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

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ray Dennis Steckler
Produced by	Ray Dennis Steckler
Screenplay by	Gene Pollock Robert Silliphant
Story by	E.M. Kevke
Starring	Cash Flagg Carolyn Brandt Brett O'Hara Atlas King Sharon Walsh Madison Clarke
Music by	André Brummer Libby Quinn
Cinematography	Joseph V. Mascelli
Edited by	Don Schneider
Distributed by	Fairway International Pictures
Release dates	March 1964 (1964-03)
Running time	82 mins.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$38,000

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (sometimes "!!?" is appended to the title) is a 1964 American monster movie written and directed by Ray Dennis Steckler. Steckler also starred in the film, billed under the pseudonym "Cash Flagg". Upon release, the film was widely panned and is regarded by some critics as being one of the worst movies ever made.

In the film, three friends visit a carnival and stumble into a group of occultists and disfigured monsters. Produced on a $38,000 budget, much of it takes place at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California, which resembles Brooklyn's Coney Island. The film was billed as the first "monster musical", beating out The Horror of Party Beach by a mere month in release date.

Plot

Jerry (Steckler as "Flagg"), his girlfriend Angela (Sharon Walsh), and his buddy Harold (Atlas King) head out for a day at the carnival. In one venue, a dance number is performed by Marge (Carolyn Brandt), an alcoholic who drinks before and between shows, and her partner, Bill Ward, for a small audience. There Jerry sees stripper Carmelita (Erina Enyo) who hypnotizes him with her icy stare and he is compelled to see her act. Carmelita is the young sister of powerful fortune-teller Estrella (Brett O'Hara), and Estrella turns Jerry into a zombie by hypnotizing him with a spiraling wheel. He then goes on a rampage, killing Marge and fatally wounding Bill. Later, Jerry attempts to strangle his girlfriend Angela as well. It develops that Estrella, with her henchman Ortega (Jack Brady), has been busy turning various patrons into zombies, apparently by throwing acid on their faces.

Interspersed through the film are several song-and-dance production numbers in the carnival's nightclub, with songs like "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" and "Shook out of Shape". The titular zombies only make an appearance in the final act, where they escape and immediately kill Estrella, Carmelita, Ortega and several performers before being shot by police. Jerry, himself partially disfigured but not a zombie, escapes the carnival and is pursued to the shoreline, where the police shoot him dead in front of Angela and Harold.

Production

Title

At the time of release, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies was the second longest titled film in the horror genre (Roger Corman's The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent being the first).

This was not, however, the originally intended title of the film. As Steckler relates, the film was supposed to be titled The Incredibly Strange Creatures, or Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie, but was changed in response to Columbia Pictures' threat of a lawsuit over the name's similarity to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was under production at the same time.

The film was originally released by Fairway-International Pictures, Arch Hall, Sr.'s studio, who put it on a lower half of a double bill with one of his own pictures. Dissatisfied, Steckler bought the distribution rights back from Hall, purchased the rights to the Coleman Francis picture, The Beast of Yucca Flats and roadshowed the picture across the US. In order to get repeat customers, Steckler re-titled the film numerous times, with titles such as The Incredibly Mixed-Up Zombie, Diabolical Dr. Voodoo and The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary.

Notable cast and crew

Brett O'Hara was usually a stand-in for Susan Hayward. Madame Estrella was the only "real" role of her career.

Sharon Walsh was not originally meant to play Angela. Bonita Jade was given the role, but when it was time for her scene, she said she had to leave to meet her boyfriend, because he was performing and she always went to his gigs. Steckler was furious, and he pulled Walsh out of the chorus line, telling her she was now the female lead. Sharon had already appeared in several dance numbers during the movie and they had to "disguise" her with a new hairstyle.

The cinematography/camera operating was done by three men who would go on to become major figures in cinematography: Joseph V. Mascelli, author of The Five Cs of Cinematography; Vilmos Zsigmond (listed as William Zsigmond), who won an Academy Award for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and László Kovács (listed as Leslie Kovacs).

Studio

Much of the movie was filmed in an old, long-empty Masonic temple in Glendale, California, owned by actor Rock Hudson. The nine-story building was a series of makeshift "sound stages" stacked floor after floor, some big enough to create the midway scenes indoors. This was the studio used that year for production of The Creeping Terror, another low-quality monster movie. The Film Center Studios were popular with non-union producers, because they could turn off the elevator to lock out IATSE union agents, who found it difficult to climb the stairs to the seventh floor main stage.

Budget

During the filming of the movie, Steckler was in terrible need of funds, both for the movie and for rent, food and basic needs. Atlas King, who had grown close to Steckler, gave him three hundred dollars out of his own pocket. The station wagon Jerry drives in this movie was the Steckler family car.

Release

In some screenings, employees in monster masks, sometimes including Steckler himself, would run into the theater to scare the audience (The gimmick was billed as "Hallucinogenic Hypnovision" on the film's posters).

Reception

Upon its release the film has been panned by critics with many citing it as the worst film ever made.

The 2004 DVD The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made listed this film as the worst film of all time.

However, the film has been celebrated by fans of camp or kitsch films. Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2 1/2 out of 4 stars, complimenting the film's use of colors and haunting atmosphere while criticizing the film's acting, dialogue, and simplistic plot. The rock critic Lester Bangs wrote an appreciative 1973 essay about Incredibly Strange Creatures in which he tries to explain and justify the movie's value:

...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!"

It currently has a 20% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

DVD release

The DVD release of Incredibly Strange Creatures features a commentary track by "drive-in movie critic" Joe Bob Briggs.

In popular culture

A key group of the 1970s Melbourne post-punk little band scene named themselves after the film.

The film was lampooned in 1997 by Mystery Science Theater 3000.

See also

• List of American films of 1964

External links

• The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies at IMDb
• The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies at AllMovie
• The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Crazy Mixed-Up Zombies at the TCM Movie Database