5 Great Creature Feature Films

For anyone who is a subscriber, it’s been a while, so hello again.

I recently decided to shift my focus on this page to my love of story. Mostly I plan on writing about films I’ve watched or books I’ve read, but I will eventually throw in some thoughts on story outside of these categories.

I received my degree in screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin so I’ve learned a little something about the process and craft of great story building. But since every heart gravitates toward stories for so many different reasons, I encourage you to take all my opinions with a grain of popped popcorn.

Today, I want to recommend films from a genre I particularly love and that is creature features.

For me, my definition of a creature feature is typically a horror or suspense story which focuses on a monster or another creature hell-bent on annihilating all who cross their paths. For me, these aren’t your Texas Chainsaw Massacres or even your Annabelle flicks (movies about inanimate objects coming to life or other evil entities embodying human-like qualities).

I put creature features squarely in the category of aggressive or mutated animals, dinosaurs, or even insatiably attacking aliens (as long as the alien comes across as more animalistic than intelligent), whose sole goal is to destroy one or a bunch of people with any claws, teeth, or murderous intent they have available to them. Thrill city!

So without further ado, here are 5 of my favorite creature feature films:

Jurassic Park

When I was a kid I was TERRIFIED of scary stuff. I didn’t want to watch scary movies or read scary books or anything. Even Goosebumps books and kid shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark were off limits in my mind.

So it was with great reservation, that I sat down to watch Jurassic Park at some girl’s house when I was elementary school age (I think it was co-babysitting situation). I remember her popping it into the video tape player and me being extremely apprehensive about what I was about to watch.

No surprise, Jurassic Park still scared me (especially that one scene with the arm — I jumped about a foot in the air) but at the end, I was proud I’d survived it. Not only that, I really thought the movie was fantastic. Besides that the dinosaurs looked SO REAL, and that definitely blew my mind.

Some 30ish years later, Jurassic Park STILL holds up. Hands down, still one of my favorite films. I watch it every summer (because it always feels like a summer blockbuster to me). I’ve forced my husband to watch it so many times he’s started to groan every time I put it on. Ha!

Here’s the thing about Jurassic Park (specifically the original), it’s not JUST about a bunch of cloned dinosaurs getting loose in a park and hunting around for people to eat. It brings up some very serious and interesting questions about the act of creation, the ethics behind it, and the responsibility we as humans have when we decide to play God.

I’m not trying to knock the other Jurassic Park movies, but for me, they don’t hold the same weight as the first. It was all the introspection and the methodical set up at the beginning of the first that made the rest of the film so powerful. The other Jurassic Park movies jump right in to the eating and attacks without so much as a how do ya do, and it doesn’t feel the same.

It just goes to show you how important a well-paced build up is, even in something like a creature feature.

Future dinosaur disaster film and story writers, take note!

Tremors

Tremors is yet another film franchise that should have only ever stayed as an original. But although they never managed to capture the original magic of the first, the following 5 sequels are entertaining enough to keep on the background while you’re cooking or cleaning your house.

And yes, I watched them all, each more ridiculous than the last. And if you haven’t yet witnessed the delicious nightmare of giant man eating worms sucking their victims into the ground to make a feast out of them, keep your expectations low with movies 2–6, but get ready to genuinely enjoy the first!

You might be wondering why I included this film at all because yes, Tremors is campy and the special affects aren’t fooling anyone, but man, this movie is fun! The cast have phenomenal chemistry (did you know Reba McEntire is in this film?), but what Tremors does really well is balance horror and comedy. That is not an easy line to walk, yet the whole film you don’t know whether to scream or laugh, and it’s a great way to spend an hour and half on your own or with some friends.

I highly recommend the first Tremors movie…again, just the first!

Jaws

Here we go down the franchise list but Jaws (the original) truly doesn’t need an introduction.

What can I say about Jaws as a creature feature that hasn’t already been said? What stands out in this brilliant film is the musical score and barely seeing the shark until the very end which somehow only adds to the horror.

The first film especially gives a textbook example of the one lone newcomer sheriff attempting to convince the city leaders to divert a catastrophe and close the beaches because there are signs a dangerous shark is hunting along their shoreline. They obviously don’t listen and a cloud of bloody water ensues.

Once again though, it’s not just about the carnage. Jaws is made memorable and powerful by the grieving mother who lost her child, all the scientific evidence that foreshadows the disaster ahead, and one of Hollywood’s most chilling monologues conveyed by the grizzled Captain Quint (played by Robert Shaw) who recounts the real life tragedy of the USS Indianapolis going down in World War 2 where 900 men went into the water and only 319 of them come out — many were victims of shark attacks.

Now, I put this creature feature in this list with a great caveat. Something story tellers need to remember when we feature real world animals in our tales is that people’s real fear can lead to real world consequences.

When the movie Jaws came out in 1975, it sparked mass hysteria and an unprecedented fear of sharks and led to so many of them being killed that Peter Benchley (the author who wrote the original Jaws novel) actually regretted doing so. Currently great white sharks are listed as vulnerable which is one step up from endangered. A lot of damage was done…

I love the masterful story telling in Jaws, but leading to the destruction of important parts of our ecological world, begs the question: should we ever write or tell creature feature tales with real life animals in them?

I wish we could, however, unfortunately, we have often witnessed that the human race blurs lines between fact and fiction, and we need to be mindful of the power we have as storytellers.

Trollhunter

This Norwegian “found-footage mockumentary” is a must-watch if you’re into creature features.

Even if you don’t like reading subtitles, the documentary angle makes you believe you have stumbled across a unique and chilling glimpse into the hidden world of hunting trolls in Norway.

I’ll admit, it takes a lot to keep my eyes glued to a screen these days and this was one of those films I started with mild interest, and by the end I had to put down whatever I was doing and give the movie my full attention.

I feel like there aren’t enough “documentary” type creature features out there and here’s my official request we produce a few more.

A Quiet Place

Last but not least, my final creature feature pick was a tough one but as far as story telling goes, I’m standing by it.

On a personal note, the first time I saw A Quiet Place was before having a baby, and when I watched it a few years later after becoming a parent, it hits my heart in different, harder places now.

Once again, creating a story with monsters hungry for humans doesn’t translate into instant compelling storytelling. Yet, in A Quiet Place, it’s the family tragedy and subsequent conflict between them that makes this movie memorable and moving.

Besides that, as far as entertainment value, this particular film does a great job playing with sound. And when I watched it in the movie theater, you could have heard a pin drop in the room. That’s a rare occurrence these days — everyone seeming to work together in an audience to collectively help the onscreen characters survive. I left the movie feeling breathless and wished I could have watched it again for the first time one more time.

I’d highly recommend A Quiet Place and its sequel as well.

In Conclusion…

I think the reason we gravitate toward these films/stories of fleeing from monstrous beasts is because they speak to the human experience of feeling hunted in the world.

There are actual living animals on this planet ready to defend themselves and/or devour us if we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In a philosophical sense, we are always in danger of greedy and powerful people ready to “gobble us up” if the opportunity presents itself.

But I think, on deeper level, I believe there is always something attempting to bombard our minds and attack us from the inside out — its only goal is to consume our worth, and destroy our well-being if we don’t find ways to protect ourselves.

With all that said, I think we also enjoy imagining ourselves in this type of survival situation. Our lizard brains remember being hunted during the Stone Age and we wonder, could we still survive today? Would we make the same decisions if we were in these situations? As we watch the foolish victims, we revel in the idea we’d never make such dumb mistakes and for the heroes we think, I could do what they did. I could survive.

What’s your favorite creature feature? I’d love to hear about!