Retromedia unleashes (literally) yet another forgotten gem (some would rather it remain forgotten I'm sure) of trash cinema in Shriek of the Mutilated. One of the many theatrical attempts at a cash in on the legend of the elusive Yeti (or man beast if you will) and no, I'm not talking about Robin Williams either). The film at hand serves up an interesting twist (well, kinda) and preserves an original enough of a story that should draw in even the most curious fans of cultish drive-in fare on DVD.

Professor Prell plans an expedition with a few of his unlucky students to track down the elusive Yeti. The night before the expedition, a few of Prell's students attend a party and meet up with an old acquaintance of Dr. Prell's. In a drunken stupor this guy tells these kids of a previous expedition that went horribly wrong with the deaths of all of his friends. After his rampage, the drunken fool is escorted home by his all to patient wife. What follows is a seemingly unrelated scene to the rest of the flick, but oddly enough, it remains one of the stand out scenes and easily worth the price of admission on its own. When this guy gets home, he slits his wife's throat and hops in a bathtub (bloody clothes and all) to allow Calgon to take him away. What he doesn't know is that his wife is still alive (barely) and has just enough strength to plug in the toaster and calmly creep along the hardwood floor. She makes her way into the bathroom and tosses the toaster into the tub electrocuting the drunken mess enjoying his blood bath. What a scene indeed! Now back to the flick.

Teacher and students arrive at the house they'll be occupying and are greeted by Prell's friend Dr. Werner. Soon after, some sort of man-beast is spotted (the Yeti?) and classmates start to turn up... yup you guessed it, mutilated (they seem to shriek quite a bit as well). This is where I'm going to stop, because the flick serves up a delicious twist (that kinda explains the bad Yeti effects to begin with) that actually may wind up not being much of a surprise at all for most. However, in case you're not in the know, I'm going to keep it to myself for the time being.

I guess it goes without saying that Shriek of the Mutilated is by no means a good film in any sense of the word. This flick is the epitome of drive-in trash, and god knows how many people there are out there who dig themselves some drive-in trash (myself included). It may not be a good film, but Shriek of the Mutilated is one of those good/bad films that drive-in fans certainly do clamor over. Definitely an extreme oddity of 70's filmmaking, we really do need more of these historical pieces preserved on DVD forever more.

While not overly graphic Shriek of the Mutilated remains a fascinating piece of something from start to finish (I'm just not sure what yet). There is some blood, but mostly in the realm of splatters, nothing too over the top. While there's a lot of sexuality to be had, there's no nudity for the raincoat crowd. It almost appears as if the film tried to present itself as exploitation and then carry itself on its supposed merits as a real film. I'll give props, the story is not that bad, performances better than average for this type of film and there is plenty of 70's fashions and wood paneling to keep the purists happy. Man is this flick dated! Also worth noting is the absence of the tune Popcorn, most likely due to legal reasons.

There is a brief "we did the best that we could" disclaimer on the packaging as well as before and after the flick, but I was surprised to note that an apology really wasn't necessary. Sure this isn't a DVD that was created to show off the capabilities of your overpriced system, it just isn't. Colors are fairly sharp and stable throughout and some scenes come across much nicer than others (as to be expected). There are also some scratches and a fair amount of grain/film dirt and specs. The full frame imaging looks accurate, I'd say that this flick was probably shot 16mm and then blown up for theatrical presentation? You're guess is a s good as mine. Overall, I'd have to say that considering the title at hand this is a more than acceptable transfer and once again, I have to admit that the price is certainly right.

Audio is presented in a mono mix that gets the job done, 'nuff said. Minimal distortion, and defects are obvious limitations of the original production and its shoestring budget.

Extras = a TV spot. That is all.

The way I see it, DVD was created for 2 reasons. The first being to give us a chance to show off our home video systems and appear more manly or macho to friends, enemies and the opposite sex (who wants to see my woofer?). The second reason was to inexpensively preserve long thought forgotten gems of cult cinema (the key word is inexpensively). This is the main reason I dig DVD. Not everything's gonna look like Episode 2 on DVD (Episode 2 sucked anyway). I'd rather see these companies release these forgotten gems with the best available material than not release them at all. At under 10 bucks you'd be hard pressed to complain. Keep 'em coming Retromedia!