The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-up Zombies
This could be the greatest movie title of all-time. Although I've watched this mind-boggling movie numerous times, I could not possibly explain it to you. You just have to see if for yourself. It was touted as "The First Monster Musical," but it's not a musical. It's just that every so often, it breaks into a musical production number. Let's see. Director Ray Dennis Steckler plays a teenaged hoodlum under his acting nom de plume of Cash Flagg. He and a friend and his girlfriend go to the Midway to ride the rides and have a little fun. The three visit Madam Estrella, who reads their fortunes. The Madam recognizes Cash as a perfect candidate to add to her stable of deformed, murderous, zombies. Later, a barker tries to entice the three to see a girly show. The barker brings out Carmelita, a beautiful exotic dancer. She's in cahoots with Madam Estrella. Carmelita gives Cash the eye, and he is compelled to check out the girly show. While watching the beauty, a fiend passes a note to him. It's a note from Carmelita inviting him to visit her in her dressing room after the show. He does. Carmelita hypnotizes him and he goes to a nightclub and kills his real-life wife, Carolyn Brandt. Cash goes home and has some bad psychedelic dreams. He returns to the Midway to visit Madam Estrella. She throws acid in his face and attempts to add him to her hideously deformed zombie collection, but instead lets the maniacs loose. They head for the girly show where a big production dance number is in progress. They attack and kill the dancers. The cops show up and shoot the zombies dead. Cash escapes, runs to a cliff overlooking the ocean, and jumps. But he doesn't die and his friends drag him out of the water, onto the beach. But then, I think he dies anyway.
This is truly one of the most bizarre movies of all time. It's really disjointed, but all hangs together somehow. Following the plot never gets easier, even with repeated viewings. The music is something to behold, and there are many bizarre and outrageous dance numbers with women in fancy costumes. You can't possibly anticipate what's going to happen next. There are some incredibly psychedelic sequences, including Cash's bad dream, when he is actually part of a big dance number. You just have to see it to believe it. Only someone like Ray Dennis Steckler could have actually created such an, an....atrocity. But I mean that in the best possible way.
Ray used to go to showings of this movie and another one of his maniac movies, The Thrill Killers, and run into the theatre to scare the hell out of the audience. But one time, someone shot him with a pellet gun! That sort of ended his personal appearances. This cult classic will always be something for people to marvel at, and for that, I give the movie a 5.