I had done something similar to this with animal related horror. But I wanted to do something a little different. Now, with this list, these are my choices, my opinions and what I have seen so far. There are some movies that can go here that I haven’t seen like Frogs or The Swarm, more current sequels or remakes that I’ll eventually get to. But for now, just these top 10. As for being an option or thought of, I gave myself 2 rules to follow: either it is plant or animal focused or the environment plays a bigger role (more antagonist/neutral) in the overall film.
Let’s get into my top 10 favorite mother nature horror films!
10. Lake Placid (1999) – The writing is questionable, so is the acting (minus our golden Betty White) but the Stan Winston (and studio) designed crocodile is still amazing to see on screen.
09. The Birds (1963) – Classic Hitchcock, I’m still personally scarred by the scene of the man’s eyes poked out and missing. And why did the birds act this way? We’ll never know. 
08. Deep Blue Sea (1999) – Saw this in theaters, I remember everyone had a reaction at Sam L Jackson, and Deep Blue Sea walked so Sharknado could run. “It ate him!”
07. Orca (1977) – Underrated cult film. Underrated with a capital U. In a post Jaws world, we were given Orca and this killer whale is P-I-S-S-E-D. There are no human heroes, we’re rooting for the whale.
06. The Blair Witch Project (1999) – There’s nothing like being in the woods. There’s also nothing like being lost in the woods with strangers. There’s also nothing like being lost in the woods with strangers being hunted. Human or not, this is the blueprint for independent films as well as “found footage” films.
05. Crawl (2019) – A pleasant watch from last year starring Kaya Scoderlario (from Skins fame), trying to survive a horrible storm with free roaming alligators.
04. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) – Great score, like the acting, the writing, the special effects are some of the best ever in my opinion. The isolation, the growing mistrust, being threatened by nature AND men on top of that? Great watch. I’m glad it’s being more recognized.
03. Piranha (1978) – This is all out fun. If there’s a film I could rec from this list highly, it would be this one! It’s got the cult status, it’s ridiculous but Joe Dante is behind the film and we love Joe Dante on this blog. 
02. The Evil Dead (1981) – The ultimate cabin in the woods movie. We know this movie, we’ve seen this, we love it. It is more horror than comedy so if you’re interested in more comedic angles, go to Army of Darkness. Evil Dead II is a good mixture of the two genres in my opinion.
01. Them! (1954) – A favorite watch from last year, gigantic ants terrorizing deserts to a national level is a fun b movie/monster movie or “nuclear” monster movie to watch. The special effects is quite impressive for the time period it was made for. The large ants are scary and intimidating.
As per usual, here are some quick honorable mentions of other films outside the box.
Honorable Mentions
Little Shop of Horrors (1986, 1960)
Jaws (1975)
Cujo (1983)
Willard (2003)
Arachnophobia (1990)
Anaconda (1997)
I used to said work outdoors daily, and around different plants and many animals (worked at the zoo) and my level of respect for said animals and nature as a whole is very, very high. And as a former Girl Scout who has camped and hiked, nature is nothing to play around with. You need to be prepared all the time and these movies can either help you or make you not want to hike anymore. What movie would you add to this list or suggest?? Leave a comment! And share this post with fellow movie lovers!
Shots of Horror 