Grizzly

Grizzly (1976)

18 feet of gut-crunching, man eating terror!

An eighteen-foot grizzly bear figures out that humans make for a tasty treat. As a park ranger tries rallying his men to bring about the bear's capture or destruction, his efforts are thwarted by the introduction of dozens of drunken hunters into the area.

Date of release
1976-05-21
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (168)
Runtime
1h 31m
Genres
Horror, Adventure, Thriller
Director
William Girdler
Collection
Grizzly Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Grizzly is a 1976 American horror thriller film directed by William Girdler and starring Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel, and Joan McCall. It follows a park ranger's attempts to halt the wild rampage of an 18 ft (5.5 m) tall, 2,000 lb (910 kg) man-eating grizzly bear that terrorizes a National Forest, having developed a taste for human flesh. However, a drunken hunting party complicates matters.

Production

The idea for Grizzly began when the film's producer and writer, Harvey Flaxman, encountered a bear during a family camping trip. Co-producer and co-writer David Sheldon thought the idea would make a good film following the success of Jaws. Girdler discovered the script on Sheldon's desk and offered to find financing as long as he could direct the film. Within a week, Girdler was able to obtain $750,000 in financing from Edward L.

Grizzly was filmed on location in Clayton, Georgia, with many local residents cast in supporting roles. Catherine Rickman, who played one of the first victims, was actually the daughter of Clayton's mountain man, Frank Rickman. Though unintentional, the casting of George, Prine, and Jaeckel marked the second time this trio of actors starred together in the same film.

A Kodiak bear nicknamed Teddy performed as the killer grizzly bear. Teddy was 11 ft (3.4 m) and was the largest bear in captivity at that time. The bear was rented from the Olympic Game Ranch in Sequim, Washington, where he was kept behind an electric fence. The crew was protected from the bear by a piece of green string running through the shooting locations and a ticking kitchen timer. This resembled (to the bear) an electric fence.

The original artwork for the Grizzly film poster was created by popular comic book artist Neal Adams.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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