Grizzly Rage (2007)

I was expecting little from Grizzly Rage, as many creature movies especially if they are low-budget range from slight guilty pleasure-worthy to truly terrible. Grizzly Rage belongs in the latter, really one of the worst films I've seen recently. People are not exaggerating when they say the bear is the best actor, however that is not saying much as through it is not enough of a threat, its range of movements is very few which undermines the tension. But when I say that, it is because the other actors are so terrible, some beautiful people here but no acting talent to match it, coming across as over-earnest or non-existent, mainly the latter. The acting is not the only bad thing about it. I have seen cheaper-looking movies, as the scenery is quite nice, the only redeeming quality of the movie actually, but Grizzly Rage is choppily edited and the bear at times looks like footage out of a nature documentary. The characters are little more than annoying stereotypes that I have many times in creature films and pretty all those times it's the same effect. The bear is the one character you come close to rooting for and that's counting for very little. The actors don't have much to work with either, aside from their annoying characters, the story is far too padded out, goes nowhere too often and when there is anything happening any potential for genuine terror or suspense is wasted for attack scenes that are awkwardly shot, predictable and also contrived. The script is awful as well, stilted and very cheesy, and a lot of the time is just as turgid as the pacing in the middle of the film. All in all, really bad, I struggled to finish it although somehow I managed to. 1/10 and that is only for the scenery. Bethany Cox

It isn't very often that I'm treated to Canadian horror or science fiction films with legitimate thrills and chills. David Cronenberg has conjured up a few, for instance, but my fellow Canucks don't really do horror all that well. Perhaps there's a reason for that, but we'll not get into some sort of deep philosophical discussion here. Indeed, there are a few moments in Canadian cinema history that do offer some frightful experiences. Grizzly Rage, however, is not one of them.Now obviously the sort of straight-to-cable-movie-network stuff that makes up Grizzly Rage (aka Off Road) isn't going to be all that good. It's B-movie stuff, from start to finish, with a low budget, poor production values, bad acting, and terrible everything else. Yet for some reason, I couldn't stop watching it. Truth be told, I had no intention of making it beyond the first exploratory few minutes and I certainly had no intention of giving up some valuable space and time for a review.Yet here I am.Grizzly Rage was filmed in Manitoba, which alone is a pretty good selling point. The natural setting is quite lovely to look at, with lots of forest to work with. Sadly, director David LeCocteau had no interest in really showing things off. The movie is a part of the Sci Fi Network's ten-film "Maneater" series (don't ask me, I don't know anything about it) and follows a simple cast of four as they venture through the aforementioned Manitoba forest while an enraged, hopped-up- on-biological-waste (maybe) grizzly bear stalks them.Shaun Stover (Graham Kosakoski), Ritch Petroski (Brody Harms), Wes Harding (Tyler Hoechlin), and Lauren Findley (Kate Todd) are the four characters. They are college grads, of course, and they aim to celebrate their recent graduation by heading off into the forest to race around and cause havoc. It doesn't take long before they trash their vehicle (quite a few times, actually) and wind up killing a grizzly bear cub. This raises the ire of the mother, who stalks the four methodically despite never appearing on screen with the humans. That's basically it.Grizzly Rage is idiotic, but it is not offensively idiotic. There is nothing to fear in the film, save for the stupidity of the characters and their ridiculous meandering. And the bear, played by Koda, really isn't given a lot to do. Koda mostly roars and stands up, having been fed marshmallows to make it smile (I'm not kidding). The rest of the bear parts are filled with what appears to be a giant stuffed bear head and flimsy bear paws, presumably operated on the ends of broomsticks. There is no bear-to-human contact and the only indicator that Koda is doing any damage at all comes in the computer graphic blood that splashes the camera.Indeed, Grizzly Rage almost works as an exploitation flick, but it simply isn't violent or titillating. Lead actress Kate Todd is cute, but she doesn't provide any sort of sexual tension or character enticement that could have raised the blood pressure of this yarn. Instead, she's pretty bland…just like everyone else.Grizzly Rage was never intended to be good. Made by journeyman schlock director LeCocteau, who was responsible for Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama and Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000, I was expecting more in the camp department. Alas, this movie even fails there, offering no campy humour or ridiculous send-ups. Grizzly Rage is pretty much just mindless fluff, but it passes the time.

