Line #38 Film/TheIncredibleMeltingMan


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_incredible_melting_man.png]]
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3	''The Incredible Melting Man'' is a cheeseball 1977 American SciFiHorror film about an astronaut who is exposed to outer-space radiation and then comes back transformed into a hideous monster. The good news is that [[Film/MonsterAGoGo unlike the last time this happened, there really IS a monster here!]]
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5	The bad news: That's not good news.
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7	You see, astronaut Steve West's time over on Saturn has left him slowly melting into glop while simultaneously giving him superhuman strength and an insatiable appetite that only human flesh can sate. Don't bother asking about [[FridgeLogic how he can easily pull victims apart with a rapidly deteriorating musculoskeletal structure]]; that'll just get in the way of all the ooey-gooey makeup effects! To its credit, this is one of the things the movie does well; Creator/RickBaker's nastily convincing special effects really do look every bit like a man slowly liquifying before our eyes, and the movie is packed with NauseaFuel and graphic violence that really stood out at the time.
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9	The director, William Sachs, initially intended for the film to be a parody of other sci-fi horror films, but it became more of a straight horror movie during production. Several scenes were re-shot or altered without Sachs's input; some moments from the more comedic original script remain intact, however, resulting in the odd, sometimes-surreal tone of the film.
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11	As one might expect, the film became a classic Times Square grindhouse film, getting noticed by The Phantom of the Movies (Joe Kane) and Joe Bob Briggs, before getting additional fame as an episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.
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13	''Not to be confused with The Molten Man, a ComicBook/SpiderMan supervillain.''
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15	For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode see ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S07E04TheIncredibleMeltingMan here]]''.
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17	----
18	!!This film provides examples of:
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20	* TheSeventies: Not mentioned, but the score lifted from ''Series/{{The Incredible Hulk\|1977}}'', the many turtlenecks, the ridiculous decor (including a giant woven moth quilt hanging in the Nelson living room), and Judy's tight-waisted flared pants give it away.
21	-->'''Crow''': Although this kitchen is badly decorated, it's not inherently terrifying.
22	* ActionSurvivor: A random woman is not only one of the few people to survive a close encounter with Steve, but she's also the ''only'' person in the entire film who manages to seriously wound him (by chopping off his arm) and drive him away.
23	* AmbulanceCut: An odd case. Steve's pursuit of his first victim, the nurse tending to him, cuts out just as he's about to catch her, to a very '70s station wagon ambulance, siren blaring, pulling up to the hospital... but one assumes she was found dead ''at'' the hospital, so that was presumably an unrelated ambulance in an EstablishingShot. It's just that the prevalence of the AmbulanceCut that makes the moment just slightly dissonant.
24	* {{Angrish}}: '''HOTCHGKA!''' (Ted's surprisingly naturalistic cry of pain when he tries to pick up a boiling pot.)
25	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
26	** The fisherman's head seems to be made of papier-mache, filled with a liter's worth of red tempera paint.
27	** Human bodies don't tend to go up like fireworks when they land on power lines...
28	** It's mentioned that Steve is getting stronger as he melts which is the complete opposite effect that rapidly-dissolving muscle tissue would have.
29	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Saturn, being a gas giant, doesn't have [[StrollingOnJupiter a surface on which a spaceship can land]] or from which it can take off. In addition, the StockFootage isn't of the rings of Saturn.[[note]]They don't even remotely look like the rings of Saturn, in fact.[[/note]] It's footage of the Sun, complete with [[IncendiaryExponent Coronal Mass Ejections.]] It is possibly for this reason that the novelization has Steve traveling to Mars rather than Saturn.
30	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:Amazingly, the black Dr. Loring is one of the few characters to survive, albeit by virtue of disappearing from the film halfway through.]]
31	** [[spoiler: So does the unnamed black janitor who scoops the Melting Man’s remains into the trash.]]
32	* BodyHorror: Good God, yes. While ridiculous, the premise is inherently horrific: imagine being afflicted with a mutation that causes your body to slowly start melting, and nothing but engaging in cannibalism can even temporarily slow it down.
