Winterbeast

Winterbeast is a low budget 16mm American horror film about an ancient Native American demon that murders partygoers in the Wild Goose Lodge, Massachusetts. Although filmed in 1986, it was never finished and the existing footage remained unreleased until five years later when J.R Bookwalter’s Tempe Video (“The Evil Dead meets Northern Exposure”) issued a tape.

Written and directed by Christopher Thies, this legendarily shoddy and confusing production features stop motion monsters. It was subsequently released on a Special Edition DVD in 2008 with a 20 minute Making of featurette, deleted scenes (!) and audio commentary.

“There’s a lot of weirdness on display in Winterbeast, like gross misuse of plaid flannel clothing of all colors and a creepy stuffed deer head that shows up in multiple locations and always seems to be staring at the audience. Maybe it knows something we don’t. Perhaps it read the script. There are lots of monsters, though their purpose is as questionable as the rest of the picture.” Kevin Pyrtle, Wtf-Film

“I’m a sucker for stop-motion animated monsters, and this film boasts an interesting menagerie ranging from a walking totem pole to (loins girded?) a giant demonic chicken. These things are fun to watch, particularly, since they don’t blend well, or even at all, with the live action footage. The aforementioned totem pole attacks a woman in a cabin (the film’s only instance of gratuitous nudity), pulls her out the window and crushes her to death against the cabin wall. At least I think this is what’s going on. The figure the monster kills is so laughably crude that a Barbie doll would have been more believable.” Matt Bradshaw, Moviefone

Buy Winterbeast Special Edition DVD from Amazon.com

“Love it! Love it!… If you find Winterbeast, watch it. Then, watch it again…The film drips with weirdness – camera angles and frame compositions – the sets. It’s all one big pile of greatness…” Bleeding Skull

“While at times the film can be a little slow it is definitely worth watching to see all the cheesy, stop-motion animation monsters murder their clay prey!” Deathwish Industries