YETI A.K.A YETI: CURSE OF THE SNOW DEMON
2008 – NR – 87 Min.
D: Paul Ziller
S: Carly Pope – Marc Menard – Ona Grauer – Elfina Luk – Peter DeLuise
DVD provided by American World Pictures
Preview disc – Edition details N/A

Abominable meets Alive at the other end of the alphabet as a group of college athletes are trapped in the Himalayan Mountains after a plane crash. The expected characters are all present and accounted for; you’ve got yer take-charge leader of the pack type, yer self-centered douche-bag type, yer hesitant romantic interest good girl type, you get the idea. Well, as if trying to decide whether or not to cannibalize their teammates or starve to death in the snow wasn’t already putting heavy pressure on our enthusiastic entourage of survivors, there’s a tall and toothy snow beast that’s quickly running out of dead bodies to drag away. What’s going to happen when the corpsicles run out? While ‘it’ lurks just outside the makeshift camp of these plucky would-be mountaineers, a rescue team of two (Grauer and DeLuise) hikes closer and closer every day… After day… After day. Okay, story wise you are placed squarely outside an impenetrable wall of familiar clichés and it isn’t long before that ever-so-familiar scent of stale SyFy Channel cheese begins to permeate your living room. Having dutifully acknowledged the expected, I also have to say that writer Mark Lester and director Paul Ziller know this territory well and share equal credit for the fun to be had here. There’s a healthy amount of gory carnage and one real zinger of a scene where somebody gets their leg torn off before being beaten with it. That takes place well after the severed-arm leg splint. Those uplifting moments are only the tip of the iceberg. The cast does pretty well with what they’re given and there’s an engaging energy that’s always doing its best to keep you tuned in to the highly amusing final moments. If you can get past some dodgy CG and are willing to go absolutely nowhere new then there are plentiful jollies to be had with Yeti. Recommended for those who enjoy more SyFy Channel movies than not. - Michael Mackie