‘The Yeti’ Might Star, But His Ferocious Bite Doesn’t Land [Review]

A good monster movie only needs one thing: a good monster. The Yeti, directed and written by Gene Gallerano and William Pisciotta in their feature directorial debuts, has one. It’s in the name. Yet, while the Yeti commands title billing, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was merely a day player. The Yeti tries to roar up a storm, but it’s all Gigantopithecus bark, little bite.

A serviceable intro spills enough blood to augur the carnage to come. Deep in the Alaskan wilderness, an oil tycoon and his band of merry adventurers have gone missing on an expedition to ostensibly identify more oil wells. The tycoon’s son, Merriell Sunday Jr. (Eric Nelsen) assembles a ragtag troupe of experts to track the missing group down and bring them home. Along for the ride are Marianne (Heather Lind), a veterinarian, Coates (Linc Hand), a veteran and hired gun, Dynamite Dan (Gene Gallerano), whose name is exactly what it sounds like, Booker (an always welcome Jim Cummings), a radio expert, and Ellie (Brittany Allen), a cartographer and explorer whose own father is among those missing.

They’re reasonably textured, though most commonly (and frustratingly) framed by their trauma as today’s horror is wont to do. Coates is still reeling from the war. Ellie’s mother has died. Booker… well, Booker has it . The frost-tipped sincerity is at odds with Gallerano and Pisciotta’s stylistic impulses. The visuals are very , radio announcer voice, bold broadcast font, and all. Intrepid adventurers making their way into the unknown, so on and so forth.