WATCH YOUR FAVORITE
MOVIES & TV SERIES ONLINE
TRY FREE TRIAL
Home > Horror >

Varan the Unbelievable

Watch Varan the Unbelievable For Free

Varan the Unbelievable

In an effort to find an economic means of purifying salt water, a joint U.S.-Japanese military command is set up on an isolated Japanese island where an unusual salt water lake is situated. However, their purifying experiments arouse the prehistoric monster Obaki from hibernation at the lake's bottom, and it proceeds to attack Japan. Although made by a U.S. independent film company, this film was based on a Japanese Toho monster film of 1958, "Daikaiju Varan", from which all of the monster effects scenes and a few incidental dramatic shots were edited into it.

... more
Release : 1962
Rating : 4.5
Studio : Crown International Pictures,  Cory Film Corporation,  Dallas Production Inc., 
Crew : Property Master,  Director of Photography, 
Cast : Myron Healey Tsuruko Kobayashi Clifford Kawada Derick Shimatsu Koreya Senda
Genre : Horror Science Fiction

Cast List

Related Movies

20 Million Miles to Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth

20 Million Miles to Earth   1957

Release Date: 
1957

Rating: 6.3

genres: 
Horror  /  Science Fiction
Stars: 
William Hopper  /  Joan Taylor  /  Frank Puglia
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus   2009

Release Date: 
2009

Rating: 2.5

genres: 
Horror  /  Science Fiction
Stars: 
Lorenzo Lamas  /  Debbie Gibson  /  Sean Lawlor
Night of the Creeps
Night of the Creeps

Night of the Creeps   1986

Release Date: 
1986

Rating: 6.7

genres: 
Horror  /  Comedy  /  Science Fiction
Stars: 
Jason Lively  /  Steve Marshall  /  Jill Whitlow
The Red Tide Massacre
The Red Tide Massacre

The Red Tide Massacre   2022

Release Date: 
2022

Rating: 5

genres: 
Horror
Stars: 
Michael Paré  /  Susan Elle  /  Sam Schweikert
Bride of Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein   1935

Release Date: 
1935

Rating: 7.8

genres: 
Horror  /  Science Fiction
Stars: 
Boris Karloff  /  Ernest Thesiger  /  Colin Clive
Dune
Dune

Dune   1984

Release Date: 
1984

Rating: 6.3

genres: 
Adventure  /  Action  /  Science Fiction
Gremlins
Gremlins

Gremlins   1984

Release Date: 
1984

Rating: 7.3

genres: 
Fantasy  /  Horror  /  Comedy
Stars: 
Zach Galligan  /  Phoebe Cates  /  Hoyt Axton
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Gremlins 2: The New Batch   1990

Release Date: 
1990

Rating: 6.4

genres: 
Fantasy  /  Horror  /  Comedy
Stars: 
Zach Galligan  /  Phoebe Cates  /  John Glover
Godzilla
Godzilla

Godzilla   1998

Release Date: 
1998

Rating: 5.4

genres: 
Action  /  Thriller  /  Science Fiction
Stars: 
Matthew Broderick  /  Jean Reno  /  Maria Pitillo
Terrordactyl
Terrordactyl

Terrordactyl   2016

Release Date: 
2016

Rating: 4.2

genres: 
Action  /  Comedy  /  Science Fiction
Stars: 
Leo Oliva  /  Bianca Haase  /  Jenny Allford
Ultraman Sorta vs. Godzilla Starring Matt Frank: The Movie
Ultraman Sorta vs. Godzilla Starring Matt Frank: The Movie

Ultraman Sorta vs. Godzilla Starring Matt Frank: The Movie   2022

Release Date: 
2022

Rating: 10

genres: 
Comedy  /  Science Fiction
Arachnicide
Arachnicide

Arachnicide   2014

Release Date: 
2014

Rating: 2

genres: 
Horror  /  Action  /  Science Fiction

Reviews

CrawlerChunky
2018/08/30

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

More
TrueHello
2018/08/30

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

More
Mandeep Tyson
2018/08/30

The acting in this movie is really good.

More
Geraldine
2018/08/30

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

More
Leofwine_draca
2018/07/23

VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE is a typical kaiju flick from Japan, made on a low budget and with an eye on familiarity rather than innovation. I watched the dubbed US version of the film, which adds in an American protagonist to boot and renders some of the Japanese scenes choppy and second-rate. Still, it's business as usual, with Americans messing around with nature and resulting in the birth of a giant monster which proceeds to lay waste to the locality. The human drama is quite stodgy but the monster rampage scenes are always fun, albeit very low budget this time around.

More
AaronCapenBanner
2014/04/30

Ishiro Honda directed this Japanese monster film that sees a giant reptilian monster emerge from a lake, having been re-awakened by an undersea earthquake(or some such thing!) It was a local legend to the primitive people who live nearby, but the creature(called Varan) causes havoc before it decides to attack Japan. The military and scientists unite to defeat this creature any way they can. Obvious copy of Godzilla isn't bad, but is just too unoriginal and unremarkable to be at all memorable. Best viewed in the original Japanese language version, which is on the DVD, rather than the re-edited American version, which is seldom seen now.

