Watch The Incredible Melting Man For Free

Let's be realistic.

Boring

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Science Fiction from American International and directed/written by William Sachs. Astronaut Steve West (Alex Rebar) returns from a flight to Saturn and something happens to him after being over-exposed to radiation. West becomes gelatinous and is compelled to go on a killing spree in need of human flesh to survive. The astronaut keeps melting as scientist Ted Nelson (Burr DeBenning) tries to aid him, while General Perry (Myron Healey) is urgent in capturing him. While filming, producers wanted some comedic scenes cut and replaced with new horror scenes. Kudos to Rick Baker for the gory melting effect makeup. Even some of the stages of melting were left on the cutting room floor. Attitudes toward poor acting became problematic. Nonetheless, the movie was considered a success.Other players: Julie Dazen, Michael Aldredge, Ann Sweeney, Dorothy Love, Jonathan Demme, Lisle Wilson and Edwin Max.

Possibly one of the most iconic horror thrillers around that everyone forgets about. Its probably the epitome of schlock horror with the added bonus of having some quite dazzling practical effects courtesy of the legend Rick Baker. Get a load of that title! As with many sci-fi movies of the 70's and 80's, this film was heavily influenced by older sci-fi thrillers of the 50's that pretty much had the same plot. A dude comes back from outer space with some kind of illness or infection that slowly kills him.Sure enough, in this movie a dude (Steve West) comes back from the far reaches of space (travelling to Saturn), after getting hit in the face with a blast of radiation. Although, I'm not too sure how they managed to get back to Earth when two of the crew were fried alive and the other was left half alive. Anyway with his other two crew mates dead, he is the only survivor back on Earth. But to everyone's horror the surviving astronauts flesh is slowly melting away, his whole body is slowly falling apart, and no one knows why. Role credits...oh wait!Yes there is more, the movie continues for another hour and a half or so of simply watching this guy melt slowly. Its strange really because the movie starts off really well, the small sequence of the three astronauts in their little craft approaching Saturn's rings is quite decent. It looks really authentic with a solid little set, good costumes and good lighting, you could be fooled into thinking you're watching a serious sci-fi. Its the moment we get back to Earth the movie transforms into an extremely hammy tacky slasher thriller. For starters why would this astronaut leave the hospital and run off?? why would he even get out of bed in the first place? You're in a hospital, there is obviously something seriously wrong with you, you'd want the best help you can get, you'd want top people on the case, you'd want answers etc...Getting out of bed and running off after seeing your rotting hands and face is easily the wrong choice in my opinion.From here on things get a tad silly, first off he starts to kill people in horrendous ways, yeah that's not cool bro. OK he's gone a bit loopy from the shock of seeing himself rotting away, but would that really cause you to start killing people in a fashion that would make Jason Voorhees proud? Its at some point during the stalking carnage that we find out he needs to eat human flesh to keep his strength up...yeaaah kinda leeching of the 1968 zombie craze set in motion by Romero methinks. This means we basically get one death scene after another, all set up in cheesy ways which are so blatantly obvious they offer no scares at all these days. Its also at this point that you basically don't really care about the character of West anymore, seeing as he's slaughtering folk for no real reason other than he looks like a monster. Each victim is the predictable stereotypical type, an old couple, a single bloke who looks a bit geeky, a young married couple, some faceless cops and some military dudes, oh and there's a little girl...but she of course escapes unharmed. Amazingly there are no teens having sex that get killed off, quite surprising really considering.Despite all that its really all about the makeup and gore effects for the melting that we're interested in. Needless to say you can't go wrong with Rick Baker at the helm and he doesn't disappoint here. Admittedly the melting effects don't actually change all that much for the majority of the middle of the film, its only right at the very end we see the real money sequence. Up to that point we get lots of little gory moments with his ear coming off, his arm being cut off, various chunks of flesh and blood splodges, lots of gooey POV views from the melting mans perspective and some violent kills. For the most part he looks like a large runny cheese n tomato pizza that is dripping away but it is highly effective. But as I said the finale where we actually see the titular character melt away into a slushy, sticky, puddle of goo is by far the highlight. The vision of West's remaining eye slowly sliding down his face as his skull collapses in on itself is really terrific and haunting. Its a near perfect example of hands-on, practical effects that still holds up today, Baker the master craftsman.Its a mixed bag really. The concept is not original, the start is good, the entire middle of the film is (now) a clichéd monster slasher flick, but the effects are fantastic and you do kinda feel for West, at times. Although the morality aspect of the movie is well n truly lost beneath a sea of grisly gunk. Unfortunately overall the cheap slasher-esque motif sticks in your mind and brings the movie down, not even the so called black comedy segments, which are sporadic, make any real difference. I have read it was suppose to be a more light-hearted movie at first but they changed their minds, alas you can tell with some scenes feeling out of place. The old couple that get killed are clearly an old comedy sequence left in. In the end I can't deny that the movie is thin on plot, thin on motives for the characters and of course focuses more on horror and gore. Its a movie about a man...who slowly melts away, and that's it, nothing more, nothing less...but hell I liked it!6.5/10

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

An astronaut (Alex Rebar) is transformed into a murderous gelatinous mass after returning from an ill-fated space voyage.This film is apparently considered one of the worst movies ever made, even being featured in a documentary as one of the 50 worst of all time. While not to say it is exceptionally good, it is far from the worst and can actually be quite enjoyable if taken as a bad science fiction film -- get some popcorn or beer and this can be a treat.Interestingly, although not really notable for anything at the time (besides being on the very tail end of space radiation films), we can now look back and see that it has Jonathan Demme in it, and special effects from seven-time Oscar winner Rick Baker. According to Baker, Rob Bottin was also an uncredited assistant on the picture, too.On the Shout Factory release, the director tries to downplay the badness of the film by saying it was intended to be humorous. Rick Baker seems to understand better that it really did not have much of a chance even from the get-go, and he places much of the blame on the editing. Apparently the editor was replaced halfway through, so some sequences are cut better than others.The best part of the movie (besides the effects) is a scene with two elderly people driving a short-cut through the woods. It goes on a bit long, but is the most entertaining. The worst part was the constant repeated space radio noises in the melting man's head. Director Sachs says originally they were not going to reveal that he was an astronaut until the end. Instead, they went the other way and we get constant reminders throughout the film from the opening shot and onward. Completely unnecessary.