The Incredible Melting Man
THE FIRST NEW HORROR CREATURE!
Before he turned his hand to lycanthropes in An American Werewolf in London, shuffling zombies in the Thriller music video and hostile extra-terrestrials in Men in Black, special effects legend Rick Baker lent his talents to the creation of another memorable horror creature. Step forward, The Incredible Melting Man!
When spacecraft Scorpio V returns to Earth following a mission to Saturn, two of the crew are dead and the third, astronaut Steve West, is in a critical condition. Critical, that is, until he rises from his hospital bed to bite chunks out of a nurse before escaping into the surrounding countryside. The authorities set about trying to track Steve down before he claims any other victims, but they don’t know the really bad news yet - Steve is also highly radioactive!
The Incredible Melting Man offers up a wealth of show-stopping B-movie moments in its relatively modest running time – chief among them, the scene in which a disembodied head floats down a river only to smash messily on the rocks further downstream – but the real star of the show here is Baker’s ultra-icky special effects work which let you see the Melting Man’s transition in all its gooey, glistening glory.
