Killer hippo is “Hungry ”for tourists in wild clip from new animal attack thriller (exclusive)
Killer hippo is “Hungry ”for tourists in wild clip from new animal attack thriller (exclusive)
Mike MillerWed, May 27, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC
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Madison Davenport in 'Hungry'Credit: Courtesy of AURA EntertainmentKey points -
The hippopotamus is finally getting its due in the big-screen 'animal attack' genre.
See an exclusive clip from Hungry, featuring its killer hippo in all its rampaging glory.
Director James Nunn reveals he used practical effects for the animal, including a massive hippo prop nicknamed Nancy.
We've seen people face off against sharks, bears, bears on cocaine, gators, gators on meth, wolves, snakes, snakes on planes, lions, dogs, apes, and even giant spiders — but one of the world's most dangerous creatures has yet to get its due on the big screen.
That's finally about to change with Hungry, the new animal-attack movie that rightfully places the hippopotamus at the center of a survival thriller. Despite its goofy appearance, the hippo kills more humans each year than any of the aforementioned animals save for the much smaller crocodile. Enormous, short-tempered, surprisingly fast, and extremely territorial, hippos have earned their reputation as the most dangerous beast in Africa.
But in the new movie, titled with a playful nod to the popular hippo-centric Hasbro game, the giant mammals have set up shop in the Louisiana bayou. You'll have to see for yourself how they ended up there, but that's the least of the concerns for a group of out-of-towners on a swamp tour who accidentally veer into the hippo's home turf.
The clip above, debuting exclusively with Entertainment Weekly, shows said hippo in all its hungry, hungry glory. Glimpsed in a viral trailer released last month (which performed so well that the studio decided to give the film a limited theatrical release), this scene finds the giant animal charging full speed at Joaquim de Almeida's Walker, who's attempting to distract it from devouring Madison Davenport's Sistine.
Madison Davenport in 'Hungry'
Credit: Courtesy of AURA Entertainment
Speaking with EW about the sequence, writer-director James Nunn confirms that he relied on practical effects as much as possible to bring the beast to life.
"If the shot is a close-up of the hippo head, it’s more than likely the practical hippo, which was massive and nicknamed Nancy," he explains. "Imagine the kind of practical animatronic creature work you’ve seen in Jurassic Park: a huge, incredibly realistic rubber creation that took five people to operate. We had two people on the head, one on the jaw, one on the ears, and one on the tongue and slime."
Having a physical prop on set, Nunn says, was key to bringing out his actor's best performances.
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"There were a lot of technical factors to consider, especially because we were working in water. But for a scene like this one, with Joaquim de Almeida, having Nancy physically there made a huge difference," he says. "It’s one thing to ask someone to imagine a giant hippo; it’s another thing entirely when this enormous head is actually coming at them. I think everyone found that very fun. The whole crew really got stuck in."
For the bayou itself, Nunn constructed a “swamp tank” in a "forested area in Malta." He describes it as "essentially a huge swimming pool, around 50 meters by 50 meters, dressed to look like the Louisiana bayou. The trees were fiberglass, and the water was actually clean, although definitely not heated."
This offered a "lovely, controlled environment" for filming, allowing him to "accommodate the practical hippo" while also avoiding the "less glamorous realities of shooting in a real swamp — bugs, alligators, and everything else that might want to join the movie."
Joaquim de Almeida in 'Hungry'
Credit: Courtesy of AURA Entertainment
Despite the horrors on screen, Nunn says he and the cast — including Tracey Bonner, Michel Curiel, Samantha Coughlan, Jim Meskimen, River Codack, and Olivia Bernstone — had a blast behind the scenes.
"We were all big kids standing in a fake Louisiana swamp in Malta, operating this ginormous animatronic hippo head," he says. "You have to smile. It was technically challenging, especially with the water, but there was something wonderfully old-school and joyful about it. You could feel everyone buying into the madness of it, and I think that translates on screen."
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Hungry stampedesinto theaterson June 3 before releasing June 23 on VOD.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
