Image (C) Alamy

Friday sees the release of the movie "I, Frankenstein," the latest iteration of the legend created by Mary Shelley in 1818.

And while the scariest thing about this flick may end up being the critics' reviews, we took it as an opportunity to go through cinematic history and pit some of film's greatest monsters against each other.

The task? Find out who lays claim to the coolest Guinness World Records title.

Let's count 'em down!

6.) Frankenstein's monster

We begin with Frankenstein himself. Well, technically, Frankenstein's monster, since anyone worth their weight in Boris Karloff movie posters knows that the original monster created by mad scientist Victor Frankenstein actually has no name.

Oddly enough, this famous movie monster doesn't own any records. But that's not for lack of trying. Frankenstein's monster finds itself second to a pair of records: the "Castle Thunder" sound effect (above) first heard in Frankenstein (1931) sits behind the "Wilhelm Scream" as the most common sound effect in film. And poor Frankie - always the bridesmaid, never the bride - is also second in the list of most commonly portrayed character in horror films, trailing someone we'll soon meet.

5.) Godzilla

godzilla popcorn.JPG

The famous giant green lizard from Japan is responsible for no current records, but that wasn't the case a decade ago. Allan Park Cinema in Sterling, UK, unveiled the largest popcorn sculpture in October 2003 and modelled it on Godzilla. The edible monster measured 4.89 m (16 ft 0.5 in) tall, weighed 1,000 kg (2,240 lb), and was created to celebrate the cinema's 65th anniversary. It is unknown whether butter flavoring was used.

The current record was built in New York in 2006, standing 20 ft 10 in (6.35 m) tall, 12 ft 9 in (3.88 m) wide and weighing 11,688 lb (5,301.59 kg) in the shape of a cake. Godzilla would still win in a fight.

4.) Mr. Hyde

More a historical abnormality than an outright record, Mr. Hyde from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fame is still responsible for one of the coolest movie trivia nuggets ever, one which is particularly timely as we find ourselves in the middle of awards season.

In 1932, Fredric March's performance as man and monster landed him the Academy award for Best Actor. An award he had to share that year with Wallace Beery for his performance in The Champ. It remains to this day the only time the Oscar for Best Actor was shared by multiple winners.

3.) King Kong

To say the movie that first introduced King Kong and the movie that earned the most money with King Kong are different is to say that Jim Thorpe couldn't make it in today's NFL.

The 1933 King Kong remains a veritable classic, one of the greatest films ever made. However, the 2005 King Kong can lay claim to having held the record for most expensive film made. At the time of its production, Peter Jackson's pet project required a $200 million budget, due mostly to the large use of digital effects. In fact, the 3,709 FX shots were the most ever for a film at that point (2,510 ended up being used).

What's crazy is that since King Kong set that record less than a decade ago, it has been surpassed by an astonishing 16 movies for highest-ever price tag, with 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at No. 1 on a reported $300 million budget.

2.) Dracula

We told you we'd come back to this one! After nearly 117 years in existence, Dracula has amassed plenty of appearances. So much so that he owns the records for most portrayed literary character in film and most portrayed character in horror films, comfortably ahead of the aforementioned Frankenstein. With inclusion of TV movies and straight-to-video releases, Dracula has appeared in 272 films (155 of them features). Not only showing he has enough bite ( seewhatwedidthere?) for the top horror spot over Frankenstein, the Count has so far fended off no less than Sherlock Holmes for the overall literary character adaptation record.

1.) Jaws

What they needed a bigger boat for was all that cash!

As the first film to gross $100 million, Jaws earned the inimitable record achievement of being the first blockbuster. It went on to earn the most money by a film of all-time (until Star Wars started swinging its lightsabers) and quite literally changed the way Hollywood does business. Be it an ultrasuccess like The Avengers or a monster flop like John Carter, anything resembling a summer tentpole movie today can trace its lineage back to the terrifying Great White, who interestingly barely appears at all until the last few scenes of the movie.

It was Jaws that proved people will line up outside theaters and hand over wallets to the tune of millions of dollars, all to be scared by a moving picture. Without it, perhaps I, Frankenstein doesn't get made. And for that, the giant fish gets our top spot.