Abominable

Thoroughly uneven yet undeniably entertaining, Abominable casts Matt McCoy as Preston Rogers – a recovering paraplegic who has returned to his cabin in the woods for the first time since his wife’s tragic death. Trapped within the confines of his small room, Preston spends his time peeking at his neighbors with high-powered binoculars – a hobby that comes in handy after an eight-foot monster starts to wreak some serious havoc. Writer/director Ryan Schifrin does an effective job of infusing the proceedings with a sense of style that generally masks the shoestring budget, while the filmmaker’s tongue-in-cheek sensibilities ultimately lend the proceedings a lighthearted vibe (one that is, thankfully, punctuated by several appreciatively gruesome moments). McCoy delivers a thoroughly compelling performance that cements his status as a lamentably underappreciated character actor, though there’s little doubt that he’s occasionally overshadowed by scene-stealing cameo appearances by folks like Lance Henriksen, Jeffrey Combs, and Paul Gleason. (The latter is especially entertaining here, and, at one point, can be spotted drinking from a mug that reads, “Don’t Mess With The Bull.”) And although the movie sort of peters out as it approaches its increasingly conventional finale, Abominable certainly stands heads-and-shoulders above the majority of its straight-to-video horror brethren.

**1/2 out of ****