A Creepy ‘Killer Whale’ Clip Teases Aquatic Terror

January 13, 2026

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Animal attack movies used to be a staple of the Horror genre and, after falling out of fashion for years, have started to see a comeback, with Killer Whale looking to inject some fresh perspectives into that realm. The tale of terror looks to make a splash when it lands in theaters, on Digital, and On Demand on Jan. 16, and ahead of the movie being unleashed, we have an exclusive clip you can take a bite out of. As seen in the clip, an orca makes its frustrations of life in captivity quite evident when it gets up close and personal with a staff member who comes a little too close to their tank.

Lionsgate describes the movie:

Hold your breath as you witness revenge rise from the deep. After a life-shattering tragedy, Trish tries to comfort her best friend, Maddie, by taking her on a spectacular adventure in a private lagoon halfway across the world. Their peaceful retreat soon becomes a terrifying fight to stay alive when the ocean’s most bloodthirsty predator seeks vengeance for a brutal life in captivity. Virginia Garner and Mel Jarnson star in a thrill ride of a movie that will leave you breathless.

A History of Nature Fighting Back

Universal

There’s a long cinematic history of depicting what happens when Mother Nature fights back against humanity, and while we were given classics like The Birds before Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 movie changed the entire game. Based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name, the production value, performances, and genre-bending themes helped cement the movie’s legacy, and it’s often cited as being the first “blockbuster,” as lines to buy tickets extended for blocks.

The success of the movie inspired countless imitators, including Prophecy, Piranha, and Alligator. One of the more ambitious of these rip-offs is the 1977 Orca, which starred Richard Harris.

The movie saw Harris play a fisherman who attempts to capture a male orca, only to accidentally fatally wound its mate. When he brings the female orca on board, she miscarries an orca calf, which the male orca witnesses. The male orca slowly and methodically uses the limited skills it has to terrorize the town where the fisherman lives, destroying boats, piers, and oil pipes. The fisherman pursues the animal out into the open ocean, with the mammal slowly drawing him further away from safety and leading toward a fatal showdown.

Despite some of the inherent absurdity of Orca, it’s also surprisingly traumatic, given the events that incite the narrative and the ways in which the movie concludes.

In recent years, movies like The Shallows, Crawl, and Beast have all helped revive the concept of animals attacking humans, regardless of whether they are justified in these attacks. Between the effectiveness of Orca and the popularity of more recent efforts, Killer Whale has a lot to live up to and we look forward to seeing how it stacks up.