The Incredible Melting Man

The above .gif is either a selling point or deterrent for you, invisible audience.  It is also indicative of 1977's THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN's best quality - Rick Baker's excellent make-up work.   Is that reason enough to sit through this piece of trash? Maybe.  It seems as if Baker was slumming with this unabashed B-picture, one that is competently made but also quite dumb and frequently ridiculous.  More potential selling points, eh?  Must've been ideal fare for the drive-in.  

Colonel Steve West (Alex Rebar) is the sole survivor of a three man space flight, but soon he will wish he had joined his comrades in the sweet by and by when he discovers his flesh is rapidly melting.  It seems that watching the rays of the sun through Saturn's rings is quite awesome, but has some highly unfortunate side effects.  This impaired state leaves the radioactive melting man with an insatiable hunger for human flesh in order to prolong what is left of his existence.  West will hobble across town, killing several locals as he makes his way toward the home of his old friend Dr. Ted Nelson (Burr DeBenning), who takes up the pursuit along with Air Force General Perry (Myron Healey). 

The murders are mostly offscreen and not much to lose your lunch over.  I have to cite a few bravura moments that will make THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN worth the time for the faithful:

1.  A slow motion chase in a hospital as a nurse flees the just awakened West.  In her flight she plows right through a glass door, dramatically.

2. The decapitated head of a fisherman is given a surprising amount of screen time as it is shown sailing down a river before descending a waterfall and smashing on a rock below.  I'll bet that got some cheers from audiences.

3. The final scene with the janitor.

Director William Scahs apparently originally wanted to create an out and out parody of '50s sci-fi/horror, but I guess American International Pictures wanted something else.  The result is straight faced, but the laughs are still aplenty.   There are lines of dialogue that are so stupid that either Sachs (who scripted) didn't trust the audience to have even one brain cell, or thought maybe they were blind ("....he left his ear!").  The acting is particularly bad, with DeBenning worthy of some kind of award for his eye rolling.  The conversation he has with his wife about soup crackers is also noteworthy.  At least you have Jonathan Demme in a rare, small role as an unlucky boyfriend who goes in a dark house alone.

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN is less sleazy and slower paced than expected.  Any emotion that could've been wrung from this story is about non-existent.  But West's final scene does have some pathos, and is a fine showcase for Mr. Baker's wizardry.