Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman

Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman
Film poster
Directed by	Marko Mäkilaakso
Written by	Nate Atkins
Starring	Chuck Campbell Adrian Paul Lauren O'Neil
Music by	Christopher Holden
Distributed by	Syfy
Release date	United States  26 January 2013 (2013-01-26)
Running time	85 min
Country	United States
Language	English

Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman (also known as Deadly Descent, The Abominable Snowman or Yeti) is a 2013 action horror television film directed by Marko Mäkilaakso and starring Chuck Campbell, Adrian Paul, Lauren O'Neil, Nicholas Boulton, Elizabeth Croft and Sean Teale. The film was shot in Bulgaria.

Plot

In 1992, a small group of back country skiers climb Glacier Peak, one of the most remote mountains in the Cascade Range. Led by Jake Tanner, the group is high up on the mountain when they disappear, never to be seen again. Years later, Brian Tanner (Chuck Campbell) – Jake's son – is going to find out what really happened to his father, no matter the cost. Brian, after a while, finds tracks which lead him inside a ravine, where the monster finds him and attacks. Nina Tanner, Brian's younger sister, wakes up, concerned about her brother not returning or contacting her. She makes it to Brian's place, only to find maps and some skiing gear lying around. She notices how the maps seem to lead to Glacier Peak, where her and Brian's father went missing, 25 years ago, so she contacts a rescue team, who send two people up to the mountains to search for Brian. They split up and unfortunately get spotted by the monster and are killed.

Nina goes to a local bar, and finds Rick, her potential love interest, and they begin talking about Brian and how he had been acting lately. Nina notifies him on how Brian had flown up to Glacier Peak, and soon after, Erlander, Jon and Stacey arrive at the same bar and are told about everything that had happened. There, they meet Mark Hagerty, who had taken Brian to the mountain. The group plan to go to the mountain and find Brian themselves, believing they'd be better off searching for him, after Mark had announced that the two rescuers were also killed, after hearing on the radio. Mark flys them to Glacier Peak, and the five of them are now by themselves. They begin going down the mountain, but out of the blue, an avalanche comes barrelling down, and they rush out of there to survive. Rick, Nina, Stacey and Erlander hide behind a large rock, but Jon tried outrunning it, but to no avail, and he fell right into the ravine.

Stacey freaks out, but Rick assures her that he'll go down himself to ensure that Jon is safe. Rick is sent down with a rope, and manages to find Jon, badly injured, but alive, with a broken leg, coughing up blood and an immense concussion. Stacey comes to his side to comfort him. Nina, Rick and Erlander work together to build a carrier to get Jon to safety, and avoid a blizzard about to storm through. Erlander can't help but shake the feeling that they're vulnerable, but he isn't sure what. Suddenly, the monster comes back, and begins attacking everyone there. It swipes everyone away and goes for weak Jon, dragging him out of the ravine and making him his next meal. Stacey has a meltdown after losing her new husband, but they still need to find somewhere to hide before the thing comes back. They make it out of the ravine and find a resort in the middle of nowhere. They begin questioning as to why the front door was unlocked. They look around and shine a flashlight at a flight of stairs, where they shockingly find Brian, who had been hiding out here, waiting for the right moment to kill the monster. Brian, on the other hand, isn't happy to see them.

Stacey and Rick tell him about how the two rescuers died searching for him, and now Jon. Brian gets his map, and starts explaining everything and why he was here. It all began with a man, Skinner, who returned from WWII, and wanted to build the resort, to be like the European mountain hunts he enjoyed doing, and that he went missing in 1954 after leaving the resort without a trace. Since then, several other sightings and incidents regarding the monster had occurred, and then, they're told about the incident abot Brian and Nina's father. Brian tells Nina that he was only a young boy when it all happened, and how he didn't buy anything he was told, as his dad always came to this mountain and knew what to expect or avoid. When search and rescue quit, Brian came back to the mountains, where he caught a glimpse of the creature for himself. Rick asks them as to what the thing is and why it's after them. Brian claims its about in excess of 8 feet tall and between 600-700 lbs, with sharp teeth and claws, very agile and capable to handling the harsh alpine conditions Glacier Peak had to offer.

Rick wants to leave and get out of there as quick as possible, but Brian refuses, and tells him about his mission and how he won't leave until its accomplished. The plan is mainly to kill the monster and avenge his father's death. They begin arguing about keeping the rest of the crew safe and who is at fault for Jon's death, when the commotion attracts the monster, and its punches through the glass and digs its claws into Erlander's back. It greatly weakens him and has to be dragged out of there by Rick. They all begin blocking off the door with furniture as it tries breaking in. Rick aims at the window after seeing it run by, but unfortunately wastes his last bullets and they're all now forced to run to the back of the cabin, where they find a hidden back door, and try leaving through there. But they're trapped. A second monster appears in front of them, it began inching closer and closer, waiting to launch its attack, but they hurry back inside and block off that door as well.

Wayne, Mark's boss, sees Mark come in drunk, and accidentally exposes himself and how he took the skiers to Glacier Peak, 7,000 feet south. Wayne couldn't believe what he was hearing, and began getting frustrated. Mark also began getting agitated about Wayne's remarks, only to get threatened with being fired. Wayne, having enough, yells at Mark to leave and get off his tower, but Mark doesn't want to go anywhere, until he knows the skiers are safe and sound.

