Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to choose what they think is the best movie under a certain topic related to a recent release. So this week, with the release of Beast, we’re counting down our favorite man versus beast movies! Let us know @SiftPop what your ranking is!
Director Stephen Hopkins and writer William Goldman combined their efforts to make a memorable genre mix of adventure, drama, and thriller entitled, The Ghost and the Darkness. When Col. John Henry Patterson (Val Kilmer) is tasked with building a bridge in Tsavo, Africa, he and his unsuspecting workforce are terrorized by two ferocious lions like no other. Hopkins is no stranger to building up tension and delivering bloody kills, being the director of both A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and the under-appreciated Predator 2. The Ghost and the Darkness has a solid pace throughout and knows when to build tension, especially when day turns into night. Being based on a true story, I am sure there were liberties taken, but there is nothing really too absurd or blown too far out of proportion. Kilmer, Michael Douglas, and John Kani share a lot of the most memorable scenes in the film, and have great dialogue throughout. I chalk this up to Goldman’s well-executed script, as well as the aforementioned actors’ delivery of the lines. Douglas as Charles Remington makes a scene-chewing introduction, but becomes far more likable as the film progresses and has a natural chemistry with Kilmer. Kani plays Samuel, and provides stellar narration and an overall performance throughout the film. The Ghost and the Darkness is a fun, and at times terrifying, thriller that sinks its teeth into you and will not let go. (Joe Vargas)
When comes to the “man versus animal” topic, Blake Lively sure puts the ‘man’ in the woman, because she does not need no man! Okay, I am done being cheeky. On a much more serious note, The Shallows is an underrated and slept-on movie. I have only recently watched it for the first time, so it is still fresh in my memory, and I honestly can say I didn’t expect to have so much fun with it. It is a very minimalistic movie where for a good 90% of it, we can only see Lively and the shark. That kind of role (where your character is the sole focus of the film) requires a great actor or actress to pull it off, and Lively nails it. She is strong and clever; therefore, it is not a reach for her to survive what she does, and she isn’t necessarily tough to look at either. But the main draw here is the simple idea of being stranded someplace offshore, and there is a vengeful (this time is personal?) shark who will not let you go. The Shallows is a breezy film (under 90 minutes) that knows when to finish and how. If you haven’t seen it yet, I would recommend it. Just don’t go into it expecting another Jaws; you might be surprised with this film. (Luke Burian)
Have you ever wanted to enter your crawlspace, only to find it’s larger than most apartments? How about finding that while trying to get out of this hell of invasive gators, you may have taken a few too many shortcuts with your building plans that may come back to literally bite you in the butt (and everywhere else)? Well than, Alexandre Aja has made the perfect film for you! Enter the world of 2019’s Crawl. Anchored by the wonderful Kaya Scodelario, Crawl takes you on a journey fighting for survival through a Florida hurricane that has teamed up with some of the biggest gators the silver screen has ever seen. Along the way, you get treated to one of the greatest human versus gator fights possible that won’t leave you disappointed. If you love the inexplicable way people can survive anything with just about eight makeshift tourniquets, this is 90 minutes you won’t regret!! (Matt Lawson)
Remember back in the days when Netflix was still basically the only streaming game in town and, every once in a while, you’d stumble across a solid ‘90s/early 2000s thriller that you’d never heard of? The Edge was one of those for me. Anthony Hopkins plays an intelligent billionaire whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness alongside a photographer, played by Alec Baldwin, who Hopkins’s character suspects is having an affair with his wife. Their fight for survival turns into mind games against each other. It’s probably why I enjoyed this thriller so much. As I’ve mentioned in the past, smarter-than-you Anthony Hopkins is my favorite type of Hopkins, and the rivalry between him and Baldwin works wonders. Their personal battle gets complicated by the fact that a man-eating bear begins hunting them. I remember the bear parts looking really good — particularly for the ‘90s (probably because an actual bear was used in the filming). It’s a solid thriller that truly knows how to use its setting and the elements to their fullest extent. (Jake Bourgeois)
When you think of outstanding, animated films that all audiences can enjoy, you probably think Pixar. However, every once in a while, a truly stunning and entertaining animated film will come out from another studio worthy of the attention and praise. In 2020, that movie was Wolfwalkers, an Apple TV+ exclusive which, due to its lack of wide release, I fear, was overlooked by many. Wolfwalkers is beautifully animated and tells the story of a young girl named Robyn (voiced by Honor Kneafsey) who wants to be a hunter, like her father. When Robyn is in the forest one day against her father’s wishes, she is bitten by a not-so-ordinary wolf and discovers that she now has the ability to transform into a wolf herself. She discovers that the wolf that bit her is actually a girl named Mebh (Eva Whittaker), who can also transform into a wolf and is known as a mythical Wolfwalker. They become friends and revel in the freedom being a wolf brings. However, the town which Robyn is from is ruled by the cruel Lord Protector who wants to destroy all the wolves of the forest. Robyn is faced with the tasks of saving Mebh’s mother, convincing her hunter father to help the wolves, and save the forest from the Lord Protector in a gripping and heartfelt tale of man versus beast. Wolfwalkers is one of the truly great animated films of the decade. (Nick Ferro)
