This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical release poster, printed for the 1976 first Japanese cinema release of William Girdler’s cult animal-attack horror film Grizzly (グリズリー), starring Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel and Joan McCall.
The film opened theatrically in Japan on 3 July 1976, distributed by Columbia Eiga (コロムビア映画). Released in the immediate wake of Jaws, Grizzly transformed the man-versus-predator formula from the ocean to the wilderness, becoming one of the defining entries in the extraordinary 1970s cycle of nature-run-amok cinema.
Film background
Set in an American national forest, the film follows park ranger Michael Kelly, played by Christopher George, as he investigates a series of increasingly brutal attacks and discovers that an enormous grizzly bear has begun preying upon visitors.
Kelly joins forces with naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel) and helicopter pilot Don Stober (Andrew Prine), but attempts to contain the crisis are complicated by crowds, hunters and officials reluctant to close the park.
Directed by William Girdler, with a screenplay by Harvey Flaxman and David Sheldon and music by Robert O. Ragland, the film became a substantial commercial success and remains one of the most famous exploitation-era responses to the unprecedented success of Jaws.
Poster design
A spectacularly direct Japanese horror design dominated by an almost impossibly huge grizzly bear, standing upright with both arms thrown outward and its claws fully extended.
The bear fills virtually the entire height of the sheet. Its dark brown-black body rises from the forest floor into an otherwise largely empty cream-coloured field, making its scale feel even more overwhelming.
The most dramatic feature is the creature’s pair of enormous paws, reaching towards the upper corners of the poster. The long, curved claws are picked out in icy silver-blue highlights, while the bear’s open mouth and exposed teeth create a terrifying focal point at the centre.
Below, a blonde woman crouches beside a small campfire, rendered almost tiny by comparison. She is surrounded by a dark wilderness of evergreen trees while the grizzly towers directly behind her, creating an exceptionally effective contrast between human vulnerability and overwhelming animal scale.
At the bottom, the Japanese title:
グリズリー
appears in enormous, vivid blood-red lettering, accompanied by the smaller English title GRIZZLY.
The deliberately sparse layout is one of the poster’s greatest strengths. Rather than filling the sheet with multiple stills, taglines and cast portraits, almost everything is subordinated to the single terrifying image of the bear.
Neal Adams artwork
The central bear artwork is by legendary American illustrator and comic-book artist Neal Adams, whose original Grizzly campaign painting was used across the film’s international advertising. Adams is particularly celebrated for his transformational work on characters including Batman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow, but his commercial illustration outside comics included a number of memorable movie-poster commissions.
His Grizzly image is especially effective because it exaggerates the creature to almost mythic proportions. The huge raised paws, enormous claws and tiny human figure below create an immediately legible image of primal danger.
The Japanese B2 adaptation preserves the essential Adams composition while giving it a particularly striking amount of negative space, allowing the bear to appear almost to break beyond the boundaries of the sheet.
It is an outstanding piece of 1970s horror illustration and a particularly strong example of Adams’s movie-poster work.
First-release significance
This is an authentic poster from the film’s original 1976 Japanese theatrical campaign, not a later re-release or modern reproduction.
The Japanese release followed only weeks after the film’s American opening, and contemporary Japanese promotion positioned Grizzly squarely within the post-Jaws wave of high-impact animal horror. Japanese reference material records the original campaign tagline as:
「ジョーズに続く衝撃の話題作…ついに日本上陸！」
— approximately:
“The shocking sensation following Jaws… finally lands in Japan!”
For collectors, the combination of first-release Japanese provenance, Neal Adams artwork, classic 1970s horror subject matter and an exceptionally strong visual design gives this poster considerable crossover appeal.
It is approximately 50 years old.
Condition
Very Good+.
The poster retains excellent colour and very strong overall presentation, particularly in the deep blacks and browns of the bear, the vivid red title and the clean cream background.
There is visible age and handling wear, as clearly shown in the detailed photographs. There are also minor signs of historic display and storage consistent with an original theatrical poster of this age.
The principal image remains extremely strong.
The reverse shows expected light age toning and handling but remains structurally sound overall.
Once framed, it will display very well.
We have fully taken the condition into account when pricing this example.
Please review all photographs carefully—they show the exact poster for sale.
This is not a reproduction or reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