Back at Glacier Peak, the crew run back to the front door, and begin setting up barricades. Erlander, knowing they won't make it out alive, proceeds to quickly grab Brian's gun and aim it at Rick. They tackle him and tell him to stop. Thats when the monsters make another arrival, and begin banging and crashing at the front door more forcefully. Rick, knowing the door won't hold for long, assures the others to run to the kitchen as the creatures finally break in. They push against the door using a large shelf with multiple kitchen utensils and being searching for weapons around the room to use if they break in. Erlander, terrified about the whole ordeal, causes him to even resist Stacey's offer to take the gun and fight with them. Erlander, knowing Stacey was against him for letting Jon die, he apologizes for his failure to save him, "I'm sorry I let Jon get killed, I'm sorry for everything." Stacey later accepts his apology, but the monsters return and try breaking down the door and pushing it back to wedge themselves inside. Nina finds a pantry in the back of the kitchen, but just as they weren't paying attention, the monsters broke in and they ran inside the pantry, hoping the kitchen would hold them off for a little longer. No exits in sight, Stacey believes they won't make it, "But now we're stuck in the pantry!" Brian luckily finds a door which opens onto a ladder to a boiler room downstairs. They think it will be their only way if escaping, but there isn't enough time. Erlander knows this, so he goes out and sacrifices himself to the monster, ignoring all the pleads and begging from the others to come back. After realizing it was too late, all they could do was climb down the ladder and listen to his agonizing screams of pain and the monsters roaring as they tore him limb from limb.

They discover many weapons hidden down in the boiler room, and begin making plans to fight back using them, just as they hear the creaking footsteps of the monsters exiting the resort with Erlander's body. They go back up and manage to get back in the kitchen, only to find blood sprawled out all over the floor, trailing to the front door. They start finding as many weapons as they can and also set up traps and carve out holes in the floor for them to fall into and get caught in the traps.

Mark, becoming more anxious by the minute about the safety of the skiers, tasks Wayne with sending a call, but he denies, and makes fun of his drunk breath. Mark wants to get back in the helicopter to look for him themselves if that's what it takes, but Wayne again, threatens him with the possibility of getting fired. Mark calmly replies, "Do what you gotta do, Wayne," and leaves the station.

Its now morning, and the remaining 4 skiers, Brian, Rick, Nina and Stacey, venture outside in front of the house to find the monsters. They hear a roar from afar and spot the two monsters coming towards them. They run back inside and begin shooting, but to no effect. Stacey, still furious towards these hideous beings which took the life of her husband, throws an axe at one of their heads, but it brushes it off and begins moving in on them. They make it to the back door, where one of the monsters falls through the floor and gets killed in one of the traps. The other arrives and doesn't fall in however. In the ensuing battle, Stacey is killed and the other 3 escape. They begin gathering logs sitting by the front porch to block the door and prevent the monster from coming outside. Brian throws a grenade in a vent, which lands next to many flammable gas tanks, blowing up the whole place. The remaining 3 of them make it unscathed. They put on their skiing gear and prepare to leave, but they decided to take on final look at the damage they had caused, only to see that the second monster lived. Without hesitation, they book it and get out of there. It starts gaining on them, and that's when they find a cliff, where the monster wouldn't get them. Brian and Nina successfully make it, but Rick falls and is injured. He loudly informs them too keep on going without him and that it is too risky to try and carry him with them. They hand Rick a grenade and leave. The monster begins running down the mountain towards Rick, who tosses the grenade, causing an avalanche. They made it out of the avalanche, and see that the monster did too. It just wont doe, and isn't stopping until all of them are dead. Brian tells Nina to go on and get to the chopper and send help once she gets to it. She leaves, and Brian readies his gun, as the monster gets closer. He nervously aims at the monster and begins shooting with whatever his mag had left. The monster survived, but Brian didn't, and now, it's just Nina.

Mark finally sobered up, and is now in his helicopter, back at Glacier Peak, searching for the skiers himself. He spots Nina and she begins calling out for Brian, hoping he managed to survive. But it was the exact opposite. She was a shadowy figure walking towards her from a distance, and she hears a growl. Soon knowing its not Brian, but the monster, she dashes out of there and towards Mark's helicopter. She jumps in, and so does the monster. Its large size causes the helicopter to constantly tilt mid air. Rick, who somehow survived, got in the helicopter before Nina, and came out from the front, still injured. Nina handed him the last grenade, and he threw it into the creatures mouth. It fell out of the helicopter and exploded from the inside out.

Cast

• Chuck Campbell as Brian Tanner
• Adrian Paul as Mark Foster
• Lauren O'Neil as Nina Tanner
• Nicholas Boulton as Rick McCabe
• Elizabeth Croft as Stacey
• Sean Teale as Erlander
• Sam Cassidy as Jon
• Jesse Steele as Peter
• Atanas Srebrev as Wayne
• Zara Dimitrova as bartender

Production

The film is said to have been shot in 13 days.

Reception

The film received various negative reviews, including one at The Movie Scene, mocking its release/titles history and inconsistencies in its plot: "One thing you can't criticize this movie for not having is names, I have seen it called Deadly Descent, Abominable Snowman, the combination of the two Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman and even the even longer Deadly Descent: The Legend of the Abominable Snowman. What you also can't criticize Deadly Descent for is lack of back story as it starts with two climbers having a run in with a monster on the mountain, another skier/ snowboarder hitting the mountain and finding tracks and then a group of climbers going up there whilst a pilot hits the bottle in the bar. Even more amazing is the fact that all these things tie together and you need to pay attention to pick up on the connections."

An extensive entry in Ski Films: A Comprehensive Guide found the film mediocre.

See also

• War of the Dead, by the same director
• Yeti in films and television

References

Bibliography

• Bryan Senn, Ski Films: A Comprehensive Guide, by Bryan Senn (McFarland, 2022), pp. 50-53,

External links

• Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman at IMDb
• Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman at Rotten Tomatoes