The Meanest Horror Animals in Cinema History

I had a debate with a buddy this week about whether the creature from The Thing was an animal or, like, an entity. I am on the team that it's not an animal, probably an alien.

Anyway, that got us talking about animals in horror movies.

From man's best friend to horrifying predators, animals bring out emotions and also allow us to empathize with one another. Also, as many movies have noted, we're all just animals on the inside, too.

The point is that nature can be both kind and cruel, and horror is the perfect genre to show both. But usually just the bad ones.

So today, I want to introduce you to some of the meanest, most unforgiving killer animals ever put on screen.

Let's dive in.

Bruce the Great White Shark (Jaws)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Writer: Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb
• Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

From the opening scene, you know that this shark is not listening to reason. He's just eating everyone in sight. Our guy Bruce now hangs in the Academy Museum, but before he was a prop, he was an apex predator hunting for food.

This guy was an unstoppable force of nature that terrorized the small beach town of Amity Island and stole Chief Brody's quiet life. Spielberg built pure tension, making Bruce feel like an omnipresent monster. You wanted to stay out of the water forever.

Cujo (Cujo)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Lewis Teague
• Writer: Don Carlos Dunaway, Lauren Currier
• Cast: Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, Danny Pintauro, Ed Lauter, Christopher Stone

I love dogs. They are kind and sweet and cuddly and love you for just being you. Except Cujo. Cujo is not a good dog. What makes Cujo uniquely tragic and terrifying is that he starts as a beloved St. Bernard. He was totally fine until that damn bat bite took over his brain and turned him into a killing machine.

This rabies movie is sort of the opposite of Old Yeller, where you are rooting for the dog to get shot. Or at least run over.

The Florida Alligators (Crawl)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Alexandre Aja
• Writer: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen
• Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark

This movie rocks so much. You cannot miss out on it. I saw it and was immediately like...I can't believe the carnage in this thing as aggressive gators just devour people in Florida during a horrifying hurricane.

Alexandre Aja unleashes relentless creature-feature terror where the environment itself works alongside the monsters as the father and daughter at the center of the narrative navigate their home, as it fills with water and the gators follow them around and multiply.

The Giant Wild Boar (Razorback)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Russell Mulcahy
• Writer: Everett De Roche
• Cast: Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Chris Haywood, David Argue

Remember when we made fun of those people and the 30-50 feral hogs? They were right; you do need a bunch of big guns to handle them. Especially if you run into a razorback.

This is one of those movies that feels ahead of its time. Because these pigs have been part of the cultural conversation now. Maybe it's time for a remake?

The Anaconda (Anaconda)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Luis Llosa
• Writer: Hans Bauer, Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr.
• Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, Owen Wilson

When I was a kid, we rented this on VHS, and I was afraid for months that giant snakes would come to Pennsylvania. But they never did. This is such a fun idea because it takes the basic monster idea and makes it real. Are you afraid of snakes? What if you saw one that was unreasonably big?

It uses early CGI, but the movie is most successful with practical snakes and puppetry. You're rooting for survival, and by the end you want to see these snakes die in a horrible fashion.

The Giant Crocodile (Lake Placid)

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Director: Steve Miner
• Writer: David E. Kelley
• Cast: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White

This movie is insane. I actually am flabbergasted; it's like 84 minutes of a crocodile eating people in Maine. And a great Betty White cameo. It sort of makes no sense, but it is really, really fun. And when they reveal multiples, that's also a good time.

The croc was brought to life through Stan Winston’s legendary practical creature design; this croc combines brute strength with surprisingly sneaky stealth, and we get those iconic Jaws shots that will live on forever as a predator's POV.

Summing It All Up

Not all animals are scary, but in horror movies, it's kind of the prerequisite. I love the animals on this list for the ride they take us on, and I love how they get killed so we don't have to deal with them again.

I have enough nightmares as is...

What other animals belong on this list?