Director: Mark Polonia
Year: 2017
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: The Yeti Experiment
Genre: Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Plot:
After losing contact with a base, a team from a pharmaceutical company travels to the site in the Himalayas looking for answers only to find the cause to be the research teams' discovery of an enraged Bigfoot running wild in the facility and must hold off its attacks to escape alive.
Review:
This was a decidedly weak and unimpressive effort. One of the more detrimental factors here is the absolutely weak and uninspired storyline that wastes a golden opportunity for some fun by going for an entirely cliche and predictable route. The idea of going to a remote location where they’ve lost contact with a facility in the area only to meet up with a creature on the loose being studied there no one knew about since no one told them about it simply reeks of being routine here. You get an idea where this is going almost immediately and that makes for a wholly underwhelming experience when the few times this one goes for its main setups instead it devolves into overly familiar executions.
As well, a big problem here is the low-budget effects. The CGI is used far too often here, as the snow falling continuously throughout their trek to the base is laughably overlaid on top of the footage of them wandering through the woods which is so obviously and definitely not in the Himalayas as no attempt is made to hide this location or the fake-looking snowfall. The burning fire-pit is equally fake-looking and the scenes set in the laboratory where children’s paintings of the yeti are used as schematics while red pain substitutes for blood-splatter for a slew of issues here. Likewise, with them having to stumble upon major events after the fact with only sound effects heard, there’s a lot involved here that gives away it’s low-budget nature.
However, even with all that featured here, there are major problems with the creature attacks here when they do occur. Not only is the scraggly, lumpy costume completely laughable without even touching on the cringe-worthy mask that doesn’t even come close to fitting one of the tiniest actors to portray the creature, it makes the entire look goofy and utterly comical. The attacks here are incredibly cheesy as well, requiring the creature to emerge from various hiding places or corridors unseen until the last second resulting in some really underwhelming scenes like the surprise in the hallway, an attempted shock in the communications room further ruined by the slow-motion photography and a nonsensical bathroom encounter that’s rather silly. These here are what hold this one down.
There are a few decent elements to this one. They get plenty of mileage out of the constant scenes of the creature running loose in the facility here resulting in a fun, enjoyable pace. From the opening sequence showing the creature taking out the old crew before being buried in the avalanche, the early shots of the different members of the group out in the woods being stalked and the attacks by the creature in the facility where it has them trapped leading to a series of chases which give this a really endearing cheesy charm. This is really present in the finale with all the revelations and action taking place here which have a really goofy sense here and are what makes this one quite fun.
Overview: *.5/5
With a few solid aspects to like in the action and continuous amount of creature action present, the low-budget nature of the film and some rather underwhelming features present manage to hold this one back the most. Give this one a chance if you're a die-hard fanatic of these kinds of cheesy films or the creative crew of this one, while those looking for more engaging and featured work here should heed caution.
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