THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977)

DIRECTED & WRITTEN by William Sachs.

STARRING  - Alex Rebar as Steve West,  Burr De Benning as Dr. Ted Nelson,  Myron Healey as General Michael Perry,  Michael Alldredge as Sherrif Neil Blake,  Ann Sweeny as Judy Nelson.

PLOT - A manned space probe drifts through the rings of Saturn. On board is astronaut Steve West and his two colleagues. There is a radiation burst that envelops the ship, two of the astronauts die instantly, only Steve survives.

Steve awakes on Earth in a military hospital, covered in bandages. He removes the bandages and sees that his face is burnt and beginning to melt. Steve is driven insane from the sight of this, he kills a nurse, partially devours her and escapes into the nearby countryside.

Steve's friend, Dr Ted Nelson, discovers that the nurse's corpse has traces of radioactivity attached to it, he surmises that Steve's body has become molecularly unstable and he must consume human flesh to continue his painful, decaying existence.

Steve is on the rampage, killing and eating innocent victims wherever he finds them, all the time succumbing to the madness that rages inside him and the unnatural hunger that drives him ever onwards.  Steve West is melting, his body slowly and disgustingly liquefying before his very eyes. He must be stopped, whatever the cost...

DIALOUGE  - Steve - "You've never seen anything, till you've seen the Sun through the rings of Saturn."

Tagline - "STEVEN WEST, ASTRONAUT FROM SATURN, IS MELTING. HE MUST HAVE HUMAN CELLS TO SURVIVE. HE IS A LIVING TIME BOMB !"

PERFORMANCES  - All of the characters and situations in this movie are essentially 1970's updates of the types of characters and situations you would expect to see in a 1950's sci-fi B-movie.

Alex Rebar as Steve West does a good effort of imbuing the titular melting man with a sense of pathos despite the horrific murders he commits. We can tell that he is not responsible for his own actions, that he is, instead, compelled to commit these atrocities. A sense of revulsion at the murders and what he has become is subtly conveyed through Rebar's eyes and body language. We feel Steve's pain and desolation as he wanders through the wilderness, his body slowly dissolving and falling apart. Considering his character presumably can't speak by this point and that Rebar is encased under tons of latex makeup, the fact that he manages to essay these conflicting emotions and rage so well is testament to his ability as an actor.

The other performances are all of a decent quality too. Burr De Benning makes for a likable hero in the form of Ted Nelson, he's tired and stressed throughout most of the film and this comes over well in his performance. You get the impression that Ted just wants a quiet life with his wife and doesn't want to be bothered with the hassle of chasing down dissolving mutated astronauts, even though he appears to care about Steve as a friend. This comes over mainly through his interaction with General Perry (Myron Healey). At first, the military man is thrust into Nelson's orbit and he clearly doesn't want to bothered with the added stress of dealing with him. Yes, it's that old 50's trope of 'scientist vs the military mindset' again. As the film progresses, a grudging respect develops between the two men and the General eventually becomes Nelson's de facto sidekick. De Benning and Healey play these scenes well and you end up liking both of the characters as a result. When the General is eventually killed, you do feel his absence in the later scenes.

After Perry's death, Nelson gains another 'sidekick', this time it's the local sheriff - Neil Blake. Michael Alldredge plays Blake as cynical and hard nosed. Blake is distrustful of Nelson and appears to hold him personally responsible for the irradiated mutant that is rampaging near his town. Blake is never a particularly likeable character but you can tell that he means well at heart. Like Nelson he's just out of his depth and incredibly stressed out. Everyone is having a bad day in this movie.

SFX - The main star of this film however, is operating from behind the camera - make up genius Rick Baker. The work he does here is amazing - it really does look like Rebar is slowly melting and it looks bloody painful as well. His skin seems to dribble into the dermis underneath, merging into a gooey, superating mess.

It's a fine example of why practical effects work is always better than CGI. If this film was made today, old Melty would probably be an entirely CG creation and he'd probably look OK...initially. The problem with CGI is that as technology evolves, what looks amazing today can look like something from a bad console game six months down the line. Here instead, you get a piece of makeup work that was done nearly fifty years ago and still looks brilliantly, stomach churningly realistic.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Aside from Baker's excellent depiction of bodily dissolution you've also got some suitably nasty murders as the deranged Steve rips his victims limb from limb and devours thier flesh. The most memorable kill is when Steve literally rips a man's head off and then casually throws the severed head into a river. We are then forced to watch the lifeless noggin float downstream and over a nearby waterfall, smashing like an over ripe watermelon onto the rocks below. It's glorious.

RATING - 'The Incredible Melting Man' plays out like a 50's sci-fi flick given a gritty 70's grindhouse makeover. Every plot point and character beat is inspired by the films of the 50's. The plot itself is basically exactly the same as Hammer's 'The Quatermass Xperiment' (1955). Even the title is a riff on the earlier 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' (1957). What is bought to the table that is new, is lashings and lashings of gore and ruptured, superating body parts. Taking the warm and cosy sci-fi shenanigans of the past and cross pollinating them with the gritty, grimy look and feel of grindhouse cinema. This was a film that was made to be watched in a sleazy fleapit picture house, with sticky floors and dubious stains on the seats. It's by no means a perfect film, it drags a bit in the middle and some of the dialogue scenes go on for a little bit too long, but it delivers what it sets out to do and that's gross the viewer out with a bloody, body melting spectacular.

3 and a half liquefying maniacs out of 5. Just don't make the mistake of trying to eat a pizza whilst watching this...

This movie also led to some brilliant VHS and DVD cover art being produced. Just look at these beauties...