Simian Horror in Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Abstract

As discussed in the Introduction to this collection, animal horror films often involve the invasion of one species into the territory of another. This boundary violation then triggers a conflict where, ultimately, one species shows itself dominant. In Alligator (1980), Sharknado (2013) or Spiders (2013) the animal constitutes the invader, as dangerous predators enter the human urban landscape and begin attacking and eating the people who live there. The city becomes a site of sudden, visceral and extreme horror that climaxes in a Darwinian struggle for survival. Modernity in the form of chainsaws and shotguns, readily available in the city, is used to counter the threat of the invasive species. The alternative to the animal invasion model is when humans enter the animal domain. In films such as Grizzly (1976), Congo (1995), Anaconda (1997), Rogue (2007) and The Grey (2011) the human is the invasive species. As Dawn Keetly shows above in her discussion of The Grey, the struggle that ensues is sometimes fought without the arsenal of modernity available in the city, pitting one naked species against another. What both types of film have in common is the notion that the border that separates the animal from the human world is dangerously porous and that when violated it must quickly be re-erected. Predatory animals and humans cannot exist alongside each other.