A search and (hopefully) rescue mission is mounted in the Alaskan wilderness when oil man Merriell Sunday Sr (Corbin “By God” Bernsen) and Hollis Bannister (William “By God” Sadler) go missing. Leading the expedition is blowhard Merriell Sunday Jr. along with his young assistant Parker. His team consists of Leander Coates (a war hero with tin mask covering half of his face due to a horrific injury keeping all of them safe), Dr. Margaret Lamb (animal expert and twin sister of a missing member of Sunday Sr’s team), Booker Marchmint (radio communications ace and hero of the Enola Gay played by my dude Jim Cummings from The Wolf of Snow Hollow) and the suitably named “Dynamite” Daniel Hewitt (demolition expert and certified bumpkin)… all introduced in a news segment which is delightfully corny. The last addition is a cartography professor and the estranged daughter of Hollis Bannister who Jr has chosen to navigate his search efforts. The vanished men managed to capture something unknown to science in the unforgiving wild and it sure as hell came back to bite them in the ass. Now, this ragtag group of adventurers have their hands full in a dangerous environment with something vicious. Frustration leads to tension in the ranks and the apex predator roaming the land magnifies the growing dread as the dwindling group hold up in the abandoned outpost of the men they’re looking for. Corbin Bernsen gets to show up and have some fun while letting the survivors in on just what the hell went down out in the Alaskan wilds. Just the idea of a period piece (1940s) cryptid flick has this monster kid doing a little jig and a cast of fleshed out (by monster movie standards) characters reminds me of those monster flicks from the fifties I would watch continuously with my parents. The man-in-a-suit beast is kept off screen for most of the runtime and it fits the whole feeling of what it’s going for. This honestly carries the atmosphere of those creature features of my youth just with more blood. That’s high praise from me. It unfortunately loses itself as it stumbles over the finish line and hits the “man is the real monster” notes that weren’t really necessary but it does allow Mr. Bernsen to be a real prick so it’s not a complete loss. All in all, the had a good time with this one.
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