Creatures

This Tag aims to identify a collection of films marked by the presence of particular creatures which can either be the fruit of the authors' and/or screenwriters' imagination or drawn from sources such as mythological tales, sacred texts, ancient writings (the eccentric fauna described by Pliny the Elder in his renowned "Naturalis Historia" comes to mind), medieval bestiaries, or even from the cryptozoology subculture. In any case, whether a title is included in this subgenre or not will mainly depend on whether it conforms to certain "requirements". Specifically, it's preferable that these aforementioned extraordinary organisms:

• eschew the paranormal component. In other words, they're not connected to the supernatural (which in reality isn't an innate quality of the creature itself, but rather the direct consequence of writing and/or screenwriting choices inherent in the given film);
• are native to our planet. That is, they don't have an extraterrestrial origin;
• aren't simply synthetically enhanced versions of ordinary animals (a recurring element in eco-vengeance films where chemical pollutants or ionizing radiation merely tend to cause exposed specimens to grow in size and perilousness).

 

On the narrative front, the relationship between the aforementioned creatures and human characters is quite varied. For example, in horror-themed plots, the probability rises that these creatures are adversarial, assuming the role of full-fledged antagonists in the overall story. In a sci-fi setting, however, a wider range of possible scenarios emerges, a common one being films in which "wonders of the universe" unfortunately and unwillingly come into contact with the anthropic world as a result of specific events. Although often harmless, such creatures are generally perceived as threats and treated with suspicion, if not open hostility (e.g., "The Shape of Water" - 2017).

Note: with respect to potential monstrosities along Lovecraftian lines, please refer to the "Cosmic Horror" Tag.