Snowbeast (1977)

Great Film overall

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

1977 is one of my lowest rated years so I went in expecting more of the same but immediatly found myself pleasantly surprised.This 70's b-movie is set around a Colorado ski resort that comes under attack from a big yeti like creature. Nothing original, but it was done competently enough to be entertaining.Two things set this apart from others, for one it's PG! So you don't see any deaths, no violence, nothing. That for one was a weird choice but didn't seem to damage the film.Second you never actually see the monster in its entirety, in fact you barely see it at all. A shot of it's paws, a quick shot of it's face and that's literally it! You'd think this would kill a movie like this off immediatly but it actually works in the films favour. I've always said if you don't have the budget to pull something off then don't try, they didn't have the budget so were just selective as to how/where & when you see the monster. For that I tip my hat.Nothing spectacular but certainly a decent enough big foot movie.The Good:Cast do a great jobLooks greatThe Bad:Cheating antagonists....again!Fade to reds are stupidThings I Learnt From This Movie:A monster movie without a monster works better than you'd expect

It may seem hard for younger people to believe this now but back in the 1970's a lot of people believed in the existence of Bigfoot, so much so that there were even documentaries made on the subject that seem quaintly ridiculous now, such as The Legend of Bigfoot (1976). For this reason it's hardly surprising that creature features of the day were also sometimes about the legendary Sasquatch. Snowbeast is a TV movie of this ilk that plays upon the fact that a lot of folks still thought these creatures could be out there.Its writer is Joseph Stefano the man responsible for the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Psycho (1960). With this movie Stefano's writing skills are somewhat more derivative in that the plot-line to Snowbeast is essentially a copy Jaws (1975), a film that had been released a couple of years earlier and one that had been astronomically successful at the box office. There are various ways this flick mimics that Spielberg classic - it opens with an unseen beast killing an unsuspecting young woman, there is a carnival that is so commercially important to the community that the town leader insists on ignoring the grim warning signs, there is an everyman who alerts the authorities of the danger but is ignored until more unnecessary deaths occur, a small group eventually get the go ahead to go out to seek and kill the creature in a vehicle that the monster easily destroys. Also like Jaws the monster here is only seen sporadically, mainly it's powerful arm and a couple of flashes of the head but hardly anything really. It would probably have been better if we were to have seen more but it's not really a deal breaker for me. I actually though the most effective moment when the snowbeast is seen was when it's glimpsed from afar half hidden by trees way up a hill. It's quite a nicely creepy moment.I've got to be honest and say I kind of like this movie and think it gets a bit of an unfair wrap. Admittedly I have a soft spot immediately for any film set in the snow. And the Colorado ski resort is a great location for me. The snowy expanses are kind of nice and I enjoy watching folks ski. So for this reason I am immediately on board with this one. But not only this, I also think it works pretty effectively as a creature feature. The story and characters are solid enough; while there are some effective enough tense scenes involving the Bigfoot. Overall, this one is a little under-rated I reckon; you could do a lot worse.

Mediocre Jaws variant has a Yeti terrorising a ski resort in midwinter during its anniversary celebrations. No one on the resort staff, nor police, want to believe anything is wrong and close the place down and lose all of the money coming in, so skiers line up to be Saqsuatch-bait in this watchable but forgettable TV-movie of the week.A couple of semi-grisly deaths, beautiful scenery on the snow-covered mountains, are all in the film's favour, but too much soap opera background noise brings it down considerably. The creature is rarely seen, always obscured by snow drifts or darkness, or through the use of lurking POV shots, which, on one hand is effective handling of it, but after a while becomes most disappointing, especially when we don't even get a look at the creature after it is killed.

Skiing. Yetis. Obviously this is a video game movie of SkiFree. And like most video game movies, it sucks. I also got this in a Mill Creek "Chiller" pack.Some have described it as "Jaws with snow," which isn't far off. First person Yeti-cam, main character wants to close down the park after a gruesome death. Higher authority says no in the name of profit, and wont cave after more deaths until they see it first hand. i can see the resemblance. Just replace "it wasn't a shark, it was a boat rudder" with "it wasn't a yeti, it was an avalanche." It's low-budget, made for TV B-Grade horror. And although I tend to enjoy a good laugh at a goofy B-Film, this wasn't even all that laughable. I can see why this was included in a $5 set of 20 Films no one had the rights to. Because no one would want the rights to this.Much like the mutilated body of a Yeti victim, there's not much to salvage here.