Natural horror

Films in which the antagonist is an animal, a swarm or the environment itself, with no supernatural cause required.

Before Jaws

Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) is the template, and it refuses to explain itself. It never explains the attacks and never resolves them. Later entries in the cycle almost always supply all three, usually pollution or a nuclear test.

After Jaws

Jaws (1975) invented the summer blockbuster and, within about eighteen months, an entire imitation industry. The formula is fixed: a resort or small town, an authority figure who suppresses the warning for economic reasons, an expert nobody listens to, and a final confrontation on or in water.

The imitations arrived by species. Grizzly (1976) is Jaws with a bear and says so in the pitch. Orca (1977) added a revenge motive. Piranha (1978) is the good one, written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante, and it is funny on purpose. Alligator (1980) is the other good one, also Sayles. Tentacles (1977) somehow got John Huston.

Italy contributed Great White (1981), which copied Jaws so closely that Universal sued and had it pulled from American cinemas.

The Australian branch

Razorback (1984) is the best-looking film in this whole category. Russell Mulcahy came from music video and shot the outback like an alien planet, with a giant feral pig somewhere in it.

The animal problem

Several films in this category, particularly the Italian ones, injured or killed real animals during production. As always on this site, the blurb says so where it applies.

Where to start

Piranha, which understands the formula well enough to make jokes about it while still working as a monster film.