Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (Val Guest, 1957)

Be our (Val) Guest...

It isn't too much of a leap to expect an astonishing dummy-death in Hammer Films' eerie science-fiction horror tale, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS. The film is rife with transformative deceptions: a landscape that (physically) changes continuously, characters who aren't who they seem to be and monsters who are equally misidentified and underestimated. Even the simplicity of the narrative is a deception.

By the time we reach the sequence presently under examination, the viewer is completely unprepared for the level of revelation director Guest and author Nigel Kneale have conspired to lift him up to (as would also be the case in the duo's QUATERMASS 2, released by Hammer that same year).

It is this dummy-death that acts as a staple in the centerfold; separating the film's first half which sets up and satisfies those viewers who desire a straight-forward horror-adventure and a second half which destabilizes the audience's trust in everyone and everything around them.


CLOSE INSPECTION

Here flees Andrew McNee --

-- Andrew McNee --

-- a man who very nearly "comes apart" (and is literally petrified) while suffering under the unyielding mind-control of the unearthly Yeti!

post © Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr

AKIMBO.7

FOREVER + A DAY - HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

Alright, alright... The question has lept into our pointy little heads... "How can you claim a first anniversary when you haven't posted since MARCH???!!!"

And the answer is before us for all to see: "Tough prosthetic shit, dummies!!!"

Much has happened since our last post. Some great things, some not-so-great things... (We'll get to all that in a later post.)

But, heck, it's our anniversary! So thanks to everyone who has written in, wondering where we were. (Leave comments next time, though!) And from this moment forward, enjoy all we have to offer in the form of simulacra slaughter!

All best

The Management