When animals attack

[Sargeant_Fox]

I've recently noticed a subgenre of horror: animals, all of them or a single species, suddenly start attacking humans for no discernible reason. Examples include Arthur Machen's The Terror (1917), Frank Baker's The Birds (1936) and Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds" short-story (1952).

What do you think of this premise?

Can you come up with more examples?

 

[BAYLOR]

The Rats by George Herbert
Nightwing by Martin Cruze Smith

 

[Montero]

Well I find the premise rather irritating as it
a) Fuels paranoia about animals and could further encourage people to mistreat them
b) Animals, and groups of animals, do attack humans, but it is not for no reason - though the people attacked may know so little about animals that they think it is for no reason.
c) Sometimes it is not an actual attack, it is just the human is standing in the way of a bee swarm/a migration/a cattle stampede and should have got out of the way.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

Well I find the premise rather irritating as it
a) Fuels paranoia about animals and could further encourage people to mistreat them
b) Animals, and groups of animals, do attack humans, but it is not for no reason - though the people attacked may know so little about animals that they think it is for no reason.
c) Sometimes it is not an actual attack, it is just the human is standing in the way of a bee swarm/a migration/a cattle stampede and should have got out of the way.

Those are pretty specific concerns!

It'd be awful if poor fiction writers were to be also blamed for the harm humans do to animals; sadly we don't need that scapegoat though.

I think you're applying real-life lens needlessly. In these works animals don't behave realistically, it's not accidents mistaken as attacks. In these works animals behave unnaturally and their reasons are unknown, usually with hints of the supernatural. Machen drives this point home when he suggests at the end of The Terror that animals are revolting against humans because World War I wreaked a massive spiritual shift or whatever.

 

[Montero]

Well, I am holding my position of being irritated, and sometimes dismayed, as some people do have a very distorted view of animals (and many other things) and in part get this from fiction whether written or more often on TV. Yes, the animals are often not behaving realistically - but at least part of the audience are unable to tell this. If a writer is clear to the audience in their book that the animal is behaving unrealistically, then that is not so bad, but even so people can miss that (particularly in a televisation where chunks of the book are left out). I totally agree that a lot of animal mistreatment can happen without someone first reading about animals in fiction, but the whole attacking flocks of birds trope, super creepy vicious predators etc etc doesn't help with people's perceptions of how to approach wildlife. It is the demonisation of wildlife that deeply bothers me. It is not just in horror fiction, but the tales that people pass to each other about the dangers of xxxxxx (whatever the cautionary tale de jour is).

Anyway, I will now bow out of this thread and leave it to people who like books about animal attacks.

 

[AllanR]

the tales that people pass to each other about the dangers of xxxxxx

One day, sitting around camp, the topic of bears came up. One fellow expressed his fears of going into grizzly bear country and another fellow stood up and said --"And you're camped next to me. I'm way more unpredictable than any bear will ever be."

 

[Vince W]

Jaws by Peter Benchley.

 

[alexvss]

This is called Natural Horror.

I can't think of any books off the top my head right now; but among the hundreds of movies from this subgenre, I'd suggest Crawl (2019), which is about alligators.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I think Spielberg regretted making Jaws after people's subsequent reactions to sharks. Even though the one in the movie is clearly no 'natural' creature.

'Cujo' is an interesting one, in that at the end of the story, King to some extent turns the story he has told us on its head.

 

[KGeo777]

THE INTERLOPERS by Saki takes a humorously ironic twist on the idea.

 

[Pyan]

The Year of the Angry Rabbit by Russell Braddon, filmed as Night of the Lepus (caution: gore!)

 

[THX1138]

Squirm 1976 - A storm causes some power lines to break and touch the ground, drawing millions of man-eating worms out of the earth, and into town where they quickly start munching on the locals.

 

[Pyan]

Squirm 1976 - A storm causes some power lines to break and touch the ground, drawing millions of man-eating worms out of the earth, and into town where they quickly start munching on the locals.

And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
The worms play pinochle on your snout
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose
They eat the jelly between your toes
… A big green worm with rolling eyes
Crawls in your stomach and out your eyes
Your stomach turns a slimy green
And pus comes out like whipping cream
… You spread it on a slice of bread
And that’s what you eat when your dead
And the worms crawl out and the worms crawl in
The worms that crawl in are lean and thin
… The ones that crawl out are fat and stout
Your eyes fall in and your hair falls out
Your brain comes tumbling down your snout...

Then there's Night of the Crabs, by Guy N Smith.

​

As the comments in Goodreads say, "This book is called “Night of the Crabs.” This book is not called "An Meaningful Exploration into the Depth and Meaning of Classic American Literature."...

​

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’m remember those covers as a kid and wanting to read them but my folks forbade me. Which is odd because they were happy for me to read SK at 11 years old.

There’s a pulpy horror I read back in 96 called The Lake but I can’t find the author. Essentially it was about giant garpike because, er…. volcanoes.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'd suggest Crawl (2019), which is about alligators.

I enjoyed that, possibly for the wrong reasons, but it was entertaining.

Would Jurassic Park count? In Danse Macabre Stephen King talks about the ecological horror film, where mankind's hubris and pollution turns nature against him. He mentions a film called Prophesy, which I've never seen but which includes a man-eating mutant bear.

And then there's Piranha and Piranha 2.

 

[BAYLOR]

I enjoyed that, possibly for the wrong reasons, but it was entertaining.

Would Jurassic Park count? In Danse Macabre Stephen King talks about the ecological horror film, where mankind's hubris and pollution turns nature against him. He mentions a film called Prophesy, which I've never seen but which includes a man-eating mutant bear.

And then there's Piranha and Piranha 2.

Im surprised no one has mentioned Leiningan Verses the Ants by Carl Stepensen , In 1954 was adapted into the film The Naked Jungle with Charlton Heston in the lead role.

Empire of the Ants by H G Wells

 

[BAYLOR]

The Year of the Angry Rabbit by Russell Braddon, filmed as Night of the Lepus (caution: gore!)

I had no idea that silly movie was actually based on a book.

 

[AllanR]

Then there's the 'Flora Horror' like Colour out of Space, Day of the Triffids, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes...

 

[Danny McG]

I had no idea that silly movie was actually based on a book.

Silly?
It was brilliant!

 

[Lostinspace]

I haven't read The Year of the Angry Rabbit but I have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail