'The Incredible Melting Man' (1977) – William Sachs.

'The Incredible Melting Man' is arguably one of the most frequently misunderstood Grindhouse B-Pictures of the 1970s. Canny film-maker, William Sachs's then contemporary re-imagining of a sensationally schlocky 50s, Lon Chaney Jr.-esque monster movie remains an old time, grisly good slime! This just melt be one of my favourite Sci-fried fright-flicks featuring a terminally irradiated, gloop-headed, Saturn Ring boggling, perfidiously pus-discharging, spaced-out flesh-eating ghoul! Valiant Space explorer Steve West (Alex Rebar) bested the Van Allen Belt only to endure a catastrophic earthbound body melt!

The first clue about this cult creepy creature feature's inherent silliness is the title itself, 'The Incredible Melting man', suggesting somewhat unambiguously that the creator's pus-slathered tongues are buried sloppily in their satirically slimed cheeks! The gallopingly gross comedy stylings include the surrealistic slo-mo splatter of a decapitated head luridly disgorging its brains at the stony base of a waterfall, the no less skewed scene of a terrorized, handsomely bovine nurse, running madly through a glass door to avoid the oozing maniac's outsized scrofulous mitts! And much of the sardonic dialogue playfully draws such deliciously impish attention to itself, being proof positive of the film's moist marvellous wit!

Writer/director William Sachs knows his demographic intimately well, and like fellow traveller Paul Bartel's 'Eating Raoul' and 'Death Race 2000', the innate absurdity of the lurid premise is part of the fun! While some celluloid contrarians might take Steve West's oozingly ominous, flesh craving odyssey seriously and be greatly disappointed, it would be far better to enjoy it for the lovingly made, fabulously fragrant B-Movie fromage that it was always meant to be.

The recent Blu-ray restoration is miraculous, finally allowing the horror fan to appreciate DOP Willy Curtis's wonderfully crisp photography. Especially effective is a delightfully moody scene with the gooey Ghoul crouching creepily in the crepuscular graveyard, the shot being perfectly framed, as through torn directly out of the mouldering pages of an issue of E.C Comics grisly 'Tales from The Crypt'. Composer Arlon Ober's underappreciated score sparkles anew, and maestro Rick Baker's gleefully gelatinous, deliriously dripping make-up FX are an eye-popping delight! One of the more fabulous B-Movie treats being the entertainingly hysterical performance by legendary scream queen Janus 'Eaten Alive' Blythe as she hysterically confronts the singularly bloodthirsty, cosmically crippled cosmonaut in a gruesomely disarming scene! There is no doubt in my B-Movie melted mind that 'The Incredible Melting Man' is the Gloopfather of all melt movies!