Snowbeast (1977)

Spoilers!

Snowbeast (1977)
Dir: Herb Wallerstein
Starring: Bo Svenson, Clint Walker, Yvette Mimieux, Robert Logan, Sylvia Sidney
96 mins.
USA

Synoposis: In 1977, a Colorado ski resort is ravaged by a yeti.

My review: Basically, I thought this movie was okay. This was a 70s made for TV flick. As a result, there is no blood whatsoever. I believe there are only 4 kills. All the deaths are off-screen. This is understandable for 70s TV horror. For a movie that is almost 100 minutes, 4 deaths doesn't seem like a lot. As a result, there should be a lot of suspense and thrills to keep the viewer intrigued. Unfortunately, that's not the case. There are a lot of dull talking scenes in this flick. A horror doesn't need constant gore and endless chase scenes. There can be talking. If there is talking, it should establish the mood of the movie. I felt the dull presentation of the conversations robbed the movie of suspense.

The movie did a good job contrasting the ski resort town, full of happy tourists and locals enjoying a festival, with the bleak, isolated feeling involving the yeti and the vicious attacks. I felt that was skillfully done. I also felt using Bo Svenson's character of a has-been who ends up redeeming himself by fighting the yeti. During the whole movie the beast is hardly shown. Most of the kills are done from the point of view of the yeti. Only at the end, was the yeti's face shown for a duration of 1.5 seconds. It's the third pic at the bottom. When I saw the creature I said, "Meh. I guess that's the best they could do with made for TV horror in the 70s." But then again, a lot of the made for TV horror shown these days isn't much better. The Sy-Fy Channel puts out worse horror with even lamer looking monsters. Therefore, if you can stomach Sy-Fy horror you will be able to stomach this.

As of 5/19/2012, the full length movie is on youtube when I searched, "snowbeast 1977". If you can find it, it might be worth a look if you're a hardcore horror fan like me.

Rating: 2 stars.

Rating system: 1 star=poor; 2 stars=fair; 3 stars=good.