Review by Stephanie Scaife
This is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, and why it has been deemed a cult classic that warrants the Arrow Video treatment is completely beyond me. I can only assume that it is a direct result of Rick Baker’s make-up work because everything else is almost entirely unwatchable. I expect straight-to-DVD releases with stock image covers that you see in the supermarket for £3 to be shit, but I honestly expected more from this. Originally intended as a spoof by director William Sachs, The Incredible Melting Man fell afoul of producers who wanted it to be a straight horror film, resulting in much meddling and re-editing, the result of which is that it is unfortunately neither funny nor frightening and instead is nigh-on impossible to make any sense of, let alone enjoy. It was no surprise to find out that it has popped up on the ranks of IMDb’s Bottom 100.
What there is of a plot concerns Steve West (Alex Rebar), an astronaut who returns home from a mission to Saturn with some sort of radioactive disease that causes his skin to melt off, and a craving for human flesh. After awakening in hospital Steve attacks a nurse, in what is one of the weirdest scenes of the film: an extended sequence of the nurse fleeing in slow motion before jumping though a glass door (why she didn’t just open it is a mystery) before Steve appears behind her and attacks her. It is one of the most absurd things I’d ever seen… until later in the film where Burr DeBenning, who stars as the doctor pursuing Steve, complains to his wife about the lack of crackers to have with his soup. This occurs of course when an incredibly dangerous and radioactive man is tearing around killing and eating everyone that he comes across. I guess these are perhaps the remnants of when this was supposed to be a comedy, but because they are now set to a deadly serious score and an overall dark tone it just doesn’t work, and because everything is so tonally all over the place it makes it very difficult to become invested in any of the characters, or even really understand what or why anything happens.
I know that obviously this is a very silly film that is impossible to take seriously, and some seem to take great joy in just how bad it is. But for me it does not fall into the so-bad-it’s-good category, so much as being just plain bad… and boring… and let’s just not mention the gratuitous nudity. Perhaps I’m missing something, but to me this was badly acted, poorly scripted and because it was chopped to pieces by producers it is so full of plot holes that it is almost entirely impossible to follow. Rick Baker’s special effects are perhaps the only saving grace, and even then they are flawed due to the lack of continuity and the fact that what was supposed to be a gradual four-stage transformation into gloop jumps back and forth during the course of the film.
Even with the lovingly put together packaging and extras I would not recommend this unless you are a true Arrow Video completist.
The Incredible Melting Man is available now on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.