You know... weird shit.
Today's Halloween themed post is about a horror film, as one might expect for the season. Not just any horror film but one that was also a musical. And also a film regarded as among the worst films ever made.
Today, I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You presents...
The Incredibly Strange Creatures
Who Stopped Living
and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is a 1964 American monster movie written and directed by Ray Dennis Steckler who also starred in the film as Jerry using "Cash Flagg" as his acting stage name.
The setting: a seaside carnival.
Our cast: an assortment of generic white people.
- Jerry, a free spirited kind of guy
- Angela, a girlfriend kind of a girl
- Harold, the kind of guy who is there
- Marge, a dancer who drinks before dancing, after dancing and during dancing
- Bill, competing with Harold for "kind of guy who is there"
- Estrella, a fortune teller who predicts death for everybody which is a pretty solid prediction if you're willing to wait awhile
- Carmelita, Estrella's sister and a stripper
- Ortega, Estrella's henchman
Jerry, Angela, and Harold go to see Estrella to get their fortunes told. Estrella predicts death. Estrella always predicts death.
Carmelita entrances Jerry with her stare and her stripping. which disgusts Angela so she leaves the carnival with Harold.
Jerry then wanders back to Estrella (this is a really crappy carnival without a lot to do) where Estrella whammies Jerry into becoming... a ZOMBIE! Or something zombie-ish.
Anyone miss Harold? I miss Harold.
So Jerry kills Marge.
- Zombiefied, Jerry doesn't remember killing Marge.
- Marge, pickled from alcohol, doesn't remember being killed so it's all good.
Oh, I forgot, Jerry also killed Bill.
Gee, I hope Harold's still OK.
TIME FOR MUSIC!!!!
Annnnnnnd.... we move on.
Seems Estrella and Ortega have been turning people into zombies as part of some ill-conceived business plan.
1) Make zombies.
2) Stuff happens.
3) PROFIT!
Seems Estrella and Ortega have been turning people into zombies as part of some ill-conceived business plan.
1) Make zombies.
2) Stuff happens.
3) PROFIT!
TIME FOR MUSIC!!!!
Insert song & dance production number of "Shook Out Of Shape".
Estrella and Ortega along with Carmelita get killed by the zombies while Jerry stumbles out of the carnival where Angela and Harold are....
Hey guys! Harold's back!
Jerry stumbles out of the carnival where Angela and Harold are waiting only to watch in horror as Jerry is gunned down by the police.
And the movie's over.
Bye, Harold. I'll miss you most of all.
So that was The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies which is what you get when you make a movie for $38,000 which even in 1964 was chump change to make a movie with.
The movie was supposed to be titled Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie but someone at Columbia Pictures was actually paying attention and threatened to sue because the title was too similar to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb which was in production at that time.
Alternate titles for the movie:
In case you're wondering, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is only the second longest title for a horror film. Coming in for longest title: The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.
Bonita Jade was supposed to play the role of Angela but when it was time for her to be on set to shoot her scenes, she couldn't be there because she had to go do stuff 'n' junk with her boyfriend. So the role of Angela went to Sharon Walsh who had already filmed scenes in the movie as one of the dancers. So as Angela, Sharon was disguised with a new hairstyle.
One of the camera crew was Vilmos Zsigmond (listed as William Zsigmond), who won an Academy Award for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Much of the movie was filmed at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, CA which kind of resembles Coney Island. The movie was also shot in a series of makeshift "sound stages" constructed in an old, disused Masonic temple in Glendale CA owned by actor Rock Hudson.
In some screenings, employees in monster masks, sometimes including Steckler himself, would run into the theater to scare the audience.
While Incredibly Strange Creatures is pretty much considered a cinematic disaster, it has it's defenders.
Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2 and a half stars out of a 4, complimenting the film's use of colors and haunting atmosphere.
In a 1973 essay, rock critic Lester Bangs wrote: "This flick doesn't just rebel against, or even disregard, standards of taste and art. In the universe inhabited by The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, such things as standards and responsibility have never been heard of. It is this lunar purity which largely imparts to the film its classic stature. Like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and a very few others, it will remain as an artifact in years to come to which scholars and searchers for truth can turn and say, 'This was trash!'"
The film was lampooned in 1997 by Mystery Science Theater 3000 which how I first saw this.
I would recommend not watching The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies without the benefit of robot pals.
Boy, I really miss Harold.
Hey guys! Harold's back!
Jerry stumbles out of the carnival where Angela and Harold are waiting only to watch in horror as Jerry is gunned down by the police.
And the movie's over.
Bye, Harold. I'll miss you most of all.
So that was The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies which is what you get when you make a movie for $38,000 which even in 1964 was chump change to make a movie with.
The movie was supposed to be titled Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie but someone at Columbia Pictures was actually paying attention and threatened to sue because the title was too similar to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb which was in production at that time.
Alternate titles for the movie:
- The Incredibly Mixed-Up Zombie
- Diabolical Dr. Voodoo
- The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary
In case you're wondering, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is only the second longest title for a horror film. Coming in for longest title: The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.
Bonita Jade was supposed to play the role of Angela but when it was time for her to be on set to shoot her scenes, she couldn't be there because she had to go do stuff 'n' junk with her boyfriend. So the role of Angela went to Sharon Walsh who had already filmed scenes in the movie as one of the dancers. So as Angela, Sharon was disguised with a new hairstyle.
One of the camera crew was Vilmos Zsigmond (listed as William Zsigmond), who won an Academy Award for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Much of the movie was filmed at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, CA which kind of resembles Coney Island. The movie was also shot in a series of makeshift "sound stages" constructed in an old, disused Masonic temple in Glendale CA owned by actor Rock Hudson.
In some screenings, employees in monster masks, sometimes including Steckler himself, would run into the theater to scare the audience.
While Incredibly Strange Creatures is pretty much considered a cinematic disaster, it has it's defenders.
Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2 and a half stars out of a 4, complimenting the film's use of colors and haunting atmosphere.
In a 1973 essay, rock critic Lester Bangs wrote: "This flick doesn't just rebel against, or even disregard, standards of taste and art. In the universe inhabited by The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, such things as standards and responsibility have never been heard of. It is this lunar purity which largely imparts to the film its classic stature. Like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and a very few others, it will remain as an artifact in years to come to which scholars and searchers for truth can turn and say, 'This was trash!'"
The film was lampooned in 1997 by Mystery Science Theater 3000 which how I first saw this.
I would recommend not watching The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies without the benefit of robot pals.
Boy, I really miss Harold.
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