Runtime:
87 minutes
Directed
by: Don Barton
“Starring”:
Marshall Grauer, Wade Popwell, Paul Galloway, Gerald Cruse, Sanna
Ringhaver
From:
Barton Films
My
apologies for this being a few hours late. I was tied up with other
things.
Here's
something random; a movie I am pretty sure was just added to Instant
(under its alternate title of Blood Waters of Dr. Z), and one that is
so bad it was on MST3K way back when. It is a movie that was filmed
in Jacksonville, Florida, and as of a few years ago it was shown more
than once on the big screen in its home city. Recently, the director
has said he wants to do a sequel to this movie! I'm not so sure about
that. I did see it a few years ago when TCM Underground showed it. I
decided to watch it again, for a reason.
The
plot says it all: An angry scientist dude gets pissed off as his
contemporaries so in his crazy mind-and oh yeah, he's a Nazi too!-he
decides to enact his plan to turn people into a human-catfish hybrid.
Yes. He injects the serum himself and turns into the creature. He
goes around killing people, and yada yada yada. Actually, there's
also the presence of walking catfish, a legit animal from the Congo
or Southeast Asia that actually did invade Florida and is still a
part of this state's wildlife. At least one thing with this was
scientifically accurate...
Yep,
the movie is total amateur hour and it is hilariously bad. There's
goofy narration where I suppose it's like Vincent Price, but it turns
out to be a pale imitation. It becomes campy almost right away and
there is much unintentional humor... along with its share of slow and
dull spots. Actually, I'll be honest: a lot of it is dull! It is a
LONG 15 or so minutes before the dude turns into the human-catfish
(and what a goofy costume, too) and that's the first 15 minutes of
the movie, mind you.
The humor comes from such thing as the guy in
creature form using a marker to scratch out and highlight something
on a giant piece of paper, and the critter spraying crap in nature
with his formula for the sprayees to go crazy. What wasn't so funny
was to hear the old redneck sheriff refer to an African-American man
as “boy”. Hmmm, not something I really needed to hear...
Yet,
something with this movie is actually legit awesome to me: the score.
No, not the traditional parts you hear, nor the regular song in the
opening credits. It's how a lot of it was electronic, and it just
sounds weird. I have no idea how it was created with early 1970's
technology but to me it's so unique I think it's great. If only
there'd be a soundtrack release of it... I know the music was from
Jamie DeFrates and Barry Hodgin; both only worked on this movie and
that was it. Odd. At least something with this crap-pile is
worthwhile.
Really,
the film is probably best viewed while just listening to it on
Instant rather than watching it, as what was filmed with the camera
is just pure atrociousness. No surprise it was on MST3K. I'll be back
Wednesday night.
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