VIDEO: The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

by · October 15, 2012

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Melting Astronauts! Bad detective work! Crackers!

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  • Sofie Liv

    Wauw.. that melting man looked absolutely disgusting and I was weirdly compelled by that movie.

    Great review as always, it was a really fun watch

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks Sofie 🙂

  • MichaelANovelli

    I think he looks like The Toxic Avenger!

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Yeah he kind of does!

  • Nuclearademan

    I gotta give the film that the melting man effects were really good, it genuinly looked painful. It’s a shame they don’t make stuff like that anymore because a big budget version of that would look amazing.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Could you imagine a 10 million dollar gross out film of this sort? The closest thing I can think of in recent years was Wrong Turn 2. That was full of all kinds of awesome over the top gore and a fun throwback to the 70s.

  • Another one of those movies I saw in that 50 Worst Movies Ever Made show. And yet Manos was nowhere to be found on that list. Go figure! (Maybe Trog or JD’s Revenge will be next on your show) This could have become a cult classic had it been taken less seriously and went for a more comedic approach like the writer wanted. It probably is to a small degree, but I don’t think there’ll be schedules for MeltFest 2013 anytime soon. Those melting effects look so grotesque (in a good way) and yet so convincing that you’d expect nothing less from a future multiple Oscar winner. Everybody’s got to start somewhere.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      I was really disappointed with that show. I was expecting a bit more humor but it was essentially “here is an old low budget movie that was on MST3K, it’s bad!” and then the next one. (on your note, there will be some more on that list I will do eventually)

      A shame that the director doesn’t have access to the cut scenes. (I’m sure they ended up being destroyed years ago) I would love to see this film as was intended. I mean, they did shoot the whole thing as a spoof and then the studio altered it. 

  • Misinformed

    Jesus this guy looks almost as bad as Mickey Rourke.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      LOL!

  • edharris1178

    Good stuff, man.  This is another example of a movie that’s rep is mainly due to it appearing on MST3K (see Time Chasers for another one).  I’ve got an old issue of Starlog with an article on it, pretty good bit of writing.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks man. Yeah, just because it was on MST3K doesn’t instantly make it bad/bad. There are a few movies they’ve done that I genuinely enjoy. Although some really are terrible. (The Starfighters UGH)

      Wow, Starlog that brings me back. The only way to get horror sci-fi news back in the day was Starlog and Fangoria in the day before the internet. 

  • TheScottCSmith

    I’ve always wanted to see this movie, it looks pretty cheesy.  I remember it coming out when I was a kid.  But now what I really want to do is get a hold of a copy of “Mellow Gold.”

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Believe it or not Amazon still has Mellow Gold for sale. lol

      Yep, Rick Baker did the effects which is why they still look awesome.

  • Bob (the other one)

    Wow, I guess I’m not the only person to remember “Saturday Night Dead”!  I can even remember the theme song (which I later found out was an old recording of legendary soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet).  Great recap of an under-appreciated film, I hope you do more of these 70s/80s exploitation films.  

    • Bob (the other one)

      Well, Wikipedia claims the Saturday Night Dead theme was actually the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s recording of “The Mooche”.  It does feature a lot of soprano sax, but is not by Sidney Bechet.  Stupid brain!

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Heh, I always just knew it as the Saturday Night Dead theme.

      I have plenty more of the old stuff to do but I’m trying to mix it up. I have a few more horror entries for October.

  • MichaelANovelli

    And now, the countdown to Cecil’s inevitable review of The Stuff commences…

    • Cristiona
      • MichaelANovelli

        What am I?  Some kind of internet guy?

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        Holy crap, episode 8? I have been doing these for a while haven’t I? Now I have The Right Stuff stuck in my head.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      lol yeah, did that a while ago.

  • spiff2268

    Where else have I seen that Ted Nelson guy before?

    • MichaelANovelli

      He was great in “The Incredible Melting Man”!

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      He was in A nightmare on Elm Street 5 and a ton of television.

  • Melting man was one of the greatest MYstery SCience theater episodes ever!!!  I think trace (who plays crow) was the one who said in the aceg that melting man noses out manos as the worst mst3k ever!!!!

    • Immortan Scott

      I thought it was Monster A Go Go that the MST3K team thought was the worst film they ever watched on the show.

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        Now that you mention it, I think that may be the case. I love MST but even with them it was hard to watch the movie.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      It is one of the funniest for sure. Bummer it hasn’t made it to DVD yet. Yeah Trace was still playing Crow at the time when they did this one. Not sure if he said it was worse than Manos or not. I mean, Manos is the only episode where the Mads actually apologized for the movie.

