Winterbeast has a weirdly misleading title. For one, there are multiple beasts, each one as improbable and silly looking as the next. For another, it doesn’t even look like it takes place in winter. There’s not one flake of snow to be found nor do you see anyone’s breath during the outdoor scenes.
The plot has a forest ranger looking for some missing campers. When he finds a dead body on a totem pole, he tries to shut the mountain down. Naturally, the local bigwig doesn’t want to scare off the tourists, so he tries to keep a lid on it. Eventually, the ranger and his buddies try to put a stop to the goofy looking monsters who are stomping around the woods.
The film is really uneven and choppy. One minute the ranger and his pal witness somebody’s face exploding (it looks like some third graders tried to recreate the face melting scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark) and the next, they’re back at their post like nothing happened. The film stock also changes numerous times, which makes me think this was piecemealed together over several years.
The Jaws-inspired subplot with the monsters ruining the tourist trade really bogs things down. However, the film has enough odd moments sprinkled about to keep you watching. The scene where the ranger stumbles upon a character wearing a clown mask and dancing around some corpses is surprisingly effective.
The monsters are easily the most amusing thing about the movie though. One looks like an alien made of bubblegum, another resembles Groot on steroids, and there’s a giant chicken that looks like a close cousin to the bird monster in The Giant Claw. The final demon is just a guy wearing not-bad devil appliances, but he’s the least memorable creature in the cast. The effects seen in the opening dream sequence are pretty cool too.
Ultimately, this is a hodgepodge. If you enjoyed something like Equinox, you might not mind sitting through this just to see the silly-looking stop-motion monsters. Those fun special effects aside, Winterbeast is bound to leave you cold.
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