Shriek of the Mutilated (1974)

User Rating:

2.2/10   

Director:

Michael Findlay

Writers:

Ed Adlum (screenplay) and
Ed Kelleher (screenplay)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

A Corpse is Bait in the Trap of Terror!

Plot:

A group of college students are led by their professor into the mountains in search of the Yeti. The students start to be killed off one by one.

Plot Keywords:

Student | Yeti | Decapitation | Cannibal Cult | Partly Teenkill

Cast

Alan Brock	...	Dr. Ernst Prell
Jennifer Stock	...	Karen Hunter
Tawm Ellis	...	Dr. Karl Werner
Michael Harris	...	Keith Henshaw
Darcy Brown	...	Lynn Kelly
Jack Neubeck	...	Tom Nash
Tom Grail	...	Spencer Ste. Claire
Luci Brandt	...	April Ste. Claire
Ivan Agar	...	Laughing Crow
Marina Stefan	...	Party Hostess
Harriet McFaul	...	Girl at Party
Dwight Marfield	...	Station Attendant
Jimmy Silva	...	Policeman
Warren D'Oyly-Rhind	...	Waiter

Also Known As:

Mutilated
Scream of the Snowbeast (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

USA:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Croton-on-Hudson, New York, USA

Company:

Ed Adlum and Mike Findlay Productions

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Keith tells Karen if she gets scared at night to knock once on her bedroom wall and he'll knock back twice to let her know he's there. That night, she gets scared and knocks twice instead of once and someone (supposedly Keith) knocks back once instead of twice.

Quotes:

[last lines]
[preparing to carve up a human corpse]
Laughing Crow: Mr. Henshaw... white meat or dark?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 6 (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

Popcorn

A few cheap shocks, but pretty tedious.

I first saw this film back in the eighties on "Commander USA's Goovie Movies." This must be one of schlockiest seventies movies he ever showed. The film had a few good shocks, like the death by toaster scene, but I found this film mostly pretty tedious. The phony bigfoot costume, which looks like Santa Claus in an angora sweater and pants,would not have fooled anyone.

For those who have not read the plot summary, the film is about a cult of cannibals who have a guy dressed in a fake bigfoot costume to scare people away from the island where they hold their feasts. This kind of plot contrivance, having the fantastic element turn out to be a trick has always annoyed me. When will film makers ever realize no one likes films like this? This has turned up in films as far back as the twenties and still pops up in made for T.V. movies today. A guy running around in big foot costume would not scare people away, it would attract them! In real life reports of bigfoots, aliens, lake monsters, haunted houses only attract hordes of the curious. The island should have been over run by guys with shot guns trying to be the first guy to "bag" a bigfoot! The only good film where the fantastic events turn out to be a trick is MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935), and even that films ending disappoints its admirers.