Nature run amok movies were big business at drive-in's across the country during the seventies and William Girdler, probably best known for his blaxploitation knock off of The Exorcist which landed him in some hot water, was at the forefront of this goofy sub genre with efforts like Grizzly, which proved to be quite successful. His second effort in the genre was this fan favorite, Day Of The Animals, which would prove to be Girdler's penultimate production as he was killed in a helicopter crash a year after it was made in 1978 shooting Manitou which would be his last picture.

Steve Buckner (Christopher George) leads a group of would be hikers on an excursion up into the mountains but what they don't realize is that due to the depletion of the ozone layer way up there, there are toxins in the area from the sun's radiation that have made the animal populace overly aggressive. It starts slowly enough, but once they've moved from the relative safety of the area surrounding the town at the base of the great hill, things get ugly and our hikers soon come to the realization that pretty much everything 'out there' is gunning for them, which wouldn't be as big a deal as it is if Buckner was okay with his hikers carrying firearms, but he isn't, which means that they're up there all alone without and rifles to defend themselves with.

This, of course, causes some understandable stress amount of posse of intrepid adventurers, made all the more intense when one of their group, Paul (Leslie Neilson of The Naked Gun movies) becomes tainted with the same toxins that has made the animals so enraged. As the chemicals overtake his body his mind regresses and his natural aggressions come out, which results in his murdering one of his fellow hikers in cold blood. With this deed done, the group starts to implode on itself and no one really trusts anyone else and Paul regresses even further, raping a fellow hiker and, in the highlight of the movie, going head to head with a grizzly bear. They don't realize that the town below has been attacked by many of the same animals that they now find themselves surrounded by, as snakes, wolves, bears and even chipmunks all gear up for the attack. Maybe they can make it to the Ranger station in time….

Difficult to take seriously thanks to some wonky science (how did the owls get exposed to the sun and why does this phenomena only affect critters and people at five thousand feet of altitude or higher?) Day Of The Animals is never the less a completely entertaining movie, even if it falls pretty squarely into the guilty pleasure category. Girdler's direction is reliable here and he proves once again that he really did know how to work within the confines of a low budget, making the most of his locations and his cat of recognizable b-movie veterans. Speaking of which, Leslie Neilson takes home the award for craziest bad guy of the film. He's a jerk from the start and we're able to instantly dislike him thanks to his annoying personality and bad attitude but once he gets infected, watch out, because he's going to rip off his shirt like the Incredible Hulk and start yelling at everyone. Seeing Frank from The Naked Gun go all feral is worth the price of admission alone but we also get the undeniable charming screen presence of the lovely Lynda Day George (of Pieces fame!) and her always swanky hubby, Christopher George (also of Pieces fame!) to boot! Many of the supporting actors and actresses, such as Jon Ceder, Paul Mantee and Ruth Roman are recognizable from their many television roles and the movie becomes a fun game of 'where do I recognize that guy from?' as it plays out.

Goofiness aside, Day Of The Animals actually does have an interesting message underneath it all. It's heavy handed and preachy in its execution but pollution and urban sprawl and all that good stuff are still viable problems today, even more so than they were when Girdler made his film. The ozone layer isn't necessarily getting any better either. Hopefully it won't turn the German Shepherds and raccoons of the world against as, but hopefully it will make Leslie Neilson fight more bears.

Video:

Well, here's where the bad news hits you like a brick to the face. There are two versions of the movie present on this DVD – the first is the theatrical version and it's titled as Something Is Out There. This version hits DVD in its original 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, but unfortunately the print is in completely dire condition and the quality is on par with something you might get in a twenty movies for ten dollars public domain package. There are scratches everywhere, the colors are flat, the print is muddy and riddled with print damage, and about thirty three minutes in some dialogue just completely drops out of the movie all together. Ick.

Good thing that the television version, titled Day Of The Animals here, is included, right? Wrong! The TV version was matted from 2.351. to a 4x3 pan and scan presentation. What has Media Blasters done in their infinite wisdom? In order to make this version of the film anamorphic they've further matted that 4x3 pan and scan presentation to 1.78.1 by slapping black bars on the top and the bottom so that you are literally missing roughly half the picture at any given time. This is made doubly frustrating by the fact that aspect ratio issues aside, the quality of the print used for this second transfer is far superior to the one used for the theatrical version even if it is still far from perfect. Let it stand, for the record that the video quality on this release, quite frankly, sucks and it's pretty insulting that the title has been handled as shoddily as it has in this department on this release. It should also be mentioned that there isn't any noticeable difference between the two versions in terms of content aside from the fact that the TV version does contain the missing dialogue that the theatrical version drops out and the title change.

Both version also show compression artifacts (probably due to having both versions on a single sided disc) and neither one is properly flagged for progressive scan playback which means that you'll notice those nasty saw tooth artifacts if your gear is setup to take advantage of that feature.