Shriek of the Mutilated



Shriek of the Mutilated (1974) is a famous bad movie, known mostly for the gory murder-by-electric-knife that has little to do with the rest of the movie. Clearly shot a shoestring, it’s incompetent in nearly everyway, even ruining its own twist ending. This material could actually be interesting if done in a competent manner.

The action in Shriek centers around a college professor who invites four of his best students on a field trip to a friend’s house on an island in Hudson Bay. The intent is to prove that the Yeti exists, which most people would recognize as being a little hard to do in New York because the Yeti is supposed to live in Central Asia, but no matter. The professor’s friend has heard, seen and smelled a Yeti on the island, so up they go.



Once on the island the Yeti turns out be horrifically violent (if cuddly cute) creature, killing two of the students in as many days. The professor makes the frankly incredible suggestion that the body parts of the previous victims be used to lure the Yeti in closer to the house so it can be shot with tranquilizer darts. Needless to say this plan goes awry, and the Yeti gets to chase everyone around for a while, until its super-loud heartbeat turns into music…

Stop reading now if you don’t want to know the twist ending, though I figured it out about 7 and 1/2 minutes in. The Yeti is actually a hoax, all part of an elaborate ruse to acquire victims for a high class cannibal feast the professor is throwing! (“Hey Scoob, looks like we aren’t the only ones with the munchies!”) Maybe it’s just me, but when a character in a low budget film mentions a mysterious dish containing an unnamed ingredient more than one time, I think “cannibal.” Still, you probably wouldn’t have to watch as many b-movies as I do to figure it out. It’s clumsily hinted at throughout the movie.

The cannibal explanation creates quite a few questions. If the whole reason for the Yeti ruse is to scare certain victims to death, wouldn't there be a better way to do it than dressing up like a giant Monchichi? How does the professor explain all these dead students and less than the requisite number of bodies?

In nearly every department Shriek of the Muilated is idiotic filmmaking. The dialogue is awful, the actors are community theater rejects, and the Yeti costume is laughable. But perhaps the funniest thing about the film is that there is no snow. There's supposed to be snow, characters talk about snow, and the Yeti is supposed to be hard to see but stands out like a sore thumb because there is no snow. For one flashback sequence the filmmakers dress some poor guy up in full winter gear and have him wander around a snow-less field, pretending he's caught in a blizzard. Then they overexpose the film so that everything looks white.



Perhaps rather than treating Shriek of the Mutilated as entertainment it should be seen as educational. I learned many things. For instance, in the 1970's there was no such thing as a curtain set with too many colors.



And in the 1970's there was no such thing as glasses that were too big.


Posted: Mon - February 23, 2004 at      

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