ROAR is one of those rare films where the behind-the-scenes story is more interesting than the one up on screen. It's a would-be animal movie along the lines of BORN FREE about a normal American family coping with a house full of big cats, but the whole thing is so ridiculous in both execution and planning that it's a film which has gained infamy as one of the most dangerous in history.
The problem lies with writer/director/star Noel Marshall, he of the wild hair and dubious acting talents. Marshall thought it would be a good idea to mix together a ton of different big cats, including a number of male lions, and throw them in with unprepared actors, including his wife Tippi Hedren and stepdaughter Melanie Griffiths. The resulting shooting schedule saw over 70 injuries to cast and crew, the most infamous of which was the director of photography, Jan De Bont, getting scalped.
The enjoyment factor of this one is of the 'car crash' variety. Marshall is obviously a zealot who acts and sounds a lot like Timothy Treadwell, the doomed star of the Herzog documentary GRIZZLY MAN, who got a bit too close to the grizzly bears he was obsessed with and paid with his life. Nobody died during ROAR, but they came close. There isn't really a script here, just characters reacting to the big cats, and the only decent bit is the tense mid-section in which Hedren and her screen children attempt to evade the cats which are chasing them around the house (which is far better than the whole of the tiger-in-the-house thriller BURNING BRIGHT). Otherwise, it's just a case of watch and endure it.
