John Reviews Abominable

Every once in a while I love coming across fun little films that flew under most people’s radar. Abominable is one of those movies. I put up a post to it’s trailer way back in September of 2004, but to the best of my knowledge it never got a theatrical release (or if it did, it was a very limited one.

Here’s the basic idea of the movie:

Years ago, mountain climber Preston Rogers (Matt McCoy) suffered a terrible injury that left him wheelchair-bound in his remote cabin. Something strange is happening in the woods these days, though, and if Rogers holds out any hope of saving the lives of either his neighbors or the young college girls on a weekend retreat to the California mountains, he’s going to have to convince the skeptical Sheriff Halderman (Paul Gleason) that something sinister is happening amidst the thick foliage of the forest and that numerous lives will be lost if they don’t act fast.

The notion of an evil Bigfoot movie sounds a little silly, and it is… the movie itself is very cheesy and silly to say the least. But holy crap the movie is also a lot of fun.

First of all the monster looks RIDICULOUS. No really, it looks like they got the outfit from “Bargain Eddie’s Easy Monster Costume Discount” store. it doesn’t look scary at all… it doesn’t even look a tiny bit real… it just looks… well… silly. The movie is also filled with almost every cliche you can think of. The gratuitous tit shots, 5 college girls in danger from the monster, a local police chief who doesn’t think anything is wrong… yadda yadda yadda.

The acting (aside from Mat McCoy) was horrible, and it didn’t help that the actors were given some of the worst dialog in the world to work with. This movie is silly, cheesy, campy and just plain dumb. BUT….

For some reason it just works. No really, it does. I don’t know if it’s they way director Ryan Schifrin shot it, the use of the music or just how much I had to drink that night… but for one reason or another, despite all it’s flaws and weaknesses, Abominable works as a fun little horror movie that will have you jumping out of your seat at least a dozen times and actually scare you. Go figure.

Yes the movie is cheesy and silly and all those other things I mentioned already, but it works. Somehow it finds a way to work, and we just had a great time watching it. You will too. Overall I’m giving Abominable, on a purely entertainment level, an 8 out of 10. Watch this one with a couple of friends one night, you’ll be glad you did. Here’s the Abominable trailer just in case you’re interested.