Horrorfest 2021 Presents: Shakma (1990, Hugh Parks, Tom Logan)

Shakma was made at the end of the 1980s slasher craze so instead of a crazy person armed with sharp objects it’s a murderous baboon instead. Medical students screw with a monkey’s brains and so the monkey rises up to screw the students back in return. It’s not exactly high art, yet this flick had it’s fair share of decent moments.

Christopher Atkins, Amanda Wyss, Ari Meyers and Roddy McDowall headline a cast of victims I mean students who at least have a reason why they’re stuck in the facility they work at. They decided to play a game, not realizing that Shakma (boy is that name fun to say) is lurking around. The kills in this movie are brutal, sure, even if the characters are paper thin, which is to be expected in this kind of movie.

Even though I’m not sure if I liked this movie or not, I give it style points for how it ended. Killer animal movies are usually a mixed bag and often silly, and while this one has some cheese it’s definitely better than most similar flicks. This movie also has two good elevator scenes which has to count for something.

Horrorfest 2020 Presents: Squirm (1976, Jeff Lieberman)

The killer animals movie Squirm is goofy, silly, and yet watchable in that kind of 1970s cult movie charm that works. Is it a good movie? Nah but it is a decent one featuring likable people and some hilarious lines such as “Now you’re gonna be the worm face!” The killer worm death scenes are actually gross, too, which helps even though this movie definitely could have used more gore and worm violence.

A storm causes worms to go crazy and murder people, or something. The plot is not important here. Plus you have one guy going crazy after getting worms in his face, which I guess would drive anyone nuts. I do want to watch the MST3K skewering of this flick, just because I bet the jokes are fun. I miss environmentally based killer animal movies-they just don’t make them like they used to anymore.

Horrorfest 2019 Presents: Day of the Animals (1977, William Girdler)

Unfortunately Day of the Animals is not as good as William Girdler’s other, more solid effort, Grizzly. However I still enjoyed certain aspects of this wonderfully dumb movie made at the height of the killer animal craze that all started with Jaws in 1975. One the main reasons to watch this hilariously bad film is to witness Leslie Nielsen hamming it up as the film’s racist, woman hating bad guy who ends up fighting a bear shirtless. Yes, you read that right: for some reason Leslie Nielsen loses his mind and decides that he is king of the forest, until a giant bear shows up and shows him who’s boss. However some of the animal kills are surprisingly good for a low budget horror film made in the 1970s.

Oh and Christopher and Lynda Day George are both likable main characters, so that helps. The reasons for nature being so angry are poorly explained, and I doubt in a year or so I will even recall watching this film. I did not hate Day of the Animals, but I didn’t like it, and so it exists in the collection of “Hey I saw that! I guess!” movies that I often see during the year.

Horrorfest 2016 Presents: Grizzly (1976, William Girdler)

Finally, a decent Jaws knockoff that manages to be fun, cheesy and actually thrilling. Grizzly may be unrealistic, yet I was still entertained by the travels of a gigantic bear that terrorizes a national forest. One of the scenes where the grizzly horribly murders two campers is gruesome and shocking, which I did not expect from this film at all. In fact despite being a low budget film this movie has a solid pace, and wisely uses the fear of the monster as well as showcasing its violent attacks. Even though I do not recognize any of the cast, I still liked all of them, primarily the film’s hero, Michael Kelly, played stoically by Christopher George. Much like Jaws the film centers around three men hunting the creature, the other two in this case being a helicopter pilot, Don, and a naturalist, Arthur. I also like that the film used an actual live bear for the attack scenes, which makes them less silly and more powerful.

That said, the film does engage in some silly moments, mainly the unintentionally hilarious part where the bear manages to bring down a fire lookout tower, killing the ranger hiding up above. Also the film’s ending involves, well, the use of something unexpected. With that in mind I still like William Girdler’s film, and it manages to be not a bad knockoff of a more famous and better horror film. Even though I am not particularly scare of grizzly bears, even though I wouldn’t want to encounter one in the wild. Especially one that is 15 feet tall and likes to maul people to death.

Horrorfest 2014 Presents: Orca: The Killer Whale (1977, Michael Anderson)

Joe Bob Briggs’ commentary on this film is complete gold, and is far better than anything I could possibly write about this movie. In fact there is a good movie in here somewhere, however Orca is overall a mediocre at best Jaws rip off that fails hard because it journeys into self-parody. The film also has some of the most hilarious slow motion deaths in cinema history, as the angry killer whale has to rely on his victims to literally hang over the boat in order for him to grab them. Did I mention that the big angry whale is also seeking revenge? Does it matter that really such a thing isn’t possible? Nope. This is a movie so reality is suspended, however there is only so much that I can take before I start to laugh and write off what is happening onscreen. Case in point: the Orca manages to attack a power station, followed by it giving Richard Harris the death stare as he stands on land. Now that’s one intelligent pissed off animal. This film is literally if Free Willy’s mate was killed and he decided to go on an epic killing spree-in fact maybe Free Willy is really what would happen if Mr. Orca decided to befriend a kid instead of murdering people. But where would the fun be in that?

What’s even worse about this movie is that it wastes a good cast that includes besides Harris Charlotte Rampling (who is given very little to do whatsoever), Keenan Wynn, Bo Derek (before she became famous-what happens to her is one of the film’s highlights) Robert Carradine and a post One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Will Sampson, who has some of the film’s less cringe worthy lines. Although I liked certain moments and I didn’t mind the film’s ridiculous plot I still cannot give this film a passing grade. And yes I must stress viewing Joe Bob Briggs’ MonsterVision commentary for this film because it is really quite humorous. I’m not sure why the 70s became so killer animal obsessed as Jaws wasn’t the earliest example, even if it did end up becoming the most famous and best of the bunch. Oh and for some reason this film has a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone. I hope he got paid really well for composing music for this turkey.