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" As reconfirmed by the new killer-whale documentary Blackfish, the ocean is home to many creatures best left alone. That&amp;#039;s hardly news to any fan of horror cinema, however, which abounds with sagas of beasts chomping on unsuspecting swimmers&amp;#039; legs, or crawling ashore to feast on campers and sunbathers. Emerging from unknown depths, these fearsome fiends are terrifying precisely because their watery homes afford them an element of surprise \u2014 except, of course, when they&amp;#039;re just ludicrously cheesy sea monsters lunging out of the surf to chomp on innocents. With all due respect to (among others) Orca, Leviathan, The Abyss, Open Water, Alligator, and Sharktopus \u2014 not to mention Godzilla, who wreaks most of his havoc on land \u2014 here&amp;#039;s a rundown of film&amp;#039;s most memorable aquatic predators, from silliest to scariest. Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus (2009)      Creature: Mega Shark, Giant Octopus Terror Level: 1 As subtle as its title, this direct-to-video insta-classic thinks that the fear elicited by voracious underwater enemies is directly proportional to their size. This is, in a certain sense, true, although you wouldn&amp;#039;t know it from this laugher, which concerns efforts to stop the titular prehistoric beasts by a group of experts led by that paragon of heroism, Debbie Gibson. It&amp;#039;s schlock of the most absurd order, highlighted by the amazing sight of this happening, above.  Crocodile (2000)      Creature: Crocodile Terror Level: 1  Even after helming Eaten Alive, a horror movie in which a backwoods psycho feeds victims to his pet crocodiles, Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper felt it necessary to revisit similar terrain with the patently incompetent direct-to-video Crocodile. Almost nothing makes sense in this tale of stupid teens being devoured by a Southern California croc. Regardless, for pure unadulterated idiocy, nothing quite tops this pre-Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus moment of airborne craziness.  Anaconda (1997)      Creature: Anaconda Terror Level: 3 Woe is anyone who willingly chooses to mess with the colossal serpent that stalks the Amazon River in this hilarious camp classic, which finds J. Lo, Ice Cube, and Owen Wilson \u2014 on a documentary filmmaking trip \u2014 trying to escape an enormous anaconda with the not-so-helpful aid of Jon Voight&amp;#039;s laughably accented big-snake hunter. That most of the cast will end up snake food is never in doubt, though the final shot of Voight \u2014 at the 2:15 mark above \u2014 is one for the cheeseball-horror ages. Deep Rising      Creature: Kraken Terror Level: 4 A group of mercenaries out to rob a cruise ship get more than they bargained for \u2014 namely, an unholy tentacled creature \u2014 in Stephen Sommers&amp;#039;s amusing B-movie. Little more than a semi-tongue-in-cheek Alien riff set on a derelict boat full of dark, narrow passageways, Deep Rising thrives primarily by keeping its monster&amp;#039;s identity a secret for the film&amp;#039;s majority, only revealing its true nature during a finale in which Treat Williams and Famke Janssen famously evade its grasp using that trustiest of escape vehicles, the jet ski. Deep Blue Sea (1999)      Creature: Genetically enhanced sharks Terror Level: 4 In Renny Harlin&amp;#039;s unintentionally funny horrorshow, a group of people \u2014 including Samuel L. Jackson&amp;#039;s corporate exec, Saffron Burrows&amp;#039;s scientist, and LL Cool J&amp;#039;s cook \u2014 become trapped in a top-secret oceanic laboratory under attack from genetically enhanced sharks turned super-intelligent by Alzheimer&amp;#039;s disease experiments. Routinely ridiculous, it surpasses many of its genre brethren for two legendary moments: LL&amp;#039;s absolutely hilarious theme song and accompanying synchronized-swimming music video, and one of modern horror cinema&amp;#039;s best surprise deaths, above. Lake Placid (1999)      Creature: Crocodile Terror Level: 5 The funniest of all killer-croc films, Steve Miner&amp;#039;s 1999 horror-comedy follows a collection of officials (including Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, and an excellent Oliver Platt) forced to combat a titanic crocodile at a Maine lake. Whether it&amp;#039;s actively parodying the very conventions it embraces is open to debate, but there&amp;#039;s no question that its gargantuan saltwater croc is a fearsome beast, be it attacking humans, eating grizzly bears, or snacking on cows fed to it by a foul-mouthed Betty White.  Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)      Creature: Gill-man Terror Level:5 Classic scares are delivered by this seminal Universal horror film (originally released in old-school 3D), about a team of marine biologists who, while on an Amazon River expedition, find themselves face-to-face with the ancient Gill-man. While the film isn&amp;#039;t quite as frightening as it once was \u2014 its set pieces are more dated than daring \u2014 the creature is one of the genre&amp;#039;s all-time greats, and the sight of him emerging from watery depths remains a signature sight of big-screen aquatic terror. Piranha (1978)      Creature: Lab-engineered piranha Terror Level: 7 Produced by Roger Corman and helmed by first-time director Joe Dante, Piranha was the one Jaws rip-off that truly worked. That&amp;#039;s largely because Dante so expertly balances goofy humor with social commentary, as the school of killer fish \u2014 accidentally released near a summer camp and resort \u2014 have apparently been created by the government to win the war in Vietnam. Mostly, however, it&amp;#039;s a gem because of its satisfying gruesomeness, as well as its fondness for generating suspense by placing children directly in harm&amp;#039;s way. Rogue (2007)      Creature: Crocodile Terror Level: 7  Directed by Wolf Creek&amp;#039;s Greg McLean, headlined by Radha Mitchell, and featuring a before-he-was-Avatar Sam Worthington, this underrated direct-to-video adventure concerns a group of tourists being hunted by a gargantuan crocodile in the Australian outback. There&amp;#039;s nothing particularly new here \u2014 a bunch of types, stranded with no help in sight \u2014 but McLean&amp;#039;s staging is taut, especially during a prolonged sequence (above) in which the survivors, stranded on a tiny island that&amp;#039;ll soon be submerged by the rising tide, attempt to cross to mainland safety via a rope.  The Host (2006)      Creature: Chemically mutated monster Terror Level: 8 Bong Joon-ho&amp;#039;s equally thrilling and touching film tells the Spielberg-ian tale of a South Korean clan&amp;#039;s attempts to rescue one of their own from a rampaging amphibian Han River baddie created, it turns out, from the U.S. government&amp;#039;s toxic pollution. Matching heartfelt family drama with horror-movie terror, it&amp;#039;s a superior monster mash boasting an amazing maiden attack scene, with the beast exhibiting a fleetness that takes curious \u2014 and foolhardy \u2014 onlookers by fatal surprise. Jaws (1975)      Creature: Great white shark Terror Level: 10  The king. If you haven&amp;#039;t yet seen it, stop reading this and get to it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a23964/movie-sea-monsters/>