User reviews

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.

Eco-horror was one of the notable genres of 1970s cinema. William Girdler's "Day of the Animals" is a prime example. It depicts ozone depletion causing all wildlife above 5,000 feet to turn against humans. Of course, the best scene is Leslie Nielsen - still a few years away from his career in comedy* - wrestling a grizzly. This is a movie that, ridiculous as it is, must have been really fun to film. The animals really look like some mean mothers.

Yes, it's one of the many silly exploitation flicks of the era. Totally enjoyable, I might add. Unfortunately, the director got killed in a helicopter crash in the Philippines less than a year after the release. Too bad.

Also starring Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Richard Jaeckel, Andrew Stevens (Stella Stevens's son) and Michael Ansara (Barbara Eden's former husband).

*As late as 1987, Nielsen co-starred in the dead serious "Nuts".

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!

This was better than GRIZZLY in showing off some horrifying images of assorted wild animals hungry over human prey. On a horror level, only a slight bit of feeling. It still compares to WILD AMERICA because there's hardly anything here that best distinguishes between an evil monster or just a typical ol' wild animal. Sure it's violent, but that's nature as God intended. I can't understand why the movie heads for the wrong direction, thanks to Leslie Nielsen becoming an obnoxious freak. Even the end provides no clearer definition based on the goofy plot it has. Better head for the zoo.

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.

The opening caption tells us that in 1974 two UCal scientists revealed that fluorocarbon gases used in aerosol spray cans were seriously damaging the earth's protective layer of ozone. It warns that the potentially dangerous amounts of radiation (ultra-violet rays) that subsequently reached the earth's surface were affecting living things in adverse ways. Then the movie is supposed to dramatize what COULD happen if mankind didn't change its methods: the day of the crazed animals, especially those at high altitude!

The movie begins with twelve campers, dropped off by helicopter, who hike in high country as spooky-looking animals (mountain lions, coyotes, bears, eagles, vultures, etc.) watch. Dogs growl menacingly; eagles screech. The owl looks like it has an evil eye. Sunrays shine menacingly. The unnerving music tells us that the folks are in danger. The campers have almost no food. Before long the animals attack the human campers; even the sheriff is attacked in his house. The police and rangers have notified the area's population to evacuate their houses in the high country. The campers split into two groups: (1) those with Buckner (Christopher George) head to lower country where it is safer but longer (35 miles), a route recommended by authorities and (2) those with Paul Jenson (Leslie Nielsen) head upland away from the safe areas but closer to a ranger station (15 miles). Jenson had been riding Buckner during the whole trip. Along the way he is a crazed man who loses his way. Wonder how many will return? HINT: the way these movies go you can bet that one-half will make it safely. Near the end there is one interesting scene that I have never seen in cinema. Three survivors of one group barely escape from wild dogs on a moored river raft. But before the raft can move quickly along the rapids several wild dogs overtake it. The humans hang on along the sides of the raft in the water while the animals are on the platform. As they struggle to stay afloat when the raft is caught up in the current, they cannot really harm the humans. Helpless, they will soon be tossed into the big drink. Gulp!

Movie is rated so-so despite a rather impressive veteran cast that includes Nielsen, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara, and Ruth Roman. Linda Day George, not a great actress, contributes next to nothing. Christopher George is a macho-man, along with Ansara. Out of character, Nielsen plays an advertising man who chews up the scenery, repels everybody, and calls team leaders George "Hotshot" and Ansara "Kemo Sabe." Later deranged by the sun's rays, he does despicable things and even charges a bear! Personally I doubt that the animals would act this erratic way and turn against humans if the ozone layer shrinks, but the idea does provide a story-line. By the way, did you notice that the animals did not attack one another? Smart! THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION: Women, stop using hair spray!

Due to the depletion of the ozone layer, the sun's radiation causes all the animals to go ka-ka-koo-koo and start attacking humans ... especially at higher altitudes. Unfortunately for Christopher George, he has picked this day to take a bunch of city folks including Leslie Nielsen, Lynda Day George, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara and Andrew Stevens on a nature hike into the mountains. This takes the basic 1970's disaster film formula and adds two things that folks couldn't get enough of ... animals attacking and ecology. I expected a bit of campy trash, but this is actually better than that. Sure, you have Nielson losing his marbles and wrassling a bear, but you also have a bit of legit suspense and some good performances. But man .... Nielsen is out of control here and it's magnificent.

