Abominable (2006) ** (out of 4)A crippled man returns to his home in the mountains six months after he and his wife were attacked by what they claim to have been Bigfoot. The house next to his is being rented by five young ladies looking for a fun weekend but soon all of them are under attack by the mythical creature.Bigfoot is my favorite monster whether its reading about him, watching television specials or watching him in movies. The bad thing about being a Bigfoot fan is that the majority of the movies that have been made about him are awful. In fact, you'd really be hard pressed to find very many good ones, which is a real shame. Ryan Schifrin's ABOMINABLE isn't the greatest movie on the subject and it's not the worse so it's pretty much in the middle.The film is basically a slasher movie but the killer is Bigfoot. I say that because there's really not too much that happens outside of victims being set up to be killed. If you're a fan of gore then you'll be happy to know that there's plenty of that here including people being ripped apart and worse. The film does benefit from the gore and I'd argue that, for the most part, the Bigfoot looks good too.Several familiar faces show up throughout the running time including fan favorites Lance Henriksen, Jeffrey Combs, Rex Linn and Dee Wallace-Stone. Seeing the familiar faces is another major plus that the film has going for it. For the most part ABOMINABLE is an entertaining movie but at the same time the characters are all rather bland and boring and I'd also argue that there's no suspense and that's something that could have helped to rise this above your average fair.

The search for Bigfoot has increased over the past few years, in part fueled by the series FINDING BIGFOOT. Combined with previous efforts to find the elusive beast we've seen how groups of people have banded together to search for this creature. But before all of that there were movies being made about not just the search but encounters with Bigfoot or creatures like them. One of the most famous was THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK which fueled the films of its producer/director Charles B. Pierce. Another was the schlock drive in classic SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED. But one that rarely gets the attention it deserves is ABOMINABLE. Made in 2006 on a minor budget the film didn't play many theaters but became a hit on cable TV. I can remember it airing to little fanfare but after watching it I was stunned. The movie is far better than one would expect.Matt McCoy stars as Preston Rogers, a well off young man who lost his wife during a mountain climbing accident a year earlier that left him bound to a wheelchair. His doctor feels that the best thing for him to do to get over the sadness and guilt he still feels for his wife's death is to send him back to the cabin they shared near the mountain she fell from. Accompanied by a less than sympathetic nurse named Otis (Christien Tinsley who also helped with the creature effects) they reach their destination. Having forgotten a few supplies Otis leaves Preston behind in the cabin for the short trip to town.While he's gone new neighbors in the cabin next door arrive, a group of young women out to celebrate the impending wedding of one of their group. Preston hears them arrive, stereo blaring and watches as they unload and go into their cabin. He's later caught looking at them through binoculars making them assume he's a peeping tom. Looking into the woods he's stunned to see a pair of red eyes looking back at him, bumps his chair and is knocked unconscious.After a nap Preston wakes wondering why Otis hasn't returned. Looking outside he sees a telephone pole blocking the road. Attempting to alert the girls next door they assume he's doing more window watching and ignore him. One of the girls goes out to use her cell phone and after looking away for a moment, Preston sees she's disappeared and her cell phone is laying on the ground. A side note has three friends in the woods attempting to track down the best that killed the dog belonging to one of them during a short opening segment. As they do so they hear something in the woods. As one of them tracks it down, he finds the first missing girl as well as the beast, hightailing it back to the campfire and more fire power. But the odds of their surviving are slim.Unable to get to their cabin because of his condition Preston is helpless to do anything