Featured Post

Featured Post - Mystery Movie Marathon

I thought I'd kick the new year off with another movie marathon. I thought it was time to check out a few old school mystery flicks. Som...

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Winterbeast (1992)

Let me start off this review by telling you that this isn’t a good movie. I say this because when you try to follow my plot synopsis that is going to become obvious. But please stick around to the end because I have some things to say about Winterbeast that need to be heard. 

The movie opens with a park ranger walking into a room and asking a guy if he is okay. But he obviously isn’t when he turns and starts to peel bits of himself off! Then there is a stop motion monster that attacks. But don’t worry this is a dream, though it isn’t obvious at the time due to some bad editing. That same ranger, who is named Bill, goes to work, and talks to his partner who is looking at old girly magazines. There is a lady park ranger who was brought down the mountain by a good Samaritan. She and her partner were up there marking trails, but something happened. What? I’m not sure because the movie doesn’t tell us! 

The rest of the movie is them walking in the woods, talking to a lodge owner who refuses to shut down because of tourists, bodies are found on a totem pole, and lots of different stop motion monsters’ attack. Finally, it is explained… sort of… that there is a demon on the mountain that I think wants to make more demons or at least let them in. That explains all the different creatures attacking folks. Also, somehow the lodge owner is involved, but this isn’t explained. He does get to put on a plastic mask and dance though so that is a thing. This is a confusing movie.

This is the kind of movie that is more fun than it should be. Like I think I’ve already shown the plot as it is makes little to no sense. It seems that they sort of had an idea but instead of referencing and connecting scenes together the filmmakers just float stuff out there and let it be. We also get the sort of terrible acting that I expect out of a low budget flick like this. To their credit everyone manages to spit the lines out but much of it is flat. Basically the story and performances aren’t the selling point. 

There is a lot of charm to how the movie was made. It was shot on film, mostly 16 mm but I think that there was some 8 mm mixed in as well. This gives Winterbeast a silly seventies vibe that caught my attention and put a smile on my face. Then they double down with that by adding four or five stop motion monsters attacking the characters. Does it make any sense that they show up for a scene or two and then aren’t mentioned again? Nope. But the minute one of them picks up a character and we are treated to a Gumby like death scene as they are animated as well had me laughing… not giggling… but laughing out loud! 

There are also some props that apparently came from a Dokken video. Not sure if that is a real thing but if it is then cool. The movie only clocks in at an hour and seventeen minutes which helps. I think this is one that could have worn on me if it overstayed it’s welcome. And while the plot makes zero sense, they keep throwing silly shit at you, so I sort of just shrugged and enjoyed myself.  Finally, there is a sweet ass Datsun pickup truck! Okay that last one only means something to me. If you understand what you are getting yourself into and are willing to turn your brain off Winterbeast is worth a watch. It is currently on Shudder, but I see that it has popped up many other places as well. It shouldn’t be hard to find. 


© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

No comments:

Post a Comment