Day of the Animals (1977)★★☆☆☆

(Sorry, lots of spoilers, and brief mention of sexual assault) If you’ve ever wanted to see Leslie Nielsen wrestle a bear, this is the movie for you! This is like the American version of Long Weekend, basically. Though I guess this one came first.

It’s VERY 1970s. But also somehow a Western? They have Michael Ansara playing a part-Native American character? Leslie Nielsen plays a super bigoted ad executive. At one point, probably the worst scene in the whole film, just before the best scene in the whole film (aforementioned bear), Leslie Nielsen’s character is about to rape one of the women. I guess the point is that these hikers are also affected by the same ozone issues the animals are, but…wow.

I actually liked a lot about this movie better than Long Weekend…outside Leslie Nielsen, I liked a lot of the characters in this, and aside from John throwing rocks around, they weren’t destroying nature (and yet, nature still tried to destroy them).

But it’s hard to get over the racism and sexism and sexual assault, and while there were some neat shots of aggressive animals, the movie wasn’t scary and it definitely dragged on a lot. For a cautionary tale about the dangers of aerosols…I don’t know, watch Captain Planet cartoons, or something? You don’t need to watch this.