Chad

clckworang

Well, that's a film that got made. As bad as it was, it kept my attention. It even got just slightly creepy at the end when the guy put on a mask, but the acting was really lousy. The effects at least had a homemade charm to them.

While this isn't a good movie, I have to give props to Vinegar Syndrome. They pretty much always bring it when it comes to presentation. The film looks great, and I appreciate the care they put into all of their films. I'm happy they're starting to get some bigger titles to work on.

Toddarino

I’ll give these guys credit, but this is by no means a good film. I think I was more intoxicated the first time I watched it.
I’m sure I’ll pick up a second volume of Home Grown Horrors if they release one knowing full well what I’m in for.

jholmes

Now this is the sort of film I would *never* have watched was it not a subset film. Wow. There's gotta be one every year.
The acting was worse than wooden and the sets! <Let's move the potted pine tree over to this old door> The action scenes were hilariously bad. When the monsters picked people up--the little clay models of the people!
The main demon guy make-up was pretty cool, though. But just burning the mask at the end was as lame as most of the special effects.
The story actually wasn't bad for what it was. Though the dialogue was awful. And the ending at the old houses--why did they go there? It was very disjointed at the end.
Also what the heck was up with the dildo in the box of curios where they get the tooth? And none of them mention it! Now that was sort of funny.

numbercrunch

A admirable low budget independent film. you can tell these guys love horror movies. The stop motion animation was great.
6.5/10

brainee

This is the kind of movie I really could’ve used the company of wisecracking robots to get through. I see that this is the only movie in the filmography of most of the cast and crew. I’m shocked … shocked I tell you!

Yes, the little Gumby-people when monsters picked their victims up were cute. It’s sweet that the special effects person must’ve let their young children help.

What was the deal with Ranger Corey Hart? Ogling nudes in an old magazine is one thing. But doing the same to the little old ladies in the lodge (and inviting their husbands to come along too) is something else.

Undeadcow

It's hard to judge Winterbeast by traditional standards because it's got a lot of heart with some cool but indie stop motion effects and a gnarly creature even if its not much fun. I doubt I could make a better movie. I'd love to see the movie the film makers had in their head before this came out.

Its the sort of film that might be more fun on a coordinated live stream than on my own.

Less is more; some of the leering forest shots are more effective than than the creatures.

The wordless soundless standoff at the end is hypnotic.

Remake?

WillieMLF

I liked this well enough.These kind of movie are always interesting to watch as a passion project for those involved. The VS disk is packed to the gills, and I cut on one of the commentary tracks during the watch. Everyone here seems to be having a good time, but the acting is atrocious. My biggest gripe is that most of the situations continually escalated because no one communicates about important information that transpired earlier. There is this monster howling and the store is shaking during one scene, and no one bothers to tell the ranger about it the following morning. One of the guys walks in on the Lodge owner caressing all these dead bodies, but he doesn't decide to get out of there, and when he meets up with the ranger it's not an important detail.

Is it Wild Goose Lodge or Wild Goose Lodges?

Ha, yes the dildo. No one seemed to bat an eye either.

Despite all this, I had a good time with it. I had the subtitles on, so the final creature was captioned at THE 'Winterbeast'.

Where was this filmed? One scene the group is searching in the mountains, and the next they are at a beach-like location.

Spiderbite

I have to say this movie surprised me. I was in college in 1992 and my fellow Mass Comm majors filmed various movies not unlike this. So, it seemed straight out of my film class where we showed our various projects. But no one in my class had the audacity to have the stop-motion animation this film has. It is honestly fantastic and was completely unexpected. The people in bad Mummy and "Demon" costumes were expected and did show up for scenes that went on way too long.

Though the acting was horrendous, you could tell that they writers were never taking it too seriously, hence the previously mentioned dildo scene and the, at many times, hilarious dialogue (both intentional and unintentional).

Some of the edits and filming was strange as well. At times it looked like it was filmed on S-VHS, then 16mm, then 8mm, then back to the cheapest video you could find. And couldn't they have at least tried to match the voices when dubbing? Guess that is part of the charm.

Not something I would want to watch again but definitely a labor of love by the filmmakers and all involved. One of those so bad it is slightly fun movies. Enjoy with a beer or three and a friend or two.

My rating: **1/2 out of *****

wishbone

The film composer deserves a medal for making the climatic fight much more interesting than what was happening on screen. The stop motion and long, one take dialogue scenes made this an interesting watch -- kudos to the filmmakers for completing this film!

mallratcal

The evil lodge owner was great, he seemed to be having fun with the whole thing.