More
FilmExpertWannabe
2011/06/14

It took Giant Monster Varan some four years before it finally made it to America under the title Varan, the Unbelievable. As fate would have it, Varan isn't so "unbelievable" or "great". I am reviewing the Japanese version that's presently available on DVD, the very one in the picture at the top of the page. Despite the American version's title, it's the Japanese version with English subtitles. It is my understanding that the American version is significantly worse than the English version, but I can't comment on that.The giant monster plot is not unlike many other monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists are searching for a unique species of butterfly and awaken the monster god. The Japanese military lends a hand, bringing their equipment and troops to the island, expecting an easy kill. As you'd expect, Varan is virtually immune to the weaponry, so the military retreats. Varan swims through the water and attacks an airport and some of the city, but certainly not on the scale that we see some other monsters, Godzilla for one. Eventually the military discovers a trick to defeating Varan, and the wounded monster retreats.Pretty basic, but it works. It's mediocre, but in some ways that's kind of a good thing. Toho didn't make the monster out to be as huge, destructive, and powerful as monsters like Godzilla or even Rodan. But while that bolsters the strength of those monsters, it makes this film and its monster forgettable. The first irk I have is that this movie was shot with a fairly tight budget, and it shows. The movie is shot in black and white, despite Toho having done color since 1956's Rodan. The acting is also average, with some rough spots where the character(s) should be acting more emotional (or seem to express the wrong emotions). Varan isn't particularly interesting as a monster, and although he's versatile, being able to operate in water, in air, and on land, he still comes off as derivative and staid. Two upsides to the movie were 1) a fairly good score, and 2) mostly good special effects.Is the movie worth checking out? Well, if you're just getting into monster movies or Japanese monster movies, there are many better choices. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, War of the Gargantuas, and more were all done under Toho as with Varan, the Unbelievable, but are far more emotional, engaging, and solid films. If you're seen all of these main movies, then Varan is worth checking out. It's by no means a bad movie, it's just that it's not inspiring or riveting. If it comes pack of a discounted multi-feature set as they offer now (Varan with The Mysterians and Matango, for example), then the movie is probably worth it. On its own, for $10-15 it's less compelling. I purchased it despite that, but I'd more likely just recommend it should it be found in a $5 bin. I give it a 5/10, not bad, not great.

More
Brandt Sponseller
2005/06/04

This is not a review, but I want to post this here to help stave off some confusion. The DVD called "Varan The Unbelievable", released by Tokyo Shock in May 2005, catalog number TSDVD-0511, is not the film listed on IMDb as "Varan the Unbelievable (1962)", or "The Monster Varan (1962)". It is instead the film listed on IMDb as "Daikaijû Baran (1958)". "Baran" is the Japanese word that has a transliteration in English as "Varan"."Varan the Unbelievable" was an American-produced adaptation of the material, similar to the American adaptation of the original Godzilla (Gojira, 1954). Varan was originally to be a joint US/Japanese production, but that deal fell through. Toho, the Japanese production company, went ahead and did Varan anyway, and a few years later, the American version was produced, with a different title and with additional material directed by Jerry A. Baerwitz. It doesn't help the confusion that Tokyo Shock decided to release their DVD under the American title of "Varan the Unbelievable", but surely that was done because that's the title that Americans know the film under.How do you know what version you watched? Well, the American version has an American actor, Myron Healey, and a plot about trying to desalinize water. It's also only 70 minutes long. The Japanese film is about 90 minutes long, has no American actors, and Varan (or "Baran") makes his first (offscreen) appearance when scientists from Tokyo make a trip to a remote, mountainous village to research the sighting of a butterfly previously only known to exist in Siberia. The Japanese version also has a different musical score, but since music is a bit difficult to describe well in words (other than technically), that's not a great way for most folks to tell which version they've watched.To make matters even more confusing, the Tokyo Shock DVD has a truncated Japanese television version of Daikaijû Baran, clocking in at about 50 minutes, which dispenses with both the desalinization and the butterfly plots. Also, at least some people have reported seeing a color version of the film. I don't know which version that would be, but the Tokyo Shock DVD has the original, black & white widescreen Japanese version from 1958. I would have much preferred if Tokyo Shock would have put the American adaptation of Varan on the DVD as an extra, as the Japanese television version is just the same film with a bunch of edits for time and there are a few scenes rearranged to try to create something more coherent given the cuts. Tokyo Shock probably didn't put the American film as an extra because of some licensing or royalty issue. I can also imagine Toho objecting to it. Note that there's a good commentary track for the film with Murase Keizo, who was in charge of special effects models on the film (he's not credited on either IMDb listing).We should reserve this listing for reviews of the American version, and review the Japanese original version at the listing for Daikaijû Baran (1958) instead.

More
Watch Instant, Get Started Now Watch Instant, Get Started Now