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Day of the Animals (1977) More at IMDbPro »

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Hey Hotshot!, 18 May 2004
Author: Ian Rosen (shmucking) from Los Angeles, CA

This movie is so bad it's hilarious. Leslie Neilsen plays a guy who's so annoying and obnoxious that it's hard to believe it's meant to be a serious role. His hilarious performance is worth renting the movie. There's a lot of great one-liners from his character. Christopher George is his usual no-nonsense macho self, Andrew Stevens is great, there's a lot of pretty women, and Ruth Roman is great in the Shelley Winters role of the increasingly hysterical mom. A very seventies-type movie, and very funny. I loved the nature theme, and there's a lot of great action scenes. I love the rats who come flying at the sheriff for no apparent reason. Highly Recommended!

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
"Hey, hot shot. We're out of food.", 11 July 2007
7/10
Author: bensonmum2 from Tennessee

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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!

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
stick with the TV master version, 17 May 2006
8/10
Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

OK, so this was one of my favorite 70's TV movies that I saw way back when and guess what? I still like it, and when I first saw it I had no inkling who William Girdler was....what, you don't know either? Well, OK.. anyway, this just came out on DVD from the folks at Shriek Show,whose DVD's are pretty hit or miss in the quality department This has both the TV version & the theatrical version, forget the theatrical version, it's warts and all and missing chunks, I'm not even sure why it was included. And if you're not familiar with the story here, there's a bunch of folks hiking in the mountains & the ozone layer's gone because of too much fluorocarbons and all the wild animals go, well, wild, I guess you could say, like attacking humans and stuff? This is actually pretty high quality for "made for TV", and while it's still a cheesy 70's movie it's actually pretty darn good. 8 out of 10.

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Leslie put the rug down and come over here., 20 February 2005
4/10
Author: julian kennedy from Clearwater Fl

Day of the Animals: 4/10: Filmed in glare-o-vision (either to emulate a world without ozone or to give me a headache) Day of the Animals ask what if all the animals went crazy and decided to work together to kill B-movie actors. Hmm.

Unlike most nature gone wild movies that focus on one deadly animal (snakes, spiders, small dogs wearing the cutest rat outfits.) Day of the Animals, like its predecessor Frogs, throws every living creature at the cast. (Though in Day of the Animals defense unlike Frogs it at least sticks to animals, no one gets killed by the Spanish moss.)

It doesn't work. It really doesn't work. The animal attacks are laughable. Rats and snakes on fishing lines are thrown at actors. A shirtless Leslie Nielson who gets attacked by a bear rug in a scene right out of that killer carpet movie The Creeping Terror. And, most laughably, the so called attacking dogs. Whom are downright lovable complete with wagging tails. (I've seen Benji look fiercer than those German shepherds whom looked every bit like they were chasing a miniature chuck wagon.)

As for the acting, well you get a shirtless Leslie Nielson hamming it up (years before he did Airplane and "went" into comedy) and Jon Cedar channeling a third rate William Shatner singing Barry Manilow (you won't be able to get that Mandy tune out of your head.)

The film in fact has plenty of cannon fodder (even that old comedic and anti-Semitic stand-by the overprotective Jewish mother played by Ruth Roman like she was directed by Leni Riefenstahl). It even has the Poseidon Adventure scene when one pig-headed group splits off from the other.

Day of the Animals also has the worst DVD transfer ever. A third rate pan and scan picture and no chapters or even a title screen. And unlike its companion piece Grizzly it needed a good transfer. After all it's filmed in glare-o-vision.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Lynda Day George of the Animals, 8 March 2007
5/10
Author: ThrownMuse from The land of the Bunyips

This is a highly amusing 70s "when the Ozone Layer depletes and Animals Attack!" disaster flick that should appeal to anyone who likes these kinds of movies. It has a fun cast featuring the incomparable Ruth Roman, the slightly-daft-but-that's-why-we-love-her Lynda Day George, Andrew Stevens when he was still somewhat humpy, and Leslie Neilsen in a straight-faced role like you've never seen him before...and never want to see him again. You've got all the expected plot elements here: the group disagreeing and splitting up, the one dude who gets fed up and goes bonkers, slo-mo death shots, and lots of faux animal action! Highlights include jumping rats and Nielsen dancing with a grizzly.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Day of the Animals, 23 July 2003
Author: kita117 (kita117@hotmail.com) from Maryland

I actually liked this movie even though it was slow at certain times. It was on the same level as grizzly as being a good movie to own. I just found out that it was on DVD, so I will definitely buy it eventually. I love killer animal movies and this one gives me a good show. My rating *** out of *****.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Decent Fun, 29 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Day of the Animals (1977)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Grizzly bears, dogs, rats, mountain lions, rattlesnakes and various other creatures get infected by the sun's radiation and start attacking some hikers including Christopher George, Leslie Nielson, Andrew Stevens and others. This isn't quite as good as the above film but it does make for a good double feature. The highlight of the film is when Nielson turns into a raving maniac and tries to fight a bear. The biggest problem is outside the animal attacks there really isn't much else going on.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Great fun; nature strikes back with a real fury in this one., 21 January 2008
8/10
Author: Scott LeBrun from Winnipeg, Canada

A disparate group of hikers led by rugged mountain guide Steve Buckner (the always solid Christopher George) is trapped in the wilderness by an onslaught of animals which are all being driven into a frenzy by a depleted ozone layer (according to this movie, it's the fluorocarbons released into the air that are responsible).

It truly is survival of the fittest time in director William Girdlers' follow-up to his killer bear flick "Grizzly". It's a pretty enjoyable B movie with a supporting cast full of familiar faces like Richard Jaeckel, Lynda Day George, Ruth Roman, Michael Ansara, Andrew Stevens, and last but by no means least, an over-the-top Leslie Nielsen whose foolhardy, macho bravado is just priceless. His acting practically makes the whole movie, especially when he insists on going head-to-head with a bear - while shirtless. Susan Backlinie, the highly memorable first victim of "Jaws", actually repeats that duty here - she's the first to go!

I had a very good time watching this one. The animal wranglers on this film certainly earned their pay; many of the attack scenes were genuinely harrowing. The eye-popping scenery of the High Sierras looks great as photographed by Robert Sorrentino, and Lalo Schifrins' score is perfectly ominous. Director Girdler paces and stages it with considerable panache, and while some of the victims can be annoying and are really no more than fodder for the rampaging animals, he still made me uneasy to see what would become of them.

If you're like me and are partial to "nature strikes back" cinema to begin with, I'm sure you'll have a good time with this as well.

8/10

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Leslie Neilson: Bare-Backed Bear Wrestler, 6 September 2007
7/10
Author: Mo Curly (zigra1971) from United States

With the ozone layer dissolving, all animals above 5,000 feet elevation start attacking campers. At first I thought that "Day of the Animals" was just another lost made-for-TV thriller that wouldn't be that thrilling at all. Turns out that I underestimated 70's TV movies.

Another reviewer said that the animal attacks were laughable, something that I was definitely expecting before I started watching. Much to my surprise the animal attacks, although not bloody, were pretty frightening and brutal. I'm not talking about the rat attack, I'm talking about the wolf, dog, eagle, and mountain lion attacks. Fast paced and loud scenes. "Cujo" was laughable, this gets you into it.

Speaking of frightening, Leslie Neilson is just about as big a predator as the lions. You'd never expect him to be so convincing as such a vile and scary character. By the demise of his character, you feel just a little bit safer that he's gone. One more thing, did he EVER have hair that wasn't white???

One of the best nature-strikes-back movies I've seen. Coming from the people that revived the genre, and the decade that popularized it.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A superior 70's revolt-of-nature fright feature, 15 June 2006
8/10
Author: Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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 bitchy, irritating 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 hilariously miscast Richard Jaeckel as a nerdy, wimpy, 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 mice. Overall, this baby sizes up as loads of highly diverting and entertaining low-budget drive-in horror fun.

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