{"id":2293,"date":"2024-08-15T04:26:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T04:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2293"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:18:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:18:58","slug":"shriek-of-the-mutilated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/15\/shriek-of-the-mutilated\/","title":{"rendered":"Shriek of the Mutilated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Shriek of the Mutilated <\/strong>(1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Films Ltd.\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, some bloody images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Findlay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ed Adlum and Ed Kelleher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: N\/A\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Roberta Findlay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 18, 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Alan Brock, Jennifer Stock, Tawm Ellis, Michael Harris, Darcy Brown, Jack Neubeck, Ivan Agar, Tom Grail, Luci Brandt, Marina Stefan, Harriet McFaul, Dwight Marfield, Jimmy Silva, Warren D\u2019Oyly-Rhind, Ed Adlum.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Michael Findlay definitely made a name for himself in the exploitation film industry, but it wasn\u2019t for his killer Yeti picture Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong>. It was for a 1971 piece called The Slaughter, a rather dull movie centered on the exploits of a Manson-like cult in South America (\u201cwhere life is CHEAP!\u201d). You might not think you\u2019re familiar with it, but you probably are. After five years on the shelf, producer Allan Shackleton used it to make the infamous Snuff. That\u2019s the one that purports to show an actual murder being committed on camera. Of course, nobody actually died during the making of Snuff, but like P.T. Barnum said, \u201cthere\u2019s a sucker born every minute\u201d. The controversy it stirred up is still one of the greatest marketing stunts ever pulled. That\u2019s the one the late Findlay is remembered for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Findlay\u2019s next picture was Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong>, a silly horror flick about a group of college students being terrorized by a Yeti on a remote island in upstate New York. For those not in the known, a yeti is an ape-like creature more commonly known as the Abominable Snowman. Like Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch), his existence has never been proven. Much of the evidence produced by so-called witnesses is just that, produced, a hoax. However, there are some that still believe. They\u2019re the ones with the phone numbers for tabloid publications on speed dial.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I first heard of Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> in the 1983 book For One Week Only: The World of Exploitation Films by Ric Meyers, a jack of all trades (author, screenwriter, editor, consultant. etc.) best known for being \u201cone of the men most responsible for the acceptance of Asian action movies and stars in America\u201d. I first saw it in 1994 when I bought a used VHS copy at my local West Coast Video. I didn\u2019t much like it at the time, mainly because it wasn\u2019t the bloodbath I was hoping for. I decided to give it a second chance when I saw it was showing on Tubi. I didn\u2019t find out until later that what I just watched was an edited version with the bloody stuff cut out. Thankfully, I came across an uncut version on YouTube and rewatched the pertinent scenes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the scenes missing from Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> on Tubi is the opening where a woman is decapitated by a swimming pool. It\u2019s only eight seconds long and has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anything that happens in the movie. It\u2019s never even mentioned. What gives? If I had to make an educated guess, I\u2019d say that Findlay threw it in there at the last minute in order to ensure an R rating. He had to do something. There\u2019s no sex or nudity, the violence isn\u2019t all that extreme and the swearing is mild at best (not a single f-bomb). Again, this is just a theory. I really have no idea what it\u2019s doing in the movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After an opening title sequence featuring B&W footage of a Yeti in the woods (I think, it\u2019s hard to see what\u2019s going on), we get down to business with anthropology professor Dr. Prell (Brock) preparing four of his grad students for a field trip to Boot Island where a Yeti has been spotted by friend and colleague Dr. Karl Werner (Ellis). Three of the four students, Karen (Stock, God\u2019s Bloody Acre), Tom (Neubeck, Invasion of the Blood Farmers) and Lynn (Brown), spend the night before partying with friends while Keith (Harris) joins Prell for an exotic dinner at a fancy restaurant that caters to an exclusive clientele.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At the party, one of the guests, a disturbed dude named Spencer (Grail), tells the others about his experiences with Prell on a similar excursion several years earlier. Apparently, some f***ed up stuff happened. It\u2019s why he\u2019s disturbed. Moments later, he returns home where he drunkenly slashes his wife\u2019s (Brandt) throat. She reciprocates by dropping a toaster in the bathtub while he\u2019s washing her blood off his clothes (without taking them off first). ZAP! Bye-bye, Spence!<\/p>\n

