There’s something refreshing about a filmmaker who just says it outright. No irony, no overthinking, just pure love for the genre. Talking with James Nunn about Hungry, you can feel exactly where this film comes from. It is not chasing trends; it is not trying to reinvent the wheel. It is a guy who grew up on Jurassic Park, Jaws, and Lake Placid finally getting to make his own version of that experience. And honestly, that is exactly what makes Hungry work.
Nunn makes it clear that this has been a long time coming. He did not just stumble into the idea of a killer hippo. He actively went looking for it, explaining that he “wanted to make a sort of 90s style creature feature” and started thinking about what kind of animal could actually deliver something fresh. The key for him was realism. He did not want to invent a monster when there were already terrifying ones out there. So he did what any modern filmmaker does and Googled it. What he found surprised even him.
Hippos, it turns out, are not the chill, water-loving cartoon creatures most people think they are. Nunn dug into the research and realized they are “in the top five” most dangerous animals, responsible for hundreds of deaths every year. That disconnect between perception and reality became the entire hook. As he put it, “nobody’s made a killer hippo movie before,” and that alone was enough to push him forward. Of course, Hollywood did not immediately agree.
Nunn revealed that he actually wrote the first version of Hungry over a decade ago, only to have studios pass on it because, in their words, people thought hippos were “cute and bubbly and fun.” So the project sat. Twelve years later, it came roaring back when a producer remembered the idea and decided the time was finally right. Within a year, they were shooting.
That persistence says a lot about Nunn as a filmmaker. He is not chasing what works now; he is holding onto ideas he believes will work eventually. And in this case, it paid off.
What really elevates Hungry beyond a simple creature flick is how much thought went into the world. Instead of just dropping a killer animal into a random location, Nunn grounded the story in real history, including the almost unbelievable fact that in 1910 there was an attempt to introduce hippos into Louisiana for meat production. That kind of detail gives the movie a layer of authenticity that mirrors what he loves about Jurassic Park. As he explains, part of the magic there is having “some foundation of reality” so the audience can buy into the ride. And the bayou setting does a lot of heavy lifting too.
Nunn clearly fell in love with the atmosphere of Louisiana, describing it as eerie, unpredictable, and perfect for building tension. The mix of fog, water, dense trees, and limited visibility creates a natural playground for suspense. At the same time, the production had to get creative since actually filming in a real swamp was not an option. Instead, the team built a massive water tank in Malta, essentially creating their own controlled bayou. It is the kind of practical filmmaking decision that shows Nunn’s background in hands-on production and his understanding of how to maximize a budget without sacrificing scale.
That combination of creativity and technical awareness is something that has defined his career so far. From action-heavy films like the One Shot trilogy to creature features, he knows how to make things move, and more importantly, how to keep them engaging. But at the heart of it all is that love for the genre.
Nunn is not shy about it either. He straight up calls Jurassic Park his favorite movie and admits that part of making Hungry was about capturing that feeling again. Not copying it, but channeling that sense of excitement and discovery. “It’s hard to make a dinosaur movie now because it’ll never be Jurassic Park,” he says, but that challenge is exactly what pushed him toward something different. If you cannot outdo the classics, you find a new angle. In this case, that angle just happens to have a lot more teeth than people expect.
And yeah, speaking personally, as someone who also grew up obsessed with Jurassic Park, hearing that makes Hungry click instantly. You can see the DNA. You can feel that sense of nostalgia mixed with ambition. It is not trying to be the next blockbuster franchise overnight, but it absolutely feels like the starting point of something bigger for Nunn.
Because if this is him playing in the creature feature sandbox, imagine what happens when he gets access to even larger toys. Honestly, give this man a dinosaur movie.
Hungry already feels like a proving ground. It shows he understands tension, environment, and how to turn an unexpected animal into a legitimate threat. It shows he respects the genre while still wanting to have fun with it. And most importantly, it shows he has the patience to stick with an idea until the industry finally catches up. That is not nothing.
So when audiences check out Hungry on VOD, what they are really seeing is more than just a hippo attack movie. They are seeing a filmmaker who grew up loving these stories finally getting his shot to tell one. And if this is only the beginning, then yeah, we might be looking at someone who is just getting warmed up.
Jessie Hobson