In our day and age, many people have no idea how hard life was before modern conveniences. Exploration comes at a cost, and a 1940s Alaskan expedition crew finds that out the hard way. You’re gonna find exactly what you’d expect form a movie called The Yeti.
Merriell Sunday Sr. and Hollis Bannister vanished in Alaska. Ellie and Merriell Jr. mount a search, but an ancient threat stalks their expedition into the wilderness, hunting them as they seek the truth behind the disappearances.
The Yeti, IMDB
Deep in the Alaskan wilderness, a group of explorers has a run in with a monstrous being that should have only existed in folklore. Towering over them in stark white fur and sporting a growl that shakes walls, members are either torn to pieces or forced to hide away. A rescue mission led by two adult children of the missing group makes their way to the destroyed outpost, but soon finds themselves at a crossroads: make the discovery of the century, or live another day. The Yeti in question makes that choice for them as it mercilessly hunts them down in a pool of blood and ice.
Similar to action-horror exploration movies like The Mummy and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Yeti pairs the horrors of an ancient, angry monster with the rush of discovery, making for a fast-paced watch. It starts off with action and doesn’t let up, slowly picking off characters one-by-one until the film’s climax. Unlike those movies, the sets feel more like studio soundstages, keeping the action tight within camera frame. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though; liken it to Japanese horror films of the 60s (think Kwaidan), where the sets were masterfully created to give a certain time and place, yet keep filming concise and watchable.
Though we don’t see much of the main monster, The Yeti did a lot with what it showed. There were many shots with swinging arms, giant shadows on windows, and even a claw punching through someone’s torso. Though you don’t get a great look at the true size of the Yeti until the end, you still have a sense of its enormous stature and strength based off of its rumbling call alone. It also helps that team members were getting limbs ripped off at every chance. The Yeti gave us gore hounds a ton of blood and entrails, making the creature all the more terrifying.
Now, I do have one small bone to pick with The Yeti. For having such an awesome assortment of crazy characters, I would have loved to spend more time with them and know more about their lives up until this point. There are time constraints for sure (gotta wrap things up in a crisp hour and a half!), but with a disfigured World War I vet, an explosive-happy “Dynamite Dan,” and female scientists (really progressive for this time period), I would have enjoyed seeing more from them instead of a sentence or two in old-timey newsreel style before they got mauled to death (though I will say that was a nice touch).
But at the end of the day, we wanted a monster movie, and we got one. The Yeti gave us a primal terror that we can somewhat relate to more than the usual tentacled alien or radioactive mutant. In true mammal fashion, The Yeti provides some warmth to the cold Alaskan wilderness in a throwback to action-horrors we don’t see too often anymore.
The Yeti is now playing in select theaters, and is available to rent or purchase on VOD. For more, visit The Yeti on Instagram.
