THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES!!?

MOVIES & MANIA rating: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? is a 1964 horror film about a man who falls in love with a stripper he meets at a carnival. Little does he know that she is the sister of a gypsy fortune teller whose predictions he had scoffed at earlier. The gypsy turns him into a zombie and he goes on a killing spree. The movie was written, produced and directed by Ray Dennis Steckler, who also starred, billed under the pseudonym 'Cash Flagg'. Produced on a $38,000 budget, much of it takes place at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California. The film was billed as the first 'monster musical', beating The Horror of Party Beach by a mere month in release date. The film was apparently to be titled The Incredibly Strange Creatures, or Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie, but was changed in response to Columbia Pictures' threat of a lawsuit over the name's similarity to Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was under production at the time. Much of the movie was filmed in an old, long-empty Masonic temple in Glendale, California, owned by actor Rock Hudson. The nine-story building was a series of makeshift 'sound stages' stacked floor after floor, some big enough to create the midway scenes indoors. This was the studio used that year for production of The Creeping Terror, another low-quality monster movie. The film was originally released by Fairway-International Pictures, Arch Hall, Sr.'s studio, who put it on a lower half of a double-bill with one of his own pictures. Dissatisfied, Steckler bought the distribution rights back from Hall, purchased the rights to the Coleman Francis picture, The Beast of Yucca Flats and roadshowed the picture across the US. In order to get repeat customers, Steckler re-titled the film numerous times, with monickers such as The Incredibly Mixed-Up Zombie, Diabolical Doctor Voodoo and The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary. Plot: Jerry (Steckler using the name 'Cash Flagg'), his girlfriend Angela (Sharon Walsh), and his buddy Harold (Atlas King) head out for a day at the carnival. In one venue, a dance number is performed by Marge (Carolyn Brandt, Steckler's wife at the time), an alcoholic who drinks before and between shows, and her partner, Bill Ward, for a small audience. There Jerry sees stripper Carmelita (Erina Enyo) who hypnotises him with her icy stare and he is compelled to see her act. Carmelita is the young sister of powerful fortune-teller Estrella (Brett O'Hara), and Estrella turns Jerry into a zombie by hypnotizing him with a spiraling wheel. He then goes on a rampage, killing Marge and fatally wounding Bill. Later, Jerry attempts to strangle his girlfriend Angela as well. It develops that Estrella, with her henchman Ortega (Jack Brady), has been busy turning various patrons into zombies, apparently by throwing acid on their faces… '… this flick doesn't just rebel against, or even disregard, standards of taste and art. In the universe inhabited by The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, such things as standards and responsibility have never been heard of. It is this lunar purity which largely imparts to the film its classic stature. Like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and a very few others, it will remain as an artifact in years to come to which scholars and searchers for truth can turn and say, 'This was trash! ' Lester Bangs, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung book Trailer [poor quality]: Free to watch on YouTube [4K]: Free to watch on YouTube [1080p HD]: Related Discover more from MOVIES & MANIA Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. MOVIES & MANIA provides previews of new films, our own movie reviews/ratings, and links to other reviews from trustworthy recommended sources - all in one handy web location. Plus, links to legitimately watch 1000s OF MOVIES FREE ONLINE via platforms such as Amazon Prime, Plex, Roku, Tubi and on YouTube. As an Amazon Associate, we earn a very tiny amount from any qualifying purchases.