YMMV / Day of the Animals

• Cult Classic: At the time of it's release, this film was written off as another one-of-a-million "When Nature Attacks" films ripping off Jaws, though in the years since, it has come to be regarded as one of the better films in the genre since it features almost every forest animal attacking instead of just one species and is a go-to creature feature for fans of '70s horror/nature-attacks films.
• Harsher in Hindsight: After Jensen has been killed by a bear after murdering Bob, the surviving members of his group come upon a crashed helicopter surrounded by it's dead crew. Director William Girdler himself would later lose his life in a helicopter crash less than a year after Day of the Animals hit theaters.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The little girl that Frank rescues bears a strong resemblance to Newt and, like Newt, she is found alone, her parents presumably having been killed by animals.
  • A grown adult and a small child find themselves trapped in a two-door Ford that won't start and are surrounded by vicious dogs out for their blood. Day of the Animals or Cujo?
  • Susan Blacklinie plays a character named Mandy Young nearly two decades before Shawnee Smith would rise to prominence playing another Amanda (Mandy) Young in the "Saw" movie series.
• Narm: Several animal attacks fall under this, mostly due to trained domesticated animals having to act vicious and feral;
  • The wolf that mauls Mandy is approaching her in a timid fashion and is clearly looking off to the side to it's trainer for assurance.
  • When the sheriff is attacked by rats in his kitchen, the rats' body language is not at all aggressive. At worst they're confused by being pulled through the air on string.
  • The group is startled by a chimney falling off the top of a cabin and look up to see a German shepherd as the culprit... sitting on the cabin's roof smiling and panting with it's tongue out, looking down at the cast if expecting treats!
  • During the climactic seige by German shepherds, if the snarling and growling sounds are muted, one will notice the dogs are licking their "victims" and the ones seen on the raft that the survivors of Buckner's group use to escape are clearly wagging their tails and enjoying the sudden river ride!
• Narm Charm:
  • Dog lovers will find the scenes involving the intendedly-vicious German shepherds being obviously playful to be rather cute.
  • While the idea of large predatory animals such as bears, wolves, and cougars taking orders from a golden eagle several times smaller than they are may seem inherently silly, it actually makes sense; being an avian, the golden eagle is able to go from place to place much faster and is harder for other animals to prey on it, since it is capable of perching itself high up in a tree and taking off to safety if one of it's terrestrial forest brethren reaches it.
• Moral Event Horizon: If Jensen didn't already cross it by physically abusing Shirley and threatening to kill Johnny, who, by the way, is a child, then he certainly crosses it by murdering Bob and attempting to rape Beth.
• Nightmare Fuel: If you're afraid of rats, wolves, snakes, bears, dogs, and/or birds, beware!
• Nightmare Retardant: For people who know something about animal behavior, many of the scenes of the "attacking" animals are this. Aside from obvious goofs like dogs wildly wagging their tails as they attack, the wolf that 'savages' Susan Backlinie is seen approaching her in an an obviously timid fashion, and is pretty clearly looking off to the side for reassurance from its trainer.
• So Bad, It's Good: The silly science behind animals' behavior (not to mention that they seem to know that humans are to blame for everything), a cast with laughable dynamics between them, and the crowner of it all is Leslie Nielsen, who later became famous for his roles in comedies, acting like a douchebag who tries to wrestle a bear make for an enjoyable romp.
• Spiritual Successor: To Grizzly which came out the previous year; both movies take place in heavily-wooded areas, feature animals turning on man which includes a bear, and both were not only Billy Girdler-directed films, but both were produced by Film Ventures International and have Christopher George and Richard Jaeckel. in the cast.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Pretty much the entire group is irksome to watch, as they can be categorized in only one of the following personality groups: clueless, annoying, jerkass, or having no discernible personality at all. The worst moment is definitely when half the group is pinned down in the cabin by the now rabid dogs; at least one of them was unfairly abandoned and could have escaped if someone helped them during the attack, but the rest of the group just ditches them to die when they possibly could've made it with assistance.

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