Le monstre qui vient de l'espace

The Incredible Melting Man is written and directed by William Sachs. It stars Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning and Myron Healey. Music is by Arlon Ober and cinematography by Willy Curtis. Astronaut Steve West's body begins to melt after he was exposed to radiation during a space flight to Saturn.

Escaping from the hospital, West trawls the land in search of human victims to eat in the desperate hope of staving off the melting of his body.

It's as bad as you most likely have heard it is, and Rick Baker's makeup work is as good as you have heard it is! Intended as a horror parody but switched to being a "supposed" horror with some cuts and swipes requested by the studio, it's pretty evident upon viewing the film that was clearly the case. Tale doesn't add up to much more than the melting man of the title walking from one scene to another dripping in goo whilst meeting up with a host of bad actors. He's pursued by a pal who wants to help him, while it all builds to some fireworks at a power plant where the "big" battle unfolds.

You can't really do much with the story, after just 8 minutes of film he starts melting and once his bodily parts start falling off you just know he is beyond help. The tragic creature vibe is strong enough to hold interest, if you can stop yourself from laughing at everything else that surrounds him (it) during its Quatermass Experiment journey. The power plant scenes are nicely photographed, the final demise of the creature is bleakly sad and Baker really comes through with the only bit of quality in the piece. It's messy in more ways than one! But fun to be had if in a very forgiving mood. 4/10

After a mishap in space, an astronaut returns to Earth where he starts turning into a murderous melting monster.

I must admit that while watching this B monster movie my opinion of it did change a few times. At first, after the first 15 minutes or so, I thought that this was going to be one cheesy mess of a movie. However I found myself enjoying this campy flick the further I got into it. I mainly have the great makeup effects of a young Rick Baker to thank for it too! Baker's talents are evident even in this early movie with it's bloody good makeup work. The oozing melting man effects are impressive for a low-budget production. There's also a great death-by-power line scene.

Still, this movie isn't flawless now. The performances of the cast are pretty weak and the movie has its share of silly scenes - like an overacting nurse running through a window to escape the title character or a scene where an elderly couple decide to steal some lemons and end-up paying big time!

The Incredible Melting Man is a mixed-bag of B horror fun. Nothing to be taken seriously, for sure, but B horror fans may just dig it.

** 1/2 out of ****

"The Incredible Melting Man" is a fantastically gross, trashy and energetic Z-grade production that every self-respecting camp-horror freak simply has to see for him/herself! The ideal way to describe this low-budget 70's gem is like a shameless copy of Hammer's "The Quatermass Xperiment" ...only a thousand times filthier! Astronaust Steve West is the only survivor of a disastrous space-mission, but turns out the carrier of a horrible disease that makes him radioactive and ... causes him to melt! In shock after seeing his face in the mirror (can you blame him?), Steve busts out of the hospital, leaving a trail of sticky pus and fallen off body parts behind. Doctor Ted Nelson has to find him urgently, as the disease also set Steve up with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. The premise may sound utterly stupid but this flick is enormously entertaining and contains great make-up effects from the hand of Rick Baker. The melting dude's face looks like a rotting pizza and his heavy breathing makes him sound like Darth Vader! Another big advantage is that William Sachs' screenplay doesn't waste any time on tedious scientific explanations or emotional speeches. The repulsiveness starts right away and lasts until the very last moment of the film. Just enjoy this silly horror gem and try to switch off your brain activity as much as you can because, if you start contemplating about the many stupidities in the script, you'll miss out on all the campy fun!

Well. Apparently in this film there is a "man" who is "melting" and this is "incredible". Whatever. For my money there is only one reason to see this film, and it has nothing to do with snot-faced fellows who eat people's flesh.

At one moment in the film the incredibly thin and pasty protagonist Dr. Ted Nelson mentions his mother-in-law, and suddenly this film swings into high. We're shown a wonderful sequence of two incredibly lumpy elderly folks driving. These oddly shaped, lawn gnome-esque folks decided to steal lemons, but they get scared and run (well, totter) back to their automobile only to be eaten by the titular character.

God, these two actors are wonderful! Dorothy Love and Edwin Max deserve the accolades of their peers for this brief glimpse into the magical and bewitching talents of actors in their prime, who were given a script that seemed to have been written by a spastic monkey.

Irresistible, guilty pleasures like "Incredible Melting Man" don't appear often, so when they do, you watch them closely. Space shuttle pilot survives a near-fatal dose of radiation, but finds that his flesh is melting, and this inversely increases his hostility. After catching a glimpse of his disfigurement in the mirror, he becomes enraged. You'd become unhinged too. Despatching the nurse (who does the longest slow-motion panicked run in film history) he escapes, then awkwardly stumbles across the landscape, disintegrating and dismembering until his inevitable conclusion.

While star-billed, Rebar has little to do, and is unrecognisable beneath Rick Baker's repulsive make-up, leaving acting duties to the capable DeBenning whose ability to deliver his puerile dialogue without flinching is a testament to his dedication and professionalism. He has some crackers - my personal favourite being when he spies a piece of rotting flesh attached to a tree and on closer inspection announces despondently "Oh god.. it's his ear". A quality supporting cast includes Myron Healey and Michael Alldredge as the reinforcements, while Janus Blythe and Jonathan Demme appear in cameos. Exploitation aficionados might also recognise tragic Rainbeaux Smith as the model, nearing the end of her mainstream film career.

Baker's make-up effects are spectacularly camp; the guy's decapitated head tumbling down the waterfall is pure gold. Only the terrified expression bares any resemblance to the person off whom it was ripped, but that's trivial. The radioactive goo that trickles off Rebar is like pizza topping; sometimes cheesy with occasional ham. What enthralls some, will appear tasteless to others, but credit where it's due, Baker has done an outstanding job.

Like its title character, William Sachs' film ambles along, bereft of any real plot or direction, just a succession of gory, head-ripping melting moments, punctuated by incessant flashbacks and stock footage of solar flames. Often pilloried as a stinker, there's more than meets the eye here, and though not a serious contender with "The Quartermass Experiment" or others of its ilk, it's still entertaining late night fare, well worth the admission.