Day of the Animals Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Day of the Animals Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 13, 2021

Director William Girdler and distributor and producer Edward L. Montoro had an unexpected hit on their hands with Grizzly in 1976, a film which kind of unapologetically referred to itself in a vintage featurette included on Severin's new Blu-ray release of the film as "Jaws with Claws". With box office receipts piling up to unimaginable heights (at least within the context of relatively low budget independent fare), the only logical conclusion was to up the ante by offering more than simply a marauding bear to threaten various human being types in a follow up film, resulting in Day of the Animals. As some of the fairly copious supplementary material detailed in our Grizzly Blu-ray review gets into, Grizzly may have been the first of the so-called "eco horror" films to arrive after Jaws made such an inimitable impression, but it most certainly wasn't the last, as evidenced by Day of the Animals itself. In a way, though, Day of the Animals is even more "ecologically" minded than either Jaws or Grizzly was, since it overtly gets into "scientific" matters like ozone depletion, supposed data which is in fact doled out in a crawl as the film opens, in what is kind of a "modern day" (albeit circa 1977) version of appropriating various ostensible facts like the somewhat hilarious text information about "ice therapy" that opens the recently reviewed old Boris Karloff film The Man with Nine Lives (see screenshot 19 accompanying this review for a snippet of this scholarly introduction).

Day of the Animals received a prior release on Blu-ray way back in 2013 from Scorpion Releasing. Those wanting a plot summary can refer to Brian Orndorf's Day of the Animals Blu-ray review of that version. Brian's review is also a good resource for screenshot comparisons between the two versions, as well as seeing what supplements are offered on each release. I repeat my oft quoted mantra that "different reviewers means different opinions", as I'm evidently not quite the fan of Day of the Animals that Brian is.

Day of the Animals Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Day of the Animals is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1 (those comparing versions will note that the Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray was in 2.35:1). Brian felt that the Scorpion version was going to offer the film in the best version available, but this version, advertised by Severin on the back cover of this release as "featuring a 2K scan from the internegative" will probably give the Scorpion version a run for its money. The palette is just a bit different looking in this version, as you can see if you compare some of the similarly framed screenshots I've included in an attempt to mimic some of the screenshots Brian included with his review. The Scorpion version looks considerably brighter at times than this version, but I personally actually prefer the overall brightness and color temperature of the Severin release. That brightness on the Scorpion version may give at least the appearance of improved clarity and sharpness, but, again, the Severin version offers a nicely organic appearance that can admittedly look a bit softer by comparison, but which still retains more than adequate detail levels. There are some passing issues with crush and a lack of fine detail in some night or day for night material, and there are some minor signs of age related wear and tear that can be spotted. There are some noticeable variances between what I'm assuming was either second unit work or perhaps even stock footage of the various beasts that run amok in the film, with grain structure differences being particularly evident. My score is 4.25.

Day of the Animals Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Day of the Animals features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track (the Scorpion Releasing version offers both DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks). One of the benefits of Grizzly raking in so much money is that, despite the fact that Grizzly's score by Robert O. Ragland is generally considered one of the better elements of that film (if at times rather anachronistic), Montoro and Girdler suddenly had enough cash to hire a "name" composer, and this film features a really great score by the legendary Lalo Schifrin. The music sounds nicely warm and full bodied here, and all dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly. Some of the animal sound effects sound like they may have been sourced from a library, and so there can be occasional variances in ambience and amplitude. Optional English subtitles are available.

Day of the Animals Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Nightmare USA Author Stephen Thrower on the Career of Distributor Edward L. Montoro (HD; 20:38) is a fantastic companion piece to Thrower's biography of director William Girdler that is included as a supplement on Grizzly. Once again I kind of jokingly wondered if Thrower had been cue cards adorning the room to let him reference the many data points he seems to be covering from memory.


• Nature Boy (HD; 17:49) is an interview with actor Bobby Porter.


• Against Nature (HD; 12:55) is an interview with actor Andrew Stevens.


• Monty Cox Unleashed (HD; 18:10) is an interview with the animal wrangler for Day of the Animals.


• Lynda and the Animals (HD; 5:14) is an interview with actress Lynda Day George.


• Something Was Out There: Day of the Animals 30 Years Later (SD; 21:44) is an archival making of featurette.


• Alternate Opening Title Sequence Something is Out There (HD; 00:38)


• Radio Spot (HD; 00:28) plays to key art.


• TV Spots (HD; 00:32) & (SD; 00:55)


• Trailer (HD; 1:12)


• Audio Commentary with Lee Gambin, Author of Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film is accessible under the Setup menu. Gambin provides another wide ranging commentary, which covers a number of technical data points like cinematography and score, as well as the underlying eco horror themes the story explores.


• Audio Commentary with Actors Lynda Day George and Jon Cedar, moderated by Evil Dead II Co-writer Scott Spiegel is accessible under the Setup menu. This is a bit more raucous and chatty, though it has some slow patches as well, with the co-stars reminiscing about the production.

Day of the Animals Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Day of the Animals is probably better than Grizzly, but that may frankly be damning with faint praise. If the film itself has more than a few issues, this disc is another great offering from Severin. Technical merits are generally solid, and both of the commentaries are great listens, with the other supplemental materials adding to the allure. Recommended.