Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Star Master INTRO: Why I gave this film an 8 was based mainly on the time in history it was made. If it was made today I probably would have rated it differently. For a late 70's film it did a good job at keeping me invested, but I always was a sucker for the slow-burn formula.PROS: Leslie Nelson's character. Man is an animal too. How they were able to create killer animals through practicals alone without any need for CGI.CONS: The age of the film.OUTRO: I'd love to see a modern day remake of this. With the right writer, director, composer, producer (and no executives putting their great creative ideas in there), the remake could turn out to be a wild and fantastical B-Grade experience.

Bjorn (ODDBear) The earth's diminishing ozone layer is affecting the animal life in a very negative way and a few hikers are in real trouble.Well, after reading countless reviews here and elsewhere stating that the animal attacks are laughable, I find myself in the minority group that actually was quite impressed at how the filmmakers managed to pull them off. They don't occupy much of the screen time but when they happen; well, I was impressed. Bear in mind that this is a low-budget feature film from a specialized B-movie filmmaker who used his wits and drive instead of money. As such I was very impressed with the end result.The story here ain't much to write home about. Basically the hikers gradually learn that the animals look extremely mad and before long they're fighting for their lives.The cast is good, a nice assembly of B-movie actors; Christopher and Linda Day George are always appealing and Leslie Nielsen really chews up the scenery as the crazy ad exec who takes on a giant bear.The film is stretched and not much happens for quite a while but it's strangely atmospheric in a way and climaxes with some impressive stand-offs against the animals (again, I believe I represent the minority here).William Girdler was a master copycat filmmaker, taking into account what was captivating to audiences and making a film on that subject while it was still fresh. The diminishing ozone layer was a hot topic in those days and he concocted a really neat little film (which looks much more expensive than it really was with that Panavision framing and impressive cinematography) that entertains without doing too much damage to our brains.

bensonmum2 I am so glad I finally had the chance to see Day of the Animals. I've been a fan of William Girdler's Grizzly as long as I can remember. But for whatever reason, I had never seen his follow-up. So, did it meet my expectations? While I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Grizzly, it's still a fun ride for anyone with a taste for these animal attack movies.In this one, a varied bunch of would-be backpackers is helicoptered to the top of a mountain. The plan is to take a couple of weeks and hike down the mountain and out of the woods. Leading the hikers is experienced guide Steve Buckner (Christopher George). The rest of the group is made up of varied individuals including a boy and his overly protective mother, a couple trying to reconcile their marriage, a professor, a reporter, and an advertising executive. Things get off to a good start, but unbeknownst to the group, there's trouble brewing. It seems that ozone depletion is having a very negative effect on the animals at higher altitudes. The "negative effect" is the animals have all turned into killing machines with man as their prey. Can this band of novices make it out of the woods before they become victims? Man, do I love this kind of movie! It plays out something like a bizarre episode of The Love Boat with killer animals at every turn. But even I realize that Day of the Animals might not be for everyone. If you don't want to watch a band of ill-equipped, ill-prepared 70s types walking and talking their way through the forest, you might want to skip it. The actual animal attacks, while acceptable, are standard 70s movie stuff – nothing overly special or groundbreaking about them. The tension and atmosphere is also standard for a 70s animal attack movie. A shot of the people – a shot of the animal – another shot of the people – a shot of the animal getting closer to the people. If you've seen it once, you've seen it a million times. Fortunately for me, I get a real kick out of this kind of cheese.But the best part of the movie has to be the performance of Leslie Nielsen. It has to be the most over-the-top piece of acting I've ever been fortunate enough to see. You could look far and wide and not find anything that comes close to the scene-chewing on display in Day of the Animals. A friend of mine wrote the he almost gave the movie a 10/10 based solely on Nielsen performance. I've gotta agree with that. He's that amazing!

Woodyanders Man's foolish, environmentally unsound overuse of aerosol spray cans causes the ozone layer to deplete; this in turn makes all the animals in the High Sierras go totally crazy and become nastily aggressive, brutally assaulting and, yes, even killing numerous hapless homo sapiens. A motley bunch of campers led by macho expert trail guide Chris George get jumped by the assorted righteously ticked-off wildlife, who have declared open season on us unfortunate humans.Directed with commendable assurance and competence by late, great seasoned 70's schlock movie maven William ("Abby," "Grizzly") Girdler, further enhanced by Bob Sorrentino's pretty, polished cinematography and Lalo Schifrin's eerie, understated score, "Day of the Animals" passes muster as a reasonably creepy, fast-paced, and hence way above average eco-fright item. The top-notch all-star junk picture cast includes Chris George's hot blonde wife Lynda Day, a nicely cast against type Richard Jaeckel as a nerdy, jolly, bespectacled outdoors loving scientist, Ruth Roman as a stressed-out single mom trying to bond with her estranged teenage son, Michael Ansara as a proud and dignified Native American, Andrew Stevens as some goofball young guy, Paul Mantee as a tough jock pro football player who's dying of cancer, Susan Backlinie (the sexy skinny-dipper who gets munched by the great white shark in "Jaws") as an early victim, Michelle ("Demon Seed") Stacy as a traumatized mute little girl who's rescued and protected by Jon Cedar, and, best of all, Leslie Nielsen, who gloriously overplays his ripe hammy part as a hateful racist advertising executive who goes completely bonkers (Leslie roughs up a young lady, impales Stevens with a tree branch, and even wrestles a bear during a raging thunderous storm!). One especially juicy animal attack occurs when a folksy small town sheriff gets pounced in his kitchen by cute, yet lethal rats. Overall, this baby sizes up as loads of highly diverting and entertaining low-budget drive-in horror fun.