The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies: Ray Dennis Steckler

Ray Dennis Steckler's infamous cult classic The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is an unpleasant amusement park advertisement layered with an even more unpleasant supernatural sub-plot. I honestly believe that if it wasn't for the film's insanely specific (albeit misleading) title, it would have been forgotten a long, long time ago. I'm not kidding when I say that the film is basically an advertisement for amusement parks. A massive part of the film is devoted to shots of various attractions, first-person footage of roller coaster rides, and queasy, unappealing "burlesque" performances. Interspersed between these are scenes involving a fortune-teller named Estrella who kidnaps patrons and turns them into "zombies" with acid...or was it with the giant spiraling wheel? Anyhow, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is sickening to look at. It literally looks like the entire film was shot with a camera that had an urine lens filter. Everything has this yellowish, jaundice color scheme that makes the audience wonder if the film is suffering from acute hepatic failure. The makeup effects on the zombies and Estrella's henchman, Ortega, are so poor and cheap that they almost approach the trash aesthetic championed by John Waters. The acting performances are laughable and the stuff of schlock legend. The film ends on such a bizarre and sudden climax that it leaves you with two important questions: What did I just watch and what the hell happened? There are some bad films that I like to return to every now and then just so I can revel in the hilarity brought on by their complete incompetence. The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is NOT one of them. All I want to do is forget that this movie was ever made. And yet, with that ridiculous title, that might not ever be possible.

4/10