***** SPOILERS *****

So if there's a hole in the ozone layer the increased levels of radation will cause animals of all ilks to attack humans . Hmmm . There is actually a hole in the ozone layer but I don't think even Greenpeace are claiming this will cause us to be attacked by fluffy animals and feathered friends

But DAY OF THE ANIMALS isn't really a film to take seriously and like THE SWARM it's a movie that mixes the disaster movie with the sci-fi genre with the exact same result - It's a bad movie but an entertaining one . The characters are one dimensional clichés , the former sports star , the young couple in love , the Jewish momma and of course the cruel capatilist which in this movie is played by Leslie Nielson in a straight role . Well I said a straight role but Nielson plays it in the same manner as he played his role in THE NAKED GUN trilogy , I mean check out his dialouge : " You're not in Hollywood now Mrs Beverly hills bitch , you'll get what what I give you and I'll take what I want " It goes without saying the death scenes here are like something that was written for THE NAKED GUN , I mean getting eaten by a grizzly bear ? That's like the bad guy in THE NAKED GUN getting attacked by a lion . I also believe it's impossible to impale someone on a walking stick

But this is a fun film despite the serious flaws . It's not a film you're going to watch over and over again but it's enjoyable for all the wrong reasons . My only real complaint is the very weak ending of having all the animals dying due to radation sickness thereby saving humanity

Leslie Nielsen's tour de force defies words. Stop reading and turn the movie on.

Fun and face-palmingly brilliant killer monster nonsense. It was awesome to see so much use of real animals. I was also very surprised at who bought it and when, and in a film like this, sometimes who gets killed is the best part. The characters all turn against each other, or splinter off into groups. It's also fun to see a mother and child relationship which isn't all cuddles and sunshine. Best of all though, is Nielsen, in a performance that shows him as a tough mans man. He goes topless, he manhandles women, and he fights a friggin' bear. That, my friends, was an unexpected performance and just goes to show that you should never pigeon- hole an actor.

You might expect lots of fun from a movie called "Day of the Animals", that features a story about animals turning against humans, due to a sudden discovered problem with the ozone-layer (yeah don't ask, still not sure how that works in this movie). But the movie is a bit of a disappointment, since very little is actually happening in it. It's a real lackluster, that only becomes mildly interesting when the Leslie Nielsen character for some reason suddenly becomes crazy mad.

Seriously, Leslie Nielsen's role in this movie is more hilarious than any of the movies he did in the last couple of years. And he is not even playing his character in this movie in a comedy-like way but he's playing it completely straight and serious, which really makes it all the more hilarious.

But other than that, this is a really uninteresting genre movie to watch, that absolutely has nothing special in it. It's not the worst movie in its genre but that is because it is not being the most ridicules one. There is just far too little happening for that to become so.

It really takes a long time before there is finally something happening in the movie and when it does, it's over before you know it. Surely they could had done far more interesting with its concept of all kinds of animals attacking humans, despite of its obvious low budget. The moments in which the animals attack in this movie are not done well at all and absolutely do not work out and are often more laughable than anything else really. So perhaps it after all is not such a bad thing at all that there are actually being very little moments in which the animals attack.

The story really doesn't ever makes much sense but you just have to go along with it and don't think too much about anything that is happening, or else you will most likely be never able to finish watching this movie.

Really not much good about this movie, though it obviously could had all still been a lot worse.

5/10

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DAY OF THE ANIMALS is Director William Girdler's take on the "nature's revenge" film.

Trail guide, Steve Buckner (Christopher George) takes a group of city folks up into the mountains, unaware that something strange has taken place. It seems that mankind has depleted the ozone layer with their aerosol sprays, causing the wildlife to go berserk.

Now, Buckner and company find themselves up against an onslaught from land, stream, and air! This generally consists of shots of creatures looking bemused.

Meanwhile, hiker, Paul Jensen (Leslie Nielsen) begins acting like a total jackass, and native American, Daniel Santee (Michael Ansara) gives wise advice and looks warily into the forest. Professor Macgregor (Richard Jaeckel) takes pictures, and TV news personality, Terry Marsh (Lynda Day George) appears concerned. Unsurprisingly, the hellishness factor increases exponentially, while Jensen becomes an even bigger jerk, and the humans are put on the endangered species list!

