They say never work with children and animals. Well, here are some animals you should never work with. All are capable of ending your life - and probably in some gruesome manner.

These are ranked in order of impact on the big screen over time ... well, kinda. Oh, and please be patient, it's kind've a long post.

25. RABBITS
Featured prominantly in: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Human offerings: John Cleese, Michael Palin and co.

Bunny hell! King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, on a mission to find the sacred Holy Grail, come across a sweet little white rabbit, that just happens to like ripping people's heads off. This is certainly no wascally wabbit, but a ferocious beast. Classic comedy from a classic comedy team.



24. FROGS
Featured prominantly in: Frogs (1972)
Human offerings: Sam Elliott and Ray Milland.

Yes, there was actually a movie about killer frogs. And it carried a serious environmental message. The lean, green, killing machines in question lead a horde of slimy creatures that exact bloody revenge on a wealthy businessman who has been polluting their swamp. The title wasn't the most creative though.



23. CHICKENS
Featured prominantly in: Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
Humans: Charlie Sheen and Lloyd Bridges.

A little higher in the pecking order is the humble chook. Though it's not like this particular one had much of a choice when it came to killing. Sheen's Rambo send-up, Topper Harley, uses it as an arrow to deadly effect. Interestingly, the same chicken gave Rambo himself, Sly Stallone, the runaround in Rocky.


22. COWS
Featured prominantly in: Isolation(2005)
Human offerings: Essie Davis and Sean Harris.

Mutated cows take the whole 'mad' thing to the extreme in this non-traditional Irish tale. This one plays things deadly serious though. Set on a remote farm, where bovine fertility testing goes a little wrong. Not only did the owners experience their own cows trying to kill them, they also had no milk.



21. COCKROACHES
Featured prominantly in: The Nest (1988)
Human offerings: Robert Lansing and Lisa Langlois.

You'll never look at those disgusting little creepy crawleys that normally reside under your couch or fridge the same way again. Another biological experiment gone wrong with these cockroaches gaining a hankering for human flesh, not just human garbage.






20. JAGUARS
Featured prominantly in: Apocolypto (2006)
Human offerings: Rudy Youngblood and Morris Birdyellowhead.

This big black pissed-off mummy cat actually plays a key role in helping the hero of the piece (incidently called Jaguar Paw) escape the clutches of the Mayan bad guys by attacking and ultimately killing one of them. She actually turns out to be more of a sacrificial lamb though.



19. BEES
Featured prominantly in: The Deadly Bees (1967)
Human offerings: Suzanna Leigh and Frank Finlay.

Honey, I Turned the Bees into Killers ... A farmer is breeding a form of bee with a little more sting than normal. They sting, you die, in minutes. It takes a pop singer to stop them in this questionable offering. Bees are probably better left to the animated family genre, and voiced by Jerry Seinfeld.



18. SHEEP
Featured prominantly in: Black Sheep (2006)
Human offerings: Matthew Chamberlain and Nick Fenton.

This New Zealand movie(where else would it be made?) sees these normally docile, innocent - even attractive to some of the locals - sheep turn into crazed, blood-thirsty killers thanks to some more of that genetic engineering. The film's tag was 'Violence of the Lambs!'. It was really baaaaad, and a little laaaame, but funny nonetheless.


17. SQUIDS
Featured in: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Human offerings: Kirk Douglas and James Mason.

The giant squid is one of the original non-human stars of cinema appearing in a number of versions of this classic Jules Verne tale about the underwater vessel, the Nautilus, Captain Nemo and their battle with the monster from the deep. The first was in 1916. Arrr, we love ourrr big squiddy.



16. RATS
Featured prominantly in: Willard (1971 and 2003)
Human offerings: Crispin Glover and Bruce Davison

The main character Willard, a social misfit, is the real animal here, using his pet rats to exact revenge on those who made him an outcast. Things get even more creepy when a kind of love triangle develops between Willard, and two of his pets, Ben (who Michael Jackson sung about, speaking of outcasts) and Socrates.


