Michael_Elliott Wild Beasts (1984)* 1/2 (out of 4)PCP gets mixed in with a water supply, which just happens to lead into the local zoo, which causes the animals to go crazy. After an elephant crashes through the wall all of the animals are on the loose and attacking humans.Films like THE FOOD OF THE GODS, FROGS and DAY OF THE ANIMALS were just a few of the "nature attack" films that were popular in America during the 1970s. These types of movies continued to be produced and of course Italy would jump on the bandwagon and the result is this rather bad film that manages to be incredibly boring as well as stupid. As someone who really enjoys these nature movies, this one here was a major disappointment.The biggest problem with this film is that the characters are just so stupid and so annoying that you really want to see them eaten by the animals. Rooting against your lead characters is never a good thing but even with the bad characters couldn't you enjoy the animal attacks? I wish you could but sadly the film is shot so dark that more times than not it's hard to see what's going on. Even worse is the fact that the animal attacks really weren't that believable and it was obvious the animals weren't really attacking.Another problem I had with the film is that even at just 91 minutes the film really dragged at times. The only reason to watch this is if you're a fan of actress Lorraine De Selle who most will remember from HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and CANNIBAL FEROX. It's always fun seeing regular faces in these movies but even she can't save this turkey.

Chase_Witherspoon An inner-city zoo's electrical lock-down security fails, resulting in a number of predators (made rabid by a contaminated water supply) being released to wreak havoc on the local community. It's up to animal expert De Selle and companion Aldrich (a John Oates look-a-like) to warn potential meals and lure the most dangerous, back to the confines of the habitat. Sounds engrossing but the execution is less compelling than the concept. The animal wranglers in this film deliver the goods, with plenty of menace displayed through flashing teeth and aggressive posturing; even some of the attacks look realistic (my personal favourite being the elephant destroying a car in which a pair of cowering bystanders had taken refuge).Aldrich starts off trying to lure De Selle into some animal husbandry of their own, but it seems there's some urgent taxidermy work to be done back at the lab. Meanwhile, De Selle (who survived Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust to appear in this film) is taunted by her precocious daughter, who narrowly escapes becoming a real little monster in the film's laughably devilish twist ending. Some truly innovative and in some cases comical methods are devised by which to cancel cast members (the rats attacking the bare-breasted woman shows that director Prosperi's sadomasochistic flair is on par with that of the Marquis de Sade) most of them transient, introduced solely for the purposes of being dispatched with grisly efficiency. By exception, veteran actor Ugo Bologna has a sizable supporting role as the concerned police inspector.But while the violence committed against the cast members is obviously staged (yes, even the rats picking out the eyes of the car-seat canoodlers isn't as real as it appears), the animals are spared no such reprieve, many of them slaughtered in shameless exploitation, a grossly damning indictment on the trend in Italian horror movies of that era. Stepping off the soap box for just a moment, "Wild Beasts" while obscure, isn't without interest and should appeal to anyone with a penchant for the eco-horror genre.

Coventry Brainless, senseless and – most of all – pointless Italian exploitation fodder that somewhat enjoys an infamous reputation because director Franco Prosperi supposedly sacrificed the lives of innocent & defenseless animals in order to make his film appear more realistic. I, for one, can't judge if this is wholly true, but you never know with these crazy Italian horror directors, right? Ruggero Deodato's crew also killed real animals during the production of "Cannibal Holocaust", but at least that film grew out to become a genre milestone, whereas "Wild Beasts" is obscure, hard to find and honestly not worth tracking down. The most fun you'll have whilst enduring this film is guessing which city the events take place in. The intro sequence only reveals it concerns a North European city, but if you have some language and/or geography knowledge, you can quickly figure out in what city the animals of the local zoo go on a gory murder spree. For reasons I still haven't figured out, the water supply at the zoo becomes poisoned and all the animals – big or small, friendly or dangerous – turn into aggressive and uncontrollable killers. It doesn't take to long before they escape the zoo limits and transform the whole of Hamburg (oops…) into their hunting territory. "Wild Beasts" is quite a bad film, with no tension or coherence. It basically is just animals killing people and vice versa, but there's no building up tension or atmosphere at all. There are some hilariously awkward scenes to enjoy, but I'm not entirely sure they were meant to be comical, like when the cheetah attacks a woman driving a beetle with the same colors as the animal itself. There's a lot of gore and sheer nastiness on screen, but whenever something really important happens, the photography is dark and unclear. Overall, a lame film and not really worth seeing. "Cannibal Ferox" and "House on the Edge of the Park" starlet Lorraine de Selle adds absolutely no value to the production, neither.

Steve Van Kooten Contains a little blood, one angry polar bear. The animals at a zoo start going crazy and it soon leads to all out mayhem once rats, cats, bears, and other beasts start attacking people all over the city. - - - Actually, this isn't a bad time at all! While there are some hurdles to get over with the dub job, this is a good example of to the point Italian horror. All of the characters are thrust into the plot immediately and have to do all of their explanation on the run, there's always a threat in every second of "Wild Beasts." The plot is conventional, but the sheer variety and number of animal attacks, running, screaming, and violence barely leaves any time for boring stuff like talking... or characterization. Not only is the movie enjoyable, but the cause of all the brouhaha is knee slapping hilarious. This isn't high art, but we can't expect every filmmaker to be Joe D'Amato can we? * * 1/2 out of 4