Grizzly Night Review: A Ferocious Bear Thriller with Human Flaws
Grizzly Night, the debut feature from director Burke Doeren, presents a gripping yet uneven campsite thriller that pits rogue bears against wayward teens. Based on a real-life 1967 tragedy in Montana's Glacier National Park, where two women were mauled to death by grizzlies, the film aims for a serious tone closer to Grizzly Man than the more absurd Cocaine Bear.
A Terrifying Premise with Convincing Ferocity
The terrifying animal at the centre of this thriller is convincingly ferocious, bringing a raw and immediate sense of danger. The initial attack scene, with characters Julie and Roy caught prone in sleeping bags, conveys with horrendous immediacy what it must be like to be at the mercy of a quarter-ton of fur and muscle. Doeren hammers home the verisimilitude by using the visitors' lodge to firmly establish the geography and vulnerability of the nervy rescue mission.
Protected only by a fire bucket, the attempt to reach the screaming Julie is fraught with tension. The film cranks up this near-forensic grasp of the predicament by focusing on the inflicted injuries, with doctor-in-the-house John battling to stop Roy bleeding out, while it falls to Paul to pick up the pieces at Trout Lake.
Human Elements That Fail to Match the Power
Despite the strong performance in depicting the bear attacks, the supporting humans don't match its power. Down at the park, fire season is all the rangers think they have on their plate, but they're not reckoning with wayward teenagers and rogue bears. At the giftshop, Michele leans on Paul to join her posse and help her shoo off an unwanted suitor, leading to a chain of events that feels contrived.
Meanwhile, with smoke plumes occupying the rangers, rookie Joan is commandeered to lead a tour group heading out to a remote lodge. Only Joan's trial-by-fur to prove herself a leader carries any emotional or moral heft, though the final finger-wagging about sensible conservation is hard to disagree with.
An Unconvincing Framing and Setting
Given the unsparing realism in the heat of the moment, it's a pity the framing for this creature feature is so unconvincing. Shot with the overlit streaming-era sunburst look, the 1960s setting feels ersatz and lacks authenticity. The various teen entanglements, supposedly there to endear or bug us into caring about the bait, come across as Scooby-Doo level stuff, failing to add depth to the narrative.
Doeren clearly has a feel for the bear necessities, crafting scenes of animal attack with precision and fear. However, the human interest hardly gets its boots on, leaving the film feeling lopsided. While the terrifying animal moments grip in tooth'n'claw terms, the overall execution is considerably less sure-footed when it comes to people.
Grizzly Night is available on digital platforms from 2 February. It offers a mixed experience: ferocious and frightening in its depiction of wildlife danger, yet stumbling in its attempt to weave compelling human drama into the survival thriller framework.
