I was listening to the Critically Acclaimed podcast with film reviewers, Witney Seibold and William Bibbiani when the film, Grizzly II: Revenge came up. While I was a fan of the film, Grizzly (1976; a Jaws ripoff starring Christopher George) I never heard there had been a sequel. Well, it turned out it wasn't actually a sequel, but just an attempt to attach this film to one that was slightly successful.
Different sources give different dates for when this film was made. Some as early as '83, with others giving a later '86 date. Filmed in Hungary, the film was able to use a music festival headlined by the group Nazareth as a backdrop. Unable to get that group on film, but with footage of lesser known European bands, the filmmakers had an actor lip-sync several numbers after the headliners had already finished. Apparently the crowd was unaware that the band was fake or even that they were being filmed.
With hours of footage completed, the filming was shut down and equipment confiscated by the Hungarian government for non-payment of bills and fees. Grizzly II was never officially released, but bootlegs appeared over the years with other soundtracks. Several years ago, the finished footage, along with extra material from the construction of the concert stages, the concert and rehearsals, was used in order to get the film to feature length. Even with all that, additional nature film was added and even used more than once.
Pretty doubtful that George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen have this on the resumes, but all three plus John Rhys-Davies and Louise Fletcher now have this on the resumes. Davies and Fletcher would have been the 'big names' back when the film was originally shot, but these were probably among the first films roles for the three young actors. Naturally, even though they only have maybe less than ten minutes of screen time (in the very opening scenes) they are listed as the film's stars.
If you thought that Bruce the Shark was better with having less screen time, the scenes with the "bear" are even sadder. An animatronic bear was built and used, along with a puppet and footage of an actual bear (not half as big as it was supposed to be in the film). Scenes from the bear's perspective are used peeking through the limbs of trees or low angle shots as it runs through the woods. You had to feel bad for the poor camera guy trying to get 'bear cam' that was usable. The ending scenes at the festival with the bear attacking everyone, while fireworks explode, is something to behold.
Finally, the filmmakers were able to get permission to use some of the music of Bernard Herrmann to use in the soundtrack, along with the music of the various bands. Prior to the attacks and the scenes where the bear is chasing someone the musical score gets as close to the Jaws theme as I think it was legal to get.
Sometimes you just get to see a film that is so bad that it is fascinating. It's currently on Prime. I give it a 2.5 out of 5, just for seeing those young actors and both Davies & Fletcher really chewing up the scenery.
