"The most dangerous jaws on land" take a bite out of the forest in William Girdler's GRIZZLY, back on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

When the Indian Springs national park is suddenly beset by a series of grizzly bear attacks, ranger Kelly (Christopher George, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD) has park supervisor Kittridge (Joe Dorsey, WARGAMES) on his case since transporting the district's bears up north where food is plentiful was his responsibility. At first, the question is what has brought one of the bears back down from the mountains, until eccentric naturalist Scott (Richard Jaeckel, STONEY) examines the attack sites and declares that they are up against a two-thousand pound, fifteen foot grizzly bear. Publicity-minded Kittridge does not buy the grizzly story and goes over Kelly's head, inviting hillbilly hunters in to track the bear and posing a danger not only to all of the park's wildlife but also the rangers. When the grizzly makes its way to town and attacks a mother and child, Kelly and pilot Don (Andrew Prine, NIGHTMARE CIRCUS) take it upon themselves to track the grizzly back into the mountains to destroy it even as Scott has gone off on his own to attempt to capture the bloodthirsty wonder of nature.

The biggest theatrical hit of William Girdler, an ambitious young Kentucky-born filmmaker who made a string of well-distributed regional flicks staring with ASYLUM OF SATAN and THREE ON A MEATHOOK before achieving notoriety with the American International-distributed "black EXORCIST" film ABBY which was promptly withdrawn when Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit (it has been officially unavailable since then). GRIZZLY was one of two "animals attack" films Girdler mounted, the superior one being DAY OF THE ANIMALS which also featured George and Jaeckel. Girdler was killed in a helicopter crash at the age of thirty while scouting locations for his next film following most luxuriously-budgeted film THE MANITOU (which was released after his death). Viewers who first caught GRIZZLY on television in the eighties or nineties may be unprepared for the limb-ripping and face-clawing (a bear claw glove reaching in the frame and grabbing people was about the most you saw on TV prints at that point).

Although a hit for Girdler and distributor Film Ventures – it was the most successful independent horror film at the box office until John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN broke its record two years later – the film is often more laughable than terrifying. Girdler, his cameraman, and his editor cannot quite make us believe that the live grizzly bear ever shares the same frame with the actors (with victims getting the "bear hug" from a suited double). The dramatics between the usually top-of-their-game George and Dorsey are contrived by the script, while the buddy scenes of George, Prine, and Jaeckel compare poorly to those of JAWS. Shot just before DAY OF THE ANIMALS, GRIZZLY's production value is in the exploitation cast, the helicopter (and aerial shots), and the score of Robert O. Ragland (THE SUPERNATURALS) performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Girdler regular cinematographer William Asman's Todd-AO photography is full of bumpy tracking and crane shots, while the shallow focus of some two shots seem to have more to do with low lighting than a foreground/background rack focus setup (in a couple intimate scenes, George or McCall have only to move an inch or two off their marks to go out of focus), a lack of fill lighting during some of the sunny exteriors results in some harsh contrasts while the older anamorphic lenses seem more prone to flare. DEVIL TIMES FIVE's Joan McCall – who was married to the film’s co-writer/producer David Sheldon (Girdler's 'SHEBA BABY) – plays George's plucky love interest while the film's other co-writer/producer Harvey Flaxman also plays a "the public has a right to know" sensationalist news reporter (JAWS author Peter Benchley also cameos as a reporter). The same grizzly later used in DAY OF THE ANIMALS, and also the mother of "Bart the Bear" from THE GREAT OUTDOORS, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, and THE BEAR among others.

Released on VHS in a panned-and-scanned transfer by Media Home Entertainment, GRIZZLY first hit DVD in what was probably the same master from the late nineties budget label DVD Video which licensed a number of Film Ventures titles from their current rights owner including DAY OF THE ANIMALS, DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE, and THE GRIM REAPER (all from old video masters). Media Blasters' Shriek Show two-disc DVD edition featured a number of extras including a commentary featuring co-star McCall and her co-writer/producer husband Sheldon, a forty-minute retrospective featurette, an original promotional featurette, among others. Scorpion's 2014 dual-layer DVD featured a progressive, anamorphic, 2.35:1 widescreen transfer came from new HD master that they reissued a year later on a 3,000 copy limited edition Blu-ray available exclusively from Screen Archives. 88 Films' Region B 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray was derived from the same master provided by Film Ventures library rights owner Multicom and suffered from the same weaknesses as the domestic edition. The only audio track was a great-sounding LPCM 2.0 stereo track (seemingly mixed down from the Scorpion 5.1 remix) while adding English HoH subtitles.

