Parts Linked

Day 7: 10:00AM - 11:00AM
$1.99

Linked Connecting Rod:DD
$19.95
Linked Connecting Rod:DD

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
$19.95
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (Ray Dennis Steckler, 1963)

This is another case of me watching a movie that has been universally panned thinking "it really can't be all that bad, can it?" Yes, yes it is. Director Steckler (whose thirty-year-plus Hollywood career contained such highlights as Debbie Does Las Vegas and Teenage Dessert) does double-duty as the film's lead character, Jerry, a lunkhead who does most of his thinking below the belt. He, his roommate Harold (Atlas King), and his girlfriend Marge (Carolyn Brandt) head to the fair one night to see what's happening. After a rather strained session with fortune teller Madame Estrella (Brett O'Hara, suffering from what I assume is the worst make-up job in history), the group split up, with Harold taking Marge home after a fight with Jerry, who wants to see the girlie show. A little setup, and Jerry is back in Madame Estrella clutches, hypnotized into becoming a hit man for her.

Now where, you might ask, are the zombies in that synopsis? Well, they're nowhere. (They do put in a small appearance towards the end of the film, to be fair.) They're pretty pathetic zombies, and the musical numbers (yes, the musical numbers!) get more screen time than the zombies. The acting is terrible, the direction is awful, the technical aspects of the film range from hideous to terrifying (not in the way Steckler intended, I'm sure). This is one movie that thoroughly deserves its reputation; it's probably good to have on in the background at a party where the main goal is everyone getting as drunk as possible, but I can't see any other uses for it that makes sense. (half)