GRIZZLY

Saturday afternoons were made for trashy movies. When I was a kid I watched every Saturday and saw all kinds of horror movies from the 70's and 80's. One of the movies I remember vividly was GRIZZLY (1976). Not to be confused with NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY (another Cable TV classic).

Grizzly was one of the many movies that were released following the success of JAWS. These horror movies featured monsters that were really just everyday animals. This genre is often called "Nature On The Rampage" or "Nature Run Amuck" or something like that. This genre was a fun one indeed. There were many other great movies like ALLIGATOR, PIRANHA, DAY OF THE ANIMALS, FROGS and many, many more.

The one thing about Grizzly that makes it great is that it is so over the top. The gore is decent for the time, but it is still so unbelievably fake that it is still fun. Most of the movie features attack by a fake bear arm that rips off limbs of it's victims, later scenes feature a real live action bear. In one scene a horse's head is even ripped off! And in a really low scene (even for a movie like this) an innocent little boy (who is playing w/ a bunny) is mauled and has his legs ripped off (ouch!). Usually little kids are at least spared... but not in grizzly! The saving grace I guess is they say that the kid lives (at least "part of him") but it was still pretty low considering. The end takes the cake as a park ranger shoots the 18ft tall bear with a bazooka which blows it up! Whoops! Guess I gave it away... but you probably wanna watch it even more now that you know there's a bazooka involved.

Here's the original trailer for the movie for you to watch if you've never seen this movie before. For those who have seen it, a trip down memory lane. Movies like this are still a great way to kill a boring afternoon. I can't wait till my son is old enough for me to share this junk with him just like my dad did for me. Enjoy!