I caught a flick I've been meaning to see for years: Grizzly.
An obvious member of that hairy sub-genre of movies, which we might call Bear Films, part of a larger Animal Films genre, Grizzly was essentially a vehicle for chiseled rangers to look chiseled in the pine forest.
There was lots of drinking coffee and every time a rifle needed to fire it conveniently jammed. There were more faulty rifles in Grizzly than the local summer fairground.
Grizzly will have seemed menacing at the time - I may even have it in my VHS collection somewhere and possibly the tie-in paperback - but we have come to expect much more realism in our Bear movies, especially when old Yogi comes in to attack.
One particularly gruesome fray was in the wilderness thriller, The Edge, starring beleaguered Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins. Just when you thought the mauling was over the bear came back for afters wrapped in a sleeping bag. Sleeping outdoors in bags seems to be a truly hazardous form of slumber.
However, I would say that its The Revenant that takes the biscuit for bear realism.
This Oscar-winning epic contains a truly leg-crossing attack on the protagonist of the flick, one bearded Leo DiCaprio. I believe Andy Surkis of Gollum fame was underneath the bearskin. It really has to be seen to be believed, that's if you can actually bare to watch!
Bill B was telling me about another film called Roar, which is about big cats I think. I've never seen it and its on the list of creature features for me to check out. Anyone know anything about Roar?
Have you a favourite bear or animal film or have any merchandise from any readers?
The scene with the little boy and the rabbit is still sad.
ReplyDeleteAnnihilation, and AMC’s The Terror have bear attacks—the former owes much to 1979’s PROPHECY, which featured a mercury poisoned, mutated bear.
In that first lm, the sleeping bag exploded in feathers.
Which film is the boy and rabbit in? I enjoyed Annihilation but I don't recall the bear. Not seen The Terror but Prophecy is fabulous. Eco-horror, the paperback is great too.
DeleteProphecy was a great book. The movie was nice but that sleeping bag scene always made me laugh.i recall the Gentle Ben tv series but no details come to mind as I was like 5 years old. I loved the cocaine bear movie mostly because of how over the top it was.
DeleteI have a bunch of bear puppets as I used to do puppetry at the Texas renaissance festival for years.
Grizzly was sort of panned here in the U.S. as a Summer-After-Jaws cash grab,but I had to admit,that poster art definitely got my attention.I have an Imperial rubber grizzly that I understand was re- released with a Grizzly movie logo hang tag.I'll send a pic as soon as I'm done typing
ReplyDeleteAtlantis are re-issuing the old Aurora Cave Bear kit. This was to have been a Grizzly Bear, and part of their 1960s wildlife series, but the Grizzly version was never released, and it became a prehistoric cave bear instead. As soon as I saw the box art, I thought of the Grizzly movie poster. Atlantis announced this kit last year, but it was delayed, and is now due out this year.
ReplyDeleteAll you need is a young lady and a camp fire to recreate the poster.