Film

Meet the Applegates

A gleefully deranged 1990 creature feature where a colony of Brazilian insects infiltrate suburban America disguised as the perfect nuclear-era family. It's a movie that commits fully to its absurd premise, blending body horror, dark comedy, and genuine weirdness into something that feels like a fever dream directed by someone who'd seen too many sitcoms. Perfect for people who love genre films that swing for the fences.

TMDb rating2.8

If you liked this

Gremlins1984

Small creatures wreak havoc on an American town with wit and practical effects wizardry. Tonally it balances horror and comedy in exactly the same register, and the creature work is genuinely inventive and fun.

But The humor can feel dated, and the second act drags when it gets too earnest about the morality tale underneath.

Gremlins poster

The Stuff1985

A B-movie about a mysterious dessert product that consumes America from within. It's got the same satirical energy about consumer culture eating us alive, with practical creature effects that are wonderfully grotesque.

But The acting is deliberately campy and the pacing is uneven—it requires you to meet it halfway in its own weird logic.

The Stuff poster

Innerspace1987

A madcap sci-fi comedy about a miniaturized pilot injected into a human body. Dennis Quaid and Martin Short spark off each other brilliantly, and it's got the same anarchic energy and willingness to be absolutely ridiculous.

But It relies heavily on '80s comedy timing that hasn't aged perfectly, and the plot gets genuinely convoluted by the third act.

Innerspace poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Meet the Applegates

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers1978

Both use alien infiltration of America as social satire, but where Applegates goes for chaos and absurdity, Body Snatchers weaponizes the exact same concept into existential horror about conformity.

Aliens replace humans with emotionless duplicates in San Francisco. Kaufman's version is a paranoid masterpiece that uses the same premise of infiltration but cranks the dread to maximum and treats it as serious art.

But It's genuinely unsettling rather than fun, and the ending is bleak in ways that might feel punishing if you want escapism.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers poster
More like this (8)

Tremors1990

Giant worms attack a small Nevada town, and instead of being grim, it's a blast of practical creature work and genuine camaraderie. It knows exactly what it is and commits with joy.

But If you need psychological depth or character development beyond 'people dealing with a crisis,' you'll be disappointed.

Tremors poster

Beetlejuice1988

A haunted house comedy with creature design that's inventive and grotesque. Michael Keaton steals every scene, and it's got the same scabrous humor underneath the family-friendly surface.

But It's much more polished and mainstream than Meet the Applegates, which might make it feel safe if you're craving weird.

Beetlejuice poster

The Fly1986

A scientist becomes a fly through his own invention. David Cronenberg brings genuine tragedy to body horror while keeping the practical effects absolutely stunning and sickening.

But It's genuinely unsettling and sad in places—this is a grief film disguised as a creature feature, which is a heavy lift.

The Fly poster

Phantasm1979

A low-budget nightmare about a mysterious mortician and his spherical death machines. It's got a dreamlike logic and practical weirdness that predates most creature features doing this kind of thing.

But The plot is deliberately cryptic and never fully explained, which frustrates people looking for neat resolution.

Phantasm poster

The Hidden1987

An alien parasite possesses bodies and wreaks havoc across Los Angeles. It's a perfectly calibrated action-horror hybrid with genuine tension and practical gore that looks astonishing.

But Once you understand the premise, there's not much new ground covered—it's essentially a vehicle for the creature sequences.

The Hidden poster

Dead Poets Society1989

A teenager discovers his wealthy neighborhood is hiding something monstrous in plain sight. It's got the same satirical edge about American suburbia hiding grotesque secrets underneath.

But The finale is deliberately disgusting and surreal in ways that feel more transgressive than fun, which can alienate people wanting lighthearted weirdness.

Dead Poets Society poster

Wolf1994

Both films use monster transformation as a lens to examine how 'civilized' humans perform acceptable behavior—Applegates through a family, Wolf through a man shedding his professional mask.

Jack Nicholson becomes a werewolf in corporate Manhattan and discovers predatory instinct lurks underneath civilization's suit and tie. Michelle Pfeiffer and him crackle together, and it's a surprisingly smart comedy about masculine transformation.

But The tone wavers between horror and romantic comedy in ways that don't always cohere, and it can feel like two different movies grafted together.

Wolf poster

Come and See1985

Both take the form of genre entertainment (creature comedy, war film) and push it into becoming something unsettling about infiltration and corruption—one plays it for laughs, one doesn't, but both use the body as the site where invasion happens.

A Soviet war film about a boy conscripted into combat during WWII. It's relentlessly visual, ambitious, and structural in ways most fiction films aren't—a true feat of filmmaking that uses the medium itself as the story.

But It's an extremely difficult watch about atrocity and the death of innocence. This is not entertainment; it's an ordeal in the best sense.

Come and See poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

18 Again!