Following World War II and quickly transitioning into the Cold War, fears across the planet became more globalized and mainstream, naturally making their way in to our films, by way of pulpy novels by writers like Richard Matheson (I Am Legend). 1950s American cinema would arguably birth modern sci-fi as we know it, allegorically substituting Russian foe for that of a some Martian invader opting to invade, you guessed it, somewhere in America, threatening all that is good and just along the way.

We would get our first taste of one of the greatest American television writers with Rod Serling and his Twilight Zone series (of which Matheson would often contribute to). Meanwhile, Japan was sneaking its own jabs back at its red-blooded bomb-dropping enemies via Godzilla. America, though, was producing more than any other country, from the schlocky B-list titles of Roger Corman (Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man) to creature feature masterpieces like Them! These are the best sci-fi movies from the 1950s.

7 The Thing from Another World (1951)

The Thing from Another World
RKO Radio Pictures 

Unearthing an alien vessel at the North Pole, an expedition discovers a presumed dead alien creature in The Thing from Another World. When the monster is defrosted, the team must defend themselves in the most claustrophobic and coldest of spaces in this film based on the short story Who Goes There? by John Campbell.

Like others on this list, the fear factor has diminished with age and the impressive technological advancements of special effects, but this is a fantastic adventure all the same. The film would however be bettered by the John Carpenter remake of the 1980s, one of the extremely few horror movie remakes to best the original.

6 Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla in Gojira 1954
Toho

A post-war reaction from the Japanese perspective, and just nine years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Godzilla allegorizes the all-encompassing destructive power of the "Little Boy" bomb as a giant radioactive lizard. Ignore the very slow talky parts in favor of the sparse moments of Godzilla destroying the city, or seek out the original Japanese version before the American edits, which is still poetically sad today.

Related: How the Godzilla Franchise Has Stood the Test of Time

Godzilla as a character has become a legendary symbol for Japanese cinema and creature features since, with many, many Godzilla follow-ups and spin-off movies since this 1954 original.

5 The War of the Worlds (1953)

The War of the Worlds (1953) by Byron Haskin
Paramount Pictures

Following the H.G Wells novel and the Orson Welles radio incident, the movie inevitably followed, and with it arrived a seminal them and us alien invasion movie. The effects in War of the Worlds are cool but obviously dated, with the few scenes actually featuring any of the invaders coming off as wooden, but stick with it for its tale of humans against the odds. Spielberg and Tom Cruise would have a shot at a remake in the thoroughly strong 2005 iteration of the same name.

4 Forbidden Planet (1956)

Forbidden Planet 1956
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

A crew land on a foreign planet to determine what happened to the residents that arrived before them... turns out there's something there with them that isn't human in this wildly inventive update of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Robbie the Robot is one of the greatest sci-fi characters ever created, and in a wonderful piece of casting, check out Naked Gun's Leslie Nelsen as the square jawed captain long before he was dropping the dumbest of zingers as Frank Drebin.

Forbidden Planet is a movie that feels entirely responsible for half of Star Trek's entire catalog, with a good measure of 1980's Flash Gordon, Star Wars, and pretty much every other sci-fi that followed after it.

3 The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Creature from the Black Lagoon
Universal Pictures

Everything about this jungle adventure is just gold, with its black and white coloring even adding to the murk of the creature lurking beneath the water. In a classic tale of adventurers trying to prove what is yet unproven, a team head to the Amazon jungle to search for the elusive "Gill-Man" in Creature from the Black Lagoon. With pretty much the entire film set upon a boat with the team, the ensemble cast pick fights and square up on one another when they aren't fighting off the monster.

Related: Why Creature From the Black Lagoon is Better Than Most Cheesy Horror Movies

Julie Adams as the damsel in distress is entirely believable as someone even another species would fall in love with. Creature from the Black Lagoon is a classic monster tale, that many simply cannot measure up to.

2 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Kevin McCarthy's face, covered in mud, looks terrified in Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 movie
Allied Artists Pictures

Following World War II, and with the ongoing Cold War, America was mistrusting of the rest of the world. McCarthyism and the so-called 'red scare' led to a witch hunt, with many people being accused of communism. Invasion of the Body Snatchers takes that mistrust and fear and realigns it by way of making the invaders shape-shifting aliens that are replacing people in a small town.

Taut and with an opener that comes full circle, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is still terrifying and effective in making its audience question their very surroundings. But like Carpenter's The Thing, the '78 remake is arguably superior. You'll feel chills when faced directly down the lens, and informed that, yes, "YOU'RE NEXT!"

1 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) by Robert Wise
20th Century Fox

Pure bubblegum sci-fi at its finest, with a powerful anti-war message just seven years after World War II. In what is pretty much exactly the same plot that E.T. would tackle three decades later, an alien arrives on Earth with a plea of peace only to discover that time and again humanity is violent and destructive.

Michael Rennie shines as the handsome and restrained foreigner and his henchman Gort is Doctor Who levels of menacing without having to do very much at all but stand there. Finally, an example of a great movie that hasn't been bettered by its remake! Once again the black and white of this just adds so much to the picture.