Grizzly Night (2026) Review

On the 12th of August 1967, in Montana’s Glacier National Park, there were not one but two fatal attacks by bears, each incident occurring within nine miles of the other. Burke Doeren’s Grizzly Night is a dramatisation of the horrifying happenings which unfolded that day and tells the story of the victims and the people who banded together to face the ordeal.

Following a brief, ominous cold open, the story winds back a few hours and introduces us to a group of park rangers, specifically Joan Devereaux (Lauren Call) and Leonard Landa (Michael Vlamis). With news of a grizzly which has recently scared a group of Girl Scouts, awareness is heightened but not to the point where anyone should be particularly worried. After all, the bears are generally there to grab any food they can and immediately lumber away into the wilderness. However, they’re becoming less and less afraid of the human presence in their environment and tragedy is inevitable.

Anyone expecting a rip-roaring time in the tradition of William Girdler’s scuzzy 1976 exploiter Grizzly – which could possibly be inferred further if you’ve watched the trailer – may be thrown by the focus on the human drama and the rather sobering, sombre edge to the tale. Yes, there’s suspense here but it’s less of the manufactured type and more to do with the fact that the viewer knows that something awful is likely to happen to innocent folks.

With Landa reluctantly accepting his relegation to observational duties, the story primarily follows recent recruit Devereaux and how she deals with the escalating nightmare. Call turns in a fine performance as she battles with those who call her skills into question, kicking against an unwelcome dose of Sixties sexism while she wrestles with her own lack of experience and doubts as to whether she can keep a chalet full of tourists safe. It’s hardly an original conceit and some of the fictionalised exchanges are a tad too on the nose but Devereaux proves to be an agreeable heroine of the everyday variety.

Meanwhile, a group of campers has unwittingly pitched up close to what has shifted from picnic zone to kill zone and, as one of their number is savagely attacked and another dragged away, their paths will cross with those just a few miles down the road as both parties look to escape the danger and cope with the horrific aftermath, putting pressure on Doctor John Lindberg (The Mummy’s Oded Fehr in silver fox mode) as he uses the chalet as an ersatz emergency room and attempts to stitch up or plug a number of nausea-inducing injury effects.

Swerving the need to amp up the action or the scares, Grizzly Night turns out to be an ultimately downbeat and resolutely unsensational treatment of a true story, respecting its real life casualties and refusing to apportion blame unfairly. At one point, Devereaux muses “This was our fault, wasn’t it?” but there’s no obvious villainy or wilful negligence on display but a series of outdated practices and bad decisions which combined to create the conditions for such a dreadful sequence of events.

Doeren, the cinematographer on the intriguing Vlamis starrer Crossword, keeps things admirably low key in terms of direction and juggles a stacked cast of characters, some of whom can’t help but get lost in the shuffle in order to keep the runtime down but Call stands out, as does Brec Bassinger as Julie, whose sunny disposition makes it all the more of a wrench when she finds herself in danger. References to Jefferson Airplane, the Summer of Love and the ongoing conflict in Vietnam seem to serve only as a reminder to when the movie is set rather than enhancing the proceedings but the central dilemma of being stuck in a hostile habitat with restricted means of communication is just as valid now.

If you go into Grizzly Night expecting a no holds barred, ursine-driven bloodbath, you’re going to be disappointed. However, if you set those presumptions aside, you’ll find a carefully constructed take on a dark day in the history of National Parks which led to lessons being learned in the most horrendous way possible. The bear attacks are measured yet still frightening, the worst excesses of the carnage are wisely relegated to a glimpse or two and the decision to favour realistic, bone chilling terror over unnecessary gore and overplayed attacks is a sensible one.

Movie Rating:

Grizzly Night trailer