33	* BystanderSyndrome: As Steve attacks the sheriff, all Ted Nelson does the entire time is simply watch with a [[DullSurprise deadpan expression]].
34	* CatScare: A particularly nonsensical one. The Nelsons' cat somehow smashes a glass bottle several feet away from either the table or counter.
35	* ContrivedCoincidence: [[spoiler: As soon as Judy mentions that her mother and her boyfriend Harold are coming over for dinner, they show up on screen to become Steve's next victims. Even worse, he somehow manages to stumble onto them in the middle of nowhere.]]
36	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: The sheriff]] is manhandled onto power lines by Steve. Instead of merely being electrocuted, [[ShockAndAwe he lights up like magnesium in a microwave.]]
37	--> '''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S07E04TheIncredibleMeltingMan Crow]]:''' ''[as [[spoiler:the sheriff]]]'' Oh, why did I go on that high-phosphorus diet?
38	* DangerTakesABackseat: Steve kills Judy's mother and her boyfriend when he creeps into the back of their car, before they come back from a failed attempt to swipe some lemons.
39	* {{Deconstruction}}: Of [[TheFifties '50s]] monster movies. The film started out as a comedy, which is why a lot of the typical monster movie conventions are subverted. For example, instead of the young couple in a car being attacked by the monster, it's an elderly couple -- who are just as randy as teenagers.
40	* DidntThinkThisThrough: As the sheriff points out (right before he's killed), Ted apparently never considered what they would ''do'' if they ever caught up with Steve.
41	* DownerEnding: And a bizarre one. [[spoiler:Ted ''might'' have been able to save his friend if he could have studied him, but then he randomly gets shot by a pair of security guards. Steve kills the guards in retaliation and ends up melting to death.]]
42	* DullSurprise: Ted, when he isn't experiencing severe {{Wangst}}.
43	-->'''Steve West:''' Amazing! You've never seen anything 'till you've seen the sun through the rings of Saturn!
44	* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Steve finally recognizes Ted, and when the latter is killed, he kills the guards in revenge. Unfortunately, it doesn't save him, and the real FridgeHorror is Steve now being fully aware of who he is - and melting to death as he does.]]
45	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: No, seriously, there is no story.
46	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The giant woven vaguely Native American-themed quilt with what appears to be a moth on it hanging on the Nelsons' living room wall is probably the strangest thing in the film.
47	* GratuitousRape: The superfluous scene where the photographer assaults his model, Cassandra, is there just to show breasts in the film.
48	* {{Gorn}}: Ugh, the film is ''[[{{Pun}} dripping]]'' with it...
49	* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Ted is shot and killed while trying and failing to convince a pair of security guards that the melting monster running amok through their power plant is a man in need of rescue.]]
50	* HorrorHunger: Ted speculates that Steve has begun killing and eating people because their healthy cells slow his melting.
51	* ImMelting: Well, obviously. Though it must be said that Steve seems to melt at the speed of plot.
52	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: One bizarre moment, when Ted speaks ''directly'' to the camera when consoling Judy, blaming himself for his emotional distance.
53	* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Apparently, Judy felt a disturbance as she gets the (correct) feeling her mother and her boyfriend were dead. Justified a little in that she knows there's a deranged killer wandering around out there.
54	* NeutralFemale: Judy. Though to her credit, she does end up shouting at Ted and Perry to put some actual effort into looking for Steve.
55	** Ted is a good example of a Neutral Male since he [[spoiler: stands by and does absolutely nothing while Steve overpowers the sheriff and subsequently tosses him into some power lines.]]
56	* NonIndicativeName: Oh, there's a Melting Man, alright, but that name conjures up images of a [[TheFifties '50s]] Universal-International B-Movie, rather than a cheeseball [[TheSeventies '70s]] Drive-In fare, which is what it is.
57	** ''Almost'' overlaps with GenreBusting; it's a low-rent [='70s=] horror film in the vein of ''Film/TheGiantSpiderInvasion'' and ''Film/TrackOfTheMoonBeast'', with a retro-chic title, and [[{{Gorn}} gorny]] effects pointing to the BodyHorror epics of [[TheEighties the '80s]], a la ''Film/TheThing1982''.
