Staying home for the recent storm, I decided to check out Syfy's Saturday night movie to see if it might be another schlock masterpiece like SHARKTOPUS or MEGA PYTHON VS. GATOROID. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see a movie that actually took itself, and its monsters, seriously.
KILLER MOUNTAIN is about a mountain climber (Chief Tyrol from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) who goes to rescue his missing girlfriend from a forbidden mountain. Once he and his fellow climbers (including hottie Crystal Lowe from FINAL DESTINATION 3) get to the top, they realize that the whole thing was a ruse. The reason goal of the mission was to uncover a "fountain of youth" (or something) that a greedy corporate type wants to use to cure himself and then sell on the open market. It turns out that the mountain is really the hidden location of Shangri-La (they call it Shambala).
The cool part is that Shangri-La isn't the mystical city we've seen before time and time again. In this version, Shangri-La is an abandoned, underground alien city that is home to hungry alien monsters that are bent on protecting it.
The most interesting thing about KILLER MOUNTAIN is that the creatures aren't the sole focus of the story. It's actually an adventure film first, creature film second, which I liked. There's some twists and turns and it's never boring. And they managed to stick in a couple of GALACTICA references which is always fun.
What's not so good about it is some questionable CGI... it's the only thing that makes the movie look low budget.
Bad FX aside, KILLER MOUNTAIN is definitely worth checking out if you're sick of the same ol' campy creature stuff.
KILLER MOUNTAIN is about a mountain climber (Chief Tyrol from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) who goes to rescue his missing girlfriend from a forbidden mountain. Once he and his fellow climbers (including hottie Crystal Lowe from FINAL DESTINATION 3) get to the top, they realize that the whole thing was a ruse. The reason goal of the mission was to uncover a "fountain of youth" (or something) that a greedy corporate type wants to use to cure himself and then sell on the open market. It turns out that the mountain is really the hidden location of Shangri-La (they call it Shambala).
The cool part is that Shangri-La isn't the mystical city we've seen before time and time again. In this version, Shangri-La is an abandoned, underground alien city that is home to hungry alien monsters that are bent on protecting it.
The most interesting thing about KILLER MOUNTAIN is that the creatures aren't the sole focus of the story. It's actually an adventure film first, creature film second, which I liked. There's some twists and turns and it's never boring. And they managed to stick in a couple of GALACTICA references which is always fun.
What's not so good about it is some questionable CGI... it's the only thing that makes the movie look low budget.
Bad FX aside, KILLER MOUNTAIN is definitely worth checking out if you're sick of the same ol' campy creature stuff.