Grizzly (1976)

Directed by William Girdler

Ah Jaws ripoffs, they’re plentiful but I believe Grizzly was the first one, so thats something right? Who wouldn’t love a movie about a killer Grizzly bear? Thanks to Joe Bob Briggs I finally got a chance to check this one out.

Grizzly is about an 18 foot grizzly bear that kills people. Plain and simple. The local people then fight back to take it out. Christopher George is here, playing a similar character he plays in Pieces, which is funny. This time he is a park ranger instead of a cop, but hey same thing right? He assembles a team of pros together to hunt the bear down. Sound familiar?

The effects are pretty solid. You get to see the bear rip a young boy’s leg off and kill his mom in front of him, so there’s that haha. For being a ripoff it is handled rather well. The suspense is quite stellar, and when they hunt the bear down it gets riveting at times. I really enjoy the scenes where they are tracking the bear via helicopter. They land and the bear rushes them, that was crazy. How the bear meets his final demise is hilarious. Christopher George’s character busts out a bazooka and blows that mofo to bits. I lol’d at that moment and clapped my hands, what’s not to love?

Grizzly was a roller coaster of craziness at times. The over the top attacks, the ridiculousness of the premise, and gore is on point. I really enjoyed this movie. I ended up giving it a B+. If you like giant animal attack movies like Jaws or Alligator, you’ll love this.