Roger Corman and brother Gene spent about $72.50 on this one. I'm kidding of course. It was probably in the thousands, but still cheap. Roger got composer Alexander Laszlo to do the soundtrack, had a cast that included Playmate Linné Ahlstrand in a small part and was able to piggyback this shoot with another one of his films, Ski Troop Attack (1960). After coming up with a plot that mimics that of Key Largo (1948), he added a monster then landed the biggest star of the film, Deadwood, South Dakota.
That's right, the best thing about this film is its shooting location. Beautiful, majestic, snow-covered, Black Hills mountains that made the film interesting enough to say, "check it out". The shooting of the film was treacherous, cold and scary. If you are going to go get Playmates, Composers and picturesque locations, write a better script, bring a better camera along, check your audio equipment and don't shoot it in thirteen days. If you have no money for special effects, drop the monster. The effects in this film are atrocious and you could easily have made it a much better film, by taking one of the characters and making them a crazy killer or something.
In closing, the acting wasn't too bad, but the creative technique just isn't there. The directing and editing is freshman at best. If it wasn't for the skiing scenes, the snow-covered landscapes and the cool, creepy cave locations, this film wouldn't be worth watching at all. In my opinion an IMDB rating of 3 or less is unwatchable, but I gave this a 4, because you need to see it as a chapter in the legendary Corman film-history.
4.0 (F MyGrade) = 4 IMDB
That's right, the best thing about this film is its shooting location. Beautiful, majestic, snow-covered, Black Hills mountains that made the film interesting enough to say, "check it out". The shooting of the film was treacherous, cold and scary. If you are going to go get Playmates, Composers and picturesque locations, write a better script, bring a better camera along, check your audio equipment and don't shoot it in thirteen days. If you have no money for special effects, drop the monster. The effects in this film are atrocious and you could easily have made it a much better film, by taking one of the characters and making them a crazy killer or something.
In closing, the acting wasn't too bad, but the creative technique just isn't there. The directing and editing is freshman at best. If it wasn't for the skiing scenes, the snow-covered landscapes and the cool, creepy cave locations, this film wouldn't be worth watching at all. In my opinion an IMDB rating of 3 or less is unwatchable, but I gave this a 4, because you need to see it as a chapter in the legendary Corman film-history.
4.0 (F MyGrade) = 4 IMDB