The Incredible Melting Man July 28th from Scream Factory

[DenOfEarth]

I'm surprised there is no thread based on this.

Anywho Scream Factory is releasing a remastered BD release of the 1977 schlock cult sci-fi horror film "The Incredible Melting Man" on July 28th with extras being commentary, interviews with Rick Baker and Greg Cannom, photo gallery and trailers.

I hope this looks and sounds better than ever on HD, this movie is a guilty pleasure of mine since i was a kid when i rented it on video and i also enjoyed MST3K's version of it as well.

I also hope later this winter Shout releases the MST3K version in the next boxset.

[Ator the Invincible]

Originally Posted by DenOfEarth

I also hope later this winter Shout releases the MST3K version in the next boxset.

Good point. They obviously have the distribution rights to the movie now. It's a no-brainer to include on an upcoming MST3K set. Maybe give the Scream Factory release a little breathing room first though.

[nagysaudio]

This would make a perfect combo with Critters 4.

[zbinks]

From Facebook:

Originally Posted by Cliff MacMillan

We do not have DVD rights nor MST3K rights to the film

May 28 at 9:46pm

[Beast]

They really should have included the MST3K version as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray.

[benricci]

Originally Posted by Beast

They really should have included the MST3K version as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray.

Read 3 posts above you. They don't have the rights to it.

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by DenOfEarth

I'm surprised there is no thread based on this.

The announcement of the release has been discussed in the stickied Shout Factory thread.

[Marv Inc.]

Not long to wait now.

[dadaluholla]

Looks like this guy

[blugremlin]

Gosh, but I find the ending of this movie SO incredibly sad...

[jdw89]

For those that own this, how would you rate this among horror films that you own? Is it just alright, or a cult classic?

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by jdw89

For those that own this, how would you rate this among horror films that you own? Is it just alright, or a cult classic?

FWIW, this is one of the few MST3K films I’d like to own un-riffed. It’s campy fun and the melting effects are incredible.

[beamish13]

Originally Posted by jdw89

For those that own this, how would you rate this among horror films that you own? Is it just alright, or a cult classic?

It’s a dull slog. Actually, some of the pre-transformation scenes are funnier and more camp than when the actual story kicks in. Jonathan Demme’s cameo is seriously weird

[Dailyan]

[DenOfEarth]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

I'm sure Nick saw this movie and get inspiration from it.

I'm glad MST3K released their version on DVD.

[Werdsniper2]

Just finished watching this. Overall It's really "meh". It seems totally disjointed, but the melting/gore effects are really damn good and worth a glance.

Interestingly enough I listened to the commentary track and it is great! The director is salty about the entire production. He talks about how miserable filming was, how him and the producers didn't share the same vision which resulted in the disjointedness I mentioned above. He even talks shit about an editor haha. If you own this give it a watch, you don't often see a director absolutely blasting production like this.

[The Great Owl]

Steve West, an astronaut played by Alex Rebar, has returned to Earth as a sole survivor after a mission where he and two others were exposed to radiation while exploring the rings of Saturn. Unfortunately, his skin and underlying tissues are now mysteriously melting. Reduced to a grotesquely gelatinous being, with body parts occasionally falling off, Steve escapes from a hospital and roams the countryside in search of delicious human flesh. A military doctor, played by Burr DeBenning, and an Air Force general, played by Myron Healey, search frantically for the murderous creature, but they may be too late to prevent him from savagely preying on the entire town.

The 1977 sci-fi horror tale, The Incredible Melting Man, written and directed by William Sachs (Van Nuys Blvd.,Galaxina), was originally conceived as an EC Comics homage of sorts that preserved a sense of mystery by keeping the origin of its titular menace a secret until late in the story. Due to production interference, however, the film comes across more as a generic Frankenstein ripoff with the body count as a primary goal. Thankfully, the end result is redeemed by superb makeup effects, courtesy of the legendary artist Rick Baker, and by an unexpectedly sad and poignant conclusion that flies in the face of unintentionally comedic dialogue exchanges that line the script up to that point. If you are looking for serviceably entertaining monster movie mayhem, then you could do worse.

Michael Alldredge (V, About Last Night) has a prominent part as a local sheriff. Be on the lookout for director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) in a small acting role as one of the unfortunate victims. Be on the lookout as well for Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith (Caged Heat, The Pom Pom Girls) as a woman who stumbles across a corpse during a photography shoot.

Over the course of this story, I found myself feeling sorry for the melting man and deciding that the real villains were the stupid people who kept getting in his way. I suspect that many viewers may feel the same.

A floating head in a stream somehow ends up being an engaging character in its own right. A film that puts so much nuance into such a moment cannot be all bad.

This Scream Factory Blu-ray delivers a beautifully filmic presentation with some surprisingly loud audio (Turn the volume down before the MGM lion roar.). The director commentary track is a trip, because he spares nobody in his analysis of why the screen story did not go as planned.

[Jay H.]

^ Well, you definitely liked it more than I did. It did make for a great MST3K episode.

[Show spoiler]"How many monster movies end with the monster being scooped into a trash can?"

I think it's funny that Rick Baker didn't want to do this movie, so he asked for an unthinkable fee...and the filmmakers paid it.

[vortexx]

I love this, but as can be seen in a noticeable abrupt cut when the girl opens the door and then screams, there was a shot that has been seen in stills - the melting man is standing behind a table with a half eaten body on it. He is eating a piece of flesh in his hand in that scene. That was censored and never restored. Another scene I am aware of that is sensors that can be found just by doing a Google search is where the nurse at the beginning is on the ground. In the print screened in the 70s in Australia, at least that was intact - where he is supposed to be biting her. The first shot i mentioned is pretty extreme for gore. It was reprinted in the UK Darkside magazine. The shot where he is about to bite the nurse made it into some lobby cards. I asked the guys at Scream when they were about to release it if they had any of that footage and they answered 'no'. Most people don't know it exists though.

[MJD64]

This is one of those films that fed my monster-mad imagination as a kid in the '70s; I recall the Starlog issue that featured a color shot of the eponymous monster about to feast on a screaming nurse, as well as that wonderfully gooey cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland #145 (couldn't help but smile when I saw it featured in the opening credits of DETROIT ROCK CITY years later). The T.V. ads at the time were like catnip to me (and with that enticing "Rated-R" announced at the end), so finally seeing the film years later at at a 24-hour sci-fi marathon in '81 couldn't help but disappoint - it had played so much better in my imagination!

Still, watching it again several years ago it now has its own nostalgic appeal: The stilted dialogue and acting, gloriously cheesy '70s fashions and home decor as well as that disreputable air endemic to low-budget exploitation horror filmmaking. It really is a slog, where a viewer spends long sections of the film waiting for something - hell, anything - to happen, but Rick Baker's superbly repugnant make-up effects still hold up.

It was interesting to read that director William Sachs offers up a hyper-critical commentary (I can understand his going after his editor considering the unbearably sluggish pacing, but as the director he must certainly share some of the blame)...it certainly sounds like a catty, fun listen.