Movies where animals attack are some of my favourites, particularly when they’re so bad they’re hilarious. This book takes on the good, the bad and the how did this even get made?!

The killers in these movies include ants, sharks, rats, snakes, dogs and spiders. Each of the seventy essays focuses on one movie. The essays varied in the level of detail about the movie but be aware that some include major spoilers.

I was surprised to discover I’d only seen twelve of the movies discussed:
* Anaconda
* Arachnophobia
* Deep Blue Sea
* Eight Legged Freaks
* Jaws
* Jersey Shore Shark Attack
* Lake Placid
* Piranha
* Sharknado
* Sharktopus
* Snakes on a Plane
* The Birds.

My favourite, Mega Piranha, didn’t find its way into the book. It’s ridiculous, it’s made by The Asylum and its stars include Greg Brady and Tiffany (who sings one of the songs on the soundtrack). The bicycle kick scene is priceless. Oh, and it has an IMDb score of 2.4. Obsessed yet?

Anyway, back to the book. I enjoyed seeing that some of my favourites were included and I now have a huge list of movies to binge.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Moonlight Creek Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

I'm angry with myself for not knowing that this was released in 2016 because this would've been in my greedy little hands when it was first released if I'd have known!

Creature feature books and movies are some of my favourite things to read/watch! I'm always on the lookout for them but because no-one will watch the films with me or read the books I have no-one to talk to about them all so I'm constantly looking for books like this so I know there are people out there who love them as much as I do.

A lovely eclectic mix in here of some of the best (or worst depending on how you look at it) creature features you could want to watch. I now have more to add to my 'to watch' list and for that I am very happy!

*Huge thanks to Vanessa Morgan, B.L. Daniels, Moonlight Creek Publishing and NetGalley for this copy which I chose to read and all opinions are my own*

What a hilarious book! I really enjoyed the narrative as well as the history associated with 70 horror movies. A fun, quick read for anyone who is interested in horror movies!

When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals is a fun collection of brief essays on movies about animals on the rampage. The book is an easy and light read. It features everything from killer alligators and sharks to hungry cats and slugs. These essays will remind you just why you love your old favorites while also giving you new things to watch. Many of the essays are well-written and interesting but others need some editing.

I was really excited for this book because I love horror movies, especially those with killer animals. For the most part, the collection didn’t disappoint. The essays are simply written and brief, making them easy to read and suitable for almost all ages. I appreciate that the book doesn’t only feature much-loved classics but also includes less critically acclaimed movies. The collection covers a range of movies from the popular Jaws and Cujo to the more obscure Frogs. There are even essays covering recent guilty pleasures like Snakes on A Plane and Sharktopus. However, I wish there was more diversity. Most of the featured movies are American and I wish there were more essays on movies from other countries.

Each essay is written by a different contributor (bloggers, filmmakers etc.) and the writing varies greatly. Many of the essays are entertaining and well-written, striking an excellent balance between the authors’ personal experiences, their opinions on the movies’ technical and thematic aspects, and important plot details. However, some essays are lacking. Some meandered from the point too much while not providing sufficient description of the movies’ plots or achievements and failings. If I wasn’t familiar with certain movies, select essays would go completely over my head.

When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals is an entertaining and super quick read. While some of the essays could have been much better written and I wish there were more non-Western movies included, I really enjoyed this book. If you love horror movies or are simply looking to get into the genre, this collection is a great read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Moonlight Creek Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'll admit that animals gone wild is one of my favorite horror movie sub-genres. There aren't enough of these movies nowadays if you ask me. So, I was delighted to discover When Animals Attack and dig into it. Ants, frogs, sheep, slugs, snakes, sharks,... they're all in here. It's a dangerous world out there!
The book starts with an introduction to the genre and a look at the roots of this fear of nature turning against mankind. We're used to being top of the food chain. To have that not be the case is a frightening prospect. Following on from the introduction, it's an alphabetical run through of 70 creature features from the amazing Alligator (1980) to Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (1978).
Each film is covered in an essay by someone in the horror business - a writer, critic, or filmmaker. The essays are very personal, aside from discussing the plot and technical aspects. They describe the impact that movie had on the individual viewer. Horror really is subjective. The exact way that each film affects the viewer can have as much to do with where you are in life as the plot of the film itself. The passion for each movie comes through strongly and makes it engaging to read. Each review begins with the movie poster or in some cases, the really killer VHS cover art. I like this approach better than a best of list.
The movies that had the most impact on me growing up (and that I recommend you watch right away) are Alligator (1980), Arachnophobia (1990), Slugs (1988), The Swarm (1978) and Ticks (1993).
In When Animals Attack, you'll find a nice spread of titles. These include critically acclaimed movies like Jaws to the slightly less acclaimed Jersey Shore Shark Attack. This book is a good introduction to some great, or at least so bad they're good movies. Check it out.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction but when I seen this one it was just one I couldn't help but get to review. 

When Animals Attack is a collection of 70 essays from horror aficionados and each one took a animal attack horror movie and wrote about why they thought it should be included in the list. I decided while I started reading it that if I could find the movie free on any source, from netflix to youtube then I would watch it and see what I thought.  

