My Top Ten Favorite Man-Eating Plant Movies

When I was young, I was fascinated by movies that had man-eating plants. There are a surprising number of such movies. Here are 10 of my favorites.

1. The Lost Continent (1968) – A British Hammer film that almost defies description. The crew and passengers on a tramp steamer run into a fog-enshrouded, seaweed encrusted area in the middle of the ocean where descendants of pirates and Spanish conquistadores have a strange community. The seaweed is carnivorous.

2. The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966) – Surprisingly good. Scientists go to an island and discover lots of big plants that aren’t very friendly. The film has Billy Gray (Bud from Father Knows Best) who loses an arm, and Mamie Van Doren who has no shortage of body parts.

3. The Ruins (2008) – Two young couples are on vacation in Mexico and decide to go visit ancient Mayan ruins in the jungle, a place where none of the locals will go. What could possibly go wrong?

4. The Day of the Triffids (1962) – A meteor comes close to earth and blinds most of humanity, and also delivers spores that grow into large man-eating, moving plants. Things look bad for the sighted survivors until they discover that seawater kills the Triffids.

5. Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) – Brendan Fraser and his mildly annoying nephew go to, well, the center of the earth. Fraser meets some very large Venus flytraps.

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – The pods don’t eat people but they aren’t very nice so I include them on my list. I could never figure out what happened to people’s bodies after the pod-people took over. (In the book, original bodies would decompose). This movie was remade in 1978.

7. The Lost World (1960) – A relatively big-budget film with some very good actors including Claude Rains, Fernando Lamas, and Jill St. John. There are brief appearances of three kinds of man-eating plants. Left: A weird plant in a cave, with grasping tentacles. Center: Some giant lily-like carnivorous plants that almost get one of the scientists, Dr. Summerlee, who steps in the middle of one. Right: A man-eating tree that captures prey (here, St. John) using vines.

8. The Land Unknown (1957) – One of those movies that’s so bad, it’s rather entertaining. Scientists accidentally discover an underground island in Antarctica. Of course there are man-eating plants.

9. Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) – This film is a reediting of footage from “Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” (1965) which in turn was a reediting of footage of the 1962 Russian film “Planeta Bur”. Astronauts land on Venus and find scantily clad women including Mamie Van Doren. And a man-eating plant.

10. From Hell it Came (1957) – I saw this dozens of times on TV when I was young. Nuclear radiation + witch doctor + tree = a very bad tree. (The tree doesn’t eat people but I like it so it gets on my list).

Honorable Mentions

11. Space Master X-7 (1958) – A fascinating film featuring Paul Frees, probably the best voice-actor in history, and Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, who does a very good serious acting role here. A space probe bring fungus back to earth. (OK, fungi aren’t plants but this is my list.)

12. Konga (1961) – A British botanist finds a way to grow things to a very large size. This film is memorable because one of the main characters has her arm trapped by a bad plant, but we never find out what happens to her!

13. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) – A Hammer film with pretty good visual effects. Cave girl Sanna bumps into a large plant. A bad plant.

14. Untamed Women (1952) – During World War II an American bomber crew crashes on an island with dinosaurs and man-eating plants.

15. Voodoo Island (1957) – Features Boris Karloff, and also has Adam West (TV Batman) in his first film appearance. This movie features three different kinds of man-eating plants! First, there’s a scene where a huge cabbage-like plant eats a child — very bold for the time. Second, there’s a water plant that kills one of the two women on the expedition. And third, there’s a land plant that resembles a lamprey. For fans of man-eating plant movies Voodoo Island is a bonanza!

16. Jumanji (1995) – Very strange movie, and not entirely in a good way. There’s a scene with a pretty scary plant.

17. Tarzan’s Desert Mystery (1943) – Tarzan, played by Johnny Weissmuller, has a brief encounter with a man-eating plant before he heads off to the desert in search of medicine to help the war effort.

18. The Revenge of Doctor X (1970) – Also known as “Venus Flytrap” and “Body of the Prey”. A low-budget, really bad film that has a few good points, including a decent man-sized, walking, mutant plant created by a mad American botanist in Japan.

19. Angry Red Planet (1959) – A spaceship goes to the Angry Red Planet, Mars, and the crew finds an angry red plant.

20. Flash Gordon (1980) – Flash Gordon is swallowed by a man-eating plant in a swamp.

21. At the Earth’s Core (1976) – Doug McClure saves a tribesman from a plant with tentacles and a big red mouth.

22. Medusa Against the Son of Hercules (1963) – The medusa is normally portrayed as a witch-like woman, but in this sword-and-sandaler, the medusa is a tree-like plant. It doesn’t eat its victims after turning them to stone, so it really doesn’t belong on this list, but it’s a cool plant so I cut it some slack.

23. Matango (1963) – This Japanese film is also known as “Attack of the Mushroom People” and was directed by the famous Ishiro Honda (Godzilla, Rodan, etc.) Castaways on a deserted island eat mushrooms and turn into mushroom people. So, not really man-eating plants, but close.

24. Mothra (1961) – Scientists exploring irradiated “Infant Island” find two tiny princesses, a giant moth (well actually, a giant egg holding a giant caterpillar that becomes a giant moth), and (briefly) a “vampire plant”.

