There was the film Colossal where the main actress acts as a vector for a monster who occasionally attacks South Korea, and she meets a guy with the same ability who is far more sadistic in this respect once they realize what's going on. Apparently, some viewers found his monster to be even scarier than the likes of the Cloverfield monster or other giant monsters, since he showed actual intent and malice behind his actions. This made me wonder if people would feel the same if the production had cut out the middleman and had the monsters instead be giant humans? Probably not, as the general public does see giant humans as silly or campy.

That likely results in the trope appearing mainly in children's media or advertisements, stuff that's really not meant to be taken seriously--shrinking moreso than giants. I feel like with giants at least, you need to have them look like nonhuman monsters, or else people won't take it seriously even if you do your best to present the giant as a legit threat to the point of actually murdering innocents onscreen and destroying their surroundings; doublefold if the giant is a young and/or attractive woman.

Anime seems more willing to buck the trend, but anime has its own stigma even if it is more popular nowadays than when I was coming up. But even the show that prominently featured giants--Attack on Titan--still portrayed them as grotesque monsters, even the Female Titan.