\u00a0By way of letting the audience know how screwed the group really is, an elderly gas station attendant (not quite Crazy Ralph crazy) says, \u201cI make it a practice never to interfere with folks when they\u2019re bound and determined to get someplace because no matter what I say, they\u2019re bound to get there and they\u2019re bound to get what they\u2019re there for.\u201d in response to questions about their final destination. Even a grade school kid knows that spells D-O-O-M.<\/p>\n

And doomed they are! They\u2019re barely settled in when the Yeti shows up and starts thinning the herd. Prell, more concerned with gathering proof of the Yeti\u2019s existence than the safety of his students, proposes using the bodies of the deceased to trap the beast. That goes over with the surviving students as well as you\u2019d expect.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now you may think you know where Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> is going, but you\u2019re probably wrong. It takes an unexpected turn into weirdness with the revelation of what\u2019s really going on. I wouldn\u2019t dream of spoiling it, so I won\u2019t. I\u2019ll only say that it involves another popular motif of early 70s horror.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> was written by Ed Adlum and Ed Kelleher, the twisted minds behind the exploitation classic Invasion of the Blood Farmers (directed by Adlum). While it\u2019s not as all-out bonkers as Invasion, it\u2019s still pretty insane. The ending is especially gross and demented. It\u2019s like something out of those old illustrated horror magazines we used to read as preteens. But is Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> a good movie? Is it scary? Is it suspenseful? No, no and no! It\u2019s actually quite bad. The Yeti costume is a joke. It\u2019s almost as convincing as the gorilla-alien in Robot Monster. It\u2019s one of the things that make this dopey horror flick so doggone entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Do I really have to get into the acting? It\u2019s all bad. For most of the cast, Shriek of the Mutilated <\/strong>is their sole acting credit. The one performance that stands out is Ivan Agar (Behind Locked Doors) as the mute Native American house servant Laughing Crow. His crazy-eyed overacting is hilarious. Lacking the voice to say \u201chow\u201d or \u201cugh\u201d, LC wears a headband to make his heritage known. All that\u2019s missing is a feather and some war paint. I can see why the others didn\u2019t go on to stardom. What you have to keep in mind, however, is that bad acting is part of the exploitation movie experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There isn\u2019t a whole lot of gore in Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong>. The goriest scene is when Spencer slashes his wife\u2019s throat with a carving knife. There\u2019s a great deal of splatter, BUT you can tell right away it\u2019s red paint. I guess stage blood wasn\u2019t in the movie\u2019s low budget. Okay, whatever. It actually adds to the film\u2019s questionable charm.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For all its faults, Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> does boast great cinematography by Roberta Findlay, the wife of the late director who was killed in a horrific helicopter accident in 1977. It happened on the roof of the Pan Am Building in NYC. He and 20 others were boarding for a ride to JFK Airport when the aircraft tipped on its side with the rotors still going. Findlay and two others were \u201cliterally cut to pieces\u201d by the blades. It sounds like a scene from a horror movie. ANYWAY, Mrs. Findlay makes the cheap movie look good. She would go on to direct XXX movies as well as the 1985 street gang actioner Tenement.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t have any info on the score, but I\u2019m pretty sure it all comes from other sources. I don\u2019t think anybody bothered to compose one for Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong>. The sole musical point of interest is the use of the Hot Butter novelty hit \u201cPopcorn\u201d to segue into the party scene. It\u2019s weird to hear it in a movie about a bloodthirsty beast, but okay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not going to try to convince you or myself that Shriek of the Mutilated<\/strong> is a good movie. It\u2019s NOT! It\u2019s really bad which is what makes it so much fun. It\u2019s bad to the point of being laughable. It\u2019s actually funnier than most so-called comedies of the past 20 years. This is one to watch with friends over pizza and beer or, for the more daring of you, a plate of \u201cgin sung\u201d. If you know, you know.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shriek of the Mutilated (1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Films Ltd.\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, some bloody images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Findlay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ed Adlum and Ed Kelleher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: N\/A\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Roberta Findlay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 18, 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Alan Brock, Jennifer Stock, Tawm Ellis, Michael Harris, Darcy Brown, Jack Neubeck, Ivan Agar, Tom Grail, Luci […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Shriek-of-the-Mutilated-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3275,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions\/3275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}