Even before Jaws changes the box office rules forever, eco-horror was a somewhat popular horror subgenre in the 1970s. Frogs, Phase IV, and Night of the Lepus found nature in a foul mood with humanity. And technically, Jaws isn’t really an eco-horror in its narrative design. But Spielberg’s classic killer shark movie inspired a host […]
Horror fans love when nature takes a bite out of humanity. And it can’t just be a regular-sized animal or insect. The bigger, the better. Following the massive success of Jaws, studios rushed to some version of a larger-than-average animal attacking a small community. Grizzly, Orca, Tentacles, Razorback – they all copied Steven Spielberg’s formula […]
If you didn’t know, animals can be pretty scary. Zoophobia refers to the general fear of animals. Not surprisingly, horror movies have exploited the more obvious choices. Are you afraid of spiders? If so, you’re not alone. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and several horror movies have dangled these eight-legged beasts into our laps. […]
Happy National Puppy Day! Since 2006 we’ve set aside March 23 to celebrate our furry friends, big and small. After all, dog is man’s best friend. That is, unless you fancy yourself to be a cat person. While ‘killer dogs’ fall under the larger ‘killer animal‘ movie umbrella, there’s certainly a handful of movies where […]
Over 20 years ago, Deep Blue Sea surprised audiences with its B-movie mix of action and CGI shark thrills. Though critics were split, audiences made it a surprise box office hit. No, it’s no Jaws, but Samuel L Jackson’s death scene remains a hilariously surprising subversion of genre expectations. Yet in spite of its success, […]
Don’t be surprised there’s a movie about killer slugs. After all, 1970s eco-horror gave us killer frogs, killer worms and, yes, giant killer rabbits. Though it was nearly a decade behind the eco-horror craze, Slugs faithfully follows the well-established playbook for the subgenre. Audiences all but ignored Slugs when it was released, but horror fans […]
Sorry Shark Week, but sharks are scary. Maybe it’s the fear of what’s beneath you in the ocean. Or perhaps it’s the row of very sharp teeth. But sharks have been popular horror movie villains since Jaws swam into theaters in 1975. Over the years, we’ve seen our share of good killer shark movies (Deep […]
New killer alligator movie, Crawl, hits theatres today. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell) produces and Alexandre Aja (High Tension) directs the genre-blending horror flick. And much to probably everyone’s surprise, critics seems to really like it. Maybe that’s because we all know that alligators and crocodiles are damn scary. They’re basically living […]