but watch as the beast attacks and abducts another girl which the rest later discover. He yells to them and attempts to get them to his cabin but the beast attacks again. Not all will make it but one does. Now Preston and the girl must do what they can to survive before the beast returns.Director Ryan Schifrin does an amazing job of telling the story using glimpses of the creature throughout the film but finally delivering with some great looking special effects to allow the viewers to see the creature full on. This doesn't cheat the viewer with a movie that never shows the monster in question but is used sparingly leaving you wanting more. He builds the tension nicely here, forcing the viewer to feel concern for Preston who is unable to do much confined to his wheelchair but not giving in at the same time.While watching I kept thinking that the film felt like a combination of Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW melded with a Bigfoot film. I was pleased to find that this was what Schifrin was going for in the extras as he talked about the film. It does so in such a way as to not be a rip off of the classic film but putting its own twist on the idea and it works marvelously.The acting is something that could have killed this movie. In the hands of terrible actors the movie would have been difficult to watch. Not to worry. McCoy does a fantastic job. Having seen him before I often wondered why he was never a much bigger star than he was. Haley Joel as Amanda, the girl that makes it to his cabin, also turns in a great performance. Her character isn't the standard dumb blonde bimbo here but someone capable of helping Preston as the two of them face off against the monster. Familiar faces to horror fans will be found here as well. Dee Wallace and Rex Linn are the wife and farmer attacked in the opening sequence, Jeffrey Combs and Lance Henriksen are the two friend accompanying Linn when they go searching for the monster, Paul Gleason and Phil Morris are the sheriff and deputy respectfully going to check on things and Tiffany Shepis is on hand to do what she does best which is be a scream queen. Without giving it away or supplying any clues one more thing needs noted and that's the ending of the film. Where some movies on the subject leave you hanging or completely cheat you (as in WILLOW CREEK which I found to be a major disappointment) this one delivers what I think is one of the greatest endings of a horror film in some time. Enough so that I found myself smiling before the end credits began rolling.MVD is releasing this film as part of their MVD Rewind collection, complete with old mom and pop video store packaging. Not only that they're releasing it with a brand-New 2K High-Definition transfer from the original camera negative giving it the greatest looking picture possible on screen. Extras are plentiful here with an audio commentary track with Schifrin, McCoy and Combs, an introduction by Schifrin, BACK TO GENRE: MAKING ABOMINABLE a featurette on the making of the movie, deleted scenes and extended scenes, outtakes and bloopers, SHADOWS Schifrin's USC student film, BASIL & MOBIUS: NO REST FOR THE WICKED a short film written and directed by Schifrin with a score by his famous father Lalo Schifrin, the original 2005 version of the film, an improved version of the film with some minor alterations, the original theatrical trailer, a poster and still gallery, a storyboard gallery and a collectible poster.This is a must have movie for both Bigfoot fans and horror fans. It delivers on all levels. Even fans of suspense films will want to make a point of watching this one. I know for myself I plan to keep this one handy so I can enjoy it again in the near future. I truly enjoyed it and can't recommend it enough.

Even though 'Abominable' for the most part follows the common recipe for horror films made in the last thirty years or so, the story still manages to be just a little different from your standard horror plot. It still includes idiotic and irresponsible teenagers out to have a good time, but there is a difference with the inclusion of a more mature sensible character who turns out to be the hero (along with one of the irresponsible teenagers). And what about the monster? Well done, except for the face - the creators appeared to be trying too hard and it (to me) looks slightly comical. Nevertheless, the prime objective of a movie is to entertain, and 'Abominable' does that very well.

