'The Abominable Snowman' review by MartialHorror.

Source: http://freewebs.com/mhabom

Please check out the site!

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN(1957)
(Directed by Val Guest)

"More like Abominable Snowmen"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: An English scientist and an American showman hunt for the legendary Abominable Snowman in the Himalayas.

Review:

I believe that the story of the legendary Abominable Snowman/Yeti has wonderful potential to be a great horror film. I know that if it was made today, it would probably be a CGI whoring action movie, but I like to imagine what I would do if I were to make a movie about the mysterious Yeti. Imagine “The Thing”, with its cold, somber atmosphere with the chilling locations as the backdrop. The Yeti itself would be a mystery. We might here a roar, see a claw, bits and pieces here and there. But it won’t be shown until the end, in which it would be something fearsome. But a las, if one were to be made, it would belong to the Bay/Emmerich school of filmmaking, not the Carpenter school. It’s sad that to date, the scariest interpretation of the monster comes from a Rudolph the Red-Nose reindeer children’s film.

But a glimmer of hope surged through me when I discovered that Hammer, one of my favorite old studios of horror, had made a movie about the abominable snowman called…..Well, “The Abominable Snowman”. Not only that, but it starred Peter Cushing. I loved “Curse of Frankenstein” and “Horror of Dracula”, with their interesting gothic styles, and liked most of their other works. Would Hammer be able to work its magic and create a chilling tale of the Yeti? No, no it did not.

Peter Cushing stars as Dr. Rollason, a botanist studying in the Himalayas. He’s joined by Tom Friend(Forrest Tucker), an American adventurer and his team. Together, they want to move deep in the Himalayas mountains to study the legendary Yeti. They encounter resistance from the locals, who clearly don’t want them to go, but they leave anyway. As they search for the creature, Rollason realizes that the American adventurer isn’t just there to study…..because, well, he’s an American adventurer in an English movie. Why else would he be there? Soon people begin to die.

In truth, it’s probably my fault that I didn’t enjoy the film. I overlooked that this was made the same year as “The Curse of Frankenstein”, which would jumpstart Hammer’s horror trend. So I shouldn’t have expected anything similar. I also don’t know how you could make the snow covered landscapes gothic, which is what we watch Hammer horror films for. But a las, while the Himalayas look surprisingly good(considering this was on a set), they never appear to be menacing, chilling or even aesthetically interesting. They just look plain, and I never felt any sense of dread or fear from them. Much like the rest of the movie, they’re tolerable but bland.

The film does offer some nifty ideas, like how eventually it appears that the characters are going insane. But it’s handled poorly, being thrown in near the end, when it should’ve been what was happening throughout the movie. Instead, the film moves at a slow pace, building up to the yeti itself, which we never really see. In short, I don’t think it was worth it.

But I can’t say “The Abominable Snowman” was a bad movie either. Everything is done so annoyingly competently to where you can find very little wrong with it, besides the slow pace. Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker turn in fine performances. In fact, the acting in general was fine. It just didn’t have compelling characters in a story that wants to be an adventure/horror with a message. As an adventure, it’s never rousing. As a horror, it’s never scary. As for the message, it flat out asks the question: “Who really are the savages?”. Never a good sign.

Yet as I said, it’s not bad. Everything is competent and the acting is a little bit moreso. But the ideas are wasted and I can’t help but feel that I’d rather a bad movie that at least was effective than this passable movie that I’m already forgetting as I write this review. It should be noted that the movie is often well received, so maybe it’s just me. But I was bored. Another unique note is that most Hammer films(that I've seen), aren't really categorized as good or bad. They all seem to be well made movies, it just comes down to how much they effect you or not, and this is one of those movies that didn't really effect me.

Violence: Some cheesy stuff. I loved the human sized doll falling off a cliff that was supposed to pass for a human. PG worthy. There is death, but little violence.

Nudity: None.

Overall: I wouldn’t bother with “The Abominable Snowman” unless you’re a die hard Peter Cushing fan like me or you’re interested in the concept of a yeti movie, like me. Or you're a Hammer purist..well, like me. You could still do worse than this.

2/4 Stars


my reviews of martial arts and horror films
http://freewebs.com/martialhorror