Hollywood’s weirdest killer animals

Ash Walker • 03 Sep 2026 Features

Lions, tigers and bears… Oh my!

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Ever since Jaws took the world by storm back in 1975, Hollywood has been obsessed with killer animal movies. And with the release of Hungry - a movie about a murderous hippo, naturally - that trend seems to be in no danger of slowing down.

It can’t all be sharks, though. In an effort to differentiate themselves from the Spielberg-directed blockbuster, filmmakers have gotten pretty creative over the years. Here are our favourite examples of the most… unexpected killer movie animals.

Birds

As seen in - The Birds (1963) and Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)

Credits: The Birds Official Teaser Trailer #1 - Alfred Hitchcock Movie (1963) HD (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube)

They might seem pretty harmless at first glance, our little feathered friends, but look a little closer and it’s hard not to notice the sharp beaks and claws. If you’ve ever seen a bird go after a worm - or if you’ve seen one of these movies - you know that they’re not to be underestimated.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 masterpiece of a monster movie - based on the brilliant story by Daphne du Maurier - makes a pretty compelling case that if birds rose up against us we’d be in serious trouble. Just the sight of them amassing on a climbing frame is enough to send a shiver up your spine.

On the other end of the spectrum is Birdemic, which tells essentially the same story but is notoriously one of the worst films ever made. Just goes to show you that execution is everything.

Feral Pigs

As seen in - Razorback (1984)

Credit: Razorback (1984) - Official Trailer (Scream Factory, YouTube)

Movies like Babe might have you thinking that pigs are pink, adorable and harmless, but add some tusks and spines and make it roughly the size of a truck, and you’ve got something seriously scary on your hands.

An Aussie classic, Razorback plays a bit like Jaws in the Outback as a gigantic boar rampages across the desert, destroying homes and murdering children. The film itself is a sweaty, stylised fever dream, and its scenes of the titular beast crashing through people and property like a runaway train are enough to put you off pork chops for life.

Piranha

As seen in - Piranha (1978), Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), Piranha 3D (2010) and Piranha 3DD (2012)

Credit: Piranha 3D Movie Trailer (HD) (eOnefilms, YouTube)

Any six-year-old knows that a swarm of piranha can strip the meat off your bones in seconds, so maybe it’s not so surprising that the fishy little nippers have headlined a whole franchise of movies. But have you ever actually seen a piranha? They’re not exactly terrifying.

The original Piranha is essentially a cheap, tongue-in-cheek Jaws knockoff, but with typically solid direction from Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), it’s become a cult classic. And its success might actually be responsible for the deluge of Jaws-like creature feature B movies that came after.

Including its own sequel - in which the piranha develop the ability to fly, directed by James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens) of all people - and multiple remakes, most notably Alexandre Aja’s 3D comedy version and its even more lowbrow follow-up (which was presumably only made because someone had a great idea for a title).

The stories here are all basically the same: a bunch of angry, ravenous piranha are released in a heavily populated body of water, and proceed to eat everyone they can get their flippers on. Still, if you come across a lake right next to a genetic lab, maybe think twice about taking a dip. Just in case.

Monkeys

As seen in - Monkey Shines (1988) and Shakma (1990)

Credit: Monkey Shines (1988) - Official Trailer (HD) (ScreamFactoryTV, YouTube)

There’s something inherently loveable about monkeys - they’re like cheeky little people, covered in fur! - but if you’ve ever seen one bear its absurdly large fangs, you might be able to guess how they’d easily slot into a creature feature.

Especially if they’re the subjects of outlandish experiments, like these two prime examples. In Monkey Shines, directed by horror legend George A Romero (Night of the Living Dead), Ella is a helper monkey, fresh out of the lab, with a telepathic connection to her quadriplegic human. Unfortunately she also has a jealous streak a mile wide - and homicidal tendencies.

Similarly, Shakma is a baboon sent mad by human experimentation, who rises up against his masters and embarks on a bloody killing spree. I mean, honestly, who can blame either of them?

Slugs

As seen in - Slugs (1988)

Credit: Slugs Original Trailer (Juan Piquer Simón, 1988) (Arrow Video, YouTube)

Yes, really. Slugs. Those slow, slimy things that lurk at the bottom of your garden. You might think that the worst thing they could do is menace your vegetable patch, but this movie begs to differ.

Based on the novel by cult British horror writer Shaun Hutson (essentially a real-life Garth Marenghi), Slugs is pure, high-grade B movie trash. But that’s what makes it so much fun. Plus, there is something inherently gross about the slimy little blighters, which serves to add a layer of genuine horror to the silliness.

You’d think they’d be easily defeated by just… walking slowly away from them, but apparently not. Who are we to question the mighty Shaun Hutson?

Frogs

As seen in - Frogs (1972)

Credit: Frogs (1972) - Official Trailer (HD) (ScreamFactoryTV, YouTube)

To be fair, cult ‘70s eco-horror Frogs is about an entire swampy ecosystem rising up against mankind - not just the titular amphibians - so maybe it’s a little unfair that frogs take the rap for this one.

The warty little blighters don’t even really kill anyone. Their overpopulation kicks off events, as the locals pump the swamp full of chemicals to curb their numbers, and a bunch of them maybe give a guy a heart attack at the movie’s climax, but they’re more of an ominous presence throughout, leaving the dirty work to alligators, tarantulas and, yes, even Spanish moss at one point.

But maybe, just maybe, the frogs are the brains behind the whole operation, watching from the sidelines as humanity falls beneath their webbed feet. Isn’t that much scarier than being eaten to death by an alligator?

Well, maybe not.

Rabbits

As seen in - Night of the Lepus (1972), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Watership Down (1978)

Credit: Night Of The Lepus (1972) - Official Trailer (ScreamFactoryTV, YouTube)

Bunnies - they’re fluffy, adorable and they bring us colourful eggs at Easter. What’s not to love? Well, according to this batch of movies, quite a bit actually.

It seems like people in the ‘70s were really freaked out by rabbits. You’ve got giant, man-eating hoppers destroying a small Arizona town in gonzo monster movie Night of the Lepus, a throat-ripping Thumper in a memorable scene from comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and brutal, bloody bunnies in Watership Down - a kids’ movie, lest we forget.

Even if it’s played for laughs - or animated and allegedly aimed at children - there’s something deeply disturbing about a cute, fluffy animal savagely tearing flesh with its long, sharp teeth. Come to think of it, maybe it’s surprising that there aren’t more movies about killer rabbits.

Sheep

As seen in - Black Sheep (2006)

Credit: Black Sheep | Official Trailer [4K] (Umbrella Entertainment, YouTube)

Ok, technically these are zombie sheep, but they’re still sheep at the end of the day. And they are still most definitely murderous.

Black Sheep, the now-classic Kiwi horror comedy, begins with the mind-boggling statistic that sheep outnumber humans 10-to-1 in New Zealand, and then goes on to posit the question - what if all those sheep suddenly developed a taste for human flesh?

By turns terrifying and utterly ridiculous, the movie actually manages to turn our woolly friends into a viable threat, and you may never look at a flock in quite the same way again as they barrel towards you down the hillside…

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