Ahead of Meg 2: The Trench, Here Are Our Favourite Animal Attack Movies

Meg 2: The Trench — out August 3 in theatres — sees Jason Statham returning to beat up a pack of giant megalodon sharks, as they race to the beach shoreline. It's the perfect kind of campy, unbridled chaos that lets loose a wild species long thought to be extinct, on the big screen for a playful experiment of pitting them up against humans. Films about rampaging beasts have always been fascinating horror movies to me, as they're filled with familiar animals that do exist in real life — most of whom we'd normally steer clear of. Meg 2 amplifies this fear to deliver a wildly elevated version of Jaws — an action blockbuster where Statham boldly harpoons sharks and whatnot. Yes, there are some other mystery creatures as well.

Animal attack movies are easy to plan conceptually, but hard to deliver since one must first figure out what tone to go for. If you go the campy route as with Meg 2: The Trench, it's important to realise that the audience generally wouldn't care for the events leading up to the colossal Meg's appearance. All the fluff needs to be gotten rid of fast if they're looking to provide mindless entertainment, which is essential to the idea of campy thriller films.

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On the other hand, films like The Host and The Revenant are more focused on their characters, with the creatures merely serving as a catalyst for the events to unfurl in time. That's what's impressive about this genre — there are so many ways to interpret it, but it all hinges on how the animals' rage is presented.

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