31 Horror Films To Watch This October

It’s going out on a limb to call this Z-grade exploitation classic the first film to rip off Scooby Doo, but consider the plot. An academic recruits four students – a handsome blond jock, a danger-prone damsel in distress, a beatnik and a short bookworm – to accompany him on a “research expedition” that involves searching for a Yeti in (where else?) upstate New York.

After ignoring a Dire Warning from a Creepy Stranger, the group drive to an Isolated Cabin in a van with flower decals on the side, encounter a Weird Housekeeper and are chased by a monster, whose appearance causes the bookworm to fall and lose her glasses. Naturally, they set a trap for the monster. Naturally, it fails.

The monster is eventually revealed as the academic in a shabby costume, who in this R-rated version also turns out to be a cannibal. You see, his plan was to lure the kids to the cabin, kill them and devour them, which – spoiler alert – he does in the downbeat ending.