Grizzly (1976) starring Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel, Joan McCall directed by William Girdler Movie Review

Grizzly (1976)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Christopher George in Grizzly (1976)

A Grizzly Jaeckel

It's tourist season at a state park in Georgia and the park rangers are all geared up for an increase in visitors camping in the beautiful woods. What they are not so prepared for is the discovery of an eighteen-foot, two-thousand-pound killer grizzly bear on the prowl using the tourists as tapas. With the seriousness of the situation park ranger Kelly (Christopher George) calls upon helicopter pilot Don (Andrew Prine) and naturist Scott (Richard Jaeckel) to try and kill the killer grizzly before it kills anymore of the tourists.

Did you enjoy "Jaws" and do you like movies which even now use a similar storyline with a killer animal on the prowl? Then the chances are you will enjoy "Grizzly" a b movie which got quickly made for less than a million following the success of "Jaws" in the 70s and it turned in a good profit from copying what Spielberg did with similar characters but a different animal. And if anyone tells you that "Grizzly" is anything other than a "Jaws" rip-off they are pulling your leg because even those who starred in it knew it was a rip-off made to capitalize on the success of "Jaws" and nothing more.

As such "Grizzly" doesn't have the finesse of "Jaws", it doesn't have the atmosphere or the ominous music and whilst it has some famous names it certainly doesn't have the same calibre of acting. To put it bluntly "Grizzly" seems to have its fair share of attractive young actresses who were good at screaming at the camera. Combine the poor acting with some cheesy scenes including a hysterical one featuring a female ranger disrobing, a waterfall and the paws of this giant grizzly which makes you groan louder than the bear.

What this all boils down to is that "Grizzly" is entertaining but not because it is a great horror movie featuring a killer animal but because it is such an intentional rip-off of "Jaws" and is amusing because of those similarities which make you groan.


LATEST REVIEWS