10 Great Movies To Watch If You Liked The Shape Of Water

Guillermo del Toro’s lovely dark fairy tale The Shape of Water features a romance between a human and an amphibious man, but certain other movies will also fulfill those looking for human-monster love stories. Well-reviewed and highly acclaimed, The Shape of Water is packed with all of Guillermo del Toro’s trademarks: touches of horror, fairytale elements, Gothic romance, a prosthetic-formed creature, and darkly lovely visuals.The Shape of Water won Best Picture at the 2018 Oscars, along with three other categories. Still, it’s the romance that people remember.

Love stories between humans and monster are far older than the medium of movies. Tales of succubi seducing men, creatures abducting fair maidens, or forbidden love blossoming between supernatural beings and humans have endured for as long as humans have told stories. There’s something about seeing monstrous love stories unfold on screen that gives them an extra bit of staying power, and The Shape of Water is rooted firmly in a cinematic tradition of beauty-and-beast tales. Here are 10 other monster love stories to watch after finishing del Toro’s masterpiece.

10 Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Director: Zelda Williams

When Lisa Frankenstein came out earlier this year, it was largely a failure at the box office, but its 81% Rotten Tomatoes audience score belies that poor performance at the box office. A few months later, and Lisa Frankenstein has all the makings of a cult classic thanks to its irreverent tone and comparisons to Edward Scissorhands.

Though it’s certainly more comedic and tongue-in-cheek than the dramatic romantasy The Shape of Water, Lisa Frankenstein still features a delightful love story between woman and monster in this modernized, gender-flipped retelling of Frankenstein. Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse have sweet chemistry together, and those looking for a nostalgic throwback to the comedic monster comedies of the ’80s will find lots to love in the newer release.

9 Warm Bodies (2013)

Director: Jonathan Levine

Unlike the current uncertain cult classic status of Lisa Frankenstein, Warm Bodies is a bona fide cult classic. It came out at the tail end of the last zombie movie wave, so it just missed the boat in terms of financial success. Still, the movie, based on the novel of the same name by Isaac Marion, is beloved thanks to its sharp writing and darkly funny observational humor.

That humor is delivered with deadpan perfection by Nicholas Hoult as the zombie, R, in one of his earliest performances that showed off the impeccable comedic timing he’s become known for. Truly, the delivery of some of his lines are laugh aloud funny as he commits fully to the comedy of the straightfaced. When he falls for zombie hunter Julie (Teresa Palmer), it’s the start of a Romeo and Juliet story between a zombie boy and a human girl that’s as surprising as it is heartfelt.

8 City of Angels (1998)

Director: Brad Silberling

It’s not often these days that Nicolas Cage is known for romance, but City of Angels is one of the few pure romance movies in his extensive career. It helps that he is acting across veteran rom-com actress Meg Ryan, who plays a surgeon, Maggie, living in Los Angeles. As an angel known as a watcher, Nic Cage’s Seth slowly falls in love with Maggie as he watches over humanity.

City of Angels, a rough remake of Wim Wenders’ 1987 movie Wings of Desire, is a weepy tearjerker that can at times be overwrought. But Cage uses his expressive face to bring out all the emotions in Seth’s angelic awakening to humanity, and his chemistry with Ryan is earned, lending the pair of lovers a magnetic quality that’s rarely seen in a big-screen love story.

7 Spring (2014)

Directors: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead broke out and became darlings of the indie horror genre, with hits like V/H/S Viral and Synchronic, before breaking out with Marvel as the directors for Loki season 2, a few episodes of Moon Knight, and the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again. They had a dark and beautiful monster love story prior to their MCU debut, however, with 2014’s Spring.

The story revolves around Evan, a young man who leaves the U.S. for Italy after he starts to spiral and fall apart. While there, he falls quickly in love with the mysterious Louise, who hides a monstrous secret. Spring gets lots of credit for each shot being beautifully postcard-worthy, with the beauty of the love story juxtaposed against the darker horror elements of the movie. It’s lesser known than some other movies on this list, but well worth a watch.

6 Ondine (2009)

Director: Neil Jordan

These days, Colin Farrell is currently better known for his recent oddball, more experimental roles, but he still has some great romance movies in his past oeuvre. One of the more underrated is 2009’s romantic drama Ondine by acclaimed writer-director Neil Jordan. The title is taken from European folklore; the undine is a female water nymph who can take the form of a woman when she falls in love with a man, who becomes besotted.

Jordan’s romance is lyrical and gorgeously shot in Ireland, deftly weaving together a mystery and a love story against the beautiful natural backdrop of a seaside village. As a heartbroken fisherman who has given up on love, Farrell infuses his performance in Ondine with a nuanced pathos warmed by flickering moments of hope in one of his most underrated roles. Along the way, there’s a great mystery to unravel, making the ending well worth the wait.

