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Grizzly

  • 1976
  • PG
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
5.2/10
6.5K
YOUR RATING
Richard Jaeckel, Joe Dorsey, Christopher George, Mary Ann Hearn, Joan McCall, and Andrew Prine in Grizzly (1976)
Official Trailer
Play trailer1:10
1 Video
99+ Photos
B-HorrorMonster HorrorSurvivalAdventureHorrorThriller

An eighteen-foot-tall grizzly bear terrorizes a state park, leaving Ranger Mike Kelly, photographer Allison Corwin, naturist Arthur Scott, and chopper pilot Don Stober to track down the beas... Read allAn eighteen-foot-tall grizzly bear terrorizes a state park, leaving Ranger Mike Kelly, photographer Allison Corwin, naturist Arthur Scott, and chopper pilot Don Stober to track down the beast. Meanwhile, the body count rises.An eighteen-foot-tall grizzly bear terrorizes a state park, leaving Ranger Mike Kelly, photographer Allison Corwin, naturist Arthur Scott, and chopper pilot Don Stober to track down the beast. Meanwhile, the body count rises.

  • Director
    • William Girdler
  • Writers
    • Harvey Flaxman
    • David Sheldon
    • Andrew Prine
  • Stars
    • Christopher George
    • Andrew Prine
    • Richard Jaeckel
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.2/10
    6.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • William Girdler
    • Writers
      • Harvey Flaxman
      • David Sheldon
      • Andrew Prine
    • Stars
      • Christopher George
      • Andrew Prine
      • Richard Jaeckel
    • 126User reviews
    • 85Critic reviews
    • 25Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Grizzly
    Trailer 1:10
    Grizzly

    Photos145

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    Top cast22

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    Christopher George
    Christopher George
    • Kelly
    Andrew Prine
    Andrew Prine
    • Don
    Richard Jaeckel
    Richard Jaeckel
    • Scott
    Joan McCall
    Joan McCall
    • Allison
    Joe Dorsey
    Joe Dorsey
    • Kittridge
    Charles Kissinger
    Charles Kissinger
    • Dr. Hallitt
    Kermit Echols
    • Corwin
    Tom Arcuragi
    Tom Arcuragi
    • Tom
    Victoria Johnson
    Victoria Johnson
    • Gail
    • (as Vicki Johnson)
    Kathy Rickman
    Kathy Rickman
    • June
    • (as Catherine Rickman)
    Mary Ann Hearn
    Mary Ann Hearn
    • Margaret
    Harvey Flaxman
    • Reporter
    Mike Clifford
    • Pat
    David Newton
    • Mike
    Mike Gerschefski
    • George
    Susan Orpin
    Susan Orpin
    • Mother
    David M. Holt Jr.
    • Lone Hunter
    • (as David Holt)
    Brian Robinson
    • Bobby
    • Director
      • William Girdler
    • Writers
      • Harvey Flaxman
      • David Sheldon
      • Andrew Prine
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews126

    5.26.5K
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    Featured reviews

    Poseidon-3

    Not-so-gentle Ben

    To say that "Grizzly" is a rip-off of "Jaws" is only going part way to describing the genesis of the film. It has also taken a page from "The Towering Inferno" with opening credits that are so similar in their presentation that it's laughable. (There's even a lodge owner with the same type of glasses William Holden wore in "Inferno".) The film follows the basic formula (which would be copied in dozens of films thereafter) of "Jaws" with innocent people being mauled and devoured by an unseen enemy. Like Bruce the shark, Grizzly doesn't make his full appearance right away. Rather, the audience is treated to perspective shots of branches and foliage being shoved away as he approaches the next morsel...er...camper. (This approach was also utilized in the 1976 "King Kong", so the derivation continues.) George plays something akin to Head Ranger of the forest in question. When he isn't head-butting with the park supervisor (Dorsey), he's calling upon buddies Jaeckel (a naturist who prowls around with pelts on his back to better study the animal kingdom) and Prine (a helicopter-piloting Vietnam veteran) to help him track down this man-killing beast. Meanwhile, the body count rises and rises as victims fail to notice a 15 foot, 2000-lb grizzly bear coming up to them from nowhere! Finally, just when the cast is dwindling to that of a one man show, the climactic showdown between man and beast occurs with the bear getting a similar comeuppance as Bruce the shark did in "Jaws". Some of the scenery in the film is nice, though apart from the credit sequence, it is hardly ever exploited to its full potential. The three lead males do an okay job with Jaeckel scoring the most points with his quirky portrayal. It's a little sad to see George literally chain-smoking through the film when he would be dead of a heart attack in just 6 years at age 54. Prine affects a spotty cornpone accent that does little to bring his sketchy character to life. By far the worst presence in the film is that of McCall as George's love interest. Not only does her character have nothing to do with the plot or the title beast at all, but the actress is so annoying that one keeps hoping she will be next in line for the human buffet. Looking like a less-surgically-enhanced Katie Couric and with a voice twice as grating, she is a big debit to the film. WHERE was Lynda Day George?? Though the formula of "See camper, See camper die" gets more than a little tiresome, there are a couple of memorable moments. One is when the bear wants one victim so badly, he levels a towering ranger station! Among the sillier moments is one in which a female ranger says she is going to soak her feet in the stream, yet proceeds to strip down to bra and panties and let her hair out of its ponytail! There are campy bits like heads, arms and so forth being yanked off (mostly suggested rather than explicitly shown) and plenty of fake blood spewing here and there. There are worse "Animals on the rampage" flicks, but this is hardly a strong piece of movie-making. In a useless aside, both Prine and George posed for nude photos of themselves in the 70's, but here nary even a chest is in sight.
    5NativeBlood66

