The totem pole monster and the skeleton head that rips out of a man's stomach are both props taken from the Dokken music video 'Burning like a Flame'.
Winterbeast began production in 1985. Producer Mark Frizzell thought it would take a weekend to finish. It took much longer. By 1989, Frizzell pulled the plug. In 1992, he revisited the abandoned work and completed it on half-inch tape (it was shot on a mixture of 16mm and Super-8).
The footage shot in 1989 were shot in just 2 days.
Originally, the filmmakers imagined the Winterbeast to be a stop-motion creature. This became a guy in a costume, of which some footage was shot. When the film fell apart, producer Mark Frizzell did a little stop motion bits between gigs at his day job at Olive Jar Animation to fill in the missing monster footage.
Riffed by MST3K alums Kevin Murphy, Michael J. Nelson and Bill Corbett for the Rifftrax brand.