5 Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Director: Tim Burton

The one movie on this list that doesn’t need a lot of context is Tim Burton’s 1990 classic, Edward Scissorhands. While it wasn’t either of their breakout roles, it was arguably the one that cemented Johnny Depp as a movie star and confirmed that Winona Ryder’s charisma in Beetlejuice two years prior wasn’t just a fluke.

The reimagined version of Frankenstein follows Depp’s titular character, a gentle soul who has never been outside the mansion where he was created. The quiet love story that blossoms between him and the human girl, Kim, is sweet and fragile but has an earnestness that sticks. With its candy-colored setting and Burton’s signature whimsigoth styling, Edward Scissorhands is a modern fairytale that still holds up more than 30 years later.

4 Stardust (2007)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Stardust is one of those mid-2000s movies that flies under the radar, but has an absolutely stacked cast of A-listers – Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, and Michelle Pfeiffer – and current stars before they were stars – Charlie Cox, Henry Cavill, Sienna Miller, and Ben Barnes. The story, based on a book by Neil Gaiman, tells the story of a star, Yvaine (Danes), who falls to Earth. Meanwhile, a smitten young man named Tristan Thorn (Cox) promises the girl he has a crush on that he’ll cross the forbidden wall to the magical realm to retrieve the star and prove his love.

The story is a throwback to the ’80s fantasy epics of colorful characters and young love and swashbuckling adventures. The most lovely part of Stardust is that it doesn’t hide its earnestness or belief in true love under a veil of cynicism or deliver it tongue-in-cheek. As love blossoms between Yvaine and Tristan, they face all manner of dangers straight of out myth and adventure tales: evil witches, flying airships, unicorns, castles, and enchanted forests. For those who like a little more magic in their monster romances, this is the perfect movie.

3 The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Director: Rupert Julian

The Phantom of the Opera has been told and retold in movies and on Broadway for the last 100 years, whether through direct adaptations or inventive reimaginings. Such is the staying power of Gaston Leroux’s 1909 story – a century and a few decades later, we’re still finding ways to bring his timeless story to life. It’s a classic of Gothic horror and romance, and while multiple movie adaptations have done it justice, the best one is still the 1925 adaptation starring Lon Chaney, known as the Man of a Thousand Faces.

Chaney’s performance as the tortured, disfigured Erik, the titular Phantom and reclusive stage magician who falls in love with young ingenue opera singer Christine Daaé. As he secretly tutors her in music, he grows obsessed, his love growing violent after she tears away his mask and learns his secret. Music and passion swirl together in a tale that borrows from Frankenstein, the story of Hades and Persephone, real historical events involving the Paris Opera House, and classic ghost stories. The theatricality and opulence of the 1925 version ensure it still holds up today, whether the silent version or the rereleased version with sound.

2 Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Director: Jack Arnold

In the most directly analogous movie to The Shape of Water on this list, Creature from the Black Lagoon isn’t a love story in the traditional sense, but it is a love story, nonetheless. When lovely young scientist Kay unwittingly trespasses in his lagoon, the titular Gill Man is fascinated by the beautiful creature who swims in his waters, not knowing he’s below. Similar to The Phantom of the Opera, this is a one-sided love story, and, much like Erik, the Gill Man is violent when thwarted, but his naivety and desire to strike back and claim Kay come from a much more primal, animalistic place.

Creature from the Black Lagoon‘s water scenes have a certain eerie, dreamlike quality, making for some visuals that aren’t usually found in a creature feature. Like the best monster movies, Creature pulls from older traditions, in this case, European folktales of river and lake monsters, and the near-universal tales of mermen. Like those creatures, the Gill Man may not intend to cause harm, but his intention to trap his bride in the murky depths forever does not tend to mix well with humanity. Even knowing the one-sided romance can’t possibly end happily, Creature from the Black Lagoon is still a lot of popcorn fun in the tradition of the greatest B-movies.

1 Meet Joe Black (1998)

Director: Martin Brest

Younger audiences who know him mostly from his eclectic modern filmography of quirky comedies and big dramas may not know – or at least not remember – that Brad Pitt used to be the king of romance movies. Early in his career, while some grittier entries in his filmography hinted at what was to come, Pitt was best known for being the heartthrob romantic lead. Meet Joe Black was the last of those romance movies, coming out one year before Fight Club set his career on a new trajectory.

Meet Joe Black, directed by eclectic filmmaker Martin Brest, is a loose remake of the 1934 movie Death Takes a Holiday. Pitt plays the personification of Death, who wishes to experience life, so he takes the form of a young man who has just died to live among humans and learn to feel and love as they do. Of course, he falls in love with Claire Forlani’s character, Susan. Pitt infuses his performance with an ethereal intensity so magnetic that you can practically see the connection between him and Susan. It’s not a love story that can’t end totally happily – Death is too inhuman, too other for that – but it’s an ending that sticks with you, just as the ending of The Shape of Water does.