Was the Monster a Kaiju?

The South Korean film Host, displays some tropes and narratives that are found in horror or kaiju films.  But I feel like the film tried to blend the two together but failed in a mediocre manner.  The monster that is implied to be born out of the discarded chemical waste, is similar to Godzilla who was born out of the radiation from the atomic bomb.  But I feel like the monster was not feared in the same manner as Godzilla, and it is here where I feel that the film failed to deliver a perfect blend of horror and kaiju.  Godzilla films aren’t considered to be horror films since the basis of the fear it instills is partly consisted of awe due it being a metaphorical objectification of the force of nature.  But the monster present in the film is not at the scale of Godzilla and is more akin to the appearance of xenomorphs from the Aliens franchise, which possess more of a grotesque horror element.  The monster could be said to be the objectification of the result of pollution yet the entire cast seemed to fear the imaginary virus the monster was supposedly carrying more than the monster itself.  The only horror element I was able to find within the film are the scenes involving the girl Hyun-seo down the sewer.  Personally, I believe the film chose the wrong setting if its whole purpose was to be an ordinary horror film.  But considering how the main antagonist turns out to be the government, particularly the US, I was left wondering what function the monster served.  The monster did create chaos with its “virus” but the chaos was at a scale that was containable through the use of a single anti-biological weapon.  There is also a lack of urgency in the government’s part where they are busy finding a way to deal with the imaginary virus with not much attention towards the monster itself.  In conclusion, the film was a mediocre blend of the two genres, however, I think it was able to deliver its criticism against the US for its apathy towards the local.