Grizzly Night Review – Excellent Feature Debut, Taut, Terrifying, A Must See

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Category: Haute This Issue

Published on Friday, 23 January 2026 07:37

Written by Janet Walker

Grizzly Night, from Lightbulb Film Distribution, brings to the screen a taut, tense, heightened suspense man against beast, thriller in this true story of the 1967 double grizzly bear attack of campers in Montana's Glacier National Park.

The film begins with a wide angel shot of a darkened forest and then immediately zooms onto a petrified girl, played by Brec Bassinger. We see from the angle of her friend, Roy, played by Matt Lintz, who is awakening as she, horrified, tells him to play dead. We hear the snorting, and snarly, throaty growl, as both watch the grizzly approach them. Then we hear her blood curdling scream.

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Immediately we snap back to pre-attack, and are at the Glacier National Park ranger station, where a concerned citizen, name, played by name, is approaching Ranger Joan Deveraux, played by Lauren Call, who as we find out is very new to ranger duties, and tries to calm the woman, who is explaining about a recent bear sighting, and how it terrified a group of girl scouts.

Listening to the woman, puts Deveraux late to the ranger meeting. Senior Ranger Gary Bunney, played by Charles Esten, explains the recent thunderstorm caused more than 200 lightening strikes, and all rangers will be on firefighter duty. Deveraux and range name, played by name are joking about the chance to live out those childhood dream of being a firefighter. As the meeting is dismissed, Bunny explains to Deveraux she is to lead a group of tourist hikers to the Chalet.

Then we meet Julie, and recognize her from the opening scene, and Paul, played by Jacob Buster, both teen summer workers at the Glacier park outpost store. As she watches the clock, she explains the weekend is finally here. Just then, another park employee, Michelle, played by Ali Skovbye, pops into the store, begging please come camping with us at Trout Lake. Paul agrees, Julie explains she is camping with her boyfriend, Roy, at Granite Park.

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By now, the tour led by Ranger Deveraux is at the Chalet, Julie and Roy are also at the chalet hoping to rent one of the rooms, with the tour the only available room is the floor. They decide to camp in the forest. Another couple, Janet and Robert, played by Laura Schein and Josh Zuckerman, are also trying to rent a room, and also decide to camp outdoor.

Janet is very concerned about the bears, especially as at this time, there were no restrictions on feeding the bears, and to give the tourists a nice camera ready memory, park workers would place bags of garbage out and the bears would arrive, snort and growl, rummage through the trash and essentially smile for the cameras.

At Trout Lake, about nine miles from Granite Park, Michelle, Paul, and the three others Raymond Noseck, played by Jack Griffo, Denise Huckle played by Sophia Macy, Ronnie Noseck played by Nate Morley, have finally arrived at the lake, caught a huge trout, and are eating dinner, when a grizzly approaches the camp. They flee, as the bear rips the sleeping bags, eats the trout, and wanders away.

This sets up the night of terror. What follows is a terrifying account based on true events, in 1967, when two attacks by grizzly bears, nine mile apart, took place in Montana's Glacier National Park, and the impossible obstacles to guarantee the guests safety.

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The ensemble cast is brilliant. From the opening scenes, when Brec Bassinger and Matt Lintz hook the audience with the intensity of this moment, the anxiety is increases times one hundred. Even as the director, Burke Doeren, in an excellent feature debut, attempts to pull the audience back to a calm place, we know, it is only a matter of minutes before the terror begins. The emotional portrayals not only of the victims, and campers, but the chalet guests, include both surgeon, played by Oded Fehr, and nurse, played by Sohm Kapila, and confronted with these horrific injuries, remain calm. The acting  is excellent.

Grizzly Night, a riveting and gripping, heightened suspense, man against beast thriller, opens exclusively in theaters in the U.S, January 30, 2026 (check local listings) and will be released on UK and Irish DVD and Digital platforms February 2, 2026.

A high anxiety, engrossing, survival drama. See it.

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Country: U.S.

Language: English

Runtime: 87 minutes.

Director: Burke Doeren.

Producer: Lauren Call, Burke Doeren, Kellie Doeren.

Executive Producer: Ryan Bury, Tyson Call, James Andrew Felts.

Writer: Bo Bean, Katrina Mathewson, Tanner Bean.

Cast: Charles Esten, Oded Fehr, Brec Bassinger, Joel Johnstone, Lauren Call, Jack Griffo, Josh Zuckerman, Matt Lintz, Ali Skovbye, Sohm Kapila, Laura Schein, Skyler Bible, Michael Vlamis, Brandon Tay Olive, Mateo Pollack, Jacob Buster, Sophia Macy, Sofia Dkwaja, Nate Morley, Jazmine Shaw, Conor McGee, Robert Milo Andrus, Noah Kershisnik, Tatum Chiniquy, Karina Gale, Tito Livas.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.