- Day of the Animals
- Re-Released as Something Is Out There
- Directed by William Girdler
- May 13, 1977
- Based on a story by producer Edward L. Montoro
With the ozone layer depleted, animals at higher elevations turn on humans. Or it’s a virus. The movie gets confused at the end.
Most likely spawned from the environmental movement, the Nature’s Revenge genre was a seemingly strong story type of the 70s and I think it even endured into the early 80s. The premise is almost always the same: having had enough in one form or another over one thing or another nature decides to kick humanity’s ass as best as it can.
Like every movie in the genre Day of the Animals has moments that tell you what the next 80 minutes or so will be like before the action starts. Here we have some birds menacingly poised at elevations lower than normal. That is mixed in with extended radio diatribes about the depleting ozone. This does not waste much time though before the animals start acting up.
The basic premise is not that far removed from The Birds though unlike that film Day of the Animals provides TWO explanations though the second one is tossed in very casually at the end. As hypothesized by the opener, every animal (people too eventually) above 5000 feet have gone crazy because of the thinning layer. Though at the end it is stated to be a virus that is dying because the layer is suddenly returning. How? Science!
The story centers around a rather dysfunctional group of hikers lead by Steve Buckner (Christopher George) who is aided by Daniel Santee (Michael Ansara). Everybody is on the verge of going at each other’s throat before anything really happens. Keep away sharp objects from these people! These are pretty much stock characters. The self-absorbed mother. The pampered executive. The wise Native American guide. The outdoorsman. And the people who have just enough knowledge to be okay but are overwhelmed generally by the situation.
Paul Jenson (Leslie Nielsen), an advertising executive, is the human threat mixed in with that of the animals. He is a reflexive contrarian and casually racist. He finds something inappropriate to say regularly. It gets a bit ridiculous. Not that somebody cannot be a bigot but that it is played by Nielsen. Frank Drebin aside, I just do not think the man had it in him to be convincingly mean.
The pacing is slow, the dialogue is rough, and you never care about anybody. The environmental themes are too on the nose making this like a mature Earth Day special. There is a clear message being put out here. If man is not more environmentally sensitive, then there will be consequences. We are ultimately at the mercy of nature. But not only is this just a mild spanking because of the unexplained return of the ozone layer but by the blame being placed on a virus negates any lesson trying to be taught. Last minute curveballs that have no connection to anything you pushed undermines your story.
As cheesy filmmaking of the time it is entertaining. I’m not calling it great. It shouldn’t get any awards or accolades from environmental groups and shouldn’t have been up for an Oscar. It’s just a good example of tropes of the era. While certainly a guilty pleasure it never becomes good in a way that was obviously not intended.
Day of the Animals is a bad movie. But it is okay enough to entertain and worth it just to see Nielsen play a jerk.
Warren Watched A Movie 