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Day of the Animals (1977)
R1 - America - Media Blasters / Shriek Show Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (13th January 2007). |
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The Film
 The horror-genre was booming during the 1970s and 1980s in America, spawning many landmark films. Nowadays, studios are producing plenty of “safe” remakes and sequels (which have no doubt also revived the genre to some degree), not willingly taking any big risks. It was a totally different time back then for the young directors such as William Girdler, who did several solid films during his short career (he died in a helicopter crash at the age of 31); “Abby (1974)”, “Grizzly (1976)”, “The Manitou (1978)” and “Day of the Animals (1977)”. Girdler was fortunate enough to make movies in a time when studios and viewers both constantly demanded new horror, exploitation, action, disaster and other similar genres. Huge movie stars? Big budgets? Spectacular CGI-effects? 2 hour running times? Moving drama? Naah. A few good scares, some blood and gore (along with some minor nudity, perhaps) and a simplistic plot of “good vs evil” were often enough for many movie goers. Of course, I´m not kidding anyone here; quite many of the horror-films from that era were simply “bad” and looked “cheap” (and we have to divide the real classics from the more standard affairs) - even in the standards of those days, but they still could offer plenty of mindless fun and crazy, yet interesting subjects. One of the countless sub-genres of horror was “nature strikes back”-movies, where different animals and/or insects are going crazy for various reasons, attacking and killing average people. Often the reason was related to humans and their careless and destructive ways toward nature; pollution, radiation and generally mindless exploiting of nature has already taken its heavy toll in the real world, and in the horror-films, nature will “strike back” in her own way - by unleashing the bloodthirsty animals: “Frogs (1972)”, “Prophecy (1979)”, “Night of the Lepus (1972)”, “Grizzly (1976)”, “The Swarm (1978)”, “Squirm (1976)”, “Jaws (1975)”, “Orca (1977)”, “Claws (1977)”, “Alligator (1980)”, “Cujo (1983)”, “Piranha (1978)”, “Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)”, “Empire of the Ants (1977)”, “Bug (1975)”, “Phase IV (1974)”, “Up from the Depths (1979)”, “The Bees (1978)”, “The Food of the Gods (1976)”, “The Pack (1977)”- and there are more. “The Birds (1963)” was probably the film that took the more “real”, psychological approach to the nature theme, since earlier 1950s films like “Them! (1954)”, “Tarantula (1955)”, “The Deadly Mantis (1957)”, and “Earth vs the Spider (1958)” were more like naïve (but very enjoyable) Science Fiction “creature features”. Hitchcock's approach was very effective, since everything´s shown in a serious way and the known balance of human and nature is mysteriously violated. This can be more effective than some monster from outer space or a mutant giant spider. Still, there´s a fine line between the themes of these films, so you´ve everything from the neighbour´s dog to killer sharks, piranhas and alligators, all the way to spiders, worms and bees. Additionally, there are mutant bears (by the pollution of course) and rabbits - sometimes larger than life or it could be just various animals attacking together - like in William Girdler´s “Day of the Animals AKA Something Is Out There (1977)”. “Day of the Animals” is a very straightforward film, offering a steady pace of “terror” and also some interesting character development. Steve Buckner (Christopher George - from e.g. “Grizzly (1976)”, “The Exterminator (1980)”, “City of the Living Dead AKA Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980)”, and “Enter the Ninja (1981)”) gives guided tours to the people who want to get away from the urban life and hectic job in the city or just enjoy nature. Some of them are suffering from stress and are a bit antisocial, so peaceful nature, its fresh air and other people just might be the trick for them to forget their problems for a while and to “face themselves”. Buckner´s latest group is about to start their journey to the Californian mountains and among the various people are e.g. news reporter Terry Marsh (Lynda Day George - e.g. “Mission: Impossible (1971-1973)”-TV-series), Professor Taylor MacGregor (Richard Jaeckel), advertising executive Paul Jenson (Leslie Nielsen - from e.g. “Airplane! (1980)”, and “Naked Gun (1988-1994)”-trilogy) and single mother Shirley Goodwyn (Ruth Roman) with her son. Daniel Santee (Michael Ansara), a man with Indian blood, is also along for the ride. The warm and sunny day starts to go bad when the local Ranger Tucker (Walter Barnes) hears the warning about the increased ozone radiation from the sun, that will have the biggest effect on the high altitude areas - just where the group is now hiking. The more experienced Buckner and Santee sense that something isn´t right and their hunch is proven correct when the wolf is attacking their camp at night. One traumatized woman with her husband is heading back, but soon they´re attacked by a vulture with disastrous results. It´s not long before the camping trip turns into a battle of surviving, since nature is mad like hell; wolves, hawks, vultures, pumas, bears and dogs, all united for the common cause - to finish the group, one by one. Soon these strange events spread to the city below the