In an era where too many horror movies are Jason Voorhees slasher types or overly-CGI infested crapfests without the slightest originality or aptness of execution, 2006's Abominable, directed by famed composer Lalo Schifrin's son Ryan, stands out. Admittedly, with the multitude of young female victims on display it does sometimes feel like a slasher, and its plot isn't entirely original either, but there's no CGI employed and the manner in which the not-too-original story is presented doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence.As the film begins, farmer Billy Hoss and his wife Ethel awake in the middle of a snowy winter's night night to discover something killed their horse. Their dog Sparky runs off into the woods and we hear a yelp and a snarl, signaling Sparky's untimely demise and the arrival of the movie's monster. Whatever it is, it chases Mr. and Mrs. Hoss back to their house where they hide out until it goes away. When it's gone, Billy and Ethel come outside to investigate after a breather, they find giant footprints in the snow...The following day, Preston Rogers is being brought back home to Flatwoods after months of rehabilitative therapy following a climbing accident at the infamous (and poorly named) Suicide Rock, an incident which killed his wife and has forever cost Preston the use of his legs; he is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair. His doctors have placed him in the care of Grade-A dickweed Otis Wilhelm, a sort of male nurse kind of guy (and if Otis wasn't such an asshole I'd fully recommend slashing him and Preston!). Preston really doesn't want to be here, or anywhere, really, as he is depressed over his wife's death and such. The fact his house is in the shadow of Suicide Rock isn't helping his wounded psyche any.When Otis leaves to run to the grocery store, a bored Preston decides to do some birdwatching with his binoculars when some college girls - Amanda, C.J., Karen, Tracy and Michelle - drive up to occupy the rented cabin across the road for the weekend. With little else to do that doesn't remind him of his wife, Preston alternates between watching the girls and watching the woods. And when Karen wanders off to call her boyfriend on her cell phone away from the others, Preston sees, out of the corner of his eye, something big and hairy swoop in and snatch her, and by the time he brings the binoculars up again, Karen is gone leaving only her phone behind.Preston sends a frantic E-mail off to the local sheriff's office but is told not to send prank mail. Otis returns around this time and naturally doesn't believe Preston.Meanwhile, Billy Hoss and a couple of other shotgun-toting rednecks head off into the woods as night falls to hunt what the owner of the local gas station believes is a Yeti. Hearing a noise, the doubtful Ziegler Dane heads off to investigate the woods alone (this after he just got explaining what the Darwin Awards were to his comrades) and discovers the dying Karen, who has just enough time to warn Ziegler, "It's coming back!" before it does, indeed, return, and Karen and her would-be rescuer wind up as Yeti chow in short order, with Ziegler loosing the famous Wilhelm Scream as his death cry. Billy and the gas station guy follow suit.Preston keeps insisting he saw (kind of) a monster, causing tension to build between him and the already dickish, impatient Otis, culminating in Otis attempting to sedate him after the understandably hysterical Preston further witnesses Tracy get pulled through the bathroom window across the street, which, incidentally, was far too small for her. One snapped back later and the four remaining girls have dwindled to only three.So anyway Otis tries to sedate Preston, only for his charge to grab the syringe and jam it into Otis' neck, sedating him instead. Otis will spend most of the remainder of the film lying around on the floor.Without his overbearing nurse hindering him any further, Preston begins making lengthy attempts to warn the other girls, culminating in the monster finally appearing fully (and it is indeed a Yeti, or at least a Bigfoot; the movie does offer a pseudo-science explanation for what a Yeti is doing in the United States, but it doesn't quite fly).But what's a guy who can't use his legs anymore going to do against a gigantic monster we've seen flip over cars and kill experienced hunters? Well, all I'll say is it involves an axe and a station wagon...Abominable is not a groundbreaking film by any means, and the effects aren't that great (the monster costume makes the Yeti look like what someone aptly described as "an angry Brian Dennehy that wants to rape someone"), but it is well-directed and has some really wonderful suspenseful moments, making excellent use of the claustrophobia of Preston's house and the deep, impenetrable darkness of the woods without.Scenes such as the one at the beginning where there Hoss family hides in their house while something big, unseen and nasty skulks around outside is the stuff of nightmares, and Preston's reaction to his first glimpse of the monster, which is to freeze up and slowly start wheeling his chair back inside the house (no easy task given how his arms are locked up with terror) is also really great. As for gore, well, just you wait 'till you see what happens to Otis when he finally wakes up!Abominable is a really good effort, and although it isn't great, it still stands out as a diamond in the rough amidst a sea of crappy horror films to come out in the last several years. The fact it debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel, which is a dumping ground for various crappy low-budget horror crapfests, makes the fact it's actually good even more surprising.