El grito del mutilado

Well, take four studious grad students desiring to impress their professor on a weekend jaunt to "Boot" Island(Heaven knows where that is...but by the looks of the area I would say Upstate New York), a professor intent on finding the Yetti(in New York no less), and a mixture of cheap special effects, implausible situations, horrendous acting, and a lively tune called Popcorn and you have the makings of a great film ...right? Well maybe not great, but certainly entertaining. This film is a joy to behold for lovers of bad films and is thoroughly entertaining on that level. The story is about how four students are invited on a hunt to find a Yetti only to discover they find themselves the meat d'jour on the menu for some evil cult. The film has some wonderful moments of really inspiring bad acting as well as some of the corniest dialogue around.

Just a note of warning: The Retromedia DVD of "Shriek of the Mutilated" is missing one of the highlights of the movie...the use of the '70s syntho-pop instrumental hit "Popcorn" during the party scene early in the movie. I assume Retromedia couldn't get the music rights, so they dubbed in some unremarkable new background music. There also appear to be some cuts in the dialogue (for instance, when the St. Claires arrive at the party, Retromedia has removed a student's sarcastic remark about their presence). In its original form, this movie is a hysterical classic of bizarre filmmaking...so track down the out-of-print Lightning Video VHS release if you can.

I saw this movie originally in the theaters when I must have been about 6-7. A babysitter took me, and it quite literally made me afraid to walk in the woods alone for many years. I ran across it again when I was about 20 and couldn't believe it had scared me so. The costumed "monster" looked like he had been adorned with bathroom throw rugs to resemble not so much a yeti but more like an overgrown Pekingese. The out-of-focus close-ups on the beasts slavering mouth as he bit at his victims only served to accentuate his lapdogness. Still, the movie made for good fun as my friends and I took great pleasure in predicting which of the students would fall next or how bad the next cannibal joke would be. For an amusing if not forgettable night, pick this up wherever fine foods are served.

In college a buddy of mine came in with a tape of what he claimed was the worst movie ever committed to celluloid, or whatever they had been using in 1974. We asked him why we'd want to watch something like that, and he replied that part of it had been filmed on campus! It was a Saturday night with class out of session, so with nothing to go along with the sizable supply of beer we had in the fridge, we said why not.

All you need to know about the movie: 1) A fight with a Yeti in a snowstorm is actually the negative of the print. 2) The Yeti wears tennis shoes. 3) The mute Indian looks more Italian than Al Pacino. 4) The Yeti runs down a long warehouse aisle to a loading dock to attack one of the students in the middle of the woods, then cuts to the actual attack, where he falls like he'd been pushed over.

This movie cried out for the MST3K treatment, but alas, it was not to be.

I'm sorry to say I saw this one back in the 70's at a Drive In.We all laughed at it for months.We tried to determine if it was filmed in someones back yard and what the total budget was.The canniblism aspect was a good spin though.This movie was very good for laughs and comments like " Hey who's idea was it to watch this one?"I think it ranks right up there with Plan 9 ,Microwave Massacre and even Ishtar.Make sure you drink heavily when you watch it.It makes it easier.I do recommend it.Do not spend more than 2 bucks if possible.I would also recommend that you do not watch this one on a first date.Wait till at least the third,and it may even just be your last.