Perhaps best known as the movie that finally brought Leo his Oscar, The Revenant is a tense, visceral, and brutal tale of revenge set against the icy backdrop of the South Dakota wilderness in the 1820s. Given that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, two of our modern acting giants, went head-to-head in this endurance test of a film, those who have seen The Revenant can attest to the fact that it is the behind-the-scenes crew who steal the show. Fresh off his Best Director win for Birdman the previous year, Alejandro G. Iñárritu opted to direct the film with entirely natural lighting, rightfully earning his director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki’s third consecutive Oscar for Best Cinematography following his wins for Gravity and Birdman. Some may balk at the extreme measures taken by the cast and crew for the sake of natural realism, but the results speak for themselves. Rays of sunlight bleed through the jagged landscape of trees as our protagonist’s labored breath materializes into an icy vapor before our very eyes. By the time the film’s infamous bear attack takes place, your fingernails will be digging into the arms of your seat with nervous anticipation. Don’t let the runtime or heavy subject matter deter you, because The Revenant is a masterclass in filmmaking through and through. (Foster Harlfinger)
Right in the middle of Liam Neeson’s reinvention of himself as an aged action star, The Grey disappointed some people because it wasn’t yet another action movie in which Neeson this time took it upon himself to brutally murder some wildlife. Quite the opposite: The Grey is a surprisingly understated drama about a group stranded in the wild after surviving a plane crash. They rely on Neeson’s character — who’s been keeping the wildlife at bay at their place of work — to get them back to civilization, though obviously that proves more difficult than they might have hoped. Over the course of the film, Neeson’s character deals with loss and regret in his personal life, and the very real battle for survival he finds himself in becomes a metaphor for the fight to survive his personal issues. To my mind, this is one of the last great performances from a legendary actor who started to take it easy in his later years, and while it revolves heavily on people braving the cold wilderness, it has a surprisingly poignant message to underline itself. Don’t go into this thinking you’re getting another Taken-esque film; it’s much more than that. (Chris Bakker)
You could stay out of the water in Jaws, and you could skip the trip to the island in Jurassic Park, but there is no hiding from the danger in The Birds. The simplicity of the danger pairs perfectly with Alfred Hitchcock’s penchant for patiently and gradually building tension while developing characters. The vast variety of bird species combine to drastically outnumber humans, so the idea of them suddenly turning on us is horrifying. There is nowhere to go, which is best illustrated in the scene where sparrows pour through the fireplace like owls in Harry Potter. Hitchcock deftly combines what you do and don’t see to generate terror. A scene where you hear squawking surrounding the house and see beaks slowly working their way through the door are every bit as terrifying as watching the birds bombard children as they sprint from the school. The budding romance between Rod Taylor’s lawyer Mitch Brenner and Tippi Hedren’s socialite prankster Melanie Daniels provides an enjoyable blend of genres as the anarchy unfolds. The special effects were inventive for a 1963 release and hold up well, especially in the iconic scene when Melanie seeks shelter in a phone booth while the town devolves into chaos. An ominous ending is the perfect cap to one of the greatest horror movies of all time. (Jason Mack)
What is so scary about the story that Michael Crichton created in Jurassic Park? As Ian Malcolm pointed out… dinosaurs were not taken out by humans. They had their shot and nature selected them to perish. But the errors of humankind and our brash arrogance puts the ultimate man versus animal story into motion. Steven Spielberg took a brutal and horrifying novel and created a sense of wonder around the return of such majestic creatures. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves — Jurassic Park does not shy away from the danger and fear. This is one of the most perfectly crafted films ever, as Spielberg masterfully mixes science fiction, horror, and adventure. The characters are iconic, and each and everyone of them is memorable and brought to life by fantastic performances. But the dinosaurs are the real stars (brought to life through either impressive animatronics or state-of-the-art CGI). When the credits roll, you will remember going faster in a jeep running from a T-Rex, hiding from raptors in an industrial kitchen, and the horrifying imagery of extended frills and the bone chilling hiss of the dilophosaurus. In short, Jurassic Park is genuinely iconic filmmaking at its best. (Shane Conto)
