Day of the Animals (1977)

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.

INTRO: Why I gave this film an 8 was based mainly on the time in history it was made. If it was made today I probably would have rated it differently. For a late 70's film it did a good job at keeping me invested, but I always was a sucker for the slow-burn formula.PROS: Leslie Nelson's character. Man is an animal too. How they were able to create killer animals through practicals alone without any need for CGI.CONS: The age of the film.OUTRO: I'd love to see a modern day remake of this. With the right writer, director, composer, producer (and no executives putting their great creative ideas in there), the remake could turn out to be a wild and fantastical B-Grade experience.

What a misleading title (meaning the Something is Out There one, the other is exactly the opposite – like calling a movie Titanic or The Bank Job where you know what you're in for) and partial preview – 90% of the film (or more) took place outside. So – something, or someone(s) was out there all along. Strangely effective in some areas, though the whole feature screamed made-for-TV movie of the 1970s. The dialogue was both hilarious and sad at the same time. Yes, I realize we live in a more PC-friendly media these days, but some of the racial comments, especially by an Airplane!/Naked Gun hero of mine, Leslie Nielsen, should have earned it an R even back then. I can see where M Night might have gotten some of his inspiration for The Happening, though I didn't laugh at Animals as hard as I did The Happening.

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.