Like so many human-to-human love stories, the best monster romances will have you feeling a little freaky. In preparation for Valentine’s Day, we have the perfect compromise for horror movie and romance fans alike: 10 of the best monster romances involving a non-human creature. From zombies, to sirens, to cannibals, make your lovey-dovey movie night a bit more bizarre with one of these steamy creature features.
Here are 10 of the best monster romances:
Beauty and the Beast (1978)
Director: Juraj Herz
The Czech rendition of Beauty and the Beast from director Juraj Herz makes a dark fantasy of the classic French fairytale. Hertz amplifies the whimsy of the original story, utilizing dreamlike, shadowy cinematography to bring a moody atmosphere to its shadowy woods and dilapidated castle. However, Hertz also leans into the macabre far more than other renditions, with cursed bird-man Netvor (Vlastimil Harapes) making for a much more terrifying monster than Disney’s rather cuddly Beast. Titled Panna a Netvor in Czech, the stylized and abstract gothic fairy tale entangles you in its haunting love story.
Bones and All (2022)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Two “eaters” on the edge of society hitch a ride in a pick-up truck—after eating its driver, of course—and fall in love on a road trip across America’s sprawling plains. This cannibal romance from Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria) transports you to a picturesque and vast 1980s American midwest via the doomed love story of Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothee Chalamet). In scenes of the smitten young lovers feasting, the movie’s animalistic gore comes at you unexpectedly, contrasting the movie’s slow burn romance. A methodical pace bolsters the titillating romance, giving the film a moody, wistful ambience as the two young cannibals discover truths about each other and themselves, all while indulging in their dark desire for human flesh.
Warm Bodies (2013)
Director: Jonathan Levine
In this undead Romeo and Juliet, Nicholas Hoult proves that zombies can, in fact, be heartthrobs. Amidst the guts and gunfights of a divided world of humans and zombies, the love story between Julie (Teresa Palmer) and R (Hoult) is wildly adorable and hilarious. The pair overcome their communication barrier and form an unlikely bond over makeovers, dances and romantic nights spent in an abandoned plane. Creatures known for their unintelligible grunts and fleshy limbs, brain-feasting zombies are treated by Warm Bodies with an unorthodox affection, as the film grants R an internal monologue to translate the human emotions behind his zombie moans. It’s a humorous concept, but its loveable star-crossed leads give it more heart than many comparable teen dystopias.
The Fly (1986)
Director: David Cronenberg
The psychological spiral of man-turned-fly Dr. Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) gives Cronenberg’s 1986 creature feature a horrifying edge. Dr. Brundle’s nauseating and grotesque metamorphosis into a housefly is disgusting, but the most painful aspect of the story is the twisted will-they-or-won’t-they of Dr. Brundle and journalist Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Quaife (Geena Davis). The pair build an endearing connection as they run early trials of a teleportation device, but as Dr. Brundle undergoes his insect transformation into “Brundlefly,” Ronnie is forced to reckon with her lover losing touch with humanity. As the relationship of Ronnie and Brundlefly deteriorates, the ill-fated romance raises some interesting hypotheticals; in Ronnie’s place, for instance, would you raise a part-insect, part-human child? Almost four decades later, The Fly remains stunning, horrifying and one of sci-fi’s most absurd creature stories.
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Director: Tim Burton
A Frankenstein-esque monster flick about a man with blades for fingers shouldn’t be so overwhelmingly adorable, but it is! Tim Burton gives us Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp), a reclusive humanoid creature brought into society by Avon saleswoman Peg (Dianne Wiest). As he befriends his neighbors and even begins cutting hair, the leather-clad, frizzy-haired Edward grows an affection for humans while also becoming an outcast in his newfound suburban community. Edward Scissorhands blends comedy, romance and gothic fantasy all while centering itself around the endearing love story between Edward and Kim, Peg’s teen daughter played by Wynona Rider. Their wholesome romance plays out, but not without some resistance for its unconventional nature—primarily from Jim (Anthony Michael Hall), who tries to villainize Edward throughout the movie out of jealousy for Kim’s love. Still, the unlikely romance will make you swoon.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Possibly the sexiest Dracula adaptation, Bram Stoker’s Dracula sees Gary Oldman portray literature’s most famed bloodsucker. The result is an impassioned tale of Count Dracula longing for the return of his tragically lost lover (Wynona Rider). Following Dracula on the search for his lover’s soul, Coppola creates a lush, red-hot vampire movie that builds the intensity and spectacle of vampiric horror while delivering the melodrama of a gothic romance. With appearances from recognizable Dracula characters like Renfield and Van Helsing, Bram Stoker’s Dracula remains reverential to its source material while building a titillating, romantic atmosphere.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
The Shape of Water is, so far, the pinnacle creature romance of the 21st century. It’s a unique period piece that deftly juggles Cold War-era politics and science fiction with the special forbidden romance of custodian Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) held in captivity by a top-secret government agency. The Shape of Water’s Amphibian Man possesses an almost human-like softness, adding warmth to the love story amid its otherwise stale and dreary setting. It’s an undeniably bizarre story, but del Toro’s striking style and the high-stakes romance make it easy to lose yourself in its waves.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
It’s always fun to see vampires in a modern setting; in films like Twilight and What We Do in the Shadows, part of the fun is imagining how vampires would navigate and react to our contemporary human world. However, Only Lovers Left Alive takes a different approach, exploring the darker side of immortality through two married vampires: Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton). Despite their centuries of success and invention, these vampires now feel disillusioned with the bleak state of the human world, leaving Adam depressed and longing for the past. The film’s romance traces a heartfelt thread through a highly cynical movie, transcending typical vampire tropes and commenting largely on the human experience of resparking joy after becoming bogged down by mundane routines.
Twilight (2008)
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
From its overexposed green tint to Edward’s (Robert Pattinson) completely unsubtle vampire-isms, Twilight lands in the so-bad-it’s-good category alongside many other teen monster movies. The billionaire vampires, lawless werewolves and Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan caught in the middle provide enough drama to tap into teen angst in a way that continues to resonate with audiences years later. While the original Twilight did not feature much of the Bella-Edward-Jacob love triangle, the melodramatic love story of a new girl and her vampire classmate satisfies the itch for a modern star-crossed romance. It might not be for everybody, but Twilight definitely has nostalgia on its side.
The Lure (2015)
Director: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
This sinister twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, The Lure is a wildly entertaining amalgamation of sirens, tragic romance and eccentric musical numbers. If you’re wondering, yes, a mermaid still exchanges her voice for legs in this rendition. When siren sisters Golden (Michalina Olszańska) and Silver (Marta Mazurek) come ashore on a Polish beach and begin performing as a nightclub duo, romance and murder ensue. While The Lure packs the flamboyant surrealism of a fairytale with the gore of a horror film, its attempts to blend genres never feels overwhelming. The romance is very similar to The Little Mermaid, yet much more perverse as it pulls no punches in showing the tragic consequences of its siren-human relationship.
Sage Dunlap is a journalist based in Austin, TX. She currently contributes to Paste as a movies section intern, covering the latest in film news.