There is definite bite to Burke Doeren’s creature-feature Grizzly Night, a dramatization of the events leading up to and during the fatal bear attacks that occurred in Montana’s Glacier National Park on August 12th, 1967. Yet, while the ferocity and terror of the attacks themselves is chillingly recreated, the surrounding film is more of a documentary-style recreation.

With the rangers more concerned with the risk of forest fires than animal attacks, they’re quick to dismiss reports of some bad bear-haviour (apologies). That is, until there is an attack on two teenagers near one of the lodges, followed quickly by reports of another.

Doeren’s film expertly captures the horrific, first-person perspective of being mauled by a quarter-ton grizzly rather than luridly satisfying the gorehounds. This isn’t about blood and guts; this is a demonstration if one were needed of how powerful and dangerous a bear can be. Doeren is interested in the victims rather than exploitative action, and his film is better for it.

What isn’t so good is the wraparound story. The 1960s setting appears too polished and stylised, giving off a shop window aesthetic. And with perhaps the exception of rookie ranger Joan (Lauren Call), who at least as something passing for an arc, and Oded Fehr as the doctor who tries to save the lives of those attacked, the characters are one-dimensional and instantly forgettable. You just don’t feel engaged with any of the many, many people on screen, with any engagement in the story dissipating during every interaction that isn’t Ursine-related.

There’s much to admire about the bears, but it’s the humans who let the film down.