15. BEARS
Featured prominantly in: Grizzly (1976)
Human offerings: Andrew Prine and Christopher George

A park ranger and a bunch of gung-ho hunters (who you just know are going to get it) try to bring down an 18-foot grizzly bear that is going around killing obnoxious campers. Can you really blame him? The film-makers used a real bear for filming called Teddy with the crew protected by an electrical fence.



14. BATS
Featured prominantly in: Nightwing (1979)
Human offerings: Nick Mancuso and David Warner

Not very often does the bat get to feature in its own movie without being associated with vampires or even Batman. Here they eat up their screen time by sinking their teeth into some humans, and not just their necks, at an Indian reservation in New Mexico. Preceeded by Bats (1999), with Lou Diamond Phillips.



13. CATS
Featured prominantly in: Uninvited (1988)
Human offerings: Toni Hudson and Eric Larson

The movie plays out during a party on board the yacht of a gangsta rappa. In this case it's one pussy too many, with a mutated killer cat getting around scratching the lives of the guests. It's a little far fetched. A killer cat is one thing, a cat on board a boat, surrounded by water, is another. Never been much of a cat person.


12. BIRDS
Featured prominantly in: The Birds (1963)
Human offerings: Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy.

Talk about getting into a flap. Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror has our once feathered friends now rising up to become our mortal foes, gathering in great numbers to peck us all to death. Speaking of Pecks, Gregory Peck starred in The Omen (1975) about the devil child. It features a crow not so delicately removing the eyeballs of one of the characters, who is then hit by a bus.

11. KILLER WHALES
Featured prominantly in: Orca (1977)
Human offerings: Richard Harris and Bo Derek.

A killer whale seeks revenge after the death of his mate and her baby by a fisherman. You can't really blame him then for his murderous rampage through the waters of a small fishing village. Followed hot on the fin of Jaws, but without the same impact, but I enjoyed it all the same. Forget Free Willy, this game me the Willys as a kid.




10. LIONS
Featured prominantly in: The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
Human offerings: Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer.

Few movie animals have done as well as the two lions featured here. Based on a true story, over a nine-month period, the massive pair with massive furballs knock off 130 people in Africa in the late 1890s. The two lions that actually appeared in the movie were called Bongo and Ceaser, who actually only ever ate salads.



Also featured:
Mauling a young Melanie Griffith for real during filming of Roar (1982). She needed plastic surgery. The movie took 11 years to make.


9. MONKEYS
Featured prominantly in: Monkey Shines (1988)
Human offerings: Jason Beghe and John Pankow.

Likened to the reoccurring pissed-off monkey from The Family Guy, this little guy was simply helping a quadreplegic man out around the house with everyday duties, you know, like doing the dishes, doing the vacuuming ... as well as higher duties such as killing anyone who has pissed off his master.



Also featured:
Inadvertantly spreading the virus, Rage, that wipes out most of England's population in 28 Days Later (2003); and sprouting wings and flying around Oz in The Wizard of Oz (1939).


8. ALLIGATORS
Featured prominantly in: Alligator (1980)
Human offerings: Robert Forster and Robin Riker

After being flushed down the toilet in a Chicago family's home, a baby alligator grows up to be and strong in the sewers below. Must've been all that protein. Actually it ate the corpses of lab animals that were subjected to hormone tests. All hell breaks loose when big Alli shakes his tail in the streets.



Also featured:
saving Nicolas Cage's ass in Adaptation (2002), with Meryl Streep, by taking a bite out of Chris Cooper, who was about to shoot him.


7. DOGS
Featured prominantly in: Cujo (1983)
Human offerings: Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro

From the master horror writer Steven King, a massive St Bernard with rabbies terrorises a small town, and in particualar a mother and child trapped in a car. It's like Panic Room, but with a dog. Apparently the foam around Cujo's mouth was actually made of egg whites and sugar. The five dogs used for filming loved the stuff. The guy who had to dress up in the dog costume for certain scenes didn't.

