India, Jan. 7 -- From sharks and anacondas to bears and enormous crocodiles, the creatures humans fear in nature have often been portrayed as killer animals in movies. However, most of these films stop short of treating the animals as outright "villains". More often, fatal encounters take place because of human greed, carelessness or a single bad decision rather than deliberate malice on the part of the animal.

Popular as natural horror movies, films featuring killer animals capitalise on people's fear of the wild across the world. These creatures are not fictional mega monsters like Godzilla or King Kong; they are animals we might encounter in the natural world. As a result, the heightened sense of realism makes these films particularly...