Horror and sci-fi have both become much bigger genres in modern entertainment, inspiring some of the biggest blockbuster shows and movies of the last decade. However, not every sub-genre of sci-fi/horror gets as much focus as others, and one sub-genre that is still on the lower end of the production line is “creature-features.” Defined as horror films that feature ‘monsters, animals, or unnatural beings’ as the primary killer/antagonist being faced, creature-features include some all-time greats – as well as some cult-classics that can’t necessarily be defined as being “great.”
Today brings not one, but two cases of the latter: a creature double-feature now available to stream, which won’t go down as classics, but definitely offers some fun and thrills for fans of the sub-genre.
Tommy Wirkola has become a modern master of B-movie mashups, such as his fairytale-action-horror flick Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, his WWII wilderness survival zombie flick Dead Snow (and its sequel), or his ‘Die Hard with Santa Claus’ action flick, Violent Night. With Thrash, Wirkola is taking disaster-survival and mashing it up with a shark attack creature-feature formula. The movie stars Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) as a pregnant woman whose car gets stuck in some hurricane flood waters, which attract a school of sharks into the metropolitan area. Whitney Peak (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Hocus Pocus 2) stars as a young girl with agoraphobia (fear of going outdoors), who is the only witness who can help Dynevor’s character get free in time.
REVIEW: Thrash is as over-the-top ridiculous as the premise of every Tommy Wirkola film, down to the truck full of bloody meat that crashes and turns the town square into a feeding frenzy. That said, it’s also just as thrilling and fun as Wirkola’s other films, carried by the one or two talented actors he puts in the lead role(s). With a succinct 86-minute run time and a story that’s nicely balanced across multiple supporting characters and set pieces, Thrash is the kind of film that Sharknado wishes it could be. An easy watch to recommend.
Released in 2025 and now streaming on Hulu, Primitive War is the latest work from Australian filmmaker Luke Sparke (Scurry, Bring Him to Me), the majority of whose work has been in creature-feature horror. Primitive War is set in 1968 during the Vietnam War; a long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) squad is brought in to find a missing platoon of Green Berets, who had ventured into the jungle and then vanished in a heavily fortified section of enemy territory. However, when Sergeant Ryan Baker (True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten) leads his men in, they discover the threat is prehistoric in nature. When they locate a Soviet scientist (Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer) and discover the origin of the time-warped beasts, their mission objective changes to one that they may not be able to walk away from.
REVIEW: Luke Sparkle has been grinding it out, making indie features and shorts over in Australia for a decade now. He may not have big breakthrough hits, but he is still in the game, as each of his films tends to show some mark of a good cinematic storyteller. Primitive War is as indie as a blockbuster creature-feature period piece about killer dinosaurs can be – but conceptually it’s fun, and the viewing experience is a pretty thrilling ride. It’s also a pretty good pitch for how much better Jurassic World could be if the franchise opened up a lane for adult viewers, like this. If nothing else, Sparkle made the case for Primitive War to be a franchise-starter, and now a sequel film is already in development for release in 2027.
You can stream Thrash on Netflix and Primitive War on Hulu.
