7 animal-human conflict movies that'll give you night sweats
Are you ready for intense jump scares?
Imagine, at the end of a long work day, you sink into your bed, the lighting is dim, your razaai is providing just the right amount of warmth to comfort your soul (and your feet). Your eyes absently follow the rhythmic scrolling on your screen, until the spell is broken and you suddenly break into a loud laugh. It’s a hilarious cat meme video. Watching animals do silly things on screen has become our guilty pleasure. From cats being dramatic with their range of expressions to a polar bear sliding across a sheet of ice and cheetahs being playful in the wild, there’s much to discover in the rabbit hole of animal reels.
But these cute ‘fur babies’ can transform into scary and intimidating beasts, too. If you enter their territory, displace them from their natural habitat or interfere with their way of life, you trigger an animal’s flight or fight response (*cue Jurassic Park flashbacks*). It’s called animal instinct for a reason.
In fact, animals choosing fight over flight has spawned the ‘natural horror’ genre, where animals ranging from spiders to sharks terrorise humans. If you’re a fan of the genre, or just looking to get started, here’s a handy watchlist of English language movies that promise to give you sleepless nights.
‘Natural horror’ films that explore animal-human conflict
Beast (2022)
You may think you’re the king of the world, but when stranded in a forest, you’re just prey for the king of the jungle. Beast, a survival horror film, follows the story of recently-widowed Dr Nate Samuels, who arrives at a South African reserve for a vacation with his two daughters. A trip meant for family reconciliation, and honouring the memory of his late wife, turns into a race for survival. The trio are stranded in a restricted part of the reserve with a rogue, man-eating lion on a killing spree, a response to poachers hunting a member of its pride.
The movie touches upon the issues of illegal poaching and jungle law, where only survival matters. It’s a thrilling watch with enough jump scares to make your stomach turn. Just when you think the lion is gone, it returns in the eeriest way possible.
Cocaine Bear (2023)
Inspired by the true story of Pablo Eskobear, an American black bear that ingested cocaine that was accidentally dropped by smugglers in a forest in Tennessee, USA. While the real-life bear died of an overdose, this horror-comedy follows the destructive rampage that follows once the bear becomes highly aggressive and starts killing people. Soon, a mother-daughter duo, and the smugglers, are trapped in the forest with the drug-addled bear on the loose. Do they make it out to safety?
Cujo (1983)
Everyone would love a cute, floofy dog for a pet. But pets are like kids, they need attention and nurture. Ignore their needs and your cuddly golden retriever could one day have a monstrous transformation like Cujo. Based on a Stephen King novel of the same name, Cujo revolves around the friendly St. Bernard of the Camber family, who, one day, is bitten by a rabid bat and turns into a deadly, violent dog with bloodlust.
No one does horror like Stephen King. There’s something hauntingly eerie about Cujo’s adorable face contrasted with the look of violence in his eyes that’ll make your stomach churn. (Viewing advice: Avoid eating a big dinner before watching the film.)
Rent and watch on Amazon Prime Video
Burning Bright (2010)
Siblings Kelly and Tom Taylor wake up in the middle of the night, and find that the tiger their stepfather has purchased is prowling in the house, hungry, and there’s no way to escape. Trapped together in their house, which has been boarded up for protection from a hurricane, the two are left to find ways to escape the tiger who’s operating on survival instincts.
There are several close calls between the siblings and the tiger, which makes every scene a high-pressure situtation. Especially one particularly tense scene between Kelly and the animal in the laundry chute. The movie contains a crucial lesson—tigers are called ‘wild’ animals because they belong in the wild, not as pets for humans or as exotic entertainment.
Black Water (2007)
If you think Lake Placid was scary, try streaming Black Water. Based on a true incident that took place in Australia, when a pregnant woman along with her sister and partner were attacked by a crocodile, the movie follows the couple Adam and Grace, and her sister Lee. The three go on a spontaneous fishing trip to a mangrove swamp in Northern Australia. When they fail to catch any fish, the tour guide suggests going deeper into the swamp, where a crocodile attacks the party and begins a killing spree.
Their survival depends entirely on outsmarting the crocodile in his territory, with no access to any human help. The movie escalates into an edge-of-your-seat survival thriller. The message is clear, if you enter their territory without backup, you’re at the mercy of the nature gods and sheer luck.
Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018)
What do you think would happen if humans were to mess with shark genetics? You’ll have to stream Deep Blue Sea 2, the stand-alone sequel to Deep Blue Sea for the answer. In this movie, Shark conservationist Misty Calhoun along with two neurobiology students are invited to an underwater facility by billionaire Carl Durant, a pharmaceutical businessman. It is revealed that his team has genetically altered the brains of five bull sharks to make them smarter. Soon enough, the sharks rebel, break into the research facility and begin hunting the team. How many will survive these smarter-and-deadlier sharks and will the creator fall prey to their creation?
The second instalment in the Deep Blue Sea series, this movie comments on the dangerous consequences of genetic modification in animals for the sake of research. After Jaws, this franchise is highly rated in the shark-terror genre.
Rent and watch on Amazon Prime Video
Arachnophobia (1990)
The fear of spiders is one of the most common phobias to exist. So if you actually have arachnophobia, you might want to skip this one. The plot follows an entomologist, who discovers a rare and aggressive spider species of prehistoric origin in Venezuela. A fertile male spider of the species accidentally travels back with him to California, mates with a domestic female spider and produces a large number of lethal offspring.
As these spiders begin to crawl into homes and threaten the lives of other residents, the new doctor in town, who also happens to be arachnophobic, helps the entomologist and his team to stop the terror. How will he overcome his phobia to prevent the evolution of a deadly new species? If you thought the spider scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was creepy, this movie promises to be even more unnerving.
Rent and watch on Amazon Prime Video
