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The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

1963 1h 22m Horror List
20% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 14% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Hoping to relax for the day, beatniks Jerry (Cash Flagg), Angela (Sharon Walsh) and Harold (Atlas King) head for a seaside carnival. But after visiting strange fortune-teller Madame Estrella (Brett O'Hara), Jerry is transformed into a ruthless killer with a penchant for performing song and dance at the park's nightclub. And as if Jerry's attacks along the beach weren't enough, Madame Estrella inadvertently unleashes a horde of undead minions on the unsuspecting carnival populace.

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The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

Critics Reviews

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy An abysmal oddity. Rated: 1/4 Apr 28, 2020 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The only thing incredible about it is the incredibly long title, something Steckler seems to have given more thought to than the lame story. Rated: D Mar 14, 2008 Full Review Steve Crum Kansas City Kansan A film to see/own only because of its title. Rated: 1/5 Jun 29, 2005 Full Review Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) Magnificent title. Boring movie. Rated: 1/5 Jun 23, 2003 Full Review Shane Burridge rec.arts.movies.reviews A film you see only for its title Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Top 10 worst films ever. Nothing - nothing - notable about this piece of crap. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member I have no explanation for how the critic and audience scores aren't both zeros Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Layabout crazy cat Jerry (played by the director Ray Dennis Steckler under the hilarious pseudonym Cash Flagg), his girlfriend Angela and his friend Harold go to the seaside to visit a carnival there. After getting their fortunes told they see the fortune tellers sister Carmelita who is a stripper. Jerry is seen by Angela to be staring a bit too intently at Carmelita and so leaves in a huff with Harold. With them gone Jerry decides to go and watch Carmelita's strip show (the carnival has it's own nightclub that holds such entertainment. The name of this establishment is, wait for it, The Hungry Mouth which rivals only The Flaming Cave Lounge from John Waters' Female Trouble in terms of brilliant name for an establishment of that kind).  Jerry is then lured to Carmelita's dressing room where he is hypnotised. This then turns Jerry into a ruthless killer of which afterwards he has no memory of. He had in fact killed two characters whilst he was in his murderous trance-like state. He also tries to throttle Angela to death the next day. Carmelita's plot is then revealed. She has been throwing acid into people's faces which turns them into zombies (!) and then keeping them captive.  But Jerry then decides to confront Carmelita as he keeps having flashbacks and knows that something isn't quite right ever since he visited Carmelita at the carnival. This all builds to a very eventful climax.  This is pure Drive-In B movie goodness. Theres so much to like here. The hypnosis scene, the hallucinatory dream sequence Jerry has, the zombies, the song and dance sequences at the nightclub (one of the girls can be seen chewing gum as she performs her dance moves. Now that's attention to detail!).  The film also has a colour palate which can make your eyes water. I had several acid flashbacks whilst watching this gem. I first found out about this film from reading the cult film bible Incredibly Strange films from Re:Search publishing. This book treats Steckler as some kind of god in much the same way more pedestrian film fans look up to John Ford. And they're right. Steckler is an Orson Welles for the perverse. And John Waters is a huge fan. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member How do you rate something like this? While it shows up on many "Worst Ever" lists, this "musical" horror flick from the 25-year-old Steckler is fun to watch in a "WTF is this" kind of way. Bonus trivia: Celebrated cinematographers László Kovács and (future Oscar winner) Vilmos Zsigmond were camera operators on the film. Also, Stanely Kubrick worked with Ray Dennis Steckler to come up with the name when the original title was a bit too close to Kubrick's then-upcoming "Dr Strangelove: or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb". Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member First saw this film on MST3K, This film (not going to type out the entire title, it'll take too long) is BAD. Its just BAD. Unlikable characters, poor plot, ineptly made, and has no point of existing almost. Just watch it, preferably with MST3K though. Its an experience. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Terrible TERRIBLE film!! But great MST3K Episode!! Plus ORTEGA!! Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

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Movie Info

Synopsis Hoping to relax for the day, beatniks Jerry (Cash Flagg), Angela (Sharon Walsh) and Harold (Atlas King) head for a seaside carnival. But after visiting strange fortune-teller Madame Estrella (Brett O'Hara), Jerry is transformed into a ruthless killer with a penchant for performing song and dance at the park's nightclub. And as if Jerry's attacks along the beach weren't enough, Madame Estrella inadvertently unleashes a horde of undead minions on the unsuspecting carnival populace.
Director
Ray Dennis Steckler
Producer
Ray Dennis Steckler
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 17, 2020
Runtime
1h 22m
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