Horror Movie Review: The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

It’s hard to be too harsh to The Incredible Melting Man as it seems to revel in its own ‘badness’. It’s aware that it is mostly thrash. However it would be one to avoid completely if it wasn’t for the uber gooey effects of the title character.

For reasons that escape me and most who have seen it, The Incredible Melting Man decides to take its absurd story seriously. Written and directed by William Sachs, the director claims comedic scenes were edited out in production giving it a more serious horror tone. His screenplay was more of a parody.

Three astronauts are exposed to a blast of radiation during a space flight to Saturn. Two of them are killed and the third is badly injured. This is Steve West (Alex Rebar) and when he wakes in the hospital, he makes the horrible discovery that his flesh is melting off. He goes mad and attacks a nurse killing her in the process. Panicking he breaks out of the hospital and goes on the run killing anyone that comes into his path.

It’s up to Dr. Loring (Lisle Wilson), Dr. Ted Nelson (Burr DeBenning) and US Airforce General Perry (Myron Healey) to find him and stop him.

Why wasn’t this a horror parody!? With such stellar effects it could have become a legendary movie for the right reasons instead of the wrong. The story is nonsense, a lot of the acting is utterly hilarious in its terribleness and it doesn’t know when to end. The poor attempt to create sympathy for Steve and create some sort of moral questions falls extremely flat.

The positives only surround the visual effects in a sickeningly gory movie. The melting make-up is incredible and the victims of the Melting Man are gratuitously splattered with blood.

This should be a movie you watch with a couple of friends and a few beers so you can all laugh over the silliness of it. It’s not. Check out the effects but don’t waste your time sitting through the slog of 84 minutes.

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