Grizzly — Grizzly( Blu Ray)

From the mid-1970s Grizzly is a surprisingly gory, limp ripping, and body smashing PG creature feature set in a US State Park, where an 18-foot bear starts stalking 'n' eating humans. It features a cast led up by Christopher George, joined by likes of Andrew Prine & Richard Jaeckel, and it's an enjoyable entry in the when-creatures-attack/ eco-horror genre. Here from Severin is a new extra packed Blu Ray release of the film- bringing together a great new 2k scan, new and archive commentary tracks, and some other neat extras- both new and old.

Grizzly (aka Claws, Killer Grizzly) appeared in 1976, and was filmed around the woodlands of Georgia. It was directed by William Girdler- who between the years 1972-78 directed an impressive nine pictures- taking in the likes of Cannibalistic psycho-drama Three On A Meathook (1972),  Satanists in a madhouse romp Asylum Of Satan(1972), Blaxploitation possession film Abby(1974), and cheesy native American horror of The Manitou(1978). Overall, Grizzly is completely enough shot and tense bear POV stalking, more than a few impressive moments of brutal gore, and some good-to-ok acting.
 
The film focuses on a state park- where lead ranger Michael Kelly( George) is trying to monitor and keep save the public, while constantly locking horns with the head of department Charley Kittridge(Joe Dorsey). As part of the team, we have ex-Nam chopper pilot Arthur Scott( Jaerckel), and way wood often out the wild naturalist Don Stober( Pine). One day two twenty-something women get battered, brutalized and half-eaten by a bear- with fairly soon a big crawl ripping attack on a junior ranger, and other attacks follow soon. So it’s down to Kelly and his team to try and track/ kill the grizzly- who it turns out is a true towering beast of a bear that stands 18 foot tall.
 
Christopher George is as always gruffly charming, with some effective moments of raised emotion, and whisky sipping 'n' cigarette sucking dialogue. The rest of the cast is also good to severable too. On the bear attack side of things, it’s surprisingly brutal and bloody for a PG creature feature- we get human limbs and horse heads ripped off, there are big paw bashing 'n' blood flinging’s, and a young childs leg ripped off. The bear POV moments are great with eerier music and bear sounds. The only criticism I did have was the plotting seemed a little loose and wandering around the mid waypoint, and because of this, it does feel a little baggy even at your fairly standard one-and-a-half-hour runtime.  But If you enjoy 70’s creature features I think you’ll certainly dig Grizzly.
 

Moving onto this new region free Blu Ray discs- and first, off we get a great 2k scan of the film, really bringing to life the forest green and blood-red colourings of the picture. Moving onto the extras- and we get a great selection of stuff. First off we get a new commentary track from Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson and Film Writer Troy Howarth. This is a nicely chatty and entertaining affair- with the pair full of facts and observations. They start talking about the films grand and fairly bright score by Robert O. Ragland, as well as touching on his other worth a play scores of this period. They move onto discuss the filming locations, the films surprising PG rating, and how the US rating board decisions seemed to make little or no sense. Later they compare the film's structure/set-up to Jaws, they talk about other classics/ rip-off when animals attack films. We get bios of selected actors, and worthy observations of on-screen action- all in all, a worthy of your time track. Next, you get an archive commentary track from Producer David Sheldon and Actress Joan McCall. Moving on we get a forty-five-minute documentary finding the always great Stephen Thrower discussing the career William Girdler- he covers each of Girdler's films, giving the plots/ overview as well as his own thoughts on each- this a wonderful extra, and gives you a great look at the directors' career which was sadly cut short at the age of thirty when he died in a plane crash. Next, we get Making Movies with Girdler- this runs around thirty-five minutes and is an audio interview with Girdler's business partner and friend J. Patrick Kelly III. It plays over the top of a  blend of behind the scenes footage from Grizzly, production stills, key art for the film, etc. There’s an eighteen onscreen interview with producer David Sheldon and actress Joan McCall. We get an eight-minute on-screen interview with actor Tom Arcuragi, who played one of the smaller roles in the film. On top of this, we two archive featurettes about the film- one runs around the thirty-five-minute mark and the other seven minutes, as well as a trailer and radio spots with image galley.

 

All in all, this is a very classy and extras bulging Blu ray release of this classic slice of the 1970s when creatures attack cinema from the folks over at Severin. So, I’d say you’ll be needing to track it down if you enjoy either when creatures attack, or eco-horror.