Animal horror is a genre. Think Cujo or Pet Semetary. The monster movie is also its own genre, like Cloverfield or Godzilla. But there's one sub-genre that blends the two, turning ordinary animals into giant monsters.
The earliest examples of these films are King Kong (1933), and Them! (1954), as well as It Came From Beneath The Sea and Tarantula, both being released in 1955. Since the genre's beginning, audiences have had an undying thirst for more. Some of the genre's creations are cinema-altering blockbusters that change the way we look at film, while others are nothing more than B-movie tragedies, destined to be forgotten forever. Here the 5 best (and 5 worst) giant animal horror movies in cinematic history.
Worst: Orca
1977's Orca was clearly trying to bank on the success of Jaws. One benefit of using an Orca though was that, since they're trainable animals, they were able to use an actual killer whale for many of the scenes. The scenes, however, are laughable throughout the entire film. The orca destroys a house, tips a giant iceberg over, and sets an entire town on fire... and then watches it burn with delight.
Adding to the confusing narrative of the movie is the fact that the killer orca is seeking revenge on a captain who killed his pregnant mate. Because of this, you end up rooting for the whale the entire film. Rather than tense and terrifying action, you find yourself laughing and applauding after each ridiculous death scene. It was certainly the craziest orca film until the release of Blackfish.
Best: Anaconda
Jenny from the Block somehow finds herself traversing the Amazon in the epic film. A documentary crew is searching for an untouched indigenous tribe deep within the jungle, but what they don't know is that a giant 40-foot anaconda is hunting them.
The movie has some extremely memorable moments, like the epic waterfall scene and when the snake eats Jon Voight whole. But the craziest moment of the film doesn't even involve the snake. After inhaling a wasp, one of the characters has to perform an emergency cricothyrotomy. It will haunt your dreams for years to come...
Worst: Primeval
Not only is Primeval one of the worst giant animal movies, but it's truly one of the worst films in the entire history of cinema. The trailer had audiences excited, claiming that the movie was based on a true story, of an elusive serial killer, who has taken the lives of more than 300 victims...which is actually true. The movie is based on the enormous, killer crocodile, Gustave. Gustave is a male Nile Crocodile who is around 20-feet long. His size allows him to hunt hippos, wildebeest, and humans.
Gustave's habitat was home to a bitter years-long civil war, and unfortunately, that became the main plotline of the movie Primeval. The film quickly turns into a boring, slogging storyline of the horrors of African militias and the exoctification of "tribal people." When you finally get a glimpse of Gustave, the cheap CGI makes you wish that you didn't. Horror site Dread Central reviewed the film as, "A really poor man’s Blood Diamond that just happens to also feature an enormous man-eating crocodile..."
Best: Mimic
Do you hate cockroaches? If so, Guillermo Del Toro's 1997 film will leave you squirming in your seat. After a deadly outbreak from a cockroach-spread disease in NYC, researches create the "Judas Breed" super-cockroach to eradicate the disease-spreading species. Problem is, within a few years, these cockroaches have grown to six-foot-tall, and have developed the ability to mimic their greatest predator...humans.
Insects have long been in the horror genre (The Fly dates back to 1958) and now we see insects in kid's movies (A Bugs Life) and even superhero movies. But Mimic has managed to incorporate not just insects into the plot, but also that creepy-crawly feeling we all get when we see a really big bug. You'll squirm, you'll wince, you'll immediately spray your entire room with Raid.
Worst: Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Seven years after the release of the original, this pathetic excuse for a sequel hit theaters in 2004. From the start of the film, you know you're in trouble. The setting is Borneo, rather than the Amazon, despite the fact that Asia doesn't have anaconda species.
You can also immediately tell the budget for this movie was substantially less than its predecessor. Rather than being filled with A-list names, this movie was a collection of unknown actors who went on to not make a name for themselves in Hollywood. Also noticeable from the start is the fact that the snakes are now all CGI, without any animatronics. And somehow, the graphics of the snakes actually got worse than the original, despite the advancements that had been made in CGI technology.
Best: Eight Legged Freaks
Did you know that once upon a time, David Arquette, Doug E. Doug, and Scarlett Johansson were all in the same film? Oh yeah, it totally happened.
When a small mining town in the desert is overrun by giant spiders who mutated after being exposed to hazardous chemicals. What results is a film that's more comedy than horror, but, is 100% bonkers. When your town gets overrun by spiders, there's only one man to call... David Arquette, obviously.
Worst: Bait 3D
After a freak tsunami floods a coastal Australian town, a group of survivors become trapped in a supermarket that has flooded. They soon find out they're not able to swim to safety either...since there's now a 12-foot great white that's been washed into the store with them.
While the filmmakers can be commended for trying to bring back an old-school shark movie, complete with a giant animatronic shark, a small budget meant that only a few scenes used the giant prop, while the rest were created with Sharknado-quality CGI. Furthering the film's lackluster appeal is the fact that single-set movies require lots of dynamic action and character building to keep the story interesting. Sadly, a group of bogans in a supermarket doesn't achieve that.
Best: Lake Placid
Lake Placid is considered the Jaws of alligator/crocodile movies. It set the benchmark for what a good gator film is. The movie was also stocked with a talented cast, including, Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Mariska Hargitay, and the great Betty White in one of the finest roles of her career.
The film centers on a New England lake that's become home to a massive crocodile. The most memorable moment of the whole movie is when Betty White is caught walking a blindfolded cow down to the lake, as the crocodile sits and waits for its meal. It's scary, disturbing, yet oddly hilarious. Lake Placid, along with 1980's Aligator, are seen as the building blocks that inspired new gator/croc movies like Rogue, Black Water, and Sam Rami's well-received movie, Crawl.
WORST: Boar
In America, it might take 30-50 feral hogs to get someone riled up, but in the Australian bush, it only takes one giant boar to stir up some scares. While completely lacking a plot, there's lots of great campy carnage as a massive boar defends its territory from anything and anyone. Expect lots of fun 80's-style splatter, with tons of fake blood and hilariously clunky puppetry. It's the kind of movie you'll need to watch with a group of friends and some beers.
Horror fans will also recognize one familiar face in this Aussie film - Bill Moseley, known for The Devil's Rejects, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, has a sizeable role in the film.
BEST: Jaws
Of course Jaws is on the list, how could it not be? It helped create the entire shark movie genre and was the highest-grossing movie of all time until Star Wars came out. The movie centers on a small New England town that's being attacked by a man-eating great white shark.
The film's inspiration came from "The New Jersey Maneater," which was a shark (some say great white, others say bull) that began attacking swimmers all along the east coast and then swam into a river in New Jersey, attacking a group of boys who were skinnydipping.