Godzilla (1954)

Director: Ishiro Honda

Just as Godzilla smashes up Tokyo, the film itself does a pretty good job of bludgeoning its audience into submission. Yes, it's true that subtlety doesn't usually figure highly in any monster movie, but this has a particularly oppressive feel - besides the tight close-ups of a model city being destroyed, there's murky lighting, leaps in the narrative between scenes (especially early on) that mean we're continually plunged into the action, and, of course, the metallic din of Godzilla's roar. If you can withstand all this, the film does provide some strikingly gloomy images to revel in, such as the monster looming over a bridge under a black sky while crowds flee beneath it.