I live in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve had quite a bit of snow this winter but luckily no yetis.

I’d always assumed that there are dozens of movies about yeti aka the abominable snowman. Well, there are lots of movies about bigfoot, aka sasquatch, but only a handful of yeti movies. For me, a yeti is something that lives in snowy regions of mountains and is usually white, but a bigfoot is something that lives in a dense forest and is brown. Here are my (twelve) favorite yeti movies — but favorite is relative here. Most of these movies are really bad so I list them by release year.

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1. The Snow Creature (1954) – This is the earliest known (to me) yeti movie. A yeti is captured in the Himalayas and then brought to Los Angeles. The creature escapes but things don’t end well for it. Grade = C.

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2. Man Beast (1956) – A woman organizes a search for her brother in Tibet, after he disappeared looking for the abominable snowman. Chaos ensues. In many cities, this movies was billed and released as a double feature with Godzilla. Grade = C.

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3. The Abomniable Snowman (1957) – A British scientist played by actor Peter Cushing and an American adventurer played by actor Forrest Tucker (he starred in The The Trollenberg Terror the folllowing year, one of my favorites of the 1950s) go to the Himalayas to search for the abominable snowman. In a twist, it turns out the snowmen are an intelligent race. Grade = B-.

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4. Half Human (1958) – A yeti and his son are captured by adventurers. The son is shot and killed. The father gets revenge. This film is a highly edited version of a 1955 Japanese film, with American actors and scenes added in, similar to the way the American version of Godzilla was created.

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5. Shriek of the Mutilated (1974) – A group of college students go into the mountains along with their professor to look for yeti. Very bad idea. Very bad movie. Grade = D-.

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6. Snowbeast (1977) – A skier (actor Bo Svenson) and his wife (played by Yvette Mimieux) visit a ski resort where a yeti is causing deaths. Clint Walker plays a sheriff. The beast literally appears for less than two seconds in the ENTIRE movie. Grade = D-.

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7. Giant of the 20th Century (1977) – This movie almost defies description. A frozen yeti is captured but thaws out, climbs things, and befriends a dog. Some movies are so bad they’re interesting but this one is just plain bad. Grade = F.

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8. Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008) – A college football team’s airplane crashes in the mountains. There’s a very bad yeti who doesn’t like company. A surprisingly well-written and acted movie, even if a bit too gory for my liking. This is probably the best movie on my list. Grade = B+.

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9. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) – Some yetis make a cameo appearance during a scene in the mountains. This is one of those movies that could have been excellent but the plot and dialog were too weak.

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10. Rage of the Yeti (2011) – Adventurers go the Arctic looking for a missing scientific research team. They find snow monsters. Grade = C-.

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11. Snow Beast (2011) – A team of scientists, including a father (John Schneider) and daughter (Danielle Ryan), are in Canada. They find a very unpleasant yeti. Grade = C.

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12. Deadly Descent: The Abominable Snowman (2013) – A girl goes into the Washington state mountains to search for her brother, who disappeared searching for their father. Grade = C-.

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Extra: Yeti in Non-Movies

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The 1964 animated TV series “Jonny Quest” featured a yeti in the episode “Monsters in the Monastery”. Much better than any movie on this list.

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I love the Tintin books. “Tintin in Tibet” isn’t one of my favorites in the series, but it’s good and much better than any movie on this list.

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The old Scooby Doo cartoons are a guilty pleasure of mine. There were two episodes featuring yetis. In both cases, the yetis were just bad guys in costumes of course.

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(Click to enlarge) I have vivid memories of this old comic book where a not-very-nice adventurer captures a yeti — but with a surprise twist ending. Here’s the first and fifth pages of the six-page story. Check out the excellent blog at https://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2008/08/number-362-my-favorite-ditko-as-steve.html for the complete story.