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.
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.