Following the worldwide success and acclaim of the 1975 film Jaws, there was an inevitable slew of imitations. Not only did they take the basic premise (man versus nature / man versus predator / man versus shark) but they wanted to also borrow from the iconic poster art as well (see here for the original Jaws art). Here is a selection of some of the poster art, and some clips;
A film that had terrific posters, and tried to base the terror of Jaws on land. But fails.
My dad took me to watch this at the cinema. It was (I think) supposed to make up for the fact that I was not allowed to go and see Jaws (as that was considered too frightening). Well, my folks were right about that – Jaws was terrifying, but Grizzly was not. I remember being faintly amused by the final confrontation between the huge bear and some guys near a helicopter that resulted in a bazooka being employed to devastating effect. I remember that there was a fair amount of killing and ‘blood’. But even as a 6 year old I was not particularly moved by it (certainly not as moved as I was by the ‘A’ rated trailer for ‘The Omen‘ that was being shown prior to ‘Grizzly’. I burrowed myself into my Dad’s right arm until he swore blind to me that that particular clip had finished….)
(Picture of Lee Remick as Katherine Thorn cradling her son Damien (Harvey Stephens) from ‘The Omen'(1976))
As well as it’s ham-fisted attempt at replicating the terror and tension of ‘Jaws’, Grizzly couldn’t get its posters right either (as good as some of them were at trying to sell the movie). Whereas one of the posters promised ’18 feet of gut crunching terror’, another ad promised a bit less than that;
So, ‘Grizzly’ is just a derivative of ‘Jaws’ – large predator hunting down visitors in a tourist area – and not a very good one at that. BUT, it could be viewed as so bad it is good (which is often s tiresome way to try and enjoy a movie, but judge for yourself from the clips – though they include spoilers);
Links!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_(film) IMDB entry for Girzzly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_(film) Wiki entry for Grizzly
http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=1739 A review of Grizzly from The Spinning Image
http://www.horrorwatch.com/reviews/movies/grizzly.shtml Review of Grizzly from Horror Watch
Yesterday I talked about the perfect competition for all those British kids scared witless by Jaws and Hook Jaw – a Shark Fishing competition – I also touched on the Shark craze that was precipitated by the Spielberg film. Well, someone (a ‘Frankwied’) has posted this on youtube, and it is absolutley wonderful – this is from the guy himself;
The year is 1978. A team of 12 year olds have decided to make a Super8 film of their own based on Jaws. (It’s what everyone was talking about at the time). This may not be as slick as today’s digital videos…which makes it even more genius. (we had to pay $20 [a lot for 12-year olds in 1978] for every 3 minutes of film) And wait till you get a hold of the shark we built…..(it sank after the first scene and you’ll only see the fin after that. And check out our other films in my channel!!!
Here is the link;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L2Igd6uCrA&feature=related
and here is the movie;
those we left behind 