Also featured in:
Wanting to play fetch with a group of teenagers in The Breed (2006); and on a hunting and devouring vacation in The Pack (1977).


6. PIGS
Featured prominantly in: Razorback (1984)
Human offerings: Gregory Harrison and Bill Kerr.

A horror from 'Down Under' sees a wild bore go on a killing spree in the Aussie outback. Shades of the Linda Chamberlain story here with a pig replacing a dingo. The first victim is a child, and the grandfather is subsequently brought to trial but acquitted. A pig took moi baby!! Luckily an American is in town to kill it.



Also featured:
Waiting to get their hoofs onto Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal (1998), but having to settle for a disfigured Gary Oldman. Yuck!


5. SNAKES
Featured prominantly in: Anaconda (1997)
Human offerings: Jennifer Lopez and Jon Voight.

A hunter who takes a documentary film crew hostage in the Amazon gets more than he bargains for after possibly the biggest and meanest snake in the world introduces itself. It wasn't big enough to swallow J-Lo's famously big ass though. Had its moments for a really bad movie. Now that's a wrap people!



Also featured:
killing for a snake handler in Snakes (1974); and hitching a ride in their hundreds on board Samuel L. Jackson's plane in the aptly-titled Snakes on a Plane (2006).


4. PIRANHAS
Featured prominantly in: Killer Fish (1979)
Human offerings: Lee Majors and Karen Black.

If it isn't hard enough trying to find treasure on an island, a group of jewel thieves must also contend with piranha-infested waters. The title Piranha had already been taken a year earlier. After Jaws in '75, the late '70s was the domain of the little fish with the really sharp teeth. As well as Piranha (1978), there was also Pirahna 2 (1981), in which the evil little bastards fly. James 'Titanic' Cameron directed.

Also featured:
Wanting to take a bite out of James Bond in You Only Live Twice (1967); and then three decades later the first Austin Powers movie featured "a tank of piranhas with laser beams attached to their heads".


3. CROCODILES
Featured prominantly in: Lake Placid (1999)
Human offerings: Bridget Fonda and Bill Pullman.

What a croc! A fun movie, with one seriously big reptile locals have to contend with. The local sheriff and game warden team up with a visiting paleontologist to track it down after it eats the bottom half of a fisherman. The top half didn't survive either. It turns out the massive creature is somewhat of a pet of a little old lady who feeds it her cows.



Also featured in:
a host of Australian movies, including being wrestled by Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee (1986) ; tormenting a tourist group in Rogue (2006) and hunted by a news crew in Primeval (2007).


2. SPIDERS
Featured prominantly in: Arachnophobia (1990)
Human offerings: Jeff Daniels and John Goodman.

Visiting from South America, an exotic spider breeds in small town USA. She overstays her welcome when her offspring starts killing the residents. It's up to the new doc in town, along with an eccentric insect exterminator, to save the day. Few had heard of the word Arachnophobia, but many suffered from it as a result of the film. Creepy. Good to know though is the fact the spiders used in the film were of the Avondale variety and harmless.

Also featured:
Growing to enormous size in Tarantula (1955); growing to enormous size in Earth vs. the Spider (1958); and growing to enormous size Eight-Legged Freaks (2002).


1. SHARKS
Featured prominantly in: Jaws (1975) and some bad sequels
Human offerings: Roy Schnieder and Richard Dreyfuss.

The mother of all 'when animals attack'movies. Could've been called Three Men and a Shark, with a police chief, a marine biologist and grumpy old fisherman trying to track down a massive great white that's been dining out on swimmers in a small beachside community. Interesting to note, after its release the movie caused the holiday trade to suffer. Da dum ... da dumb ... da dumb ... da dumb da dumb da dumb da dumb.

Also featured:
Biting the Caped Crusader's leg in the campy Batman the Movie (1966); eating Samuel L. Jackson in Deep Blue Sea (1999); being chased by Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004); and keeping a couple of lost divers company in the creepy Open Water (2005).