10 Unfathomably Frightening Sea Creature Features
Back when I was a kid growing up in the Bronx, before my obsessions with UFOs and Bigfoot started, I was head over heels in love with the Loch Ness Monster and whales. The little library by my house had lots of whale books with glossy pictures. Luckily for me, it also had a few books on Nessie and other sea creatures. As a little one who knew of small beaches and lakes, the mysteries of the deep fascinated me.
It’s no wonder that when I became a writer, I was eager to pen my own sea monster tales for Severed Press like They Rise, Loch Ness Revenge, Fury of the Orcas and Megalodon in Paradise. You can even throw Just Add Water into the mix if you consider sea monkey-esque beings in a moist sewer a big old fish tale. I may be a land lubber, but part of my heart belongs to the sea and the creatures both real and imagined that lurk within it.
Because of my early love for Nessie, I’ve been a sucker for aquatic horrors all my life. I know there are plenty of others out there just like me. Which is why I wanted to share my list of sea creature features you should check out. I’m going to leave out movies like Jaws, Humanoids from the Deep and Creature from the Black Lagoon because, well, that’s just too easy. Here are 10 others that will satisfy that wet monster itch.
10. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953): This classic sci-fi monster movie is a classic for a reason, featuring a giant dinosaur-like creature unleashed by an atomic bomb test that wreaks havoc on New York City. It features some amazing special effects by the legendary Ray Harryhausen and a thrilling plot. I fell in love and awe of this movie as a kid and that hasn’t change one iota over the years.
9. It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955): This classic film stars none other than the giant octopus created by, who else, Ray Harryhausen, the renowned special effects maestro. Its tentacles reach out to destroy San Francisco before it can be stopped. It cemented my inability to even comprehend eating octopus.
8. The Host (2006) – This South Korean horror movie follows a family that must battle a monster that lives in the polluted Han River. It’s an intense and non-stop thriller that will have you jumping out of your favorite armchair.
7. The Bay (2012) – This horror movie follows a small town that must battle a mysterious creature living in the Chesapeake Bay. Talk about a movie that doesn’t get the love and attention is deserves. You’ll never fish or swim in the Chesapeake Bay again. Pure parasitic perfection!
6. Orca (1977): This film follows a fisherman as he attempts to take revenge on a killer whale that killed his pregnant wife. The suspenseful story is full of action and a lot of exciting underwater scenes and stars Richard Harris and the beautiful Bo Derek. I was OBSESSED with this movie when it came out. I remember the back of every comic book at the time had a full page ad for the movie.
5. Piranha (1978): This movie follows a group of people as they battle a school of piranha that were released into a lake by an earthquake. Okay, maybe not a threat from the depths, but damn is this a fun one. You can’t beat a movie written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante!
4. Tentacles (1977): This movie follows a team of scientists as they investigate a series of mysterious disappearances in the Mediterranean Sea and discover a giant octopus is responsible. Maybe not the finest example of quality moviemaking, but a must see for you sea monster completists.
3. The Shallows (2016) – This movie follows a surfer (Blake Lively) who must battle a great white shark while stranded in the middle of the ocean. For most of the movie, it’s just Blake, a seagull, a killer shark and a bloated whale corpse. And somehow, it all works as the second best shark movie of all time.
2. The Deep (1977): This film follows two divers as they search for buried treasure off the coast of Bermuda and run into trouble with a giant shark. The underwater adventure is full of suspense and some of the best underwater scenes of the decade.
- DeepStar Six (1989) – This horror movie follows a team of deep-sea miners who must battle a giant sea monster. It’s a great mix of horror and suspense that has attained classic status for many.
What are some of your favorites? How many on this list have you seen? Most importantly, can you recommend something I may not have watched? Bring it on!
Eco Horror – Mother Nature Strikes Back
Growing up in the 70s, I was exposed to dozens of horror films from the 50s and 60s that centered around man’s environment getting revenge on the beasts who dared tamper with or destroy the world around them. Those movies, along with Universal’s monster movies, were my ‘starter-horror’. They’re what made me what I am today. Not sure if I should thank them or sue anyone left alive who made them.
Guest blogger Spencer Mitchell loves the Eco-Horror sub genre as much as I do. So this week, I’m jumping in the back seat and letting Spencer take the wheel. Take it away, #1 Hellion!
Many popular films and novels feature conflicts involving man vs. man or man vs. beast. But what happens when humans face conflict with the world around them? The world is indifferent to the suffering of humans, but that doesn’t mean the fates of the two are not intertwined. So here are five of the scariest movies that show what happens when we don’t respect the power of planet Earth and the end of the world comes for us.
The idea of nature rebelling against humankind is not a new one. In 1954, just as the world was in full terror due to the Cold War and the rise of nuclear technology, the horror movie Them! provided quite the scare. This movie was one of many “big bug” films that focused on nuclear testing gone awry to create humongous, radioactive creatures. Though it is remembered as little more than a classic black-and-white B-movie today, Them! certainly shocked audiences with its frank portrayal of what could happen to the natural world in the event of an atomic incident. (Hunter’s note, Them! is one of my all time favorite movies.)
In 1976, tiny creatures went rogue once more in the sci-fi thriller The Food of the Gods, loosely based on an H.G. Wells novel. This time, the abnormal growth in animals is due to a miraculous “food” that bubbles up from the earth to provide sustenance for rats, wasps, and worms. This substance (a result of man-made waste) ends up making the animals grow larger than humans, disturbing the gentle balance between man and nature. Though the film was financially successful, it is widely forgotten today – which is actually rather unfortunate since the theme of ecology striking back against industry remains prevalent in our modern world.
In the 2004 action movie The Day After Tomorrow, Manhattan is thrust into a climate-change-induced Ice Age, leaving millions stranded in a polar prison. Though the film dramatizes the effects of global warming, it definitely serves as a potent worst-case scenario. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), drastic climate change is in our imminent future whether we like it or not, forecasting “a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.” This will eventually cause changes in precipitation patterns, droughts, the melting of ice caps, and even stronger hurricanes.
When a horror master decides to take on the subject of man versus nature, you know the result will be a chilling portrayal of what can happen when the world fights back. M. Night Shyamalan’s 2008 film The Happening involves a mysterious plant-based neurotoxin that drives those exposed to it to commit suicide. This film may include more fantasy elements than others, but the message is clear – when science messes with the natural world, the natural world has ways of defending itself and seeking retaliation.
Found-footage horror films have always served to bring the viewer in closer to the subject and make it feel more realistic. This is even more chilling when the subject is a deadly waterborne epidemic that hits a small Massachusetts town during a local festival. In 2012’s The Bay, hundreds of townspeople succumb to a flesh-eating, stomach-turning illness caused by unsafe waste disposal that was covered up by the local government. The entire event is captured on film by a young reporter and presented as a mockumentary. It’s a chilling horror film, but it also shows how far some people are willing to go to deny the effect humans have had on nature.
Though many of these films were made to entertain and frighten viewers, they are not created in vain. They show what could happen to our world if we keep disturbing nature’s delicate balance…and what will happen if we don’t make the changes soon.
Hunter Shea 