We love giant animals…or, more specifically, we love to be terrified by giant animals. It’s easy to see why. As humans, we’re physically pretty weak. Our flesh tears easily, we lack the strength of most predators, and even our bite is a mere fraction of what many other animals can do. Through evolution, we’ve learned to fear giant animals because, quite simply, they can easily kill us. They remind us that we’re not the apex predators we think we are.
With great scares, action, and of course, giant beasts, check out these awesome creature features that showcase some of the best movie monsters ever. From real animals like sharks and alligators to potentially unknown creatures like bigfoot, and even one film about some heavily mutated insects, here are 10 creature features you need to watch.
Dangerous Animals (2025)
In this Aussie shark flick, a sadistic serial killer kidnaps innocent victims and sails them out to sea, where he then chums the water and dangles them over a hungry feeding frenzy of sharks. The new twist makes Dangerous Animals a lot of fun and helps it stand out from other shark movies. Plus, the film has received great reviews, with many commenting on how well the two deadly forces (the killer and sharks) play against each other, creating a scenario where there’s no safety.
Lake Placid (1999)
First of all, shoutout to 1980’s Alligator. That movie walked so Lake Placid could run. For its time, Alligator had great practical effects and a ridiculously fun story. Genre fans should totally check it out, but the best crocodilia movie remains 1999’s Lake Placid. In the film, a giant saltwater crocodile has turned a Maine lake into its new home. Obviously, nobody in Maine expects a 30-foot croc to be lurking in the lake and carnage ensues.
Aside from a few scenes, the movie uses some excellent practical effects that help add a realness to the film that makes the massive croc seriously scary. Plus, it has a surprisingly strong cast for a monster flick, including Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, and even Betty White, who is hands-down one of the creepiest little old ladies in horror history.
Jaws (1975)
Creature features existed before Jaws, but none of them had the lasting power that Steven Spielberg's shark flick does. In fact, few movies have ever had the lasting impact that Jaws does. As everyone knows, the film is about a giant man-eating great white shark that descends upon the shores of Amity Island during the height of its summer season.
By 1975 standards, the Jaws animatronic was terrifyingly lifelike. Even today, it still has a menacing vibe as a giant, soulless monster, making it horrifying in its own way, even if the shark doesn’t necessarily look “real.” You’ve probably already seen Jaws, but it’s one of those films that never gets old and remains iconic with each rewatch.
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Deep Blue Sea has finally started getting the love it deserves from retrospectives in recent years. The film follows a research team experimenting on the brains of mako sharks to develop an Alzheimer's drug. But one little secret they haven’t told anyone is that they need more brain protein for their experiments, which they get by making the sharks bigger (and smarter). So, what happens when the fastest shark species becomes the size of great whites? Pure chaos, mwuahaha!
Even better, Deep Blue Sea is set in an offshore, underwater facility, so it isn’t your typical sharks-on-a-beach retread of what we’ve all seen so many times before. Oh, also it’s the movie that has *that* iconic Samuel L Jackson monologue. If you know, you know…and if you don’t know, well watch Deep Blue Sea and find out.
Anaconda (1997)
Is Anaconda a “good” movie? Well, no. But is it a fun movie? Oh, heck yes! The film centers around an expedition through the Amazon that goes horribly wrong. First, the crew picks up a totally weird and absolutely nefarious grifter (Jon Voight), and then they stumble across a 40-foot anaconda that’s ready to kill them all.
With their immense length and girth, anacondas are already pure nightmare fuel. So when you watch a movie where the giant snakes are doing everything you fear they would, it’s positively terrifying (but also, incredibly fun). There’s also this one scene toward the end of the movie where the snake eats and then regurgitates a man. Let’s just call it what it is: scarring!
Boar (2017)
Australia is no stranger to creature features. Not only does Dangerous Animals come from the land down under, but so do countless other movies about ravenous giant animals, like Bait, Rogue, Black Water, and one of the best, Boar. So many creature features take place in the water, which makes sense because unknown monsters lurking beneath the surface adds its own layer of horror.
But in Boar, we get a totally new vibe, with a giant land mammal on the hunt. In the film, a giant, hungry boar the size of a rhino roams the outback. For viewers who don’t live near large bodies of water, it’s a much more relatable concept, and the film’s practical effects are tons of fun.
Mimic (1997)
Horror legend Guillermo del Toro directed 1997’s creature feature Mimic. In the movie, New York City is devastated by a disease that’s spread by cockroaches. To stop the spread, scientists bioengineer a new insect from mantis and termite DNA called the Judas Breed, which secretes an enzyme that kills cockroaches.
But flash forward a few years, and these new insects aren’t finished making a home for themselves in the Big Apple. They’ve now turned their attention to killing their next biggest threat: humans. With the steady and expert hand of del Toro, Mimic is more than just a monster movie. Its layered plot and fun city setting make it a unique stand-out in the genre.
Tremors (1990)
If you didn’t already know that there’s a movie where Kevin Bacon and Reba McEntire fight off giant man-eating worms in the desert. Then, let me introduce you to Tremors, where you’ll get just that. Even better, the movie uses almost entirely practical effects, which makes the giant worms (known as graboids) look awesome and scary.
Fans of monster movies should also check out Tremors 2: Aftershocks. Though it was a straight-to-video release, it has some seriously fun practical effects and is considered a classic by genre fans. In the film, the graboids are evolving into bipedal, heat-sensing creatures, adding a great twist and keeping the story fresh.
47 Meters Down (2017)
The world has too many bad shark movies, that’s why it’s always so exciting when a really good one comes out. In 47 Meters Down, two sisters go cage diving in Mexico. But after the cable snaps, their cage falls 47 meters beneath the surface, crashing into the seabed. Even worse, they’re being stalked by a pack of great white sharks.
The sisters are played by Mandy Moore and Claire Holt, and the two have fantastic chemistry. The film largely centers around them, so their performances were vital to creating a captivating story. Luckily, the two actors are phenomenal and the shark scenes are excellent. Also, shoutout to the sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, which features blind cave sharks and is surprisingly a lot of fun.
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
What’s scarier than a movie about killer animals? Well, a movie about *real* killer animals. If you visit the Field Museum in Chicago, you’ll see the taxidermied bodies of two notorious lions, known as the Tsavo Man-Eaters. The killings happened in 1898 in Kenya, while the British were using hundreds of Indian migrant workers to build a railroad across the region.
At night, as the workers slept in their camps, two male lions would invade, dragging men off into the night, eating them alive. The Ghost and the Darkness tells the horrifying true story of the nine months that these lions terrorized the workers and the team that eventually hunted them down.
Exists (2014)
According to some, our planet’s vast forests are home to an elusive primate known as Bigfoot (or Sasquatch, Yeti, Yowie, or the Grassman, depending on which region you’re in). In Exists, Eduardo Sanchez, who is best known for making The Blair Witch Project, returns to the woods for a new horrifying story.
In the film, a group of friends are vacationing in a remote cabin and, unfortunately, get on the bad side of a Sasquatch. Using his trademark found-footage style, Sanchez weaves a seriously scary story about Bigfoot in what’s easily tied with Willow Creek as the scariest Sasquatch movie ever (and unlike Willow Creek, you actually get to see bigfoot in this one).
Where To Watch The Best Creature Features Online
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