Snowbeast (1977)

The true sign of a landmark movie is not its success at the box office, but rather the many bad imitations it spawns.  Immediately after the success of Jaws (1975) a whole slate of imitations were rushed into productions by rival studios (and low budget merchants).  In the span of five years, we were given such forgettable fare like: Orca, Grizzly, Barracuda, The Last Shark, Tentacles, and the subject of this review, Snowbeast.

While watching Snowbeast, I devised a theory about the movie’s origin: The director, Herb Wallerstein, desperately wanted an all expense paid vacation to the slopes of Colorado, so he Xeroxed the script to Jaws, showed it to the NBC studio heads, and was granted his vacation under the ruse that he was making a movie. When he wasn’t hitting the slopes, or yakking it up the locals, he would spend a few hours directing the movie.  This would explain why the movie is so directionless;  Snowbeast is 86 minutes long, but a good percentage of its running  time is devoted to scenes of people skiing or riding on snowmobiles (shot by the second unit). 

Some exciting Snowbeast action!!!

Wallerstein’s direction is completely flat – the scenes are usually acted out in a master shot and it will cut to a close up to emphasize a point. It’s something straight out of a television sitcom from that era.  It also doesn’t help that Snowbeast is extremely drab looking movie; its muted colors prove to be an eye sore.  It’s the equivalent to being boxed inside on a dreary winter day – the sky has a permanent grey overcast, the roads are slippery, and you just want to nod off.  

 Snowbeast shamelessly rips off Jaws in an almost beat for beat fashion; instead of a small island community being terrorized by a Great White Shark, it is a ski resort that is laid siege to by a Bigfoot.  Just like in Jaws, the authorities ignore the problem and carry on with the festivities that have planned (the 4^th of July in Jaws, a winter carnival in Snowbeast). In the third act, our protagonists venture out into the wilderness, in a camper, to kill the monster.  The Bigfoot destroys the camper and, without their guns, must resort to desperate measure to kill the creature.  I was half expecting one of the characters to capture a glimpse of the Bigfoot and quip, “We’re going to need a bigger camper.” Sadly, this didn’t’ happen. 

In Jaws, there is a scene where a group of fishermen capture a tiger shark and the mayor prematurely declares that the beaches are safe again. Of course, this backfires when the real shark rears its ugly head on the 4^th of July and eats a man. There is a similar moment like this in Snowbeast; the sheriff kills a Grizzly bear and public declares the danger is over.  However, the placing of this scene is incredibly awkward, because it comes AFTER the Snowbeast has laid siege to the Ice Queen ceremony at the Town Hall; meaning that the Bigfoot has been seen by multiple witnesses, all of whom could attest that what they saw was no Bear.  It also serves no narrative purpose, because minutes after the sheriff has killed the Bear, he agrees to help our heroes kill the blood thirsty Bigfoot.  The scene, essentially, plays out like this:

Sheriff: I caught the Bear. Our troubles are over.
Gar (our hero):  It wasn’t a Bear and you know it. It was Bigfoot. We need to kill it.
Sheriff: Okay. Let’s go! 

In one of the main deviations from Jaws, the character of Chief Brody is divided up into three roles: Gar Seberg, Tony Rill, and Sheriff Paraday.  The first time (and probably only time) one watches Snowbeast you mistakenly believe that Tony Rill is the main character - he dominates the first half of the movie. It is Tony that first acknowledges the existence of the Bigfoot and whose warnings are promptly ignored by the authorities (the Sheriff and his grandmother, who owns the ski resort). Grandma Rill is dismissive of Tony's Bigfoot theory; she blames the disappearance of a female skier on an avalanche. Tony will have none of that, however, and is determined to kill the beastie.

It also feels like the writer is setting it up so that Tony and Ellen (Gar’s long suffering wife and TV journalist) are going to rekindle their romance, while Gar will end up a victim of the Snowbeast.  I initially thought that Gar would attempt to murder Tony for “cutting in on his action” and would fall prey to the Snowbeast before he could go through with his plan, but that would be too interesting plot for this movie.  Instead, the movie shifts focus from Tony to Gar in the second act, while Ellen is essentially relegated to background noise.  

The love triangle that never was.

 I will give the movie this: at least it attempts to give Gar a character arc and Bo Svenson, bless his soul, does his best with the material that he is given.  In 1968, Gar won the skiing gold medal in the Winter Olympics but his star quickly faded after that defining event.  This is largely due to self doubt and complacency on Gar’s part; after winning the gold medal, he was certain that he could never top this achievement, so he gave up competing. His complacency drives a wedge in his marriage to Ellen.  Gar comes to Tony's ski resort hoping he can get a job; skiing is the only thing he knows, so naturally a ski resort would be a perfect fit for him. 

However, instead of entertaining the tourists with his celebrity, Gar is given the assignment of killing the Snowbeast.  Apparently, he is an expert shot. Gar initially refuses as he views it as cold blooded murder, but when he witnesses the carnage first hand he has a change of heart.  He also gets his swagger back; when Ellen goes missing, he dons the skis and searches for her. They are reunited and their marriage is saved. YAY!!!! 

I find the character of Ellen to be perplexing. This is not Yvette Mimieux’s fault. Her character isn’t given much to do.  It is established that she is a TV journalist, but in no way does that factor into the plot. You would think that Ellen would realize that Bigfoot on the loose makes for a great story and would promptly contact her station. If she captures a Bigfoot live on camera, it would boost her career; make her a national celebrity. It would also give her character some depth; she is simultaneously repulsed by the killings and yet excited by what it means for her career. Instead, she is just happy being Gar’s wife. Her character arc is essentially she goes from being Gar’s long suffering wife to Gar’s supportive wife. It is a really odd decision by screenwriter, Joseph Stefano.  

Left - Long suffering wife mode. Right - Supportive wife mode.

 The movie apes Jaws by keeping the Bigfoot off screen for most of the movie; the filmmakers use point of view shots and off screen roars to suggest its presence. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with this gimmick, but the point of view shots expose two huge problems with this premise.

1.       The cameraman often struggles to find his footing in the snow covered landscape and makes a lot of noise while doing so. It’s hard to believe that none of the victims would be alerted to his presence much earlier.  The first death is extremely laughable; a female skier just idly stands there while the camera slowly descends upon her.  If she would only stop screaming she would have ample time to get away on her skis. 

2.       The landscape is completely lacking in vegetation of foliage and doesn’t really offer the Snowbeast much in terms of cover. In the climax, when the heroes are talking outside of the camper, they should be able to see the creature looking down upon them.  He is probably less than twenty feet away and hiding behind a tree that is devoid of any foliage. Yet, because the script demands that creature destroy their camper in stealthy attack, they remain oblivious. It is a laughable attempt at building suspense.

It should be noted that the movie’s credit writer was Joseph Stefano, who his most famous for writing the screenplay to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. He went from writing one of the most influential movies of all times to ripping off one the most influential movies of all time. How the mighty have fallen.  Though, in his defense, he was working with one of the great cinematic masters on Psycho, while on the Snowbeast he was stuck with an insipid director for hire.  

The two scariest moments in Snowbeast.

Credits
Cast: Bo Svenson (Gar Seberg), Yvette Mimieux (Ellen Seberg), Robert Logan (Tony Rill), Clint Walker (Sheriff Paraday), Sylvia Sidney (Carrie Rill), Thomas Bobson (Buster), Annie McEnroe (Heidi)

Director: Herb Wallerstein
Writer:  Joseph Stefano
Running Time: 86 min