When Animals Attack (in Movies)!
It’s coming right for us!
Spring is now in full force for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. The temperature is rising. The birds are chirping. People are spending more time outdoors. You know what that means: wild animals can and will eat you. Maybe that was a bit of hyperbole. Animal attacks are pretty rare when you consider how many daily interactions there are between humans and various creatures. That said, they do make for excellent movie fodder. Animal attack stories are a B-movie staple, but there are also plenty of movies from critically acclaimed filmmakers as well. I figured I’d share some of my favorites from both categories. I did impose some arbitrary restrictions on myself to prevent this list from being over a hundred films. None of these movies will feature fictional creatures (sorry, King Kong and Alien). None of these movies will feature animals that have since gone extinct (sorry, Jurassic Park and The Meg). None of these movies will feature real animals that have been mutated or genetically modified (sorry, Alligator and Deep Blue Sea). Lastly, none of these movies will feature fictional subspecies of real animals (sorry, Arachnophobia and Infested). With that out of the way, here are some of my personal favorite animal attack movies.
The Birds (1963) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
The Birds is an excellent example of a movie taking something innocuous and making it terrifying. In this case, it’s Alfred Hitchcock turning all of the birds in the world into an organized murder machine. It’s essentially a siege movie where the human characters are holed up inside buildings trying to fend off waves of killer birds. It’s a B-movie premise executed to perfection by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. There are plenty of suspenseful sequences as well as some pretty horrific violence. Much like all of Hitchcock’s films, it still holds up very well.
Jaws (1975) directed by Steven Spielberg
Come on. It’s Jaws. Do I even need to explain this one? It’s the movie that created the concept of the summer blockbuster, and it effectively launched the career of Steven Spielberg. It’s scary, the characters are fully realized, it has some of the most famous lines of dialogue of any film, and it has a score so iconic that it plays in the heads of just about anyone whenever they think about sharks. It’s a damn near perfect film, and I watch it every July.
Grizzly (1976) directed by William Girdler
The first B-movie to appear on this list! Have you ever seen Jaws? Then you’ve basically seen Grizzly. This movie is basically a beat for beat remake of Jaws except with a killer bear instead of a shark. You’re probably wondering why I put it on the list if it’s just a shameless ripoff of Jaws. It’s because the violence and gore is so over the top that it becomes wildly entertaining at times. Is it goofy as hell? Yeah, but that’s part of the appeal. It’s worth a watch if you just want to turn off your brain and have fun.
Cujo (1983) directed by Lewis Teague
This is another example of taking something innocuous and making it terrifying. Based on the novel by Stephen King, Cujo is about a lovable St. Bernard (the titular Cujo) who contracts rabies and becomes an unstoppable killing machine. I think the first two acts are just okay, but the third act is worth the price of admission as a mother (played by Dee Wallace) and her son (played by Danny Pintauro) find themselves trapped in a car as Cujo terrorizes them and attempts to force his way into the car to kill them. It’s incredibly tense, and it makes the whole movie worth it.
Anaconda (1997) directed by Luis Llosa
Look. This movie is not good. I am aware of this. It’s pure schlock, but I can’t help but enjoy it. First off, the cast is ridiculous. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Owen Wilson, Eric Stoltz, and Danny Trejo all somehow appear in this movie about a trip down the Amazon River that goes very poorly. By that, I mean a big snake starts killing everyone. It’s such a ridiculous movie (epitomized by Jon Voight’s absurd performance as a Paraguayan poacher), but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t entertain me. It might be the least scientifically accurate movie on this list, and that includes the movie where birds organize themselves into an army.
Open Water (2003) directed by Chris Kentis
This will probably be the most divisive entry on this list. There are folks who loathe this movie, but I’m a fan. It’s loosely based on a true story about a vacationing couple (played by Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) who are accidentally left behind on a scuba diving expedition in the middle of the ocean with a lot of sharks. This is my own personal worst nightmare, so I find it very effective. The film is shot on digital video that gives it an almost home video/found footage look. Some people are put off by this, but I like it. What really sets this movie apart from other shark movies is that it is really filmed in the ocean with real sharks. When a shark bumps into one of the characters on screen, that is a real shark bumping into an actor. It makes my skin crawl. It honestly speaks to how rare shark attacks actually are that you could film a movie with real sharks in the wild interacting with actors without any incidents, but it still scares the bejeezus out of me to see it on the big screen.
Black Water (2007) directed by Andrew Traucki
Fun fact: there were two well reviewed movies released in 2007 set in Australia about people terrorized by a saltwater crocodile after their boat is attacked. One is called Rogue, and the other is Black Water. Rogue is the more traditional and formulaic of the two. It’s meant to be a crowd pleaser. Black Water, on the other hand, is almost oppressively bleak. I obviously prefer Black Water. This is another movie that has a “loosely based” on a true story, and I would definitely put the emphasis on “loosely.” The excellent Tooth & Claw podcast has a great episode on the real story.
What makes Black Water so interesting to me is the way the crocodile is incorporated into the movie. The filmmakers shot plenty of footage of real life saltwater crocodiles, and then they would composite that footage into the scenes with the actors. It’s surprisingly effective.
The Reef (2010) directed by Andrew Traucki
Oh hey! Another film directed by Andrew Traucki! This guy clearly loves making movies about people getting eaten by gigantic predators. This time around, the predator is a massive great white (or a white pointer as they’re usually called in Australia). This one is also based on a true story, but it’s much more similar to the actual events save for one important detail: a tiger shark was the culprit in the real story. Our friends at Tooth & Claw covered this one as well.
To put it simply, you’ll like The Reef if you liked Black Water. The compositing technique is used with the great white that was used with the crocodile in Black Water, so it adds a sense of realism to the proceedings. If these last two films have taught me anything, it’s that you should avoid Australia at all costs.
The Grey (2011) directed by Joe Carnahan
It might be a bit of a stretch to call this an animal attack movie. It’s more of a wilderness survival movie than anything. With that being said, there are a lot of people getting killed by wolves in this movie. I remember the marketing for this movie making it look like it was an action movie where Liam Neeson fights a bunch of wolves with his bare hands. While that would be fun, the actual film we get is much better. It’s about a group of oil refinery workers whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, and the survivors have to try to survive while fending off both the elements and hungry wolves.
Backcountry (2014) directed by Adam MacDonald
We have yet another film loosely based on a true story. Much like Open Water, it’s about a couple taking a little trip into nature. Instead of a diving excursion, this couple is going camping in the Canadian wilderness. There are a lot of cool things to see in the forests of Canada, and we get to see plenty of them. Unfortunately, there are also black bears. In this case, it’s a very hungry black bear. Most of the movie is a character drama as these two individuals try to survive in extraordinary circumstances. The actual bear attack sequence, however, is one of the most brutal depictions of an animal attack that I’ve ever seen.
Crawl (2019) directed by Alexandre Aja
Last but not least, we have Crawl. This is a perfect example of a script being elevated by a talented filmmaker. The premise sounds like your typical B-movie: a Florida town is flooded due to a catastrophic hurricane, and an army of hungry alligators move in to prey upon the inhabitants. It’s a very silly premise, but Aja turns it into a white knuckle thriller. Great performances by Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper help as well. Above all else, it’s just a really fun movie. I didn’t have high expectations when it came out, but now it’s one I enjoy revisiting when I’m in the mood for some gratuitous gator action.