Bug movies are creepy, that just has to be said. Some people like bugs, others can’t stand them, and then there are those that are genuinely afraid of them since to be fair, a lot of insect species are kind of crazy looking and do have habits that are completely foreign to human beings since let’s face it, bugs and mammals don’t really think in the same manner when it comes to many facets of life. The need to survive and keep the species going is one of the few things that people have in common with bugs, but beyond that, our capability of living with bugs is often limited in a big way since insects tend to invade a space and take over if they find suitable living conditions, as do humans. Unfortunately, whether it’s real-life or in the movies, this tends to pit humans and insects against one another, and there are times when the insects have the numbers and a lot of other qualities that humans can’t match, while humans have the ability to come up with ways to snuff out large numbers of insects, but to disastrous results. It’s funny to think that as much as humans and bugs don’t get along at times, we still need each other to run a balanced environment.
Here are some of the best killer insect movies of all time.
5. Them!
One of the earlier insect movies, Them! is the tale of a colony of giant ants that end up killing several people and splitting into different colonies before they’re finally destroyed by a determined group of scientists and soldiers. This movie was just one of many that used the idea of the atomic bomb and the fallout it caused as a reason why the monstrous insects grew to such proportions as the ants were upwards of eight feet long and were seen to be quite aggressive. Given that ants will actually swarm when they feel that the nest is under attack even at normal size, one can imagine what they’d do when they’re the size of a truck or larger.
4. Starship Troopers
One thing we never did get to see in this movie is any of the insects that were laying the numerous eggs that had to be hatched to produce the hordes of Arachnids that boiled across the landscape in a thunderous swarm. These things were absolutely vicious since it took either a precise shot, under duress no less, or a hail of gunfire to bring them down. On top of that, the different types, such as the tankers and the brain bug, made it difficult to keep up with them since they were a hive mind that listened to the brain bugs and were single-minded in their pursuit when it came to killing their enemies.
3. Eight Legged Freaks
Spiders are a big draw when it comes to horror movies since the way they’re constructed, the way they move, and the different species and the methods they use to hunt are downright scary when one thinks about an arachnid being the size of a human being or bigger. Considering that there are bigger spiders out there than many people in the US have seen, it’s likely that this movie could have been far scarier if it hadn’t been meant as kind of a joke movie. All the same, a tarantula that’s the size of a school bus is enough to give a lot of people nightmares considering that, given its strength, it could do a ton of damage before being taken down.
2. Mimic
The really troubling thing about this movie is that the killer insect might not have existed if not for the necessity of it in the beginning. The creature was created to take out another insect and it did its job, but a little too well. The scientists that created the critter thought that all was well and that there was nothing left to worry about. But when the creature returns, bigger and with an adaptation that was more than a little astounding. The creature managed to mimic humans, which made it even deadlier since within the subterranean passageways of the city it could feed at will, and in the city, there wasn’t much to be done about this if people didn’t file a report.
1. Arachnophobia
What’s really creepy about this movie is that the spiders aren’t insanely big or even that aggressive. They do crawl into certain areas because this is what spiders do, and they seek to take over a certain region that’s agreeable to them. There was a definite threat in this movie that was posed by the spider that traveled all the way from the jungle, but at the same time, it was hard to see these spiders as a true threat until they started to bite.
Yes, bugs are creepy.
