David’s Download: 5 Creature Features to Watch Instead of Thrash
Along with slasher movies, creature features make up one of my favorite horror sub-genres, and particularly creature features about real animals. They remind us that humans don’t rule the animal kingdom, and any creature could turn on us at any moment. From The Birds to Jaws to Cujo, the man vs. beast storyline never loses its thrill.
With that said, I was excited to watch Netflix’s latest shark movie, Thrash, which takes place in a coastal South Carolina town that is submerged in water by a Category 5 hurricane. The hurricanes waves not only bring destruction, but they also bring voracious bull sharks, threatening anyone who finds themselves trapped in the storm.
Unfortunately, Thrash would be more appropriately titled Trash. (You have to wonder if Sony intentionally titled the movie so closely to a synonym of garbage after they saw the final product and sold it to Netflix.) The characters are frustratingly dumb and underdeveloped, and the sharks look like CGI slop. There are a couple decently entertaining kills, but nothing we haven’t seen before in a creature feature.
Most damning is that the story is ripped directly from Alexandre Aja’s 2018 film Crawl, simply swapping sharks in place of alligators. Alas, Crawl is a far better creature feature in almost every way, so watch it instead, along with these four other creature features I love:
Primate (2026)
Movie studios clearly still know how to deliver a solid animal attack thriller based on this January 2026 release.
As you could probably guess from the title, Primate is about a chimpanzee that goes berserk on a group of teens at an isolated (and gorgeous) house in Hawaii.
What Primate lacks in character development, it makes up for in jaw-dropping (literally) gore and nail-biting tension thanks to director Johannes Roberts.
Beast (2022)
Beast pits Idris Elba against a bloodthirsty lion, and what more could you want from an action-thriller?
The movie follows recently widowed Dr. Nate Daniels and his two daughters as they travel to a South African game reserve. Regrettably, they find themselves in the crosshairs of a vengeful lion who recently evaded some poachers.
With an A-lister like Elba on board and solid visual effects, Beast is a cut above your typical creature feature.
Rogue (2008)
Not to be confused with the alligators of Crawl, Rogue chronicles a face-off with a deadly, 25-footlong crocodile.
Radha Mitchell and Michael Vartan give strong performances in this lean, mean thriller that proves you don’t need an exorbitant budget to make an effective creature feature.
Anaconda (1997)
You had to expect this movie would make the list because it stars my queen, Jennifer Lopez!
Jokes aside, Anaconda embodies the cheesy goodness of the 90’s with its practical effects and one of the wildest casts ever assembled - Jon Voight, Ice Cube, J.Lo, and Owen Wilson. What a motley crew!
Crack open a bottle of wine and give it a watch before your next tropical vacation. The comedic Jack Black/Paul Rudd reboot doesn’t hold a candle to this 1997 original!