812 - THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES (March 1963; NR; 90m)

a.k.a. THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES, ETC. (variation)
a.k.a. THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES
a.k.a. THE INCREDIBLY MIXED-UP ZOMBIE
a.k.a. TEENAGE PSYCHO MEETS BLOODY MARY
(re-release)
a.k.a. DIABOLICAL DR. VOODOO
a.k.a. FACE OF EVIL (working)
a.k.a. INFERNALES EXTRANAS CREATURAS (Mexico)

Ad: "World's Weirdest Movie!"

Ad: "SEE: the dancing girls of the carnival murdered
by the incredible night creatures of the midway!"
SEE: the hunchback of the midway fight a duel of death
with the mixed up zombies!
SEE: the world's first monster musical!"

Ad: "MONSTERS COME REAL! CRASH OUT OF SCREEN! INVADE AUDIENCE! ABDUCT GIRLS FROM THEIR SEATS!
Not 3-D. Don't Miss It!"

Ad: "We Dare You to Remain Seated when Monsters Invade Audience! Who'll Chicken Out First--Boys or Girls?
Girls! Learn if Your Boy Friend Can Take It!"

Ad: "She Keeps Monsters in Cages for Pets!
He Preys on Wild Go-Go Girls!"

Plot: A disfigured carnival fortune-teller hypnotizes a hapless teen, turning him into a murderous zombie.

Exec: George J. Morgan
(and actor/Wild Guitar; Thrill Killers)
Prod/Dir: Ray Dennis Steckler* (also star)
Asst Dir: Don Russell
(The Thrill Killers; Lemon Grove Kids)
Scr: Gene Pollock
(and actor/The Thrill Killers)
Scr: Robert Silliphant
(scr/sto/606-The Creeping Terror)
Sto: E.M. Kevke
(scr/The Lemon Grove Kids)
Cin: Joseph V. Mascelli
(Wild Guitar; dir/518-The Atomic Brain)
Cin: Vilmos Zsigmond
(won Oscar/Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
Cin: possibly Laszlo Kovacs (Nasty Rabbit; Close Encounters)
Ed: Don Schneider (506-Eegah; cin/Rat Pfink A Boo Boo)
SFX M/U: Tom Scherman (asst dir/The Thrill Killers)
M/U: Lilly
ADir: Mike Harrington (609-The Skydivers); and Pat Kirkwood
Score: Henry Price (506; Rat Pfink A Boo Boo)
Music/Lyrics: Libby Quinn
Song: The Mixed-Up Zombie Stomp (instrumental)
Songs sung by Carol Kay: Shook Out of Shape; It Hurts
Song by Teri Randal: Choo-Choo
Songs by Don Snyder: Pied Piper of Love;
How Do I Stand With Your Heart?
Chor: Alan Smith (actor/Super Cool); and Bill Turner

Jerry / Cash Flagg a.k.a. Ray Dennis Steckler* (also director)
Marge Neilson / Carolyn Brandt*
Madam Estrella / Brett O'Hara (was Susan Hayward's stand-in)
Harold / Atlas King a.k.a. Dennis Kesdakian (The Thrill Killers)
Angie / Sharon Walsh
Madison / Madison Clarke
Carmelita / Erina Enyo (The Thrill Killers)
Ortega / Jack Brady
Stella / Toni Camel (The Devil's Sisters)
Angie's mother / Joan Howard (What's Up Front; The McMasters)
carnival barker / Neil Stillman
Bill Ward (Marge's dance partner) / Bill Ward
nightclub manager / Gene Pollock (World's Greatest Sinner)
nightclub comedian / James Bowie (The Thrill Killers)
drunk customer / Whitey Robinson
first policeman / Son Hooker (J.W. Coop)
second policeman / Steve Clarke
girl in dressing room / Jill Carson
radio listener / Titus Moede a.k.a. Titus Moody
(609; The Thrill Killers; Rat Pfink A Boo Boo)
singer / Don Snyder (Rat Pfink A Boo Boo; also editor?)
singers / Carol Kay and Teri Randal
dancing girl / Patrice Michaels
dancing girl / Pat Lynn (Pal Joey; The Narcotics Story)
dancing girl / Betty Downing
dancing girl / Denise Lynn (Jud)
dancing girl / Cindy Shea
dancing girl / Patti Crandall
dancing girl / Bonnie Berkeley

Classic Line: "Ortega! Bring me the acid!"