It has a large range of movies from 1940 up to I think 2015, with the most concentrated bunch in the 70's especially after 1975 when Jaws came out and everyone tried to jump on the animal attack bandwagon. I will admit there was some that I watched that I really couldn't see why it made the cut for this book but for the most part it was a lot of fun watching and rewatching some I had seen a long time ago. Some were boring, somewhere pretty good while some where just so fake I laughed. I especially liked the ones from the 40's and 50's! It was fun seeing some of the horror movies that scared my dad when he was little. :)

Doing all this watching lead to a series I am going to start soon called When Animals Attack: A Summer of Animal Attack movies where I highlight some of the ones I was able to watch from this book and what I thought about them. I might even add some that wasn't on the list! 

While some essays were more enjoyable than others overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any horror lover. Though if you don't want to be spoiled I suggest watching the movies before reading the essays. Just a heads up! :)

In search of a light read, I came across When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals on NetGalley and decided to give it a try. It’s a collection of brief essays by an international array of authors with highly variable skills. This unusual read was often hard to put down, though not always easy going.

When Animals Attack covers flicks from the forties to the present day, but for the most part the essays are about films from the 70s through the 90s. The coverage hits where it should: classics like Them!(1954) get attention and the best of the 1970s nature’s revenge heyday is well represented. You get a good sense of the arc of angry creature features, as they evolved from paranoia to parody.

This is not a consistent read where quality is concerned. The writers run the gamut from student bloggers to award winning authors and filmmakers. Gems can be found along that whole range of experience, in addition to much lesser works.

For the most part it doesn’t seem meant to be terribly deep and the generally casual tone of many of the reviews is playful and much like a friend describing a good time at the movies. Still, several of these essays could have used a more thorough edit. There are also some unusual format choices here. My heart was racing by the time I got through the review in which every other sentence was punctuated with an explanation point.

The best of the essays are fascinating though. Among my favorites are those that share the films through a personal, nostalgic lens. I loved Erich Kuersten’s childhood memories of the TV movie Day of the Animals (1977), where he describes simmering with frustration in bed, not allowed to stay up as late as he wishes to watch the films he is curious to see. Warren Fahy shares amusing memories of his many times watching Jaws (1977) in the theater, including one viewing on vacation in Mexico where a theater employee frustrated him by putting a piece of cardboard over the screen during the gory parts in an awkward bit of DIY censorship. A few industry insiders also share their experiences. Beverly Gray worked for Roger Corman for several years, and her insights into of the production of Piranha (1978) provide great perspective on this unique filmmaker and the way he worked.

Ultimately I got the mixed bag I expected from When Animals Attack. There is a bit of wading through less than polished writing, but when the essays connect, they are immensely enjoyable. I was also satisfied to come away with a long list of films to see. In that respect the book is most successful.

From Jaws to Snakes on a Plane with a little The Food of the God's in the middle Vanessa Morgan brings an excellent group of film essays staring 70 Horror flicks with Killer Animals. I really dig collection books such as these most of the time you find a hidden gem that you have never heard of (Like Beaks the Movie) to the classic's that you just want to hear more about. Every writer in this collection gives us their take drawing you into there world with fun stories of the golden age of VHS rentals and a sprinkle of fan talk when it comes to movies like Birddemic. If your a fan of real monsters this is a great read I honestly could not put it down, its fun, witty and full of entertainment.

When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies With Killer Animals edited by Vanessa Morgan was received direct from the publisher. Killer animals in movies brings to mind B movie blurry creatures or big budget computer graphics creatures. This book should be on every horror afficiando’s book shelf as it lists the movie by movie poster and title and then a short essay follows about the movie, some of which I have never heard of. The essays are subjective so some may not agree with the author’s assessment but many of the movies can be found via the Roku device, for free even.

4 stars

This was not what I had expected. I thought it would be a much different type of book. An okay read, but definitely different than what I was thinking when I had requested. Although, it is interesting, I thought it was lacking something. My little guy did enjoy though, he's 8, so that was worth the read.

It's a simple book: 70 movie recommendations that contain animals that kill. Right up front, the point of this book is made clear: This is just going to be a "fun" read. Each film selection (presented in alphabetical order) is heralded in by a different contributor sometimes merely defending the bad effects/story/acting; other times could have all of the previous with a tacked-on anecdote or even stories from when the movie was being made (Morgan was able to get some people involved with the showcased films, too).

Having seen at least half of the selections (there are some most excellent movies presented in the book), I found myself giddy to turn the page and see the next choice (I intentionally skipped over the table of contents); as for the rest---they're on my watchlist.

I'm glad books like this exist. They're wonderful reference pieces made by people who deeply love film and, in this instance, the sub-genre of horror films involving animals. In reality, my 4-star rating is probably more of a 4.5, but, after reading the introduction section three times, I never caught a spoiler alert notification. Yeah, many of these films are several decades old, but, if you're making the case for people to go catch a movie, you might want to lighten up on the plot twists & surprise endings (not all of the entries are spoiler-filled, by the way).

If you're even remotely interested, you should give it a read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance read.