Speaking as a huge horror fan, I think 2026 ended well to startterrible that promises more suggestions on the way. But what I’m most looking forward to right now is a horror movie Hungerthe hippo themed creature feature it will be released at the end of June.
Why? Well, as astute readers know, I have soft place for horror movies that try to have at least one foot in scientific reality. Compared to sharks, bears, or many other animals that Hollywood makes scary movies about, hippos are a much scarier threat to humans in real life.
A large hippopotamus death toll
To be clear, hippo (Hippopotamus amphibian) is far from the deadliest animal in the world. This would be mosquitoes, thanks to the many dangerous diseases that can be spread by their bites. Malaria alone killed more than half a million people worldwide in 2024. according to To the World Health Organization.
If you exclude disease-related animal deaths, hippos are no slouch. They are native to Africa is estimated killing about 500 people a year. These deaths are not caused by predation because hippos are herbivores. But these giant animals are incredibly territorial and aren’t afraid to use their powerful bite to tear apart anything they perceive as a threat to their home, including humans.
The hippo’s annual death toll is far greater than that of many other Hollywood villains, including the granddaddy of animal horror. shark. There were 12 shark deaths have been recorded in the world last year, for example, slightly above the norm. Grizzly bears, another famous A horror villain, maybe to kill Two to three people a year in North America.
There was no shortage of horror movies about animals, for example, the death toll is much tamer. octopuses (there are perhaps only three known deaths, all of which were highly toxic blue-ringed octopus), orcas (although the death toll in the wild is zero four attracted captive whales) and piranhas (very rarelyalthough they are linked in a series four deaths in 2022). Hell, they made movies about people killer rabbits, slugsand put before doing anything about the hippos.
Screaming sound Lake Placid franchise and its deadly alligators, although real-life alligators do to kill about 1000 people per year.
Hippo horror
Now to be fair Hunger not actually the first behemoth horror movie. That honor seems to belong to Australia Revenge of Hippo, was released last December. Given the complete lack of attention it’s received and mediocre IMDB reviews, I’m guessing it’s from the few people who watched it. Hunger will grab more eyeballs (its trailer released last week has already garnered millions of YouTube views).
As with sharks and many of the other animals mentioned above, hippos have a lot to fear from humans. There’s the regular hippo (and its chick cousin). experienced Severe habitat loss and widespread poaching over the past century and they are now classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). So don’t let any movie magic trick you into thinking that we are more dangerous to these animals than they are to us.
Still, for those looking for real-life inspiration behind their horror movies, you could do worse than the destructive potential of a crazed hippopotamus.
Hunger Written and directed by James Nunn and produced by Signature Entertainment. It will be released straight to video in the US and other countries on June 23rd.
