There aren’t nearly enough good animal attack movies out there. Back in 1975, Steven Spielberg perfected the terrifying animal thriller (and invented the modern blockbuster) with the release of Jaws. The ’80s and ’90s had a run of memorable animal attack pictures, with movies like Lake Placid and Congo finding success and building long-term cult audiences. Lately, though, there haven’t been nearly as many solid animal flicks, with Alejandre Aja’s Crawl standing out as the biggest exception.
This year, indie filmmaker James Nunn took a shot at bringing the animal attack back into the spotlight, and highlighting one of the world’s most terrifying animals in the process. Hungry, which sees a group of New Orleans tourists being chased by a rogue hippopotamus in the bayou, was just added to Amazon’s Prime Video lineup this week, and it’s already making waves with movie fans.
Hungry Hungry Hippos on Prime
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When you see that a movie about a rampaging hippopotamus is called Hungry, your first thought will likely be that the movie is somehow based on the eternally popular family board game Hungry Hungry Hippos. In the era where everything is turned into a movie, it would make a lot of sense for a game like that to get a gritty, realistic horror adaptation. That’s not the case with Hungry, though it does appear that the title was chosen specifically because of the game.
The trailer for Hungry makes a joke that the main animal “isn’t here to play games,” riffing on the existence of Hungry Hungry Hippos. That same trailer also makes it clear that hippos are vegetarians, meaning that the animal in the film is only hunting the people for sport. In other words, the hippo in the movie isn’t hungry at all. The title has nothing to do with the actual events of the movie at all — but it sure is catchy.
It seems like the clever title is working in Hungry‘s favor, as it has quickly become popular on Prime Video in the United States. On Tuesday’s rundown of the top 10 movies and TV shows on Prime Video, Hungry comes in at number four overall. It’s the second-ranked movie on the entire service, behind only Apocalypse Z: New World.
What Is ‘Hungry’ About?
If you haven’t watched it already, Hungry is about a couple of friends on a trip to New Orleans, who end up going on an alligator tour in the bayou. The tour they take isn’t really on the books, and the entire group finds themselves lost in a deeper part of the bayou than where they’re supposed to be. While trying to find their way back, they start getting attacked by a hippo on a rampage, who essentially stalks and picks them off one at a time.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Hey, hippos don’t live anywhere near New Orleans, what sense does any of that make?” That’s a very valid question! The good news is, though, the movie explains everything by the time it wraps up. Wihle it’s all a bit far-fetched, there is a reason for a hippo to be on the loose in Louisiana, so you’re not left with an abundance of questions.
At just 93 minutes long, Hungry is also an incredibly breezy watch. Everything moves pretty fast and the effects are better than you’d expect, given the movie’s low budget. It’s not the best animal attack movie you’ve ever seen, but the genre has delivered a lot worse over the years, and hippos have deserved their moment in the spotlight for quite a long time.
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