The weather is warming up in the Northern Hemisphere and while most people are enjoying the longer days and toasty sunshine, I’m focused on the dreaded fact that bug season is upon us. While I know that insects are necessary to humankind’s survival, a lot of them are also undeniably creepy. There’s the many legs (too many legs), their overwhelming numbers (swarms!), and the fact that some of them are venomous (to the point of being deadly). If you take all of that, scale it up, and stick it in a movie, the result can be truly terrifying.
While I split hairs between fungi and plants in previous lists, I haven’t afforded insects and arachnids the same benefit here. This is mostly because when something creepy is crawling its way towards me, I’m too freaked out to care about which category it belongs to. Now on with the list—here are eight movies that make great use of big bugs.
(Note: there are a few spoilers discussed, in case you’re unfamiliar with any of these films…)
Big Mosquitos and Spiders from Jumanji (1995)
There are a plethora of dangers that come out of the eponymous board game in Jumanji, from crocodiles to carnivorous plants to creepy crawlies. Early in the film, our characters are attacked by vicious hand-sized mosquitoes, but thankfully a car provides both protection and a quick escape.
Giant skeeters are pretty scary, but what really frightened me as a kid are the unnaturally large spiders that arrive near the end of the film. Alan (Robin Williams) and Sarah (Bonnie Hunt) become stuck when the floorboards turn into quicksand; when the floor becomes solid again, Alan is left with only his face and forearms sticking out and Sarah’s arms are trapped. It’s not an ideal situation… and then the spiders arrive. The prospect of having shin-high spiders coming after you is bad enough, but being incapacitated and completely vulnerable while they skitter ever closer is So. Much. Worse.
Arachnids from Starship Troopers (1997)
Despite being called Arachnids, the alien bug species in satiric military sci-fi Starship Troopers aren’t particularly spider-like. There are a few different varieties of Arachnid, from the Tanker Bug to the Brain Bug. But the most common one is the Warrior Bug, a deadly creature that is reminiscent of a praying mantis on steroids. Their mandibles and legs are perfectly designed for slicing and dicing, as the unfortunate human soldiers repeatedly find out. It’s no surprise that Starship Troopers gave the world the classic line, “The only good bug is a dead bug!” (spoken by co-producer Jon Davison in a cameo role).
The Insect Pit from King Kong (2005)
While King Kong himself is, of course, intimidating, he isn’t the only supersized creature residing on Skull Island in Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of the classic 1933 King Kong. Sure, there are dinosaurs, but to me it’s the bugs that are the true horror. First up, Ann (Naomi Watts) comes face-to-face with some curious, and very large, centipedes while hiding from hungry dinos in a hollowed-out tree. But that’s nothing compared to the insect pit scene…
Carl Denham (Jack Black) and crew fall to the bottom of a deep ravine and are attacked by a horde of insectoid creatures that have evolved to be slightly different to, and significantly bigger than, the ones we’re familiar with. There are cricket-, spider-, and scorpion-like creatures, but worst of all are the massive worms (which I know aren’t insects, but still) that promptly devour Lumpy (Andy Serkis). With lamprey-like circular mouths lined with sharp teeth, these creatures latch onto Lumpy’s arms and legs, before finally swallowing his head.
The unsettling visuals of this scene are enhanced by the sound—or lack thereof. Instead of loud action music, all we hear are the gross noises of the insects moving, the screams of those who are being devoured, and subdued but eerie choral music in the background.
Mant! from Matinee (1993)
Joe Dante’s Matinee isn’t really a big bug movie, but the film-within-the-film, Mant!, most definitely is. The main plot of Matinee follows a group of kids in Key West and their excitement when fictional producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) arrives in town to promote Mant!, his new creature feature. We get to see roughly 15 minutes of Woolsey’s movie, which is about a man who turns into an ant—a “mant,” if you will—after being bitten by the insect while exposed to radiation. The black and white short film is a hilarious, but loving, parody of 1950s big bug movies such as The Fly (1958) and Them! (1954).
Brundlefly from The Fly (1986)
In David Cronenberg’s The Fly (which is loosely based on the 1958 version), the body horror is ramped all the way up. After a mishap with an experimental teleportation machine, we witness the revolting transformation of scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) into a human-fly hybrid, known as Brundlefly. From body parts falling off to corrosive vomit, Chris Walas (special effects artist) and Stephan DuPuis (makeup effects artist) definitely deserved the Oscar they won for the film.
But for all of its grotesque horror, the ending of the film is also so tragic (spoiler warning ahead). When the Bundlefly-telepod amalgamation painfully crawls over to Ronnie (Geena Davis), begging to be put out of his misery, the audience’s disgust at his appearance becomes mixed with heartbreak over his situation. Knowing that buried within the monster is still the mind (or at least part of it) of the well-meaning scientist results in a moment of existential horror that reaches straight into the viewer’s heart and wrenches it, every time.
Alternate Dimension Insects from The Mist (2007)
Frank Darabont’s The Mist is a brilliant adaptation of Stephen King’s novella of the same name. When a dense, otherworldly mist rolls into a small town in Maine, a group of people become trapped in a supermarket. Lurking just outside the doors are a variety of creatures from another dimension, some of which feel Lovecraftian while others are distinctly insectile.
A huge praying mantis-type-creature stalks the parking lot and cat-sized flies with scorpion stingers invade the store. Things are even worse over at the pharmacy, as a few of our survivors discover when they venture there in search of much-needed medicine. At first, things seem to be going okay until they hear scurrying noises and look up, only to discover dead people strung up in webbing. Baby spiders explode out of one of these victims—who is, horrifyingly, not yet dead—and then the large adult spiders go on the attack. Oh, and it turns out they have acidic webbing. This scene is surely enough to turn any fan of spiders into a staunch arachnophobe.
Shelob from LOTR: The Return of the King (2003)
If the spiders in The Mist aren’t large enough for you, then allow me to present Shelob from The Return of the King. Living in the mountains surrounding Mordor, the gigantic spider makes an excellent guard for Sauron, although she isn’t under his control. She devours anyone unlucky enough to stumble into her lair, which unfortunately includes poor Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin). But neither Sauron nor Gollum (Andy Serkis)—who planned to feed the hobbits to Shelob—realize just how much of a badass Samwise Gamgee is. With his friend in danger, Sam springs into action and fights off one of the most fearsome and creepy creatures in all of Middle-earth. It serves as further proof that he’s the true hero of the story…
Mutated Bugs from Love and Monsters (2020)
In Love and Monsters, the fallout from an asteroid mutates all cold-blooded creatures into large beasts. There are modified versions of toads, snails, and worms, as well as particularly creepy centipedes and ants. Humanity is obviously not coping well with this development but our slightly useless protagonist Joel (Dylan O’Brien), who has been safe in an underground bunker for seven years, stumbles out into this dangerous world on a quest for love. Thankfully he’s helped along the way by a very good dog called Boy. Even if monsters take over the world, at least we still have dogs on our side!
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An honorable mention must be given to the ant and scorpion from Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)—technically they’re regular-sized insects, but they do look massive in comparison to the shrunk-down kids. RIP Antie, you were a hero!
These are my own favorite on-screen big bugs, but what other oversized creepy crawlies deserve a spot on the list?
Lorna Wallace has a PhD in English Literature and is a lover of all things science fiction and horror. She lives in Scotland with her rescue greyhound, Misty.
