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THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (Anchor
Bay) DVD. 1957. Horror. Black and White. Dr. John Rollason (Peter
Cushing), a botanist by trade and a former mountain climber, decides to
join an expedition into the Himalayas to search for The Abominable
Snowman. As the men trek deeper into the freezing snowy mountain range,
they must battle not only the elements, but nutty bandits are taking
potshots at them and their stamina starts to dwindle. And oh let me write
that one poor bastard takes one hell of header! Ah yes, although the
adventure is really starting to suck, the men are thrown a bone when they
come in contact with the legendary man beast Yeti and the surviving men
devise a plan to lure other snow beasts to them.
Like
most Hammer Studio productions, Ab-Snowman is over loaded with character
development and melodrama while kind of stingy with the monster shots.
The storyline is your basic plot; adventure, personal conflict,
heroes, surprising deaths, etc. The sets are at times very cool, but other
times they look like the Brady kids designed it for a backyard play. Tell
me, when the team is being shot at while traveling and the dude looks
through his binoculars at the bandits, what is that white rectangle thing
on the far right? Damn, I rewound the dvd three times and froze it trying to
figure it out. While you’re at it, please explain the ending! Good
enough ending, but it left me confused. Extras include audio commentary by
director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale, theatrical trailer, and a
featurette/bio on Peter Cushing (which gives away what the Ab-Snowman
looks like, so watch the movie first). Oh, you’ll love the part when the
dudes falls. Must of shocked the snot out of all those snutty British
types back in 1957. – Denis Sheehan
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