  • Russell Brin (Facebook Sux)

    I made the mistake of buying Zombie Lake on DVD…word to the wise; never shop for DVD’s while intoxicated…(I could walk to the video store at the time, so never had to worry about a DUI)

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      I bought it at a yard sale on DVD for like a quarter. So bad but again, there is worse out there.

      • Russell Brin (Facebook Sux)

        True, Dracula 3000 exists but seeing Coolio as a vampire has certain comedic pleasure to it.

        • Cecil_Trachenburg

          Coolio’s acting has a comedic pleasure to it. heh

  • Thomas Stockel

    Great review, Cecil!

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks!

  • Delawheredad

    Cecil,

       I loved “Saturday Night Dead” as well. I take it that you are too young to remember Philly’s Dr. Shock who showed creature features on Saturday afternoons on Channel 17. One of my prized possessions is an autographed picture of Dr Shock from one of his personal appearances.

      The Incredible Melting Man is NOT the worst movie ever. Rick Baker’s make up alone illustrates that point. There are lots of pictures that had larger budgets yet had worse makeup. It is really too bad that movies like this have essentially disappeared from broadcast television and even cable.

      Cecil, you should launch a B-movie network. It could be the exploitation movie equivalent of Turner Classic Movies and you could be the between films commentator a la Robert Osbourne! 

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      I used to watch Creature Double Feature saturday afternoons on channel 48. As far as I can remember they didn’t have a host, they would just run 2 movies back to back. I have heard of Dr Shock but I think he may have been just a bit before my time.

      Exactly. The movie is far from the worst ever. Just because it is a low budget sci-fi film from the 70s it gets a target painted on it. There are so many movies that cost 100 times what this did that are far, far worse.

      Wow, talk about a dream job!

  • Tim Terrell

    I take it that movies like “The Incredible Melting Man” got chopped to bits on Saturday Night Dead. A couple of years ago, I’d been looking for this all over, but it was too expensive for what it is. And when I had Netflix, they didn’t carry it. I wanted it because this reminds me of a comic book, but not FF. It reminds me of the ‘Molten Man’, one of The Amazing Spider Man’s rogue gallery.

    Oh, and seeing as how the majority of the main role would consist of his being in these makeup effects, why wouldn’t they pick an actor who was aware and okay with wearing the melting makeup? Or switch the actor out for a Doug Jones or Ron Pearlman of the day?

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Oddly enough, since the movie isn’t particularly violent (General Perry’s death is the only one we really see) They didn’t trim too much of the violence. They cut out pretty much the whole scene with the model since there was nudity and I think they removed the scene where he got his arm cut off.

      Netflix has it streaming now but not for rent.

      As far as the actor is concerned, this happens sometimes. There have been actresses who sign on for a movie that calls for nudity (Jessica Alba in Sin City) but when the time comes to shoot the scene they refuse. (she pleaded her case to Rodriguez and since they were friends he decided to let her play a stripper who didn’t take her clothes off) Sometimes they can get them to do it if it is stated in their contract but often they will just work around it if not. In this case I’m guessing the actor signed on without knowing how much makeup would be applied to him. After a few days of doing it he started getting belligerent. They either shot too much with him already to recast or didn’t have it clearly defined in his contract what he would have to do. As for replacing him, I’m guessing they just didn’t have the money to put someone else in his place.

  • Cameron Vale

    You saw Shivers at age 12?  I saw that movie a year ago and it blew my mind.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      I saw it somewhere between ages 10-12, I don’t remember the exact year. I didn’t fully understand it at the time (it was Cronenberg after all) but I knew it was cool. Being that it was on tv they cut out a lot of content so that didn’t help either.

  • Jessica Kent

    To me this stands out as a 70s horror classic but then again I might just be strange.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      You have good taste I say!

  • edharris1178

    By sheer coincidence, Shout Factory just announced they’ll be releasing this on Blu-Ray next year.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      I take full credit for this happening! 😛

  • hikeeba

    Netflix Watch Instant has a very fun documentary about TV horror hosts – American Scary – including lots of stuff about Saturday Night Dead. Stella looks like my auntie, and I swear her Philly accent is thicker now.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to check it out.

  • nyxalinth

    I saw this when I was 13 and thought it was awesome. I also love the MST3k version:

    Ted Nelson: who Else knows about this?

    (I think it was Mike) Oh, just me and half a nurse…

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