'The Yeti' Review: Snow, Suspense and Savage Gore Collide in Uneven Horror Thriller
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Becca Johnson - May 22, 2026
Directed by William Pisciotta and Gene Gallerano, The Yeti is a creature feature that aims to show that fear is primal. When an oil tycoon and a famous adventurer vanish into the harsh winter of remote Northern Alaska, a hand-picked rescue team endeavours to bring them home. What they don’t know is that they are trespassing on a creature's territory, and the elements are the least of their worries.
Although The Yeti boasts a solid cast, ample gore and an impressive visual style, the slow pace and lack of intrigue within the storyline prevents it from truly landing.
The Yeti starts off on quite a strong note. There’s a chilling cold open that both sets the scene and brings some intrigue, diving straight into the action. Soon after, our core rescue team are introduced to us in such a stylish manner, ensuring they feel akin to a likeable, rag tag team we’ll have a fun adventure with. The cast are quite competent, lead by Brittany Allen (Jigsaw) in the compelling role of Ellie, a character who has her own journey alongside finding the missing duo. Joined by other notable talent including a sorely underutilised Jim Cummings (The Wolf of Snow Hollow), the group dynamic quickly becomes strong and is backed by a solid location. Not only do we have a period setting that allows for interesting costuming, but a wintery landscape that delivers some stunning cinematography and a more unique layout for a horror flick. As our expedition kicks off, a fun, thrilling journey with a cool host of characters seems to be on the cards.
Unfortunately, The Yeti doesn’t quite live up to this promise, as the story seems to lose steam the further it goes on. There is some drama between our team and some compelling character development, but the sub-par dialogue prevents much of it from landing. The conversations lack bite, and paired with a plot in which little is going on visually, it does teeter on the edge of boring at times. The slower pace means the intensity and suspense often provided by creature features is somewhat lost, traded in for character drama that isn’t as exciting as what the audience envisioned. Though likely due to budget limitations, there isn’t actually as much of a journey as you’d think, either. The sound stage looks great and is certainly a fun location for a creature feature, but this limits the scope of the expedition our characters can go on. Once you’ve seen the snowy background, you’ve seen it all, and quite often the darkness of the grading prevents you from taking in much of it, anyway. It does have some more intriguing sequences, especially those with our titular beast front and centre, but anything surrounding that is unfortunately quite bland and disengaging.
As a creature feature flick, The Yeti certainly has strong elements worth boasting about. True horror fans will be glad to hear that practical effects are favoured, meaning the look of the titular monster with its ‘man in a suit’ approach succeeds. He’s also used sparingly, and we only see him in all his glory towards the third act of the film. This keeps some of the suspense in check as it leaves the audience wanting more, allowing the third act to really pack that exciting punch. When he is finally shown to us, the creature design is not bad at all. The most successful bouts of horror within The Yeti is the gore. There’s some really fun, wince-inducing body horror involved that once again uses practical effects to appear as bloody and gruesome as it can. The horror is definitely used sporadically, which winds up quite a shame given the slow paced approach of the film, but when the blood-soaked goodness does appear, it’s worth pressing play for.
Overall, The Yeti is a solid attempt at an old school creature feature involving strong gore, a fun location, a talented cast and most importantly, a decent creature at the centre. There’s not quite enough meat on the bones of the script, meaning many conversations and long bouts without any horror disappoint, but these don’t detract from the immersive experience delivered by the wintery background. It’s worth a watch on a rainy day, but doesn’t break any ground or go out of its way to thrill.
'The Yeti' is available now on US digital platforms.
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