    BIG critter in the woods!

    Generally after a movie comes out is when people , critics or whoever, begin making comparisons between it and other films.

    If there happen to be any similarities at all then the film is labeled a rip-off and then sent off to the wonderful land of the back room shelf. This is one that I am glad stayed off the back room shelf, if anything, for nostalgic reasons.

    Most film makers would tell you they were inspired by something whether it was "Spider Man" or "Black Narcissus" when they were a kid. It doesn't mean they directly ripped it off.

    The story for "Grizzly" was written before "Jaws" came out, the writers didn't know each other, and though one might be able to draw parallels as far as the story goes it is not a "Jaws" rip-off. It's just that you have blood, guts and gore and so did Jaws which came out, theatrically, a year earlier.

    One is on land and one is in the ocean...How exactly is that the same? No. The real rip-off movie of "Jaws" is the Italian movie "The Last Shark".

    "Grizzly" came out in our nation's Bi-Centennial year. "Jaws" kept me out of the water and "Grizzly" kept me out of the woods for a LONG time. Even now though,31 years later, the film is still worth a look and it has some very interesting ideas represented and some very interesting camera shots and a couple of good scares.

    Does it have a cheese factor? Of course, but overall it a pretty good low-budget flick which makes me think of guerrilla film-making and it makes the effort at trying to tell a good story..

    I put it right in the middle of the scale and worth checking out depending on your own personal perception of what a monster movie should be .
    7hitchcockthelegend

    Trashy creature feature cash in that's a whole lot of fun.

    Grizzly is directed by William Girdler, written by Harvey Flaxman & David Sheldon and stars Christopher George, Andrew Prine & Richard Jaeckel. Story sees a giant Grizzly Bear terrorise campers and hikers at a state park. The head park ranger sets about capturing and killing the beast but he's met with resistance from his superior and troubled by the number of glory hunting hunters who descend upon the park.

    If you pardon the pun, Grizzly was a "monster" surprise hit of 1976. Made for a paltry $750,000, it went on to make over $39 million Worldwide. It may well be a "Jaws" coat tail hugging copycat (and it unashamedly is), but credit where credit is due, William Girdler & David Sheldon spotted an opening in the market and got in there in a blaze of blood, grue and roaring ferocity. It was also one of the first of a number of "Jaws" knock offs, and while it's silly at times, and beset with bad acting, it is, however, one of the most popular and fun cult horrors of the 1970s. Filmed on location in Clayton, Georgia, Girdler's movie knows exactly what it's about. Keeping it relatively free of extraneous and expositional filler, Girdler knows (and so does the cast) that the bear is the star of the show - well more to the point, that the bear shredding and chomping down on humans is the star of the show. And so it goes, the humans - except for our hero protagonist (George) & wise sage naturalist (Jaeckel) - are annoying and lining up to be either bear lunch or to be badly proved wrong. And what fun it is. It's the sort of film that scared us to death as kids, and now makes us smile as adults.

