Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives

In this era of overwhelming fake news, this production is just adding its lot to an already huge pile of badly misleading movies, with potentially devastating consequences on the lesser educated viewers. The problem is not so much that it builds its storyline/narrative on a collection of totally unscientific approaches, but rather that some viewers will actually believe all this crap!! I bet that some will take it for granted that a "brilliant" reporter actually came across some hard evidence that the Russian Yeti not only actually lives, but that it also kills people "when cornered or threatened". The movie itself is pretty well made, with all the stereotypes of what you would expect from a real documentary, but the succession of pseudo-evidence and the numerous shortcuts taken to reaching conclusions are just a pure insult to science and intelligence. I would strongly recommend that a big headline be put in the opening credits to warn the audience that it is a FICTIONAL DOCUMENTARY. This would at least prove the director's willingness to stay true to his/her own intent.

Another pseudo-documentary from the same file cabinet as the program that "explored" the question about mermaids (and mermen) being real. At the end of the program people are running around a forest at night, using flares to cast shadows, hearing "mysterious" sounds. Very atmospheric, but it tells us bupkis about whether such a thing as a yeti actually exists.

Note the IMDB info - this is all staged, "with actors, not real people."

Why does Animal Planet exploit the credulousness of an audience by presenting these pseudo-documentaries without disclaimers? Even Orson Welles told the radio audience that his broadcast of The War of the Worlds was a dramatization, although many people missed the intro and thought they were hearing a news broadcast.

So, approach anything done by Animal Planet with caution...

I first watched this not knowing it was fiction and when I did find out it was fiction I was a little depleted. Then I realized there is no documentary about this accident because no one knows what happened. There are only theories.

So really, this is a film of a theory which I believe is acceptable. Some of it is factual which is what theories are based off of but theories are nothing more than an interpretation of a thing, in this case, it is a theory on the Dyatlov incident.

It was very well presented, very believable and coherent.

I watched this thinking it was a documentary and throughout it im thinking, this seems so fake... the people don't appear to be telling real stories and the "video footage" was looking pretty staged as well.. AND the woodland noises are sounds I have heard before clearly computer made and the yeti cry is also something I just couldn't believe...

then I came onto the internet to find out more and found this is a FICTIONAL MOVIE - NOT A DOCUMENTARY Cant believe I just wasted my time on this Thanks Animal Planet for putting on a shitty movie instead of a documentary like your meant to.....

disappointed and waste of my time.

Contrary to a previous review, this IS a documentary of events that took place in 1959.* There are numerous references on various Internet sites with the same storyline. The photos in this documentary are compelling as to what was evidently a gruesome tragedy in the Ural Mountains in Siberia. Events are presented in chronological order of a multi-party expedition of experienced hikers, with a number of photos preserved from cameras retrieved at the destroyed campsite. As the title indicates, the director takes great steps to present his speculation that the nine hikers were confronted and killed by a Russian Yeti (known as a Menk in Russia). A tenth hiker was the sole survivor; he had fallen ill and turned back on the fifth day of the expedition that ended on day seven. Documents are presented that indicate there was government involvement prior to the actual reporting of the missing hikers. The director also includes photos, videos and interviews of sightings in the same region in recent years to support his view that the hikers did indeed lose their lives by a Yeti. I had recorded the show so to zip through all the commercials and the inevitable, and frequent, recapping. Since the events occurred in Russia, a good amount of the interviews required caption-reading. I watched the 2-hour show in a little over an hour.

*BUT, there are also bits and pieces of blurry "reenactments" (and sound effects) that are obviously meant to strictly give the viewer an idea what horrors the victims must have experienced. Toward the end of the program, there is footage taken when the director and crew traveled to the site and had their own "experience"!