I am a big fan of early science fiction movies of the 1950s. Quite a few of these movies feature giant insects (where I relax my definition of insect to allow spiders and scorpions). Here are my top 10 favorites.

1. Them! (1954) – Atomic testing in the desert produces giant ants. The combination of good production values, good acting, and creepy sound effects make this perhaps the most famous giant insect film. The scene where the one lone policeman is left in the store, at night, during a sandstorm, was very scary for me. I think this is the best of all the giant insect movies. My personal grade = solid A.

2. Rodan (1956) – Even though they weren’t the main focus of the film, the giant prehistoric insects (“meganulons” — dragonfly nymphs) that live in the mine where Rodan was buried are a nice part of the movie. My favorite scene is early on when the investigators are heading into the flooded mine, in waist deep water. The narration, by actor Keye Luke, was ominous and really sticks in my memory: “Slowly, relentlessly, we pressed on. We felt we were entering a giant grave. I could still remember the smell of the thing — a cool and evil smell — that sent your flesh crawling.” My grade = B+.

3. Beginning of the End (1957) – Once again radiation is the culprit, this time producing giant locusts (grasshoppers in swarming mode). Starred Peter Graves, before his Mission Impossible TV role. Yes, the special effects are really awful, but the movie has a certain charm. When I was young, the scene where the mute scientist was attacked by a giant locust, but he couldn’t scream, was quite scary. My grade = B+.

4. The Black Scorpion (1957) – After an earthquake in Mexico, people and animals start disappearing. The cause: gigantic gray scorpions. But one of the huge scorpions is black and really big. Great stop motion special effects by Willis O’Brien who did the original King Kong movie 24 years earlier. I know scorpions and spiders aren’t insects, but they’re close enough for my list. My grade = B.

5. The Deadly Mantis (1957) – A 200-foot praying mantis is released from being frozen in ice at the North Pole. It makes its way towards New York city, causing death and havoc along the way. The big bug meets its end in the Manhattan Tunnel. This is not a great film by any means, but I like it enough to make it number five on my list. My grade = B.

6. Tarantula (1955) – In a small town in the Arizona desert, a scientist is performing experiments with radioactive nutrients to try and grow vegetables and food animals very large. What could possibly go wrong? Somehow a tarantula escapes and grows to enormous size. The tarantula kills some people but is eventually destroyed by Air Force jets with napalm bombs. No Academy Award winner but a decent giant insect movie and better than you might expect. (Yes, I know a tarantula isn’t an insect). My grade = B-.

7. Monster from Green Hell (1957) – An American rocket sends wasps into space to explore the effects of cosmic radiation. The rocket lands off course in Africa. Some time later, the irradiated wasps have mutated into very large and very angry beasts. In the end the wasps are destroyed by a conveniently erupting volcano. I saw this many times on TV when I was young, and for some unknown reason, this movie gave me nightmares (even though it’s not scary at all). My grade = C.

8. World Without End (1956) – In the near future, relative to 1956, a crew of four is returning to Earth from a reconnaissance trip to Mars. Their spacecraft zooms out of control and they end up in the future of 2508. They discover that Earth was devastated by a nuclear war, leaving mutants of all kinds, including large jumping spiders. They discover non-mutants who live in an underground high-tech civilization. My grade = C. The spider in this movie was used two years later in “Queen of Outer Space” (1958) — a pretty good movie that might have made this list on another day.

9. Earth vs. the Spider (1958) – Aka “The Spider”. Teenagers find a giant tarantula in a cave just outside town. They defeat it with the help of their high school science teacher and rock and roll music. Sure, this isn’t a great movie, but the actors do their best and I appreciate the sincerity of the efforts. My grade = C.

10. Cosmic Monsters (1958) – Aka “The Strange World of Planet X”. A megalomaniac scientist experiments with powerful magnetic fields. This a.) creates giant mutated insects, including a giant roach, and b.) attracts the attention of an alien civilization. One of the aliens comes to Earth and warns that the planet’s orbit will be destabilized if the magnetic experiments continue. The scientist refuses to stop his experiments so the alien reluctantly destroys the lab (and scientist) and heads back home. My grade = C.