Coming back from a
spaceflight to Saturn as the crew's sole survivor, Alex Rebar's medical
conditon is rather peculiar all the same: he is melting. & since
this is not only disfigureing his outward appearance but all that melting
is also affecting his brain,
he soon goes on a murdering spree, spreading radioactivity all the
while. & the only people in the area knowing about his condition (of
course, everything's hushed up by the military) are doctor Ted Nelson
(Burr DeBenning) & army general Perry (Myron Healey). First, Nelson
goes on monster-hunt alone, only armed with a Geiger-counter &
shouting stuff like "I'm all alone, I wanna help you", &
even after the general joins him, they are pretty casual about their
hunt, considering our melting man is a homicidal maniac & they are the
only two persons to look for him. Soon, the two of them apparently
have time to stop for dinner and a nap at Nelson's place. But all that
carelessness soon comes back at them with a vengeance, for while they
had their undeserved rest the melting man murdered Ted's pregnant wife's
(Ann Sweeny) parents. So, the 2 of them continue their search - actually
just driving around town half-heartedly - until the general "could
use a drink", so it's back to Ted's house, where Ted drops off the
general & continues search with the sheriff who he finally lets in
on the secret of Melty, but unbeknowest to them Melty has already picked
out Ted's house for his next assault, & while the general has some
leftovers he found in the fridge, he is slaughtered. Melty refrains from
going after Ted's pregnant wife though, instead he roams the
neighbourhood some more before Ted & the sheriff can sorner him at a
factory, where the sheriff has to learn - pretty painfully, too - that
bullets can't harm Melty... & if you thought the movie was already
stupid up to now, from here on it getsw really stupid: Now, Melty
saves Ted's life (!), but Ted, in a surprise plottwist is shot by some
cops arriving on the scene (!!). Melty kills the cops, too, & dies a
sundawn (!!!-?), in a scene that should portray him as a poor
misundrstood creature (??). This movie does admittedly have
well-crafted monster make-up, that even looks remotely scary at times -
& let's admit it, not many monster make-ups are all that scary -,
but the plot is just too damned familiar from countless sci-fi movies
since at least the 50's, & furthermore the script is very badly
written while the direction is devoid of any personal handwriting &
resembles rather a second rate tv-series than a motion picture for the
big screen.
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