Grizzly (1976)

The trailer for Grizzly tells us that the titular animal is “over 18 feet tall, over 2,000 pounds — the largest carnivorous ground beast in the world.” The typical grizzly is nowhere near that big, but OK. We’re just here for “gut-crunching terror” (also promised in the trailer) — not a science lesson.

Released a year after Jaws, it was understandably branded an imitator, but the film’s producer and writer, Harvey Flaxman, said it was based on a real-life encounter between a bear and his family.

This is one of many movies on this list that used a real-life wild animal:  A Kodiak bear named Teddy, who was kept at a distance from the cast and crew. Because Teddy was more docile than the bear in the film, the crew used food to get him to open his mouth, and roars were added in post production.

The crew also creatively used a fake bear claw to rip open a tent or two in some grisly grizzly attacks. (That’s right — two different words.)