812-The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

Film Year:  1964
Genre:  Horror
Director:  Ray Dennis Steckler
Starring:  Ray Dennis Steckler, Carolyn Brandt, Brett O'Hara, Atlas King, Sharon Walsh, Madison Clarke, Jack Brady
MST Season:  8

The Movie

Schlock-master and future porn director Ray Dennis Steckler brings us this tale of a douchebag named Jerry (played by Steckler himself) who shuns his perfectly good girlfriend in order to see a trashy burlesque show that wasn’t worth the dime he spent to get in.  Receiving a note from a stripper to meet her backstage, he is taken by a gypsy fortune teller who hypnotizes him into doing her bidding, including MURDER!

I find this movie difficult to have a genuine opinion of.  I mean, sure I can say some particularly nasty things about it (and most of my fellow MSTies will), but it always felt to me like just some terminally strange movie that happened to exist for some reason.  It’s ineptly made, but it was also made for no money so I could give it a pass (but then again, films like The Evil Dead and El Mariachi were made for little money as well).  Steckler himself is tenacious, if nothing else.  It takes determination to make a movie with no money, and, even if you hate the result, it’s kind of hard to claim he didn’t have a vision.

Personally I don’t enjoy the movie.  It’s the film equivalent of a hallucination brought upon by the worst fever of your life.  It’s attempts at being sexy are putrid, it’s attempts at being scary are laughable, and it doesn’t really try much else to help save it.  The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is unquestionably a bad movie, this much is to be sure.  Mileage may vary on just how much you hate it.  I know a lot of MSTies do, but I don’t get very worked up over it.

The Episode

Incredibly Strange Creatures is arguably the roughest movie they’ve contended with at that point during their Sci-Fi run (which had mostly consisted of easy 50’s Universal and AIP fare).  I was pretty new to the show when this episode debuted (it might have been the second episode I watched, after The Deadly Mantis) and such a different kind of movie could have been a bit jarring…if the SOL crew didn’t have a talent of taking a movie’s weakness and turning it into a strength.  It’s nothing short of amazing the way they work with such a crazy movie and play up the insanity to bring golden comedy.  This episode could have easily been a disaster, and if they had this movie during season two it might have, but they are so good at their craft right now that failure isn’t an option.  The riffing is bloody hysterical, making Incredibly Strange Creatures a highlight of not just the eighth season, but the entire series.

The host segments struggle to match the brilliant theater work, but they do manage to take Ortega and turn him into a classic movie character.  Our gypsy woman’s foul little henchman has his own catering business, of which Crow and Servo are eager to try, and Mike is disgusted by.  The segment is hands down the highlight outside of the theater, and successfully turns Ortega into the Torgo of the Sci-Fi run.  The other segments struggle to catch up, while offer up moderate amusement:  Mike gets a massive beehive haircut, Crow and Servo put on a fortune telling scam, and they all go on a walk-a-thon for noble charities W.A.L.K.A.T.H.O.N. and H.E.L.P.I.N.G.C.H.I.L.D.R.E.N.T.H.R.O.U.G.H.R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H.A.N.D.D.E.V.E.L.O.P.M.E.N.T.  On the Mads’ side, Pearl is taking the Space Children home after the chaos they pulled in Parts:  The Clonus Horror.  It’s a fulfilling payoff to the classic segments of the previous episode.

Poopie!:  Look carefully on the left hand side of the screen when Mike and the bots enter the theater in the first theater segment.  There seems to be something moving around.  Is somebody in the shot?

I hear that some people struggle through Incredibly Strange Creatures due to the vile movie they selected.  While I cannot deny the movie is gross filth, I have to say it’s their loss.  This episode features some of the most brilliant and consistent work the show has ever featured.

Classic

The DVD

Rhino released this episode as a part of their Volume 9 set, featuring decent video and audio.  There were no special features.

Shout Factory also released the episode as an online exclusive Shout Select disc.  There also were no special features.