A "nature-runs-amok" film from 1984, directed by Franco E. Prosperi.
Somehow, a large amount of PCP has ended up in Frankfurt's water supply. This drives local animals mad, especially those in the zoo. Soon, an entire city is in panic.
This film has the examples of:
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: Tigers, lions, cheetahs, stampeding cows, a polar bear, rats, a dog....
- Bears Are Bad News: Suzy's ballet teacher is mauled by a polar bear from the zoo that somehow found its way into the school.
- Beeping Computers: The computers overseeing the zoo's security starts making lot of noise when the animals start going wild and try force their way out of their cages.
- Big Blackout: When the elephants find their way into an airport runway, their sudden appearance messes up one plane's landing and it crashes on the city's power supply, causing a blackout.
- Blatant Lies: Despite the film opening with a claim that No Animals Were Harmed, some animals are clearly getting hurt, like in the slaughterhouse scene where a lion digs its claws on a cow's back or in another scene where a cat is attacked by about a dozen rats.
- Destination Defenestration: The sudden appearance of zoo's elephants on the streets of Frankfurts causes one car driver swerve through a store window.
- Epigraph: The No Animals Were Harmed disclaimer from the opening is followed by a quote attributed to Francis Thrive (who in reality is likely a creation of the film's director):"“Our madness engulfs everything and infects innocent victims such as children or animals."
- Every Car Is a Pinto: When a woman on the run from a cheetah crashes her car on another one, they both burst into flames.
- Evil Overlooker: The poster for the film has a face of a panther over the carnage caused by the animals. An alternative version has a tiger instead.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: PCP in Frankfurt's water system causes animals to go crazy, and various dangerous beasts escape from the local zoo to terrorize people.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: When the swarming rats prove too much to handle, exterminators armed with flamethrowers are brought in to handle them.
- Foreshadowing: The epigraph unsubtly foreshadows the twist that the contaminated water is affecting children as well.
- Just Train Wrong: The poster shows a French TGV train despite the story taking place in West Germany.
- Porn Stache: Rip sports a very noticeable one.
- My Car Hates Me: A couple in their car can't get it started as crazed elephants threaten to kill them.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: As the blind composer is being killed by his crazed guide dog, calm piano music plays in the background.
- Swarm of Rats: Rats ascend from the sewers and kill a couple making out in their car.
- Twist Ending: The water is affecting children as well, and as Laura goes to pick up her daughter, she finds out that they have killed the school's caretaker.