    The film has proved popular enough over the years to warrant a double disc DVD release. A release that wouldn't be out of place for some critical Oscar winning darling I might add! Now available in a quite lovely anamorphic widescreen presentation (2.35:1), Girdler's (and cinematographer William Asman) shooting around Clayton is very pleasing on the eye. Sure some of the inexperience of the editing and lighting departments exists, and the budget restrictions are now even more evident (check out the blood), but Grizzly actually does look rather nice. The extra disc is chock full of goodies, with the "Jaws With Claws" featurette enjoyable and showing the makers to be very tongue in cheek about the whole thing. So, a must for B movie creature feature fans who don't mind a bit of camp on their cheese sandwich then. Those looking for an "Alien" or "Gorilla's In The Midst" obviously need not apply, so lets mark it as 6.5/10 for the film, and 7/10 for Shriek Show's smart 2 disc DVD package.
    7ODDBear

    Very entertaining "Jaws" rip-off

    A huge grizzly bear is terrorizing local campers at a national state park and leaving a bloody trail. The Park Ranger (George) enlists the aid of a Vietnam vet helicopter pilot (Prine) and a naturalist (Jaeckel) to help end the bear's reign of terror. Also thrown in the mix is the state park's head honcho owner who keeps making things as difficult as possible for the trio.

    Sound familiar? Does a shark, Roy Scheider etc. spring to mind? Well, the similarities to "Jaws" are undeniable and they're very obvious but that doesn't mean "Grizzly" is not a decent film. It's fairly good overall, the acting is horribly stilted on occasion, the script has it's fair share of stupid dialog, the gore scenes are a tad fake looking and the constant usage of fake shots of the bear (who is clearly in a completely different location) does indicate a relatively low budget. But sometimes the faults only add to the enjoyment, as is the case here.

    This was a tremendously ambitious project for it's time and the grizzly bear scenes were a horror to film (and not to mention; quite dangerous). The film had a low budget and was shot in a short amount of time. Director William Girdler, a specialist for low budget rip-offs (I'm really interested to see his blaxploitation "Exorcist" rip-off "Abby"), makes the most out of this project. It's fast paced, gory, reasonably suspenseful and obviously made with passion. The cinematography is splendid and makes the most out of the gorgeous scenery. The only nit picking I have is the music score; a completely inappropriate orchestral score that looks and sounds like it belongs in a comedy rather than a horror film.

    As for the actors, Christopher George may not have been a forceful dramatic performer but he's extremely likable and what he didn't have in the acting department he more than made up for that with charisma. Andrew Prine and Richard Jaeckel are a fine pair as George's aids but pretty much everyone else has an amateur night in terms of acting.

    Late director William Girdler knew how to get the most out of a limited budget (check out "Day of the Animals", a semi-sequel to "Grizzly") and would probably have made plenty of first rate B-movies had he lived longer. "Grizzly" is a fine example of what the guy could manage and it's pretty impressive.
    5mbazhome

    Grizzly

    This movie is a total rip off of Jaws and I enjoyed it almost as much. The first bear attack scene was cheap and fake looking but stick with it because the rest were pretty good. The bear can act! I enjoyed this 70s flick, it was fun. I give it a 5 because it wasn't scary enough.

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    Related interests

    Bridget Hoffman in The Evil Dead (1981)
    B-Horror
    Bill Skarsgård in It (2017)
    Monster Horror
    Society of the Snow (2023)
    Survival
    Still frame
    Adventure
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    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This film became the most financially successful independent film of 1976, earning $39 million worldwide at the box office and breaking several other records. Halloween (1978) broke the record two years later.
    • Goofs
      Scotty describes the grizzly bear as cannibalistic after it kills and eats the bear cub that was set out as bait for it in order to both trap and kill it, but the cub in the film is an American black bear, which is a completely separate species than the bear they are tracking.
    • Quotes

      Don Stober: Well, let me tell you a little story, boy. A long time ago, there was a tribe of Indians up here in these woods. They were all laying down in these parts... or something, I can't remember. Anyway, this herd of grizzlies smelt them out. They came in an' they ate them. They tore them all up. Little children, sick ones, everybody! There were few braves to go out on the hunt. They came back and them grizzlies turned on them! So there you got yourself a little situation. A whole herd of man-eating grizzlies. Just running around tearing up them Indians!

      Arthur Scott: That's kind of hard to believe, Don.

      Don Stober: Unless, of course, you happen to be one of them Indians!

    • Alternate versions
      The U.S. VHS version of the film is rated PG, as was its original theatrical release in 1976. The DVD version of it is rated R, but there is hardly any difference between it and the VHS version.
    • Connections
      Edited into Rifftrax: Grizzly (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      What Makes a Man a Man?
      (uncredited)

      Music by Robert O. Ragland

      Lyrics by Arthur Hamilton

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    FAQ15

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 21, 1976 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Garras de la muerte
    • Filming locations
      • Clayton, Georgia, USA
    • Production company
      • Hollywood West Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $750,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 31m(91 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono

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