DOTA is as enjoyable as it is absurd. It also boasts some superb shots of the natural surroundings, and tons of cool critters! So, if you love the great outdoors, or simply believe that mankind has ruled the Earth long enough, this movie will satisfy!

BEST BITS: #1- The flying rat attack! #2- Jensen shedding his shirt and coming completely unglued, going bare-chested like an eeevil Tarzan!

Indeed, this could be our future...

Day of the Animals bites. Well, it's not that bad, however there's little excitement in it. Some of the animal attacks are good. But, most are tame! Maybe the makers took one cutting room floor scene from these movies; The Birds, Grizzly, The Pack, Willard, and SSSSSSSS! Could of been much better. Overall Grade: D+

High points for Lalo Schifrin's score and Robert Sorrentino's lush nature cinematography, but otherwise.............

Day of the Animals... you'd think that this stodgy piece of 70's film-making would fall under the disaster film banner, but nope, instead what we have here is a "natural horror film", starring a very cantankerous Leslie Nielsen, Christopher George, along with his wife Lynda Day George and a slew of generic no-name/inter-changeable actors to fill out the cast. It must be said when a movies script is as bad as Day of the Animals is, well it hasn't got a chance of being even an average movie. From it's ridiculously bad and often repetitive dialog, to the ludicrously lame premise that the movie is based around, well, the writers were clearly making up science as they went along and did so quite poorly. Leslie Nielsen's character is so incredibly obnoxious that it has to be seen to be believed, he's so over-the-top and antagonistic, yet at the same time everyone else under-acts - so I guess it all balances out at the end.

This movies gimmick is of the "when animals attack" variety, of which some of these scenes are fairly effective, particularly the "flying rats" scene, which involves about a dozen rats (that in order to make them "fly" they have fishing-line tied around them). They whiz off a dinning table and attack this old dumpy sheriff, biting him on the face and neck and in the process ruin the poor guy's mid-night snack! But the main focus is on a small group of hapless hikers, who if I had to guess, would say that their hiking in or around either Yellowstone or Yosemite, which supplies the movies scenery, which is often just gorgeous. But the focus in Day of the ANIMALS - are indeed the animals and the movies utterly crawling with them, we have: mountain lions, wolves, rattle snacks, vultures, vermin (see flying rats), German Shepard's, as well as few raggedy old mutts just for good measure; as is to be expected several deaths occur by these rogue animals.

Clocking in at 97 minutes this movies tends to drag and overstay it's welcome, before finally limping to an anti-climatic finale. Day of the Animals is similar in feel to Night of Lepus, but with better location filming and cinematography, though on the other hand it's not as funny as Lepus. And this is surely a career low-point for Leslie Nielson, who CANNOT stop calling people "Hotshot" and "Ke-mo sah-bee". If you're wondering he plays some sort "Hotshot" advertising agent from NYC, completely self-absorbed and no doubt just a cliché continuation of the "Rude New Yorker" stereo-type. And speaking of cliche's, they also managed to throw in the familiar call-in-national-guard-and-quarantine-the-area cliché right at the end. Where o' where would a disaster flick be without that tried and true cliché. Ultimately with Day of the Aniamls there is absolutely nothing that stands out or distinguishes it at any time, as it is a most un-distinguished picture.

*Glaring Factual Error* Many of the vultures that are seen throughout this movie are "old world" vultures, which are only found in the eastern hemisphere, a.k.a. - the other side of the world.

Also, after seeing Day of the Animals, I'm completely convinced that Leslie Nielsen's agent signed him up for this wretched movie, without ever consulting him on the matter.

A motley crew of whining city-slickers on vacation traverses the wilderness at altitude under the watchful eye of guide George and his faithful American Indian companion Ansara, until the animals that inhabit the region turn rabid. Despite its ominous prediction, "Day of the Animals" remains a fairly low-key action thriller, tame by both the genre and Girdler's standards.

Director Girdler continues to promote a perverted conservation agenda by using animals to inflict the natural world's revenge on mankind's neglect, highlighting the message he more vaguely introduced in "Grizzly". Much of the same personnel were employed for this outing, although his earlier success with the predecessor allowed him to boost his acting stocks, resulting in a veritable smörgåsbord of character actors and B-grade leads (Ansara, Neilsen, Mantee, Roman and Barnes in addition to the return of leading men George and Jaeckel). As the character's succumb to the harmful rays caused by damage to the ozone layer, they engage in strange and in some instances, downright absurd behaviour – Cedar's hallucinations and violent mood swings while Nielsen goes nuts-ville first murdering one of his stricken companions, then sexually assaulting the victim's wife, and in a corny contest, going mono-a-mono with a towering Grizzly bear (which for me was the film's crowning highlight).