Classic Line: "Get your tickets here! Get your tickets here!"

Trivia: Shot on a budget of only $38,000 (very low for a color movie), THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES ran into trouble with Columbia Studios, which was releasing another long-titled movie: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb, an anti-war black comedy directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellars and George C. Scott. To stave off Columbia's lawyers, Steckler's agreed to retitle his movie THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES ETC.

INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES was released in so-called "Hallucinogenic Hypnovision"--which basically meant that during the movie a few people wearing rubber masks of the movie's characters would run down the aisles and try to scare the audience in the theater just after a turning hypnosis-inducing spiral would appear on the screen. It was also one of the few films which had its soundtrack released...imagine listening and dancing to these toe-tappers over and over again!

If you've seen 1962's EEGAH (Exp#506), then you've already seen RAY DENNIS STECKLER and CAROLYN BRANDT, who were briefly seen in that film's pool party scene. Steckler also did some of the cinematography for Eegah.

Steckler is very much like ED WOOD (see 423-BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) in that he produces/writes/directs/acts in independent/low-budget/odd-themed films, which nonetheless have a certain charm. (Wood's later films showed more sex, while Steckler's became more violent). Some of Steckler's films would also feature actor COLEMAN FRANCIS (see 609-THE SKYDIVERS), who was another cheesy film auteur--directing, writing, and starring in his own films.

Starting out shooting the production stills for the movie The World's Great Sinner, Ray Dennis Steckler served as cinematographer for Secret File: Hollywood; Frenzy (starring Timothy Carey); Goof on the Loose; Scream of the Butterfly; The Velvet Trap; and The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio! Besides filming, he wrote the screenplay for and acted in 1961's Drivers in Hell a.k.a. Wild Ones on Wheels. He then directed and performed in 1962's Wild Guitar, headlined by ARCH HALL JR. and star of EEGAH. (You can see a poster of Wild Guitar in this movie: it's on the wall of the boozing dancer's dressing room).

He went on to direct and star in these films, frequently rereleased with alternate titles and frequently starring his former wife, CAROLYN BRANDT: 1964?-The Thrill Killers a.k.a. The Maniacs Are Loose; 1965-Rat Fink A Boo Boo (title error-- it was supposed to be Rat Fink and Boo Boo, a Batman and Robin parody); 1966-The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters a.k.a. The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Green Grasshopper and the Vampire Lady from Outer Space (an incoherent compilation of his Lemon Grove Kids short films--the Lemon Grove Kids were a tribute to the Bowery Boys, popular movie delinquent teen characters of the 1930's); 1968-Sinthia, The Devil's Doll; 1969-Super Cool a.k.a. Body Fever a.k.a. The Last Original B-Movie; 1971-The Chooper a.k.a. Blood Shack; 1972-Bloody Jack the Ripper a.k.a. Revenge of the Ripper (unreleased?); and 1979-The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skidrow Slasher. Always having films in some state of development, Steckler's working on: Hollyweird; The Hollywood Strangler Goes to Las Vegas; The Survivalists; and a sequel to INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES.

The dirt on the appearance of COLEMAN FRANCIS in 1969's Super Cool is that Steckler had just completed filming the last scene, when walking to his car, he saw Francis drunk and lying in the gutter. Steckler felt so bad about Francis's condition that, even though he had finished work on the movie, he offered Francis some work on it, adding some scenes just to give Francis some work and some badly needed cash, which the director gave him before the the next day's filming. Steckler and his crew were astonished when Francis showed up for work bright-eyed, clean shaven and nicely attired--which was a bit of a problem, since Steckler had wanted him to play the part of a disheveled bum! Francis had used the advance pay to buy a decent second-hand suit and make a trip to the barber.

Never comfortable in the Hollywood scene, Steckler moved to Las Vegas about fifteen years ago, where he's still making films and releasing his others on video, sending an autographed photo if you buy the videos directly from him.

Last Updated: 3/28/1999