts movies produced by Shaw Brothers Studio throughout the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, The Mighty Peking Man feels like a particularly odd spin on a King Kong kind of story. It’s about a giant ape being captured and taken to Hong Kong, and once he’s put on display there for the public to gawk at, you’ll never guess what happens next!
There’s even a blond woman by the giant ape’s side for much of the movie, Samantha, who’s got a bond with the ape and provides something of a human element to the derivative story. Still, young blond women were also prominent parts of King Kong and Mighty Joe Young; there’s enough here for The Mighty Peking Man to feel like an unofficial remake, but it does have some zany energy in its best moments that make it far from the worst giant ape movie out there, even if it’s fair to call it a bit derivative.
5 'Konga' (1961)
Director: John Lemont
Are there more giant ape movies to see for anyone who’s already witnessed the majesty present in titles like Half Human and The Mighty Peking Man? Of course, but things naturally get stranger – and perhaps less compelling – the further one goes down this rabbit hole (or monkey hole?). Case in point: Konga, a film that begins with a regular-sized ape and ends with that ape being giant, because why not?
Konga might stand out a little more by way of its human cast, with future Alfred (of Batman fame) actor Michael Gough being top-billed here, playing the somewhat mad scientist who uses his growing ape to get revenge on certain people. It’s perhaps one of the goofier giant ape movies, even though most are inherently goofy right from the start, but there’s a novelty to some of the ideas here at least.
6 'A*P*E' (1976)
Director: Paul Leder
There are definite bursts of so-bad-it’s-good fun to be found in A*P*E, which was released the same year a fairly big-budget remake/update of King Kong was released. The giant gorilla at the center of A*P*Efights some other creatures, including a shark early on, hilariously destroys buildings very slowly, and even gives the middle finger to the wreckage of a freshly destroyed helicopter.
Yet the fun does kind of dissipate at a point, while watching A*P*E, and a good deal of it feels low effort and uneven, albeit not in a fun or particularly interesting way. Those who enjoy bad movies will get something out of some scenes, in all likelihood, but watching the entirety of this film feels like a bit of an endurance test, even with a runtime that’s under 90 minutes long.
7 'Queen Kong' (1976)
Director: Frank Agrama
1976 saw the release of yet another giant ape movie that wasn’t 1976’s King Kong, showing that it was certainly a popular blockbuster to exploit at the time. The film in question was Queen Kong, which at least establishes right from the title that it’s going to be tongue-in-cheek or something of a parody, with a female film crew instead of a male crew, and a giant ape who’s a female (hence “Queen”).
Further, there’s a male movie star that the giant ape falls in love with instead of a female one, and that’s really the one joke that Queen Kong keeps falling back on: the genders of all the principal characters are flipped. It’s arguably something, but it’s also arguably not much, and is probably only worth seeking out for the desperately curious.
8 'Ape vs. Monster' (2021)
Director: Daniel Lusko
Arguably one of the worst giant monster movies ever made, Ape vs. Monster is the lousiest kind of mockbuster, cynically trying to cash in on 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong. That film certainly has its flaws, but it looks like one of the greatest things ever made compared to the lazily titled Ape vs. Monster, which is just plodding, by-the-numbers, and feels dirt cheap throughout; not in any kind of manner that approaches charming, either.
The plot of Ape vs. Monster is that there’s an ape and a monster and they fight. Also, the fight is over very quickly and lacks excitement or entertaining silliness, and the non-monster scenes fare even worse. It’s a movie produced by The Asylum, which is perhaps all one needs to know. Without a doubt, it’s best avoided, even for die-hard fans of kaiju movies good and/or bad.
9 'Mighty Joe Young' (1998)
Director: Ron Underwood
Just as the King Kong series has remakes and updates, so too does 1949’s Mighty Joe Young, with a remake coming out almost half a century on from that original, in 1998. As such, the plots for both these movies are very similar, with a sympathetic and very large gorilla being exploited by nefarious humans, all the while a young woman fights to protect him.
Oddly enough, both versions of Mighty Joe Young under-performed at the box office, perhaps genuinely signifying that there was only room for one high-budget giant ape series, at least one that had this many similarities to the original King Kong. The 1998 version is inferior overall, too, but it’s certainly not terrible for its time, nor for the particular giant ape sub-genre (if one can call it that) that it falls into.
Mighty Joe Young
PG- Release Date
- December 25, 1998
- Director
- Ron Underwood
- Cast
- Bill Paxton , Charlize Theron , Rade Šerbedžija , Naveen Andrews , Regina King , Peter Firth , David Paymer
- Runtime
- 114
- Main Genre
- Adventure
10 'The Mighty Gorga' (1969)
Director: David L. Hewitt
Those who like particularly cheesy cult classics from decades past might find some interest in The Mighty Gorga, which has similarities to some of the aforementioned movies evident straight away; from the title alone. Once again, the storyline in this giant ape movie involves humans venturing into the wild to capture a large primate creature, hoping they can exploit it for profit and fame (in this instance, wanting to have it as part of a circus).
The Mighty Gorga doesn’t do anything that other movies of its kind hadn’t already done – or would go on to do – better, but it ultimately stands out because of just how low-budget it looks. Other King Kong knock-offs had their fair share of rough special effects, but The Mighty Gorga is perhaps the "mightiest" in this regard, with its cheapness potentially providing some entertainment value.