58	* {{Novelization}}: Yes, there was actually a book based on the screenplay by Sachs, released a year later. Phil Smith actually gives a new reason for Steve's affliction: he was infected by a Martian virus while on an expedition to Mars (rather than going to Saturn).
59	* ParentsAsPeople: Despite being ComicRelief, Judy's mother is either in a relationship or having an affair with a man she's not married to. They joke and snark around with each other in a loving way. Even for TheSeventies, it was unusual to depict older unmarried couples having an active sex life.
60	* SayMyName: Ted repeatedly yells "I'M TED NELSON!" to convince the power plant guards not to shoot. ''[[spoiler: It fails.]]''
61	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Judy's mother, when guard dogs start coming after them for trespassing on a lemon grove and trying to steal some fruit.
62	* ShockAndAwe: [[spoiler: The fate of the sheriff]]
63	* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: [[spoiler: The security guards fatally shoot Ted for no apparent reason.]]
64	* ShootTheShaggyDog: The eponymous character is an astronaut who has been irradiated on his way back from Saturn, and is slowly melting to death. There is no cure for his condition whatsoever, only killing and consuming people stops his pain, even briefly. [[spoiler:In the end, during a confrontation at a power plant, his best friend is endangered and the astronaut regains a bit of humanity and saves his life — but said friend is shot to death by a pair of random security guards. The astronaut kills the guards, collapses, and expires. A janitor cleans up what's left of the astronaut the next day and throws him into the garbage. Oh, also? ''More'' astronauts are headed to Saturn.]]
65	* SlasherMovie: Pre-''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'', so it hits many but not quite all of the now-standard tropes.
66	* SleazyPhotoshoot: A photographer is shooting outdoor photos of a model in a tube top and short shorts. After shooting several pics, he tries to talk her into taking her top off. She's not having it and tries to refuse, but he starts putting his hands on her arms to try to calm her down, and then pulls her top down, snapping photos while grabbing her hands so she can't cover herself. Not only is she angered and embarrassed, as she's trying to get away from him she stumbles into the remains of the fisherman Steve killed, traumatizing her even more.
67	* SoundtrackDissonance: The sheriff's radio is playing a sprightly country-western song when he finds the corpses of Judy's mother and her boyfriend.
68	* SuperStrength: Steve demonstrates this as he kills people. [[BlessedWithSuck Apparently it's a side effect of the melting.]]
69	* SuperWindowJump: Steve's nurse ''barrels'' through a glass door while Steve is chasing her.
70	* TokenMinority: Dr. Loring has the only non-white speaking role, although as pointed about by ''[=MST3K's=]'' Mary Jo Pehl, this is before tokenism had actually taken hold, making the film [[FairForItsDay quite progressive for its day]], depicting an African-American doctor ([[BlackDudeDiesFirst who isn't even killed]]), a plus-sized nurse who isn't simply a background character or ComicRelief (though her uniform is a tad... tight), unmarried elderly romance, and even General Perry as fairly laid-back when not engaging in GovernmentConspiracy, having cold turkey and beer.
71	* TooDumbToLive: Ted Nelson. [[spoiler:And yes, he doesn't make it.]]
72	* TragicMonster: Steve West seemed to be a nice-enough guy before his mutation, especially given Nelson's positive statements about his friend. But exposure to a radiaoctive blast during his voyage to Saturn caused his skin to start melting, forcing him to hunt down and eat people to stave off the pain.
73	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer shows Steve becoming a pile of goo at the end, but since it was the film's MoneyShot, it was probably too good to not tantalize viewers with.
74	* VaderBreath: Steve emits a labored breathing sound as he walks around.
75	* YourHeadAsplode: After Steve kills the fisherman, we're treated to a scene where his head floats down a stream before going over a small waterfall. It lands on a rock at the bottom, where it bursts like a watermelon.

Context Film / TheIncredibleMeltingMan