The Yeti - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Yeti



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I went in with almost zero expectations, considering this is a non Asian Well Go USA release, and came out mildly surprised. The back cover announces that this is a throwback to the time when monster movies were king, and in many ways, you can see that inspiration taken for this movie. We don’t get to see the monster much (due to budget and using practical effects), the old-timey 40s and 50s nature of the film, and, of course, some good old-fashioned gore. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and start likening things to King Kong or the like. Rather, this is a decent little monster movie with enough well-worn tropes to be entertaining, but enough well-worn tropes to not really cover new ground either.

Our film opens up with a series of vignettes that SEEM to have something to do with each other (seriously, it’s kind of confusing, and even a few fellow reviewers I reached out to felt the same way), all housed in this sort of “old timey” aesthetic that hearkens back to the old radio drama days mixed with some 1960s Adam West Batman. All of this simply clues us in that there is something hinky going on in the wastelands of Alaska. Fast forward a bit, and we have Ellie Bannister (Brittany Allen), who is the daughter of a famed cartographer, and roped into a rescue mission up to Alaska, where her father was on an oil finding expedition.

Gathering a crew of men (all told in the 1940s pulp serial montages) and women, they set off to Alaska, where their ride home has to move out from shore due to ice forming up. This effectively leaves the ground crew (and Ellie) trapped in the bleak wasteland while they try to hunt down the missing expedition. But it's not long before they realize that they’re the ones being hunted, as a mysterious monster begins tearing apart the rescue team one by one. And as Ellie gets closer and closer to the truth, she may find out that the truth is less palatable than she ever imagined.

The Yeti is not exactly high-grade art, but it’s a reasonable pulpy bit of monster horror/drama. The idea of a Yeti murderously killing people in the wastelands of a snow-bound location is not anything new, and the powers that be simply went with it. Put a bunch of mismatched adventurers in a cold, barren wasteland, and have a big, scary monster start munching on them till we get to the final girl. And in those respects, they did a good job. But there are a lot of loose ends and loosey goosey vignettes that just don’t always work. Especially the third act, when the big reveal about what happened to her father happens. It just feels like a fairly large letdown to the point where the ultimate finale comes around, it just “happens”. Plus, the beast itself gets only a few moments of screen time in the final reel thanks to budgetary concerns. As a result, the movie overall feels like a good chunk of the energy is sapped from it.



Rating:

Rated R for bloody, violent content and some gore.




Video:

As per usual, IMDB or other online resources are pretty vague about how the movie was shot, and what cameras were used, but I would hazard a pretty strong guess that this was a digital camera shoot, as it has Arri Alexa or RED camera signatures all over the image. The picture itself is quite nice, with a heavy blue or mahogany wood visual color grading, depending on whether everything is lit up by natural lighting or interior flame lamps. Fine details are generally quite good, but the shadowy nature of part of the film to hide the beast behind a silhouette can sometimes cause some strange digital noise spikes that seem to blend in with some mild banding (to be fair, the banding is very minimal, which is very rare for a Well Go USA title). But things like Yeti fur, or the copious maroon blood all pop off the screen with ease, and black levels maintain a good sense of depth except for those hazy bits regarding the monster.








Audio:

Equaling the stellar video score is a kick butt 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio mix that utilizes all of the monster movie tropes that we’re all used to, and to great aplomb. We get ear-splitting roars that shake the room, thudding of Yeti feet in the surrounds, and some really cool jump scare moments as the monster crunches and munches his way through the expedition. The huffing and scraping sounds out in the wild make for some really nice surround activity, and the dialogue is spot on perfect. I did notice a lack of low end in a few encounters near the end that made me wonder if some mistakes were made, but overall, this is a very bombastic and intense-sounding mix that should please most everyone.










Extras:

• Well Go USA Previews
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

The Yeti isn’t bad. It’s just a pulpy monster movie with a few well-worn tropes that put it in the class of “I’d watch this as a rental” category for us monster movie lovers. It won’t insult your intelligence, but it won’t exactly jimmy your jammies in excitement either. Instead, it travels into the void as a middle-of-the-road indie monster movie that works well enough to enjoy as long as you don’t think too hard about what goes on and character motivations. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, but is hampered by the typical anemic extras that are found on Well Go USA titles. At the end of the day, I’d still label this as a decent rental.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Brittany Allen, Christina Bennett Lind, Linc Hand, Corbin Bernsen, William Saddler, Eric Nelsen
Directed by: Gene Gallerano, William Pisciotta
Written by: Gene Gallerano, William Pisciotta
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: R
Runtime: 93 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 19th, 2026

Recommendation: Decent Rental