B-Movie Break - Abominable
Abominable is a gloriously cheesy B-movie. It doesn’t have an original bone in its body, but it certainly tries hard to entertain, and it has some moderately effective scares.
After a horrible rock climbing accident put him in a wheelchair and killed his wife, Preston Rogers (Matt McCoy) returns back to the mountains for a weekend attempt to put the past behind him. Too bad it’s the same weekend that the Abominable Snowman decides to wreak havoc on the area!!!
Abominable basically takes Rear Window (the idea of a wheelchair bound man spying on his neighbours – five beautiful women in this movie) and combines it with an animal attack movie. And you know what? It’s not half bad.
Sure there are some really annoying characters. Otis Wilhelm (Christien Tinsley) tops the list as Preston’s “let’s just do everything to make Preston’s life difficult” nurse. And the cameo appearances by Jeffrey Combs and Lance Henriksen (while admittedly cool) are basically filler.
So, what keeps it going? Matt McCoy. He’s actually pretty great in this movie. Sure, even he can’t make some of the script’s tongue in cheek dialogue work, but he can provide some emotional gravitas to utterly ridiculous scenes.
There’s a scene where he tells a frightened girl how other than his accident, being attacked by the Abominable Snowman is the second scariest moment of his life, and as funny as that sounds he actually makes it kind of touching.
Ryan Schifrin’s directing is a big plus as well. He has a nice grasp of tension, and makes the most of his limited budget. Sure he doesn’t quite have the polished feel of a horror master, but with time I think Schifrin could develop the chops.
Abominable doesn’t mark any new territory, but it is competent and fun, and worth checking out if you want to celebrate B-movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment