1005 - BLOOD WATERS OF DR. Z

Genre:  Ultra-low Budget Horror (1972, Color)

One-Line Description:  “ZaAT movie sucks!”

Don’s Synopsis:  Just when you thought MST had already featured ALL of the worst movies ever made, they dig up this waste of celluloid!  It begins with footage of dangerous fish as a narrator, in what is supposed to be a sinister voice about the sea creatures, drones on about “mighty hunters of the deep” and instructs the fish to ATTACK! (a command that they pretty much ignore).  This opening fish footage, it turns out, is the highlight of the movie – it’s all downhill from here.  Next, the movie shows a weird guy wandering around near a lake until he gets into his lab.  He then gives himself a large and painful looking shot of green stuff and straps himself in a harnessed stretcher and lowers himself down into the water.  There he somehow transforms into a man-catfish mutant creature, with a dash of octopus thrown in for good measure.  Now this incredibly goofy looking creature is going around killing people near the lake.  He captures a hot-looking bikini-clad babe who was camping alone next to the lake and tries to convert her into a walking catfish too.  But he messes up the process and accidentally kills her (Oopsie!).  So the rest of the movie is the catfish-man creature trying to find another woman for his experiment while a stereotypical redneck sheriff and his... scientist aide (I guess) try to find the creature and kill it.

Don’s Review:  Boy... this movie, better known as ZaAT, was a tough one to get through – it really is one of the worst movies ever seen on MST!  Unfortunately, the riffing, despite some funny lines here and there, is rather disappointing and doesn’t elevate this episode that much compared to the great riffing seen in earlier episodes featuring other “worst movie ever made” candidates (ep #323 - Castle of Fu Manchu, ep #421 - Monster A Go-Go, ep #606 - The Creeping Terror, ep #609 - The Skydivers, ep #619 - Red Zone Cuba, ep #621 - Beast of Yucca Flats, ep #812 - The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies and of course, ep #424 - Manos: the Hands of Fate).  And the host segments are, with one exception, rather forgettable, so this is a pretty disappointing episode overall.

Don’s Rating: 

Forrest’s Synopsis:  A fish loving nerd one day decides to take over the world.  How does he do it?  He mixes catfish and his genes to make a Trumpy/Blood Beast/Catfish creature.  Meanwhile a fat, unlikeable cracker cop, and his surprisingly likeable black friend (not surprising because he's black, but surprising that he's actually a likeable character in an MST episode), go around town trying to figure out some murders taking place.  Of course, the fish Trumpy is the one responsible, as he knocks off every person who ever gave him the slightest hard time.  How does he keep track of his victims?  On his very professional looking wheel of death of course!  He draws a picture of his victim, then he kills them, or tries to turn them into a fish!  It all makes sense!  There's also an invisible cracker mom, a cracker with a bad hair day, and two hot cracker blondes.  The end of the film is frighteningly similar to the ending in It Lives By Night.

Forrest’s Review:  I actually don't think that this film really deserves to be placed in the same category as the horrors Don mentions above.  This film was terribly bad, there's no doubting that. But I found it surprisingly entertaining (as in, entertaining for a terrible film).  For example, the fish nerd plotting and scheming is worth plenty of laughs anyway.  As were the very backwards southern crackers featured in the film. Invisible Cracker mom should be up there with the greats like Togo, Trumpy and Tor Johnston.  Also the film has two pretty hot-looking girls in it as well, so that helped ease the pain.  But, what eased the pain the most was the riffing.  Jesus, the riffing in this was excellent.  I was laughing out loud all the time during this ep!  Just thinking about the opening scene plotting nerd scientist still makes me laugh. Watch for a shocking "masturbation ritual" riff by Servo (by the way, be sure to check out Crow's reaction to Servo's masturbation riff, it's classic).  Also watch for a funny moment when Mike tells Tom that one of his jokes weren't funny, and then Mike feels bad for telling Tom that he's not funny.  The host segments were also all very funny, with one rather shocking segment where the Bots try to convince Mike that any scene in any movie would play out better if the actors were nude.  But the best was a dead on take spoofing mid-westerners on a fishing trip.  All in all great episode.  Right up there with Soultaker and Track of the Moon Beast.  Too bad that Hamlet and Spider Island have to ruin Season Ten from being a great season overall.

Forrest’s Rating: 

Related Links:
    (1) BadMovies.org (Movie Review)
    (2) The Cinefiles (Movie Review)