Browsing Tag

animal horror

Posted on August 10, 2015

CBS’s Zoo: Animals Fight Back

Dawn Keetley

Based on James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge’s novel of the same name, CBS’s Zoo is my guilty pleasure of the summer. It’s a TV series firmly in the eco-horror / revenge of nature sub-genre, and its many flaws haven’t yet dispelled its power. Zoo has many of the flaws of network TV shows—some badly-written dialogue, an overly melodramatic plot, too frenetic a pace—but it’s really quite engaging, more so than other series I began hopefully after reading the novel (i.e., Under the Dome, The Strain, The Last Ship), only to abandon them after a few painful episodes.

Zoo tells the story of animals—lions in Botswana and LA, wolves in Mississippi, dogs in Slovenia, bats in Rio de Janeiro—who inexplicably abandon their habitual behavior and band together to attack the heretofore dominant species. And they aren’t killing for food or to protect themselves. Groups of animals across the globe engage in what can only be called premeditated and purposeful acts of murder. An eclectic group of “experts” is drawn together to figure out what’s happening—and why. The five main characters are likeable and the actors do a surprisingly good job given the sometimes cringe-worthy places the plot takes them.

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Posted on June 29, 2015

Crocodile Horror: Black Water and Rogue

Dawn Keetley

Although Shark Week gets all the good press, this post is about shark’s horror film sibling, the equally disturbing crocodile. In fact, crocodiles may be even more disturbing than the shark: reptiles not fish, they can terrorize on land as well as sea (and river and lake!). Australia has demonstrated that it rules the domain of crocodile horror, with two exceptional films released in 2007: Black Water, directed by David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki (the latter of whom has since also directed the shark horror film, The Reef [2010]), and Rogue, directed by Greg McLean (who also directed Wolf Creek [2005]).

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Posted on March 21, 2015

Top 10 Marine Animal Horror Films

Gwen

Spring has officially sprung and soon many of us will begin traveling in droves toward bodies of water for some rest and relaxation. As I ponder my own escape to the rocky shores of Cape Cod, it evoked images of all the things that lurk below the surface of the water. In commemoration our looming return to nature I thought it best to remember that when you don’t respect nature, it certainly won’t respect you.  Below is a diverse conglomeration of American natural horror films focused on aquatic animals.

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