In a rabid departure from our usual horror or horror/comedy fare, last night's Classic Horror Film Club power-dived straight into the heart of B-movie country.
And, quite possibly the finest film ever made.
Kidding.
Well, we certainly saw the film with the longest title since our band of horror film fans got started – The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?
No kidding. That’s really the movie’s title.
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler (also the star and the producer), he’s right up there with Ed Wood as quite possibly the worst director ever. It’s got everything. A monster movie musical with zombies, carnivals, hunchbacks, gypsy fortune tellers, dancing, rock-n-roll, murder, and spinning hypnotic umbrellas.
Filmed in Terrorama (also known as Hallucinogenic Hypnovision, also known as Bloody-Vision), it tells the tragic tale of Jerry (Steckler), who goes to a carnival with his unintelligible friend, Harold (what kind of accent was that, anyway?), and ultra-beehive-hairdo’d girlfriend Shelly. At the carnival, Jerry is hypnotized by a gypsy fortune teller who sends him into a psychedelic killing spree. What follows is plenty of bad dancing and singing, horrible makeup, and even worse acting. It’s a fun-filled good bad movie that makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Citizen Kane.
Filmed for a whopping $38,000 (I’m surprised it cost that much), Mr. Steckler (also known as Sven Golly, Cash Flagg, Otto, Wolfgang Schmidt, or… Cindy Lou Sutters(?)) went on to direct other classics such as Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, How to Make a Sex Movie!! (with the two exclamation marks), and The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher. Put those on your wish list.
'til next time… Adios.
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