mountains and Ranger Tucker will see what e.g. the group of radiation-mad rats can be capable of. The martial law is in effect and the city is being evacuated. The campers are trapped, alone. “Day of the Animals” is definitely above average in its genre and shows some solid craftsmanship by the director William Girdler and the cinematographer (Robert Sorrentino - based on the IMDb, his only film). Actors reminisce the late director in the extras, saying that Girdler knew the camera, but not necessarily always his actors. This time both aspects work and actors don´t disappoint. Visually the film really stands up, creating a few inventive camera angles and beautiful, sunny footage of nature, which looks almost majestic. This underlines the fact that man is always just a visitor in nature, a small creature in the wilderness. Unstoppable evil coming from this peaceful looking environment gives also the needed edge to the story, like it´s just a normal day when the animals go on a rampage. Footage of the animals is also very good and 90% is shot with the real animals. There are not many out of focus or rushed shots, let alone some cheap stock footage that you sometimes see. Animals are shown with needed determination, since that´s what they are in the film. They don´t rush, since they observe the group, taking their time and then attack from the darkness or when the victim is most vulnerable. Some attack-scenes work better than others (there are a few phonier ones) and PG-rating will not allow any excessive bloodletting, but generally the film is a rather smooth sailing to the end. The subtle, often quiet music by legendary composer Lalo Schifrin is effective and Girdler was probably fully aware what type of mood he was about to create and what type of music would fit into that mood. “Day of the Animals” also doesn´t stick solely to the tension by the animal attacks and the rather surprising scene comes from known comedian Leslie Nielsen, who shows the very dark side of human nature (probably affected by the radiation like the animals). Also the eerie scenes in the empty city are a bit like from some zombie/virus-movie. Again, works quite well. The film doesn´t fully succeed in raising the tension and some scenes do feel a bit repetitive (lone angry dog in the city) and unrealistic, but it never goes fully “cheesy” either. “Day of the Animals” feels like it´s somewhere in between respected horror-films and average low budget flicks, something that doesn´t win any awards or huge recognition, but does the main thing - entertains. You could do much worse.
Video
Theatrical version - “Something Is Out There” The R1 coded “dual layer” disc includes 2 “versions” of the film (both have 12 chapters), but this time the differences are mainly on the quality front. “Theatrical version” (titled “Something is Out There”) is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1 - being the OAR, but that´s pretty much where the good news ends. The transfer gives an ideal way to play a “spot a mistake” drinking game, since you´ve plenty of everything; source has been in a rough condition, so there are plenty of film artifacts, dirt, print damage (e.g. clear vertical lines), frame jumps and a few bad reel changes. Further more, colours are faded and there is also some slight “colour pumping” and also awkward bleeding. Also to me it seemed that the image was very slightly “squeezed”, but perhaps it was just my tired eyes. If all this is not enough, bitrate is quite low (the other version is better) so you have some nasty compression artefacts. I have to add that “Theatrical version” is missing one dialogue bit (approx. 15 seconds) starting from the 32:59 minute mark. The missing bit includes the Indian character Daniel Santee (Michael Ansara) offering a wooden spear for protection to Paul Jenson (Leslie Nielsen), who ends up insulting Santee. At least the transfer is taken from the film source and not from the VHS (so I guess it could be even worse), and surprisingly it´s still the better choice of the two. How can that be? We´ll find out soon. “Theatrical version” runs 98:00 minutes (NTSC), but includes also DVD credits (it has also approx. 54 sec of “black screen” after the opening “statement”). The full running time is 98:24 minutes. Television Master – “Day of the Animals” Alternate TV-print is called “Day of the Animals” and presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1. You would first think that it´s just cropped from the 2.35:1, but for some strange reason “Media Blasters” has taken the pan&scan 4:3-print and then matted it further to 1.85:1. I don´t see any other reason for this than to trick the audience into believing that the print is 1.78:1 and therefore at least “better than 4:3”, but in any case the decision was rather unprofessional. It´s true that even when this TV-print is a bit soft and partly faded (this varies), it´s generally in better shape than the “Theatrical version” - at least when it comes to film artifacts and print damage. It has more grain, but less compression artifacts (bitrate is better). It also includes the missing bit (from 32:14 minute to 32:29 in the TV-print) and it has no “54 sec black screen” after the opening statement (other than that, they seem to be identical). Still, my advice is to stick with the 2.35:1-version and check the missing seconds from the other version after that. “Television Master” runs 97:29 minutes (NTSC), but includes also DVD credits. The full running time is 97:53 minutes.
