The Incredible Melting Man (1977 film)

The Incredible Melting Man (1977), AKA The Ghoul from Outer Space,

Summary

"Steven West, astronaut from Saturn, is melting. He must have human cells to survive. He is a living time bomb!" An astronaut is transformed into a murderous gelatinous mass after returning from an ill-fated space voyage.

Details

Promotional image for The Incredible Melting Man (1977 film)...

• Release Date: 1977
• Country/Language: USA, English
• Genres/Technical: Sci-fi, Horror, Comedy (black comedy)
• Setting: Modern, Cthulhu Icarus
• Runtime: 1 hr 24 min
• Starring: Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning, Myron Healey
• Director: William Sachs
• Writer: William Sachs
• Producer/Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP), Dynamite Entertainment, Quartet
• View Trailer: (link)
• TVTropes: (link)
• Wikipedia: (link)
• IMDB Page: (link)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: R (Violence and gore, Nudity, Adult Content, Profanity)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

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Synopsis (SPOILERS)

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An astronaut begins to melt after he is exposed to radiation during a space flight to Saturn, driving him to commit murders and consume human flesh to survive.

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• In the novelization, the planet the astronaut travels to is Mars, and the cause of his melting is a Martian virus.
• Director William Sachs originally intended the film - to have been titled "The Ghoul from Space" - to be a campy, comic book-type homage to old school monster movies. However, the producers wanted a more grim straight-forward horror picture. The clashing of ideas resulted in much of the off-beat (and occasionally bizarre) tone of The Incredible Melting Man.
• The film was shot in two weeks, and the budget was so low that the production couldn't afford stock footage of Saturn for its opening scene - instead, public domain stock footage of the sun was used.
• Compare/contrast with the films The Quatermass Xperiment and the infamously awful Monster A Go-Go....

Associated Mythos Elements

• setting: Cthulhu Icarus
• location: Saturn

Keeper Notes

• The investigators trace a trail of bodies to a space expedition gone wrong, and the ghastly melting astronaut which was its sole survivor....