Scorpion's original Blu-ray offered up both filtered and unfiltered encodes of the feature on a BD50 as well as the options of the original, rich mono mix in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix, as well as an isolated music and effects track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 while their 2018 remastered edition featured a new scan from the interpositive, and the results are slightly improved with slivers more picture on the sides, richer greens, and more apparent texture in hair (including the bear puppet claw) and clothing like the fur collar Jaeckel's animal camouflage coat. The flicker that bedeviled both filtered and unfiltered transfers were still apparent here, but it is likely inherent in the elements and this may be the best we are going to get for this title. Severin's 2021 Blu-ray comes from a new 2K scan of the film's internegative and looks generally brighter than the earlier transfer and generally more saturated, making the warm and rugged skintones look a bit orange in a couples shots while the woods are not always so shadowed as they once were but the changes are not too distracting even if they do magnify the faults in the original cinematography mentioned above. The disc drops the surround and stereo remixes in favor of DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 original mono, and optional English SDH subtitle are also provided.

First up in the extras is a new audio commentary by Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson and film writer Troy Howarth in which they contextualize the film as both a JAWS rip-off and an example of "eco-horror", Girdler as a "populist filmmaker", the infamous Montoro – who apparently insisted on the use of the London Philharmonic for the score and then used it as an excuse for why the filmmakers were not entitled to as much of the profits for running overbudget – and Film Ventures' various successes and lawsuits with other ripoffs including THE LAST SHARK and BEYOND THE DOOR (with a side discussion of Girdler and AIP's unfortunate experience with ABBY). They also reflect on the application of the PG rating in the seventies, and how the gore and violence in JAWS differed from that of GRIZZLY.

Also included is the 2006 audio commentary by producer Sheldon and actress McCall. McCall recalls working with George, her screams being dubbed by someone else, and various aspects of the shoot from both in front of the camera and behind the scenes as the wife of one of the producers. Sheldon's best stories come from the ways in which the production made due, from being able to state that the film was "filmed in Todd-AO" by purchasing a single Todd-AO lens, melting snow off the trees and pinning leaves to the branches to give the film a summer look, and shooting pick-up shots of the forest exterior in a gymnasium when it got too cold outside only for a campfire to burn a hole in the floor requiring the production to replace it. They note that the film while gory was submitted to the MPAA three times and had some trims but the track leaves it uncertain whether the alternate nude take of Vicki Johnson (STARSHIP INVASIONS) under the waterfall was actually used in the European theatrical version or not at all.
NIGHTMARE USA author Stephen Thrower provides a lengthy discussion of the life of Girdler (45:22) which includes discussion of his upper middle class upbringing and his early films, his attempts at self-financing and seeking private investors, and how the performance of his early films ASYLUM OF SATAN and 3 ON A MEATHOOK was poor but at least got him noticed by American International, and his first independent studio features THE ZEBRA KILLER, SHEBA BABY, and PROJECT: KILL, and then to his working relationship with Montoro, THE MANITOU, and his death. Of interest are Thrower's comments on a few unproduced projects, including the question of whether the proposed film "Creature" and a DELIVERANCE ripoff were actually what morphed into GRIZZLY. Also of importance is a "Making Movies with Girdler" (36:56), an audio interview with business partner and friend J. Patrick Kelly III which includes more detail about Girdler's earlier films – Kelly having joined Girdler because of his own accounting expertise – the erosion of their professional relationship as Girdler mixed with bigger producers while their friendship was maintained (to the point where it was he who received the call about Girdler's accidental death and had to tell each of Girdler's family members individually during a birthday party so as not to spoil it for the children).

Girdler himself appears in the 1976 vintage behind-the-scenes making-of "Movie Making in the Wilderness" (6:59) discussing interaction with the bear and the challenges of shooting on location, but Severin has also ported the 2006 documentary "Jaws with Claws" (36:40) in which Sheldon discusses the luck of being the first animals attack picture on the screen after JAWS, and recalls the anecdote about Flaxman's camping trip. Flaxman himself elaborates on the story and how quickly they got the script outlined, written, and rewritten. Sheldon and Girdler had split amicably after PROJECT: KILL, and Sheldon recalls Girdler's excitement when he saw the script and his offer to put the funding together with him in the director's chair. Flaxman recalls Girdler's relationship with Film Ventures' Edward L. Montero and their knowledge of other projects being developed in the wake of JAWS. Prine recalls being cast and sent on location without a script – his agent told him the film was basically JAWS – and recalls the grizzly in awe and how the production kept an electrified wire between the bear and the actors to protect them.

The script was meant to be set in the summer, so Sheldon recalls that they had to melt the snow on the locations they were shooting at and avoid capturing trees that had lost their leaves on camera. The writers/producers also recall that Girdler couldn't handle all of the film himself on a four week schedule so Flaxman would shoot all of the extras scenes with the hunters and onlookers while Sheldon shot the bits with the bear (also discussing the mechanical bear which didn't match the live one). Sheldon discusses the tricks of getting the bear to act by baiting it with meat to roar while Prine had to throw it pieces of bread to come towards him in the shots where it is about to attack him. McCall recalls the cold shooting conditions and working with Christopher George and their unused love scene. William Girdler himself is heard in clips from the original promotional featurette discussing interaction with the bear and the challenges of shooting on location.