By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: April 4th, 2026 / 11:02 PM
THE YETI movie poster | ©2026 Well Go USA Entertainment
Rating: R
Stars: Brittany Allen, Eric Nelsen, Jim Cummings, Christina Bennett Lind, Gene Gallerano, Linc Hand, Elizabeth Cappuccino, William Sadler, Corbin Bernsen
Writers: Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta
Directors: Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Release Date: April 4, 2026 and April 8, 2026 (AMC theatrical); April 10, 2026 (digital)
Written and directed by the team of Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta, THE YETI is set in the ‘40s and aspires to look as though it was made in the ‘50s. Its style seems to be part of its reason for being. It’s agreeable as a throwback and has some bullseye performances, even if it never incites real fear and its cryptid credentials are wobbly.
An opening title tells us we’re in the Alaskan Territory, 1947. A black-and-white (except for splashes of red) prologue introduces us to a small expedition, led by oil tycoon Merriel Sunday Sr. (Corbin Bernsen), with famous explorer Hollis Bannister (William Sadler) in tow.
The group has found their way to a small cabin, where they’re currently sitting around, playing cards. The leaky roof needs repair. This goes extremely badly.
Cut to a ‘40s-esque newsreel, announcing that Merriel Sunday, Jr. (Eric Nelsen) is mounting an expedition to locate his now-missing father. The rescue party includes Sunday himself, plus WWII veteran and communications expert Booker Marchmont (Jim Cummings), zoologist Margaret Lamb (Christina Bennett Lind), whose sister is among those unaccounted for, security expert and sharpshooter Leander Coates (Linc Hand), demolitions specialist “Dynamite Dan” (filmmaker Gallerano), and cartographer Ellie Bannister (Brittany Allen), daughter of Hollis.
Ellie is our main focal point. As THE YETI segues into full (albeit often muted) color, Ellie is initially reluctant to join Sunday Jr.’s team, partly because she is estranged from her father. However, her conflicting emotions finally send her to Alaska with the others.
After someone disappears in the woods, only to be found as a pile of torn body parts, the survivors begin to suspect that an unknown animal is responsible. A gargantuan footprint in the snow adds credence to this theory.
There’s a third-act twist that adds some human drama beyond the who’s-a-coward/who’s-courageous dynamics interspersed with kills throughout the earlier portions of THE YETI.
The serious character exchanges are effective in this context, neither too heightened nor too underplayed. Allen is a major asset, period-appropriate with absolute conviction.
Additionally, the story beats generally work, with tension around how and where people may be attacked.
But THE YETI suffers from a problem that plagues many low-budget (and even some not-so-low-budget) monster movies. The gore is fine, and the hints (the footprint, detached claws) are impressive, but the monster itself doesn’t look terrifying.
Nobody ever calls the thing a yeti. This is just as well, since yetis are Tibetan, not North American. Our heroes do, however, throw around the term Australopithecus. While this is a complaint of the highest nerdy nitpickiness, Australopithecus, real beings, were determined (from skeletal remains) to be under five feet tall. This is what we, and the onscreen scientists, are supposed to believe is the enormous entity stomping through the Alaskan forest?
For those who find the 1951 Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks-directed THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD to remain the zenith of horror entertainment, THE YETI should provide special satisfaction. For everyone else, it’s well-made but less than scary.
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