The Abominable Snowman

I'm not going to claim that the British B-movie sci-fi horror film The Abominable Snowman is downright bad, but it lacks truly heated moments. I like that the wait for the yeti is quite long, and the reveal wasn't a disappointment from my perspective. The acting is good enough to survive with the characters even during the slightly less interesting passages, of which there are quite a few. (25/10/2018)

The title might give the impression that this is another cheap B-movie with an unintentionally ridiculous monster. Actually, it's a surprisingly tautly constructed film from Hammer that unfortunately was overshadowed by the success of the colour horror film The Curse of Frankenstein, which ushered in a new era for the British studio. The Abominable Snowman, unlike the aforementioned Frankenstein, manages to make do with very little. You won't enjoy the snowman much in this one. The role of the menacing adversary here is played by the rather inhospitable peaks of the Himalayas, the gradual discovery of unexplored places where man should not have set foot, the obsessive efforts of the expedition members to catch the titular creature and the growing paranoia among them. The film manages to visually captivate with its clever use of widescreen compositions in conjunction with the shadowy corridors of a mystical monastery and the windswept, snow-covered landscape. Surprisingly quite an intelligent and atmospheric adventure horror film. But when you look at who's behind it, it's actually not that surprising. Director Val Guest and screenwriter Nigel Kneale are responsible for smart sci-fi films like The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. (21/01/2004)