Animal Capers

October 26, 2018 5:19 AM

My partner and I have very different taste in movies, and we recently discovered that one thing we can enjoy together is silly animal thrillers. The Meg was a big success, so we've also been revisiting some classics like 1997's Anaconda. Please share your favourite good/bad animal thrillers!
posted by ITheCosmos to Media & Arts (25 answers total)

I mean, obviously, you've got to watch all of the Sharknados....

Warning: Major emphasis on the silly part of your criteria.
posted by kuanes at 5:21 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Time to revisit the mother of all animal thrillers: Hitchcock's The Birds!
posted by nantucket at 5:40 AM on October 26, 2018

Rampage certainly ticked the silly-entertaining box for me. I understand this is not a universal opinion
posted by Faff at 5:47 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

You'll want to check out Arachnophobia for sure.
posted by Temeraria at 6:01 AM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Isn't there a movie where a plane is full of snakes and Samuel Jackson screams: I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES ON THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLANE!

Conveniently, it's called Snakes On A Plane.
posted by HeyAllie at 6:11 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Lake Placid is my personal go-to, with a bonus of Betty White and a "huh, I remember when you were in everything" Bill Pullman.

The Naked Jungle is equal parts 1950s romantic melodrama and AANNNNNNTTTSSS! JUNGLE ANNNNNNNTTTTSSS EATING ALL THE THINNNNGGGGSSS! Warning for probable racism - I don't remember it, but it's a Charlton Heston starring movie from 1954 set in South America.
posted by theweasel at 6:23 AM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

If you're looking for late-90's realness to blend Anaconda's semi-serious tone with the Meg's subject matter, look no further than Deep Blue Sea [involuntarily whispers to himself "my hat is like a sharks fin"].

The Shallows is way campier (though i think unintentionally) and is basically 90 minutes of odd angles of Blake Lively in a bikini, but its part of 'bad' shark movie cannon, at least for me. Dont give up on it before the ending.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:28 AM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

If spiders [sic] are okay Eight Legged Freaks
posted by zinon at 6:49 AM on October 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Piranha!

And, if you want to get REALLY bad, James Cameron's directorial debut, Piranha II.
posted by gideonfrog at 6:56 AM on October 26, 2018

Killer pigs in the Australian outback in Razorback.
posted by oh pollo! at 6:56 AM on October 26, 2018

Jaws, of course, and its numerous sequels.
posted by Alensin at 7:24 AM on October 26, 2018

mega python vs gatoroid, starring 80s pop stars debbie gibson and tiffany
posted by poffin boffin at 7:26 AM on October 26, 2018

Old, but Milo & Otis is fun.
posted by theora55 at 8:00 AM on October 26, 2018

Congo!
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:58 AM on October 26, 2018

Tremors! I have not seen any of the 5 sequels, so I don't know if they're worth watching, but I remember the first movie being fun. I guess I should add the caveat that I was 15 when I saw it.
posted by amarynth at 9:20 AM on October 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Venom starring Nicol Williamson, Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed.

The Grey has Liam Neeson face-punching wolves.

Do they have to be bad? The Edge has Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and Harold Perrineau vs a bear.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:34 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I saw Tremors when I was in my 50s and loved it! Not my genre at all but it had a snarky script and actors who could handle it with panache and elan. I may have to watch it again soon.
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:04 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Squirm
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:08 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

8 Legged Freaks was lots more fun than I expected.
posted by mochapickle at 10:36 AM on October 26, 2018

I may be the only person on earth who thinks the anaconda sequel, Anaconda: Hunt for the Blood Orchid, is superior to the original. *

I mean come on. Blood orchids.


*by a certain value of superior, which appears aligned to your tastes
posted by smoke at 2:26 PM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

You might give A Sound of Thunder a try.
posted by gudrun at 4:29 PM on October 26, 2018

...Fine, if no one else will say it, I will! You should watch Birdemic. Rifftrax did a version of it that is very funny, but it's so relentlessly inept that it's already funny on its own.

I thought Rampage was a lot of fun.
posted by heatvision at 2:39 AM on October 27, 2018

Chawz was more fun than it needed to be.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 8:29 AM on October 27, 2018

Late to this party but... Night of the Lepus. Bunnies. Giant rampaging bunnies.
posted by profreader at 7:02 PM on October 28, 2018

Grizzly
Frogs
Tentacles
Gargoyles
Empire of the Ants
Tarantula (1955)
The Deep
posted by TrishaU at 12:03 AM on October 29, 2018