There's an angry beast loose in the hills

About ten minutes into the second of these monster movies, we couldn't help but laugh: "It's the same movie!" said K.

Indeed, the similarities are extensive. Both were made in the wake of Jaws; both are set in mountainous wilderness areas, with thriving tourist trades; both depict beasts that go berserk and start killing said tourists; in both movies, the female lead is a reporter. And so on.

So, since we watched them practically back-to-back (last Sunday night and Monday afternoon, respectively), we'd best review these two in the same manner, eh?

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Grizzly

Grade: C-

Our first exposure to the films of William Girdler. P. had high hopes for this, and there are a few nice touches -- the dismembered little kid, the unexpectedly bleak ending, and some decent work by the supporting cast, especially Scott, the goofy, proto-Grizzly Man bear expert.

Still, whatever greater ambitions it might have, the movie is basically schlock, and never quite gets enough momentum to become compelling. The narrative stumbles badly in a few places: where does Allison the newsie go? What's the point of having Scott wake back up, and then do basically nothing before the bear comes back and kills him? And especially, a bazooka?! Obviously, audiences didn't mind too much, as the film was a huge financial success, but beautiful scenery and decent technical execution can't make up for the missing sense of fun and excitement.

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Snowbeast
Grade: B-

Here, the beast in question is a raging yeti, slaughtering skiers at a mountain resort. The opening scenes left us little reason to expect anything more than we got from Grizzly, since Snowbeast comes front-loaded with some lousy acting from its bit players. In particular, Annie McEnroe's Aspergerian performance (as a yeti-fodder candidate who just misses the cut) makes one wonder if she might've mentored Faith Clift. And Robert Logan, as Tony Rill, comes off at first like a weirdly overbearing version of Ben Stiller, frequently talking too loud for no apparent reason.

But then this TV movie shows some unexpected class, with genuinely nuanced characters and good work from all three leads. Central to the plot is a love triangle which, instead of the usual cardboard cinematic shenanigans, is handled with the kind of quiet dignity and decency one seldom sees outside of Merchant-Ivory productions. Well, maybe that's a stretch, but it's still refreshing to see that kind of intelligence in this kind of movie: no histrionics or mustache-twiddling villains, just human beings trying to figure their lives out.

As the Olympic skier Gar Seberg, Bo Svenson was a particularly nice surprise. (If you want to develop an inferiority complex, take a look at his bio!) When he first appeared on screen, we were anticipating a typical dumb, macho jock type -- but in lieu of the stock character we expected, this Big Swede turns out to be a genuinely good-hearted and thoughtful guy. (And heck, it even makes sense that he'd be a crack marksman.)

Having said all that, Snowbeast does show its limits. Though a much better movie, it's hampered by the same lack of momentum and urgency that undermined Grizzly. Here, all the tension is in its interpersonal dynamics, not in its monster scenes: though each individual attack sequence is well-executed, the monster never really feels like a palpable, fully-fledged adversary, partly because its motivation isn't very clear. And like many movies of its kind, we lose some coherence in the last 20 minutes -- in particular, important props abruptly disappear with no explanation.

Still, all things considered, Snowbeast is a good deal better than one could reasonably expect, and was certainly pleasant fare for a snowed-in Monday afternoon. And if all else fails, the scenery and camerawork are gorgeous, with some terrific shots of downhill skiing that made P. reconsider his lifelong antipathy to the sport.