Sev­en clas­sic ani­mal attack movies you’ve nev­er heard of

Before CGI-heavy hybrid/​mutant crea­ture fea­tures start­ed pour­ing out of sci-fi chan­nels like so much chum tossed over­board by Roy Schei­der, the ​’70s and ​’80s saw a spate of gen­uine­ly enter­tain­ing ani­mal attack movies. With their occa­sion­al­ly heavy-hand­ed envi­ron­men­tal mes­sages and, cru­cial­ly, use of actu­al wildlife, these less­er-seen cult curios hark back to a sim­pler and almost cer­tain­ly more dan­ger­ous time. Here’s a run­down of sev­en of our favourites which we high­ly rec­om­mend seek­ing out.

It may well sail close into Jaws ter­ri­to­ry, but this killer-pig-on-the-loose movie is high­ly regard­ed by hor­ror lovers – includ­ing Steven Spiel­berg who alleged­ly tele­phoned direc­tor Rus­sell Mulc­ahy to con­grat­u­late him. There are echoes of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 clas­sic, Wake in Fright, with both films depict­ing a for­got­ten Out­back town in a state of social and moral decline and a rogues gallery of deranged locals tor­ment­ing a naïve inter­lop­er. The direc­tor also drew heav­i­ly on his music video her­itage, so expect a lot of ​’80s backlighting.

Fea­tur­ing two of cinema’s most volatile tal­ents, it’s not just the black mam­ba that brings a pal­pa­ble sense of ter­ror to Piers Haggard’s sus­pense­ful thriller. Oliv­er Reed and Klaus Kin­s­ki star in this claus­tro­pho­bic tale of a kid­nap­ping gone wrong, which turns into a stand­off in a house where a ven­omous snake has been acci­den­tal­ly unleashed. Hag­gard has spo­ken of the film being like ​“a nest of vipers” due to Reed’s mer­ci­less tor­ment­ing of Kin­s­ki and the latter’s explo­sive tem­pera­ment. It all adds to an elec­tric atmos­phere where the ani­mal at the cen­tre becomes almost incidental.

Renowned movie poster design­er Saul Bass (Ver­ti­go, The Shin­ing) helmed his only fea­ture with this night­mar­ish dystopi­an sci-fi. Strict­ly speak­ing, Phase IV is more of a siege film than a tra­di­tion­al ani­mal attack out­ing: two sci­en­tists and a young girl trapped inside a research facil­i­ty sur­round­ed by poi­so­nous ants, which have been work­ing as one col­lec­tive con­scious­ness with the aim of enslav­ing humankind. Fea­tur­ing beau­ti­ful close-up pho­tog­ra­phy and with a slow, even pace, this one real­ly gets under your skin. A bleak­ly unset­tling masterpiece.

One of Michael Caine’s most mem­o­rable box-office flops, The Swarm was the death knell of the ani­mal attack/​disaster film mash-up. Boast­ing a stel­lar cast that includes Hen­ry Fon­da, Jose Fer­rer, Kather­ine Ross, Richard Cham­ber­lain and Olivia de Hav­il­land, this ento­mo­log­i­cal odd­i­ty, with its ludi­crous­ly high body count (around 40,000) and live bees (with their stingers removed), is now avail­able in its full 156-minute cut. Way too long, way too sil­ly, but as far as ​‘so bad it’s good’ goes, this beats them all. Both a joy­ous and sub­lime­ly ter­ri­ble experience.

This one is a more straight­for­ward revenge dra­ma: the whale’s preg­nant mate is killed by Richard Har­ris (play­ing a Cap­tain Ahab type with a cheeky charm and an eye for Char­lotte Ram­pling) and a game of cat-and-mouse begins with Orca ter­ror­is­ing a New­found­land coastal town and taunt­ing the salty sea-dog into a final show­down at the Pole. With its blend of Native Amer­i­can wis­dom and cod ani­mal psy­chol­o­gy, Orca has a ten­den­cy to take itself a bit too seri­ous­ly, but the result is strange­ly affect­ing. With a won­der­ful­ly haunt­ing sound­track by Ennio Mor­ri­cone, it’s a strange and com­pelling watch.

Billed as ​‘Jaws with Claws’ upon release, there’s no get­ting away from the bald-faced pla­gia­rism com­mit­ted by direc­tor William Girdler. Half the fun in watch­ing Griz­zly can be had in wit­ness­ing the sheer temer­i­ty of a film that has almost entire­ly the same set­up as its pre­de­ces­sor on a scene-by-scene basis. Still, it’s a great exam­ple of the genre. A sequel to Griz­zly was par­tial­ly made, with undis­cov­ered stars Char­lie Sheen and George Clooney tak­ing minor roles. Sad­ly it was nev­er released, though boot­leg ver­sions are avail­able on YouTube.

Fol­low­ing his Jaws rip-off, Girdler ups the ante with this auda­cious, eco-aware­ness cau­tion­ary tale. Reunit­ing some of the Griz­zly cast, Day of the Ani­mals fore­warns what could hap­pen if human­i­ty doesn’t reign in its use of CFCs (remem­ber those?). It starts off promis­ing­ly enough, as a group of hik­ers in Cal­i­for­nia are ter­rorised by wildlife dri­ven mad by radi­a­tion from the deplet­ed ozone lay­er, before descend­ing into hell­ish melo­dra­ma. A curi­ous piece of cast­ing sees Leslie Nielsen play­ing a deranged ad exec­u­tive who ends up wrestling an angry bear. Worth the price of the DVD alone.