Red in tooth and claw: A review of animal antagonistic roles in movies

Abstract Although cinema narrative represents a fundamental communication tool in framing public opinion, whether negative representation of certain species the context animal‐horror movies might increase attitudinal hostilities towards them remains an aspect wildlife perception that is poorly studied. Here, we reviewed online sources from last 70 years to describe animal roles horror and disaster movies. Specifically, described diversity, how was depicted, cause for its aggressive behaviour it came contact with human characters. By means principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), also highlighted three main typologies The dataset consisted 263 titles produced world‐wide 1950 2019. results showed transversal yet uneven, five groups out 18 appearing more than half There were significant associations between species, their different kinds they appeared in, some commonly types film plots rather others. Together, suggested both themes topics often result combination factors, including fashion‐driven audience interests, societal political concerns, technological availability at time production. Whether this repeated variegated can hostility however unclear. Read free Plain Language Summary article on Journal blog.