25. The Woman Eater (1958) – A mad British scientist finds a man-eating tree in the Amazon jungle and brings it back to London. The tree needs to be fed. Actually a pretty decent film.

26. Dinosaur Island (2014) – A teenage boy and girl are teleported through time and space to an island with dinosaurs, and man-eating plants. Pretty good special effects including plants with lots of creepy eyes on their leaves.

27. Maneater of Hydra (1967) – Also known as “Bloodsuckers” and “Island of the Doomed”. A mad scientist is breeding carnivourous plants including tress that surround people, insert a tube out of their flower, and drink the victim’s blood. Of course in the end, the evil scientist dies at the hands of one of his creations (or I guess “at the leaves of one of his creations”).

28. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965) – A British anthology of four stories. In one, a Creeping Vine appears in an English house. The vine does not react well when the family tries to cut it down. With actor Bernard Lee, who played “M” in the first 11 James Bond films. He was the best “M”.

29. Brides of Blood (1968) – Three Americans go to a tropical island to study radiation from nuclear tests. Man-eating trees are a hazard. Bad movie but the scene where a tree grabs a child is quite effective.

30. Waxwork (1988) – A horror comedy that has quite a cult following. The movie features all kinds of evil creatures including a Golem, the Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, Jack the Ripper, and so on. There is a very brief scene with a man-eating plant (well, woman-eating in this case).

31. Robot Holocaust (1986) – This is a very bad movie — a classic example of “so bad, it’s . . . bad”. In one scene, the father of the heroine is shown to be engulfed by a vegetable pod of some sort. None of the plot makes much sense, including this.

32. Caveman (1981) – A comedy starring Ringo Starr as Atouk the caveman. Atouk has a brief run-in with a man-eating plant.

33. The Fatal Flower (1952) – This was an episode of a TV series named “Tales of Tomorrow”. The series ran two seasons from 1951-1953. The series was quite a bit like the later “Twilight Zone”. In this episode, a botanist breeds a large carnivorous plant and then experiments by not feeding it for three days. Not a good idea.

34. Mutations (1974) – Also known as “Freakmaker”. A botanist scientist experiments on people by combining their DNA with plants. One of his creations is a man-plant with a Venus flytrap chest. The plant-man does not appreciate his transformation and kills the scientist.

35. Werewolf of London (1935) – The first werewolf movie. The central character is a botanist. Early in the movie there’s a scene in a botanical garden that features a very large carnivorous plant. The plant is fed a frog (right) but it looks like the plant could eat something larger.

36. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV), The Price of Doom – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a TV series that ran for four seasons, from 1964-1968. The series was based on a 1961 movie of the same name. In the fifth episode, scientists discover a new form of plankton in Antarctica. Unfortunately, when exposed to heat, the plankton grows very big and very hungry. The episode was written by famous sci fi author Harlan Ellison.

37. Untamed Women (1952) – During World War II, the crew of a bomber airplane crash into the Pacific Ocean. They end up on an island that has dinosaurs, untamed women, and, of course, man-eating plants. (This entry is a repeat of #14 above. Not sure why I repeated this movie but the title alone merits double inclusion).

38. “The Crawlers” (1991), also known as “Troll 3”, “Creepers”, and “Contamination .7” is about killer plants produced by radioactive waste. Bad movie.

39. “Mutiny in Outer Space (1965) – Space explorers accidentally bring a deadly space fungus onto their space station. Low budget but entertaining.

40. Peter Gunn (TV series), The Royal Roust (1961) – Private detective Peter Gunn goes to one of his informants for information about an escaped criminal. For absolutely no reason whatsoever, the informant is raising a man-eating plant. What!?

41. Die Monster Die! (1965) – Stephen, an American college student, goes to England to visit his fiancee, Susan, who lives in a creepy old estate. The girl’s father (played by Boris Karloff) has been secretly experimenting with fragments of a radioactive meteorite to grow very big plants — that are also very hungry.

42. Timescape (2022) – A young boy and a young girl enter a spacecraft that turns out to be a time machine. They go back to the days of the dinosaurs . . and man-eating plants. Better than I expected but no masterpiece.

43. Stranger Things (Netflix series, 2016-2023) – Alas, the Demogorgon is not a plant. The Demogorgon is a creature whose head opens up like leaf petals with lots of teeth. Not a plant but it looks cool so it gets listed here as an Honorable Mention selection.

44. The Wizard of Mars (1965) – Also known as “Horrors of the Red Planet”. Four space explorers crash land on Mars. They get in two small rafts to paddle down a Martian canal. During the night, some carnivorous Martian water vines attack. This is a very bad movie.

45. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom aka Aquaman 2 (2023) – Aquaman (actor Jason Momoa) and his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) are searching for the villain Black Manta on an island and they are menaced by two kinds of giant man-eating plants — blue flower-like plants and plants somewhat like Venus flytraps. This was one of the few good scenes in a mediocre-at-best movie.

Bonus

Turok Son of Stone Comic Book (#45, May 1965) – Turok saves Andar in a great story. One of my all-time favorite comic books.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) – I didn’t include this movie on my list because a.) it’s very silly, and b.) I don’t like it at all for some reason.