Grizzly (1976)

 

Today we go to Mother Nature, well sort of, for the next film.  Nature attack films are a special genre and just about everything under the sun from dogs, to sharks, to bees have been featured in these films.  Before Cocaine Bear there was Grizzly directed by William Girdler who also directed Sheba Baby and The Day of the Animal.  The latter one also being an animals attack film.  The film stars Christopher George (Pieces and City of the Living Dead) as Chief Ranger Michael Kelly who attempts to deal with the 18 foot tall one ton bear that is on a murder spree.  With him is Richard Jaeckel (Starman, The Dirty Dozen, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid) who plays Arthur Scott, a naturalist, who was supposed to rid the park of bears with Kelly before the camping season started.  Looks like they missed one.  The movie begins with the opening credits music sounding like an episode of Father Knows Best is starting.  While comical, it certainly didn't set the stage for a slasher film where the killer is a bear.   

 

One of the two writers, either David Sheldon or Harvey Flaxman sure does write awkward dialogue.  The conversations these people have with each other, especially in the beginning of the film, seem so out of whack it's distracting at times.  Let me tell you though, the first two kills are comical, I mean it looks like the two people are killed by a puppet or a mannequin hand made to look like a bear arm and claw.  For some of the kills we are offered the POV of the bear and the bear sounds like it is in the middle of an asthma attack.  So much wheezing and heavy panting.  Lets talk about the bear actor for a moment.  Whenever the bear we see isn't a puppet it is being played by Teddy, an 11 foot Kodiak bear.  How long did they take to come up with that name?  

      

 

The is no way this movie was being played as a straight horror film because some of the scenes were just too funny.  One guy falls off of some rocks and into a river and as he falls he screams "Jeeeeeee Zusssssss!" and I nearly spit out my drink.  That description is nowhere near as funny as what's in the film.  You're just gonna have to trust me on this one.  As the film moved on the movie turned more serious as the kills became more and more brutal.  In the final confrontation there is a scene where Teddy gets to play Spin the Bottle with a helicopter which made me laugh out loud again.  While the film received mostly negative reviews, at the time it was the highest grossing independent film in movie history and it would remain as such until Halloween was released in 1978.  While the film does have it's faults mostly due to a puppet being used at times I still enjoyed this one.  Sure it's a ripoff of Jaws but who cares it's a lot of fun!  I'll give this three horse heads out of five.  If you're not expecting Citizen Kane you won't be disappointed.