It has been something of an on-again off-again quest of mine, over the years, to watch as many bigfoot films as I can. There have been some good and some bad, but there was one that always seemed to elude me. Now, with its brand new remaster and first time Blu-ray release, there was no better time to finally sit down and watch Ryan Schifrin’s Abominable.
Confined to a wheelchair on the second floor of his home with a caretaker who doesn’t believe a word he says, Preston (Matt McCoy, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) is forced to look on as the girls next door are attacked and dragged off, one by one, by a creature from the woods.
As longtime horror fans, we’ve all seen our fair share of creature features and, more specifically, the occasional bigfoot movie. Of course there are some pretty bad ones out there, but there are also some pretty great ones, too. While Abominable is certainly more campy than recent films like Exists or Hunting the Legend, it is not without tension and suspense.
Abominable is a modern-day take on the classic Hitchcock film, Rear Window, wrapped inside a slasher package with a nice shiny sci-fi bow on top. The practical effects are worthy of any gorehound’s praise, with gorgeously gruesome kills, and the creature actually looks pretty damn menacing. There is none of this goofy, low-budget CGI stuff going on; just your good old-fashioned monster suit, made to simultaneously terrify and entertain.
While Schifrin’s take on the Sasquatch sub-genre can be compared to your average made-for-TV sci-fi flick, I personally place it a few steps higher. Sure, the film was produced with a modest budget, but that didn’t stop Schifrin and his team from rounding up some pretty big names in genre filmmaking. The cast of Abominable features some very familiar faces, especially to longtime horror fanatics; Throughout its 94 minute runtime, we are treated to cameos by Dee Wallace, Jeffrey Combs, Lance Henriksen, and modern-day scream queen, Tiffany Shepis, among others I’m sure I’m forgetting. The acting is perfectly fitting all around from the entire lineup.
If you love bigfoot themed horror movies as much as I do, you’ve probably already seen Abominable. If you haven’t, however, do yourself a favor and grab the newly remastered Blu-ray release. It most certainly looks way better than any other version that has been released in the past and it’s loaded with tons of special bonus features. It looks fantastic and is a real fun movie to own in any collection, big or small. With everything you need in a film like this — blood, boobs, and beasts — you really couldn’t ask for anything more.
Abominable is available now from MVD Visual as part of their newly launched MVD Rewind Collection, so pick it up while you still can.
I really enjoyed this one and give it 4 Darwin Awards out of 5.