Grizzly (1976)

When Jaws broke box office records in the summer of 1975, there were bound to be knock-offs. As fast as possible, filmmakers the world over marched out a cavalcade of similarly-themed killer animal movies. If it wasn’t a shark doing the dirty work, then it could be virtually any animal. One of the first of these to reach screens — if not the first — was 1976’s Grizzly. Sometimes referred to as “Jaws with Paws,” Grizzly lifts ideas from Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film quite liberally. While it’s not exactly plagiarism, it’s easy to see from where screenwriters Harvey Flaxman and David Sheldon drew “inspiration.”

In an unnamed U.S. National Park, a post-season flood of backpackers and campers has caught ranger Kelly (Christopher George) and his crew off-guard. Under-staffed and unprepared for the sudden influx of visitors, Kelly is under pressure from his boss, park supervisor Kittridge (Joe Dorsey,) to make sure things go smoothly so as not to dissuade additional tourism. When two female campers are killed by a bear, Kelly calls in naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel) to identify which of the park’s bear population could be responsible. Scott concludes that the killer bear is not native to the park but, rather, a rogue grizzly bear. Making matters worse, this particular bear is nearly twice the size of a normal grizzly. And its whereabouts are anyone’s guess.

For a PG-rated movie, Grizzly piles on a fair amount of gore. Horse heads are decapitated, human heads fly through the air, and arms and legs are removed from their proper locations. It’s still a bit surprising what filmmakers could get away with before the PG13 rating came along eight years later. Director William Girdler pulls out some of the camera tricks that Spielberg uses in Jaws, most notably the famous dolly zoom as well as the point of view shots from the stalking bear. Neither works as effectively without the help of John Williams’ musical score. However, the score produced by Robert O. Ragland isn’t terrible. It just can’t compare to Williams’ masterful work.

So, putting aside the comparisons to Jaws for a moment, Grizzly isn’t a terrible movie. The cast, full of B-movie stalwarts, is just fine. While the script isn’t exactly original, it does a decent job of creating some suspenseful moments. (Although, I am still unsure how an animal the size of a grizzly bear manages to sneak up on people surrounded by crunchy leaves and twigs.) Despite using a mechanical bear in one obvious scene, the majority of the bear footage was provided by Teddy, a trained (but not tame) bear brought in to film with the actors. Using a real bear instead of stock footage does give the production a legitimate boost in quality.

I guess my biggest beef with Grizzly is that it doesn’t veer away from the Jaws formula far enough to merit a recommendation of its own. It just feels like an off-brand version of the real thing. And why would I want to watch this when I could easily watch the original? If Flaxman and Sheldon had injected some kind of twist or even given it more humor, it would have improved things immensely. As it is, Grizzly just feels tired.