Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Tayyab Torres
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Yash Wade
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Scott LeBrun
Gloriously insane "Nature Strikes Back" cinema from director Franco Prosperi, the "Godfather of Mondo", who delivers action and violence in very high doses, and has a body count...well, to die for. Much like many entries in this genre, the animal rampage is the result of human screw up. High levels of PCP contaminate the water supply of a zoo in a major European city. As a result, all the animals - including tigers, bears, and elephants - go crazy, bust out of the zoo, and terrorize the unlucky citizens of this city. The hero on the case is zoo employee Rupert "Rip" Berner (John Aldrich, in his only feature film appearance), and his leading lady is journalist Laura Schwarz (French beauty Lorraine De Selle, "Cannibal Ferox").Prosperi decides early on, to Hell with good taste and common sense, and gives us a messed up horror film to cherish. Among our colorful characters are a daughter (Louisa Lloyd) who mocks and disrespects her mother, and a police inspector (Ugo Bologna, "Nightmare City") who obviously really likes to snack. The animal action is definitely first rate, and the various set pieces are comprised of actual animal attacks choreographed and supervised by circus trainers, and special effects. The delightful highlights include a cheetah attempting to run down a potential victim who's driving away, and elephants suffocating one person with a trunk, and stomping another chumps' head flat. (There really is some first rate gore here, as witness the after effects of a massacre by rats.) Prosperi wastes very little time in getting to the good stuff, and there's an amusing subplot late in the game involving that contaminated water.Aldrich is a cheesy looking but entertaining guy, De Selle makes for a pretty decent heroine, young Lloyd is a definite hoot, and Bologna is a treat to watch.If you love this genre, and haven't seen this one yet, I recommend you see it as soon as possible.Eight out of 10.
atinder
The water supply for a large city zoo becomes contaminated with PCP, and the animals go crazy and get loose.I can't believe I never even heard of this movie before this week, these creature feature was great.We had Tigers, Bears, Elephants , Bulls , Dogs , Fats all going crazy And killing.There were some really good gory moments in this.I really like how the movie came to end as the story kind of took a turn and That I found intense.Loved this movie, I can not believe I have not seen it before!9 out of 10
Chase_Witherspoon
An inner-city zoo's electrical lock-down security fails, resulting in a number of predators (made rabid by a contaminated water supply) being released to wreak havoc on the local community. It's up to animal expert De Selle and companion Aldrich (a John Oates look-a-like) to warn potential meals and lure the most dangerous, back to the confines of the habitat. Sounds engrossing but the execution is less compelling than the concept. The animal wranglers in this film deliver the goods, with plenty of menace displayed through flashing teeth and aggressive posturing; even some of the attacks look realistic (my personal favourite being the elephant destroying a car in which a pair of cowering bystanders had taken refuge).Aldrich starts off trying to lure De Selle into some animal husbandry of their own, but it seems there's some urgent taxidermy work to be done back at the lab. Meanwhile, De Selle (who survived Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust to appear in this film) is taunted by her precocious daughter, who narrowly escapes becoming a real little monster in the film's laughably devilish twist ending. Some truly innovative and in some cases comical methods are devised by which to cancel cast members (the rats attacking the bare-breasted woman shows that director Prosperi's sadomasochistic flair is on par with that of the Marquis de Sade) most of them transient, introduced solely for the purposes of being dispatched with grisly efficiency. By exception, veteran actor Ugo Bologna has a sizable supporting role as the concerned police inspector.But while the violence committed against the cast members is obviously staged (yes, even the rats picking out the eyes of the car-seat canoodlers isn't as real as it appears), the animals are spared no such reprieve, many of them slaughtered in shameless exploitation, a grossly damning indictment on the trend in Italian horror movies of that era. Stepping off the soap box for just a moment, "Wild Beasts" while obscure, isn't without interest and should appeal to anyone with a penchant for the eco-horror genre.
HumanoidOfFlesh
Franco Prosperi's "The Wild Beasts" is a fairly routine Italian horror flick about nature gone nuts.The real animals were used in this movie and in many cases killed just for the sake of this Italian shocker.The animal attack scenes are very gory,but the photography by Franco Delli Colli is too murky.The use of animals in "The Wild Beasts" is quite stunning,unfortunately the acting is truly horrible.Still it's nice to see Lorraine De Selle of "Cannibal Ferox" and "House on the Edge of the Park" fame in the main role as a professor.There is also a really tense sequence where a cheetah chases a VW bug down the road and a scene where some rats are burned off a windshield in slow motion.So if you are a fan of Italian horror cinema give this one a look.7 out of 10.
