GRIZZLY NIGHT: More Bears, Please

GRIZZLY NIGHT (Blu-ray)

2026 / 87 min

Well Go USA

Available at MovieZyng

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Bear Whisperer😼

Two genres I can’t resist are disaster movies and killer critter flicks. New and old, good and bad, epic and low budget, I generally have a good time with these things (if sometimes at the movie’s expense). It helps, of course, to adjust my expectations. No CGI-driven, direct-to-video cheapie is gonna match the epic thrills of The Towering Inferno, but still might be good for a few shits & giggles.

Similarly, there will never be another Jaws, and anyone thinking otherwise is delusional. Still, there’s been gobs of decent college tries over the years, including plenty that have attempted to create similar terror on land by replacing sharks with bears, arguably nature’s cuddliest carnivores. 1976’s Grizzly remains a highly enjoyable example of B-movie plagiarism, though the kitschy Cocaine Bear will probably go down in history as the Citizen Kane of belligerent bear movies.

But even with tempered expectations, Grizzly Night is not the movie I was anticipating, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The film recounts the true story of a 1967 incident in at Glacier National Park, where a couple of bear attacks occurred on the same night, miles apart. In movies, “true story” is a term that’s often thrown around pretty liberally, but in this case, we get the impression that the events as depicted are more-or-less accurate. So on one hand, the film can be commended for its non-exploitative approach, maintaining a serious tone and an underlying theme of humans’ negative impact on animal behavior.

"Right behind me, huh? I ain't falling for that again."

On the other hand, not a hell of a lot actually happens in Grizzly Night, at least compared to your usual nature-run-amok flick. The animal attack sequences themselves are tastefully handled, but few and far between and not particularly exciting, with most of the mayhem occurring off-screen. The interim scenes largely consist of rangers and tourists searching for victims and treating their injuries while remaining wary of another possible bear attack. This may have indeed been how everything went down back in 1967, but that doesn’t always result in compelling viewing. Perhaps being a more exploitative might have made it a little more fun.

Still, while none of the characters are anything to write home about and the performances are merely serviceable, Grizzly Night is well made, makes good use of its scenic locations and at least features real bears (when it chooses to actually show them). There ain’t much in the way of animal action, but as an earnest account of true events, the film is watchable.