SNOWBEAST (1977)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Herb Wallerstein.
Written by Joseph Stefano.
Check out the trailer here!!

A small Colorado ski resort attempts to celebrate its 50th Anniversary Winter Carnival, promising to be an “orgy of fun and games.” But a floppy haired Bigfoot decides this is the perfect time to bust out a can of stomp ass on local skiers who dare get too close to the forest. Though he pleads to close the resort, Head of Security Tony (THE WILDERNESS FAMILY films’ Robert Logan) us forced to keep it open by the owner/his grandmother Carrie (played by BEETLEJUICE’s Juno, Sylvia Sidney). Enter Gar (WALKING TALL’s Buford T. Pusser himself, Bo Svenson) a former ski champion looking for a job. Gar and Tony used to be besties. In fact, they are so close, Gar’s wife Ellen (played by THE BLACK HOLE’s Yvette Mimieux) used to be in love with Tony. But while this trio try to figure out their relationship issues, the Bigfoot’s rampage continues.

When you are making a Bigfoot movie and you smartly choose not to show the monster for most of the movie because the suit doesn’t look so hot, you have to fill it with all kinds of drama. And director Herb Wallerstein does just that. Wallerstein had a lot of TV show experience before filming SNOWBEAST, which itself was a TV movie made obvious by the many fade to black or red transitions between scenes. While not a lot of gore is shown, there is the suggestion of gore during the attacks as the scenes fade to red instead of black. This suggestion of violence is more sophisticated than one might imagine for a Bigfoot movie, but it does show that some thought was put into making this film different from director Wallerstein.

More impressively, the film was written by Joseph Stefano, writer of PSYCHO, who based the movie on the memoirs of Roger Patterson who filmed the famous Patterson/Gimlin film depicting what looks to be Bigfoot walking away into the woods in Willow Creek. So the script is a bit better than most B-movies as well, giving Tony, Gar, and Ellen a more engaging relationship that feels more real and less like filler between kills. The film does seem to be fluent in a lot of the Bigfoot lore known at the time, providing a lot of fun facts about how Bigfoot is a creature who migrates across large distances rather than sticking to one location.

Still the Bigfootin’ is few and far between in SNOWBEAST. The attacks are filmed from a first person POV, making the beast a little more like a hairy Michael Myers. The rubber claws used aren’t that ominous, but the size of the paws are pretty impressive. Because the Bigfoot suit isn’t shown much, you get a whole lot of POV shots of people screaming before they are killed by the monster. Once shown in full, the Bigfoot looks a little like the Buzzcocks’ King Buzzo. Its floppy hair suggests that this Bigfoot uses the right kind of conditioner for its hair. The monster has a snout more like a dogman or a bear than the typical simian-like face usually seen. This Bigfoot is ominous looking, but smartly shown in quick cut, blurry motions to cover up anything that might take away from the ominous nature of the beast.

SNOWBEAST is somewhat confusing in terms of plotting and who we are supposed to be rooting for other than the Bigfoot. Tony isn’t made too appealing as he seems to be pining over Gar’s wife Ellen who seems to be sick of Gar and ready for a little romp in the snow with Tony. This makes Gar kind of likable, but later he is seen flirting with a bevy of women at the mixer, so none of them are without fault. The film really has three candidates for leading man. Aside from Gar and Tony, both big burly Alpha Male lead types, SNOWBEAST also has TV cowboy Clint Walker as the Sheriff. So it’s hard to identify who is the hero until the final reel and we see who is still standing.

The Bigfoot’s attack on the resort is pretty fun to see. It’s a mass sighting resulting in a riot with tons of extras falling all over one another to get away from the beast. This scene was added in late in the game when one scene where a skier falls from the lift only to be mauled by the Bigfoot was deemed too gruesome for network TV. This was 1977, you know.

I’m going to give SNOWBEAST a solid 3 Feets and 3 Toes.

Sure, a lot of the film is filled with stock footage of snow mobiles, skiers, and people pittering about and the relationship stuff muddies up things, but still SNOWBEAST managed to entertain me most of the way through. It’s kind of a classic and took the material seriously, which doesn’t seem to happen these days. Though scantily used, the Bigfoot is effective at being savage and scary. And while the story is just JAWS in the snow, it still does the trope well.