10 Scary Ecological Horror Movies to Watch This Halloween
Natalie Portman in 2018's Annihilation.
Halloween is the perfect season for horror and thriller movie marathons. But while paranormal or slasher films often dominate our screens, it’s time to give eco-horror a closer look. What could possibly be scarier than nature turning against humankind?
Let’s be honest: Environmental issues are already scary. Global climate change threatens to cause mass extinctions, famine, and wars. But in the films listed here, that existential angst is turned up to 11 when nature fights back, or goes wildly wrong.
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Mild spoilers follow for some of these films.
The Birds
The Birds (1963) [Trailer]
This Alfred Hitchcock classic is a thriller where birds launch an all-out assault on people in a small coastal California town. It starts off with flocks of birds swarming the town, and residents wondering why the birds are acting strangely, and aggressively towards people.
At some point, a woman points out that birds probably have a good reason to act differently. “Birds are not aggressive creatures... they bring beauty to the world,” the woman says. “It is mankind, rather, who insists upon making it difficult for life to exist upon this planet.”
This movie was partially inspired by a real-life event: In the early 1960s, a toxic algal bloom poisoned sea birds and made them act strange, ABC News reported in 2011. These blooms are actually becoming more common, especially in fresh water systems, according to NRDC. The toxic blooms kill fish, hurt marine animals, and can even poison people. Some of the toxins in algae blooms attack the central nervous system and can also cause stomach issues.
Tremors
Tremors Official Trailer #1 - Kevin Bacon Monster Movie (1990) HD
Imagine that your small desert town begins to have random deaths and station wagons being sucked into the ground, all thanks to some sort of monster lurking underneath your feet. The town of Perfection, Nevada is from a bygone era of oil extraction jobs that have long gone dry. Now there’s nothing but impending doom under the earth—and it’s up to Kevin Bacon to save the town.
While graboids aren’t yet a problem in real life, extractive industries like fracking do unearth pollutants including PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, which are toxic compounds that will not go away over time.
The Happening
The Happening | Theatrical Trailer | 20th Century FOX
Plants are alive, but are they sentient and angry at people? The Happening explores a scenario in which plant life learns to release invisible chemicals into the air that make people kill themselves. At first, government officials think that the self-harming behavior is an attack from another country or extreme political group, but nature has actually decided that humans have got to go.
The film offers an early 2000s take on some of the early pandemic shutdown sentiments that talked about humanity being the disease, and our elimination via covid was going to “heal” nature. We just hope that if nature actually gets this angry at years of horrible climate policy, it takes that up with fossil fuel companies before turning on the rest of us.
Annihilation
Annihilation (2018) - Official Trailer - Paramount Pictures
In this film the threat to the planet is otherworldly. Aliens have set up shop on Earth inside of a shiny veiled quarantine zone called “The Shimmer,” where they’re restructuring nature and building new animal hybrids.
Our planet is definitely not ready for pollutants from other planets. We’ve accidentally sent bacteria to other places, like to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Whose to say that something can’t come to Earth?
Day of the Animals
Day of the Animals Theatrical Trailer
Day of the Animals is categorized by all sorts of animals attacking people. And in this film, animals over a certain elevation begin to intentionally go after people. A group decides to go on a hike, despite a park ranger telling them that there have been different wildlife incidents in the area. The group doesn’t cancel their trip and is then hunted down by snakes, birds, and other animals.
Thanks in no small part to Jaws, the 1970s sparked many notable animal versus people revenge movies. It was also the decade that saw the passing of landmark climate legislation like the Clean Air Act—and the decade that birthed Earth Day.
Kingdom of the Spiders
KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977) - Trailer
Like Day of the Animals listed above, Kingdom of the Spiders is a 1970s wildlife revenge film. But in this one, tarantulas form armies and swarm people. William Shatner (from Star Trek) plays Rack Hansen, an Arizona veterinarian trying to figure out why some farm animals are suddenly dropping dead. But the spiders eventually move on to people.
If insects were ever out to get people in real life... we can’t blame them. The overuse of insecticides and rapid habitat loss has greatly depleted bug populations all over the U.S., and the world. Some bugs are invasive and their populations should be controlled, but native insects are important for ecological diversity and health.
Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer Official US Release Trailer #1 (2014) - Chris Evans Movie HD
This movie imagines what the world would be like if we reversed climate change a little too much. World governments accidentally revered warming to the point that the world was frozen into a never-ending winter, and humanity had to scramble onto a train to survive. The people at back of the train, who are only fed slimy looking protein bars, live in squalor compared to the rich people in other train sections. They launch a revolution to make it to the front of the train.
The different conditions in the poor, cramped section of the train versus the lavish lifestyle maintained by people towards the front are obviously about the class divide. We’re seeing it in real time with climate and environmental racism fueled issues, like communities of color struggling with public health issues due to pollution and neglectful policies.
Them!
Them! (1954) Official Trailer #1 - Sci-Fi Horror Movie
This 1950s horror film was created in part by the Cold War-era nuclear paranoia that followed World War II. When the government tests bombs out in the New Mexican desert, it creates atomically mutated ants that are huge and ready to kill humans in order to protect their queen. The film was a warning to the world at the time, as it entered the atomic research era, and how it would be difficult to predict the long term consequences of the new technology.
To this day, there are debates about the pros and cons of nuclear energy. It’s low-carbon, unlike fossil fuels. But storing radioactive waste is serious business. If it contaminates an area, that location could be radioactive for thousands of years. Places that once touted the wonders of nuclear power—like California, Japan, and Germany—are now considering an early retirement for their power plants.
The Last Winter
The Last Winter Trailer (2006)
In this frozen thriller, environmentalists in the Arctic butt heads with the leader of an oil company over drilling and a pipeline in the region. Strange things, and eventually deaths, freak accidents, disappearances, and a spectral herd of caribou begin to plague the group.
This film feels like a more modern take on nature fighting back against humans, but it somehow feels a little less hardcore than films like The Happening. The ghostly animals feel almost like a spiritual awakening that is intent on stopping oil extraction in the area. We know for a fact that drilling in the Arctic (or anywhere) is only increasing global warming. This is especially depleting sea ice in one of fastest warming regions in the world.
The Bay
The Bay Official Trailer #1 (2012) - Horror Movie HD
This movie is a found-footage horror film—think Paranormal Activity, but for a natural disaster. People in Maryland beach town are supposed to be having a great Fourth of July, but then an invasive parasite begins to endanger people and local marine life. The parasites are abnormally large thanks to pollution. Despite the widespread danger, the town’s mayor decides not to tell people about the impending danger.
We’ve seen companies and elected officials bury environmental dangers for years. Scientists have long been worried about climate change, but oil and gas companies worked hard to bury this. Those companies have also put a lot of money and effort into locking up the political means for policies that would have actually dealt with the crisis years ago.
