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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This film could have been much scarier and some segments hinted at its potential. But I didn't find myself bored. I'd say about 30% of the scenes (in isolation) were quite good but got tainted by weaker scenes throughout. The acting was average.I liked the all-too-common message of corrupt polluters looking the other way, even though the outcome was exaggerated vs. real life. Methyl Mercury can cause deformities but probably not gigantic creatures. The bulbous Katahdin "bear" was possibly meant to be supernatural, though. It's predictable that a number of people disliked this movie because of its ecological tone, and I wish we could ship them to another planet to ruin in isolation.I was inspired to write this review to point out one of the biggest flaws: If you see a mangled baby something-or-other (bear?) with sharp teeth and claws, you don't stuff it inside your jacket and care for it like a puppy! The woman found this out toward the end when it started gnawing on her neck, but that was oddly downplayed. I didn't understand the urgency of keeping it alive since the corpse would have sufficed, unless they thought the lumbermen might have taken it for a hoax.Anyhow, this movie is worth watching but could have been more polished and realistic.

Robert Foxworth plays biologist Dr. Robert Verne, who, along with his wife(Talia Shire) flies to the remote wilderness of Maine to investigate claims by the local Native American tribe(led by Armand Assante) that a paper factory is poisoning the environment, resulting in polluted waters and deformed children. Though the paper company official(played by Richard Dysart) denies all responsibility, it soon becomes obvious that they are responsible, since the water is indeed poisoned with mercury, which has also created a giant mutant bear who indiscriminately kills anyone that crosses its path. Everyone joins forces to flee the creature, and find a way to stop it.Potentially interesting horror tale is ruined by clichés and unintentional humor, with some ineptly staged attack scenes, and poor special effects. Surprisingly weak film from veteran director John Frankenheimer, though has become a semi-cult classic!

You can easily say that this is not your average bear. Nor killer bear. Think "Grizzly"… only angrily mutated. Film-maker John Frankenheimer's ecological crossed monstrous creature feature outing is one smartly explored commentary, but at the same time outrageously daft experience in low-end b-grade exploitation. After a curiously ominous opening to sucker you in, it then focuses on the melodramas and political aspects of the story / script. Somewhat talkatively preachy with the environmental issues (a chemical disruption in the evolution stages of the animals in rural Maine) and slow-going as a land dispute erupts between the lumber company and the native Indians, but this is to make sure that the latter end would have much more of an impact. In which case it surprisingly does, although that's when the make-up FX shows up with our frenzied creation and what was presented can only be labelled as cheaply hokey. Before then we would only get the heavy breathing. After that promising intro, it takes almost a good hour before our hideous bear goes on the rampage again and this next attack while quick is risibly captured. From then onwards it's a battle of survival in the elements and there are a lot of aggressive bursts where a lot people go flying across the screen. I guess it doesn't like it when you're looking at it. Hard not to though. Director Frankenheimer slickly crafts it out with some beautifully shot landscapes, but also well placed splatter inflicted shocks and an atmospheric night-time lake encounter. The further along it goes, the sillier it does get. Leonard Rosenman's music score is forcefully cued. The performances are tolerable with the likes of Talia Shire (who's always looks a stunned dear in headlights), Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante and Richard Dysart. A nastily so-so little cult fare that ends on those predictably common final shots."I don't think anybody's listening"

One of those - How did they screw this up so badly? films. A doctor and his wife leave the big city and take refuge in the Maine wilderness, only to find just as much, if not more, conflict. The corporate lumbermen harass the local Indian tribe, who resent their treatment of the land. The local lumberyard is pumping toxic mercury into the environment leading to an outbreak of birth deformities, but are more interested in covering it up than cleaning it up. And somewhere in the woods is an enraged gigantic beast that is attacking campers and the local populace.There is a lot of juicy tidbits here, yet director John Frankenheimer (responsible for the amazing The Manchurian Candidate) somehow lets the film get completely away from him. The film is really just a straight horror thriller with topical political overtones, but it rarely engages on any level. The conflict between the corporate interests and the Indians remains static at best. The film's groundwork for the revelation of the giant monster consists of a giant trout that swims to the surface of a lake and gobbles a duck and a large piece of rubber that someone proclaims a "tadpole", all of which are borderline laughable. The subplot of the local deformities in human babies is underplayed.Yet for all of this the film should really work on a visceral level as a horror film. There is something inherently frightening about the dark forest at night, with strange sounds emanating from all around. This is something that the film never really takes advantage of. The latter third of the film is basically a lengthy pursuit of a diversity of eclectic characters trying to escape the onslaught of the rampaging monster, and this works much better than what has proceeded it, but it still does not work as potently as it should. Some of the earlier attack scenes are too few and far between - including a bungled opening sequence that is no where near as effective as the film seems to believe and a borderline laughable assault on a camping family memorable for the hilarious burst sleeping bag and feathers moment. The film pushes the then PG-rated boundaries with some surprising violence in the latter portion, but we are not especially invested in any of these characters at peril and when the creature finally emerges it looks nothing like that depicted on the poster. Rather it alternates between looking like a guy in a rubber suit, a slimy bear, a stuffed slimy bear and a huge knockwurst. In short, nothing to remotely frighten one despite the severity of the attacks. The fact that the film is able to generate some decent suspense in this third is largely because of some level of professionalism in Frankenheimer's direction and the promise still inherent in the material (which is largely undeveloped).The dreadful acting also does not help this film. Talia Shire spends much of the film looking bored and spends the final moments appearing as though on the verge of slipping into a Valium-induced coma. The film throws her character some drama with a plot revelation, but instead of emoting she restrains herself to the point of lifelessness. Armand Assante probably contributes the best performance as a local Native American activist whom the powers-that-be initially try to pin the attacks on.The worst performance comes courtesy of Robert Foxworth as Shire's husband, and he deserves his own paragraph. It is a straight-forward straight-arrow good guy role that just requires someone solid and appealing. Instead, Foxworth contributes a performance that would be too broad for a Greek amphitheater. In scenes where he is to appear sympathetic, he positively drips with self-righteousness. In scenes where he is disturbed about the trials around him, he sputters, blusters and waves his arms all over the place. When Shire tells him a late plot twist, he stares with such intensity at her that it is a wonder she is not burned to a cinder. He has absolutely no chemistry with Shire and every time a character asks for his opinion as a doctor, he strides as though heading center stage and begins to pontificate as though launching into a soliloquy from Shakespeare. His final confrontation with the creature should be played in acting classes as a perfect definition of how NOT to act on screen. It is a dreadfully laughable performance that degenerates into a mockery of hammy-ness that completely overwhelms the role, the people around him and the film itself.On an aside, this is definitely a story that would be ripe for a remake. With better special effects, a more polished screenplay, tighter direction and (arguably most important of all) a better leading man, this could transform itself into a amazingly scary thrill ride.