Look out! The fifth film in Syfy’s shark-infested franchise is coming: Sharknado: Global Swarming reunites Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) and April Wexler (Tara Reid) in a globe-trotting, chainsaw-swinging shark-tornado adventure.
Can’t get enough ridiculous animal attacks? Check out this gallery of silly and savage cinematic offerings — many, like Sharknado, have lots of sequels if you need more mutant spiders or nightmare hybrid beasties.
Dinocroc (2004)
By the early 2000s, movie magic had shown the world just about every super-sized horror imaginable, so legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman figured that a creature that was both dinosaur and crocodile would be way scarier than either individually. He was onto something and produced a series of monster hybrids after.
Dinoshark (2011)
By 2010, Syfy saw the value in Roger Corman’s hybrid creatures and started airing these films regularly. Part Jaws, part Jurassic Park, Dinoshark is 0% Spielberg, but pure cheesy chaos.
Sharktopus (2010, 50%)
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, sharks aren’t the only predators you have to worry about. A shark with eight tentacles has eight times the ways to pull victims underwater. The sharktopus went on to battle the Pteracuda and Whalewolf in sequels.
Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012)
The Jersey Shore kids may be even scarier than rabid beasts. Snooki and The Situation can probably claim more victims than any wild animal, so Syfy produced this spoof of Jersey beach bunnies battling sharks.
Primeval (2007, 19%)
Based on a true story, the film depicts a news crew (Dominic Purcell, Brooke Langton, Orlando Jones) traveling to Africa in search of a legendary 25-foot croc. If the film is to be believed, they found him.
Slugs (1987, 38%)
If you think slugs are slow and easy to run away from, you would be wrong. This killer-slug movie shows that when slugs organize in full force, they can commit some gruesome attacks on innocent farmers and fornicating teens.
Alligator (1980, 67%)
True story: One of Bryan Cranston’s first jobs was as an assistant to the special effects department of this giant-alligator movie. Cranston says star Robert Forster was amiable and professional. Also the film suggests that flushing a baby alligator down the toilet makes it grow to deadly size and eat sewer workers. There was a sequel and a knockoff, Crocodile.
Big Ass Spider! (2013, 76%)
Three guesses what this movie is about. When the giant alien spider escapes, it’s up to Greg Grunberg and a team of scientists to stop them. Director Mike Mendez later got the gig directing Syfy’s Lavalantula.Lavalantula (2015)
If tornadoes full of sharks are intense, surely volcanoes full of spiders are too. This one stars former Police Academy hero Steve Guttenberg fending off lava spiders, which technically exist in the same universe as Sharknado. So far there has only been one sequel, 2 Lava 2 Lantula!Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008, 19%)
So bad it’s good, Hitchcock has nothing to worry about from this avian competition. The 2010-era cheap visual effects make bird attacks look even more fake than the 1963 Hitchcock classic, so it’s, of course, become a cult classic and spawned a Birdemic 2.
Arachnophobia (1990, 91%)
Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders, and it’s not a big stretch to prey on people’s fear of them. The movie of the same name starred Jeff Daniels as a small-town doctor and John Goodman as a wacky exterminator trying to stop a deadly horde infesting the neighborhood.
The Wicker Man (2006, 15%)
A sheriff (Nicolas Cage) investigates a missing girl on an island run by women. The film is famous, in part, for its ending, in which the locals lock Cage’s face in a cage full of bees. Not the bees! Not the beeeeeeeees!
The Food of the Gods (1976, 24%)
Based on the H.G. Wells novel, when farmers feed their chickens a mysterious substance, they grow to enormous size. Soon rats, wasps, and worms begin eating it and take over the island. The 1970s effects may seem cheesy today — but giant wasps are terrifying. The movie got a sequel in 1989.
Man’s Best Friend (1991, 20%)
After a string of “cute dog” movies like Turner & Hooch, K-9, and Beethoven, this horror movie asked: What if the family pet was actually a genetically modified killing machine? Freed from a lab by a news crew, this dog had tree-climbing claws, chameleon camouflage, and one hell of an appetite.
Lake Placid (1991, 40%)
Not the story of the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic hockey victor (that was called Miracle), this lake actually isn’t placid at all. There’s a killer crocodile in the water, and Betty White is feeding it. There were four sequels, and in the final one, the croc fought the anaconda!
Deep Blue Sea (1999, 57%)
Researching a cure for Alzheimer’s, a scientist (Saffron Burrows) gives sharks super intelligence. Unfortunately for them — but fortunate for audiences who love a good swarm — the sharks get smart enough to destroy the underwater lab and come after the scientists. Not even Samuel L. Jackson is badass enough to dodge a super-smart shark.
Anaconda (1997, 38%)
A Nat Geo crew led by J-Lo comes across a giant man-eating snake in the jungle. Best part: Ahab-esque hunter Jon Voight gets eaten by the snake, then vomited back up and winks at the camera! There was one theatrical sequel and three more for TV including Lake Placid Vs. Anaconda.
Snakes on a Plane (2006, 69%)
Samuel L. Jackson has had it with these motherf—ing snakes on this motherf—ing plane! While the film could not possibly live up to the hype the title generated when it was announced, it is still to this day the only movie where you can see Jackson fight snakes aboard an airplane.
Sharknado (2013, 82%)
The original Sharknado became a phenomenon the moment it aired on Syfy, with comedians tweeting along live and requesting cameos in the sequels. In a world where audiences thought they had seen it all, they had not, in fact, seen sharks in a tornado. Four sequels and counting followed.
Piranha (1978, 72%)
After the success of Jaws, producers scrambled to find more underwater creatures to copy, ahem, pay homage to its success. The most popular came from Roger Corman. Instead of sharks in the ocean, it was man-eating piranhas in a lake. James Cameron directed the sequel, and a 3D remake/reboot also spawned a sequel.
Cujo (1983, 60%)
Stephen King conceives of the scariest nightmare fantasies, but one of his scariest was soberingly real. The rabid dog Cujo traps a mother and her son in their car for days. The slobbering, barking St. Bernard would even make the biggest dog lover cower under their seat.
Pet Sematary (1989, 46%)
It’s understandable why kids would bury their beloved pets in an Indian burial ground, hoping to see them again. Unfortunately, they return as killer demon spawn. What’s worse, grief-stricken parents later try burying people there too.
The Birds (1963, 96%)
If you’re afraid of birds, Alfred Hitchcock’s classic is the real deal. If you weren’t afraid of birds before, this might change that. Images of birds swarming a small town, sitting in wait for helpless people, are still haunting today.
Jaws (1975, 97%)
The original man-eater movie also defined the modern blockbuster. Ever since, filmmakers have tried to achieve even a fraction of the successJaws enjoyed when Steven Spielberg unleashed it on the beaches of Amity. None of the three sequels were as scary, but the original remains a cinematic classic.
