A new tense thriller movie is available to watch at home now

The film is based on true events.

Set over 24 hours in Montana's Glacier National Park in 1967, the film follows several different characters who have gathered in the area.

Some are campers there to be amongst nature and spend a night underneath the stars.

Others are park lodge employees on hand to care for the visitors who have opted for paid accommodation over camping.

Also, as park rangers battle fires on the edge of the park caused by recent lightning strikes, one young ranger named Joan (Lauren Call) has been left in charge of looking after the campers and visitors.

Large grizzly bears are often spotted around the area, sometimes approaching human-populated places to take food from campers and bins.

That said, given that no human has ever been killed by a grizzly bear within the 57 years the park has been open, the animals are seen as harmless, even becoming a tourist attraction.

This all changes after one fateful night (dubbed the 'Night of the Grizzlies') in which two vicious grizzly bear attacks happen nine miles apart.

Grizzly Night Trailer

While Grizzly Night's poster recalls fun creature flick survival thrillers like Anaconda and Crawl, the movie itself is quite different.

The film is actually a sombre procedural à la Deepwater Horizon, Everest or The Lost Bus, which is probably more appropriate given that the events it is depicting actually happened.

For instance, director Burke Doreen (making his feature debut) stages the bear attacks in a way that is not designed to thrill viewers. Instead, they are short, frenzied and random for added authenticity.

Those who check out Grizzly Night because they thought from its name and promotional artwork that it would be similar in tone to Cocaine Bear may be disappointed.

Plus, with the thriller's low budget, its straightforward dramatic recreation of real-life events and its cast of relative unknowns (of which Final Destination: Bloodlines' Brec Bassinger and The Mummy's Oded Fehr are the clear standouts), there is a slight 'TV movie' feel to proceedings.

That said, sometimes TV movies hit the spot in spite of their shortcomings. While Grizzly Night's two-dimensional characters and on-the-nose dialogue make its first 20 minutes a slight chore, it picks up significantly in its final hour.

It is undeniably gripping to witness the diverse community of the Glacier National Park quickly mobilise to try to save the victims of the bear attacks, and all that this requires.

There is a consistent sense of tension that a grizzly could suddenly jump out and attack any of the characters to whom viewers have grown attached.

As someone who didn't know the real-life history, I did wind up hoping for a positive outcome to the story, even as it became more and more unlikely.

This is as the movie builds to a surprisingly haunting final shot and post-script that shifts the blame away from grizzly bears, back to humanity's folly.

Grizzly Night is now available on digital and DVD.