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PAT’s HORROR PICKS #3: ABOMINABLE!

There have been a lot of Bigfoot movies, most of them quite bad, some totally shitty. This is what leads me to believe Roger Patterson’s shaky 1967 footage in Bluff Creek, California is real. The creature in that film looks and acts like a real animal, something most on-screen Sasquatch do not.

That’s why Ryan Schifrin’s ABOMINABLE is so fun–it’s actually a good Bigfoot movie! A game cast, great FX and a rock ‘em sock ‘em climax, where he demonstrates how hard killing a sasquatch can be, show that Schifrin was a Man On A Mission–bound and determined to redeem Bigfoot’s cinematic name. Unlike his fellow B-movie denizens, zombies, robots and vampires, Bigfoot has a poor ‘good to bad movie’ ratio..

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL:’s Matt McCoy is a recently paralyzed man returning to his cabin for the first time since his traumatic mountainclimbing accident. While he is mildly cheered up to have several hard partying girls next door, he is distressed to find an agile, easily irritated Sasquatch has been coming down from the mountains to kill and eat. Schifrin sets up REAR WINDOW with Bigfoot and then pays it off. The Christian Tinsley-designed Bigfoot is impressive (Played by FXman Mike Deak).

Schifrin even gives the creature a big “Oh, shit!” moment. He takes Scream Queen Tiffany Shepis and kills her in a shoclking, surprising manner. Every horror fan has seen the beautiful Shepis die in a variety of ways–so to say this is her most amazing onscreen demise should demonstrate how high a bar the co-writer/director set for himself. Schifrin told me how he did it, but I won’t be telling you, because that’s part of the charm of this movie–it’s energetic little surprises.

Movie spices up proceedings with some nudity and good gore, with a great soundtrack by Schifrin’s father, Lalo. While Lalo Schifrin did the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE theme, the ABOMINABLE soundtrack demonstrates he also does great horror music. His score for the original AMITYVILLE HORROR was the only redeeming thing about that film, besides Margot Kidder’s bare breasts at the height of their powers.

When the creature tires of playing cat & mouse with McCoy and finally smashes into his house, Schifrin’s inventiveness hits overdrive and he shows how the clever, handicapped hero avoids certain death at the jaws of the angry apeman. Movie is full of fun cameos by cool genre vets, like Dee Wallace, chain smoking-while-on-oxygen Jeffrey Combs, Lance Henriksen, Phil Morris and DIE HARD’s Paul Gleason, in one of his very last roles as a weary Sheriff. While a lot of Bigfoot shots were done in Griffith Park, you really can’t tell…-Pat Jankiewicz

October 3rd, 2011 | Category: Exclusive, Reviews