The latest season of Shudder's original series Horror's Greatest started streaming this week on the service and on AMC+. The previous season covered everything from monster movies to Stephen King adaptations and season 2 highlights horror movies about killer dates, space horror, and more.
The premiere episode focuses on "animal attack" movies. Different from your typical monster flick, the movies at focus in this film are primarily about real animals, insects, and reptiles roaming the earth and what happens if a bunch of them team up on us at the same time.
Alfred Hitchcock managed to turn birds into nightmare material and shark reputations never recovered from Jaws. Below, we've highlighted some of the titles referenced in the episode, along with a full list of all of the other animal attack movies name-dropped.
Alligators and Crocodiles
Alligator (1980): A film that played with the urban legend involving stories of alligators roaming the sewers after being flushed down the toilet, perhaps coming into contact with toxic waste and mutating into giant, man-eating beasts. One particularly memorable scene involves a kid's birthday party gone terribly wrong when his friends have him "walk the plank" on the diving board, unaware there is a full-grown gator in the water. Streaming on Prime Video, Tubi, Peacock & Shudder.
Crawl (2019): Alexandre Aja's relentless 2019 flick and his follow-up from another animal attack movie Piranha 3D, this movie is known for putting its characters in constant peril. The film starts with a hurricane and then turns into a claustrophobic thriller as its two central characters are trapped in a basement with two alligators as the water level swiftly rises. Now on VOD.
Eaten Alive (1976): Tobe Hooper's cult film about a psychotic hotel owner who enjoys feeding his guests to a ravenous bayou-dwelling croc. Streaming on Peacock & Tubi.
Lake Placid (1999): Smart and funny comedy-horror film featuring Betty White, Bill Pullman, Oliver Platt, Bridget Fonda, and Brendan Gleeson. Simple premise executed perfectly. Now on VOD.
Rogue (2007): Radha Mitchell plays a tour guide in this excellent Australian feature from director Greg McLean. Many of the documentary's subjects praised the movie for its terrifying and dramatic death scenes along with the climactic third act featuring a primal face-off for the hero and the killer crocodile. Streaming on Starz.
Grizzly Bears
Cocaine Bear (2023): Elizabeth Banks directed this surprisingly hilarious and gruesome flick about what would happen if a grizzly bear were to ingest a significant amount of cocaine. Streaming on Starz.
The Edge (1997): In comparison to Cocaine Bear, Horror's Greatest's talking heads refer back to the glorious performance from renowned animal actor Bart the Bear in this film featuring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Many praise it for having one of the best "real" bear vs. man fights on camera. Now on VOD.
Sharks
Jaws (1975): When it comes to shark movies, Steven Spielberg's classic simply cannot be beaten. Sure, there are a few other great shark-centered films out there, but Jaws set the bar so high it'd be virtually impossible to top it. That's probably why no one has ever dared to try and remake this movie. Now on VOD.
The Shallows (2016): You obviously cannot top Jaws, but The Shallows is still a pretty great shark movie. It stars Blake Lively as a surfer who finds herself stuck on a tiny island in the ocean, unable to leave because she's alone, stranded, and being stalked by a shark. Streaming on Starz.
Deep Blue Sea (1999): An often silly sci-fi horror movie, Deep Blue Sea really leaned into its B-movie vibes with a storyline about genetically altered sharks going on a rampage. Also a plot that has happened in a lot of Syfy original movies. Now on VOD.
Bugs, Insects, and Arachnids, Oh My!
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977): Sci-fi horror movie and eco-horror movie that falls into the realm of animal attack films featuring tarantulas attacking humanity because their pesticides have depleted the arachnids' normal food supply. Streaming on Roku.
Squirm (1976): It doesn't get much freakier than some of the imagery in this movie showcasing slimy, electrified worms sliding and wriggling around underneath peoples' skin. Streaming on MGM+.
The Swarm (1978): The Swarm was in conversation quite a bit during the latter half of 2024 thanks to the recent season of 9-1-1 kicking off with a three-episode arc involving killer bees invading Los Angeles, might as well go back and see where the inspiration came from! Now on VOD.
Arachnophobia (1990): Similar to Kingdom of the Spiders, Arachnophobia is a movie that really hones in on our primal fear of spiders. Spielberg was involved with this movie, which was produced by Amblin Productions and it bears his mark of melding tones to make fun, funny, and scary movies. Now on VOD.
Other movies mentioned
- Frogs (1972)
- Night of the Lepus (1972)
- The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
- Tentacles (1976)
- The Grey (2011)
- Cujo (1983)
- The Birds (1963)
- Wild Beasts (1984)
- Willard (1971)
- Of Unknown Origin (1983)
- Gremlins (1984)
- Gremlins 2 (1990)
- Hausu (1977)
- Pet Sematary 2 (1992)
- I Am Legend (2007)
- Tales From the Darkside (1990)
- Orca (1977)
- Monster Dog (1984)
- Phase IV (1974)
- Snakes on a Plane (2006)
- Sssssss (1973)
- Black Sheep (2006)
- Monkey Shines (1988)
- Day of the Animals (1977)
- Piranha (1978)
- The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
- Sleepwalkers (1992)
- The Great Outdoors (1988)
- Nope (2022)
Horror's Greatest is now streaming on Shudder with new episodes airing on Tuesdays.