rdoyle29 Due to the depletion of the ozone layer, the sun's radiation causes all the animals to go ka-ka-koo-koo and start attacking humans ... especially at higher altitudes. Unfortunately for Christopher George, he has picked this day to take a bunch of city folks including Leslie Nielsen, Lynda Day George, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara and Andrew Stevens on a nature hike into the mountains. This takes the basic 1970's disaster film formula and adds two things that folks couldn't get enough of ... animals attacking and ecology. I expected a bit of campy trash, but this is actually better than that. Sure, you have Nielson losing his marbles and wrassling a bear, but you also have a bit of legit suspense and some good performances. But man .... Nielsen is out of control here and it's magnificent.

thesar-2 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.

The_Void William Grindler directed a handful of trashy films during the seventies; the best I've seen being his debut 'Three on a Meathook'. Day of the Animals is a creature feature and apparently very similar to his earlier film 'Grizzly' (which I haven't seen). The film can be considered a silly seventies horror movie, and some sort of warning against global warming as apparently; aside from just warming the planet, destroying the ozone layer and causing more tax, global warming also has the capacity to send animals insane. This idea is put forward at the beginning of the movie during the prologue, but once it starts properly; we get down to the real business of the film; which is showing a bunch of people running from a variety of crazed animals, including dogs, snakes, rats and bears. We follow a group of hikers who are dropped off on a mountainside, just before the authorities realise that something is very wrong with the wildlife. Despite being away from civilisation, this message still manages to reach the hikers and soon they find themselves battling nature for survival.This film has a really good premise and I have to say that, unfortunately, it has pretty much been wasted. The film benefits from obvious things such as the setting and the capacity for plenty of animal attack scenes, but it doesn't blend this with a constantly interesting story and most of the film involves waiting for things to happen. The film was apparently made for TV. I'm not actually sure whether it was or not, but it would make sense as the movie has all the hallmarks of a TV movie; including a lack of blood, which is a major disappointment. The cast is nothing to write home about, but there is a role for Leslie Nielsen who is undoubtedly the highlight of the film. It's not hard to see why the Zucker brothers saw his potential for comedy because even in a 'serious' role, Nielson is hilarious. In fairness to the film, it does get better as it moves along the final third actually is quite exciting; but by then, you are likely to be fairly numb from the two thirds that preceded it. Day of the Animals is not a classic seventies horror film, but it has a few memorable moments (like Leslie Nielsen battling a Grizzly Bear) and is at least worth a look.

julian kennedy 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.