Exploitation films

The Legend of Boggy Creek

The Arkansas Bigfoot docudrama that invented an entire regional-monster format on a hundred grand.

Q: The Winged Serpent

Larry Cohen, a dragon over Manhattan, and a great Michael Moriarty.

Squirm

Electrified worms in Georgia. Rick Baker's early effects are the draw.

Grizzly

Jaws with a bear, pitched exactly that way, and it worked.

Razorback

A giant pig film shot like a perfume ad. Somehow works.

Phase IV

Saul Bass's only feature. Ants, geometry, and an ending nobody saw for 40 years.

It's Alive

A mutant newborn kills the delivery room and goes on the run. Larry Cohen means the metaphor.

Alligator

Sayles again. A flushed pet in the sewers, and it knows how silly that is.

Orca

The whale wants revenge and has a plan. Morricone score, oddly moving.

Piranha

Sayles script, Dante direction, and jokes that land. The best Jaws rip.

Jaws

The broken shark forced Spielberg to suggest instead of show. It made the film.

The Birds

Hitchcock refuses to explain anything. Nobody since has had the nerve.