“What the hell is a million year old grizzly doing here?“

When a rogue bear starts killing and eating campers in an unnamed national park, it is up to ranger Kelly (Christopher George), naturalist Scott (Richard Jaeckel), and helicopter pilot Don (Andrew Prine) to hunt down and destroy the man-eating marauder.

Grizzly first opened in San Francisco Bay Area theaters and drive-ins on Wednesday, May 12th, 1976. I was all of eight years old at the time.

While there were a lot of trailers and newspaper ads that grabbed my attention, or just freaked me the hell out, I have no memory whatsoever of seeing a commercial or trailer for this particular film. The only reason for my knowing of its release date is thanks to my scouring the archives of both the San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Tribune at newspapers.com, so I can clip and collect ads and listings for beloved, and not so beloved, movies, television shows, books, and more.

I would learn about Grizzly the same way I learned about a lot of mid-seventies horror and exploitation movies. By being disinterested with whatever movie my parents had chosen to see at the Coliseum Drive-In and looking over at the other screen(s) to see what was there. One night it was Grizzly and what little I saw of it made me want to see more.

In July of 1975 Jaws had blown my mind, cementing itself in my heart and soul and becoming my undisputed favorite movie of all time. Although I knew that Grizzly offered more of the same kind of thrills, I did not think to question why a film that was so similar to Jaws could and would be in theaters a mere eleven months after that film started gulping down copious amounts of cash at the box office. I was just grateful there was more of what I loved to watch unspooling at a local movie theater.

My strongest memories of when I first saw Grizzly, at the Alameda Theatre on Central Avenue, is being scared to death by the attack scenes and of making myself sick trying to eat an entire gigantic bar of Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate that I had pestered my dad into buying for me.

I walked into the theater not knowing who Christopher George, Richard Jaeckel, or Andrew Prine were, but I walked out a passionate fan of all three actors. Those three, and the chemistry between them, do a lot of heavy lifting here, making their tissue-thin character archetypes (i.e. carbon copies of Brody, Hooper, and Quint) look, sound, and feel like they could be actual people.

People you wouldn’t mind having a beer with. Especially Prine, who gets to make quite a few wisecracks throughout the film. His offhand “You know, that boy’s weird” and his barked “You could help!” are all-time favorite lines of mine. Yet it would take a few years, and going through puberty, for me to understand what he meant when he asks Kelly, “How ’bout that filly you been riding?”

The next time I would see Grizzly it would be as Killer Grizzly, when it made its network television debut. What was memorable about that experience was how my mother snarled at how stupid Gail (the late Victoria Jackson) was in stripping down to her undies and strolling under a waterfall, while she was supposed to be looking for a dangerous animal. This moment served as one of my formative introductions to critical thinking and laid the foundation for one of my core movie viewing rules. That while I will suspend my disbelief for whatever ludicrous scenario is about to unfold, the film should not insult my intelligence.

When I got my first VCR, I actually purchased a copy of Grizzly and watched it on the semi-regular. It was those repeated viewings that made me notice just how slight the material truly was. That the dialogue filled time, but did little to nothing else. That blowing the grizzly apart with a rocket launcher, while undeniably entertaining, seemed a tad excessive and, well, kind of silly.

Revisiting the film, courtesy of the gorgeous blu-ray released by Severin, was an eye opening experience. There were things about the film I had never noticed before.

First, and most comedically, was that the female campers killed at that the beginning of the film had left their campfire unattended. What the hell!?! They could have burnt the whole park down. Idiots.

Second was there being an actual one-take in the film. It starts just after the bear tears into a tent and, for whatever weird reason, decides beat a poor woman to death by slamming her repeatedly against a tree. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood might have done it best, but I think Grizzly just might have done it first.

The woman’s boyfriend is sitting and quietly weeping. Kelly approaches and gently asks the bereaved man if he would like to ride in the ambulance. The man answers yes by saying that Sally loved him, she really did. Kelly then helps the man to his feet and walks him to the ambulance, the camera follows. Kelly then walks away from the ambulance and over to the Scott, the camera again follows, and they start talking.

Park Supervisor Kittridge (Joe Dorsey) and Grizzly‘s carbon copy of Mayor Vaughn, steps into frame and an argument between the three ensues. Kittridge turns to walk away and Kelly walks with him, yet again the camera follows, and Dr. Hallitt (Girdler regular and one-time Horror Host Charles Kissinger) steps in to offer some his commentary on the killer bear. End scene.

All of it in one take. Something I had never noticed before. Incredible.

Third is how Kittridge derisively calls Kelly a maverick and tells him that the park has no need for mavericks. Thing is Kelly not once acts in an unorthodox fashion. He seems more like an easy-going guy overwhelmed by the unexpected appearance of a killer bear than a take charge and screw the rules and repercussions type.

Something that is backed up when he tells Allison (Joan McCall), the film’s variation of Ellen Brody, that what he really likes about his job is telling stories around the campfire, giving lectures, and watching the animals. That’s not what I think of as maverick behavior.

Now if Kelly, and not Kittridge, had been the one to call in the hunters, maybe I would buy Kelly being a maverick. But everything he says and does points to a nice, decent guy just trying to figure out what the hell it is he is supposed to do about a killer bear. Maybe he should watch Jaws.

Yet, as paper thin as the characters are and as meandering as whatever it is that passes for a story in this movie are, I still found Grizzly to be an entertaining way to pass ninety or so minutes.