Grizzly II: Revenge

In the vast Yellowstone National Park, Grizzly bears and other wildlife roam free. Hikers and campers abound. The National Park Service is charged with the protection of the Park and its wildlife. The rangers are always on the lookout for poachers. The Park is preparing for a major rock concert to be held over 3 days in Grover Meadows and expects 50,000 people in attendance. At the Ranger Station, Nick Hollister, chief of rangers, is briefing the rangers on the upcoming event.

Harvey, a poacher, is hunting for a grizzly and ends up killing a cub and wounding its mother. The Grizzly, seeking revenge, viciously attacks and kills Harvey. Nick and Pete, Head Park Ranger, relay the news to Eileene Draygon, the Superintendent of Summit. They press Draygon to halt the concert for everyone’s safety, but Draygon declines to get involved.

Back at the Ranger Station, Samantha Owens, director of Bear Management, is adamantly opposed to killing the Grizzly. She insists on locating the bear and tranquilizing and relocating it with the help of Bouchard, the world-famous grizzly expert from Canada. Three teenagers, Ron, Tina and Lance are hiking through the park to the concert. They enter a grizzly territory which is restricted. They camp without any clue of the terror they will face. Later that evening, they are attacked and killed by the Grizzly.

The next morning, Nick, Pete and Samantha find the bodies of Ron, Tina and Lance, which heightens concern for the concert scheduled the next day. Nick demands that his men find and destroy the Grizzly. Running out of options, Nick drives to see Draygon and gives her a report on the new killings. Nick asks for help but Draygon refuses again. Meanwhile back in the forest, Pete finds the other poachers and wants to take them into custody. Instead, they attack Pete leaving him unconscious. The Grizzly finds Pete and chases him into a cave where she kills him.

Concert day comes, Charlie, the concert manager is making the final arrangements. Large crowds are arriving. Meanwhile, the poachers are also creating traps by digging large holes and planting sharp and deadly sticks into them. The Grizzly roams the forest, finds the poachers and kills them easily. The chase continues, Nick and Samantha, the rangers, Bouchard, all scatter to track down the Grizzly. The Grizzly finds its way to the concert grounds. The concert goes on and the crowd enjoys the cutting-edge [English] rock bands.

Backstage, Bouchard encounters the Grizzly and stabs at her but the Grizzly swipes Bouchard with her arm and kills him. Nick has to act fast. He gets the Grizzly’s attention and lures her to her side of the concert stage containing the high voltage, which the Grizzly falls into and is killed. Draygon acts as if the dying bear was part of the action. The concert audience is cheering and applauding and doesn’t know what happened.

The principal photography with the tentative title The Predator was completed in 1983. Joseph Ford Proctor, the producer, left the scene after the first day of the shoot and there was no fund to continue the film. Suzanne C. Nagy, the co-producer, found an investor and the principle photography was therefore finished in 45 days. At a later time, she found out that Joseph Proctor was in jail for a non-related business transaction.[1]

A bootleg version with the workprint was illegally uploaded on YouTube in 2007 from a bad quality VHS tape. Suzanne C. Nagy who owns the title Grizzly II and its sequel rights didn’t remove the illegal workprint until 2018.[2] At that time, her company GBGB International, was already working on the completion of Grizzly II. Revenge.[3] The movie was finished on January 2020 and entered into various film festivals until the company decided to enter into a licensing agreement with Gravitas Ventures.[4] From August 2020, Gravitas Ventures represents the movie worldwide and will release the film on video on demand, DVD and Blu-ray on January 8, 2021[5]

Various magazines and websites such as The Ringer[6] and Empire Magazine[7] have released articles regarding the movie's production, release halt, and the steps took to finally give it an official release almost four decades later. Other articles and interviews published are on MovieWeb,[8] Bloody Disgusting,[9] Birth.Movies.Death..[10] Grizzly II screenplay writer Suzanne C. Nagy also did an interview on the film that can be seen on The Good, The Bad, and The Sequel Podcast YouTube channel.[11]

Like the first film, critical reception was also negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 9% based on reviews from 11 critics.[12]

Dennis Harvey from Variety refers the film as an "incomplete mess". He criticizes the top billing notices of George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen despite each only appearing on screen for a few minutes and the poor quality special effects, especially for the bear attack scenes, calling them "cheesily abrupt, poorly disguising faulty effects work". He also finds the film's music score to be random sound pieces splice together and not coherent.[13] Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times calls out the film's directing being that of "touching incompetence". Catsoulis finds the dialogue dopey, the tone uncertain at times, and the demise of the mama bear to be disappointing and needed a better send-off.[14]

The film was first screened at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival on February 17, 2020.[15] Since then, the movie was shown in various film festivals like the Monmouth Film Festival,[16] Lisbon International Horror Film Festival,[17] Knoxville Horror Film Festival,[18] Chicago International Film Festival,[19] LA Crime and Horror Film Festival,[20] and Popcorn Frights Film Festival[21]

• Official website
• Grizzly II: Revenge at IMDb