The Rill Ski Lodge is having their annual winter carnival. Carrie Rill (Sylvia Sidney) and her grandson Tony (Robert Logan) run the lodge. When a girl goes missing, Tony and some of his employees go looking for her. Her friend, Heidi (Annie McEnroe), escaped and was terrorized by what she saw. She says she saw a monster. Tony finds the missing girl’s blood-soaked jacket in the snow. He also thinks he saw a creature in the woods. When Tony gets back to the lodge, he tells Carrie about what he believes he saw. He wants to tell Sheriff Paraday (Clint Walker) about it but, afraid of losing business, Carrie talks him out of it.
In the meantime, Tony’s friend Gar Seberg (Bo Svenson) and his wife Ellen (Yvette Mimieux) show up at the lodge. At one time Gar was an Olympic ski champion but he hasn’t skied in quite some time. Now he needs a job. Tony doesn’t think twice. He welcomes his friend and readily offers him a job.
Tony tells his employee, Buster (Thomas Babson), to set up some signs to keep people away from the area where the girl disappeared. Buster takes it on himself to continue the search for her but ends up face to face with the Snowbeast. Later a young boy, John Cochran (Jamie Jamison) finds the dead girl in a barn. This time Sheriff Paraday is called. When Tony finally talks to Paraday about what he saw, the sheriff finds it difficult to believe.
Ellen is a newspaper reporter and hears about the Snowbeast creature. She goes off on her own to try to find it. When she doesn’t return Gar goes looking for her. Together they run into the beast. Paraday and Tony come to the rescue.
When the creature comes into town and kills another woman, Paraday has a panic on his hands. To try to calm people, Paraday tells everyone that the killer is a bear that came out of hibernation. He and his men go out and kill a bear. Tony, Gar and Ellen know full well the bear is not the culprit. The only thing to do is to hunt down the creature and destroy it, if they can.
“Snowbeast” was released in 1977 and was directed by Herb Wallerstein. It is an American made-for-television horror film. If you like skiing montages, you’ll like this movie. Otherwise, it is your standard movie of the week type film, not great, not bad.
The movie had one scene where a skier falls from a ski lift, breaks a leg, and is killed by the creature. It was deemed too violent for television, so the scene was removed and another scene, where the beast crashes the gymnasium where the festivities are going on, was put in its place, although there are some versions of the movie that have the original scene restored.
The Snowbeast was played by Michael J. London. Reportedly the same costume was used for the quasi remake “Snow Beast” 2011. It’s difficult to tell since the beast is rarely seen except for an arm or some distant fuzzy looking images.
The film has been called a “Jaws” 1975 rip-off and a “Grizzly” 1976 rip-off. Fair enough.