Except for Lassie or Benji, live-action animals in cinema, whether famous (Jaws), semi-famous (Cujo), or even at subpar status (all of Asylum’s efforts), will in all likelihood bite if you try and cuddle them. The killer animals in the following list are motivated entirely by hunger and bloodlust, and will either tear you limb from limb, maul you to death, lie in wait in your vegetable garden, or simply devour you while swimming. You may notice that Jaws is absent from the list of horror movies; we've all seen it and everyone knows about it, so check out some fun flicks you may not have seen.
Piranha 3D
Piranha 3D is a merciless modern-day reboot of Joe Dante’s 1978 original courtesy of director Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension, The Hills Have Eyes). A hallmark of ‘nature-run-amok’ in the horror genre is that, for the people at the center of the story, it will end in blood, screaming, and outlandishly violent deaths. As such, Aja’s movie is extremely gory; there's some shocking violence here, one scene with a propeller will make you wince. In the film, a shoal of carnivorous piranha is unleashed on a small community during Spring Break, and it’s a bloodbath.
Alligator
A favorite flick of Quentin Tarantino's, Alligator was largely overshadowed by the phenomenal success of Jaws. This is so much more than a cheap cash-in of Spielberg’s blockbuster. Lewis Teague’s first entry on the list is all about the titular alligator. Teague cleverly utilizes the alligator-in-the-sewer urban legend and has great fun with the concept. Robert Forster is the jaded cop who nobody will take seriously until the giant alligator starts eating cops and crashing millionaire soirées. Tightly plotted, Alligator has great characterization, and has stunning alligator attacks.
Arachnophobia
A sleepy American town becomes the breeding ground for a deadly species of arachnid in Frank Marshall’s 1990 classic, Arachnophobia. Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) is the city doctor attempting to integrate into the rural community, and he has a profound, debilitating fear of spiders. Once the death toll starts rising and Jennings realizes spiders are responsible, he must confront his fears. John Goodman's performance as an exterminator is absolutely delightful here.
Boar
Boar is an underrated Australian movie about an outback town plagued by a giant boar. Some of the locals decide to try and eradicate the killer pig and fail spectacularly with each attempt. Yes, it follows a similar trajectory as similar movies, and yes, it has similar stock characters, but overall, it does something new with the subgenre and wonderfully utilizes the Australian setting.
Lake Placid
The goring in Boar is pretty brutal, but only marginally less horrifying is the fate that befalls some of the characters in Lake Placid. An enormous crocodile has taken up residence in a Maine lake, and has begun eating livestock and the occasional person. Bridget Fonda’s prissy museum curator’s expertise on crocodiles is severely tested by Bill Pullman’s dry-as-dust sheriff, who is outraged a crocodile has invaded his lake. Betty White appears as a kind old lady who just happens to be feeding the crocodile, and Oliver Platt’s bonkers crocodile expert is an absolute hoot.
Crawl
An athletic and accomplished swimmer is pitted against hungry alligators during a storm in Crawl, the second entry on the list from Alexandre Aja, with a script from Shawn and Micheal Rasmussen and produced by Sam Raimi. Crawl revolves around swimmer Haley (Kaya Scodelario), who must collect her dad from his house before a Category 5 hurricane tears through the area. Flooding in their house and over a dozen alligators scupper their plans, and Haley needs to put her swimming skills to good use if she and her father are going to avoid getting devoured. It's an unexpectedly effective, immensely tense, and claustrophobic film that became a hit with critics.
Eight-Legged Freaks
A malevolent menagerie of spiders is exposed to a chemical spill and has a growth spurt in the wonderfully bonkers Eight-Legged Freaks. This more or less means they grow larger and become a serious threat to the local population in small-town, backwoods America. For an intentionally schlocky movie, there are some legitimately fantastic action sequences here as the town is besieged by an army of giant spiders. A charming David Arquette, a gently humorous battle between a cat and a recluse inside a wall and the largest arachnid since Earth Vs.The Spider also make this a really memorable movie.
Cujo
You only need to glance at the Rotten Tomato rating of Lewis Teague’s 1983 adaptation of Cujo to see it was universally panned upon release. Allegedly, Stephen King (addiction issues) has no recollection of writing the book the film is based on, but it nonetheless launched one of the most iconic careers in history. A lovable Saint Bernard succumbs to the violent symptoms of rabies and goes on a killer rampage.
Dee Wallace plays the young mother trapped in her car with her son, stuck trying to outwit a 300-pound, frothing-at-the-mouth killing machine. It may not be the best adaptation of a King novel, but it's far from the worst, and the sadly sympathetic dog, which has been reduced to a mechanism of pure violence, makes for some surprisingly complicated emotions.
Slugs
Usually, the only threat our slimy friends pose is to our vegetable garden. Not in the American/Spanish production from Juan Piquor Simon. A deadly spawn of flesh-eating black slugs takes over a small town, and it isn’t pretty. One of the most inventively grisly ‘animal attack movies’ to make the list. The deaths are both cruel and stomach-churning (including one scene in a restaurant that will put you right off your Chicken Caesar).