Grizzly Rage starts as four young high school friends Lauren (Kate Todd), Wes (Tyler Hoechlin), Sean (Graham Kosakoski) & Rich (Brody harms) embark on a celebratory 4x4 off road drive through some woods but decide to do their thing on private property. While racing around the woods in their 4x4 jeep they accidentally hit & kill a young Grizzly Bear cub & crash their jeep in the process, idiots. Lauren is gutted about the Grizzly Bear but what the hell, then suddenly the four friends find out that the young (dead) Bear's mother is around & very angry at the four friends for killing her kid & sets out to kill them all in a Grizzly rage...Apparently also known as Off Road in Canada this awful Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' was directed by the generally untalented low budget film auteur David DeCoteau (despite having nearly 80 directorial credits to his name you can count his good films on one hand) & is as bad as all the IMDb user comments & the low 2.5 IMDb user rating would suggest. Part of the 'Man Eater' series my heart sank as soon as I saw Robert Halmi Sr. & Jr.'s names on the credits as they are responsible for many an awful tame made-for-telly creature feature of the most routine kind. Grizzly Rage lacks any excitement, pace, tension or decent set-pieces & the four main character's are all idiots. There's one scene in particular that stunned me, it's just after the first attack when Rich is killed & as Wes drives the jeep away next to a sheer drop & Sean grabs the steering wheel & they have a struggle which sends the jeep over the edge of the small cliff & causing themselves all sorts of problems. It's just such a stupid scene that makes no sense & after Wes & Sean don't even argue about it, no offense but I would have killed Sean myself. Then there's the ending which feels like it has five minutes missing & a plot that doesn't make any sense with the main character's splitting up (when Sean decides to run for help why didn't all three just go?) & at the end when they have the killer Bear trapped they hold hands & walk away very, very slowly (running would be a good idea at that point, no?) & for some strange reason a local lake is full of toxic waste barrels which is mentioned & seen but never comes to anything & is totally forgotten about almost as soon as they are introduced. At 85 odd minutes Grizzly Rage is a real chore to sit through & some of the dialogue is awful too with Lauren's confession about hitting a neighbour's car both funny & somewhat pointless. The list of things wrong with Grizzly Rage is never ending & it's the sort of film you could pick holes in all day long, as bad as Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Features' go & believe me they can be bad.Another huge problem with Grizzly Rage is that the suppose threat just comes across as really tame, the Bear never really does anything other than stand on it's hind legs & there's this obviously dubbed roaring noise even though you can clearly see the Bear is just not angry or aggressive. When it attacks Lauren & Wes in the jeep instead of turning it over why doesn't it stick it's arms inside the clearly broken windows & slash them with it's claws? The film introduces a random run down house (character's in these types of films always find a random run down house don't they?) that looks like it belongs in Wrong Turn (2003) or something & since DeCoteau like to fill his films with homo-erotic vibes (out of four main character's three of them are young fit blokes & only one lady) the leading man at the end takes all his clothes off expect his boxer shorts for reasons that are flimsy at best. There's zero gore either, there are a few CGI blood splatters but nothing else. Talking of CGI Grizzly rage is maybe the only modern 'Creature Feature' I have seen not to use any for it's main threat, in this case either a real Bear was used or a guy in a bad Bear suit.With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 I can't see where the money went, shot on location in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada the music is awful as is the whole production. The acting is pretty bad, the cast try but they just come across as looking silly.Grizzly rage is the sort of Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' that typifies everything bad about the genre, this is just awful in every regard really & the overall negative comments from people here on the IMDb are wholly justified here. Watch the original killer Grizzly Bear flick Grizzly (1976) instead.

What would life be like without an occasional rotten movie? The title tells all in this weak variation of the vintage 1977 killer whale movie "Orca" about a whale that wreaks vengeance on the fishermen that destroyed its mate and baby. In the lackluster "Grizzly Rage," four obnoxious teenagers recklessly careening through the woods strike a grizzly bear cub accidentally and kill the little fellow. No, the filmmakers don't show the cub getting clipped. Only after they have smashed headlong into a tree and done permanent damage to their 4X4 Jeep Cherokee do they discover the critter. Surprise, surprise, the cute girl, Lauren Findley(Kate Todd of "Saving God")cannot get a strong enough signal on her cell phone to summon help. Actually, she objected to their thoughtless plans. Specifically, the guys used the winch to break a chain and trespass onto private property deep in the middle of nowhere littered with ominous looking barrels that would appear more appropriate in a toxic waste dump. The producers never connect the dots here about the toxic waste dump and the bear. Suddenly, an angry momma bear emerges and comes after them. I gave this movie one star because they rely on the old, stand-by suspense scene where the vehicle refuses to crank until the last second.Director David Decoteau, who has helmed such low-budget schlock as "Sorority Babes in the Slimball Bowl-O-Rama" as well as "Frankenstein & The Werewolf Reborn," is up to his usual nonsense. Basically, this rarely scary horror chiller boasts three dudes, a sexy babe and a hulking she-bear (a male named Koda) in the forest. Decoteau shows the bear howling, walking on all fours and then rearing up on its back legs, but you rarely see anything but the wrecked vehicle in the same shot with the critter. When the bear is merely stalking her prey, Decoteau provides us with a slightly wide-angled 'bear cam' perspective like they do for the human killer in a stalker movie. When the momma bear does attack, all we see are its paws and claws in close-up. Nevertheless, you know that those belong to a man in a bear costume.Not only do these teenagers lack a shred of sympathy, but they also have no common sense. After their Jeep overheats, they separate and wander off into the woods searching for water to cool their vehicle off. Meanwhile, you find yourself rooting for the bear. Unfortunately, this carnivorous bear takes its time showing up and possesses little personality. Of course, the momma bear eats them all. The first casualty--Ritch Petroski (Brody Harms of "Adam & Evil")occurs about 20 minutes into the action, and the shook-up survivors tear off in their Jeep and then have second thoughts about leaving their poor mauled friend behind. They wreck their Jeep again, rolling it down an incline, but manage to recover despite some injuries to themselves. One of them decides to pull on his jogging shoes and run for help. Guess who he runs into? Guess what you'll get watching this half-baked epic? No, no bears or bear cubs were harmed in the making of this forgettable film. Where was Daniel Boone when these kids needed him?