VAL GUEST DIRECTS HAMMER'S THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN'

If only it were only this exciting Year: 1956 Rates: ***

When Hammer's thriller director Val Guest made a creature feature, it was the kind of mind-game-in-the-snow motion picture that might have influenced John Carpenter's THE THING...

And with selfish American entrepreneur Forrest Tucker barking orders at the assorted team of hiking researchers out to discover the legendary Himalayan Yeti, i.e. THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS, there's a patient British Peter Cushing to add an intriguing scientific spin because he plays a scientist so well...

The main problem is the initial setting at a Buddhist monastery. The wise shaman raises too many vague questions that needed answering through action instead of dialogue...

What should've been a more terrorizing journey becomes predictably doomed in that "Don't mess with nature" fashion. Liken to the anticipation of KING KONG, with men exploiting the unknown wilds, if that had played as cautiously there wouldn't be any story at all: Making SNOWMAN a kind of half-adventure relying more on intermittent suspense than a revealing payoff. Ultimately, ABOMINABLE wields a hoarse roar. 

Even the cover art relies on suspense for THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN