Day of the Animals (1977) Review

Day of the Animals (1977) Review

 

In Day of the Animals, we get to see a possible real-world scenario in which the ozone layer becomes depleted and, as a result, animals at high altitudes go berserk, which causes some serious problems for a group of hikers. It’s a goofy, dated premise, and it just reeks of 70’s schlock. Even the poster has that vibe, reminding me of the Jaws rip-off Grizzly which came out a year before this. Day of the Animals is bad, but to be fair, it’s not as bad as I expected, and I want to give a little credit where credit’s due, because this small budget feature is a blend of genuine quality, genuine crap, and so-bad-it’s-good moments.

First off, they don’t waste much time getting the plot underway and showing the animals that will soon attack. The group of hikers/campers is quickly assembled and they embark on their journey without many hesitations or deviations. The group is a pretty average collection of characters, and only one actor stood out to me (more on him later), but there are a few too many characters present for any of them to make strong impressions or evoke much empathy. You’d think maybe that would just mean a higher body count, and while that’s technically true, it doesn’t amount to much in that way, either. The animals being shown so early and so often is also a problem, because it diffuses any suspense as to what the group will be attacked by, and they simply aren’t scary. The animals are just looming, watching, and waiting, and the waiting times are rather tedious.

Despite a budget of only 1.2 million, the filmmakers behind Day of the Animals did everything they could to make it look like a bigger production than it really was. I commend them for actually filming on location in the woods instead of on a soundstage, shooting in widescreen to give the scenery more clarity and breadth, and using a ton of real animals—everything from cougars, eagles, wolves, dogs, snakes, and a bear are included. While there are a few shots in close-up where it’s clearly a fake animal, most of the footage is genuine, and the animals were all extremely well-trained.

Now that credit’s been given where credit’s due, time to point out the more unintentionally amusing aspects to Day of the Animals. A couple of the attacks are pretty hairy, like the wolf attack at night and the final onslaught of a pack of dogs, but then there are others that just make me laugh. A mob of vultures force a woman to fall off a cliff, and the rear-screen projection trying to make it look like she’s falling looks terrible even for the late 70’s. A bunch of rats attack a guy in his house, and they leap at him, which, again, comes off more funny than scary. And finally, there’s a big battle (more like a slow dance) between the bear and the one actor who stands out: Leslie Nielsen.

Though he’s most well-known for comedies like The Naked Gun series, Leslie Nielsen has had a few serious roles in genre fare, such as Creepshow and Forbidden Planet. This role, though, is unlike any I’ve seen him in before, because he’s supposed to be an antagonist, but he’s so over the top it becomes unintentionally funny. He makes a ton of racist remarks to the Native American character, calls the group leader “hotshot” so many times I lost count, and goes completely off the rails. In fact, many of the hikers start behaving strangely, because humans are animals too, don’t forget, so the ozone pollution gets to them as well and I guess that explains their weird behaviour, because they decide to stupidly split up, which only makes it easier for the animals to pick them off.

In the end, what it comes down to is there are a handful of silly-but-entertaining animal attacks peppered throughout the runtime, but it succumbs to just being a slow and largely uninteresting movie that, despite having a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to variety and quantity of creatures, lacks much excitement. Despite all the deserved criticism, Day of the Animals is still far from the worst killer animal film ever made. I found it a bit of a chore to get through, but I’d still recommend it as a one-time watch for killer animal fans only.