Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

classicsoncall Right around the time this film came out, I would have been a kid voraciously reading anything I could get my hands on regarding fabled creatures like the Loch Ness Monster, The Abominable Snowman, and it's American cousin Bigfoot/Sasquatch. Their names still pop up from time to time, and Bigfoot even had his own TV series on Animal Planet. It must be some primordial urge in Man to keep these mythical beasts going from generation to generation, and if you ever see one, let me know.Considering the subject matter, this was a pretty decent flick from the Hammer folks, showing up on one of my cable channels as "The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas". More adventure film than horror, once the thing gets going most of the fear factor is supplied by the power of suggestion. One cool element in all this had to do with the idea that the remote mountain location where the Rong-Kuk Monastery was located gave it's head Lhama (Arnold Marle) some sort of clairvoyant power to see events in the future and warn Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing) not to venture forth for a creature that didn't exist, lest it lead to disaster.I was surprised to see Forrest Tucker top billed over Peter Cushing here since he wasn't a Hammer mainstay, but then again, Hammer Productions was just starting out. It turns out that Tom Friend (Tucker) had a prior reputation as a huckster, passing off mental defectives as Indian Wolf Children, so it didn't seem to matter much to him that the expedition's capture of a Himalayan langur monkey would have served his purpose well enough. That was a bit of a let down for me at that point in the story because other members of the team correctly identified it, and Friend should have realized he'd be harming his reputation once again.Director Val Guest did the right thing here to tease the appearance of the yeti creatures, revealing only an arm of the one shot by Ed Shelley (Robert Brown), and later when Rollason was confronted by two of the giants in the cave, their features were hidden in shadow. This is one picture where it was convenient to let the viewer's imagination take over instead of going for cheesy monster effects. Especially after the dead Yeti was described as ten and a half feet tall and weighing six hundred fifty pounds. There's a lot of room there for the imagination.If you go for this stuff, maybe you'd like to try a 1954 film with the same subject matter going by the name of "The Snow Creature". It's a lot goofier than this one, in fact, this picture plays almost scientifically plausible by comparison. It's only the grand Lhama who brings things back to reality at the end of the story when he tells Rollason - "It is not possible to bend the destiny of Man."

swifty77 A nice cross between an adventure film and a horror that places a bunch of character archetypes into the dangerous conditions of the Himalayas. It's a surprisingly good movie although a lot of it doesn't hold up for a modern audience; for example, the abominable snowmen themselves do just look like men. However, the team behind this film played well to their restrictions by keeping the snowmen offscreen until the end, building up the suspense effectively until the big reveal. Cushing's British scientist and Tucker's gruff American are nice contrasts as our protagonists, with their interests and intents being revealed to be more and more different as the film progresses. Director Val Guest leaves us on a rather poignant note, however; using the Yetis as a metaphor for the genuine exploration and endangerment of animals, which was common news at the time.

AaronCapenBanner Val Guest directed this atmospheric thriller set in the Himalayas at a remote monastery, where Dr. John Rollason(played by Peter Cushing) is a botanist with his wife(played by Maureen Connell) and associate Peter(played by Richard Wattis). He is awaiting the arrival of American Tom Friend(played by Forrest Tucker) so that they can undertake a scientific expedition to find the legendary and elusive Yeti. John is dismayed to learn that Friend is really a showman who plans on killing the creature for display, but also uses a corpse to attract a live one as well, which is exactly what happens, though not in the way they expected... intelligent story, fine direction and performances, and an eerie feel all combine to make this a memorable thriller, which discreetly keeps the Yeti mysterious.

malcolmgsw It is a strange thing about fans of horror films.The worse the film the more they praise it,particularly if it was made by Hammer.The first disappointing aspect of this film is the monster.Hammer who were so good with their monsters really seem to have no imagination in this case.A sort of large brown gorilla with a misshapen face.Why brown hair in a snowy waste?Then we have the deaths of the various characters,all very forced.After all how can someone with a bad foot go dancing off over the peaks.Peter Cushing gives his usual fine performance but Forrest Tucker is truly wooden and a feeble villain.All in all one for the Hammer fans alone everyone else better find a quieter mountain.