Audio
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is the sole audio choice in “Theatrical version” (no subtitles) and it´s in rough shape like the transfer. There´s some strong background hiss along with some crackles and the dialogue is a bit low and muffled. With “Pro Logic”, there´s some hiss on the surround-channels for some reason, but I guess this is just a minor issue compared to all stuff that has been listed so far. “Television Master” includes both English and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (no subtitles) and the English one is a minor improvement over the “Theatrical version”. Hiss is not that bad this time (some still there) and the dialogue sounds clearer.
Extras
From the “Special Features” menu, you´ll find the following extras (annoyingly not time coded): -“Something Was Out There: Day of the Animals 30 Years Later” -featurette (approx. 22 minutes) includes interviews from actors Jon Cedar (Frank Young) and Paul Mantee (Roy Moore), along with actress/animal trainer Susan Backlinie (Mandy Young). Backlinie is know to be the “first victim of Spielberg´s Jaws” and was one of the animal trainers in “Day of the Animals”. Along with other actors she tells some interesting anecdotes of the animals during the shoot, e.g. they had to “re-train” the rats for the second take (since they were too lazy in the first) and there were also a few bites from the animals during the shoot (nothing serious). Then again some dogs were still quite young, so they were actually more scared than the actors. Cedar and Mantee also talk about the atmosphere on the set and on the locations and director Girdler. -photo gallery includes 6 posters and covers. -2 theatrical trailers (more like teasers) run back-to-back (first uses the name “Something Is Out There” and the second one uses “Day of the Animals”). First one is actually quite a cool teaser, although a bit over-the-top. Both run approx. 30 seconds. -“Television Master” also includes audio commentary (not listed in the “Special Features” menu) by actress Lynda Day George and actor Jon Cedar, moderated by Walter Olsen and Scott Spiegel (director of “Intruder (1989)”). Unfortunately the recording is a sloppy job and the audio is weak. There´s plenty of hiss and humming in the background and you have to really listen to hear all the stories (I have to admit that for me, many went into one ear and out of the other). The track itself is very laidback, where people reminisce about the “good old times”, laughing a lot. Moderating is basically focused on the questions of the different TV-work and movies that Lynda Day George did, but Jon Cedar gets to say something here and there. They also mention “Death Hunt (1981)” (where Cedar appeared) and briefly talk about Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin (which is always interesting). They also talk about other actors from their career, so for the TV-fans from the 1970s this should be quite an interesting track. “Day of the Animals” is more on the background and director William Girdler is not mentioned that much, which is a bit of a shame. This is partly because the moderating is again so much at the “I´m a fan”-level and not organised.
Overall
Solid horror-flick in the “nature gone amok” fame and doing a fairly effective job with the subject, avoiding pure camp. Good visuals, capable actors and serious mood. The DVD presentation is truly a mixed bag, since it offers two flawed prints of the film with some decent extras. Still, I´m sure, better than to not release this film at all. This DVD is available at Sazuma.com.
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