There's a lot of time devoted to the carbon emissions debate and the impact of mankind's toxic lifestyle on the earth's fragile atmosphere, well ahead of the populist campaign. Had Girdler lived longer, perhaps this message would have become more prevalent in mainstream films, such was the momentum and success he was building up to his untimely death. Photography is a highlight and while the film employs the tired disaster movie formula, the real stars are still the hawks, cougars, bears, dogs, rats and the rest of the menagerie that turn on the 70's star-studded cast in some well-staged attacks.

Today, the concern is about climate change. Back in the 70's the concern was about the depletion of the earth's ozone layer. "Day Of The Animals" takes that concern and turns it into a watchable if not great story about the effects of this environmental concern. A group of hikers go into the mountains, not knowing that there's a potential problem - and they most certainly discover a problem! It seems that without the ozone layer to filter solar radiation, animals (and at least one of our hiking bunch) are going insane and starting to attack any human they find. It makes for a pretty exciting hike, I suppose! There are a number of familiar faces in this. The best known is probably Leslie Nielsen, although he hasn't yet really entered the comedy phase of his career (as in the "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" movies) and those who know him for that later part of his career might find it disconcerting to see him play this particular and truly nasty character. There are also familiar faces like Linda Day George, Michael Ansara and Richard Jaeckel as well. In all honesty I wouldn't say that this was the best acted movie I've ever seen, but it certainly was't awful. The special effects (such as were necessary) were poor - there was one truly atrocious view of poor Mandy falling off a cliff - but the animal attacks portrayed were generally pretty well done and in many cases unsettling to watch. Some of the filler material causes this to drag a little bit - but there are some effective cuts back to the town below where strange things are also happening as rats attack and pet dogs go rogue.

There are things about this that are really strange, mind you. Apparently this hiking trip is going to take several days - but this particular group seems woefully ill-prepared for such a trip, and a good number of them don't even seem to want to be on the trip particularly. From completely improper footware to just general negativity - it all left me wondering why any of them were even there? I also wondered about the animals. GIven that they were supposedly being driven insane by the unfiltered solar radiation, they seemed actually very in control, looking as if they were almost plotting their next attack against these representatives of our own species. In that sense, the movie reminded me a little bit of the recent TV series "Zoo."

Is it great? No. I'm not sure I'd even call it particularly good. But watchable? Yes. Enjoyable? Yes - in a strange sort of way. Watching Leslie Nielsen go completely unhinged - "I'M IN CONTROL OF THIS CAMPING TRIP!!!!!" - as he prepares to do a number of despicable things to his fellow hikers and eventually gets into a wrestling match with a bear alone makes this memorable. (4/10)

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.

Animals at high altitudes go crazy in the Sierra Nevada Mountains due to exposure to ultraviolet radiation, the result of depletion of the ozone layer. A dozen hikers regrettably get dropped off up there by helicopter just before the quarantine is announced. The backpackers are played by the likes of Christopher George (the guide), Leslie Nielsen (a boorish exec), Lynda Day George (an anchorwoman), Richard Jaeckel (a professor) and Michael Ansara (an AmerIndian guide).

"Day of the Animals" (1977) is a nature-strikes-back flick cut from the same cloth as "The Birds" (1963), "Frogs" (1972) and "Grizzly" (1976). It was made by the director of the latter, William Girdler, who died at the age of 30 in early 1979 while scouting locations for his next film in the Philippines when his helicopter hit electrical lines.

Although "Day" is superior to "Grizzly," it's not on the level of "The Birds." The characters are dull except for those played by Nielsen, Ansara and George. It doesn't help that Girdler doesn't know how to photograph women, although he had the resources: blonde Susan Backlinie (Mandy) and brunette Kathleen Bracken (Beth).

The first half is relatively tedious, but things pick up for the second and the animals are wonderful (hawks, vultures, cougars, snakes, rats and a bear). Speaking of the bear, Nielsen's mad showdown with a bruin is a highlight, although the idea was lifted from the end of "Sands of the Kalahari" (1965).

The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Long Barn, California, about 25 miles northwest of Yosemite National Park.

GRADE: B-