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FEATURE
DVD
&
BD
DVD
&
BD
Now proceed to
The Birds
(1963) for an atypical example of
nature going berserk. In Hitchcock's
classic, the Californian town of
Bodega Bay is besieged by angry
avians with no explanation provided
for their bizarre behaviour, although
the cast do speculate. Free of the
tropes that would define the genre
post-
Jaws
,
The Birds
is eerie,
bleak and terrifying. But what else
would you expect from a master
filmmaker like Hitch?
Follow up with Joe Dante's
Piranha
(1978),
which of course owes its existence to
Jaws
but offers a more lighthearted look at the sub-
genre, via a blackly humorous script from John
Sayles and the B-movie
magic touch of producer
Roger Corman. The flesh-
eating fish of the Amazon
are an obvious candidate
for a nature amok movie,
but Dante unleashes a
genetically engineered
freshwater species (bred
for release in Vietnamese
rivers during the war!),
a school of which turn
an American summer
camp and resort into a
bloodbath.
FURTHER VIEWING
Where you go from here entirely depends
on which particular creature you want to see
spreading terror and inflicting damage to the
human body, be it snakes, bees, bats, spiders,
rats... an entire ecosystem awaits
you. As you will have now realised,
these movies are all pretty much
the same, and all of them are
entertaining in their own insane
way.
The sidebar on the right will
provide you with some useful
pointers, but you can't really go
wrong with
Squirm
(1976). A
"night of crawling terror" ensues
for the residents of Fly Creek,
Georgia, when thousands
of biting worms erupt
from electrified mud
following a violent storm
that's toppled power
pylons. This guilty
pleasure features
some spectacularly
gruesome make-
up FX that are
guaranteed to
make you, well, do
what the title says.
The creepier the creature, the more
effective the movie, and spiders send
shivers down most people's spines. While
Arachnophobia
(1990) has numerous
skin-crawling moments (and John
Goodman for comic relief), by far the
scariest arachnid-themed horror is
Kingdom
of the Spiders
(1977). An army of hungry
tarantulas overruns a desert town in Arizona,
and not even star William Shatner is immune
from their bite. An arachnophobe's worst
nightmare, this one ticks all the boxes required
by a classic nature runs amok movie.
REPEAT OFFENDERS
SHARKS
Jaws
and its three sequels not only encouraged
terrestrial species to run amok, it also sent sharks
into a feeding frenzy in films like
Mako: The Jaws
of Death
(1976),
Tintorera: Tiger Shark
(1977),
Deep Blue Sea
(1999) and
Shark Night
(2011).
Sharknados and hybrids (
Sharktopus
) don't count!
SNAKES
Serpents continue to slither their way into
cinemagoers' worst nightmares, whether in a guest
appearance or a leading role. Ophidiophobes should
avoid the likes of
Sssssss
(1973),
Rattlers
(1976),
King Cobra
(1981),
Venom
(1981),
Anaconda
(1997) and sequels, and
Snakes on a Plane
(2006).
BEARS
When nature runs amok you can be sure that
belligerent bears will be amongst the rampage. The
grizzly dominates ursine horror –
Grizzly
(1976),
Grizzly Rage
(2007),
Into the Grizzly Maze
(2014)
– although a black bear (
Backcountry
, 2014) and a
mutant variety (
Prophecy
, 1979) also contribute.
ALLIGATORS & CROCODILES
They might have different snouts and habitats,
but these prehistoric-looking reptiles are both
maneaters, as depicted in
The Great Alligator
River
(1979),
Alligator
(1980),
Lake Placid
(1999)
and sequels,
Primeval
(2007) and
Rogue
(2007).