The Incredible Melting Man (1977) American International/Horror-Sci-Fi RT: 86 minutes Rated R (violence, bloody images, gruesome special effects, nudity, some language) Director: William Sachs Screenplay: William Sachs Music: Arlon Ober Cinematography: Willy Curtis Release date: December 9, 1977 (US) Cast: Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning, Myron Healey, Michael Alldredge, Ann Sweeny, Lisle Wilson, Rainbeaux Smith, Julie Drazen, Stuart Edmond Rodgers, Chris Witney, Edwin Max, Dorothy Love, Janus Blythe, Jonathan Demme, DeForest Covan, Sam Gelfman, Bonnie Inch, Mickey Lolich, Westbrook Claridge. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
The Incredible Melting Man is considered one of the worst movies ever made. It was featured in an episode of MST3K, an honor reserved only for the crème de la crème of bad movies. It’s bad alright, but I’m not going to blame it on the director William Sachs (Galaxina). It’s not his fault, not entirely. What happened was this. He originally intended The Incredible Melting Man as a parody of horror movies, but the studio felt it wouldn’t go over with the moviegoing public. During post-production, the studio edited out the comedic scenes, re-shot scenes and added newly-shot horror scenes, all without Sachs’ participation. The result is a dull, uneven movie that succeeds as neither comedy nor horror.
Three astronauts are exposed to a blast of radiation during a space flight to Saturn. The sole survivor Steve West (Rebar, Number One with a Bullet) wakes up in a hospital with his face covered in bandages. He’s horrified to discover he’s melting. His physician Dr. Loring (Wilson, Sisters) says he’s never seen anything like it. He calls in his colleague Dr. Ted Nelson (DeBenning, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5), a friend of West’s, for consult. A panicked West escapes from the hospital and goes on a murderous rampage starting with a nurse. They bring in Air Force General Michael Perry (Healey, Claws) to aid them in the search for the increasingly insane West who grows stronger the more his body decomposes. And does it ever decompose! Flesh oozes and falls from his body in big gloopy gobs of goo. Not only that, West eats the flesh of his victims to slow down the melting process. It’s a mess of the grossest kind.
Naturally, the military wants to keep a lid on the situation in order to protect their own agenda. So what else is new? Nelson can’t even tell his pregnant wife Judy (Sweeny, Bittersweet Love) who you immediately know will be terrorized by the monster at some point. He also can’t tell the local sheriff (Alldredge, The Entity) demanding an explanation for all the mutilated bodies they’re finding in his neck of the woods. The victims include a fisherman (producer Gelfman) whose head is seen floating down the river, over a waterfall and hitting the rocks below with a splat. A model (Smith, The Swinging Cheerleaders) posing topless stumbles across the rest of him. In a nod to Frankenstein, the monster chases a little girl (Drazen) playing in the woods. He also takes out Judy’s mother (Love, Caged Heat), her gentleman friend (Max of the 1978 boxing kangaroo movie Matilda) and the male half (director Demme) of a young married couple before it’s all over.
The only good thing The Incredible Melting Man has going for it is Rick Baker’s (An American Werewolf in London) terrific makeup effects. His work here inspired the infamous toxic waste scene in the original RoboCop. Unfortunately, much of Baker’s work fell victim to studio tampering. He originally created four distinct stages of decomp so that West’s body would appear to melt gradually. The producers’ re-editing caused West to look the same throughout the movie. That’s just wrong. Baker worked hard on the effects; his artistry deserves to be seen. Oh well, what was left in is great.
The rest of The Incredible Melting Man is pure low-budget B-movie schlock. It’s cheap, shoddy, lame-brained and lethargic. It features bad acting, dopey dialogue, stock characters and a tired plot. It’s predictable as all get out. It’s a bad movie. It’s not quite Robot Monster-bad or Manos: The Hands of Fate-bad, but it’s close. Nonetheless, I had fun watching it. It’s fun precisely because it’s so God-awful. Some of the dialogue is absolutely priceless. Going by some of the things he says, Nelson has to be the dumbest scientist in the world. He says, upon gazing at the mutilated body of a victim, “Don’t quote me, but this wasn’t any animal.” A true master of the obvious he is. Later, while searching the woods with his trusty Geiger, he exclaims “Oh God, it’s his ear.” when he comes across a gelatinous substance on a bush. The best though is when he attempts to de-escalate a tense situation with armed security guards by shouting, “LISTEN TO ME! I’M DR. TED NELSON!” Big help, Einstein!
In addition, I appreciate how it homages the cheap monster horrors of the 50s and 60s, the kind that delighted audiences of youngsters at Saturday afternoon matinees. Of course, those movies weren’t all that gory or scary. I’m sure none of them showed a janitor casually depositing human remains in a trash can. I can only imagine the effect The Incredible Melting Man would have on those kids. Probably the same effect as Night of the Living Dead when some theaters showed it as a kiddie matinee picture unaware of its grisly content.
The Incredible Melting Man played for a week in theaters and went largely forgotten after that. I badly wanted to see it, but there’s no way the parentals would have allowed 9YO Movie Kid to feast his eyes on that forbidden R-rated fruit. At that age, I would have thought it was a great movie. At my current age, I think it’s dumb but fun. It’s the kind of movie that begs to be mocked. It absolutely calls for sarcastic remarks to be shouted at the screen. I’d even describe it as an unintentional comedy. Still, I’d love to get a look at Sachs’ original cut if it still exists. Today’s audiences would get it, I’m sure.
To close, The Incredible Melting Man is a bad movie, but it’s not unwatchable. It has more heart and soul than many of today’s heartless and soulless megabudget blockbusters. For that, I give it a lot of credit.
