Wild Beasts - Belve feroci

WILD BEASTS is the tender, joy-filled tale of what happens when PCP is introduced to the drinking water of zoo animals, driving them berserk. Cuddly critters make their escape, dining on unwary human snacks, after an elephant destroys the cage locking system.

From the infamous "rat attack" and "elephant car stomping" scenes, to the all-out shred-a-thon of the big cats' feeding frenzy, this movie makes other such films appear timid by comparison!

Unfortunately, as with many Italian gore films of the era, animal cruelty is included, sending several real animals to their premature, unnecessary doom. Still, in spite of all of its ludicrous elements, WB does manage to be entertaining throughout. Some of the more memorable scenes show a cheetah, a polar bear, cattle, etc., on the move down city streets or school hallways!

Stars exploitation movie regular, Lorraine De Selle as Laura.

Warning: Nothing can prepare you for the "shock" finale!...

Dangerous zoo animals escape from their cages and run amok in the city after drinking water contaminated by PCP (a hallucinogenic drug also known as angel dust, busy bee, peace powder, zombie dust and jet fuel).

Technically speaking, Franco Propseri's Wild Beasts is far from a good film, with clumsy direction, terrible performances and diabolical dialogue throughout; that said, it sure is entertaining, a cheesy trash-fest full of unintentional laughs and OTT death scenes, and what has got to be the greatest 'cheetah chasing a car' scene in movie history (on account of there being no other contenders for the title).

The bloody death and destruction on offer includes stampeding cattle running down pedestrians, rats devouring a couple having sex in a car, a woman's head stomped by an elephant, a seeing-eye dog savaging his master (he didn't see that coming!), and a savage polar bear attack on a bunch of kids (who, having drunk some PCP themselves, also become killers!).

This being an early-80s Euro-horror, there is also some incredibly un-PC content which only adds to the bonkers exploitation vibe: not only does Prosperi deliver a gratuitous topless shot of obnoxious pubescent schoolgirl Suzy (Louisa Lloyd ) within the first few seconds, but there is enough real animal violence on display to give PETA supporters an instant coronary—animals were most definitely harmed during the making of this motion picture (sucks to be a rat in the European horror movie business).

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Franco Prosperi must really get off on killing animals, between this and all the shockumentaries he's done. This one's got some great sequences (shot in Frankfurt-am-Main) but never lives up to its great premise. Filmed entirely at night, the direction is clumsy and only rarely suspenseful. It's never boring or predictable but not terribly exciting or original, either. Though if you've waited all your life to see a naked woman get eaten by rats, here's your chance.

My review was written in June 1986 after watching the movie on Lightning video cassette.

"Wild Beasts" is an Italian horror feature that underscores the current dilemma between fantasy and realism in the shriek genre. Filmmaker Franco Prosperi applies his experience in the "Mondo Cane" school of shock tactics to a science fiction theme with technically good results but an audience turnoff and counter-productive to the film's socially conscious theme. Pic was made in West Germany in 1982 tith alternate title "Savage Beasts" and has been released domestically to the home video trade.

Premise is that PCP (angel dust) has seeped into the water supply of a German city as a result of industrial waste, with the immediate result that animals in the local zoo freak out, break out (aided by a power outage) and go on the rampage. Along with a horde of sewer rats the revenge of abused Mother Nature in the form of zoo beasts quickly turns into a disaster film mode. Zoo scientist Rupert Berner (John Aldrich), police inspector Nat (Ugo Bologna) and reporter Laura (Lorainne de Selle) lead the fight to save humanity.

Prosperi's talented special effects and animal experts crew provide the utmost realism to even absurd stagings, such as a polar bear attacking the dance class that Laura's daughter Suzy (Louisa Lloyd) attends. Some footage, such as flamethrowers applied to the horde of rats, looks real rather than faked. Mixed with the usual overdone makeup effects of gorily mangled human victims, the thrills are gruesome rather than entertaining. Just as in so many Italian-made cannibal films, the message alerting us to stop raping the environment gets lost in the urge to maximize the titiallation value of the horror scenes..

Franco Prosperi's "The Wild Beasts" is a fairly routine Italian horror flick about nature gone nuts.The real animals were used in this movie and in many cases killed just for the sake of this Italian shocker.The animal attack scenes are very gory,but the photography by Franco Delli Colli is too murky.The use of animals in "The Wild Beasts" is quite stunning,unfortunately the acting is truly horrible.Still it's nice to see Lorraine De Selle of "Cannibal Ferox" and "House on the Edge of the Park" fame in the main role as a professor.There is also a really tense sequence where a cheetah chases a VW bug down the road and a scene where some rats are burned off a windshield in slow motion.So if you are a fan of Italian horror cinema give this one a look.7 out of 10.