Modern film does not happen without Jaws. It’s the start of the summer box office spectacle, it caused a generation of people to be afraid of the ocean, and demonstrated that showing nothing can sometimes be scarier than seeing the actual thing. With performances for the ages and the ultimate story of man versus beast, Jaws is in a category all it’s own for what it means to cinema. Jaws holds a special place in my heart as one of the greatest movies ever made and the movie that put everyone on notice that Steven Spielberg was a name you’ll have to watch out for in the future. I have a picture of my sister and I at Universal Studios on the Jaws ride when we were kids. It’s a movie that I can’t wait to show my kids, and is without a doubt, the absolute best to ever do it. We don’t get Shark Week every year without Jaws. (Mike Hilty)
Jumanji
For some of us, Jumanji is the movie that made us terrified of the threats posed by the animals lurking in the jungle. As multiple generations struggle to get their pieces across the finish line of the titular board game that brings the dangers of the jungle to life, it throws at them no shortage of animalistic adversaries. It’s these threats that cause most of the havoc on the outside world during the course of the game. While the monkeys are perhaps the most memorable, other threats include stampeding rhinos, gators, and a creepy spider. Sure, you could argue that they were merely constructs of the game, but the movie showed us that the threat they posed was very real. (Jake Bourgeois)
Cujo
Do you remember when video tapes were cool? Well, I do, and that is exactly how I saw this movie based on Stephen King’s 1981 novel of the same name. Cujo was one of those pictures I wasn’t supposed to see as a kid, but did anyways. I fell in love with this ‘80s cult classic. A lovable St. Bernard gets bit by a rabid bat and goes on a ravenous rampage. The third act is where the terror begins — the mother and son duo Donna and Tad Trenton (Dee Wallace and Danny Pinaturo, respectively) are trapped in a Ford Pinto. Not only are they dealing with the mad dog scratching at the windows, but the Trentons also have to survive dehydration and heatstroke. It becomes a race against time. With the practical effects of using real St. Bernards, mechanical dogs, and even using a stuntman in a large dog costume, it’s amazing how this horror flick still holds intact with the fright. The movie is campy, but genuinely frightening without the gore. Director Lewis Teague turned this best-selling book into a cult classic hit. Cujo has been one of my top five Stephen King’s film adaptations, and almost 40 years later, it’s still there. (Chantal Ashford)
Open Water
Loosely based on the 1998 true story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, Open Water is a 2003 slow-burn, survival horror film that churns emotions of unease and swelling dread within the viewer. Absent is a bombastic score or sweeping drone shots of the ocean, replaced by a deafening quiet throughout and visuals that could have been shot on an iPhone today. The story almost exclusively follows a scuba diving husband and wife inexcusably abandoned at sea after their dive boat mistakenly returns to port without them. Left hopelessly bobbing in salt water with nothing but the empty horizon surrounding them, as day turns to night, the couple’s predicament intensifies rapidly. Their unquenchable thirst is damning, but it’s the unrelenting isolation that begins to eat at their minds and souls. Their location unknown, the man and woman are completely, frighteningly alone. Until they aren’t. A jellyfish sting serves a subtle, albeit painful reminder of the dangers that lurk beneath them for miles. Then sharks make their presence known, their fins slicing the water’s surface. The couple recognize that most sharks won’t bother you, but the reality of their situation becomes clear: they’re both going to die, and they’re saddled with hours to contemplate their demise. Open Water works in a way like Jaws, in that it’s what the viewer doesn’t see of the sharks that is the most unnerving. Coupled with the fact that something like this can and has actually happened, it leaves the audience with an insoluble emptiness. (Jonathan Fedee)
Deep Blue Sea
Genetically enhanced animals are all the rage in movies, but they always seem to choose predators who inevitably escape and cause mayhem. That’s the case in Deep Blue Sea. This movie is about a team of scientists who are being funded to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, so they come up with a way to enlarge the brains of sharks so they can harvest their enzymes, but the sharks become intelligent and decide they don’t want to be cooped up anymore. The team fighting the sharks includes Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård, and LL Cool J. The effects might not hold up as well from 1999 to today, but this movie is still a good time. You come to find yourself not only cheering for the sharks, but LL Cool J’s chef character as well, who has some really great scenes. The movie is memorable for me because of a fantastic scene where Jackson is motivating the team when something awesome happens, which I don’t want to spoil. If you haven’t seen this man versus animal film, give it a watch. (Austen Terry)
The Meg
What if Jaws was actually 100 feet long and could eat a dozen people with one bite? What if he also almost killed Jason Statham at the bottom of the ocean in a submarine? What Dwight Schrute is funding the whole mission to hunt this thing down? And what if there are actually two Megaladons? Do any of those previous questions entice you? Well then I have the movie for you: The Meg. Pure chaos and carnage incarnate, watch as our heroes (and Dwight) try to track this thing down to protect the world from it. Along the way, we have underwater submarine chases, beach attacks, and Statham outswimming a fish. Is it the Citizen Kane of shark movies? Nope, but $530 million at the worldwide box office isn’t something to up your nose at. (Sam Nichols)